David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year 2012 Exhibition

I am over the moon that my painting 'Then and Now' has been chosen as one of the finalists in this prestigious international competition. It will be hung, amongst a selection of wonderful wildlife related painting and sculpture, at the Mall Galleries in May this year.

This is my first attempt at watercolour, combined here with ink, traditional Indian pigments and gold.

Through the DSWF, David Shepherd is raising desperately needed funds to save critically endangered mammals in the wild. The proceeds from this exhibition will help - do visit!

Gorillas

Having been lucky enough to see mountain gorillas in Uganda many years ago, I couldn't resist sharing this - enjoy!

Re-blogged from Lucid Gypsy with thanks to the lovely Gilly, ace writer and photographer.

Hospital Visiting

Dad is still in hospital, and is likely to remain there for some time yet. I'm still travelling to see him every day, which means that I only get an hour to paint each morning. Progress is slow, but at least I'm managing to produce something!

I'm working on my first ever watercolour painting - a tiger partially hidden in long grass. I'm planning to add a border in the style of a Persian miniature painting, drawn in walnut ink and aim to finish before the end of January. I'll post a photo for you to see when it's done.

Family illness

Apologies to all for the lack of posts. My elderly father is in hospital and I am spending my days commuting to see him. All painting is on hold. I wish you every happiness for the festive season and a healthy, peaceful 2012. 

British Birdwatching Fair

Without doubt, this is my favourite show of the year.

I have exhibited at the BBF for six years, and each year just gets better - not just in terms of sales (although that is lovely!) but in that I get to meet exhibitors and customers who have become friends over the years, many of whom I only see at the Birdfair. It is a huge event. There must be over forty artists in the art marquee, then there are marquees selling optics, clothing, holidays...you name it, if it's wildlife related, it is represented! Visitors and exhibitors come from all over the world: for many it has become the international wildlife event of the year.

Preparation, of course, starts months before the event, with painting, framing, photographing work, checking stocks of prints and cards and so on. Stands are built in the week before - I like to build early, so I can get my lighting rigged up. Here is the art marquee on day 1.

Soon to be transformed into this!



This is a corner of my stand

Finally, the doors open

Each year, the artists paint a mural.  Previous murals are now in Cuba, Indonesia, Fiji, Madagascar, Peru and Japan and are used to teach about wildlife conservation. From this...

we were watched

creating this over the three days of the fair

I'm not sure how any of us got it done, to be honest, as we all had our own stands to look after as well! The theme of the mural was migration, to tie in with the Birdfair's support of BirdLife's Flyaways Programme.

After the enjoyment of the weekend, this is always the saddest bit - packing up to go home.

The British Birdwatching fair is the world's first and largest international birdwatching event. I'm definitely planning to be there next year - do come and join me at one of the friendliest events of the year.

A Long Overdue Update

My apologies to all you lovely people who read this blog regularly - it's been ages since I posted anything. It's been a busy few months!

My Open Studio weekends in May were fantastic. Lots of people came (thank you!), including some lovely folk I hadn't seen for very many years. What a joy that was! Sales exceeded my wildest expectations and it was great to see work going off to new homes. It has left me distinctly short of paintings to hang at the Birdfair in August mind you, so I suspect I shall be working very hard between now and then.

The weeks after Open Studios were taken up with revision for an exam. Some of you may know that I'm doing a degree - BA in Humanities with Art History. I'm within a year of completing it now, and that was my last exam, I'm glad to say. I now know an awful lot of obscure facts about the history of art....

The afternoon after the exam saw us packing for my dream trip to Florence, Italy. It is somewhere I've wanted to visit (along with Venice) for as long as I can remember and it certainly didn't disappoint. The fact that my husband had a broken wrist and was in plaster, and that we both had a horrible cold and cough didn't stop us from marvelling at the wonders of the Uffizi. We had lovely long lunches in the sunshine, with soft Italian red wine. A fabulous few days.

I'm just in the process of sorting out my photos; I'll pop some up in the next few days for you to see. In the meantime, here is our first view of the city as we walked in along the banks of the Arno.

Ciao!

 

Madonna and Child - finished at last!

Apologies to you all for the lack of recent posts; I have been working flat out to complete work for my 'Open Studio' next weekend. Everything is done now (apart from putting our small marquee up, mowing the lawn, thinking about refreshments and making labels!) and I can get back to the real world.

Some of you may remember my painting of the Virgin and Child - you can read about the early stages here. I have, after many hours work, finished it. Egg tempera is a beautiful medium to work in, but it is painstaking. The paint dries almost instantly and has to be applied in small brushstrokes. It's also impossible to remove, so it's best to get it right first time!

Here I am building up the folds of her cloak. I mix the paint in mussel shells. They are perfectly shaped not only to hold in your hand, but to remove excess paint from the brush.

The next step is the skin tones, initially painted a rather unflattering green...

If you look at very old paintings of this type, which have been worshipped (and regularly dusted!) you can clearly see the green underpainting where the surface colours have been cleaned away.

Modelling of the face is done in layers -

Having finished faces, hands and feet, I just had the child's clothes to do. These were done by painting over the gold and scraping back to reveal the design.

The halos have been embossed and burnished to make them shine more than the surrounding gold.

Well, it's been a labour of love. I've been doing this since February, and it's now nearly May! I'm glad I've done it: I've learnt a lot and have more idea of what is possible.

It's back to wildlife art for me now - I'll put some of the work I've done recently up here and on my Facebook page.