SUFFOLK DIARY 2

MINSMERE 25th September 2011 Made a second visit in the hope of catching sight of Avocets. The birds again favoured the eastern pool of The Scrape so the long walk to the East hide offered the best prospects. The first bird encounter was some nesting Cygnets seen on the bank of a small stream near the path to the West Hide. There were five in all preening intermittently – I drew the most active ones.

Drawn on cartridge paperwith Pentel Sepia Colour brush and a Wash brush.

The next stop was the South Hide. A Grey Heron was standing on a rocky spit in a small pool among the Reed Beds.

The outline drawing was made with a Pentel Brush Pen. The black ink in the brush pens is waterproof which is fine if the paper is heavy enough to take watercolour washes. The background in this drawing was added with soft pastels.

There was more activity to be seen from the coastal path leading to the East Hide. A flock of six ducks took flight from the Scrape Pool. I caught this impression of the leading four with the help of a long lens shot. The photograph had reasonable focus but the only certain detail was the white tail feathers. So I’m still trying to identify them

Watercolour on 160 gsm Ingres Pastel paper highlighted with Chinese White.

From the East Hide there were good views of geese, ducks and waders resting or feeding on the extensive gravel areas of the Scrape. Four Avocets flew in but they chose to feed off the far edge of one of the gravel islands so offered only the occasional glimpse. I settled for a sketch of a pair of Barnacle Geese.

Watercolour on 160 gsm Ingres Pastel paper highlighted with Chinese White.

The last sighting on the way back to the Visitor Centre was the Konig Polski ponies browsing in the Konig Field. This is a sketch of the most inquisitive one.

Watercolour on 160 gsm Ingres Pastel paper highlighted with Chinese White.

SUFFOLK DIARY

A DAY AT MINSMERE 25th September 2011 Today's plan was to visit 'The Scrape' to see the RSPB’s flagship species – the Avocet. But no they seem to have all flown. The consolation prize was a Little Egret foraging among the reeds.

Then also from the West Hide a Hobby in some rough vegetation on the edge of The Scrape.

There had been a reported sighting of a Snow Bunting but I had no luck. No luck either with any sightings of Bearded Tits in spite of possible sounds. So we took the newly made Reed Trail ever hopeful. Had to settle for a distant view of the Konic Polski ponies – curse myself now for not trying a long lens shot. The ponies have been brought in to graze the wetlands.

The next objective was the Bittern Hide an elevated structure accessed by 4 flights of steps and looking out over extensive reed beds. There are a stretch of reeds where the Bitterns should have been 'booming' – but they were silent! Sections of reeds have been flattened to make the area more Bittern friendly. One of these provided another consolation – two juvenile pheasants.

So I took the homeward trail through woodland stopping to record an Ink Cap Fungus.

Then a final sighting of a small group of Red Deer browsing among the trees to round off an interesting day.

THE EXCITEMENT OF BRUSH DRAWING

A well-pointed brush is a wonderfully expressive drawing instrument. Some years ago I enrolled for a course on Chinese painting and the tutor set us off drawing bamboo – a basic motif – as a first exercise. I never really took to Chinese painting but I became hooked by the excitement of making expressive marks with a well charged brush.

This drawing owes something to the direct watercolour studies in Darren Woodhead's book 'Up River: The Song of the Esk.' but I've used a simple monochrome treatment rather than full colour. My basic method is to draw with a Pentel Sepia Colour Brush and use a 'Pentel Wash Brush' to soften and blend the brush marks. The difficulty with this basic method is to create mid-tones. So in this drawing I've used an extra wash brush filled with diluted calligraphic ink.

The drawing was made in the studio and I haven't tried to depict any particular species. But the sketch is based around some of the winter visitors attracted to a bird feeder hung in an apple tree in the garden.

DARREN WOODHEAD

I'm a great admirer of Darren Woodhead's interpretations of the natural world. He works from direct observation outdoors and uses watercolour in a free expressive way to record his subjects.

I've never seen Darren's paintings displayed gallery wall so I'm afraid my enthusiasm has been generated from his book 'Up River: A Song of the Esk' and the paintings displayed on his website at:

www.darrenwoodheadartist.co.uk

I find Darren's kind of painting much more interesting than the more studied realist work done in the studio. You have to admire the effort that some artists put in to achieve photographic detail - and maybe that is what many collectors look for. Personally I fear that painterly qualities are often lost in photo realist paintings. When you look at the work of artists like David Sheppard for instance you quickly become aware of his brush work which confirms that you're looking at a painting not a photograph.

