YELLOW EYED PENGUINS

New Zealand’s Fiordland has some wonderful locations. I took a boat excursion to Doubtful Sound. It was a day of heavy rain but that did not seem to upset a small group of Yellow Eyed Penguins that I was able to photograph with a 400mm lens from the boat.

I’m planning to make a series of studies from the photographs to  compose a painting. This is a page I did yesterday.

11^th May 2012

On this second page I thought for a moment I had a ready-made  composition because of the way the sketches were distributed quite accidentally. 

But then the attitudes of the birds were so similar I began to think that they were taken from frames of the same bird. Does that matter? I don’t think it does really the same bird preening strikes quite a different attitude to when it is at rest. So I’ll look further at my reference material to see what other poses I’ve collected.

MORE WORK ON THE LESSER BLACKBACKS

I Had time to get back to the Lesser Blackbacks today. Most of the time was spent working on the birds. The feather patterns were intricate but they are the feature which makes the painting striking.

The primary feathers and the feintly defined plumage of the head and chest were first worked into a wet Chinese White ground then refined after it dried. I used this method because my batch of Fabriano Artistico HP – which I’ve had for some years – is very porous and soft blending of small brushstrokes was difficult because the paper soaked up the paint very quickly.  There is still work to do on the legs and and some touches of foreground detail.

Once the birds were almost complete tonal adjustment of the sea and sandy foreground was needed. It’s at the stage where I will place it in a temporary frame and live with it a while before deciding to send it to an exhibition.

After a month of relative inactivity following my total knee replacement it’s good to get back to serious work again.

NENES COMPLETED

I was determined to celebrate May 1^st by completing this painting of the Hawaian Geese. It was in danger of going off the boil because I’d diverted my attention to other work. Part of the trouble was that the ripples in the water – that I considered were an important element in the composition – took me out of my comfort zone.  So it became Acrylic to the rescue. 

When I show it I suppose I’ll have to describe it as ‘Mixed Media’.  I hate that designation – because it covers a multitude of sins – and would much prefer to use ‘Water Media’.   I‘ve tried using my preferred designation but it just confuses people.

That said incorporating Acrylic into my working method creates a wonderful sense of freedom because it extends your range of choices.  Traditional watercolour places its own constraints – notably transparency – which in its way is what distinguishes the medium and what most people look for.

The watercolour tradition however encompasses greater diversity. I remember Ken Howard RA wrote somewhere that, when using watercolour, he liked to play off opaque passages against transparent ones. This is a property that becomes possible by using traditional Chinese White. Acrylic offers even more opportunities to exploit expressive brushwork in a painterly rather than realistic fashion.

AN ENCOUNTER IN OSTEND

Last year on the seafront at Ostend I encountered a small flock of 1^st. Winter Lesser Blackback Gulls. It was bitterly cold and windy – not the weather for hanging about.  I took several useful photographs

I had enough material showing the birds in different poses the problem with photographic references is how to make use of them.  Charles Tunnicliffe I know would compose an unruly flock into a carefully arranged design. That level of skill is beyond my reach at the moment. Lars Jonnsson however has made some delightfully simple paintings showing just two or three birds set against the sea.  Lars Jonnson wins on this occasion!

28th April additional note

The gulls were scavenging on the promenade near the ferry terminal so a more natural environment was needed. The rocky motifs were taken from some pictures I took on a visit to the Farne Islands.  I decided to place the background for this picture in first. The gulls winter plumage was quite subtle and delicate and I felt that a strongly stated background would be out of character.

FALCONS FOR EVERYONE

In May last year my wife and I spent a day in Brussels while on holiday in Belgium and were surprised to Peregrines nesting in a tower of the Cathedral. There was an observation post nearby where you could observe them live through a telescope.  I tried to make some drawings but had to stop when I noticed an impatient cue forming up to take a look.

I’ve posted a link to the project website which contains a lot of interesting news of the birds.

www.falconsforeveryone.be 

BACK TO THE NENES

I’ve been working on the Nenes today.  I decided to use the ripples in the water to group the birds together . The birds were mostly in shade created by the leaves on the overhanging branches. A little more work needed there and more on the water. 

