Red Kite fest

I'm sure you'll agree with me when I say that red kites are stunningly beautiful birds. Up until last Friday I'd never been lucky enough to see one, but my word I was in for a treat!  Early Friday morning we drove down to Cadair Idris for a walk up to Llyn Cau, probably my favourite spot in Snowdonia

Regulars to the blog will remember I attempted a painting of this photo in July which I wasn't happy with at the time but it has grown on me a bit

Llyn Cau
© Sharon Whitley

LINK

Anyway, after our walk up to one of the most stunning places in Wales, we drove across to Rhayader and Gigrin Farm where they feed the local red kites each day at 3pm.  Soon after entering Powys we realised why the red kite is the much loved symbol of this vast county as we saw a few overhead on our drive down and I got very excited at these sightings.  Little did I know I would soon be seeing hundreds of these magnificent birds swooping down to grasp their food supplements for the day. There were literally hundreds of them, and a few buzzards taking advantage of the free food too!  Gary took some beautiful photos while we were there which I'm sure will soon be on his blog site.  I'll definitely be painting one or two of these I think! In the meantime though I'm posting a coloured pencil sketch I did of a red kite early last year, my first go at coloured pencil so its not that good!  I'd like to give cp another try some time as I've not really given them a chance and could do with experimenting with them a bit more.

Red Kite
© Sharon Whitley

To make the day even more special we had the most gorgeous weather, beautiful blue skies perfect for photography - I forgot my paints so no plein air, although I was so busy enjoying watching the kites I don't think I'd have done any even if I did have the paints with me!  The rest of the weekend continued to be lovely and sunny and on Saturday I led a group of walkers on a circular walk from Loggerheads to Moel Famau and back, a beautiful, leisurely walk with wonderful views of Snowdonia from the summit, and luckily I didn't lose anybody en route!

Gary and I enjoying the views

I love this photo that was taken by another Sharon who joined us on the walk, this is the view to Moel Famau from Loggerheads at the start of the walk.  I'm hoping we get just as good weather next weekend as we're off to the Lake District on Friday for 3 days, lots of walking and more plein air painting to bore you with!  I'll hopefully get a red kite painting in before then though! Til next time fellow bloggers, take care of yourselves!

Toby and more plein air

Another pet portrait I did as a gift for a friend's 50th last week.  I can finally post it now that she has received it, I really enjoyed painting him, it just seemed to come together nicely

Toby
© Sharon Whitley

And yes I've been out doing more plein air bits and pieces - I'm rarely happy with the result but enjoying the process! Here I am on Tuesday night at the summit of Moel Famau doing a very quick sketch because it was freezing of the Jubilee Tower

the resulting small watercolour  5.5 x 3.5"

and last night it was much calmer and warmer and I did a couple of small watercolours from this view point

 this is one of them, of the fence that lines the path up there

I'm painting in the comfort of the art room at home tonight, or I might just nip into the garden!  Til next time fellow bloggers..................

More Plein Air

It's funny isn't it - when you find that you really enjoy doing something that you didn't think was your cup of tea?  Well, I've found this with plein air painting.  I've been toying with the idea for a while but really didn't think I'd take to it, being so used to painting in the comfort of my home and when I am outdoors I'm used to walking, not sitting!  Yet I've found I've really quite enjoyed it - I've only done a handful of plein air sketches and the results haven't been great, but it's the enjoyment of sitting there with a live subject in front of you and being out in the open.  I did a couple on Friday for Maggie Latham's small works challenge.  The challenge is to paint some postcard sized watercolours en plein air.  I've got some watercolour paper scraps from Ken Bromley's Art Supplies - they have a box that you can help yourself from and I took a handful when I was there (link to post) so they came in very handy for this challenge!  We drove to Loggerheads which is an AONB near us - I already knew what I wanted to paint, the bridge over the River Alyn, so I sat myself down on the bench near the bridge, got some water from the river and started to paint.  I use one of those pan sets that W&N do when working plein air, which is a bit alien to me as I normally use tubes and it's weird not knowing what colours you're using as well but I'm getting used to using them.

