A rescued stag and Challenge no.1

I painted this over a year ago and didn't like it so I thought I'd do a little experiment and try and do a rescue attempt on it - I lifted out the original background and added more washes to the stag and the water reflections underneath and now I quite like it - well it's better than it was anyway!!!!  The original painting was very flat with no tonal value  - It was fun getting out an old painting and seeing if it could be improved upon, it made me realise that my painting has improved a bit over the past year or so!!

After Polly Birchall posted some old school paintings on her blog, I said I would do the same so here are a couple of sketches from my VERY old sketchpad - from 1985!!!  I still kick myself for not continuing with art after I left school and leaving it til now but making up for lost time now!

Even back then my favourite subject to draw was wildlife and portraits.   

And for those of you who are interested in joining in with the monthly painting challenge I've just started on my facebook page here is the first photo - it's one of Gary's and is of 2 greylag geese strutting their stuff in the snow - I think he's captured great character in these geese, why not have a go, any medium, any style, I'd love to see what you artists out there come up with, I'll be having a go as well of course - if you post the result on your blog I'll copy and paste it on to here for everyone to see with a link to your blog and with your permission I'll post it to my facebook page as well - just a bit of fun, happy painting xxx

Big cat and little cats

Tiger

©Sharon Whitley

Hellooooo all you bloggers out there, hope you're all having a great day.  Where do the weekends go?  Can't believe it's back to work again tomorrow - it's been a funny old weekend, no walking this weekend except for an unscheduled one on Friday night!  Gary and I went on our 'spinning' Christmas do in Chester - we got the bus and paid for a return fare planning to get the last bus back - but while we were having our meal it was snowing heavily outside - so much so that all the buses stopped running - and most of the taxi drivers went home too!  After about an hour trying to find a taxi we finally managed to flag one down but it couldn't get us all the way home because of the snow and we had to walk the last couple of miles - in pouring rain, cold - now you know I love a good snowy walk but not in my party frock! I was glad to be home I can tell you!  Yesterday we went to Chester Zoo again and met the baby elephant that was born last Monday - oh what a little cutie!  It was great to see the animals in the snow and Gary got some wonderful photos as usual, the highlight of the day was watching a rather brave little robin hopping around one of the tigers trying to pinch a scrap of his lunch!

As well as painting a big cat I've painted a couple of small cats too, in a much looser style

© Sharon Whitley

©Sharon Whitley

Those of you who follow my facebook page may have read that I'm planning on starting a 'monthly art challenge', wherby I post a photo and invite other artists to paint it in whatever medium and style they wish - there are a few interested and I'll be posting the first challenge before the end of the month ready for February - I'll post the photo here on my blog too if any of you out there would like to join in.  It's just a bit of fun, not a competition, just a way of seeing how different artists interpret the same subject and hopefully we can all learn a little bit from each other.  I'll be mainly using Gary's photos, but I won't limit it to wildlife and landscapes and will also use photos from the Paint my Photo site and use suggestions from artists that are joining in the fun - so let me know if you'd like to join in - it doesn't have to be every month just whenever you want depending on whether you have the time and like the subject!  That's it from me for now - have a wonderful week!

Stonechat and a Herdy

After finishing my series of garden birds I decided I would gradually start painting the birds that I see when out and about and the beautiful stonechat is one of them.  We sometimes see one or two when we're out walking - they're gorgeous, love the way they perch right on top of the heather and love the noise they make, like two stones being bashed together. Unfortunately, they've been hit by harsh winter weather which has seen a decline in their numbers over the last couple of years. Gary rarely carries his big lens when we're out on a long walk and so he doesn't have any close up photos of the stonechat (yet) so I've pinched my reference photo from Brian Rafferty's blog (I know you don't mind Brian!)

By the way if anyone reading this actually sees a stonechat in this country I know a man who'd be very interested to hear about it Pete Woodruff of Birds2Blog is recording all the sightings he can, to try and discover if their numbers are on the increase again.