LAPWING SKETCHES

Searching for subjects for my next painting I came across these drawings of lapwings from March 2010. They are some of the first drawings I did from a hide viewing the birds through a newly acquired telescope.

There are three pages of similar sketches showing different poses to there is enough material to make an interesting picture.

BEYOND PHOTOGRAPHY

I was aiming to make these studies of butterflies into a painting but I’ve reached an impasse. I didn’t want to present them separately as vignettes though the form has a long history. Chinese painters were very adept at catching the spirit of living things with a few beautifully formed brush strokes. Technical illustrators go to the other extreme taking the long stare route to record accurate detail but often only giving the merest suggestion of their subject’s environment.

Normally if I’m planning a painting I make drawings of the subject’s habitat en plein air when I can. This isn’t always possible if you are sketching or taking photographs of a bird or animal in a wildlife park but the difficulty is not insoluble. I took 10-12 digital photographs of this butterfly before it flew out of range. I was using a medium range telephoto lens set to 70-100mm to ensure the insect filled a good proportion of the screen. With camera studies of insects the photographer’s concerns are primarily sharp focus to record detail and whether his lense is giving good bokeh.

My objectives as a painter are not concerned with photo realism and precise detail. I’m more interested catching characteristic or unusual behaviour particularly if this can be expressed by painterly means. I’m a great admirer of Lars Jonsson, his bird paintings show sufficient detail for identification but he uses a freer style to record the bird’s habitat.

I’ll break the impasse I’m in with the butterflies eventually but it will need some research into appropriate plants to compose a background.

FIELDWORK

I’ve always been astonished by Charles Tunnicliffe’s sketches made in the field. The two books that have been published of his drawings. ‘A Sketchbook of Birds’ and a later one ‘Sketches of Birdlife’ give a wonderful insight into his methods.

My favourite though is ‘The Peregrine Sketchbook’ which is made up of sketches based on observations of a nest on South Stack, Anglesey. Most of the text and illustrations are taken from Tunnicliffe’s ‘Shorelands Summer Diary’. There are annotated sketches made in the field which have been taken to a more finished state in the studio.

But the real attractions for me are the watercolours which have a directness resulting from close observation. The large watercolours which he painted to show at the Royal Academy are the painstaking result of carefully worked out compositional studies and his handling of the watercolour medium takes your breath away.

Nevertheless his watercolour sketches and the scraperboard vignettes used in his published titles are where I find most interest. They are worthy of close study both by using Tunnicliffe's techniques and by transposing them in a different medium.

I've just noticed that I posted a blog on this theme back in January 2005 which is my tribute to his method - I've never found a better one. Though I do use a camera to supplement the drawings. I kid myself that if Tunnicliffe had had a digital camera with a 400mm lense he would have made his busy life easier by using one.

GANNET AND CHICK: a composition study.

This gannet and chick were in one of the well-known gannet colonies at Cape Kidnappers, North Island, New Zealand. Parties are taken to the most easily accessible colony on a level area at the top of the cliffs.

The birds make an impressive spectacle - chicks in various stages of plumage and adults frequently returning to feed them. The location is a photographers’ heaven and I took dozens of shots from which to compose paintings.

This chick getting the adult to regurgitate food is my first idea. I was planning to work the composition up into an acrylic but having tried a few washes on the pencil drawing I’m finding that a watercolour has more appeal.

JACKDAWS BROWSING 2

This is the next stage of the preparatory study. I’ve explored the effect of suggesting the long grasses and wild flowers which partly obscured the jackdaws. I’ve used pastels and more acrylic brushwork. This is getting close to the effect I was searching for so I’ll leave it as is.

In the final painting I will give the birds more space and modify some of the poses as the heads are all side on and facing the same direction. I’ll be working in acrylic on canvas and I think the size will have to be around 16in x 24in so it will take some time.

JACKDAWS BROWSING A HAYMEADOW

On the Itchen Navigation south of Winchester near St Catherine’s Hill there is a beautifully managed hay meadow. Last week it was at its best long grasses flowering plants offering cover and insects for a flock of jackdaws – a perfect subject. Here’s how it looked with the birds obscured most of the time:-

The only way I was going to make a wildlife painting of it was to take lots of pictures of the birds through a 400mm lens as they displayed themselves. The sketch is a draft compositional study where I’ve tried to capture the different postures of the birds.

I’ve used Rowney FW acrylic inks on a heavy buff coloured pastel paper. I’ll take the study further using soft pastel.

