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...

Feeding the swans

Here's a sneak peek at a print I've done for the first PrintPeople exchange... Can't wait to see what all the other (very talented) printmakers have done!

It's a reduction linocut, an edition of 18 on Japanese Simili paper, of which the first 12 are on their way to the US for the exchange.

My inspiration came from watching the swans in St Ives, Cambridgeshire - there are lots on the river in town, where they get regularly fed. I took a photo from the bridge, as the white swans on the dark water looked really striking... swan-shaped space...



I then sketched some of the swan shapes...

 And put them together into a pleasing (I hope!) arrangement...

 

This is what I traced down onto the lino, carving away the white areas first and printing the grey colour, then carving away everything else but the black.

This was enormous fun - I think I might do a few variations on this theme!

Out and about

Spent a nice hour or so yesterday up by one of the ponds in the village, sketching. Actually got a tiny bit sunburnt! I'm hoping to base a linocut on this sometime.

 A4 sketchbook, Pitt pen and watercolour.

Bleak and beautiful

A last look at winter - you were bleak and beautiful, but you hung around for far too long!

 Ink and watercolour, A4 size.

Looking forward to warmer sunnier days!

New and exciting (for me anyway!)

At last, I've got around to it and set up an online store, at Folksy. You can find bits and pieces by me for sale at Sharon's Pics on Folksy.

At the mo we have:

More to follow!