SNOWY OWL AGAIN



It was good to get back to this project. I’ve completed a quick composition sketch from the drawings. Charles Tunnicliffe did a lovely large watercolour of a snowy owl – it’s in ‘Tunnicliffe’s Bird Life.’ His model was a dead bird shot on Anglesea and he’s used the location where it was shot as a background. The background here is loosely taken from a charcoal drawing made in the Lake District – I’m not sure what the skyline is it might be Crinkle Crags or possibly Coniston Old Man.

I’ve used watercolour and kept the background deliberately loose – the bird will eventually get more detailed treatment. The bird in the Rare Breeds collection was large standing approx 24in. It really needs a full watercolour sheet like Tunnicliffe used. I’m unhappy working on such a large scale in watercolour so i think I’ll go for Heavy Body Acrylic on board.

I forgot to add that although its predominantly pure watercolour there are touches of White Acrylic Ink left foreground and on the distant snow patches. In fact there are also some touches on the bird - got carreiad away rather!

SNOWY OWL



These sketches were made at the Rare Breeds Centre at Kington, Herefordshire. This seemed a very shy, nervous bird who didn’t like being sketched! As soon as I made a few cursory outlines it would flit to the back of it’s enclosure and seek cover behind a thick tree trunk. So the details were completed from several digital photographs.

Last week I acquired a good second hand copy of ‘Tunnicliffe’s Birdlife’ which had a watercolour of a Snowy Owl. He was presented with a bird that had been shot just inland from Carmel Head on Anglesea. He painted the bird against a background of the Anglesea coast with an offshore lighthouse.

This set me wondering about a background I might use for a portrait of the bird in this sketch. The Snowy Owl is an Arctic bird so a winter Welsh or Lake District scene may be appropriate.

KEEPING AN EYE ON THE BIRDS

This is a sketchbook page of moorhen studies drawn from digital photographs taken on a recent walk along the Worcs. Birmingham canal. They are based on images from several photographs and the beauty of digital images as reference for wildlife is that you can zoom in to individual birds and observe visually useful details.

Charles Tunnicliffe did hundreds of notes like this in sketchbooks some of which were published a few years ago and were very popular - he compiled his from life returning each evening to make more refined compositional studies from notes made in the field. I think it's a practice worth following even if the starting point is a digital photograph. To catch the life of any living creature it's prudent to make some preliminary sketches rather than to go straight in and try to produce a finished painting.

Incidentally the drawings were made with a 2b Carbon Pencil and for the colourwork I used Caran D'Ache Neoart watersoluble wax crayons. I'm trying these out and I've created washes by taking the colour off the crayon with a wet brush just as you would from a cake of watercolour. As a bonus you can also draw with them - see the seed heads of the rushes.

Today's Wake-up Call


When preparing for a day in the studio it's nice to do a practice 'warm up' study from a sketchbook. Today I came across this little sketch done at a favorite location. It caught my eye though it was done some time ago - I've already used it for a watercolour called 'The ending of the day – Aberdovey'



Seeing the sketch again I realise how far the colours in the finished watercolour had drifted away from the original. In taking the original sketch further I've tried to recapture the original mood. I did think of framing this but I don't think it's good enough. I'm unhappy that the original pencil drawing is distracting. So it will have to be a fresh start – no bad thing a new beginning might lead to further discoveries. The wake-up practice has helped me get my eye in.

Why I always stretch paper

This is a plein air sketch I did a few weeks ago at our week-end workshop at Clunton. I was using 300gsm Fabriano Artistico Not. It's a nice pure cotton paper but with a rather bland grain. I was working with the sheet held on a piece of mdf by two bulldog clips. Since the workshop it has been stored flat between the pages of a sketchbook.

After a day in the field you face the dilemma of which of the sketches to taken further. Usually I hold the best as reference for the future. A few like this I decide to take further. It's obvious from the photograph that the sheet has cockled. It's tempting to try a quick fix by taping the sides down with masking tape but that could cause the centre to lift and there will still be some cockling when the masking tape is removed.

Others may have a different solution but the only sure way to achieve the nice flat surface I like to work on is to stretch. With partly completed work I only spray water on the back before taping the sides with good old gumstrip.

Incidentally there's an unightly 'bloom' just above the ladder on the left. This was once regarded as a serious fault but I notice Shirley Trevena frequently makes use of the effect in her paintings. How taste changes! I might be tempted to exploit the 'fault' in this work and call it a 'happy accident.' They sometimes happen don't they?

Peter De Wint

I’ve just been reading about Peter De Wint in the October issue of the A&I mag. It was a surprise that the article described him as ‘almost unknown today’ because his work is represented in many public collections and careful study of his work is a ‘must’ for anybody who is serious about painting in watercolour.

The main lesson to be learned from him is the fundamental importance of sound drawing. He was a superb draughtsman and much of his work is constructed on a sound underdrawing. There’s a marvellous example, ‘West Front of Lincoln Cathedral,’ featured in the A&I article. In this painting - apart from the fine draughtsmanship - there’s a little wisp of smoke on the left deftly applied with bodycolour which is a masterly touch.

Here are links to a few more examples:

Constable Tower Dover Castle – Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Fine drawing in the architecture combined with looser handling in the foreground.

Sunset – Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
A lovely painting evoking a quiet mood at the endng of the day.

Sheltering from the sun – Birmingham Museum & art Galleries.
Unfinished perhaps. It has the feel of a plein air study with lovely fluent directly painted brushwork.

The End of an Era

Two events this summer have made me aware of the passing of a generation of artists who were an inspiration. The first was the NEAC exhibition in Hereford which commemorated the life and work of John Ward. He had many admirers in the circle I befriended when I began to paint seriously. I went to see the exhibition again this week partly to admire John Ward’s pen and wash drawings of Rome and also to enjoy the diversity of the work by a group of painters who are working in the figurative tradition.

The next event was prompted by a flier which dropped out of the September issue of ‘The Artist’ magazine. It announced the publication of a book celebrating the life and work of James Fletcher-Watson. His loose rather understated watercolours in the Wesson – Seago manner had many followers among the older Ludlow Art Soc members when I began exhibiting. J F-W was an architect and for me he was at his best when painting buildings. Although he still has many admirers and a lifetime of achievement that will make copies of the Hallsgrove monograph greatly prized he belongs to an era that is passing.

It was an article by Frank Whitford one of the judges of the Singer and Friedlander Watercolour competition in the same issue of ‘The Artist’ that confirmed this opinion. He was writing about his favourite entries amongst the shortlisted prizewinners. Contemporary watercolour now admits the use of any waterbased medium whether opaque or transparent. Though this development would have upset Wesson who would never countenance the use of Chinese White I don’t have a problem with incorporating gouache or acrylic in a watercolour painting.

I have to say though Frank Whitford’s favourites are not to my taste but then taste is a subjective matter anyway. I’ve always enjoyed the work of David Curtis and David Prentice – both past prizewinners – as among the best exponents of contemporary watercolour. I’m pleased that David Curtis is now on the S&F panel of judges and that David Prentice is a 2007 prizewinner.