THE DAILY DRAWINGS - well they were once

I did these quick sketches at Mary Arden's House near Stratford upon Avon, a week ago. I'm not sure what breed the cockerell is; the nearest I can get from a chart is a 'Dorking Chicken.' I was hoping I could call him something more exciting. Charles Tunnicliffe did a lovely watercolour of a similar bird being buffeted in a gale. He called it ‘Cock in the wind’ so perhaps he wasn’t quite sure of the breed either. The painting is reproduced in ‘Tunnicliffe’s Birdlife.’ by Noel Cusa.

The second sketch is of a European Long-Eared Owl. I just had time to make a few lines when he was taken away to show his skills. Wild birds only do what they want not always what their handler would like. This owl made one impressive flight onto the lure and no way was he going to repeat the performance. He was a massive bird and obviously he’d decided to save his energy by hopping the short distance to get his meal rather than by taking to the air.

MOTTISFONT’S : DARK TALES

The fairy world has a darker side quite different from fairies as beautiful children with wings on their backs. There is the dark world of Goblins who can attack us and eat up our memory – yes I think I’ve encountered a few Goblins recently.

There was a giclee by Sir Peter Blake of a brick wall with an overgrown border in front – the title ‘I saw a Fairy in my Garden Today.’ Well I’ll have to take his word for it. Then there was a dark little etching by Paula Rego of a woman reading a bedtime story to her child. Neither looked very happy – under the bed a face with a grotesque leer and hovering over the bed a strange creature with massive wings and claws – so no wonder!

The closest I came to liking the stuff in this gallery came with an invitation to open a cupboard. It had an installation ‘The Skullship and the Galls’ by Tessa Farmer. Here it is – there are fairies – I caught one and displayed it as an inset.

I find there's something attractive about it - it's how the natural world is - but it has nothing to do with fairytales.

MOTTISFONT’S ENCHANTED GARDEN

Mottisfont, a National Trust property near Romsey, Hampshire is offering a summer of magic, mystery and discovery until 2nd. October. There is an art exhibition which explores the theme of ‘fairytales’. There are 30 original watercolours by Cicely Mary Barker painted to illustrate a series of Children’s books. These were published by Frederick Warne. Warne were Beatrix Potter’s publisher and they used a similar format for Barker’s ‘Flower Fairies.’ TM

There was also a nice drawing by Arthur Rackham he was a prolific illustrator of children’s books –best known in this field for the illustrations he did for an edition of ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales. CMB’s illustration was taken from the National Trust flier advertising the exhibition – the Nat. Trust logo at top left – gives the game away it’s not part of her original art work!

It’s worth running a Google search on both Barker and Rackham – they’re interesting artists and both worked at a ‘day job’ until they got established. That’s familiar territory for most of us isn’t it?

They both worked in ink, watercolour, and gouache and the linework of both is superb. Worth studying and making a copy.

IN FAIRYLAND: pictures from the Elf World.

On our wedding anniversary last week Sheila gave me a charming card with this cover design. An apt choice because I’d been chasing butterflies in the garden for days – without much success! Getting good photographs of butterflies is hard - sketching them even harder. I persevered hoping to find new wildlife subjects to paint.

Nowadays figurative wildlife art is very much concerned with accurate objective representation. This design taken from a 19th century lithograph is an expression of romantic fantasy. The title of the lithograph is ‘The Fairy Queen’s Carriage’. The complete lithograph shows an airborne Fairy Queen sitting on a stalk of apple blossom drawn along by the butterflies.

We’re off to Stratford tomorrow to see ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ back to enjoy Shakespeare’s fairy queen this time.

The artist is Richard Doyle 1824-1883 and the lithograph is part of The Stapleton Collection/The Bridegman Art Library.

Yesterday the daily draw became absorbed into the beginnings of a watercolour. I didn’t want the Little owl project to go off the boil. With owls the eyes are the expressive element for me so after making a careful pencil drawing that’s where I began to apply colour.

The image has been cropped out of a quarter sheet of Saunders Waterford so there will be room to add an environmental background.

THE DAILY DRAWING

Daily if I can! This is a Little Owl drawn from memory. It’s the smallest UK owl and we got acquainted at the nearby Kington Rare Breeds Centre where he posed for a digital photograph.

I had a long look (10mins) at the image last night to try and memorise the owl’s basic shape and proportions. Then I concentrated on the feather pattern and finally the feet and beak. Then off to bed.

The drawing was made this morning in a cartridge paper sketchbook with a Pentel Sepia Colour Brush. He’s a nice compact form that I was able to record with light nervous touches. Then suggestions of the feather structure were added. I think it’s vital not to overdo this kind of sketch – a mistake I often made with earlier drawings.

