Batik workshop with TWASI

In the latter part of last month I tutored a batik workshop for The Wildlife Art Society International. Their annual exhibition was held at The Nature In Art Museum and Art Gallery in Gloucestershire and they organised a few workshops to run in conjunction with the exhibition.


I had seven ‘students’ in my ‘class’, all but one or two of which were fellow artists and as such they had a good grasp of colour mixing etc so it was just a case of getting to grips with the medium itself… as they were all new to it.

After having a quick try out on a small frame to get used to the equipment and techniques, they had, by lunchtime, progressed onto the big frame and their ‘proper piece’ of batik. The process, technique and understanding of how to create an image is a lot to take in and to get a finished piece done in one day is a big ask of them. Unsurprisingly there were one or two that didn’t ‘click’ with the medium til late in the day. This I always expect and try to reassure those students that it will come in time. It can be really tricky to get your head around the process and whilst some can ‘fall’ into it straight away, there are many that struggle to understand where they are going with it at first. I realise how disheartening and frustrating this must be and so I find it most rewarding when I see ‘the penny drop’ with them and suddenly they’re away and enjoying themselves much more. But for some it may take several attempts over a few days (this is where a 5-day workshop really comes into its own) and trying to push them in one day is unfair and I feel for them the frustration of not being able to do what they would like to achieve. There was at least one lady who felt she didn’t get to grips with it but I hope despite that, she had a good day and what she did produce she can be really proud of.

In the group there was one man, and his wife and cousin (who were also among the students) were most impressed that he used the iron (to remove the wax at the end of the process)… apparently something he normally stays well clear of and so photographic evidence was taken! What a thing to do to a guy!

At the end of the day they all produced some fabulous pieces and one student was so keen on this new medium that she went away with details of what to get and where, to have a go herself at home. Fantastic... a convert! She had been looking for a medium that suits her style of working and had so far not found anything satisfactory… but she was very enthused by the batik. So I hope she has fun exploring the medium at home and it turns out to be what she’s looking for.

As I knew most of the group it was particularly lovely to spend the day with them playing with arty stuff and hopefully they had as much fun learning about batik as I did teaching them. Here’s some of their work…..

April's WWT Slimbridge visit

Recently I visited WWT Slimbridge in Gloucestershire to view the current art exhibition on display in the Cheng-Kim Loke Wildlife Gallery there. My friend, and fellow artist, Marion and I are to have an exhibition ourselves there in 2010, so we plan to take a look at each exhibition prior to ours to see what’s selling and what’s not, the range of prices, prints and ideas of presentation etc... a bit of market research, if you like. We did the same for our last exhibition there in 2006 and it proved very useful to us.

Also the plan for the day was to go out in the grounds and get some sketching done. Unfortunately we could not make it an all day visit as Marion has to get home for her children after school… but in a way it helps having the shorter time span, as it focuses you on the task in hand. So after looking around the exhibition and taking notes we set off around the various outdoor areas to find a spot to sit and sketch.

Weather-wise it was a beautifully warm sunny day and we were not keen to go in a hide where it would no doubt still be chilly at this time of year. We found a good spot in the Australia area…. Kind of fitting since we’ve not long returned from that part of the world on the cruise. Marion sat and did some watercolour sketching of the backdrop of trees of the lake area, whilst I settled on a bench not too far away with my binoculars and camera at the ready.


I had in mind that I would concentrate on just one species and the Australian wood (maned) ducks – Chenonetta jubata, caught my eye that day.



I use the binoculars to help me get in close to see the subject better for sketching and with the camera I take a number of photo’s for future reference, should I wish to one day draw or paint the subject properly.

When I sketch I try to spend as much time observing the subject as I do actually drawing it. This helps me understand how it moves and what regular body postures it adopts. I can also study its form and take mental note of where the legs join the body, where the features such as eyes and, in this case, beak are placed on the head. I’m learning the anatomy and form of my subject by looking very intently at it. Then when I come to put pencil to paper I already have an idea of where I should be drawing my lines.




I am not trying to do a detailed study of the animal… I’m basically taking notes to learn its shape and form. Sometimes I just sketch part of the animal like the head or foot. I use shading purely to suggest form and try to keep it to as few strokes as possible.



So I end up with a lot of barely-started or half-finished scribblings…. And that’s fine because they are all part of my learning process of the subject.

