Salmon Run, Stainforth Foss

Salmon Run, Stainforth Foss, Oil on board 12" x 12"

Salmon Run, Stainforth Foss 12" x 12" Oil on Board. Painted from a photo taken at this year's Salmon Run up the Ribble. It's still incredible to think that these creatures, born and bred in the gravel beds of the upper reaches of the river, spend most of their mature lives out at sea, and then return by some almost magical process (known as magnetoception) to their own childhood home, to spawn and die... and that without the use of GPS or maps... I know we should not put human values on the life cycle of animals - but it is still amazing!

Stainforth Foss

T'Foss (Stainforth) - Oil on Board 19" x 12"

Incorrectly called Stainforth 'Force' by the OS, the Foss is a series of waterfalls over which the Ribble flows, in summer it's the watery playground of a plethora of 'youth', in late Autumn its one of the gathering point for fishwatchers as the salmon struggle their way upstream to the headwaters of the river for the purpose of procreation (this I can never understand). It is an iconic place and a fairly iconic image, as it has been painted and sketched a number of times. But I can safely say this is the first painting since the bridge has been fixed (this time). The packhorse bridge is only 6foot wide at the parapet, and despite warning signs to the effect, it still doesn't stop people attempting to cross it in their Chelsea tractors.

Langcliffe Scar

Langliffe Scar - Oil on Board 8" x 10"

Last Sunday I managed to prise the various gadgets from the hands of the children and force them on a routemarch out of the house and down to Settle, a massive distance of about 3 1/2 miles of total non-stop moaning and whinging, and for a few brief moments, enjoyment. The bribe was, tea and cake at the Naked Man Cafe in Settle, followed by a lift home. It was an absolute stunning morning, the path from the farm at Winskill down to Langcliffe was throng with runners, students, old-time ramblers and the all-too-common furry coo. Of course I wasn't allowed to sit and paint, that would be too much, so I managed to capture this image of the Scar in the last throes of summer from the footpath down towards the pretty little village of Langcliffe.

Snipe Snap

Last month I invested in a new lens for the camera, pretty extravagant of me – I know, but it gets me closer to the subject. I’m always torn between the merits of painting wildlife from sketches or painting from photos, I tend to do both – but the paintings from the photos always turn out better... maybe it’s just down to lack of imagination? I have tried sticking previously sketched birds into an already painted landscape such as ‘A Few Ansers’, below, sometimes they look good, but more often (not displayed) the subject and the landscape don’t match – whether this is because of the subtleties of light or lack of reference material I don’t know – but it generally ends up being sanded down and another coat of gesso being applied... This was the result of one of my most recent paintings – of a pair of Snipe in some reeds, which I sketched at Leighton Moss.

 "A few Ansers" Oil on canvas 18"x14"

 The sketches looked perfect, the watercolour mock-up looked good, but when I came to the real deal – it looked ok, but not good. So off I went, back to Leighton Moss, in search of more Snipe... unfortunately I found them, photographed and sketched them, and returned and matched my sketches and my photos to what I had already painted, and there it hit me – what I had imagined was a good likeness of a bird I now know intimately (!) was in fact a hideous lovechild of a duck and a curlew... Out came the sander and the gesso... Although I still wanted a record of the Snipe, I resorted to the use of a photo! I painted this little chap from a photograph; I am ashamed to admit... why do I feel so dirty?

"Snipe" Oil on Board 8" x 10"

 

 At least I have come clean and got that off my chest. If anyone is reading this, the snipe are still there, visible from Tim Jackson’s hide, Leighton Moss RSPB reserve, Silverdale, Lancs; a fantastic place, our family from the youngest to the oldest loves it. And inspiration is always there... Mind you the camouflage of these little blighters is so good, it does take some effort to see them.

Incidentally ‘A Few Ansers’ sold for 2 crates of beer! Both myself and the buyer were very pleased!

http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/l/leightonmoss/

The little dipper

As I am currently offshore, I thought I might update this with some of my older paintings, this one in particular was a joy to paint. The river close to home is a fast flowing upland section of the Ribble, perfect territory for dippers, and on a few rounds around the circuit I spent some time watching these little birds. They were nesting underneath the footbridge that crosses the river, and being in a particular frame of mind decided to have a go at painting one. Previously I had been reading Keith Shackleton's autobiogrpahy in pictures, and was fixated by his paintings of birds. Another artist who I admire immensly with relation to wildlife is Martin Ridley whose website is a huge store of inspiration for me.
http://www.martinridley.com/index.html

So motivated was I to get this painting done I decided to go for acrylics rather than oils as I really wanted more of an instant result. I took some photos and drew some sketches of the birds in question (having a good spotting scope helped) and sat down and actually planned my painting.

Most of the time I usually thrash one out, a reproduction of what I see, but in this one having seen how proper artists go about things I decided to sit down and do a large sketch on plain lining wallpaper (cheap and really effective for the purpose).

Having decided on my composition and tones I transferred the sketch to cryla paper and using a very watery consistency blobbed in the main areas of colour. I've included a photo of my 'studio' set-up, the laptop is great, as I can change tonal values and work out areas of contrast, although it does get splashed from time to time when I get carried away, the 'studio' is in fact my attic space, and due to a lack of natural daylight (!), I supplement this with two daylight simulation lamps.

And so the finished article, I was really cracking on with this, but it did take me a couple of days to get it done, and I'm rather plased with him, although there are a couple of places that I think need refining. I'm not too happy about the bird's shadow or his coat, but this is all going in the bank of 'what to avoid in the future'.

"The little dipper" Acrylic on paper 14"x10"