Ceulan

Ceulan

© Sharon Whitley

Ceulan is a very special osprey - he was the only surviving chick from last year's nest at Dyfi, survived the migration to Africa only to die after becoming entangled in a fisherman's net in December.  I've painted him in the hope of selling him to raise funds for the Dyfi Osprey Project as I did with the painting of his father Monty.  

And before I go - I had a lovely surprise a few days ago - I had entered this puffin painting into the Natur Cymru Wildlife Art challenge and found that I'd been given 2nd prize in the competition - the painting will be their next edition's magazine cover!  Result! and I won a prize too!

© Sharon Whitley the Rambling Artist

Catch of the Day

the other winner and other runners up can be seen on the Natur Cymru blog

.. and talking of puffins ....we're off to Skomer Island on Sunday - weather looks great - it's a looonng drive though but should be well worth it, can't wait ..... so more puffin paintings will surely be on the agenda!  

Now I'm off to browse your blogs as I've not had a look for a while - been away camping for a few days - will post some piccies on the next post... bye for now.........!

Dogs, birds and a marathon!

I've recently done another pet portrait for a family friend of Gary's - the owners have the painting and I've heard that they love it so all's good!  I enjoyed painting this one as it reminded me very much of my old dog Honey who was a real character.  My mum found some old photos of her which I'll try to use to make a painting - I did try painting her back then when I must have been around 15 and still have the painting now - I took a photo so you can see - you see I've never been one for detail - always a slapdash painter! This was done in gouache which is what we used in school for painting.

Honey

painted in my teenage years

And as always I've been painting birds - this was last week's challenge on Paint Colorful Birds for Fun - a bird I would love to see in real life, the fork tailed woodnymph hummingbird - quite a mouthful - the name, not the bird!

This weekend Gary and I are taking part in the Excalibur Marathon which was cancelled because of heavy snow back in March but rescheduled for this weekend - it's in aid of Claire House Children's Hospice.  26.2 miles over the Clwydian range and around 5500 ft of ascent - it's going to be a killer!  Wish me luck cos I'm going to need it eeeeeeekkkkk!

Nuthatches, Greylags and ridges

Nigel the Nuthatch (from a photo by Pixelbloke

© Sharon Whitley the Rambling Artist

I really enjoyed painting the nuthatches from a couple of posts ago and so had a bash at another in a different style this time from David Smith's photo who we were doing a tribute to back in April (read more about this here).  One of the his photos that really stood out for me was one of a flock of greylags flying over some marshland and I couldn't resist having a go at them as well....I'm having this one framed to try out in an exhibition this summer - whether it will be accepted remains to be seen but you never know til you try!

Greylags in flight

© Sharon Whitley the Rambling Artist

and last week's walk was on one of my favourite ridges - the beautiful Nantlle Ridge in Snowdonia - just love it there and although it started off cloudy, windy and cold it turned into a beautiful afternoon with amazing views.............

   I love this ridge leading up to Mynydd Drws y Coed 

 if you look carefully you can see where a section of the ridge has fallen away - so you have to be careful on this bit - luckily it wasn't too windy!

self timers mean we do get the occasional photo of the two of us together!

Birds, birds and more birds

Anyone who's a regular reader of this blog will know that I love birds, both watching them, learning about them and painting them - and I always enjoy finding out about 'new' birds - ones I've not heard of before which is one of the reasons I enjoy taking part in the 'Paint Colorful Birds for Fun' weekly challenge on facebook.  Last week's challenge was of a bird I did know and one of my favourites - the lilac breasted roller - I always try and pay him a visit when Gary and I go to Chester Zoo so I was very happy when he was 'the bird to paint' last week

I had a new visitor to the garden a couple of weeks ago as well - a male blackcap - so of course I had to honour him by doing a painting!  I was in a splashy mood for this one!.......

and here's the photo of him in my garden.................

Mr sparrowhawk has been back as well - what a specimen he is too - Gary was there this time and had his camera handy...............

and finally, remember the last post with Monty the Osprey - anyone watching the shenanigans on the nest at the Dyfi Osprey Project is sure to be riveted - it's like an Osprey Soap Opera there with Monty trying to get himself a female after his usual partner failed to arrive back to the nest this year (assumed dead sadly).  The Dyfi Osprey Project  rely heavily on donations so when I had a message from someone asking if I would sell the painting of Monty I donated the proceeds to the project - I'll soon be painting another of Monty and his new mate which will also be sold in aid of the project (if anyone wants it that is!)

I've been browsing through your wondeful blogs this morning - I don't always have time to leave comments - especially when there's the captcha thing to work out!  It drives me nutty that thing!  But I do visit and take inspiration from your postings whether they be beautiful works of art, photography or a good anecdote.  Thank you all of you out there in blogland for sharing your world!

love Sharon

Nuthatches and Monty!

Last week's challenge on Paint Colorful Birds for fun, was to paint a nuthatch, one of my favourite native birds.  I used two of Gary's photos for the challenge, one in the nuthatch's classic pose (above) and the second one I just liked the pose.

I've also been enjoying watching the Dyfi Osprey Project live streaming of Monty trying to get himself a female and thought I'd pay a little tribute to him by doing a quick watercolour, he's certainly a handsome dude!

More BHGs and the Yorkshire Three Peaks

© Sharon Whitley the Rambling Artist

Black Headed Gulls

This is another painting done in memory of Dave Smith for a tribute we're having to him over on Paint My Photo.  I'm in the middle of another but it's turned into a bit of disaster and I'm desperately trying to rescue it!  Have lifted the background out twice now and am waiting for another to dry in the hope that something half decent will appear out of the mess!  

In the last post I mentioned that Gary and I were going to attempt to do the Yorkshire Three Peaks last weekend - the three highest mountains in Yorkshire over 24 miles and we walked it in just over 10 hours (the record for running it is around 2 and a half hours!!) The weather behaved itself at first but in the afternoon it started blowing a hooly on the higher ground and then came the torrential rain as we topped mountain no.3 Ingleborough ..... it was a long and very wet walk back to the start.  After a lovely hot shower at the campsite we treated ourselves to fish, chips and mushy peas from the local chippy and a glass (or two) of wine to celebrate.  I can tell you I slept well in the tent that night despite the howling wind outside!

Mountain no.1 Pen y Ghent

Mountain no.2 Whernside

A very cold and windy mountain no.3 Ingleborough

This was a good practice for the Excalibur Marathon which we're walking for charity next month - it's a couple of miles more and couple of hundred feet of ascent more - just hope my legs have recovered by then!

Come Fly with Me

This is another watercolour done in memory of David Smith a photographer from PMP who sadly passed away last September.  It is one of my favourite photos of his of 2 black headed gulls in flight.

© Sharon Whitley the Rambling Artist

Come Fly with Me

in memory of David Smith

this is David's original photo

© David Smith

I've also got some very sad news to share - our beloved Carneddau ponies who can normally survive extreme weathers have had a particularly harsh time up in the mountains recently during the severe snow we've had here and at least 40 have perished. You can read more about it here - we were talking recently about how they would be coping in the severe weather as we often come across them on our walks - and now we know - so sad. You can read more about it in this article from Grough.  

This weekend Gary and I will hopefully be attempting the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge - the mountains of Pen y Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough on a 24 mile hike (weather permitting as the forecast looks a bit unsettled) - more about that on Sunday if we do it! In the meantime have a wonderful weekend whatever it is you're doing!

Sharon