As I am still awaiting a green light to publish my fourth book in the River Friend Series: “INTERPRET: What Do Plants Tell Us?” I decided to start Book 5: “REED—ON THE EDGE”. I am doing a final edit on the text and deciding what illustrations should be in. I am thinking about Bearded Reedlings (Tits) and Reed-thatched cottage, reedbed, etc. I will post some of the pictures when they are done.
But sitting at a computer can be very tiring, so in between computer work I am getting back to this water colour painting which I started in 2015, when I painted the drawing onto 12″ x 16″ fine art 100% cotton rag paper (Aquarelle Arches). It lay dormant until I got it out in early May 2020. Here are some progress photographs since I started painting it in May. I hope you enjoy the story so far! Hours of toil: 54 and counting…
Drawing done in 2015 (Artist Code 1515) and am now just getting round to slapping on the water colour! 16″ x 12″This is just a top slither of the first painting stint….I decided to add some buttercups. Whilst out for a little walk I noticed some Spanish bluebells and beautiful yellow buttercups growing in a garden and came back and put them in my picture.Had to lay off for a couple of weeks here to finish some private work.Started again Sunday 31st May 2020! I noticed a redtail bumblebee in my little wild garden suckling the nectar from a dead nettle, so he has been put in the drawing too!Well, that’s the 54-hours’ worth and all for now. Going off to play tennis in a minute for the first time since January – Yippee!!!!!
I have just completed typesetting (I hope for the last time before publishing) the fourth book in the River Friend Series I am co-authoring with Sylvia Haslam.
The first page in this book shows the famous poem by William Henry Davies (1871-1940) “Leisure” surrounded by an illuminary border which I composed and outlined with pen and ink. This version is currently in the final typeset.
However, last week I purchased some new paints. Daniel Smith Iridescent water colours and over the weekend I decided to try them out by colouring up the original ink drawing illumination. The colours are: Electric Blue, Ruby, Copper, Topaz, White, Aussie Red Gold, Aztec Gold, as well as Imperial Purple (which is not iridescent but a gorgeous vivid purple – quite royal!).
The paints were beautiful to use and I mixed them with ordinary water colour to see what other effects I could achieve. The results are a lovely luminescent painting; a screen view here does not do them justice. I can’t wait to try them out on botanical work (I recently purchased some strong all-black water colour paper), and a Golden pheasant painting I am currently working on will probably receive a bit of iridescent treatment!
Which would you prefer to see as the starter page in the fourth book: “INTERPRET: What Do Plants Tell Us?”. Other titles in the series are listed on our River Friend website.
It was an honour to have my painting chosen to front the VE Day at Ely Cathedral online video on Friday, 8th May 2020. Although I posted the video originally, alas it has now been taken down, so the link is removed from this post.
This picture, Artist Code 1602, was commissioned in 2016 and completed in 2017: VIEW PICTURE PROFILE. It is also available as a 1,000-piece traditional jigsaw puzzle direct from the artist: VIEW PUZZLE DETAILS.
Commission brief was to portray a World War II Lancaster Bomber flying over Ely Cathedral. The commissioner’s engineering company is based in a road called “Lancaster Way”, so he asked for this particular composition.
I shall never look at Ely Cathedral in the same light again. It looks so beautiful as the “Ship of the Fens”, but when I studied the splendid Gothic architecture I realised that there is hardly anything in the design that is the same, even though it looks on the face of it that the cathedral is relatively symmetrical, there are so many elements on the building that perhaps should match, but sadly they do not. There are also some elements totally missing! This is totally in line with the “rules” laid down in medieval times for illuminating letters—things might look the same but on close inspection there are subtle differences.
I was pleased to be able to use a photograph I took myself of Ely Cathedral some years ago, so this helped a bit. I had resource material for the bomber from another commission so already had preparatory drawings for this. I also wished to show the wonderful striking colours of the Fen skies, which have to be seen to be believed.
