Softly in the frost goes the owl

First of all, I hope that all of you who celebrate in the holiday season have had a great time! I certainly did (ate too much again...)

So here's a new reduction linocut print, inspired by the barn owls I occasionally see around here.

Softly in the frost goes the owl
This is a 4-colour hand-pulled reduction linocut print, in an edition of 8. These were gifts for family and friends, and I have to say that this was great fun to do. I'm hoping to do more printmaking in the new year.

Fieldfare

Once again I was pleased to take part in the Christmas Card exchange on the Painting Friends forum. This year my card went to a young lady in California. I decided to paint a fieldfare, a kind of thrush. These birds breed in Scandinavia, and we see them in the UK in the winter, as they fly west to avoid the harsh northern European winter...

Ink and watercolour, 5 by 7" ish

These are probably my favourite winter visitors, and as it happens, this year I am contributing to the Winter Thrush survey by the British Trust for Ornithology, so am on the lookout in particular for flocks of these handsome birds.

More sketching

Sketching some birds from my own ref photos, just doodling away, keeps me happy!

Botanical gardens

Hello again! Here's a painting that took me out of my comfort zone. A friend wanted a birthday painting, one with a doorway she said...

Hmm, thought I. Not keen on landscape-type paintings, not my thing, but I'll give it a go. So this is what I came up with in the end:

Watercolour, 11 by 14"

This painting had me doing a few things I've not done for a good while. First off I masked off the white areas of the glasshouse frame. I haven't used masking fluid in years. Had to go buy some...

Next, I did a pour, with viridian, lemon yellow and winsor blue (green shade) as a basis for the whole picture. Haven't done one of those since Theatreland. And in a first, I think, for me, I put a proper figure in there. I had the idea for the painting in my head, and used this as an excuse for a very nice afternoon out at the Cambridge University Botanical Gardens, where I took some ref photos.

So, it ended up being quite a project, and I'm glad (relieved!) to say that the recipient likes it!

Acrylic portrait update

I decided to be brave and bump up the colours a bit on the elderly gentleman portrait from my previous post, so here he is:

I like the blue/orange colour combo but I think I'd better stop fiddling...

Quick portrait in acrylic

Hmm, the blog's been kind of quiet for a few weeks, but I promise I have been busy, just with stuff that will be gifts so is still under wraps until after Christmas!

However, I did find a couple of hours to spend on a portrait challenge on the Painting Friends forum. The reference photo is by the very generous Steve Evans.

8 by 10", Acrylic on canvas board

I started this off by doing a contour drawing in marker pen on a pre-toned canvas board, then went in with the paints. Tried to keep things fairly loose. I may yet do some more on this, but I don't want to risk overdoing it!

Cat sketches

Hello again! Was looking through a bundle of really old photos, and found some of our old cat - I took the photos when I was ten or eleven, with my very first camera (decades ago, ha!). I tried a couple of quick ink and watercolour sketches, just for the fun of it.

The bottom one of the two I have painted before in watercolour, painstakingly drawing it out as I recall. These were very much sketched loosely in ink, and watercolour wash/more ink then applied. A much freer (slapdash?) way of doing things, fine for the mood I was in at the time :-)