Artist and Illustrators MasterClass article

Just found out that the "MasterClass" article I did for the Artists & Illustrators magazine is now viewable online; click here to see it.

Sketching project at Hollywood

As part of my "in-house" training at the zoo, I get to have one morning a fortnight (work load permitting) in which to sketch - not what I need to get a job done, but what I feel I like. The zoo as part of its Investors in People programme encourages staff to develop their skills either through formal or informal training. My sketch mornings are very informal and the fact that I can go out on the morning and sketch whatever I want makes such a difference. Most of my work at the zoo in recent years has concentrated on fish and invertebrates, so it does my soul good to get out and sketch the lions or mongooses or whatever else I fancy. For these morning's in the past I have always sketched the animals within the zoo, but this year I decided it would be a different challenge to go out to the zoo's land just outside Bristol called the Hollywood Towers Estate (H.T.E.).

I wanted to do this for a few reasons... but the main one was that during the summer months when the zoo is busy - sitting in front of an animal enclosure to sketch is problematic on several counts. Firstly I could be potentially blocking a visitor's view, secondly it is easy to get jostled and knocked and lastly, as nice as it is, people start talking to me as I sit there and with only a couple of precious hours in which to sketch freely I found that sometimes I would not get much sketching done. By going out to the H.T.E. I could not only sketch something different but I wouldn't be in anyone's way, get knocked and could work undisturbed for those few hours.

Since going out there another reason to go has arisen. As the site is the proposed land on which the zoo's new project- the National Wildlife Conservation Park- is to be developed... it's become a bit of a project to sketch the site at various times of the year, the old buildings, trees and other features before the development starts. A kind of artistic archive of the site.

My work colleague Anna, a graphic designer, has been doing a photography project for her "in-house" training/development and has come out to the site with me on a few occasions. I too have been taking photos whilst there and an album with my photo's and sketches can be viewed here. I shall update it as soon as I can after each visit, but now that winter is upon us and it is quieter in the zoo I am likely to sketch there more often. However, I hope to go in the next week to see if I can catch the last of the Autumnal colours before the last leaves fall from the trees.

Artist in Residence Week - work done

Unfortunately, for reasons I cannot yet figure out, when I am away and using my small notebook computer, my blogsite allows me one post to it before then giving me a whole host of awkwardness that ultimately results in me being unable to do any more posts to it! Hence the reason this post is posted after the end of my residency week.

I worked on two paintings during my residency week... I started off by continuing to work on my kudu oil painting, adding more foliage and grasses to the right hand side.

I started this piece a few months ago and it has been painted and put to one side a number of times whilst I get on with other small paintings and various other jobs. So it was good to get back to it again. The plan was to paint in the last of the back foliage and then to start on the kudu calf. So I started the week by painting in the details of the dark area towards the lower part of the canvas (mainly on the right of the composition), adding leaves grasses, twigs etc. This was done with a small rigger - 1" rigger brush size 1 - flicking in strokes for grasses and dabs for leaves, twisting the bristles to resemble the leaf shapes of the vegetation in my reference photos. I'm not putting in a great deal of detail here as it will eventually be overlaid with long grasses in the foreground but I want just enough to provide the suggestion of grasses, twigs and leaves. Once I got to a stage where I would next start work on the kudu calf, I needed to allow the paint to dry; so once again it was put aside.

I decided to start another loose piece... a companion to the painting I did of Moti the Asiatic lioness recently.

This is to be of Chandra, the male Asiatic lion that was Moti's companion for about 14 years at Bristol Zoo.

I started the piece by sketching out his face using a 1" rigger brush size 1 loaded with a warm brown mix of colour diluted with liquin. I then blocked in some form with the same colour and a dark tone made of ultramarine, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson. I usually draw up such a sketch seperately and spend some time getting proportions looking right but as I want to try this loose approach I have been trying the process of sketching directly onto the canvas with paint. It's quite challenging, but fun also.



Then I paint in a backdrop of warm purples, mauves and orangey browns. I used the darker tones up behind his left ear to create contrast, as that will be back lit and showing a lot of light. I also start laying in colour and form on his mane... again as I always do working from the more distant surface of the subject and coming forward. I am using a round brush size 4 to work with on an 8" x 10" board.



