Today I am floating back down to Earth after an amazing experience at UKWCT (UK Wolf Conservation Trust) in Reading where I took part in a wonderful ‘Painting a Wolf in Pastels’ Workshop with Vic Bearcroft. This was my long awaited birthday present from my family and I’ve been looking forward to it for ages.
We were so lucky with the weather, as the sun shone almost all day which meant we were able to walk with 2 wolves around the grounds of the UKWCT, take lots of photos and the highlight of the day, was to ‘meet & greet’ a wolf (or in my terminology, ‘give it a good belly-rub’!!) This was pretty special, because from next year, the meet and greet won’t be an option during a wolf walk as the young wolves who take part in this activity will be mature adults and therefore unsuitable for handling by guests. I feel really lucky to have been able to do this!
Me and Nuka
There were around 18 of us taking part in the workshop and people had come from all over the country and I think there was even someone who had flown in from Canada!
Vic’s Workshop
We were all given a pre-printed sheet of velour paper and a reference photo of Mosi to work from and Vic explained and demonstrated each stage in the process of painting the wolf. Throughout the day from around 9.30am to 5pm we painted, stage by stage and after plenty of coffee breaks, the wolf walk, lunch and time out to watch the wolves we all ended up with a finished wolf painting. Really interesting to see how different everyone’s paintings turned out – we all began with the same image to work from and at the end there were 18 individual pictures!
Here are a few photos to show how my wolf painting progressed…
Stage 1 – how we all started.
Stage 2 – The tonal sketch
My finished painting.
I say ‘finished’ but I think there is still plenty of tweaking that could be done. However, rather than add to this, I’ll probably try a new painting based on one of the photos I took during the day and put into practice what I learned during the workshop.
At the end of the day, we each had our own interpretation of the same image..here’s Chelley with hers…
Chelley with her finished painting
Me with mine…
Me and my finished wolf.
and the man himself, Vic with his.
Vic with his finished demonstration piece.
I have to say, it was a fantastic day – thanks so much to Vic and the UKWCT!
If you’re interested in finding out more about either the Wolf Trust or Vic Bearcroft and his painting workshops, follow the links below. Vic donated £500 from yesterday’s workshop to the UKWCT, so apart from being an amazing experience for us, it was all in a good cause for the wolves too!
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