Something else which we never fail to see when out walking the hills is sheep of course and the Herdwick breed fondly known as 'Herdy's, native to the Lake District in Cumbria are my favourites. They are such characters and I've got a mountain of photos to choose from as he can rarely walk past one without stopping to take a photo!

I'm trying to get a bit of painting done before I go back to work tomorrow after the Christmas break - I shouldn't complain as I've had two weeks off but I'd rather be out walking or painting than going to work, sigh, keep buying those lottery tickets!

Thank you to those of you who have checked out my daughter's new blog Wildlife with Whitley  and left such encouraging comments - she was thrilled!

Carneddau ponies

Yesterday was a stunner of a walk - pop over to Two pairs of boots for more photos - the cloud was rolling around all day but the mountains remained cloud free where we were walking.  We saw the shaggiest Carneddau ponies we've ever seen, snug in their winter coats and breathtaking scenery.  Next on the agenda art wise is to paint one of these beautiful ponies but not sure whether to paint them in their surroundings like in the photo above or a close up as I've done before, the one below is now owned by one of my facebook page likers, so I definitely need to paint another!

Gary often posts his photos on to Paint My Photo, a site where artists can browse copyright free photos to use as references for their artwork - there is an amazing selection of photos on there and I would highly recommend it to artists who like to use photos as references. He has posted a few of his Welsh ponies on there which have inspired quite a few artists to paint them. Here is a small selection of them......

 by the amazingly talented David Stribbling - in oils

 and his equally talented daughter Rachel - yes that is an oil painting not a photo!

LINK TO STRIBBLING WILFLIFE ART

a stunning acrylic by Christine Williams

and this lovely little watercolour by Betty Mulligan

and to end my blog post today I'd like to introduce you all to my daughter Sian who decided last night to take up blogging herself - she's 12 years old and loves taking photos, particularly of animals so her blog will be dedicated to wildlife photography - I hope some of you will pop over and give her a bit of encouragement  as I would really like to spur on this interest she has - psssst, she's also pretty good at drawing so hoping to spark an interest in art there too!  

Here is a link to her new blog, Wildlife with Whitley!

Baby Elephant and a trip to the zoo

Today's painting for you is the very cute and brand new baby elephant which was born at the end of November at Chester Zoo.  Gary was there on Monday and took some beautiful photos of the little elly as well as some more amazing tiger and cheetah shots and some of the gorgeous painted dogs which I love - so lots more tempt me into getting those brushes flowing!!

Talking of zoos we've been to the zoo today, not Chester Zoo though but South Lakes Animal Park, a cracking little privately owned zoo in Dalton in Furness, in Cumbria - it's well worth the 2 hour drive - I just love it there, there's not as much variety as in Chester but it feels more personal and inviting somehow, and my daughter Sian absolutely loved it!   Here we are taking a walk with the emus......

There'll be more piccies from South Lakes and Chester Zoo on Gary's blog soon.  That's it from me today - off for a BIG walk tomorrow - weather looking good so fingers crossed  - thank you so much to everyone who commented on my zebra painting from yesterday, those stripes certainly gave me a headache but it was worth it - I'm planning on doing more partial face paintings in the future and Rhonda I'm planning on painting some of those wild ponies for sure - here is one I did a while back....hopefully we'll see some on our big walk tomorrow!

Your comments are welcome as always...

First painting of 2013!

I've always loved Gary's photo which I used as a reference for this painting - I love the composition of it with just the eye showing so I've been wanting to have a go at painting it for a while now - but all those stripes!!!!  Arrrgh!!!  And I have to say they did drive me a bit nuts but I'm glad I persevered  - so here it is my first painting of hopefully many more to come this year.  We've also had our first walk of the year, on New Year's Day up onto Conwy Mountain, a really great start to the year.......

for more piccies from the walk, hop over to Two Pairs of Boots where you'll see the smallest house in Britain (it's tiny!), Holly in her element swimming in the Conwy Estuary and some gorgeous wild ponies which we often see in this area  - we could do with a few more followers over there as well if you like!  We're off to South Lakes Animal Park tomorrow, looking forward to that and then Friday another walk - I hope the year has started full of excitement for the year ahead -  til next time bloggers!