Once I reasonably happy with his mane I then start to build the left side of his face and muzzle. I'm using a lot of orange and purple tones, these are complimentary colours and so work well together. They also add a feel of warmth and heat.



Then I put in some work on his ear, the mane at the apex of his head and the lights and darks on the bridge of his nose. Chandra had a "bumpy" nose with quite a rounded bump down to his nose.



Next I work on his face, mane round the top of his head and put in his eyes. First I block in the colour and lights and darks then I go back over to refine the moulding and features. I am still having to keep myself in check to stop myself going in too much with detail and fine brush work. Although Chandra was cross-eyed, I decided on this occasion not to paint him as such. After all... how many people looking at a painting of a cross-eyed lion would actually think that was how he was. They will probably just assume I had got the eyes wrong.

It was at this stage that I decided I had drawn his eyes too small so I enlarged them and repainted the areas around the eyes. I also worked on the area of mane on the far side of his head and under his chin.


Then I work on his muzzle and chin before waiting for it to dry and using the 1" rigger brush I drew on his whiskers using pale orange and yellows. I have deliberately kept the sides "unfinished" as I like the look of this and have seen it done extremely well to great effect by other artists and judging from a number of the comments I had over the week it seems to be something other people like too.

At home this piece would have been done in a day to stop me from "fiddling" with it too much. I worked on it over 4 days, between chatting to folk who visited us, at Nature In Art.

Chandra crops up a lot in my paintings as he's a very special lion to me. I saw him grow from a 2½ yr old scrawny youngster into a magnificent big prime male; until at the age of 14 he went to the Cotswold Wildlife Park for his retirement. He may have been cross-eyed but he was one handsome dude and had plenty of attitude. Sadly, I don't think he is alive now, but he lived to a good age and I will certainly never forget him and probably paint many more pictures of him in the years to come.

I finished the week back on the kudu piece but only got as far as putting in a base coat on the calf. So I will leave it until later when I have done more to it to post a progress pic of that painting.

Click here to view some of my photos from the week

Artist in Residence Day 1

For me this is really day 2 of being Artist in Residence at Nature In Art, but for the visitors of course, it is definitely Day 1.

Yesterday I looked at the large pile of paintings, equipment and a myriad of other bits and pieces standing in the living room... how on earth was that all going to fit in the car! Half an hour later, somehow, I had managed to squeeze it all in. Looking into the boot and back seat of the car I had to pack it a bit like one of those wooden puzzle balls where each piece slots into a very specific position. Was my car actually a TARDIS?

A 50min drive up to Gloucester to Wallsworth Hall where Nature in Art is and I had to unpack it all again. Frances had also just arrived and her car looked much the same as mine... packed to the hilt! Our afternoon was then spent setting up the tables with cards, prints, merchandise etc etc and hanging paintings on the walls. By 6pm we were pretty tired out and so it was back to Frances' home (where I would be staying for the week) to pretty much collapse for the evening.

Today we both spent some time in the morning just rounding off the displays and making sure everything was to our liking before settling down to work. Both tasks of which were interrupted in the best way by people coming to the studio to see what we were doing and to talk about our work and sometimes their paintings too. It was very busy and the stream of visitors seemed non stop through the day, which was brilliant. Neither of us got much work done but then that is secondary to chatting to folks, which is what we are there for.

I did have some pictures to post too but I have no photo editing software on this little notebook... so perhaps I can post some piccies when I get home after Sunday.

I will try and keep up with regular posting through the week.

Palm nuts!

Well, as this evening draws in, I am thinking I am now all done on the preparations for all my art and merchandise that I shall have on display at Nature In Art for the next week. I have only myself to sort out now, clothes etc to be packed and, all being well, I can set off in good time tomorrow morning to set up the studio with Frances ready for visitors from Tuesday.

There has been much to do and for a while I just never thought I'd get to the end of the ever growing list. Suffice to say it's has been a bit full on and hectic these last few weeks getting everything up together. But glad to say I think I can now breathe easy... of course there is that nagging doubt that things can't possibly be all done... surely I have forgotten something! I'm never this well organised to be ready at this point!

