GYRFALCON - PART 2

With the work coming along the way that I had hoped it would, I start to think ahead and about how I want the finished painting to look. I had the idea to sort of have the bird emerging out of the darker tones of the painting so I began using thinner washes as I moved down the breast and wing. I'll continue this more as I go along but I think it is going to be a case of simply building up tone and details until I am happy with it. The hardest part was getting a good drawing in place before I even started thinking about adding any paint. Sometimes the work goes so well it feels like I'm doing a paint-by-numbers!

GYRFALCON - PART 1

Following along with my falcon series, I have started a new gyrfalcon painting - to be shown in a series of posts. Here after a careful drawing indicating the bird's outline, I washed in a greyish background then when that was dry, started laying in a few lighter tones around the head. I then focused on the eye bringing it almost to completion. Some work was done on the bill and breast of the bird then the painting put aside to dry for awhile - a good start I think.

YOUNG GYRFALCON - WHITE PHASE

Another in the series of falcon paintings that I have been working on lately. I was fortunate to see this bird at a falconers meet some time ago so did a few sketches and studies of the bird right there and then. I followed this up most recently with a graphite drawing head study last month then painted this one in pure watercolor on smooth Arches watercolor paper. As usual I started with the eye then slowly built up the tones and details using thin washes of color.
I would have loved to have seen this bird after it had moulted into its adult plumage of pure white with black markings (which are mostly concentrated on the back, wings and tail). One day I hope to do studies and paintings of adult white-phase gyrfalcons but for now will have to be happy with this one. Size is 14" X 11".

A WINTERS EVE

A painting I did awhile ago just trying to capture the mood of a late winters' sky. These evening and morning scenes are something that I never tire of observing and am always inspired by what I see, then to capture the experience into a painting. I'm most happy doing these sort of paintings in oil as often there is quite a bit of tonal adjustment etc to get them right. Size is 16" X 20" - oil on canvas.
Other news is the opening today of The Best Of The Chesapeake exhibition at McBride Gallery from Sunday Sept 16 to October 7. I'm delighted to report that I won the Heritage Award for my watercolor painting 'Abandoned Barn - East View' posted earlier on this blog. This group exhibition features a wonderful array of art from around the country featuring the diversity of the Chesapeake so if you are in or near Annapolis, Maryland, I hope you will stop by and see for yourself.

FALCON EXHIBITION

Peregrine Falcon study: SOLD

Young Peregrine Falcon study: SOLD

Three of my original watercolor paintings are being exhibited at the International Hunting & Equestrian Exhibition in Abu Dhabi this week. Their website is adihex.net. Organised by the Emirates Falconers Club, this large exhibition attracts many visitors each year from all over the globe.

EVENING AT BEAVER LAKE

Often our evening walk takes us past this lake (and another slightly smaller one) through the reserve and back around to our home so I see this lake in all seasons. I often paint here so can partake in the ever changing days of spring, through the hot and humid days of summer, on through fall til winter comes around again. In this painting, the heat of the winter sun is barely felt although the lake has yet to freeze over and so still reflects the evening light in its calm waters. The sun will set in a few minutes then changing the landscape once again to something more mysterious. This is the time I most enjoy, being out in the late evening to witness the closing of another day. Evening at Beaver Lake is an oil on canvas, 8" X 10". SOLD

ABANDONED BARN - EAST VIEW

Finally I think this one is finished! I had put it aside for a few months like so many of my paintings so that I could come back to it with a clearer eye, this way I am much more likely to see if there is anything else I need to do to the work. I felt the need to work a little on the dried leaves of the foreground and also take out some of the lighter areas inside the two darkest rectangles as these seemed to be a bit of a distraction. I feel the work reads a little better now. Incidently, this scene is very much just as I found it with the large bucket sitting in the morning sun on the upper level of the barn like that. I went back for another visit recently and as it was the middle of summer, the place has a very different feel to it. I'm sure that there are a few new paintings to come from this subject, perhaps a view from the inside looking out - I'll have to see but for now I have work to finish for an up-coming exhibition - more on that later. Abandoned barn is 22" X 15", watercolor on Arches.