Here is the first watercolour sketch which took about half an hour.

Bridge at Loggerheads
© Sharon Whitley

and here is me in situ - there were a couple of light showers but the trees helped keep me dry

Then we had a wander through the woods and I sat at the side of the path to paint another watercolour

The finished painting and my favourite of the two

Walk through the woods
© Sharon Whitley

With two small paintings under my belt it was time to visit Caffi Florence for a delicious bowl of homemade soup, then home, a perfect end to a lovely morning.  Poor Gary though was hoping to get some wildlife shots while I was painting as we sometimes see Tree Creepers, and Dippers in this area but no such luck this morning - it's a good job he enjoys watching me paint!

We went out to Loggerheads again on Saturday night and I took my little scraps of watercolour paper with me and had another go, this time the weather was a bit more extreme and the wind was howling making it a bit difficult to keep my pot of water upright and paint straight !!! 

Extreme painting!

Needless to say the results were quite loose - good job that was the feel I was going for then!!!!  I did three small sketches but am only showing you the one I like best as the other two are howlers!  I'm out with the paints again tonight to do a bit more!

Moel Famau
© Sharon Whitley

Til next time bloggers, have a lovely day!

Link to Maggie Latham's Small Works Challenge blog

Sunshine at last!

Moel Fenlli and Moel Famau taken from Moel Gyw

It was such a treat to wake up to blue skies this morning so before it could start raining again we went for a short walk up to Moel Gyw which is one of my favourite spots on the Southern end of the Clwydian Range. There are usually plenty of buzzards around this area and Gary hauled his 500mm lens up the hill to get some flight shots - so of course no buzzards made an appearance!  In fact no birds at all - plenty of cows though! - nice reference for a painting!

We then went to the NEWA exhibtion again - the 3rd time now that I've been - not only to marvel yet again at the fabulous artwork there but to chat to the demonstrating artists. Yesterday at NEWA I chatted to Julie Nash who paints beautiful acrylic wildlife art and today it was a pleasure to meet Robert Cook again who was demonstrating graphite work. Eric Wilson - an amazing pastel artist was also demonstrating and his work just took my breath away - and the lovely Irene Brierton, a detailed watercolour artist.  Here is a photo Gary candidly took of me chatting to her..

Irene Brierton painting red squirrels

So I came home feeling very inspired to try some different mediums again - I had only used pastels on Daley Rowney pastel paper before and found it a bit scratchy and rough but Eric recommended Clariefontaine pastelmat - really anyone who isn't familiar with his art, take a look at his website here.  Julie Nash had me thinking seriously of trying acrylics again - and as I'm on my last sheet of watercolour paper the acrylics may be coming out sooner than you think!!!  In the meantime, this evening I've started a painting on that last sheet of watercolour paper -  here are some works in progress of Charlie, Cali's friend and Gary's mum's other dog (see last post here) - I desperately need a trip to get some more art supplies!!!

happy with the eyes and the nose  I can move on to the rest of the painting

finishing here for tonight as I could feel myself getting tired and sloppy!!

As always I love to read your comments - they mean so much, thank you

Jubilee Tower

Jubilee Tower on Moel Famau
by Sharon Whitley the Rambling Artist

Jubilee Tower
by Sharon Whitley the Rambling Artist

I've had a couple of unscheduled days off due to my daughter slipping and twisting her knee in sports day on Wednesday so it was a trip to A&E for us yesterday and then another day off with her today as she still can't weight bear on it - so in between being nursemaid and fetching and carrying drinks and food for her I've had a bit of extra time to paint - yippee!!!!  I'm feeling quite animated at the moment because I'm having a go at  landscapes which I've usually avoided because I find them a bit scary!  These two paintings are both of a local landmark - Jubilee Tower which sits on the summit of Moel Famau, the highest point on the Clwydian Range in North East Wales and it was here where the hill walking bug started for me - so it  holds a special place in my heart.  Jubilee Tower was built in 1810 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of George III but most of it was blown down in a storm some years later, enough of the tower remains to give Moel Famau it's distinctive look - my niece says it looks like a booby!  Well I'll leave that for you to decide!

