The Cart Horse at Blists Hill

I am in the midst of quite a lot of art right now. I joined the UK coloured pencil society and it gave me the impetous to really work at a couple of projects. They have a couple of exhibitions each year and as I joined, I got to thinking....well what would I enter? It focused the mind a little and I decided to really push the boat out on a couple of things and see if I could come up with something that was worthy of entering!
Instead of rushing, as I sometimes can do I have been working on a couple of pieces where I am really slowing myself down. The first was the spaniel which is a post or so down and I will post an update soon but the second is my most adventurous to date. I have made two visits now to the Blists Hill museuum at Ironbridge which is high on my list for a local tourist blog post, I do have some great images and lots to tell....but, that is perhaps next in my series.
Meanwhile I took this photo:


Andy challenged me to have a go at this and to be honest, I really do think it may be a little beyond my capabilities. To make matter worse, I have chosen watercolour paper, a first! Then caran d'ache pablo's, also a first!
It took me hours just to skecth it out!



Then several hours and lots of soul searching later, I have got his far!



I do have mixed feelings on this piece. However, I still feel that as a subject, he is most wonderful!

Falconry Centre at Hagley in the West Midlands

I have been working on a number of things and will update shortly with some more artwork. However, in our efforts to become a tourists in our own area, we took the day out completely yesterday to go and visit another local attraction. We took our cameras off the the Falconry centre at Hagley here in the West Midlands. I have been before but not since I have had my new camera earlier this year. So it seemed like it would be a good opportunity to have fun taking some photographs, see the birds (and birds of prey fascinate me) and of course the end product is that I get a whole load of reference material for future artwork.
So here are a few of my favourite shots.



Caracara This one was running around overturning stones for food which is an exercise to replicate how they would forage in their natural environment.



Male Turkmenian Owl named Cash who I have too say has the MOST beautiful eyes. There is something about owls that draws me to them and yet I suspect they don't have the intelligence of the hawks.



Here we have an eagle eye!




Little Owl which is native to the UK. I enjoyed seeing this one as for a number of years I have known the location of one and watched it on many occasions. However, I have not really been in a position to photograph it in the wild.



It was clear that this lady is a very committed falconer and I have to say the display was excellent. It is always enjoyable when someone is so enthusiastic and it became quite clear that she had a number of years experience. Her knowledge is astounding and I really did enjoy the display. I suspect a lot of energy is expended in working with these birds and when you consider the weight of some of them, just holding them on your arm is no mean feat.



The length of the show was also a lttle unexpected. The last time we were there was a week day and although they fly the birds every day, I know that last time we were watching them exercise the birds. Whereas, yesterday was really a very well done show of them which I understand will continue throughout this week.



I very much need to practice my flying shots for sure but I was delighted with some of the stills.



Male Ferruginous Hawk This one was making a lot of noise! He reminded me of a very demanding child, LOL.

This was Cash Flying and this photograph is courtesy of Andy who seemed to get all the good flying shots yesterday.



We were invited to sit in the arena for this part of the show, needless to say Andy and myself were too busy taking photographs, so we have some rather amusing ones of people as Cash swooped over their heads ;) this is one of mine.



I think we both took in the region of 250 photographs yesterday. Flying shots can be difficult because of the swiftness of the bird. The Goshawks for example are very difficult to capture and I suspect that we dumped three quarters of our "in flight" images. Despite the difficulties, Andy did get some cracking ones, so here are some more of the Harris Hawk.





The centre also acts as a sanctuary for sick or injured birds of prey and rehabilitates them back into the wild. The visit was very enjoyable and definately worth the entrance fee. If you want to visit, their website with directions and further information can be found at The Falconry Centre.

Here is a final image of Cash posing, I suspect he is rather good at it :D



Please respect our copyright of images and do not redistribute or use them for commercial use. Should you wish to use them for personal use or artists reference material, if you email me from my profile, I will send you a fine image file.

An update on my work in progress

Well, just right now I don't have a lot to say.... Funny really I used to be so noisy ;)

I am progressing....quietly..and Andy will enjoy the peace, LOL

Observations, Chat and Work In Progress

Well since I arrived back in the UK, it seemed like I had been away for ages. When I left the trees were all just bursting into life, when I got back it seemed as though everything had grown overnight
The fields of rapeseed are now full in bloom.



