I think with this painting, I have come full circle with the urban series that I have been working on of late. It started with dawn views across the harbor, then windows and walls in sunlight, now I have focused in on the ending of the day with scenes like this and darker nocturnes that are still works in progress. This painting is an acrylic on Strathmore paper, size is 11 x 15 inches.
The shrill 'rek rek rek' calls of a peregrine came from behind me as I stood in the falling light watching the sunset. I turned to see two peregrines in the air, one chasing the other and calling all the while - I guessed that the aggressor was chasing the other bird from its territory and stooped on it a few times. It then turned and came back towards me passing quickly overhead and was soon lost to the darkness. I made a few quick initial studies in my sketchbook trying to remember what I had seen and later did the above watercolor with the intention of capturing the encounter with this bird - one of my favorite falcons.
The quick sketchbook studies shown above are all about 4 x 4 inches. The Peregrine At Dusk painting is 11 x 7.5 inches, watercolor on Arches paper.
This is I believe, a young Deekay's Brown Snake (apparently they are somewhat difficult to identify). Usually the snakes I see quickly disappear but for some reason, this one just lay there in a half-coiled pose which allowed me to get some great reference. The drawing was done in my sketchbook then finished when I got home adding washes of color but keeping the illustration rather simple. Lately I have been working on these types of paintings and illustrations for a future project - I'm now up to number 87! I think that I'm over the half way mark but not sure how many will be used until I get closer to 150. I think that seeing them all laid out in front of me will help too. Hopefully the final 60 will come a little quicker as now I can finally see everything coming together.
We found this crab along the shoreline and since it wasn't moving about very much, managed to get some real close ups. At times like this, I usually lie in the sand to draw. Compared to other crabs, Spider Crabs aren't much to look at - in fact they are perhaps a bit frightening! I got talking to a crabber emptying his crab pots some time ago and he mentioned that he always threw these ones back as they tasted rather nasty!