A little poem:
‘Neath the great Fen skies of rainbow hues
A bomber flypast, right on cue
Above the Gothic mastly spires
The Ship of the Fens in sun’s attire
Trees of many different sorts
Hug its stone and leaded ports
Whilst drifting down towards the lea
Sheep graze sweetly in its ‘sea’
National Women’s’ Register 60th Anniversary Wednesday, 26th February 2020, 2.30–4.30pm The Athenæum, Bury St Edmunds
Water Colour Workshop by Tina Bone (Tina’s Fine Art UK)
“Ernie…and we had the fastest Art-Class in the West”. Well, East actually! A Fellow Iceni Botanical Artist, who had volunteered to run an Art Class at the National Womens Register 60th Anniversary celebrations, found she had double-booked herself and asked if someone could help out. I jumped at the chance to perform my second tutorship. I said “Yes” before really finding out about it and was a bit shocked when told the class would be for two hours only.
The lovely little Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia L.) The subject of the Workshop
The theme of the workshop had already been fairly settled (Breckland Flowers), so I capitalised on that title and came up with: “Breckland Flora and Elementary Water Colour Art Workshop”. The main reason being that, in two hours, the teaching had to be elementary.
Setting thoughts to paper I came up with the idea that a full-on worksheet, distributed to the students before the event, would be the right way to go, and promptly set about composing it. Then I suddenly remembered that in February there are no Breckland flowers—what a dampener. So I turned my attention to the fact that we could use photographs instead (unacceptable if we were doing a “proper” botanical painting).
I studied the list of botanical paintings which had been published in the Iceni Botanical Artist’s book: Breckland Wild Flowers, Heaths and Grasslands*. I just loved the beautiful and delicate little harebell painting and decided that this would be a good subject for our two-hour, fast-painting-session. The artist had several lovely resource photographs which she allowed me to use and she also lent the original to me to put on display on the day. (*Advert: Books can be purchased from: Jarrolds, Ceres Bookshop in Swaffham, Brandon Country Park, and from the IBA website)
So, with a quick look-up about the (most interesting) Brecklands themselves, the resource photographs, and some very quick working drawings and colour cards I managed to concoct a programme which I thought could be carried out by multi-artistic students and myself in two hours. Click HERE to download the pdf worksheet, in the hope that it might be of interest to budding artists.
I was literally gobsmacked by the beautiful work that resulted after just two hours—it was a wonderful experience, and I thanked the students for attending. Below is a little timepiece I have put together of the workshop progress, and below that is a fuller version of events if you prefer to linger here longer.
Here is a little slide show of the day’s events. It is easier to see if viewed full screen.
And here is a bit more information about the whole day:
On
the day, it was good weather (after a real threat of snow!); suddenly
my husband decided he would come too—but
only because the golf course was closed!!
He valiantly packed the car for me (all equipment and materials for
the day were supplied by me) and off we set. The workshop was due to
start at 2.30pm; we left at 11.15am. This was a good thing because
when we got there the streets were closed and the satnav took us on
an unexpected route. As we were going down a narrow street “she”
suddenly said,”You have reached your destination on the left”.
All we could see was a big archway that led into a hotel. But I could
see the Angel Car Park through the big archway, so instructed husband
to back up and we drove through it! (Got our hand smacked because
apparently that was for hotel guests only and not visitors to the
Athenæum.)
However, we managed to meet up with the organiser of the event
and
her husband in
the car park
who very kindly helped with carrying all the gear up to the first
floor. It was an extremely good thing that hubby did come purely
because the Angel Car Park is a short-term one, so he was able to
drop off and pick up—although he did get lost before finding his
way
to the proper car park!
I
had limited the workshop to 10 students because I only had equipment
and materials for that number and we ended up with a very pleasing 9.
After setting out the workstations hubby had arrived back and we sat
and ate our sandwich lunch, but with the beautiful aroma of a
wonderful cooked three-course meal being eaten by all the ladies who
attended the event which made my cheese sandwich taste very dull. But
refreshed and raring to go, hubby set off to savour the delights of
Bury’s old town and gardens (he
does like walking, as he does it a lot round the golf course) whilst
I demonstrated my skills to the 9 ladies,
who appeared to be glowing with contentment after their beautiful
meal and morning talks, and were now ready to try their hand at water
colour painting.
