Bear...

Here's what I have been working on over the past couple of weeks.  It's not a Katmai bear, but it is an Alaskan bear, based on a couple of photos taken by an American friend of mine while she was taking a trip to Alaska a few years ago.

This is watercolour on paper and will be winging it's way to Boston shortly.

Next on the easel is a commission I have been looking forward to with huge anticipation - a bear's head in monochrome.  It is to be a surprise gift for someone I know so I will say no more!
 

Sparrow...

Here is the first painting I have done in quite a while - it took me days to decide what to paint in order to get back into the swing of things, and I am happy with my final choice.  This will be for sale in my Etsy shop soon.
 

Chunk...

This has been a very poor year for commissions - I think I have only had three since Christmas, which is a first.  I don't know if it is the current cost of living crisis and people not spending money on fripperies, or whether I have become boring (!), but it sucks.

I have also not felt much like painting either, which has been a worry.  However, I got my mojo back a couple of weeks ago and painted Chunk the bear from Katmai National Park in Alaska.  It felt good to be painting something with enthusiasm again and I am very happy with how it turned out - the photo has bleached the colours a bit as always.  This is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Nothing on the easel at the moment - have spent the week assisting (or getting in the way) of Mr.B as he replaced the wooden uprights of our pergola before it falls on our heads.  Hopefully getting back to the paints in the next couple of days.

Knitting wise, I am currently working on the last few patterns for a new Nudinits book - complicated stuff this time round...watch this space!
 

Bear 610

 Here's what I have been working on over the past few weeks.  This is bear 610, who lives in Katmai National Park, Alaska.  She has quite the story - she was abandoned as a cub but managed to survive by keeping well out of the way of other bears down by the river mouth despite having a huge injury to her rear end which has left her with a large dent where it has healed.  How this little bear did not die is a mystery with so much against her.  But she did, and when she was a subadult she remained shy and aloof until other subadult bears attempted to play with her, whereupon she finally joined in and became one of the gang!  She is now an adult bear who manages just fine - I am waiting to see if she returns this year from hibernation with a cub or two of her own.

This was painted in watercolour on paper, with huge thanks to Olatz Azcona Munarriz for the use of her wonderful photo taken last year.

Moonlight...

I painted this last week - I have had it in mind for a long time, but commissions for dog portraits had to take priority.  This is Otis swimming in the moonlight, referencing a snap taken last year on the Explore.org bear cams.  Unfortunately, I just cannot photograph the painting successfully.  The above picture is slightly too dark...

...and this one is way too light.  I have tried 3 different cameras and they just do not like this painting!  The true colours are somewhere between the two photographs.  This was watercolour on paper,and will be in my Etsy shop shortly.

On the easel - another bear...
 

Sweet...

 Last week saw my granddaughter's 3rd birthday and she had a little party with all the 'oldies' - grandparents, family friends etc.  Mr.B took a sweet photo of her eating a slice of birthday cake and I just had to paint it!  I used a new set of watercolours, Rosa, made in Ukraine, that I bought with a gift voucher received on my birthday.  They are quite different to the watercolours I usually use (White Knights) but once I'd got the hang of them I really enjoyed using them for this delicate little painting.  It was really good to paint something different - I've had a year of painting dogs - and getting my brain working!

No commissions at the moment - please get in touch if you would like me to paint something for you!  In the meantime, we're giving thebathroom a little makeover so the next thing I shall be painting is a bath panel and a set of shelves!

The Birds...

 I was a bit naughty last week and took a break from commissions to paint this little watercolour.  It's a scene I saw on the Explore.org bear cams in the early autumn when a little bear was just standing on the log minding his own business and being pestered by about 10 or 12 ravens.  I don't know what they were after, but they gave him a hard time!  I didn't add all the ravens, just enough to get the idea across.

This one sold within hours - never even made it to my Etsy shop!

On the drawing board - I'm behaving myself and working on a commissioned dog portrait!

I'm also sewing a number of stuffed bears - 2 Otises and 1 Popeye will be available shortly.

Sunrise over Brooks Falls...

 Here is the piece I have been working on over the past week.  I attempted it a few weeks ago using ink and it was a disaster, so I wanted to try again using watercolours.  I just cannot photograph it well, whatever camera I use seems to bleach the colours out from the water - perhaps it is due to the poor daylight we have at the moment.

So you will have to imagine that the colours are more intense than what shows here!  It is taken from a scene I snapped from the Explore.org bear cams a couple of months ago.  The light shines from behind the mountains and far trees leaving a shimmering path up the river with the bear silhouetted against the water as he stands on what is left of the island.  I was very happy with how this turned out - the trees have been worked wet in wet and thankfully did exactly what I wanted!

This one sold within hours of being put on Facebook - you snooze, you lose!

Reedus...

 This is what I have been working on for the past few weeks.  The client wanted the lemon trees from the background of the reference photo added, but they were a bit sparse so I ended up making up the background which possibly took longer than painting the actual dog!  The dog was quite a challenge, all that curly fur and only part of one eye visible, but I am very happy with how it turned out.  Watercoluor on paper.

I now have no painting commissions at all, which is unusual for this time of year. I do, however, have a few knitting and sewing projects to be getting on with and just hope that no-pne shows up at the end of November wanting a painting done in time for Christmas!

Forty Winks...

Here is the bear known as Pepper 821 who lives in Katmai National Park, Alaska, taking a short nap while resting on a partially submerged rock.  This is based on a snap I took recently from the Explore.org web cams.  This has been painted in watercolour on paper and will be in my Etsy shop shortly.

Next up...I really don't know!

James...