Last post of the year - Happy New Year

Lucky - commission
© Sharon Whitley

Well 2012 is almost behind us, we're about to wave bye bye to another year - the year I started blogging and hopefully this will continue for many more years to come - thank you so much to everyone who follows this blog and Two pairs of Boots which is the blog Gary and I share.   I really do appreciate every one of you who pops by and leaves comments -  it's a funny thing isn't it - you feel like you really do get to know people through this blogging lark even though you are unlikely to actually meet them in perso - I feel like I've 'met' some wonderful people, inspirational, artists, walkers, birders, wildlife lovers and it's wonderful browsing through all your blogs - which I do, even if I don't always leave comments - sometimes I have to admit that captcha thing puts me off as it takes me at least 3 attempts to get it right!!!

It makes it all the more special when the opportunity arises to actually meet one of you in person which I did yesterday - a truly inspirational young man - this young fella is quckly turning into a local celebrity - Findlay Wilde, having been featured recently in Cheshire Life and with other exciting things in the pipeline - if you don't already follow his blog then take a look, this young man is only 10 years old and is already an expert on birds and his enthusiasm for nature is wonderful to see in someone so young. Gary and I met up with him yesterday at Burton Mere to deliver a painting I'd done earlier this month.  You can read about the day on Gary's blog post here and on Findlay's post here.

Here I am with the young man himself

.... a great way to end the year !  Look forward to meeting you and your family again soon Findlay!

The cheeky chappy who I painted above is my latest pet portrait commission which the recipient is thrilled with so big sigh of relief again - this commission stuff is not good for the nerves! I'm so excited about 2013 and can't wait to keep those brushes flowing with more paintings and hopefully improve with practice and Gary and I have got a big charity challenge coming up in June which I'm both nervous and excited about - more about that soon, so in the meantime have a wonderful New Year whatever you do - we'll be walking up Moel Famau to take in the New Year (as long as it stops blowing a hooly and pouring down with rain that is!)

Now for something completely different.....

After painting nothing but birds for the last few weeks I'm having a play around with other subjects - so as Autumn is well and truly with us I thought I'd start with a little study of conkers.

Bonkers about Conkers

© Sharon Whitley

As some of you reading this will know from my last couple of  posts I've been away for a few days walking in the Lake District with Gary and despite it being rather a mixed bag weather wise we got some wonderful walks in, starting with the beautiful Cadair Idris on Saturday where we had great weather...

The glaciated bowl of Llyn Cau

Cadair Idris summit - Penygadair

We did a round of the Coniston Fells on Monday - 5 more Wainwrights completed and again, pretty good weather for most of the day...here I am on Grey Friar, with the mighty Scafells behind me.

Grey Friar with a Scafells backdrop

One of the things I always love seeing when walking in the Lake District are the local sheep, especially the tough Herdwicks or Herdys as they are more affectionately known......here is a particularly cute one....

 and I've also got a soft spot for Swaledales....how can you not love this face!

Both of these are contenders for future paintings, hopefully sooner rather than later so watch this space!

We ended our stay in the Lake District with a visit to Loweswater where we stayed with the lovely Ann and Roger Hiley of Loweswatercam  fame.  Here they are with a drawing I did of their dogs Harry and Bethan.  Take a look at their website to get to know them better and maybe buy one of their calenders (we did) in aid of Mountain Rescue.

The Hileys made us feel so welcome and really looked after us, freshly made bread, home made soup before a wet and windy walk up Low Fell (enabling me to tick off my 80th Wainwright fell) and a wonderful Greek themed supper - the first thing I did when I got home was get the bread maker out which has been hidden away in the cupboard for the last few years!