 

I left the birds unfinished and they’re still as they were in the earlier post. I’ll be leaving them as a final touch.

I’VE BECOME A KINDLE ADDICT

The family librarian – that’s my daughter who works at Newman University College, Birmingham – has  persuaded me to become Kindle convert! I haven't bought one of those little plastic things that appear sometimes on trains or in hospital waiting rooms . No I've downloaded the Kindle app so I can read the books on my laptop.

Started with the free ones like 'Winnie the Pooh' 'cos I like the pictures. Alice in Wonderland was another free one and Alice saw 'no point in a book which doesn’t have pictures or conversations.' Well now I'm now onto deeper adult stuff like 'Why does E=mc2' co authored by Prof Brian Cox - remember him from the telly? Fascinating book if you can cope with a little maths but no pictures – at least of the figurative kind – but at least Alice’s creator would have enjoyed the illustrations it contains. They are of the diagrammatic kind so you have to put your own visual interpretation on them.

So I’ve moved on to ‘The Wisdom of Birds’ by Tim Birkbeck. It’s a history of ornithology and it does have lots of coloured pictures. They are technically exciting but a bit wooden to modern eyes – they were after all mostly drawn from dead specimens. It’s surprising how ‘intelligent’ birds are in their own particular way.

Another free Kindle download was ‘Discourses on Art’ by Sir Joshua Reynolds. They are a series of lectures he gave to the ‘gentlemen’ of the Royal Academy of his day. I thought it ought to be compulsory reading for somebody claiming to be an artist.

HAWAIAN GEESE (NENES)

These are some of the Nenes I photographed at Slimbridge. There were small groups tamely wandering around but I caught these three in a narrow stretch of water flowing out onto the estuary. I thought at first I had a ready made composition once the overhanging branches and the far bank of the stream were put in. Now I’m not so sure.

Lately I’ve been looking at the illustrations in ‘Charles Tunnicliffe’s Birdlife’. He had a wonderful gift for composition – placing his groups of birds in a balanced design. There are the beginnings of a relationship between the three birds but the arrangement is not working properly yet.

Maybe reflections in the water will bring them together. Taking a break has made me realise too that the left hand bird is too small.

BACK IN DRAWING MODE

With the Easter exhibitions out of the way I’ve been back in drawing mode for the past few days.  I’m planning a series of watercolours based on sketches which originated last year. I use an A4 sketchbook for quick sketches which aim at capturing characteristic features of pose and movement. The subjects are mostly garden birds which are never still so I have to use my photographs for reference. 

Given the  chance I could sketch all day. Drawing gives me just as much satisfaction as pulling off a finished painting. The next stage is to arrange the sketch motifs against a suitable background to make a satisfying composition.   For me the background has to reflect the bird's natural habitat.

Here are two examples. 

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A FRAME CAN MAKE

I've been framing work today ready to hand in at the LAS Spring exhibition on Friday. I'm using a frame I had in stock from an earlier exhibition - the painting came back unsold.

With both pastels and acrylics I like to use a linen or painted slip to separate the work from the glass. It makes a nice decorative insert if the colour is right. Traditionally gold was used for slips but in this case I've given the natural linen slip a coat of acrylic which picks up a colour from the painting.

I've taken the photograph without the glass insert. With acrylics it would be OK to not use glass if the support was MDF but with this painting I was working on a prepared canvas glued to backing board which is not so robust. So the glass and labelling will be the finishing touches to be added before Friday.

SUMMER WINE 2

This is the kind of subject which evokes the romantic English Summer Idyll. Country folk working in the  fields or more likely today a country gentleman in tweeds with shotgun and dog out to bag a rabbit or two.

I'm not a romantic. I'm more excited by my current enthusiasm - which is wildlife.  So I've added three rabbits making the most of the day before scurrying off to the safety of their burrows.