I’m reasonably happy with this drawing as a quick statement but there are things I remember that have been missed. The head was tilted slightly upwards as he looked at me and the eyes were large and bright to give a lovely alert expression. Reason for another look at the photograph.!

I developed this obsession with memory drawing from studying the work of Lars Jonsson at an exhibition he had at Slimbridge. He does lovely watercolours of seabirds from a campervan parked on the seashore. He observes the birds intensely for about 15 minutes then works from memory. That’s a process he has to repeat if the bird moves of flies away
.
Not being as skilled as Lars I have to resort to dozens of photographs. They don’t always give you what’s needed and a quick drawing from direct observation can sometimes reveal a pose or a change of direction that the camera missed.
The drawing was done in the time it takes to drink 2 cups of coffee. I’ll use the stopwatch on my iphone for a more accurate check in future!

A LITTLE GOOD ADVICE

I admire the work of Kate Atkinson who is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) because of its expressive quality which verges on abstraction. I was taken by the following quote from her page on the SWLA website.

“Over my son's school life I have documented as often as possible the twenty minutes or so when the bus comes, by making gouache and sometimes acrylic paintings very fast and without forethought. They are as much about the weather and light as about the changing fieldscapes over the seasons.”

Setting aside a time each day for practice is a good idea which I’m trying to follow. I’ve not managed Kim’s ‘Daily Painting’ method – it’s simpler use of the time to draw. Fast drawing without forethought doesn’t produce results I feel I can show anybody so I’ve developed a memory training variant. This sketch was made in an A5 sketchbook with a Pentel Colourbrush. I looked hard at the subject for 5 minutes then made the drawing from memory.

Here’s a link to Kim Atkinson’s page on the SWLA website where you can see some samples of her ‘Daily Paintings’

www.swla.co.uk/SWLAmembers/atkinsonk/AtkinsonK.htm

I’ve recently redesigned my blog and I’m inviting friends to enrol as ‘Followers.’ This is easy if you have a Google or Twitter account. If not you’ll have to open a Google account if you want to add comments.

DIGITAL PRINTS: EXAMPLES

The Ludlow Art Society is showing commendable foresight by accepting digital prints for its 65th Summer Exhibition. Here are the 3 prints I will be sending in.

The Exhibition will be at the Harley Centre, Ludlow. 20th - 29th August. 10.00am to 5.00pm

DIGITAL PRINTS
The starting point for my digital prints is a freehand drawing made with pen or pencil which is scanned and saved as a digital file. This is then opened in Corel Painter X. for further hand drawn additions using a stylus and graphics tablet.

The finished artwork is printed on Somerset Enhanced Velvet paper using archival quality inks. Somerset Velvet is a paper made from cotton fibres specially for fine art reproduction.

All of my digital prints are published as signed numbered limited editions. The numbering is shown to the left of the signature below the print.

The permanence and lightfastness of the print is comparable to a watercolour.

CHURCH STRETTON FESTIVAL ART EXHIBITION

Had an interesting time stewarding at the Church Stretton Festival Art Exhibition last Friday. All exhibitors have an obligation to spend 3 hours on steward’s duty. I took along a fellow Ludlow Art Society member Margaret Oakes and we were allocated reception so I had to operate the till.
We arrived early to have a look round - Margaret is a canny Yorkshire lass so she always looks for the 'red spots.' She was quick to tell me there was one on my watercolour of a Burrowing Owl. There is a second week to go so if I sell another it will be jam for tea next week-end.

Normally on reception things are generally quiet enough for us to take turns to look around but not last Friday. Paintings were not selling like hot cakes but we did have a steady flow of visitors and we sold three in the first hour or so. We were just coming to the conclusion that it was unlikely that anything over £90 would sell when a lady came in with £150 of nice crisp notes in a brown envelope. To "Buy a picture for my daughter." she said. Margaret quickly dashed off to put a red spot on the label and complete the paperwork while I quickly put the cash into the till and binned the brown envelope.

It's a funny business you can never tell what will take peoples' fancy or how much they will pay for something they really like. So we drove back to Ludlow pleased that we'd done our little bit. Many of our LAS members look on compulsory stewarding as a chore but I confess I enjoy it. It gives one the chance to meet the public and talk about the work on show.

