Hampshire Open Studios August 22 - 31 2015

Only a month to go before I take part in my first open studios event and I am burning the midnight oil in my studio and out in the countryside getting inspired. There is so much to see out there! Wildlife and wild places provide so many great ideas for paintings, it is hard to know what to work on next.
In the winter I moved to a wonderful location on the edge of The New Forest, probably the place where my soul feels most at peace, and now find my days full of so many intriguing wildlife encounters. This week I have been sat by a dust dry marsh drawing willows and waiting for a Little Owl to return to its next site. Bliss in the rustle of the long grasses and the wind blown calls of skylarks. As a summer storm gathered strength on another day I found myself huddled behind a tangle of gorse and bramble sketching New Forest ponies. I must have been an interesting sight because a curious foal soon approached, gave me a good sniff, investigated my sketchpad and bag and then settled down for a sleep. What a thrill to be allowed to stroke his soft warm coat, scratch his neck and receive a friendly groom in return. The rest of the herd scrutinised my actions but seemed to accept my presence and the foal standing beside me. Returned home feeling alive.

So now I have to bring some of those animals and birds and wild places onto my canvases in preparation for Hampshire Open Studios. I will be setting up an exhibition at Courtens Garden Centre, Romsey Road, Whiteparish, SP5 2SD and working there daily at my easel 10 am - 5pm. It would be lovely to see any of you if you are visiting the open studios event. Directions are on Courtens website www.courtensgardencentre.co.uk and in the Hampshire Open Studios brochure. I am listed under the Romsey area. As well as original artwork, I will have a selection of cards and prints available to buy including 'Eagle Owl Gaze' below. Courtens also has a rather lovely coffee shop selling delicious cakes and, if art was not enough, you can browse their plants and maybe pick up something for the garden. I really look forward to seeing you if you are able to visit.



Eagle Owl Gaze

Artist in residence, acrylics workshop and NEWA 2015

Half way through the year already and it's been far too long since I entered anything in this blog. It has been a busy year and lots to look forward to in the next few months.
Having enjoyed a week as Artist in Residence at Nature in Art, Gloucester, in May, I returned there to run a painting workshop July 18 -19. Lovely students who worked so hard to complete paintings of a challenging fox portrait.

At the moment I have three paintings in the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art. A Barn Owl and portrait studies of a Leopard. Check out the NEWA website for details of the event and to buy art!

Evening Light - Barn Owl

Beauty - Leopard portrait

NEWA auction and show 2013

NEWA's auction will be held next week! All information can be found here:

http://www.newa-uk.com/pages/auction_list.php

NEWA Auction and Exhibition

I will be taking part in NEWA's 20th birthday celebrations and donating a painting of a Tawny Owl to the auction which is being held. Money raised at this event will be for three charities and conservation projects: Tusk Trust, Chester Zoo and the Wildlife Trusts. Online bids for auction pieces can be made and I hope this event will be well supported.  The other owl paintings shown here have all been entered into the exhibition selection so I hope they get through. I will be demonstrating acrylic painting in the artist area at the show over the weekend of 19-21st July. Should be a great show and I hope to see you there!

Arts for Conservation update

I have just returned from Botswana having spent three weeks with 17 children from the village of Moreomaoto on the edge of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. It was an incredible experience and one which I shall cherish. I very much hope that the children will continue to develop their skills as they were all very creative and clearly loved to paint. I shall certainly be returning to see them and encourage their art careers. 

Arts for Conservation Botswana

Just a week before I depart for Botswana to lead a wildlife painting workshop with children from a little village on the edge of the Makgadikgadi National Park. We will be using acrylics to produce paintings of wildlife and wilderness and then mounting an exhibition of the work in Maun. I am so looking forward to being back in Botswana and working with the children. It will be an amazing experience and I hope I will be able to inspire them with a love of painting wildlife and developing their art into careers. This project aims to encourage local artists and support the development of an arts community in a very remote part of Botswana. There is great potential for some amazing art to come out of this region, inspired by the wilderness landscapes and the wildlife living here. It is an incredible place, remote and vast and shaped by the hand of nature, not man.

National Exhibition of Wildlife Art

Two of my paintings of owls will appear at the NEWA event at Gordale garden centre on The Wirral. The owls are a matching pair and a favourite subject of mine. I have watched both of these birds whilst dog walking and riding around the countryside in West Sussex. The Tawny is more usually heard rather than seen as it lies low during daylight and emerges at dusk, hooting and patrolling its territory of field edge copses and stands of oak amongst the farm land. Patient watching and listening will often bring a glimpse amongst the branches and hooting back to his call might even get this curious owl to come and check you out.
One evening last summer, when walking my friend's German Shepherds, I spotted a Barn Owl  softly quatering the fields, it's wings turned blush pinky apricot as the sun was setting. That low evening light, slanting through the green nettles and seedy heads of Cow parsley seemed  a perfect setting for a Barn Owl, resting between hunting trips on the entrance to a farm yard.

For more information about NEWA please visit www.newa-uk.com

Prints of the Barn Owl and Tawny Owl are available to buy. Please email me if interested