Drawing workshop

On Saturday 21st I tutored a drawing for beginners workshop organised by Mandy Leivers of The Avon Gorge and Downs Wildlife Project (AGDWP). Everyone who had booked turned up so we had a full room of 17 people, which gave me a really nice group to work with. There was a mix of abilities from beginners to the much more competent, which makes for an interesting class.
After the necessary teas and coffee to start, Mandy did a brief introduction and then I quickly ran through some drawing techniques. I just had a short time to do this so that they could get onto the practicalities of drawing as soon as possible.
When I do a workshop with AGDWP the aim is to highlight the wonderful area and wildlife of the Gorge and Downs; which is just a few minutes walk from the zoo, where the AGDWP is based and where we also hold the workshops. Usually a workshop is divided into time spent walking or sitting up on the Downs or viewing the Gorge to get inspiration and time spent indoors doing the art activity. But today with the focus on wildlife, although there is plenty of wildlife there, it cannot be guaranteed to be on view long enough or close enough. So today we were staying in the classroom with the option in the afternoon of going out into the zoo to sketch either the native species that can be seen around the grounds or the exotics of the zoo’s collection. We had the use of a number of stuffed mammal and bird specimens that were kindly on loan to AGDWP for the workshop by the city’s museum. Mandy had specifically chosen the species to reflect what can be seen around the Gorge and Downs; so we had a badger, fox, hedgehog, squirrel, barn owl, jay, green woodpeckers to name a few. In the morning we practised our drawing skills on them and to help prepare them for life sketching in the afternoon I gave them the challenge of speed drawing exercises, which really makes you focus and if done regularly can hone your eye and hand to looking for and drawing only the important and necessary lines for form.
After lunch most opted to go out in the zoo grounds, enjoying the beautiful sunshine, to sketch and draw. Several stayed in the room, with me, to continue practising on the ‘non-moving’ subjects. By 3pm everyone was back for a refreshing cup of tea and piece of cake whilst we had a ‘viewing’ of what everyone had done that day. As I walked around looking at their work I was pleased to see stronger more confident drawings and hope that they all went away from the day having learned something, however small, that will help them with their drawing and sketching in future.

Cruise Trip on MV Oriana

It’s been about two weeks since I got back from my cruise trip. I had hoped to post a couple of entries during my trip, but obviously that didn’t happen. So I shall attempt a run down now. Um… it’s a long one, so I hope you are sitting comfortably!

As I mentioned before I am one of P&O’s art tutors that they engage on short-term contracts. I work at the zoo for 9 months of the year enabling me to take a cruise contract between the beginning of January and the end of March. I have done this for the last two years. Last year I went on my own but this year I took a friend and fellow artist, Marion, as my assistant.

This year I was contracted for a 5-week trip starting from San Francisco and ending up in Hong Kong.
Our first Port of Call (PoC) was in effect San Francisco, but after being awake for over 24 hours for our journey from the UK, by the time Marion and I were clear to leave the ship (after safety drills, paperwork etc) we were way too tired and could only muster the energy to sink into our beds. So we didn’t get to see the city or us sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge around midnight!

So then we had 4 days at sea, starting my art class on the first one. This year I had one class every sea day and it was later in the afternoon, which meant that for most days Marion and I could relax and enjoy being on the ship.

I started the class off on drawing. There are many different ways of approaching drawing and I showed them a couple of techniques that I use and have found beneficial to students, particularly those who are unconfident with or new to drawing. These are drawing with shapes (I have covered this a few times in my posts on here), using negative space to place, more easily, protruding features like limbs and heads, and alignment lines to check the positioning of different aspects of the drawing.

Honolulu was our next stop and Marion and I went scuba diving. I had never been before but had always wanted to do it. Unfortunately things didn’t go well for me and I was unable to do a dive. A childhood fear resurfaced to such a degree that I panicked and couldn’t control my breathing to be able to go under. This is something I will conquer another time. My friend Marion did a dive but suffered badly from being unable to equalise the pressure in her ears. So, not a terribly successful day for us; but I wouldn’t have missed it, as it was still quite an experience.

Then we had another 4 days at sea and in the classes we progressed our drawing, it was amazing how quickly most of them improved in their application and confidence. Did a few speed drawing exercises with them, which they seemed to enjoy. Then just before the next PoC I demonstrated painting with gouache. Most of them hadn’t used the medium before, some had never heard of it. But once they had seen how versatile a medium it was I think they were keen to have a go with it.

