Just back from 'arty retail therapy'!

Hello again! I'm writing with excitement and a bit of a grin on my face as I've just got back from the Art department of our local garden centre with a bag of goodies to experiment with!!! This week, I've gone back to my printmaking roots and indulged in some mono-prints - a fantastic technique for creating atmospheric images and playing around with visual ideas with immediate results. 

Getting out all the bits and pieces needed for mono-printing really got my creative juices flowing and I soon had a set of interesting bird images which have a completely different feel to my other paintings and drawings. Excited to push the printing further, I had the urge to make some 'collagraph' plates , so out came the cardboard, glue and salt, and I began to draw on the card with the glue and salt to create a rich textured surface to print from.

   (A collagraph is a type of print where the plate is made up of a collage on cardboard to create different marks and textures on its surface. Collagraphs can be printed either in relief or intaglio, these methods give very different qualities to the final print but both are interesting. I prefer the intaglio version which needs a printing press to create a successful image, where a relief print can be made by hand using a roller, baren or a wooden spoon.)

Having varnished my collagraph plates to make them waterproof (so the damp paper doesn't stick to the glue during printing,) I was reminded  of just how beautiful the plate alone can be....and this is when I had my 'lightbulb moment'!! I'm going to try to paint paintings with this '3D' texture...DOH!!! I can't believe I didn't think to do this before...???!!!!!!! So....my purchases include Acrylic Texture Gel and Acrylic Modeling Paste. I can't wait to crack on with a new painting where I can experiment with THICK PAINT!!!! I'll post the results so you can see how I get on...for now I have a few paintings to show you...

The first is just a sketch I did the other night when I couldn't get to sleep. Instead of tossing and turning for hours on end, I decided to put my sleeplessness into action...here's the result: (I used some photos on my phone as reference)

Graphite Drawing of a Lanner Falcon and a Scops Owl

Next is a large scale Acrylic painting of Woolley, one of my favourite owls to paint! I wanted to paint this BIG with a view to hanging it in a large space, but feeling a bit nervous wondering if I could make it work at this scale...but I love it!! 

Woolley in progress

Woolley, Finished!

My next couple of paintings see a return to water colour. Both fairly experimental pieces as I have never painted either bird before. Daisy is an American Turkey Vulture - an interesting character! - I wanted to paint her in a 'loose' fashion, not too careful. The blue tit on  bulrushes is a picture I've wanted to paint for quite a long time, but didn't quite know how to approach it. I saw this over a year ago on the pond at Puxton...the shape and texture of the bulrushes intrigues me. This is still a work in progress as I need to work on the background, but I am happy with it so far.

Daisy, Turkey Vulture, Water Colour

Blue-Tit on Bulrushes, Water Colour.

My final picture for this blog is yet another of Woolley...again an experimental piece as it is a completely different medium for me - pastels. This came about through watching a Pastels 'how to' DVD with my Mum in the Easter holidays... the Artist made it look very easy (don't they always!) and I got the urge to give it a try, so Mum offered me the use of her pastels and a few sheets of pastel paper...and here's the result - Woolley in pastel. I didn't really enjoy using the pastels - they are quite messy and because this is a relatively small painting, fairly fiddly too! However, having said all that, this picture has grown on me and I like it! It could do with some 'finishing' around the branch area, but I'm in no rush to get back to pastels, so this is probably how it will remain!

Woolley, Pastel approx 10" x 7"ish!

So, that's all for today...look out for my next blog where I'll post my mono-prints and possibly a collagraph or two... bye for now,

Mandi ;)

Harris Hawks and Eagle Owls...Its been a very busy month!

Its 2 days short of a whole month since my last blog...Its been a pretty manic time and what with the Easter Holidays I didn't think | had much to share. How wrong I was! I've done lots of paintings and drawings during the past few weeks, and as promised, there are some Harris Hawks inspired by the Hawk Walk in my previous blog!

This is 'Miller', a Harris Hawk...seen from a Hawk Walker's Eye View

This first painting is unfinished - waiting for a background, but I love the unusual angle of view. I'm hoping it will be quite impressive once its complete. The second is another watercolour of Miller in Action..soaring down towards the glove from his perch above! I love the colouring of these American Harris Hawks...their bright yellow heads and feet against the red, black and white of their feathers - they are beautiful!

