Sacred Creatures

Kingfisher with Dragonfly
12 x 12 Oil/Panel



Nuthatch with Bumblebee iv
12 x 12 Oil/Panel



Carolina Wren, nest and eggs
12 x 12 Oil/Panel



Black-capped Chickadee with egg
12 x 12 Oil/Panel

At last, I have finished! Unfortunately I seem unable to get really good photos of these paintings, but you get the idea! I am going to go abstract after these... I think my thumb is going to drop off! I would love to find a way to do my birds in a loser manner, but still can't allow myself to go there!

I am so looking forward to this weekend to celebrate my birthday in London with my children! I think I deserve it!

Another wonderful evening etching.

I have been working on this new plate for a few weeks now. We only go to etching once a week on Thursdays and usually after running around Santa Fe doing errands first, so we usually arrive late afternoon and work until 10 or 11. It's hard to go home and thanks to Eric, who always has some food cooking, we can stay the whole evening without interruption! I decided this time to methodically etch a plate without aquatint or dry point. So the bottom photo displays a steady progression of the results of adding the wax ground, etching the lines, cleaning the plate and printing the plate, then adding another wax ground and doing the whole process again and again. I think it helps with a greater understanding of the process. So many times in the past, especially with aquatint I have ended up with the plate being too dark and I have had to burnish a lot. I like this method, it has a little more control. I think it's almost finished, but I need to just darken the shadows and add a few more highlights.

Nuthatch Commission - Coming along!

I think my little nuthatch commission is coming along nicely.... and today I posted my entry form for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Yay!! Last year I missed the deadline so I have been really working hard trying to get the paintings finished so that I felt confident enough to submit the entry form... and I did it! No doubt I will be rejected, (I always like to expect the worst, then I won't be disappointed!!) but you have to try. I have been told that you have to submit a few times before you get accepted, but maybe that is an urban myth. So... this is my first time of trying, and hopefully I will eventually get accepted before I reach 60!

Nuthatch Commission

Here is the next stage of my nuthatch commission. I think it has now lost the lovely three dimensional quality of the original drawing. I love my early layouts and have done many paintings just using the under painting and adding more darks and glazing a lot. Of course you have to be so sure that your wiping out is accurate, but the effect of glazing on an almost clean gessoed wood, using no white is gorgeous and when finished, reminds me of 'conkers' (the seed from horse-chestnuts or buckeyes I think in the US)

Nuthatch Commission

I didn't get much time to paint today, as I had to drive to Cambridge and back to deliver my triptych to the framer. I am so happy to have finished it as it has taken me forever to paint. However, I couldn't go to bed without doing some painting, so I started my latest Nuthatch commission. Another 8 x 8.

Four Birds

A Wren, A Robin, A Blue Tit and A Nuthatch - 8 x 8 oil/linen

Sold

I finally got these paintings back from my new framer in Cambridge. It's so good to get something finished and framed after all this time of trying to juggle the role of carer to my Father and being an artist! This is proof that I have been doing something!

Another lovely little bird...

The Nuthatch and the Bumblebee

10 x 12 Oil/Panel

I just so enjoyed painting this lovely little white breasted nuthatch. We have many in our garden, but I used a photo taken by Neil (Portlvr) on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/27728208@N06/

Thank you Neil.