Prince Comes Home!!

or how to try and capture a moving Billy Whizz!!

Meet Prince the Patterdale terrier, what a bundle of energy!!

I first met Prince in July as his owners wanted a portrait of him,

so I went along armed with the camera to try and capture him on film!!

Ha! Talk about moving pictures!!!

At this stage we were trying to tire him out see if he would

then calm down and "play ball" so to speak

After about an hour and over 100 photo's later, I looked through what

I'd got and decided that there was nothing that captured him in just the right way!!

So in September, when Prince was now a little bit older, and calmer,

I went back again to re-shoot. Margaret, his mum, had spent a lot of time with him

and he would now sit and stay and even lie down, albeit,

with a little bribery in the shape of cheese!!

Success!!

Margaret & Tom chose the photo they wanted to use and so

I began the process of capturing Prince for posterity!!

This is the finished picture

and isn't he a handsome chap!!

I delivered the framed picture to

Margaret & Tom this week and,

of course, Prince got in on the act!!

The happy owners of Prince!!

Inspiration!!

I spent a few days experimenting with some different ideas.

Different surface, looser style and set myself a time limit.

This is just one of the pieces I did, "Forever Summer"

I saw this little girl on the beach last summer,

lost in her own world, she wandered around the beach

eating her ice cream and watching all the other children.

She has been the subject of a few paintings!!

This month I have some more ideas I want to work on.

I'm trying to get a looser feel to my work and the

inspirational painting on the studio wall is this piece

"Woman at the Window" by Edgar Degas.

Although known for his pastel work this painting

was done in oil. Everything is captured with a few

well placed brushstrokes and it says everything!!!

So "watch this space".

I will mix these in with the artwork I usually do

but it's great to try different things, maybe even

be using oil paints as well!!!

The Autumn Collection, but not from M&S!!

There is definitely an Autumnal feeling about the weather now!

I love the early morning light and the mists that hang in the air

as the seasons change and the nights grow a little colder.

These are just a couple of the images I've done for the

Autumn Preview next month.

The summer wardrobe has definitely had more of an outing this year

and hopefully will stay out for a while yet.

So this is just a taste of things to come, but with any luck not until

November at least!!

"Colours of Morning"

"Til There Was You"

Finally

These are the last images for the event at Artique. Phew!!

It's been a long hard slog but I finally got there.

It's been great to work on a variety of images and

use different mediums.

Still love doing the wildlife so I saved them til last.

All were inspired by my safaris to Botswana,

looking through my reference made me want to go back:

though I'd like to do Kenya next time!!

"Watching For Mum" Original Oil

"Grandma Knows Best" Original Pencil

"Guidance" Original Pencil

And There's More!!

Finally!!

After a really busy month the work is sent

to the "packing department" and is now

packed up and ready to go to DeMontfort.

A mixture of work is enclosed, this is a detail from

a piece I was particularly pleased with.

Don't very often say that but I thought the

light hitting the figures worked really well.

One Down .... to go!!

This is the first painting completed for an event

at Artique Gallery in April.

As well as seascapes there will be a

good selection of my other styles,

including wildlife, yay!!!

Don't get the chance to do wildlife very often

so looking forward to doing those.

It's going to be a joint event with Toni Hargreaves

on 28th April 6-8pm at Artique Tunbridge.

Well can't stop here chatting got pictures to paint!!

What's Another Year??

I started this picture nearly two years ago.

Just fancied doing something a bit different!!

I had a brief window of opportunity time wise,

or so I thought. But then things got really busy!!

I've never had chance to return to it and I doubt

I will this year either. Maybe next year??!!

For those interested in the technical stuff,

it's an acrylic underpainting on Fisher 400paper.

I've just started to work the background

with pastel as well. It was the light and

atmosphere I liked, so watch this space!!

But not too often, it could be a while!!!