Harris Hawk in Flight - Water Colour

Despite the diversion towards Harris Hawks, I've still been absorbed by Owls as subjects to paint - spending more time with them in the Falconry Centre has allowed me to get to know them even more as individuals - their quirky personalities becoming more obvious every week! Its one of my favourite parts of the day - cleaning the Owl Aviaries. Its one-to-one time, just me and the owls, having a chat, and more importantly for me, time to really look and see the intricate beauty of their feather patterns, crystal clarity of their eyes and the sharpness of their beaks and talons!!! STUNNING!!!!! Occasionally I get to give some of them a 'bath' or rather a shower from a hosepipe...fun for them and me...and great to watch! Here are a few Owl paintings...                                        

Woolley - Acrylic

 This is Woolley, an Indian Eagle Owl - a favourite to paint as his personality just oozes through his expressions! He is a stunning bird with striking markings. I find I can really relax and enjoy the ritual of painting when its Woolley...its like I know him so well, I don't have to concentrate too hard on 'getting it right'...it just seems to happen, right off the end of my brush!

The next two images are of an acrylic painting of Bumble, another Eagle Owl, but this is a Siberian Eagle Owl. He is much bigger than Woolley, and has a much more serious character. I've attempted this on a much larger scale than most of my other paintings as I wanted to try to convey the enormity of his wingspan - which at a guess is around 5ft. What you see here is the first layer..I'm finding the underside of the wings pretty tricky...I got this far and took a break - I haven't yet brought myself to attempt to finish it!! Funnily, seeing it here, small and digitised, I'm a lot happier with it (so far) but in reality it is nowhere near finished.

Bumble, coming in to land. Acrylic.  approx A1

Bumble, detail.

Bumble's Morning Bath!

My last image for today's blog...to end on a smile...Bumble having his morning bath...! Its a bit difficult to see, but the light blob in the centre is Bumble, on his branch, soaking up the 'rain' that I'm squirting him with!  I hope its brought you a smile...I had a big grin on my face when it happened!!! I'm going to finish here, but keep an eye out because I'll be blogging again SOON!! Catch you soon, Mandi ;)

Mother's Day Hawk Walk

As expected, I haven't had any time for paintbrushes so far this week - and its looking highly unlikely that there will be any painting for the next few days... :(  So instead, I thought I'd share my Mother's Day treat with you...a Hawk Walk with my daughter. We had a lovely time with Lon, the Falconer and Caffrey, the Harris Hawk as we wandered the lanes and fields on Sunday morning. It was a crisp, bright morning but heavy grey clouds were looming in the distance - but luckily for us, the sun shone!! Caffrey is a very experienced Hawk but has been out of action for a while, so this was his 2nd trip out on a hawk walk, in the early stages of him returning to full fitness. What a star he was! The following photos show some highlights of our walk...from my point of view as both proud Mum and excited Trainee Falconer!

Ready to 'rock & roll'..!

...and off we go!

Caffrey coming in to land on my glove...

just look at those talons!!!

 

Big smiles!

Caffrey took a detour into the hedge...perhaps he saw a vole???

homeward bound.

I hope these photos give you some idea of just how 'up close and personal' we can be with these stunning birds. As usual, I have bucket loads of inspiration for more paintings from this experience...it happens every time I see them! Just watch this space to see what i paint next...I'm pretty sure there will be a Harris Hawk or two...!

Mandi ;)

Daffodils...lots of them!

Another busy week, and we're only half way through! 

I had a fantastic weekend at the Falconry Centre, the highlight for me was flying Sam, the Harris Hawk, twice on my own (under the watchful eye of Lon). I had LOTS of practice using the one-handed falconry knot, and enjoyed plenty of close encounters with the birds during cleaning & feeding! We had some very keen visitors in the Owl Encounter, and thankfully most of the owls were on their best behaviour..all bar Woolley who, being in mid breeding season was intent on luring us to his 'nest' so we could lay him an egg! He wasn't interested in flying, so he went back to his aviary and his fellow friends were brought out to entertain the visitors instead. A big thumbs up to George, Elvis, Ulu & Irwin who all flew beautifully!

Back in the real world... lots of photo editing has had to be done and today I had the pleasure of returning to my daughter's school to work with the year 5 children...drawing and painting daffodils! Once again, these 9 and 10 year olds did extremely well, and this time I remembered to take some photographs of their work. We began by making observational drawings in sketch books, moving on to a coloured drawing using water-colour pencils on water colour paper, which we blended with a damp paint brush to soften the shading.

