Rhapsody in Blue...

You know how it feels when a book you have been enjoying so much reaches the last page?  That's how I felt when putting the final touches to this watercolour - it had been such fun to do I didn't want it to end!

This is based on a reference photo we took at Fleet Pond - there are always a couple of cob swans posturing and beating up the other swans, and they always power through the water, wings akimbo, creating quite a wake.

I've used  very limited palette for this, just a couple of blues, a green and a brown, with a touch of orange for the beak.  Sometimes less is more.

Happy Easter by the way - my Simnel cake this year is a bit gooey as I thought it was a good idea to soak the fruit in tea first. No it wasn't.  However, it tastes delicious!

I Can See Clearly Now...

The first time I needed glasses I was finding that I didn't want to paint or read but couldn't understand why.  Now, about ten years on, I can recognise the signs so was more than ready when the time came for an eye test this month.  I got my new glasses two days ago (zebra frames! Zebra!!) and the improvement has been remarkable - well, I have been using the glasses I got 4 years ago for all close work so it's not surprising really.

So, painting is once more something that I want to do - plus it's been quiet this week, no stress.  I'm still attracted by swans and am enjoying this little watercolour immensely.

I made this brooch which was a freebie in this month's Mollie Makes.  Took about five minutes but I love the clever way it works.

So much so that I had a go at making a fabric flower from scraps I had lying around.  Also made a little coin purse with a small scrap of Japanese fabric - you've got to love a deer in a crown....

Currently on the needles...pampas grass.  Not as difficult as it sounds, in fact it's a little boring!

Happy New Year!

Here's hoping 2013 will be happier, healthier and a whole lot drier than 2012!

We've just been to feed the swans - but it was full of New Year's fairweather walkers with the same idea.  These pictures are from last week when we had the place to ourselves - it was drizzly and cold but lots of fun.

The swans got  a bit above themselves though, cheeky devils...

...but in the end I had them eating out of my hand!

It makes me laugh when you hear everyone trot out the same old wive's tale about swans breaking your arm with a peck or a wingbeat.  The worst we came away with was a gentle nip when fingers were mistaken for bread and a muddy webbed footprint on one shoe.

We're off to eat some delicious roast lamb - hope your New Year's Day is fun, peaceful and hangover-free!

Coughs & Sneezes......

When you've spent the whole week feeling like this......

...it's good that it's been possible to get on with this...

This is a very small portion of a painting I've been commissioned to do for the Derwent website - you will have to wait until it's up and running to see the rest.  This has been drawn/painted using Academy watercolour pencils.

I've also been able to make this....

...a tiny replica lurcher.  Interesting to do, figuring out how to make the whiskery bits look natural!

Hopefully it looks like the real dog....

One down, three to go......

There have been other projects on the needles, but none I am at liberty to show!

What A Difference A Day Makes....

For so long it feels as if we have been living under a permanent rain cloud, so when a day like today comes along, it is surprising just how good it makes you feel. No lie-in today, it was up and out for a crisp walk with the dog in the frosty fields then back home for pancakes and strawberries, our Sunday morning treat.

After getting some chores out of the way, it was off to Fleet Pond to feed the birds.  My daughter loves to feed the geese and swans - my favourites are the gulls.

It is quite difficult to throw bread high in the air and then try to get photographs of the gulls in flight without chucking your camera into the pond.  I took about 50 pictures, but only a few are worth keeping. However, I plan a painting using them at some time in the future.

Just before we left, this magnificent fellow came swimming up and I managed to get the perfect picture without risking life and limb.  Now this one definitely goes in the 'potential painting' folder.

I have lots of projects on the go at the moment, but none ready to show.  A painting for Derwent, yet another alligator scarf, some footwear for the animation, and joy of joys, someone wants me to knit replicas of their 4 lurchers - I love knitting little dogs!

Oh yes, and there is another zombie on the way.....

Fetch a Magnifying Glass......

....because here it is!  If you want a living room just like Justine's, you can buy my painting.....
This is in Country Homes & Interiors, November edition. 