Then we were in Tutuila, American Samoa which seems to be referred to a lot by the main town on the island… Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango) By now the temp had gone up to the mid 30’sC and around 90-95% humidity. Very toasty. Marion and I had a fantastic day with a taxi driver called Vasco; who despite his car conking out on the steep hillsides in the bid to get us to see a seabird colony and fruit bats gave us a wonderful day with his humour, friendliness and interesting info on his people and the island. We saw bats - just not in the original place we intended, had a lovely scenic drive along the coast (once his car had recovered from overheating), saw a fab little beach and cove with no-one else around but a female tropicbird feeding her chick and a kingfisher. Great day… lovely people the Samoans.

Then 1 day at sea. It should have been 2 really by the calendar, but as we crossed the international date line from east to west, we ‘lost’ a whole day. So for us, the 8th of February just didn’t happen, we went from midnight on the 7th straight to the 9th! The class got started on a painting of a landscape in American Samoa on that one sea day. I was taking them through it stage by stage; painting and explaining consistency and colour mixes as I went. And so that there was no hurry, I had planned that this project would take about 3 classes.

The following day we were in Fiji. Marion and I had paid to go on a passenger tour to ‘Beachcomber Island’ It was about an hours journey by catamaran to the island and it was beautifully idyllic. Like we had arrived in paradise. For Marion and myself the day was spent snorkelling in the warm shallow clear waters around the island. We saw heaps of fish, starfish, sea cucumbers, a coral reef and 3 foot long reef sharks that swam round us, checking us out. Such a fantastic day!

After Fiji there were 2 days at sea where we continued with the landscape in art class. Some are finding it difficult to overcome the watercolourists’ habit of using the paint very thinly or washy. Which is how watercolour should be used, but gouache can be used thick so that it is opaque and you get its best qualities then.

Then for the next two days were were in New Zealand – Tauranga and Auckland consecutively. These days were spent mostly shopping as the ship hadn’t got any stock of gouache on board and I was fast running out of the small supply I had taken. So the search was on to find some gouache… easier said than done! But we got a few tubes in the end in Auckland. Hopefully the ship was able to get some ordered for us. So, Tauranga - we wandered the shops and harbour area along the sea front to a small park and Auckland we did the shop run in the morning and in the afternoon headed out to the gannet colony which is on the mainland! We had met a tour operator/guide called Paul and he was just great. We had another fantastic day with him, such a great chap. The gannets were awesome and I can’t begin to tell you how many photo’s were took of them between us!

After Auckland we had 2 days at sea where the class started another paint along project.. this time to try fur techniques. So I got them painting a portrait of a New Zealand Huntaway dog. Again this was to be worked over several classes.

Then we were in Sydney and we had such a full day here. First we went to The Rocks to do some shopping, then we went for a half hour ride on the chauffeur ridden Harleys (www.easyrider.com.au)… Sooo much fun and thrilling! Then the afternoon was spent in the Botanical gardens getting a heaped dose of our wildlife fix with the birds and fruit bats (flying foxes) there. As evening drew in (the ship was here til midnight) we went for a meal in an Italian restaurant before going back to the ship and collapsing happy and tired in our beds.

The next day was at sea and they finished the dog off in class. By now there are just a few still not in the habit of using the paint thickly.. and some were already starting to really get the feel for the paint and were doing some lovely work with it.

Then we were in Brisbane. Marion and I took the sea-cat ferry along the river into town from where the ship was moored. We walked through the Botanical Gardens there, such a beautiful place and then over the Goodwill footbridge to the South bank where we walked along to the next bridge that took us across to Queen Street. A fabulous meal in a Chinese restaurant sated our huge appetite after our 3 hour walk and then, restored, we did a little shopping.

Another day at sea followed Brisbane and a new project for the class. This time, using the gouache wet into wet and then using a different brush technique for doing grasses.

The day after we were supposed to go to Hamilton Island in the Whit Sunday Island group on the Barrier Reef. But apparently they didn’t want a big ship in that day, so we went to Airlie Beach on the Australian mainland instead. At Airlie Beach the ship was anchored off shore and we were ferried in on catamarans, from the PoC. Marion and I walked from the wharf where the catamaran dropped us along the Bicentennial Walkway to the Lagoon. This was an artificial pool area made so that you can swim safely at this time of year when the waters along the coast are rife with not so friendly jellyfish. We spent the day just sitting back and relaxing here. We’d had a few busy PoC’s and felt the need to basically do nothing much. However there was plenty of interest there as the place was buzzing with birds – friarbirds, white-breasted wood swallows and figbirds to name just a few.