 I have just finished this watercolour portrait and am so very happy with it!  When someone asked if I could paint their late partner, only recently deceased, I felt a huge responsibility and was anxious that I might not be able to achieve a suitable representation.  However, the photograph I was given to work with was so good and so joyous, I knew straight away that this was going to be a thoroughly enjoyable task.

This one is big - it's about three times the size I usually work with, and took up my whole drawing board - as I work with my board in my lap, it was a bit of a handful at times!  I started with the background and then the scarf and shirt - unusual for me, I usually start a portrait with the eyes, but as the eyes were sunglasses in this case, I thought to begin from the outside in.  There was not a single part of this painting that I did not enjoy, and I am particularly proud of how the sunglasses have turned out, especially as once I had completed them and their reflections, I realised you can see the suggestion of the gentleman's eyes behind them.

Now to await the client's reaction...

Interlude...

While I was between commissions at the weekend, I wanted to paint a little watercolour just to get back into the swing of using a paintbrush after pencilling for the past few weeks.  This painting is based on a scene I saw on the Explore.org bear cams a couple of weeks ago.  I haven't quite captured the light I wanted to, but I love the granulation on the bears.  It will do!

The commission I have just begun consists of a very large watercolour portrait - I drew it out yesterday and cannot wait to get started with the paint!
 

Finally Finished...

 This commission has taken me literally months to complete, mainly due to April being a complete disaster with my daughter's illness.  Once we had got over that, I had lost all motivation and it was difficult to get back in the swing of things as far as painting was concerned.

I was also not happy with the composition of this piece - the dog's head peering through the lilies is a picture of the same dog when it was a puppy, at the client's request. It is not something I would have ever chosen to do myself.  I also had about 6 photographs to work from in order to get the exact composition wanted by the client, so it was quite a task!

However, it finally got finished this week and the client is very happy with it, which is all I ask for really.  This was painted in watercolour on paper.

Next up - a pair of pugs in pencil on paper!  Looking forward to that one.  Funny how this year it is all about dogs whereas last year it was all about bears...

Headache...

The commission I am currently working on has given me such a headache - it's a matter of combining about 5 different photos to make one cohesive composition and I am having a hard time of it as what the customer wants and what I would choose to do artistically are two different things.  However, I think I have found a working solution, and this bit has gone very well so far!
 

Lucky...

Thankfully this year I do not have a slew of Christmas commissions - Mr.B is going in for his second knee replacement surgery next week and if it is anything like last time, I will not have the time to sit and paint.  I did get this lovely little commission though - it has been a long time since I painted a dog and I thoroughly enjoyed getting back in the swing of things with this little chap.  This has been painted in watercolour on paper and will be winging it's way to Boston very shortly.

My next commission will also be dogs - looking forward to it!  If you would like your pet painted, drop me a line, hopefully I shall be back to working as normal in the New Year.
 

The Holiday Let...

As soon as we found this rusty shack while exploring the countryside on the Isle of Wight, I knew I had to paint it.  So that is how I have spent the past couple of weeks, taking a break from bears and thoroughly enjoying the challenge of getting this right.  It is painted in watercolour, which can be a bit unforgiving if you make a mistake.  There was one area where I had been a little heavy handed with the masking fluid (I'm not telling you where!) and when it was removed I thought I had maybe ruined the whole picture.  But with a little work and a few touches of acrylic paint, you wouldn't know.

Apart from the building, I also enjoyed painting the little 'doorway' through the undergrowth into the next field, with the sun shining to illuminate it.  It makes you wonder what you would find if you followed the path...

This will be in my Etsy shop shortly once I have taken some decent photos of it in daylight.

Next up - back to bears...

Catching Forty Winks...

 I completed this fun commission over the weekend.  Earlier this summer Otis the bear was caught napping while leaning on a fallen branch - I guess if you are tired enough, anywhere will do!  This one is watercolour on paper.

It was nice to paint him in a different pose for once - my next commission is back to Otis sitting in his 'office' which I have painted numerous times.  Just as well I don't get bored!

Otis...Again!

Yesterday I finally completed this one - it took much longer than usual, probably because there was a lot of detail to include, plus Otis has an awful lot of fur!

Watercolour on paper, a private commission.

My life seems to revolve around Otis at the moment - three more paintings of him to do, plus a couple of stuffed toys.  It's all good, who doesn't love Otis?
 

Roses...

Taking a very short break before starting back on commissions next week.  I painted these roses from a vase full that we had in the living room.  It took me 3 days because of having to do other things.  It was very nice to paint something different after what feels like a year of bears!

Watercolour on paper - it sold within a few hours!
 

Too Many Prickles...

This week I saw a picture in  magazine of a vase with some stems of gorse in it - it looked really pretty and I thought 'I could do that' as we have some gorse bushes along a path at the back of our house.  So I took the dog for a walk, found a gorse bush and proceeded to pick 3 branches.  Turns out that while gorse branches snap off very easily, they are covered in very sharp prickles - you'd have thought I would have taken that into account.  Anyway, I did happen to have a wadge of kitchen roll in my pocket which I wrapped around the gorse and gingerly carried it home.

Upon getting it home and trying to put it in a vase, I discovered that due to the excess of prickles, gorse literally 'walks' straight out of any container you try to put it in.  So I ended up snipping off the bottom few inches of sharp bits in order to make the stuff stay put.  At this point, seriously wondering if it had been worth the effort...but it does look nice and smells divine.

Next day, I thought I'd like to try painting the gorse...yeah, after wrestling it back into the vase after it decided to 'walk' when I was carrying it over to my desk, I discovered that the numerous prickles aren't much fun to paint either.  It was a good experiment, but not one I shall be repeating any time soon.