This will be the last of my Spring Exhibition entries. I've given it the quite mundane title of 'Evening: Teme Valley at Ashford Bowdler.' Still regret not calling it 'The Last Of The Summer Wine.'

LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE

Trevor Chamberlain is probably best known for his watercolours mostly done out of doors. There is another side to his artistic creativity which to me is just as inspiring and this is the way he paints quick oil sketches using a small pochard box. Very often these are quite small 7"x10" or 12" x 14."

Back in 2006 Halsgrove published a book 'Trevor Chamberlain: England and Beyond' that I couldn't resist. I was looking through it recently when I turned up this acrylic painting that I intend to show at the LAS Spring exhibition. I've tried to capture the same feeling created by TC's pochades. A loosely applied acrylic primer ground and forms expressed by means of colour rather than detail.

I'm not fully happy with it - it needs figures or something for foreground interest. TC uses figures - harvesting rice in Northern Iran or men cutting Brussels Sprouts. Farm workers in the fields is a motif which goes back to the 19th Century 19th Century Barbizon School - Millet 'The Gleaners.' - but I've only ever seen heavy machinery in use on these fields.

Can't explain the title either!

WOODCUTS - Little Terns

Woodcuts are a form of block printing where the raised surfaces of the block receive the ink to be printed on paper. Usually only two or three coloured inks are used. In ‘Little Terns’ a yellow ochre, a blue grey, and black are used. Printers inks are transparent so it is possible to create two or more colours by over printing. In this case ochre over blue then grey over the  ochre/blue.

I’m guessing but it seems to me that the White areas were cut away first then a light blue ink was applied to the raised areas and printed. The artist had decided on an edition of 100 so the first  colour would be printed 100 times.

 Next the lightest blue areas would be cut away and the ochre area printed. At this stage the main shapes of the composition would be established. There would be more cutting away to leave darker parts of the terns and the isolated shadow areas raised. These would be overprinted again with a slightly darker shade of grey.

Finally the whole block would be levelled just leaving the black areas of the birds and the border raised up. A final print of black ink finishes the job.

LITTLE TERNS: Woodcut print

Our holiday at Aldeburgh last summer coincided with an exhibition of watercolours and prints by Robert Greenhalf SWLA in a local gallery. I only knew his work from illustrations and reviews so it was good to see original work in a well-arranged exhibition. I made two visits and decided that if I had any holiday money to spare I would buy a painting.

Well choosing was difficult but I decided that the watercolours were well beyond the £200 I was prepared to spend.. That narrowed the field to the woodcuts. Some were on sale framed at £150. Others mounted but unframed were offered at £90. That meant that I could afford two prints and have change from my £200.

My favourite is the woodcut of Little Terns which I mounted and framed myself

ARNSIDE: OYSTERCATCHERS FLYPAST 2

I've made some changes to the group of Oystercatchers in the first picture.  The original arrangement of the birds divided them into separate lines. I thought it might help if they were linked in some way. So I’ve raised a wing on two of the leading foreground birds to break into the open space between the two lines. I think this has improved the composition.

I’ve shown the picture double mounted ready to frame. I had to crop the image to get it level in the photograph. So now the mount is too narrow which looks a bit mean

For a half-sheet watercolour I use the following dimensions for the inner mount widths –Top and sides 8cm. Bottom 8.5cm. The outer mount window is cut larger to leave approx 0.8mm of the inner mount showing all round.  I use a 2.5cm wooden moulding for the frame.

RECOVERY 2

This is another old watercolour which has been restretched after having had the ‘bathtub treatment’.  It was painted on a half-sheet of 300gsm Arches NOT and Arches sizing never allows complete lifting off of colour.  I’m not sure what colours were used now but it’s well known that some synthetic colours are strong strainers notably Alizarin and the Pthalocyanines used to make a range of blues and greens.  Arches has a nice surface so it would be possible – using – light washes to bring up the colour again. I’m going for some major changes to enable me to add interest by including birds.

The original location was the Dovey estuary but although Herons and Egrets nest further up the river at Yns Hir the RSPB reserve I’m going to allow the tide to come in to show birds I saw at Minsmere and Aldeburgh last autumn.