As always your comments are welcome!

for earlier posts on  landscapes click here and here

Moel Famau sunset

Holly my black labrador
by Sharon Whitley the Rambling Artist

After the soaking we got on Saturday in the Lake District it's been quite a treat to have a couple of nice sunny days - yesterday I even grabbed a chair got out into the garden and did a bit of plein air painting - for someone who always paints from photos it felt a bit different - but it was great fun and will definitely do some more in the privacy of my own garden - not sure if I like the thought of doing it in public with people looking over my shoulder (shudder) - I've recently moved into a bungalow where there are lupins and roses in the garden (wonder how long they'll last as I'm not particularly green fingered!) and I enjoyed having a little dabble at recreating them on the paper in front of me - straight in with the paint - another thing a bit alien to me as I'm used to having the comfort of a pre drawing.  Unfortunately my camera has suddenly decided to stop working so I can't post a picture!

It's been another lovely day today but work meant I couldn't get out for a walk until this evening - and what a gorgeous evening it was watching the sun go down into the Irish sea. The following photos were taken by Gary Jones who is a wildlife photographer.... for some amazing wildlife and landscape photos you can visit his blogpage here.

Moel Famau with the Jubilee Tower

Sunset

Sunset over the Irish Sea

Moel Famau is such a special place for me, I'm so lucky to be able to just pop in the car and drive the 6 miles there and I do so at every opportunity.  Holly my black labrador loves it up there.  The painting I've posted today is one I did of Holly a few months ago,  you will recognise it from the masthead.  I was pretty pleased with this painting as I think I've captured Holly's expression and personality, something I try to achieve with all my animal paintings whether they are pets or wildlife.  I also like the colours - I'd been putting off painting her as I'd never painted a black animal before and didn't want to use black but to mix my own - using alizarin crimson, indigo and yellow ochre.

Photo of Holly taken by Gary last night with the glow of the sun on her fur

Where it all started

Ooooh my first post - scary stuff - what shall I talk about???  I've been considering starting a blog for a while, partly as a diary to look back on myself even if noone else ever looks at it!!  Over the last few years I've discovered 2 things which I love and can't believe I've spent my entire life not realising it!  One is hill walking and the other, art.  The hill walking started about 4 years ago when me and 2 friends decided to climb Ben Nevis for charity - and that was it - I was hooked!  I'm very lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world, near the very special Moel Famau, the highest point on the Clwydian Range - I say special because this is where the walking bug first started and still where I walk the most as it is right on my doorstep

My walking companion Holly on Moel Gyw with Moel Fenlli and Moel Famau in the distance

The art bug started a little later, about 18 months ago.  I did art at school but mainly pencil drawings. When I left school life took over and I didn't do any art until one day I saw a  friend's photograph on facebook and felt the inspiration to paint it.  I used my children's cheap watercolours and some old watercolour paper and the painting wasn't great but it triggered something and started a passion which has been growing ever since.  

My first painting - the Langdale Pikes

After a few other attempts at landscapes I decided it was time to invest in some decent watercolour paints and paper and I was itching to learn so I hit the web to see what was out there and came across Bob Davies's site I Draw and Paint. From this site I found Paint my Photo and The Painting Loft - all ning sites which have been a godsend to me and taught me so much over the last year or so.  Paint my Photo in particular has been wonderfully supportive and feels like a very special community where artists and photographers share their work, their ideas and knowledge. I can't recommend it enough!

Some more of the early stuff from the end of 2010, still using the cheapo watercolours!

Greenfinch
by Sharon Whitley the Rambling Artist

Chaffinch
by Sharon Whitley the Rambling Artist

It was from reading up on watercolour in books and on the web that I found that you're not supposed to use black to darken colours and white to lighten them!  which is what I had been doing! and some say not to use black at all, so now I mix my blacks - I was doing lots of things wrong, but then again I do believe there is no right or wrong way - the finished result is what matters and if you've enjoyed painting it that's all that matters - if someone else likes it then that's a bonus!