A selection of water colour pencil paintings by 9 & 10 year olds...Impressive!

A few more works of art from year 5...WOW!!

This is a series of demonstration sketches I drew for the children to illustrate the 'crazy shapes' made by the petals and how to blend the watercolour pencils with a damp paintbrush.

I managed to squeeze one quick painting for myself in this week..a Tawny Owl. If I'm honest, I'm not really happy with this painting - probably because I used water colours on a slightly light weight paper. I'm used to using really heavy 300lbs/640gsm water colour paper, now I'm used to that, nothing else compares!! On the really heavy paper, the paint reacts much better - for some reason it is easier to manipulate - I suggest, if this interests you - try it! My favourite at the moment is Saunders Waterford 640gsm. you can get Rough, HP (smooth) or NOT (medium)

Tawny Owl Detail: The warm and friendly eyes of a Tawny Owl...so cute

The 'un'-finished painting...I think it needs some more work, but that was all I had time for this week!

Well, that's me done until next week..I'm of to the Big Smoke tomorrow (London) with my hubby for some well deserved R&R - I'll be back in time for some Falconry on Saturday!!!

Mandi ;)

Expressions of an Eagle...

What a week...! Firstly, I have to announce my mega exciting news that I am now 'Trainee Falconer' at Puxton Falconry Centre, with Gary, Claire and Lon!!! I'm so excited - not only do I photograph and paint these stunning birds of prey, but now I get to learn all about them, how to handle them and care for them! There is SO much to learn... I've had a lot of animals in my time, including dogs, cats, horses, cows, pigs, chickens, sheep...this is a whole new ball game.

I'll still be doing all my Art and Photography - Falconry will take up 2 days each week which leaves plenty of time for everything else! Meeting these birds 2 years ago is what initially inspired me to pick up a paintbrush, so it feels perfect that they are becoming part of my life. It would be hard to choose between painting, photography and the birds... Fortunately, for now, I don't have to choose, and they all feed into each other.

This week has been busy with both photography and art. As well as a school photo shoot and lots of editing, I spent an afternoon at school with my daughter's class experimenting with water colour pencils. To my delight (NOT!!) we sketched daffodils. (My Mum said to think of them as yellow birds with green legs!!) The children worked in their sketch books to capture the curly shapes of the petals and trumpets, then worked directly on to watercolour paper using the pencils, finally blending the colours with a damp brush. The children created some beautiful paintings! I wish I'd taken some photos - I'll try to remember when I go back next week, so I can show you.

I managed to steal a couple of hours this morning to work on some head studies of Alfonzo, THE most handsome Chilean Blue Eagle! He is a real character, and as I was getting to know him (or allowing him to get used to me!) last weekend, his expressions and quirky head positions caught my attention...
I played with these studies and used different mediums - Acrylic, watercolour then water colour pencils. I did this purely for practice. I enjoyed the watercolour most, and have yet to blend the pencil drawings with water. I'm hoping this will make them look less 'sketchy'.

Alf, Head Studies in Acrylic

Alf, Head Studies in Watercolour

Alf, Head Studies in watercolour pencil (not blended)

Off to catch some Zzzzzzz's now, ready for a day with the birds tomorrow!!!
Mandi ;)

Paintings, paintings, paintings!!!

My 'drawing day' last week really paid off (despite my grumpiness at missing a great day's wildlife spotting...) Having a great batch of drawings to develop into paintings has been very productive! I've had a good week and made time to paint A LOT this week...so I've got plenty to show you! My brushes have been focused on 'cute, fluffy owls'...possibly because I spent a lot of time at the weekend with the birds themselves! I know I'm obsessed with Eagles and Buzzards, but there's just something so adorable about owls.
(An amusing comment from Lon, the Falconer, I'd like to share with you..."Despite our assumptions that Owls are clever and 'Wise', we are assuming incorrectly: Owls eyes are so big in their skulls, there is very little room for much brain - owls are in fact a bit daft!! They are creatures of habit, therefore easy to train - until they hit breeding season when nature and hormones take over!" ....you learn something new every day!)

So now, some paintings...I began with a couple of drawings, using water colour pencils, just as practice to get my eye in. The subject is a very rare black (mellanistic) barn owl called Eve.













I have since blended these with water which has improved the intensity slightly, but I prefer the following watercolours...

Eve, Black Barn Owl, Watercolour.