ARNSIDE: OYSTERCATCHERS FLYPAST

This is a recovery of one of my ‘Possibles’ It is a watercolour I did several  years ago after a visit to Arnside on Morecambe Bay.  I tried to include a flight of Oystercatchers lifting off the sands, they were some distance off and they were badly placed and too small to make an effective compositional motif.

The landscape area worked well so looking at the painting afresh with a more experienced eye I thought it worth trying to repaint the birds. I restretched the painting and sponged off the oystercatchers.  It was impossible to remove all traces but by making the new group of birds larger I was able to cover up the old ones by making use of Chinese White as a body colour.

The paper I used was Fabriano Artistico Rough. I had a friend who swore by this paper and he produced some lovely watercolour landscapes on it.  I have to admit I never got on too well with it and generally took better to a NOT surface.

NEVER DESTROY ANYTHING

I read somewhere that Edward Seago instructed his executors to destroy 30% of the work left in his studio after he died. I’m not anticipating dying but as I was sorting through my stock of old paintings I remembered Seago’s instruction and started to consign things to the rubbish bin.

That was a mistake because my wife said; “Have you still got that painting of Glen Walford’s production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ ?”   Glen Walford directed several plays for the Ludlow Festival  she’d just received an email from Glen and she thought it would be nice to let Glen have it as a reminder  – if she would like to see it.  Disaster! I’d torn it in half and consigned the pieces to the waste bag. 

I used to go to Ludlow Castle and make sketches during rehearsals so I was able to turn some drawings in an old sketchbook. Then, fortunately I was able to retrieve part of the painting which had two of the main characters. Titania (Cathy Tyson) and Bottom (Matt Devitt). So my wife was able to scan them and add the copies to an email when she replied.

So no more destruction.  I sorted the work into two sets ‘Possibles’ and ‘No hopers’. I’ll maybe reclaim the Possibles and leave my family to decide what to do with the others.

STONECHAT REDISCOVERED

This painting of a Stonechat was one of the first serious bird paintings I did over 10 years ago. Quite why I never continued exploring the genre then I can’t fully understand now.  Watercolour landscape was the chief preoccupation of most of my friends. The watercolour turned up again when I was sorting through some old work.

My wife and I suddenly spotted a pair of Stonechats on a drystone wall when walking over the low hills on the south side of the Mawddach estuary in Wales. We  and watched them for 15 minutes or so as they flitted along the wall occasionally darting from one side to the other. 

In my hillwalking days my sketching kit consisted of a pad of A3 cartridge paper and some sticks of charcoal. Sufficient to capture jizz – that is pose and movement – but I was able to supplement the sketches with detail from colour slides later.  I did watercolours of a male and a female intending to show them together at one of our LAS exhibitions. Surprisingly the female sold leaving this colourful lively chap without a mate.

Yes it's on Fabriano5 which I mentioned on Wednesday's post.

A LUCKY FIND

Tidiness was never my strong point so I've been putting my studio store cupboard in order. One aspect of tidiness I am meticulous about though is storing  paper. Watercolour paper is so expensive that any sheet with an Arches or Waterford watermark is placed carefully flat on a shelf to avoid at all costs any damage to the surface.

I've always used papers with a Not Pressed surface for the quick free splosh style that once had me in thrall for landscape work. Having now taken a serious interest in painting birds I've found that a more precise approach  required. It needs a paper with a less pronounced grain. I was anticipating having to buy some Hot Pressed sheets which which would be more suitable. Then I made a lucky find when checking some sheets of Arches. There were some papers in the packet which were a different size - curious!

They were sheets of Fabriano 5 a paper that I haven't used for over 10 years. It has a smoother surface than NOT papers and I'd been convinced that watercolour landscape needed NOT surfaced papers. The widely used Bockingford  paper only has a NOT type surface developed to suit Edward Wesson.

Fabriano5 is a 50% cotton paper and a web search revealed that Ken Bromley Art Supplies stock it. I think it should be fine for my purposes so I'll be giving it a go.