A BRUSH WITH 'RATTY’

Spent a few days in Winchester last week and enjoyed a stroll along the River Test with my grandson. We were rewarded with the sight of some water voles swimming in and out of the foliage on the far bank. My grandson got a passable photograph on his mum’s Canon Ixus I got a blur on my mobile phone! Between us we had enough to make some sketches. Here’s the best of mine.
There’s a good photograph of a water vole on the July page of the BBC’ ‘Children in Need’ calendar. Cleverly contrived with some clover floating on the water - hence the title ‘In Clover!’ I wonder how long the photographer had to wait to get that shot?

WATERCOLOURS AT TATE BRITAIN

This is a fascinating exhibition which reveals what a versatile medium watercolour is. It's a mistake to judge the exhibition on who is in and who has been left out - better to develop an awareness of how artists have exploited the medium and why they chose it.

It was the medium of choice of artists engaged in scientific exploration exploring the flora and fauna of distant countries. At Ludlow Museum I did a course with Angela Gladwell who was trained as a technical illustrator at the RCA. She used to enthuse over very precise watercolour studies which naturalists used to record the structure and anatomy of rare plants and animals. So my initial interest was the ‘Natural World’ gallery

To my shame I could never work up much enthusiasm for this way of working as experienced from the book illustrations which Angela showed us. Seeing the originals in this exhibition though is a totally different experience. The drawing is so accurate and the colour laid so skilfully it takes your breath away.

My personal favourite in the natural history genre is a really striking watercolour of an osprey, with a fish in its talons, by William Macgillivray. He was a Scottish naturalist who became a very accomplished artist. I think it must have been drawn from a dead bird but drawing on his experience in the field he's placed it against a background of Scottish hills. Again he displays superb draughtsmanship supported by lovely clean washes on the feathers which gradate from a dark VanDyck Brown on the head to Burnt Umber on the scapular and tail feathers. The picture is on the Natural History website in the Macgillivray Art Collection at.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/macgillivray/

The most popular section is sure to be the Travel and Topography gallery where you see watercolours developing into romantic evocations of landscape. Many 18th Century watercolourists like Myles Birkett Foster were self taught. But it’s clear that the watercolours were built on close observation and careful drawing. Gradually although the tradition develops into more expressive styles that we’re more used to the graphite drawing is still visible as a kind of support.

There was a lovely watercolour by one of my favourite watercolourists David Cox where although the initial graphite drawing is sketchy he’s firmed up the main shapes with his washes.
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?wo...4&tabview=image
Tour d’Horloge, Rouen 1829


On passing I caught a glimpse of a nice mixed media (w’col/gouache/ink) by John Piper. Watercolourists of his generation like Paul Nash, and Eric Ravilious are worth a closer look. I say on passing because after half an hour or so there was fire alert and the building was cleared. So I was spared the horrors of Emin and her contemporaries but I do regret not having more time with my two favourite ‘Blues’.

Arthur Melville ‘The Blue Night, Venice’
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?wo...6&tabview=image

and JMW Turner ‘The Blue Rigi, Sunrise’
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?wo...9&tabview=image

Don’t be disappointed if your favourites are not shown just immerse yourself in the sheer variety of the medium. The message I got is that if you want to ‘up your game’ brush up your drawing.

NORTH ISLAND ROBINS

This is a set of studies of New Zealand robins. I photographed them in a nature reserve on an island in Lake Rotorua. They are heavier than our native robins but they share the same characteristics, alert, fearless and inquisitive if you disturb the ground they immediately fly down to search for insects at your feet. They don't have the red breast of the UK species - you'd take them to be simply black and white until you look closely. In nature blacks are never black neither are whites true white.

For these studies I used acrylic on a prepared canvas board. I drew directly with the brush it's easy to correct outlines and proportions with acrylic making it an ideal medium for sketches and studies. Each study is at a different stage of completion.

Sheila Hancock Brushes Up: The Art of Watercolours

It was good to see Sheila Hancock on BBC1 tonight describing her enthusiasm for watercolour in plain words. Her commentary was a refreshing change from the pretentious obscurity of the language often used by art critics.

I never knew Alexander Cozens ended up in an asylum following what we would now describe as a nervous breakdown. A doctor at the asylum bought his watercolours but the commentery didn't make clear if this was Dr Monro who took Girtin and Turner under his wing when they were young. Dr Monro encouraged them to make copies of his watercolours - probably some by Cozens - to learn their craft.

There were some stunning watercolour sketches done by a soldier who had served Afghanistan and another by the much neglected Paul Nash. He was a war artist too but it was refreshing change to see a watercolour by Nash of a stand of trees on the Wiltshire downs. Refreshing because it was so different from the work of most contemporary watercolourists.

