Mike's conservatory (2 Viewers)

[peter mathios]

Nice stonechant painting and again another writeup that puts me right there with you. I could feel the weather!! I need to go get a cup of coffee

 

[birdpotter]

Mike, I love your sketches and of course the stonechat painting.
And I agree with Peter, I could feel that chill that comes with an impending rainy day.

 

[nickderry]

something quite delicious about that stoney, excellent.

 

[Woody]

Yesterday was the last of Ben's interviews and so the last excuse for me to have a sneaky hour or two in areas that I wouldn't normally get to. This time it was Winchester university so I whizzed down the M3 to the edge of the New Forest at the Rufus stone. I used to holiday in the New Forest at least once a year with my parents when I was young so I've loved the area for a long time. Firstly I wandered down into the woods and simply enjoyed the atmosphere, the sounds of birds where everywhere. There were finches, tits, woodpeckers, woodpigeons, wrens, robins, dunnocks,...well, you get the idea. The ground was very boggy though and, since I didn't have a change of footwear for driving, I decided that the dryer heath would be a better bet. After trudging up the slope at least I found some dry areas between the boggy bits. To my delight I spotted a fallow deer through some trees and I couldn't beleive my luck. The one deer soon turned out to be a group of nine as they ran across the heath from one patch of woods to the safety of the thicker trees. They stopped at the edge of the wood and turned to watch me for a few seconds before melting into the trees. It was a wholly unexpected encounter which made my day! There was a group of birds feeding at the bottom of a slope where the ground was wet, some blackbirds, a chaffinch or two, a robin and three or four song thrushes. I do occasionally get the odd song thrush in my garden at home but I thought these birds would provide a good opportunity for a couple of sketches so out came the pencils and sketchbook. After a happy half hour I had to make my way back to the car but the encounter with the deer had been enough to make the couple of hours' drive worthwhile, even though they were gone too quickly to get any sketches done.

Mike

 

[cjoakley]

The stonechat is wonderful Mike and love the sketches of the song thrush...the write-up's are so amazing I'm left wondering why you don't write a column for a paper or something...surely such passion would find an audience...

The wind was relentless and the car shook with it (Not internally I hasten to add!).

Thanks for that - I miss that sense of humour - sadly, very few around here would appreciate it...this crack made my day!!

 

[timwootton]

...this crack made my day!!

Usually makes mine too . . .

 

[birdpotter]

Usually makes mine too . . .

Ditto.

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

Lovely sketches Mike and the narrative

 

[Woody]

Just got back from the gallery after delivering the pheasant commission, hopefully it's out of my hair now. The eagle eyed among you will notice that this painting bears an uncanny resemblance to a previous painting of mine. That's because the brief was; Exactly the same pheasant but take out the buttercups. So that's what the customer wants, that's what the customer gets. Must say though, I'll be glad to get back to painting what I want to in a way I like. Here's the pheasant, please bear in mind it's been photographed badly in artificial light so there is distortion and the colours are icky!

Mike

 

[cjoakley]

Very nice painting Mike - love the feathers and the light is wonderful...hopefully the client is happy with it - I'd be over the moon!!

 

[timwootton]

Stupendous! - I remember the 'other' one, too (which was also fab!). What scale are you working at Mike?
Lovely piece.

 

[nickderry]

yes, a beauty indeed, as was the one with the buttercups in - the client has surely got to be happy with this one (or else they need a slap!)

 

[Woody]

This one's 14"x18" Tim. I really fancy having a crack at something big soon though!

Mike

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

I love the light in this Mike

 

[Andrew H]

Ha, Now ive found yer thread, I can follow the comments to all your Sketches.....having seen them being done in the field, and worked up into full blown painting, I have to agree with all the comments posted thus far....Great Stuff Woody....:t:

www.holedstonepictures.webeden.co.uk

 

[cjoakley]

I really fancy having a crack at something big soon though!

Has anyone else experienced this urge to do larger works?

It happened to me quite a while ago - but once I'd experienced the sense of freedom and ease of movement painting on that scale allows I found it hard to go back to doing smaller stuff!!

Careful Mike!!

 

[Woody]

No real write up from Elmley today, just a page of redshank and ringed plovers.

Having spent saturday finishing the pheasant painting I fancied something a little different on Sunday. After a much needed cup of coffee to ward off some of the chill from the morning's session on Elmley, I began a return to the style that I am most comfortable with. All the loose, hopefully bold, sloshing about on canvas I've been doing has been great fun, I've been learning a lot and have even painted one or two passable pictures, but, I have always loved detail. My tutors were forever telling me to 'loosen up'. I would try it for a while but , inevitably, return to tiny drawings or paintings. I remember entering a competition once with a drawing of a twig. It was covered in lichen and to my eyes, looked like a landscape on a tiny scale, the judges obviously felt differently!
I didn't want to spend time on thinking too much about composition and so on, I just wanted to get back into the 'detail zone'. So a bird on a stick is always a good fall back! I have been sketching kestrels a lot lately so this little lady was chosen as my subject for the day. Obviously this is a work in progress, and I'm off to make some more progress just now!

Mike

 

[dryslwyn]

I'm really interested to see that you have put the black markings on the feathers before the brown overall colour. Since this looks like acrylic will you paint around them? Have saved this image to help me with feather patterns :t:

 

[Woody]

I sometimes go over my pencil drawing with a thin brush to fix the drawing in place and stop the graphite from making things go dirty, especially when there's a lot of markings to consider. I'll just paint directly over the top of the brown line until it's obscured. And there lies the beauty of acrylics; Screw it up and you can paint away your mistakes, cheats paints!

Mike

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

Lovely work Mike
Mrs Kessy is going to be a cracker