My new studio assistant!

Meet Suki, the newest addition to the household here, adopted from Wood Green Animal Shelter just down the road from me here in Cambridgeshire...

She is the sweetest little cat, but I have to admit she does have that look of feline superiority that says she's in charge...

I guess there will be some feline-based art in the future...

Little egret linocut

Hello!

Just back from a lovely weekend with my sister and family, and now have some time to post my latest linocut - a little egret.

Reduction linocut, printed area 6 by 8" approximately, on Simili paper.

This is based on a photo I took a couple of years ago at the Ouse Washes nature reserve. When I was a bird-mad kid little egrets were unthinkably exotic; over recent years their range has expanded, and they are now a reasonably common sight at wetlands and gravel pits.

Some stages below:

Quite a striking bird, and they're great to see in the wild :-)

Kestrel, watching

Hello again! Here's what I've been working on for the last few days. I took the reference photo a few years ago, at a local nature reserve.

Watercolour and ink, quarter sheet (Fabriano Artistico CP).

This is a European kestrel perched atop a shrubby tree, surveying the ground for her next meal; I often see them perched like this along the roadside verges, scanning the ground for their next meal...