I must download the programme with BBC iPlayer to watch it again.…

There still remains detailed work to do on the head around the eye and the black tip to the beak has to be added - left until the end after the background is finished. There is much evidence of the use of 'bodycolour' on the bird and I've mainly used traditional Chinese White for this because it is a warmer white than Titanium. The danger with using bodycolour for me is that it can lead to tight drawing because of a preoccupation with detail. I'm not a realist and my preference with watercolour is to go for direct expressive brushwork. This will show up in the treatment of the background which can be handled more freely.

I put the painting aside for a while because a buzzard appeared again to browse on the field with the usual magpies and jackdaws. So I was able to study his behaviour through a telescope. I tried sketching two or three variants from what I saw of the bird's walking movement but they weren't very convincing. I have though shown more of the bird's left leg to give a better sense of balance.

I've also warmed up the background by working pure colours into a wet ground of Chinese White and letting them run. To tone in with this I've also made the bird's plumage warmer and worked up details. The pose proved to be more difficult than I expected so I'm pleased it is now finished.

OUR MIGRANT BIRDS HAVE FLOWN


The snow brought a succession of flocks of Redwings and Fieldfares, to feed on our crab apples and holly berries. By Christmas Day the holly had been stripped of berries but some Crab Apples survived on the ground for the ground feeders the blackbirds and Chaffinches. The snow covered  ground brought one or two pheasant and the ubiquitous pigeons to clear up the seed dropped from the feeders.

Now the snow has gone things are strangely quiet just the daily visits mostly from Blue and Great Tits. I've got material for paintings that will keep me occupied for some time - so I'm happy!

SHEILA FELL

Browsing the art shelves in my local library I was surprised and delighted to find a monograph on the Cumbrian painter Sheila Fell. She was a protégé of L S Lowry who supported her and bought her work. Her career as a painter was remarkable for a working class girl - her father was a miner. Determined to break away from life in Aspatria on the Solway where she was born she won a scholarship to Carlisle College of Art and then went to London to study painting at St. Martins.

This must have taken tremendous determination as she was virtually penniless. She met Lowry after one of her London exhibitions when he bought two of her paintings. He became a lifelong friend and thought her the best landscape painter of the 20th Century. It was Lowry who encouraged her to send in to the RA. "You must join the RA Miss Fell they are a nice bunch of fellows and they make a wonderful cup of tea." Lowry urged.  She was one of the youngest painters to be elected ARA and duly became a full RA and served on the selection committee.

Her inspiration was always the Cumbrian landscape where she grew up. ""I want to live till I'm 104. I've promised myself I will. It's what keeps me going when I worry if I'll ever have enough time to do all the paintings in my head." she told an interviewer. Ironically the remark was broadcast the day after she died after falling downstairs at her flat.

The link opens up a feature about her on the BBC Visual Arts Archive which carries a recorded item for download to 'Real Player'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2005_14_sat_01.shtml

Another link of interest posted by a member on Art and Artistry is:

Sheila Fell: a-passion-for-paint

PAINTING BIRDS

It was familiarity with Charles Tunnicliffe's watercolour paintings which aroused my interest in drawing and painting birds. I got to know his work from his published illustrations but the first time I saw the originals was in an exhibition in the Oriel Gallery at Llangefni on Anglesey. His draughtsmanship and control of the watercolour medium was breathtaking. Robert Gillmor's collection of CT's drawings 'A Sketchbook of Birds' gives an insight into his working methods but I really wanted to read a book 'Bird Portraiture' which he published in 1945. I was delighted to buy a second hand copy quite cheaply from an Amazon bookseller and I wasn't disappointed.

CT recognised that birds even if you take them out of their natural environment are still have an intrinsic beauty just like flowers but he thought it important for the artist to interpret his bird subjects in terms of basic graphic elements. 

'It is with the creation of a very different kind of beauty that this book will try to deal, - that of line and form and colour on paper or canvas; a work of art in fact which, we hope will have its own particular claim to be beautiful, not because it has slavishly imitated the form and colour of the bird, but because it has used the bird and controlled it to create a new beauty.'

When you study CT's they owe little to 'realism' but a great deal to careful composition and colour harmony.

BUZZARD STUDIES

I've been fortunate this summer to be able to observe a young buzzard who took to perching on the goalposts on the village playing field. He arrived regularly about 8.00am and flew of when the field started to be used. While he was using the goalposts as a lookout he was still enough to be sketched through a telescope  When he took off to browse for ants with the jackdaws I had to take photographs.

This sheet of drawings was made from photographs I took. The one on the right was drawn with charcoal and for the left hand study I've used a 4b Carbon pencil. However you tackle them birds are a real challenge.