Eve, Black Barn Owl 2, Watercolour.

I was on a roll, so also painted 'Irwin' - a very cute Boobok Owl
native to Australia.









Really enjoying the freedom of watercolour, I had another go at a Eurasian Eagle owl....

I love the intensity of his stare!

 Having indulged in a fair few owls, I couldn't resist the temptation to paint Alfonzo, my favourite Eagle...he's a Chilean Blue Eagle Buzzard and I love him! The paper I used for this drawing wasn't suitable for watercolours, so I grabbed the acrylics and accompanying brush set, and escaped into my eagle dreamland!... I always start a new bird with the eye and beak, then work my way down the rest of the body...I got this far and thought 'I've got it - that's him!'

Detail: Alfonzo, Acrylic

I didn't stop here though, I carried on, and although I initially thought I'd 'finished' the painting, I now know I need to do a bit more to the background.

Alfonzo, Acrylic.

I'm feeling a few head detail paintings might well be next on my 'to do' list!

To finish my painting this week, I did 4 small watercolours of owls. I purposely decreased the scale to see if I could keep the freedom within a small image - its much easier to work loosely on a large painting! See what you think...

Grace, Spectacled Owl, Water Colour

George, Barn Owl, Water Colour

George 2, Barn Owl, Water Colour

Irwin, Boobok Owl, Water Colour

That brings me to the end of my Art Week and takes us into March...only 4 months left to complete a whole body of 'exhibition worthy' artwork!! I'm looking forward to a weekend with my feathered friends - I'm sure this will provide more than enough inspiration for some new paintings!

Mandi ;)

Long time, no blog... but I'm back!

Its been a long couple of weeks, including the half term break - lots has happened, and thankfully, quite a bit of drawing and painting has been done too!

The first set of paintings I played with were all of the same bird - The Gyrlin. I drew the bird 3 times - firstly onto a canvas which already had a background in place. Now with the bird in position, I will be able to develop the whole image further, by accentuating the bird in the foreground and knocking back the background to make it hazy in the distance.

Gyrlin over sand dunes - Acrylic

Secondly, I re-drew the same image and painted it again, in acrylic paint on paper. I was interested to see how different the result would be on a different surface. 

Gyrlin 2 Acrylic

To push this experiment further still, I drew the same bird again - this time onto thick water colour paper. What has surprised me the most, is  that using different mediums on a variety of surfaces, the birds have come out almost identical! In all 3 paintings, it is just the first layer and they all need developing (however, the latter 2 might just stay as they are!) I enjoyed painting the same image over again - each time, I became more familiar with the shape and form of the bird...after all, it is the beautiful shape made by the wings in flight that inspired me to paint this in the first place!

Gyrlin 3 - Watercolour

Yesterday, I was in the mood to draw an owl. This European Eagle Owl is resident at the Screech Owl Sanctuary in Cornwall. I've discovered that I really enjoy the flow and 'looseness' of watercolour for painting owls...I start with the eye and the beak which I like to be accurate and precise, then move on to the fluffy feathers using much free-er brush strokes.

Eagle Owl - Watercolour

Happy with my owl, I just had to have another go at Rogue, the Gyrlin. She is such a stunning bird, especially in flight, I love the shapes and angles her body contorts into as she powers through the air, twisting and turning on a sixpence!

Gyrlin, watercolour.

Today's venture into the paint box took me back to the owls... Here we have two British species, the Tawny Owl and the Barn Owl...both SO cute, you could snuggle up for a cuddle!! The Tawny owl is painted in watercolour, the Barn Owl in Acrylic. (Choice of paint medium at this point in time is based on the paper I used for the drawing...that's purely down to what I have available in my folder. As I get more accustomed to the behaviour of each medium, I am starting to make a more informed choice of paper when I do my initial drawings!) I think this time last year, the thought of painting birds in watercolour would have terrified me...now I'm preferring watercolour to acrylic.

Barn Owl, Acrylic

Tawny Owl, Watercolour

So, there you have it, my efforts for the past couple of weeks. Considering how much has been going on, I'm amazed how much I managed to squeeze in. Ooh, just remembered...I spent a whole day drawing last week, so I have the luxury of a whole batch of images ready to paint as and when time permits!!!! A nice mixture of bird portraits (buzzards, hawks and owls) and of course flying hawks and even a pair of fighting starlings! Watch this space...!
Mandi ; )