Holly enjoyed meeting Bethan and Harry, here they are on Low Fell looking down over Crummock Water

Thank you for reading and don't forget to leave a comment so I know you've popped by - have a wonderful day!

Can you tell what it is yet?

Yes I know ...... it's a bird! I was hoping to finish this tonight after starting it late last night but my daughter has invaded my art room to do her homework! ... so it will have to wait til tomorrow now .... in the meantime though ... can you tell what type of garden bird it is from what I've painted so far ... I'm nearly finished with painting the garden birds -  only a couple more to do unless I get any newcomers arriving - I'd love to see some long tailed tits and Gary assures me that I will in time - and a bullfinch and woodpecker would be nice although unlikely I think where I live -  the elusive sparrowhawk is still keeping a low profile.  

I was appalled yesterday when my daughter rang me when she got home from school upset after witnessing some school boys shooting at starlings with a bb gun - why oh why do some kids (and adults) get their kicks from doing that sort of thing -  I just don't get it and never will.

I had a break from painting birds at the weekend to finish a pet portrait and really hoping the owners like it, it's good to get the drawing practice as I tend to do much more painting than drawing these days...

and last but not least I'd like to introduce you to another garden visitor - not a bird this time but an acrobatic grey squirrel - not as clever as Andrew's squirrel from Rambles with a camera fame as he hasn't managed to destroy any feeders yet or get at any nuts but he keeps popping over to have a go.

Acrobatic squirrel

Hope you're all having a wonderful week whatever you're doing, til next time bloggers!

Red Deer and the Rugby League final

Hello bloggers - hope you've enjoyed the weekend and those in the UK hope you've enjoyed the lovely weather we've had - I'd like to say I've been out walking those hills but it was not to be this weekend - I promised my daughters I'd take them shopping for holiday clothes - I don't particularly like shopping especially when there's blue skies up above and you know the views up in the mountains are bound to be spectacular - but never mind, they'll be there other days - and my two shopaholic daughters were happy so all is good!!   Gary and I had a lovely day out on Friday at Tatton Park - a great place to watch and photograph red deer now that the rutting season has started.  There were a few testosterone filled stags about but the rut hadn't really got going although we came across a bit of play fighting........

photo by Gary Jones

We had a lovely walk through the grounds,

my photo

This stag had already rounded up a good number of hinds

photo by Gary Jones

Lots of roaring going on from the larger stags - a wonderful sound

photo by Gary Jones

and this is my favourite photo of the day - I love the backlight on this and the startled look of this young stag as we came across him walking through the trees...

photo by Gary Jones

We're hoping to go back over the next few weeks as the rut really gets going.  More photos on Gary's blog here

Saturday night we had tickets to watch the rugby Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford hoping that Warrington Wolves would take the cup but it was not to be and they were beaten by Leeds Rhinos - a great game though - so my little piece of artwork for you today has a rugby theme - although it's Rugby Union painted as my little tribute to the Wales earlier this year.

Go Wales!

 by Sharon Whitley the Rambling Artist
© Sharon Whitley

Hopefully my next post will be another bird painting - I spotted a wren this weekend - well actually it was Gary that spotted it and pointed it out to me so the little wren is now on my ever growing painting list!

WANTED! Sparrowhawk reference photo

A call out to all the wildlife bloggers out there - I'm after a good photo of a Sparrowhawk to paint as Gary doesn't have one - neither does Paint my Photo who I also use for copyright free photos so if anyone out there has a good close up photo of a Sparrowhawk they don't mind me using I'd be really grateful - and I would credit the photographer and send a print of the finished painting if you want - or you may not want it lol!

It's Friday!  My day off but no walking up mountains today, instead we're having a wildlife day, off to Tatton Park as Gary wants to get some shots of the red deer now it's rutting season.  We were going to take our bikes but there's a strap gone missing from the bike rack - very annoying!  Hoping he gets some great shots, in the meantime here's a painting I did from one of his photos of a hind which I think he took at Leighton Moss.