NESTING KITTIWAKES

This is a working study of nesting Kittiwakes. I photographed them through a telephoto lense from the boat going across to the Farne Islands. There seemed to be dozens of birds on the cliffs and I've composed the sketch by using four from two different photographs.

I've used a 160gsm Ingres grey pastel paper and I began the sketch using Carb Othello pastel pencils. I decided that using watercolour for the birds would speed things up. Using watercolour on toned paper is an occasion when body colour comes into its own. If you decide to try this you will be in good company Turner used the technique on a blue sugar papar.

The white plumage of the birds is basically pure Titanium White and the grey feathers are painted with a Cobalt/Titanium mix. Ivory Black was used for the tail feathers and eyes. I would never use a pure Kolinsky Sable for this technique. I always use Rosemary & Co brushes these days and I've used a Series 401 Sable Blend for the birds and the transparent washes on the cliff face. It's sometimes useful to have a more springy brush and I found Rosemary's Shiraz Round was ideal for the nesting material.

For this way of sketching I owe something to Keith Brockie the Scottish wildlife artist. I managed to pick up 'One Man's Island' a book he wrote as a young man when he had an artists residency on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth. It's a book of pencil studies of wildlife he observed in the field and worked up later in the studio. Charles Tunnicliffe worked in a similar way.

GREY WAGTAILS  Watercolour and bodycolour 31 x 41cm on 300gsm Arches.Not.

This is a sheet of Grey Wagtail studies made from two skins. The annotated sketch is the foreground bird in the watercolour and the far one is based on the top right sketch. I'd never actually seen a wagtail turn its head like the centre right bird which was drawn from a second skin - so I've not made use of it yet.

Bird painters seem to fall into two categories - first there are those who make detailed anatomical studies for identification and recording. Angela Gladwell - who runs courses at Ludlow Museum - was trained at the RCA as a technical illustrator used to be very keen on this kind of painting. I did two courses with her from which I learned a lot and I acknowledge the help I received from her tuition. The second class of bird painters try to capture their subjects in their natural surroundings. So Peter Scott, Charles Tunnicliffe from a previous generation, and contemporaries like Lars Jonsson, Keith Brockie and Darren Woodhead point me in the direction I want to go.

 

Even if you sketch outdoors the real challenge comes when the painting has to be composed in the studio. In the past I'd observed Grey Wagtails in the rocky steam beds which fall down through the oakwoods on the steep sides of the Afon Mawddach. Some years ago I'd used the sketches - not very successfully - in that location. On a summer holiday in Yorkshire I did this sketch from the side of the River Nidd near Knaresborough that seemed a suitable setting - though I didn't see any wagtails.

Having done the research and assembled all of the elements the most satisfying stage, for me, is bringing them all together in the studio.

RAILWAY ART - A NOSTALGIC GLIMPSE INTO A LOST AGE.

One aspect of the steam train era I get nostalgic about is the poster and carriage art. Before nationalisation the railway companies commissioned artists to produce posters to promote attractive destinations served by rail. There was once a fashion for showing prints of watercolour paintings in carriage compartments. Jack Merriott received several commissions both for posters and carriage prints.

Ceredigion Museum has a nice example of a poster designed by Merriott and the draft sketch design he submitted for it.

 

Here's a nice example of his watercolour of Mousehole, Cornwall used for a carriage print.

A WATERCOLOUR PAINTER IN THE ENGLISH TRADITION

I've been fortunate over several years to have been given advice from more senior members of the Ludlow Art Society. One I remember with particular affection was Kath Edfryn-Jones - she was Welsh, she taught art at Hafren College in Newtown and her watercolour presentations were always very informative. I once asked her to tell me of a good book on watercolour methods. Without hesitation she  recommended 'Discovering Watercolour' by Jack Merriot. "You needn't bother looking at any other." she said. At that time I'd never heard of him and the book was long out of print.  Edward Wesson was everybodys favourite and Ron Ranson wielding his Japanese Hake was beginning to make his mark. 

I was lucky though and found a second hand copy of Jack Merriot's book in a Tewkesbury bookshop. The book grew from a correspondence course which Jack Merriot devised with his friend Ernest Savage. So it was carefully structured placing initial emphasis on good observational drawing. Successive chapters then dealt with three basic methods first Line and Wash. Secondly The Direct Method which involves a direct attack on the main centre of interest on dry paper. This is a method for responding to the excitement of the first compulsive eye-catch with strong colour. Finally he describes The Controlled Wash method where the painting is built up with superimposed washes on slightly dampened paper. It's the method most frequently advocated by contemporary watercolourists - notably David Curtis.

