Hello again! It feels ages since my last post, which might look like I haven’t been up to much – but my paintbrushes have been in overdrive for the past couple of weeks! I’ve added the finishing touches to an oil seascape which I initially painted over a year ago…it now has a bit more drama, with a peregrine falcon chasing a gull through a stormy sky.
I’m still working on 2 more ‘landscapes’ (all of these I painted to try to teach myself how to paint a landscape to enable me to paint a ‘whole’ painting of a bird in its natural environment, as opposed to a simple bird portrait. I still have to work hard on the landscape element of a painting, but it was a good learning curve to climb.) I’ve been keen to utilise these landscapes, so I’ve recently added some birds! These two landscapes are probably my favourites of the ones I did, and I decided to add a Barn Owl to the evening sunset (the owl is still in need of refining) but I’m happy with how it works as a whole. The golden winter lake seemed to be crying out for a Great Grey Owl in the scene – and with Elvis as my model, I decided to give it a go…. it was then I remembered why Elvis is not more often used as subject matter in my paintings – he is SO DIFFICULT to paint!!!!!!!! At this point in time, I have obliterated his face as I couldn’t get it just right – I’ll have another attempt when I can muster up enough determination!!
I was hoping to finish these off before the end of 2012, but they still have a little more work needed. However, it hasn’t stopped me starting a new batch of paintings. I’ve become particularly fond of George, the Barn Owl at work, and so it follows that she has become the latest star of my paintings! Today I finished two out of a series of seven new Barn Owl paintings, all in acrylics, and with a subtle message within the paintings…
With farmers having to diversify and many barns being converted into cottages, wild barn owls who once nested in our barns, now rely on us to provide nest boxes in order to breed successfully. Barn owls have had a really tough time – add to this the extreme flooding we have experienced during the last 12 months, barn owls are likely to be encountering great difficulty finding food due to the small mammals drowning. For survival of the species, nest box provision is vital, in fact the majority of wild barn owls actually live in nest boxes now – perhaps they should be re-named ‘The Nest Box Owl’? By including a nest box in each painting (well, most of them!) I hope to subtly bring this issue to the viewer’s attention. Here are the first two I’ve finished.
To finish this blog, I promised to show you the painting I was commissioned to do just before Christmas…here it is ‘A Walk In The Woods’
Hopefully, I’ll manage to finish some more of my Barn Owl Series very soon…so watch this space!!
Until next time, happy painting! 😉
Recent Comments