Overnight we sailed north and the next morning we were at anchor again, this time off of Yorkie’s Knob. From there Marion and I split up for the day. She went white water rafting on a trip organised by the ship and I went into Cairns on the shuttle bus service provided and ended up at t Cairn’s Wildlife Dome. This was a glass dome at the top of a building housing a casino. In the dome it was planted out with tropical rainforest plants and had various bird, reptile, mammal and insect species from the Australian rainforests. Got some lovely reference shots of birds we had seen so far in Australia.

The next day we were at sea again for just one day and the class finished the painting of the long grasses, some added the serval that was in my original painting. They are by now coming on leaps and bounds with the paint. Some are still persevering and unsure about it but there are also some definite converts.

The following day we were in Rabaul in New Britain, which is a long thin island off of the east coast of Papua New Guinea. This was an awesome day too… the volcano was putting on a very dramatic show of smoking and was extremely impressive. However, once on land the reality of the consequences of such a spectacular sight are brought firmly home as you witness how the locals have to live with it. They were lovely cheery people seemingly abandoned by their government whose long held promise to evacuate them still hadn’t happened since the volcano’s last eruption in 94. Asthma was rife amongst the people, especially the children and it wasn’t hard to understand why as the fine ash from the smoking volcano fell constantly and covered everything around. Dry ash as fine as talc powder was lifted into the air with each footstep and vehicle that drove by. The vegetation and trees looked yellowish and ‘sickly’ and though the market had lots of food, we were told that has to be brought in as it was as good as impossible to grow any crops around the town of Port Simpson, which was where we were.

Then the last 5 days were at sea and in class I had given them free rein to paint what they liked. There’s nothing more inspiring than painting what you like to paint. So now that they had grasped the fundamentals and were running with it, it was time for them to go it alone. Marion and I were on hand walking round the class helping and advising when needed. This is the most rewarding time for me, as I can see the improvements individuals have made. Their enthusiasm for what they are doing is great and I feel really proud that those who had not been very confident, were more so now. And it’s all down to them and their willingness to give it a try and persevere.

Then we were in Hong Kong and were flown homewards, only glimpsing this city from the decks of the ship and through the cars windows as we were taken to the airport.

Marion did a great job as my assistant, it was her first time on ship and she suffered a few days from motion-sickness when the seas got a little choppy. Other than that she had a great time, I think.

What a fabulous trip we had. We had some amazing times in our Ports of Call; unforgettable times both ashore and on the ship. There were some crew and passengers that I had met before on the ship and it was really lovely to see them again. The ship herself was, as ever, a beautiful place to spend 5 weeks and I hope one day to go back. At the moment I don’t know when that will be, if ever, as some things have changed beyond my control. So sadly that might have been my last teaching cruise. It’s not quite my last time on a P&O ship as my friend Julie and her fiancé Hans are getting married in July and are taking a few close family and friends on a short cruise at the beginning of July on Artemis. So I am looking forward to that in many ways.

Up coming workshops for 2009.... so far

I have three workshops booked so far for this year… if you are in the area and would like to find out more please go to the relevant links in my Links list on the right of this page.

Drawing workshop
21st March
A beginner’s guide to drawing wildlife
Spend a day with Bristol Zoo’s Illustrator Su Lees. Discover simple skills and techniques to make your wildlife drawings come to life.
Suitable for everyone, including the artistically challenged!
Held in the Education Building at the zoo.
Please contact Mandy Leivers at the Avon Gorge and Downs Wildlife Project – see Links list.

Batik workshops
28th & 29th March
A two-day workshop for those that have tried batik and want to improve and for those that have never ‘had a go’ before, here’s your chance in the wonderful, friendly and inspiring setting of the Museum.
Please contact the Nature In Art Gallery and Museum - see Links list.

20th - 24th July
The Gloucester Arts and Crafts Summer School
A 5-day workshop, for beginners and improvers. The Summer School also has many other workshops (2,3 & 5 day) covering a diverse range of arts and crafts.
If you are interested in my workshop or any others they might have during the week, please leave a message in my guestbook and I will send you the contact details for the organizer.