I
had a planned checklist for when to do what, but threw all that out
of the window because people like to ask questions, and I have to
remember what I am doing, and it
always takes longer to do something than the time allocated, and that
gets worse as one gets older…so I just played it by ear.
First
of all I talked about what we were aiming to do and mentioned that it
does not matter if mistakes are made—”Screw it up and start
again,
but most of all enjoy yourselves”.
I hurriedly showed them how to draw and trace their drawings onto
good paper, using the pre-drawn work-cards I had done and moved on to
showing
how to put
paint to the paper after they had completed their drawings. I even
showed them how to cut out a tracing element by using a lightbox
(although none opted to use it). They all drew lovely harebells;
some traced my drawing provided in the worksheet, others drew from
scratch by using the photographic resources, others again made up
their own compositions and some just traced the photographs. So lots
of different types of drawing, but all achieved good results.
These 9 remarkable ladies, some of whom had never picked up a pencil or a paintbrush, showed that an awful lot can be done and learned from a 2-hour session. Every student produced a beautiful piece of artwork, even progressing to the painting stage (although it helped that I had mixed the blues and greens beforehand).
What a day! It took ages to fit all the gear back into their respective boxes and load up the car again, and I suddenly felt very tired. Hubby suggested that we go for a meal in one of our favourite pubs on the way home, so that I did not have to cook our usual evening meal. Of course I was grateful for that and ended the day with a delicious steak, ale and mushroom pie at the Square and Compass pub in Great Shelford. We arrived home around 8.45pm and, after watching an episode of “Shakespeare & Hathaway” (or rather some of it because I kept falling a sleep), I slinked, very happily, off to bed before 10.30pm!
I received a personal visit at home from the lovely Thordis Fridriksson (BBC Radio Cambridge and Radio Norfolk. Twitter: @Thunderfairy). If they are worthy, the clips are scheduled to be aired after New Year 2020. Thordis’ programme is on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, 3.00–4.00pm Monday to Friday.
As with Christopher South when I appeared on his Sunday morning show on 17th November, I babbled on rather, so Thordis will need to edit our interview quite a lot I should imagine.
But it was a lovely morning spent talking about my botanical art and little wild garden, although as I am now “old” my memory kept suddenly deserting me and I got “talking block”. The proverbial attention span of a gnat’s [whiskers]!!
And of course, after she went I remembered all the things that I could have said which would have made the interview much more appealing to listeners!
Yet another day in my life to remember with fondness and humility for being chosen to speak on the show. Thank you Thordis.
As I need to make room for new artwork and gifts, I am having a big Black Friday/Christmas sale at the BCN Wildlife Trust’s Christmas Fayre, The Manor House, Cambourne (CB23 6DH), tomorrow, 29th November 2019—3.00pm to 6.00pm. (See end of post for event details.)
Please see below for the rather extravagant price drops of originals, prints, jigsaw puzzles, and other Christmas gifts: all a bargain!!!!
Original Acrylic Box canvases, Original water colour, Box Canvas limited edition prints, and framed limited edition printsNature’s Gems series of traditional and Whimsy Jigsaw Puzzles. Pictures are all Tina’s paintings and all the jigsaws are complex and a great challenge!More Christmas Present goodies!It will be lovely to see old friends who came last year, and smashing to meet new ones!!!
I just spent a good 2 hours at this exhibition. I must say that the artwork this year is tremendously good and the variety of work never ceases to amaze me. My “Best in Show” selection are the five artworks submitted by Paul McCarthy. His bird and Cambridge scenes are wonderful (but of course that is just my humble opinion; you must visit yourself and see!). The team who set up the exhibition have done a very fine job and there are some amazing paintings for sale at extremely reasonable prices.
Artist in residence, demonstrating in pastel pencils is new kid on the block from Duxford, Nina Burgess. Her work is astounding (as Christopher South described my work last week on his show), truly “hyper-realism”. It has to be seen to be believed. She will be demonstrating again tomorrow (23rd).
