I have spent several days practising with Acrylics as a ‘tester/taster’ before I commit to doing the big painting for Helen Scales and her Pint of Science Lecture. The consistency of acrylic is very waxy and some of the paint, in particular Burnt Umber, is very grainy, so does not mix too well. However, I persevered and decided to begin by working light to dark, working a light blue base layer, then a beige layer, leaving some blue, and finally a dark brown layer. This formed the basis on which I built all the rest of the layers in the painting to get a good feel for how the colours mix and match. The paint is a lot more luminescent than I realized, thinking that all the colours were opaque. But when mixed with water it is possible to layer different colours so that their luminescence shows through to form many variations. Finally, I laid down body colour straight from the tube and discovered the reason why Acrylics are so popular: you can make mistakes and just cover them up!! This is a definite No, No, with water colour, and oils can muddy-up if not left to dry before applying further coats of paint. I found the Acrylic paints overall very easy to work with and now realize that I was a bit of a yellow-belly for nothing!! The pictures show the completed artwork and a little film of the tester/taster picture, for your amusement:

 

 

 

I have made good progress with the Pint of Science drawing transfer today, even though the light was very poor (although sun shining brightly now 3.30pm!). This meant that it was difficult to take a decent photograph of the finished sketch. This progress picture is light-enhanced so that you can see the drawing – but I assure you the colours are photography glare, not the actual canvas which is still quite nice and white. All grid lines have been removed and the canvas is now ready for its first application of paint. But before I do that I am going to practise with the acrylic paint on a spare piece of canvas to get the feel of it. I will keep posting progress pictures every few days. Thank you for visiting and, if you have any comments, please email me.

 

 

LATEST PICTURE PROGRESS FOR PINT OF SCIENCE WITH HELEN SCALES: After a very disturbed night of coughing and spluttering, I think the antibiotics are at last kicking in. Have managed a bit of the transfer sketch this morning, but it has made me very tired, so I will have a little rest and perhaps do some more later. I remember a warning given by a tutor at a botanical class I attended way back in 2002: “Practice patience in getting the drawing right, then the picture will be right.” I must therefore get the drawing right – so little and often (with rests in between) will probably work. The ratio of transfer is 1:3 – the pen and ink paper sketch is 8″ x 10″ and the canvas size is 24″ x 30″.

I am using my favourite blue-grey water colour pencil to transfer the image on to the canvas as this can easily be erased when I make [inevitable] mistakes. In this progress photograph I have highlighted the sketch on the canvas as it is difficult to see otherwise. But the sketching is very light so that it will not interfere with the translucent layering of paint later on. I am trying acrylics for the first time, so have no idea how to paint with them, nor what they feel like, so a huge learning curve on the job! And I do like a challenge.

I have been invited to join Marine Biologist Dr Helen Scales to produce an artwork which complements her talk to be given under the Pint of Science Lectures 2015.

After our initial email correspondence, Helen sent me loads of photographs of the things she gets up to and sent a few paragraphs of her intended lecture about a group of ladies in The Gambia who harvest Mangrove Oysters.

This is where I am at with the artwork, after Helen approved the draft drawing I sent to her. All I have to do now is transfer the little one to the big one!! The little one is an A3 sheet and the big one is a 24″ x 30″ canvas. [I am feeling rather under the weather today as I have been suffering with a lung infection all week – now on antibiotics, so hopefully can make more progress soon – very annoying!]

 

 

I have just published two new hardback coffee table books (42pp) prepared press-ready by me, and beautifully printed and bound by Blissetts. The two books are a light read with pictures, prose and poems, one containing bird and mammal paintings (Feather and Fur – A Book of Pictures and Poems), the other botanical paintings (‘Petalacious’ [a word I made up!] – A book of Pictures and Poems). They will be available to purchase at my Cambridge Open Studios in July 2015 (open all four weekends).

 

My appeal to the Cambridge Evening News for help to find old paintings for my Cambridge Open Studio in July 2015 resulted in this nice little story. Although the painting of Houghton Mill did not appear, there was some icing on the cake, as several people who had commissioned me as early as 1974 came forward to offer their paintings for my exhibition, and I ended up with 12 ‘Old Works’ on display during July. I had completely forgotten two of the paintings; but it was extremely nice to be able to see and to recollect them!

Have now completed all four squirrel drawings on canvas. These will hopefully be completed in time for my Open Studio in July (so I am not going to show any more progress pictures of them until I advertise the exhibition). There are three squirrels in different poses in each composition, so I am just showing parts for now so as not to spoil the surprise!

No more work yet on the Macaws, because I have just had the pleasure of producing a plan of Trinity College, Cambridge for a paper to be published in Construction History, International Journal of the Construction History Society. I drew this plan A4 size on my computer using a wacom tablet and pen, composed in Adobe Illustrator, which is the same programme that I use to hand-draw the maps I have been asked to produce for several books over the years.

I have completed 3 of my 4 squirrel compositions in pencil, now covered and protected with a gesso base, on 18″ x 24″ canvases (Greys, Blacks, Whites), and have been sketching out the Reds composition this morning. However, I wished to depict at least one of the three squirrels in the picture eating a pine cone and after searching for a Scots pine cone in my little wild garden (duly found) I then realized I did not know how the squirrel might be holding it! So I have just been on Google to check and now have new knowledge of the way these beautiful creatures eat. It is quite possible/probable that two of them may be eating by the time I have finished composing the sketch, as one is also in the classic ‘Nutkins’ pose – sitting with bushy tail up and over its body.

Below is the sketch of White squirrels:

This is the latest on the Macaws. All the background is completed and the two long sides. All that is left to do is the top and bottom and the Macaws themselves. However, over the weekend I have become side-tracked with some squirrel drawings. I was very interested to learn about melinistic squirrels at a recent lecture and have decided to do four oil paintings depicting several different colours of squirrel, including all the ‘imports’ and our own lovable reds. Watch this space.

 

Too much golf, badminton and tennis! I really need to knuckle down and complete this picture soon. Reasonable progress has been made over the weekend. I can’t wait to start on the parrots themselves, but I still have to do a bit on the sides and top and bottom, after finishing the Monstera deliciosa* and touches to the bottom right woodwork. I discovered that the fruit of the Cheese plant (*common name) is edible (and quite nice) but the outside scales are highly poisonous. When the scales drop off the internal flesh is then ready to eat, but ALL the outside has to have dropped off before enjoying the bounty – so beware!