The news as I got back was all pretty dire with the outbreak of swine flu and it seems in the fortnight since the paper have been full of MP’s claims which seem questionable to say the least. Sometimes, I cannot help but think that the leaders and politicians in our country hardly set a good moral example to the youngsters. I know that in many cases the law has probably not been broken, but *deep sigh*
I have to say, I am pretty much apolitical in that I would just love to see some people in key positions who genuinely cared about the future of the country and are prepared to show a few “old fashioned” morals.



For those of you that don’t know, I am also a member of some wildlife forums and occasionally write a bit of a blog for a birding one. However, I don’t just have an interest in birds and there was an article pointing to the RSPB site regarding the Marine and Coastal Access bill.
It can be found here.
Although this bill will go a long way towards protecting our marine life, there are some serious flaws in the amount of protection it offers. The subject is quite dear to my heart right now and I think I shall probably consider doing some marine art to raise awareness. Do any fellow artists fancy joining me in some dolphin/marine art and blog about it?
Otherwise, I am pretty much back into the swing of things now, although the weather being so bad is frustrating. However, despite the rain, at least we are now getting the occasional glimpse of sunshine.



On another good note, I have come back with lots of inspiration. I have the concept of many new ideas in my head. Those of you that have an eagle eye will notice that I have changed the name of my blog. This is not to break away from all of my crafty friends but I consider that my blog is much more arty than crafty nowadays and I rarely get around to making cards, I simply wanted the title to reflect this.
I have also spent some the looking around at some new sites which have made me think about the direction of my style. I decided that my current style is very strong but could use a little more depth, so to follow on from my last Tiggs project, I am trying to build some more depth into my work.



Here is my latest WIP of a spaniel. I am taking more time at it, it will be interesting if the final result is how I want it to be.

Maldives - Part 6 - Skywatch Friday

Well a holday is a holiday and as such must come to an end. So it is fitting that I end my Maldives series with some beautiful Skywatch images. Here are a few sunsets over the Maldives.




Other Skywatch Pictures from around the world can be found here.

Maldives - Part 5 - Random Images

These are just some of my favourite images from the fortnight that require no words. I will finalise with some sunsets for skywatch for the weekend. I have still been posting a little art over on my wordpress blog for those of you that have seen enough sunny skies!

The Maldives- Part 4 - Guraidhoo

We very much wanted to go and see a local island. We knew it may not be quite so pretty as the resort we were staying at but we wanted to go and see a little of the real Maldives as appose to the manufactured one.

Guraidhoo has about 1500 inhabitants and like much of the Maldives, the main industry is fishing, which is mostly tuna using a single line method. Nets are banned in the Maldives and all tuna fishing is sustainably resourced. The first sight of Guraidhoo is therefore a gamut of boats and ropes.





We were greeted by the local shopkeepers who acted as our guides for the duration of the visit and after touring the island; well you pay a no obligation visit to their shop! Arif was our host.

I was surprised by the small streets but that is silly when you think about it, it is a small island so transport on it is pretty unnecessary. I has to smile at this football pitch, football is pretty much universal the world over. They tell me the next world cup will be hosted here :)



I spotted this one in the foliage!



Local houses used to be constructed from coral but this is no longer allowed in order to protect the many reefs. On Guraidhoo, there is still quite a lot of building being undertaken, it is more than four years since the tsunami but a lot of homes and livelihoods were lost on the island as a result. It was very humbling when some people thanked us for the aid sent from the UK for a new water system. They used to use a well but of course with the tsunami, this was contaminated with seawater, I understand the red cross helped to provide a new tank that captures rainwater.

Growing things on an island made of coral sand has it's difficulties but our man pointed out herbs such as curry leaf and also jasmine, hibiscus, banana's and the national tree, the coconut. I also saw outside some of the houses where people were growing a sort of cabbage looking plant.





Our guide was the proud father of a daughter and on our tour around, she spotted him. She cried until he picked her up, she was then a just a little wary of the camera.



This photograph is of one of the mosques, Maldivians have Islamic faith. There are separate ones for men and women and also on each side of the island. It looked so pretty with the Bougainvillea outside.



I was intrigued by the seats constructed of rope for sitting in the shade.



Finally, shopping was a pleasant experience....and one to be savoured. Local goods are mainly sold in these shops aimed at the tourist, souvenir market. I enjoyed meeting some really great people :-D