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!

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..................

Satisfied customers?

Following on from my last post  (link here),  I just had to show you this adorable photo of the two dogs I did a drawing of last week which was taken when the drawing arrived at its destination - although I'm not quite sure what the one on the right thinks of it!!  He looks a bit shell shocked.

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

Cali and Charlie

A quick update on the finished the painting of Charlie - different type of painting to the one of Cali - as they are completely different characters, Cali being relaxed, chilled out, likes lying around a lot!  ..... and Charlie being energetic and yappy!  Here is the finished version of Charlie.   Cali's portrait can be seen by clicking this link

and here are Cali and Charlie framed up and ready to go to their new home

I've just been given another commission to do a pencil portrait of two dogs so the graphites will be coming out again soon.....ta ta for now!

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

Cali

Callie
by Sharon Whitley the rambling artist

This is Cali - she is Gary's mum's much loved golden retriever who I've painted as a gift for her.  It's always a pressure when you are painting for someone else especially when it's a portrait - and you desperately want them to be pleased with it. Cali is one of those dogs who always has sad looking eyes so I've tried to capture that side of her and she's always lying down!  Don't worry she is a happy dog though! - some dogs are like that aren't they, always looking at you with those doleful eyes!  Gary's mum also has another dog called Charlie who is next on my list to paint. I do enjoy painting and drawing people's pets and have had a few commissions to do them - usually as favours for family and friends - I'll never make a business woman lol!  When I do accept paid commissions there is never any obligation to buy if the customer isn't happy with the result - that sort of takes the pressure off a bit!!   The most important thing for me is to capture their personality and as I've said before I always start with the eyes - the soul of the painting.

Here are a couple of WIPs

You may also like this post about painting pet portraits

and this post of Holly my black lab

Thank you for dropping by - comments are welcome as always - it's always a pleasure to hear from fellow bloggers - and I've figured out how to turn off that annoying word verification thing so you don't have to faff about with it!

Painting pet portraits

Kimmi
by Sharon Whitley the Rambling Artist

Animals are probably my favourite things to paint - I love watching them come to life before my eyes on the paper and really try to capture their characters and expression, especially with pets - one thing is getting a likeness, but capturing their character is something else, which is why I was pleased with my painting of Holly, as I felt I'd 'captured' her.  A couple of months ago I wanted to do something special for a friend of mine who I go walking in the Lake District with.  She has a gorgeous dog called Kimmi who is very special to her -  knowing how much she means to her I decided to try and paint Kimmi but really wanted to get not just a likeness but to capture her personality on paper.  I always start portraits with the eyes whether they be humans or animals - for me if you get the eyes right, the rest will follow, they are the soul of a painting and bring it to life.   I took some WIPs of Kimmi while I was painting her so thought I'd include them here if anyone is interested in how I go about a painting.  I tend to work a lot wet in wet and work my way through bit by bit rather than layering.

I felt I'd captured Kimmi in this painting but there was only one person who could confirm it and that was Kimmi's owner and I was thrilled when she said how much she liked it.  This is what she said in a message to me

'I have to say that I've always been sceptical about pets being painted because if their 'personality' isn't in the painting they can be disappointing. The painting of Kimmi is totally outstanding, seriously, I can't get over it, it makes me fill up!

Well you can imagine how thrilled I was to hear that! Mind you Kimmi herself doesn't look overly impressed!

A photo of Kimmi with Kimmi!

Tomorrow Gary and I are off to Chester Zoo, him to take some wildlife photos from which I will probably do a few paintings but I'll also take along my sketch pad and pencils and maybe watercolours and try out a bit of plein air sketching!  Hopefully it won't rain - but then again it is a Friday, my day off, so it's bound to!!

As always comments are welcome

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