With a bit of luck, the current painting with the decking and the beach chairs will be finished today.  I'll be glad to see the back of it - the novelty has worn off as I discovered many of the artist's errors along the way and probably made a few of my own too.  Give me a horse or a dog to paint rather than chairs any day!

Shells & Swans

I ordered this bead from Cheeky Cherub Designs last week, and when it came yesterday I was overjoyed.  The photo really doesn't do it justice, it is so beautiful.  Now I have to think about how I am going to make a necklace with it - I am thinking on natural thread with a few shells maybe.  It's been such a long time since I made jewellery, I feel a little rusty.

I'm finally happy with the swan painting - I gave the water a fairly thick covering of white Inktense pigment whcih calmed the patterning on the water considerably.  It can be purchased on my Etsy shop now.

I Don't Know.....

This painting is not quite finished but I am unsure of what to do to it as I am not happy with it yet.  Sometimes it helps to put a picture of a WIP on here and look at it on the screen from time to time which seems to draw one's eye to mistakes, corrections needed, and changes to be made.  I feel the water is very busy and is detracting from the swan but that could be because I have stared at it too much this week.  A couple of days off should do the trick.

This has been painted using Derwent Inktenses pencils and blocks.

Sunny Sunday...

Unbelievably, this weekend it has not rained!  It has finally been a chance to get out in the garden and try and rescue what plants have not been waterlogged to extinction, cut the foot high grass and plant out some seedlings.

Also an opportunity to get out to the lake and feed the swans - I must have hundreds of swan photographs but never tire of them.  I like this one with it's monochrome, the ripples on the water and the spread of the swan's wings.

Home Is Where The Heart Is.......

Last week I took my daughter to feed the swans and ducks on our local lake.  This time, I think we had just about every swan in the area clamouring for our few slices of stale bread, and things got pretty heated.  If you have never seen a couple of swans having a punch-up, let me tell you it is quite spectacular, involving lots of standing up in the water, flapping of enormous wings and pecking of beaks.  Of course I did not have my camera with me that morning....

In the distance I noticed a pair of swans who were not interested in the bread, they just had eyes for each other and were participating in a pair-bonding display.  This is like a courtship dance with the swans making elegant shapes with their necks and wings and mirroring each other's movements.  It was truly beautiful to watch, especially when you think that swans mate for life.  A recurring movement between the swans was the bending of their necks and touching of beaks, which I noticed made the shape of a heart...which in turn gave me an idea for a felt model.  The above is the result and I am quite proud of it, having designed it entirely on my own.  It will be for sale in my Etsy shop shortly.

On a more serious note, while it is easy in 'Blogland' to make it seem that everything in your world is happy and pretty with nothing ever going wrong, sometimes something happens that brings you down to earth with a bump.  I've been having a pretty stressful time lately due to a couple of things going on - one involving extensive visits to the dentist (ouch!) and the other involving my day job which I don't feel at liberty to discuss, despite my inner outrage.  Yesterday however, something happened which topped it all - my partner of 17 years was home from Belgium for the weekend but was feeling quite wonky since early Saturday morning.  He checked himself in to the Emergency Dept at lunchtime yesterday and I got a phone call two hours later to tell me that he'd been whisked up to CCU with a heart attack.  They'd dealt with it incredibly fast, cleared the offending artery, gave him a stent and he should be home within a couple of days.  It was a lucky escape - he could have had this happen while on his own in Belgium or while driving to or from there.  It kind of puts things in perspective - your loved ones are what matters, everything else is just decoration.

Interesting........

As you know, one of my daughter's favourite occupations is feeding the local bird population.  These days she tends to do this on a Thursday with her careworker, but last week this expedition was rained off.  So we went this morning to visit Fleet Pond instead.

Amongst the usual swans, mallards and Canada geese, there were some birds I didn't recognize at all. Luckily I'd had the forethought to take the camera along, so snapped a few pictures for reference when we got home.

Apparently they are Egyptian Geese, although are actually more of a duck than a goose.  Not native to the UK, the population here originates from escapees of parks and ornamental ponds.  Unusual and quite attractive birds and they have a weird mooing quack which sent my daughter off into paroxysms of laughter, as you can hear on  the video - if it loads!