There are a couple of jewellery makers who are in situ over the weekend who can offer you a very personal service of a one-off gift for your very special person, as well as wonderful wood art in the form of practical clocks or decorative pieces. There is also a great variety of Greetings cards and limited edition prints. Do go along and see this wonderful exhibition for yourself. It will be open Saturday and Sunday (23rd and 24th November) from 10.00am till 4.00pm, and is a lovely ambient place to peruse excellent arts and crafts and have a cup of coffee with exceptionally tasty (posh) biscuits! And the Church is so very warm and welcoming – it is just lovely.
The Jewellers left and rightTables of goodies on the right and some of the artwork panelsPaintings for everyone and prints in the browsers
Other artists include: Richard Allen, Naina Babbar, Nina Burgess, Melanie Collins, Penny Cook, Jackie Cunningham, Godfrey J Curtis, Clive Dawson, Kathma Dawson, Angela Donnelly, Terry Elsey, Brenda W Field, Jude Gardiner, Bernard Gould, Kate Green, Ros Gregg, Megumi Hashimoto, Janet Hathiramani, Rachel J Haynes, Jan Hewins, Julian Hildersley, Deborah Houghton-Walke, Dorothy Jones, Colen Lumley, Janet Mancuso, Paul McCarthy, Valerie E Morris, Pat Muir, Christine Nicholls, David Oats, Sue Painter, Giulia Quaresima, Tess Recordon, Rosalind Ridley, Angi Sibbons, Frances Stafford, Prunella van der Hoorn, Val Watson, Lucy Winter, and of course, moi.
The exhibition is open Friday, 22nd to Sunday 24th November 2019. Open each day from 10.00am to 4.00pm. (Royston Lane, Comberton, CB23 7ED). A wonderful selection of Arts and Crafts from some top artists in the region—great Christmas gifts available. Plus tea, coffee and biscuits.
TINA’S SPECIAL AND UNIQUE CHRISTMAS GIFTS:
NEW: Paperback Books in the River Friends Series. Two titles—£7.50 each. Also available on Amazon. Handcrafted 2020 A4/A5 hanging calendars—£7.50 each Handcrafted 2020 A5 Desk Diaries—£10.00 each Handcrafted shorthand notebooks—£3.50 each Wentworth Whimsy Jigsaw Puzzles—normally £23.00 (RRP £29.95), my Christmas price: £18.00 each (250 pieces, equivalent to 500-piece traditional jigsaw) Traditional Jigsaw Puzzles 500 pieces. normally £13, my Christmas price: £11.00 Mugs range: “Pics and Poems”. Normally £7.50 each, my Christmas price: £5.00 each (in a box!) Plus a new range of greetings cards and notelets.
I have five framed entries for this exhibition:
Ranunculus and Brown Trout. Tortoiseshell finish frame. A healthy Stream? A colour plate for the published book “Drying Up”. Picture Profile. Framed print 1/50 £90
Group Meerhug (Meerkats), (Polychromos oil pencils). Light oakwood frame. Click on the picture to view Picture Profile. Framed original £195
An Old Cock in a Tree at Woodbridge. Water Colour. Selected for the Patchings Artist and Illustrator Magazine Exhibition 2016. Framed Original £250
Otter Bank, Bourn Brook. Picture Profile. To be featured in one of the River Friend Series of books (Stream Story II: Bourn Brook, Cambs). Print 8/300. Framed tortoiseshell finish. £95
White Helleborines and Chiffchaffs (Fine Art Print 12/350), Framed gun metal finish £85
…And five mounted pictures:
Song Thrushes in Ivy Picture Profile. This is the final number 10 of 10 only limited edition prints of this painting. £40Head of Sunflower Picture Profile. This is limited edition print number 1/100. £45Little Explorers at the Mini Mart Picture Profile. Limited edition print 9/200. £40Ankle-Deep at Salisbury Picture Profile. Painted specially for, and featured in one of the River Friend Series of small books: “Drying Up”. This is limited edition print 1/100. £50Ye Olde Village Pond Picture Profile. Painted specially for, and featured in one of the River Friend Series of small books: “Drying Up”. Limited edition print 1/100. £65
Unlike this morning where the sun is lighting my whole world under a wide blue sky, yesterday (Sunday 17th November 2019) was bleak and miserable. I had spent the night tossing and turning, worrying about appearing on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s “Great Outdoors” programme with Christopher South, and arose from my bed rather worse for lack of sleep. However, a couple of rounds of toast with peanut butter, two mugs of tea and an apple put me in better spirits.