It can all but drive you nuts....

... which leads me to the painting of palm nut trees at sunset.


This little painting (roughly 8" x 7") on canvas board is of my favourite trees in the Okavango Delta. They have such a beautiful shape and feel to them, so I couldn't resist doing this little piece of them in silhouette. I managed to get it done in between endless computer work, printing, cutting, packing and putting a powerpoint presentation together.

The composition is made up from a number of my photos taken during my stay there in March. The sky from one and the trees are picked out from various photos of landscapes and animals and placed together into this composition.

I shall have this one with me at Nature In Art and like the lioness and ellie, I shall be interested to see how well they are received.

The presentation is a series of slides and a little talk that I shall be showing/giving to the Wallworth Art Group on Wednesday evening about reference gathering and useage. Looking forward to that and hope it'll be of interest to them.

Getting ready for Artist in Residence Week

18th – 23rd October

Wallsworth Hall - Home of the Nature In Art Museum and Art Gallery

Once again the year swings round to a week I really look forward to – being an Artist in Residence at Nature In Art in Gloucester. This Museum and Art Gallery has a programme of different artists spending 6 days working in their studio (Tuesday – Sunday every week from Feb to Nov) where visitors can watch and talk to them as they work in their respective mediums.

In the past I have spent many an informative and learning hour getting tips from the artists who have been working there and also being, for the past 11 years, on the other side of the easel too. For most of those 11 years I have been there with my very good friend and fellow artist Julie Askew, but as she now resides overseas, I shall once again share the studio with another friend and fellow artist, Frances Whitman.

Myself with Frances and Linda Heaton-Harris - 2010 Nature in Art

Frances works with coloured pencils and produces exquisite animal portraits, her love of the big cats in particular feature strongly in her work.

I shall be working on paintings for an exhibition I shall hope to be doing in a few years time to raise funds for the Elephants For Africa Trust. After my visit to their camp in the Okavango Delta - Botswana, where their research work is currently based, earlier this year I shall be concentrating on producing work for that – mostly in oils. I also plan to have a selection of merchandise that feature some of my paintings such as cards, mugs, calendars etc.

The Museum has a lovely little café that serves teas and cakes, as well as lunches. Please click here for visitor information. If you can pop along to visit whilst we are there we would love to see you. If not, I would recommend a visit when you can anyway, as it is lovely house with a collection of work dedicated to art inspired by nature not just paintings but ceramics, furniture, sculptures, carvings and all manner of other treasures.

Asiatic lioness oil studio sketch

8"x10" (20cmx25cm)


Another “go” at painting loosely; for the fun of it and as an experiment to see if they are liked and sellable. I need more practise to feel totally comfortable with this style, but it’s a great thing to do… to play.



The subject is Moti.. a lioness we used to have at the zoo until a couple of years ago when she died, an old girl, sadly from cancer. She produced some lovely cubs in her time with the splendid male Chandra (who was her companion for many years) to continue her line and she was a gorgeous lioness.

This painting was fun to do and it was hard for me to resist going into more detail, but I had set myself a time limit of 4 hours and stuck to it to see what I could produce.

As with the elephant piece I did before along these lines I have used oil paints with liquin as a medium to thin the paint and speed up drying times. This was from a photograph I had taken of Moti many years ago, but I used another photo I had taken of Chandra for the lighting colour range. I decided on the warm purple and browny oranges for the background to deepen the warmth of light on the animal and because the colours are easily crossed over between the two - tying them together.



Another thing I am doing that is different to my “norm”, is sketching the animal out in paint straight onto the canvas. In my more detailed paintings I spend a lot of time planning the piece - sketching and drawing the animal on a separate piece of paper to get my proportions right and to think about and decide on the positioning before I start the piece. So it is quite fun and challenging to start in a completely different way.

I will do more, as I’d like to improve and get more confident in the “less is more” approach. I know by many standards these aren’t hugely loose but for me it is quite a step to make and it’s fun playing and painting in a way different to what I really like to do.. and that is paint in a much more detailed way. I see no reason why I can’t do both :~)