When I'm in watercolour mode I often look at Trevor Chamberlain's plein air watercolours. They are usually very small 7" x 10" or 10" x 14" and display an attractive controlled looseness - where does he get it from?
There's an element of Merriot's Direct Method about them. I was pleased to discover Trevor acknowledged the influence of Jack Merriott in his early years in his book 'Light and Atmosphere in Watercolour.'  One of Merriot's wartime watercolours showing St Paul's after the Blitz is printed on page16.

This image of Merriot's painting appears on the Wapping Group of Artists website.

VALLEY IN THE DOLOMITES 2


Here's the finished half-sheet watercolour. I've made use of Titanium White as a bodycolour because it is more opaque than the traditional Chinese(Zinc) White. I'm not someone who holds strictly to the 'pure transparent' doctrine. The use of white 'bodycolour' has always been part of the watercolour tradition and it's use enhances the possibilities of the medium. You can play off opaque passages against transparent ones as Ken Howard does and it can be used to create crumbly textures on rocks and old walls. Only when it is thickly laid on like whitewash does it look out of place.

VALLEY IN THE DOLOMITES

This is a view near Siror done on holiday in the Dolomites some years ago. I've got a stretched sheet of Waterford on which I'm going to make the preliminary drawing for a watercolour.

The composition perhaps needs a little attention. I'm going to push the donkeys further back to simplify the foreground - I may include just one. Then I think the building needs more space so that will have to go further back too. Maybe a hint of peaks at the head of the valley would be nice.

TREVI FOUNTAIN


Digital cameras are a great aid for the painter. I'm showing a way of using a digital camera to help paint a watercolour of a complex subject. The subject is the Trevi Fountain in Rome which gets so crowded I would find it impossible to paint on the spot. I had to resort to taking lots of photographs.

The first stage is to crop the photograph to find a good composition. I did this in Corel Photopaint an alternative to Photoshop. These programs also let you superimpose a grid. This is useful when you have a complicated subject. Here's a screen grab of the active Photopaint window

I set the grid size to one quarter of the width of the paper I was using. It's easy then to feintly draw the grid on the paper and make a careful outline drawing. Using a grid to transfer an image to paper or canvas is a well established method.

I painted the watercolour with the image displayed on a laptop. It's obviously not a straight copy. I've left out much of the background detail so that the focus of interest is the falling water. This was painted by first using masking fluid and later using 'drybrush' (ie with little paint on the brush and dragging it sideways rather than using the point.) This way you can exploit the grain of the paper to achieve a nice broken texture.I used a heavy Waterford rough.

WINTER GULLS

These gulls were scavenging on the sea front at Ostend. It was December last uear, bitterly cold and I was with friends. Not the occasion for sitting sketching so I took lots of photographs. This sheet of studies was made in preparation for a composition. Trouble is I can't decide what species of gull they are. My best guess - based on the shape of the bill and the colour of the legs - is that they're immature Blackbacks.

GARDEN VISITOR











This grey squirrell was under the apple tree in my garden - an easy target for a 300mm lens I took 6 photographs and based this drawing on one of them.

I've used Wollf Carbon Pencils - Artifolk sell them in sets of B, 2B, 4B, 6B and they make rich black marks. They don't go shiny like graphite when applied thickly. I was taught a very traditional technique in the Life Room - tones built up gently and gradually with hachures. It's a lovely way of drawing

DIGITAL STUDY AFTER DEGAS

This study is taken from one of Degas’ late pastels. He did a series of them at the end of his life when he was too ill to go to the ballet and his eyesight was failing. They are some of the best things he ever did.

I love these late pastels of Degas and I’ve made two or three studies of different ones using conventional pastels on Tiziano paper. Although this digital study doesn’t really capture the true feel of pastel it is a good way of studying the technique of a great artist – you’re not using up paper and chalk.

I suppose applying the computer in this way is a bit like using a flight simulator when learning to fly a plane.

For comparison I’ve posted another study this time in pastel. The source image is in 'Degas Pastels' by Alfred Werner and I've taked the foreground figure from the composition.

This time Degas used a more painterly approach which is reflected in the study. I can’t be sure what Degas underpainting was like but for the purpose of this exercise I used an acrylic ground on a heavy cartridge paper.

MEET 'LITTLE DIGGER'

He's a Burrowing Owl another bird from the collection at the Rare Breeds Farm at Kington, Herefordshire.

His species is native to Central America and he's about the size of our Little Owls.

The medium is watercolour and the background is suggestive of thelikely habitat.

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.