With “butterflies” in the normal regions, I collected up my paperwork (homework) because I was to be interviewed by Christopher about the Iceni Botanical Artists (IBA) group, of which I am a member. I had spent the previous few days reading about the group because I am a fairly new member (November 2017). Fortunately, our Chairperson, Isobel Bartholomew, emailed me a run-down which was must useful.
I was determined not to be late (I was told to report at 9.45am), so set off from Comberton at 9.00am. As I do not like towns and cities, I ventured down the overcast A428 and onto the A14-40mph drive all the way to the Milton interchange. The traffic was so sparse that I sailed through and arrived at 9.15am, just as a car drove up to the building with two people in it. The man I immediately recognised as Christopher (and his beautiful corgi dog, Foxy), but not knowing who the lady was—it turned out to be his lovely wife, Janet. In a later conversation she revealed that she had done a botanical art course but sadly lacked the patience to continue with it. Her tutor had been Georita Harriott, a great teacher with whom I learned all about botanical illustration and gilding with illuminated lettering—very small world!
Christopher very kindly made me a cup of coffee and I was asked to sit on a bench seat until needed. The live stream of the radio channel was loud and clear throughout the building, but the studios themselves were nice airy rooms with lots of windows looking out onto the car park! I drank my coffee then, before the programme, presented Christopher with a special calendar I had made for him. When he gasped “Bloody Hell!”, I thought he didn’t like it, but the phrase was in admiration (as well as from his colleagues present)—thank goodness.
Unfortunately, for me, presenting the calendar to Chris seemed to change the tone of the interview. To make me feel really at ease, Christopher introduced me as a “69 year-old Boring Old Woman”. “Different” I thought, but could instantly see where he was going—making the point that lots of people seem dull and boring going about their daily work and lives, but upon a bit of digging lots of us lead very interesting and full lives. He also mentioned that I was a “genius” and that, in a new word to me, my work was brilliant to the point of “Hyper-realism” (I suppose this could be an exact expression of how I wish to portray nature). I suddenly felt very privileged at being in the studio and, with his leads, a lot of my life story seemed to pour out. Chris certainly knows how to “winkle”!
As we neared the end of the hour (which incidentally went so fast it felt like 10 minutes!), Chris suddenly changed tack from all about me to the Iceni Botanical Artists, by which time I had completely forgotten about my reason for being there. It was then very difficult to recollect what I wanted to say about the lovely group. My papers were strewn all over the place and I could not find my typed sheet of information about the IBA. I did manage to scrape a few things from my memory, and at the last minute found the correct piece of paper, but even then Chris kept changing the tac and I lost my place (he does it “on purpose”!). And when he asked me what the website address was I completely froze and blabbed out: “Just type in Iceni Botanical Artists and it will come up!”—shameful!
Finally, he said “Tell listeners from where they can obtain this lovely calendar”. I said that I had made it specially for him as it was a duplicate of my very first calendar produced in 2006…and then it was time for the news and we had to stop talking. But what a wonderful experience—thank you Mr South for a day in my life I shall remember always. (Chris asked me to sign the calendar so I wrote: “To Chris, love from the Boring Old Woman”.)
This year the Calendar picture-theme includes some of my nature pictures as well as line art illustrations from a new series of books co-authored by Dr Sylvia Haslam and myself under the umbrella title of “River Friend”. The two published books (£7.50 each, September 2019) are available to purchase from our website: RIVER FRIEND SERIES, or from Amazon (trade: IngramSpark platform).
