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!

Carneddau Pony

This is painted from one of my favourite photographs of Gary/'s.  It was one of those special moments when we were walking over the summit of the final mountain on our walk and this beautiful wild pony appeared from over the skyline towards us - we both looked at each other, thinking the same thing - magic!  Gary managed to get a wonderful photo and I've wanted to have a go at painting it ever since, only now plucking up the courage to do it!  Here is the photo.....

We've also now completed our 4th waterproof free walk of the year - that must be already a record on last year which was horrendous weather wise!  We decided to walk up Snowdon, the highest mountain in England and Wales and it was a gorgeous (although cold) day... so if you'd like to see the photos pop over to TWO PAIRS OF BOOTS for a nosey!  Here's a taster.....

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!

Merry Christmas to you all!

What a mad time of year this is!  Have you been rushed off your feet like me?  My own fault really for leaving everything til the last minute like I do EVERY year!  But nearly there now and today I've given myself the day off from Christmas stuff and been to the zoo with Gary (although I did buy a couple of stocking fillers from the gift shop!.  Gary was in his element trying out the new camera - results soon to be posted on his blog.

This evening I've managed to squeeze in a festive painting - I've given my little robin a Santa hat and made it snow - I really hope the constant rain stops and we get some snow over Christmas.   I made sure there was plenty of snow in Gary's Christmas card too - he's never happier than when he's out in  snow covered mountains, ice axe at the ready...

This will probably be my last post before Christmas so I'd like to wish you all a wonderful time over the festive period and very best wishes for the New Year and thank you all for your support since I started this new venture into blogland earlier this year - I really appreciate you popping in to read my posts, viewing my artwork and photos and leaving such lovely comments!

Nadolig Llawen!!!

Findlay's Ducks

I love this photo that Findlay took of the three ducks that he has on his wonderful birding blog here.

I thought it would make a nice, simple little painting, just 3 ducks waddling along, hope you like this Findlay...

Don't forget to pop over to Findlay's blog Wilde About Birds - it's an absolute delight, a very inspiring young man!

Barn Owl complete

I've made a bit of room in my blogger storage which such keep me going another few posts before I have to pay for extra storage (very annoying!!) I'm now resizing photos before I upload to minimize space - thanks again for the advice I was given in the last post.

Happy Birthday little bruv!

Doing what he loves

© Sharon Whitley

It was my little brother's 40th birthday at the weekend - so actually not so little any more! - but to me he'll always be my 'little' brother - even though he towers above me.  He's as mad on mountain biking as I am on hiking and art so as a birthday card I painted this watercolour of him on his mountain bike.  It was a bit rushed and even though the legs are not right and the wheel is a bit wobbly I quite like it overall - and it certainly made a change from birds!   Not done any more on the barn owl, will hopefully have time to work on it tomorrow, hope you're all having a great day!

Waxwings and more from the Wildlife Event

I was thrilled on Friday when I got to see the waxwings for myself - not the most exotic of places, Deeside Industrial Park!  We soon found them - there were a few serious photographers already lined up with their huge lenses on tripods ready to photograph the waxwings as they flew down to feed on the Rowan berries.  There was also an artist there sketching the birds in preparation for doing a painting in acrylics - he said he doesn't do watercolour - too difficult lol!  As always Gary got some spectacular shots of them and hope you like the selection I've posted here....

Here are a few more photos from the wildlife event that was held at the shopping centre on Saturday where I sat painting the barn owl.  It was nice to actually have a real barn owl there too!

It was lovely talking to passers by who stopped to watch and ask questions, including quite a few children who said they'd like to be artists when they grow up so if I gave them just a little bit of encouragement I'd be very happy - it's certainly something I'd enjoy doing again.

Barn Owl update

I did some more work on the barn owl today while I was doing a painting demo at a small wildlife event at Birchwood Shopping Centre.  There were birds of prey at the event which attracted lots of people - and also nest box building by Risley Moss - I had some lovely comments by passers by and one lovely lady asked if she could buy it when it was finished so Barny has been sold - I have to say though I'd got quite attached to him so I'll have to paint another for myself!  Still got the tree branch and background to complete on this one first though!

Oh and before I go ... the waxwing hunt was successful - we went straight to Deeside Industrial Park, 10 minutes drive from home and there they were next to the Triumph building in Zone 2. I was thrilled to see them, loads of them - such beautiful birds - photos to follow in the next post and more photos from todays wildlife event.

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend whatever you're doing!

Another waxwing (sorry!)

Waxwing

© Sharon Whitley

Seems I just can't stay away from painting birds!   The waxwing invasion is causing quite a stir among the birding community as these beautiful birds search for their favourite berries from the Rowan tree - they won't be around for long so I'm just hoping they'll stick around til Friday so I can get a chance to see this wonderful spectacle.

I'm a little bit excited about finally starting a painting that has been on the drawing board waiting to paint for quite some time now  - and I've been avoiding making a start - the beautiful barn owl - I'm taking my time over this one - it's started off quite well, I've done the eyes and happy with them - just hope I don't ruin it now!!   Here is is so far.........hopefully you can tell it's a barn owl!

and finally just for a bit of fun here's a sock monkey - I know a bit random but that's me!

Sock Monkey

© Sharon Whitley

Have a wonderful day whatever it is you're doing xx

Wonderful Waxwings

Waxwing

© Sharon Whitley

I'm pretty excited about the invasion of waxwings we're having over here at the moment from Scandinavia - apparently lots seen in areas not far from me in North Wales - all in very strange places - Industrial Estates, streets, superstores etc. all after the berries from the lovely Rowan tree.  Gary was lucky enough to photograph them up in Barrow, near Clitheroe at the weekend while he was up there - I missed out unfortunately but we're off on a Waxwing hunt on our day off on Friday - to B&Q in Llandudno of all places!   In the meantime I thought I'd do a quick painting of one from one of Gary's fabulous photos which you can see on his blog.  Here's a little taster to tempt you................

LINK TO GARY'S BLOG

Absolutely beautiful birds and really hope I get to see them for real on Friday at B&Q!

I've also been busy painting a couple of pet portraits for commissions for Christmas presents so obviously can't show them here until after Christmas but the owners are really pleased with them so I'm very happy!

Have a wonderful day and please leave a comment so I know you've popped by!

Painting Watercolour Christmas Cards

Christmas is drawing ever closer and over the last couple of evenings I've been spending a bit of my spare time painting watercolour Christmas cards based on a frosty robin painting I did recently

LINK TO POST

I've been enjoying painting these little cards - nice and relaxing - no two robins are the same and each card is unique, then I decided to try some snowdrops cards

and can you spot the holly card below....

...I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that robins are my favourite to paint though ...... have a lovely day everyone

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!