Tag: british wildlife

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1504: Update at last on “Grey Squirrels in my Garden”

In 2015, I composed 4 paintings onto stretched canvas all about the squirrels in the UK.

We have our most beautiful Reds “The Native” red squirrel (Artist Code 1505); “The Albinos”, white with pink or black eyes (Artist Code 1502), “The Rogue Gene” Black, Brown and Ginger/Black squirrels (1503), and The Greys in my Back Garden (formerly “The Forced Immigrant”, the imported greys (Artist Code 1504) and subject of this blog post.

To view the history of this painting prior to this post, please CLICK HERE

Squirrels are all very lovely in their own way and much loved by most people – although the greys are sometimes referred to as “tree rats”, and are known to carry disease which kills our native squirrel. Nevertheless, in my little wild garden they are the only mammal visitors I receive (apart from the dreaded neighbourhood cats) so I am very happy to see them. Even though they nick a lot of the bird seed put out for the few birds in my garden, they are very clever and entertaining to watch. This painting portrays their cheekiness and ability to hold on to anything in order to get some food!

I started the series way back in 2015, but as usual other things got in the way (and are still in the way but I needed a break from painting flowers!). So I got the four canvases out and have been working on the one I started to paint (remember they were all drawn in 2015) in January 2019.

Oil painting is so much fun after one has been extremely meticulous with size 10-0 brushes (about 25 hairs) painting botanicals!

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2012 The Almighty Reed and Reedlings UPDATE

This little painting for Book 5 in the River Friend Series (REED: ON THE EDGE) is going along quite nicely. Lots of fiddly bits, which you come to expect with my work, but great fun. It is just so annoying that I take so long to paint something!

Here is the latest progress picture:

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2012 The Almighty Reed and Reedlings

Just started the illustrations for the next River Friend book: “REED: ON THE EDGE”, number five in the series. There are lots of nice things to say about reeds, both from a commercial and a leisure point of view. If you think a reed is dull, then this little book will enlighten you and broaden your mind. Not sure how long it will take to do all the drawings and paintings, but it should be out in the next couple of months. I will post when it is available.

Here are a few progress pictures of Figure 1: The Almighty Reed and Reedlings (Artist Code 2012) in the book. Note the first picture (pencil sketch on Aquarelle Arches 140lb water colour paper 14″ x 10″) is enhanced otherwise you would be unable to see it! So apologies for the uneven/thick lines.

Reedlings (Bearded Tits) live and breed amongst the reeds, usually near the edge of a reed stand. Lovely little birds with a characteristic “Ping, ping” call.
The text in the book mentions blue sky, so the background is nice and blue.
Getting the right tonal values and paint strokes for the background reed structure made me think rather.
…So, layer upon layer of subtle browns and creams to get the desired effect
Went out and cut some reeds nearby for accurate portrayal (along Bourn Brook which will be another book in the series: Stream Story 2—eventually!)
Have to paint the green reeds first because, even though they have been in water since plucked, they are drying out and shrivelling up (what a nuisance!).
Two green stems done, just one more on the left, then I can get to the old reeds, birds and nest, which is usually made from old reed stems and leaves as well as being lined with the feathery-soft seed heads of last year’s reeds. The eggs are creamy white with a pinkish hue and little brown marks—I purchased an old birds’ eggs book, from a secondhand book shop, which has proved to be a valuable resource.