Hind

© Sharon Whitley

Have a fantastic Friday everyone, whatever you're doing!!!

Commission complete

I can finally post the drawing I did of two golden labradors now that it has been safely delivered to it's new home.  I love drawing dogs and have done a few pet portraits both in graphite and watercolour including my own black lab Holly whose eyes you can see looking at you every time you open this blog!  It's always a big sigh of relief when the customer is happy with the result - 'you've got them spot on' was the reaction I got to this one - phew!  I'm not one for intricate detail or realism and don't think you need this to capture a likeness or personality. That's not to say that I don't like pet portraits that are photo realistic - I'm in awe of them and the talent and skill that goes into creating them but I know that I could never achieve that sort of detail in my own work, I know my limitations!!

Here's some WIPs for those of you who like WIPs!

I did my first portrait commission last year and a few weeks ago I unexpectedly met the couple I'd done the portrait for and the dogs themselves when we did the Haystacks walk I blogged about recently. The portrait was a birthday present and I was lucky enough to be sent a photo of the framed drawing with the dogs themselves but it was such a surprise and treat to actually meet them all in person.

Roger and Ann Hiley with their drawing of Bethan and Harry

Roger and Ann are keen hill walkers and have a website documenting their walks HERE


To see more pet portraits follow the links below
Portait of Kimmi   
Portrait of Cali
Portrait of Holly




As always your comments are most welcome

At last a proper walk! - oh and another kingfisher painting!

It seems such a long time since I last went hill walking due to one thing and another - including the ridiculously wet and windy summer we're having - don't get me wrong I'll go walking in all weathers, rain, sleet, snow, howling gales, the lot but I have to admit I was getting a bit tired of getting an absolute soaking EVERY time I went out! ......  Saturday at last we got out for a proper mountain walk up on the Carneddau in Snowdonia,  a fantastic walk along the ridge from Pen yr Ole Wen to Pen yr Helgu Du, taking in Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llewelyn en route.

I just love these Welsh mountain names and like to know their meanings.  Pen yr Ole Wen was always translated as Head of the White Light although it has more recently been translated as Head of the White Slope - which would make more sense - the Ole being derived from goledd meaning slope rather than golau meaning light.  Pen yr Helgi Du is a wonderful name for a mountain meaning Hill of the Black Hound and sits next to my favourite mountain name Pen Llithrig y Wrach - Slippery Hill of the Witch (though some translate it as Hill of the Slippery Witch - even better!!!)   Not sure where the black hound or the slippery witch come from originally but I don't care - just love those names and they just roll off the tongue in Welsh. Apologies to those of you out there who may use google translate to read my posts  - you won't have a clue what I'm talking about!!  

Anyway off we went on our walk, the weather looking good - for a change - although it wasn't to last, when we got onto the ridge proper the heavens opened and we had torrential rain together with bitingly cold winds - it's July for goodness sake!!!!! It was like this for well over an hour but when the rain finally stopped the wind soon blew us dry!! Despite the downpour and the fact that I had forgotten to pack my waterproofs we had a great day - it was just so good to be up in the mountains again!

Here is a selection of photographs from the walk - when it wasn't raining!

The beautiful Cwm Idwal seen from the climb up the front of Pen yr Ole Wen - the car park and buildings below give it some scale

looking down into the Nant Ffancon valley a typical flat bottomed valley

Everyone's favourite - the magnificent Tryfan

Looking towards Pen yr Helgi Du which we didn't climb as we were so cold and wet we decided to head back down to the valley

One of the Carneddau ponies which roam this area

Carneddau pony

for more photos from this walk see Gary Jones's blog here

and last of all for fellow art bloggers who want to see a painting here is another kingfisher I painted today using the inktense blocks I bought on Friday - I'm loving the vibrant colours they give!

Another go at painting the kingfisher in flight from Chrissy M's amazing photograph