I did take the camera along to the Fleet Carnival dog show this morning too, but as my dog was terrified by the crowds and loudspeaker system and lasted about ten minutes on the perimeter of proceedings before being taken home, there are no pictures of his shame.....

What a Difference a Frame Makes.....

It is always so suprising to me to see the difference between one of my paintings as it is, just paper, and then when it is behind glass in a decent frame.  I am so pleased with the above painting  especially as the frame itself was quite a bargain and yet exactly what I was looking for. I almost don't want to put it up for sale in the exhibition tomorrw.....

I was quite lucky this time round that I had frames at home that suited all the paintings - couldn't have found a better match for this one either.

Or this one - and I managed to frame everything for once without a bit of dust or a dog hair sneaking behind the glass when I have already taped the backing down!

So if you would like to see these in the flesh, come to the Fleet & District Art Exhibition at the Harlington Centre in Fleet from tomorrow until Sunday.

My next post will be my 700th - have I waffled for that much?  I'm thinking about a giveaway...any requests?

Swanning Around......

We haven't been to Fleet Pond for quite a long time as the birds were a bit scarce during the latter part of the winter.  Today I had promised Stacie to take her to feed whatever we might find up there.  There were quite a few swans already waiting by the pontoon when we arrived....

...and then they started flying in....

...until it all got a bit crazy!

Luckily for them we had one and a half loaves of bread left over from the Easter weekend, so no-one missed out.

Are You All Right?

I'm still trying to build up a stock of knitted pet sets for Christmas fairs, but instead they keep emigrating to the USA - lucky dogs!  This little pup was knitted recently to replace one of his globe-trotting friends, using a very interesting boucle/eyelash yarn.

I've had the yarn in my stash for quite a while - not too sure what the original plan was, maybe a boring scarf?  Anyway, I thought it might make a nice effect on a knitted dog, a bit like one of those cute Portugese waterdogs.
However, the closer he came to completion, the more he looked to me like he had some kind of exotic skin complaint.  Now I just can't get that idea out of my head!

But I think that adds to his appeal - he does have a very endearing little face, despite incipient mange.....
Once I have completed his accessories, he'll be in my Etsy shop - I wonder who will adopt this one!

One of our little Sunday pleasures is to go and feed the swans, geese, ducks and gulls on Fleet Pond.  Sometimes it is a quiet affair, sometimes there are punch-ups.

A couple of swans having a punch-up is always spectacular!  The victim here was fine - he had to have a bit of a flap to rearrange his feathers, and then kept a healthy distance from the posturing male that didn't want any other bird near 'his' bread.

Shady Swan

Almost every Sunday (when the car park is free) my daughter and I take the week's bread leftovers and go and feed the swans and geese up at Fleet Pond. It's usually a bit of a bun-fight with feathers flying and many a squawk. After they'd finished last week and started to disperse, I got some nice photos of a lone swan that followed us as we walked along the path. I've spent the past week painting it in watercolours. As always, what seemed simple ended up being a lot more complicated - those reflections needed a great deal of thought and planning out! The colours in real life are richer than in the photo - no matter what lighting conditions I used, I just couldn't get it correct.

I tried printing with a dead fish yesterday......more on that another day if I can make something out of my slightly dubious results....

Flying Swans

A couple of weeks ago my daughter and I went to feed the ducks at the local big pond. As well as the ducks, a whole family of swans came flying in to join the feast - they were just spectacular. Luckily, I had my camera with me and got some 'action' shots, albeit a bit shaky. They were good enough to be used as reference for the above painting, which is a composition combining the three poses I liked the best.

The above is painted in simple watercolour, in fact using a very limited palette of only 4 colours - Ultramarine, Viridian, Burnt Umber and an orange for the beaks. It was a real treat to paint something that hadn't been someone else's choice of subject. I felt a bit creaky and out of practice initially, but it soon came back and I've had a lot of fun with it.

This will be for sale - I'm hoping to have enough paintings to enter various exhibitions coming up, but if you feel you can't live without a swan painting, please get in touch - this would be £100 unframed.