Up—coming Cruise

Yup! It’s finally come round! My second time as art tutor on a cruise ship starts on 27th Jan when I ‘join’ the good ship ‘Oriana’ in San Francisco. Only this time I shall have the company of my good friend, Marion, who will be my Assistant to help me in the art classes. Of course those that know me, or remember previous posts on this subject, know that this isn’t the second time I shall be cruising the high seas…. I was myself an assistant to another good friend of mine, Julie, back in 2002 & 2003. So this will actually be my 6th time on the magnificent ships of P&O.
The trip is 5 weeks long and takes us from San Francisco to Honolulu (Hawaii), Tutuila (American Samoa), Fiji, Tauranga and Auckland in New Zealand, Sydney, Brisbane, Whit Sunday Islands and Cairns in Australia, New Britain (Papua New Guinea) and finally Hong Kong, from where we are flown home.
Quite a journey and the first time for my friend Marion on a cruise ship, so she is particularly excited. I can’t wait to show her around the ship and I wonder if her face will be as mine was on my first meeting with the big white ships… all agog!

My job onboard is to teach drawing and painting to the passengers, which we shall be doing every ‘sea day’(that is – when we are not in port). I am looking forward to meeting the passengers I have met before again and, of course, some new passengers.

What I am finding quite surreal is that my friend Julie (and her fiancé Hans) will be joining the ship as we leave it, to take over as the art tutor for the last 5 week ‘leg’ back to the UK. When I did my first cruise trip as her assistant in ’02, I would never have imagined such a situation. Yet here we are, a few years on, and it just feels a little strange… but good strange. Because of the opportunities she gave me to travel as her assistant and her encouragement (bordering on bullying!), Julie has introduced me to a bigger world, both for work and travel… I thank her so much for that.

I shall endeavour to post ‘ship’s logs’ during our journey, as I did last year, and in my Links list you can find the ship’s webcam; so, if you wish, you can see where we are on our journey… and maybe even catch us standing in front of the webcam!

Christmas commissions

I had two commissions to do for Christmas presents, and have been reluctant to post any pictures of them until after Christmas as I wanted to make sure the recipients had received their gifts. But because things have been so busy I haven’t been able to get round to putting the post here until now.

The ‘lion up a tree’ was lovely to do… lovely because it was a big cat and it seems far too long since I have painted one. So just that fact alone made it enjoyable to paint. I really did enjoy doing this guy…. he looks just so relaxed. It was also pretty straightforward technically, as the commission remit was to reproduce a photo taken by the person who was to receive it as a present; although they didn’t know it was coming.
It was painted in oils on canvas (16”x20”). I did a little enhancement here and there; mainly bringing more colour and form to the lion and tree branches and created more depth, by ‘knocking back’ the background by ‘misting’ it over slightly with a pale translucent glaze. I also shifted the composition slightly up and left of the original photo, so added more foliage and branching to the right and bottom of the image to make up the missing sections.


The other commission was technically a wee bit harder and challenging. The commission was for three dogs from separate photo’s to be made into one picture. I had to try and judge the animal sizes in comparison to each other and also the images of the dogs, in the photo’s I was to work from, were quite small with little detail… particularly on the black dog. Sadly, all three animals are no longer alive, so I could not see them for myself to get an idea of character and get better reference. Consequently, the painting of them was quite a challenge.
Painting pets is quite tricky, as your perception of an animal can be so different to the owner’s. Also the animal may react and hold facial expressions and body postures with you that are so different from when it interacts with its owners. So trying to portray an animal as the owner saw/sees it can be very difficult.


The painting was done in gouache on watercolour board and I used the background from one of the photos to set the scene. Due to the few photos that I had and their ‘quality’, I had to rely on them heavily for the dogs, as I had less scope for artistic manipulation than if I had many photos and had seen them myself. I had a few German Shepherd pictures in my dog ref file, and used them to help with some of the detail; although I had to be careful as each dog, obviously, looks different. I arranged the dogs in a composition, taking their stances directly from the original photos. I drew each one up separately then scanned them into the computer to play with composition and size comparisons. When I had something that I felt was comfortable, I printed them out to size and transferred them to the finished backdrop. The outdoor photos looked overcast, so I added more light than they gave me, both on the dogs and the landscape, to liven and warm the painting up. Finally a bit of improvising with the foreground grasses and it was finished.