Day 7 - Rabbit

© Sharon Whitley

Skomer Island Rabbit

On our visit to Skomer Island back in June, we saw an abundance of rabbits as well as the puffins we had specifically gone there to see.  The rabbit holes make perfect homes for the puffins who nest in burrows at Skomer to raise their young.  This little cutie caught my eye so I decided to paint him or her as part of the 30 in 30 challenge.

Here is some information about rabbits that you may not have known, 

Originally from Spain and south-west France, the rabbit was brought to England in the 12th century AD by the Normans and kept in captivity in warrens as a source of meat and fur. Many escaped into the wild and eventually become so common that farming them was no longer economic. Helped by fast breeding, a diet of virtually any vegetable matter and persecution of predators, the rabbit slowly established itself in the wild in Britain, despite originally favouring a warmer, drier climate.

In the 1950s, the disease myxomatosis was introduced to curb their numbers and the rabbit almost became extinct, but is once again a common animal of the countryside. It can be a serious pest for farmers, eating and damaging crops.

The male is called a buck and the female a doe. The main predators of rabbits are the stoat and the fox, although young animals also fall to birds of prey and weasels.

from the British Wildlife Centre website from the British Wildlife Centre website

Day 6 - Another Badger

Day 6 of Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 challenge, and it's another badger.  I tried something a bit different with this trying to give a more abstract feel to the background blurring the badger colours into the greens and using salt to give a bit of interest - I quite like it but it's one of those things that doesn't always work and you can never recreate the same twice. I tried a similar effect with a painting yesterday and it turned into a complete disaster and I spent too much time trying to rescue it to no effect! 

I've made this poor badger's eyes look terribly sad, which wasn't what I set out to do but they say an artist's emotions can come across in their work so whether that has happened here I don't know or maybe it's just one of those things - I know I am terribly sad about the enforced cull which I could understand if I could find any evidence to suggest it might actually work to stop the spread of Bovine TB but I fear very much that it won't make a difference and thousands of these beautiful animals will have been slaughtered for no reason.  

I'm enjoying the painting a day challenge and am actually ahead of myself at the moment which is good because there are bound to be days when I won't be able to paint - so I've got a bit of a buffer to fall back on!

Day 5 - My Garden Frog

I have a little wildlife pond at the bottom of my garden which has matured nicely since Gary made it last Summer.  We noticed a frog peeping out of the pond weed a couple of weeks ago and over the next few days we kept a look out for him - we soon realised that there was more than one and have since counted five at one time in the pond.  Gary has taken some lovely photos of them so I did this painting from one of them.  The colours and patterns on our common frog are sooooo lovely!  

Here he is in the photo ...... isn't he a cutie! CLICK THIS LINK for information about frogs you may not have known

30 paintings in 30 days

Day 4 - Hedgehog

My painting for Day 4 is another little favourite of our British wildlife, the hedgehog - anyone get these little characters in their garden at night?  I haven't that I know of as yet.  As with much of our wildlife in Britain, there is evidence of a declining population of hedgehogs.  You can find out more about one of our favourite native species on the British Hedgehog Preservation Society website .


 Take a look at what the other participating artists on the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge have been doing HERE.

Day 3 - Badger

Day 3 of the Painting 30 paintings in 30 days challenge - I'm thinking of sticking with this theme of British WIldlife/Nature for every painting, if anyone has any suggestions as what they'd like me to paint let me know and if you can provide a photo even better!  

Of course the badger cull has now started in England in Somerset and Gloucestershire, a very controversial issue and one which saddens me to the core.  More information on badgers can be found here on the British Wildlife Centre website.  Simon King's views on the badger cull can be found here, he provides a coherent, rational argument against the cull based on scientific evidence.

Take a look at other artist's day 3 paintings HERE

Day One and Two - Harvest Mice

Here is the first painting for the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge I've signed up to here!  Harvest Mouse from a gorgeous photo by Dave Webb, wildlife photographer.


....and the 2nd another harvest mouse from a photo by the same photographer....

The loss of our field margins, hedgerows and grassland habitats is a threat to this species.

Find out more about Britain's smallest rodent here

Badger

I have a monthly challenge on my art page on facebook where I post a photo and ask other artists to paint or draw it and a few have been joining in - it's all just a bit of fun.  For September I thought I would have a badger as the challenge, partly to raise awareness of and out of respect for the badgers involved in the despicable cull that has started in Somerset and Gloucestershire.  A few other artists have said they would like to join in but unfortunately I've had a couple of people who agree with this cull posting their views too!  It seems to have died down now and hopefully they will leave us to paint badgers in peace.

The problem is neither me nor Gary have any badger photos - I've managed to get a couple from a wildlife photographer but if any of you out there have any more that I could use for the challenge I'd really appreciate it!

I very naively thought this cull wouldn't go ahead - and am so saddened and sickened that it has.  At least living in Wales, I know for now the local badgers here are safe, as the Welsh Government have gone for the vaccinations option.  The watercolour above is a quick one I did from a photo I found on a google search - if any bloggers out there would like to join me in painting a badger I would love you to join me!  I've also just joined in the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge HERE .  Should be fun and will keep me painting!