Catch Up - Again

Glenspey Heavenly Star - 'Roxie'

23/09/2006 - 31/10/2014

We had to say goodbye to Roxie or as she was known to the family 'little foxley' last week. It was totally unexpected and we are still in shock.

On a happier note Xena is now eight months old and although she is the naughtiest puppy we've ever owned she is a complete delight to live with.   

                                                                                    

I've not completed many pictures over the summer but I did add to my series of big cats drawn in graphite, the latest one is an amur tiger.

   'Best Foot Forward'

Graphite on Paper, approximately 17.5 x 11inches

Original available from the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London

More to follow:-

The Borzoi - A Fact You Might Not Know

'William' the Borzoi

 

The reference photograph I used for William was kindly provided by his owner after I expressed a desire to paint him.

I met William at a show a couple of years ago and was impressed by his sweet nature, his elegance and his dignity so when his owner sent me some photographs of him I put him on my 'to do' list. It's taken me a long time but he's finally finished. The original painting is mixed media on hot press watercolour paper.

Before I draw or paint any animal I like to find out about them. I study the anatomy, coat, features etc but I also look for any interesting facts. This brings me to the fact you might not know about the borzoi.
They rank 75th in Stanley Coren's book The Intelligence of Dogs and fall into the category Lowest Degree of Working/Obedience Intelligence.
The classification is partly based on understanding of new commands and the percentage of times they obey a command first time.
Reading further borzois would appear to be selective learners who become easily bored and can be stubborn if not motivated. I'm not sure that I would class that as unintelligent!

No one will be surprised that the border collie comes out top of the list as the brightest dog.
For anyone interested in the full list this is the article :-The Intelligence of Dogs

Limited edition prints of William are available from my website
 'William' Limited Edition Giclee Print
or you can contact me direct gayle.mason@gmail.com

Monty the Spaniel - Finished

'Monty'

I have completed 'Monty' the spaniel and have the first giclee prints available.
The total worldwide print run will be 350 but I'm splitting that into two print sizes.

Large Print
Total Available 99, numbered 2 to100
Image Size approximately 9 x 12 inches
Mounted/Matted in polar white to 16 x 20 inches
Price £40 plus post and packing £4.00

Small Print
Total Available 250, numbered 101 to350
Image Size approximately 7 x 9 inches
Mounted/Matted in off white to 11 x 14 inches
Price £25 plus post and packing £3.00

They will be available from my website from next week but if anyone wants one now or more information please email me gayle.mason@gmail.com
Next week I'm going to give write a post about how I get from the original to the print.

Spaniel in Mixed Media

I started a painting of a spaniel while demonstrating at the Patchings Art Festival.
First of all I added watercolour using a barely damp brush and then picked out detail in coloured pencil. The size is approximately 16 x 12 inches and it's on hot press watercolour paper.
I found that the addition of the watercolour really speeded things up and also created a really soft fur effect, I'll be using this technique again.

Thanks to all who came to talk to me at Patchings and also those that bought my work. It was lovely to see old friends and make some new ones. It was also nice to come away inspired after seeing work from so many talented artists.

William the Borzoi

I started William several months ago so I really need to finish him. Apart from his neck I still have some detail to add to his muzzle but he's getting there.
The image is taken from his owners photograph, watercolour and coloured pencil on paper.

After William I have another dog to paint then I'm moving on to some wild animals and somewhere in the mix I need to start painting this years feline offerings.

Borzoi - Part 2

In between getting ready for Patchings Art Festival, working on the pastel tiger and printing I've been making slow progress on the Borzoi.

I've added some acrylic washes to add depth and then worked over the top with coloured pencil.

More Mastiff in Coloured Pencil

Still no progress on the tiger but I have been working on the Mastiff puppy.

Rio has found a new sport, catching wasps, not only catching them, but then very noisily eating them. I'm not sure where they're coming from but he had three this afternoon. As soon as I see him bouncing round the Conservatory I know he's found another. The other dogs are horrified, Roxie thinks they're nasty dirty things that she wouldn't touch with Clinton's paw. Roma watches with a mothers anxiety, Saska can't see them (or hear them) and Juno bites Rio in the excitement. I spent my time trying to prevent Rio getting stung.

Water, Water Everywhere

Van Gogh had to be put on hold over the weekend as we had a flood.

A pipe in the cupboard where I keep the dog towels, dog bedding etc decided to explode. Now you probably think this is an exageration, but if I tell you my eldest son was soaked to the skin in about 60 seconds as he tried to stop the deluge will give you an idea of the force of the water.

Of course my husband was out and I couldn't turn the water off. In the time it took for me and Rob to change places, the water was coming through the ceiling, gushing from the light fittings and running down the walls.

To make matters worse I had been in the middle of making a chicken curry for lunch, and never ones to miss an opportunity the pups managed to eat the vegetable skins and half the raw chicken.

Saska and Clinton were horrified at this disruption to their morning and retreated from the chaos to the peace of our bedroom. The other four took up vantage points and helped us, by tripping people up, getting into the water etc.

I think they rather like the idea of having a permanent waterfall in the cupboard.

Drying things out is taking considerably longer than wetting them did, but at least the pups had no side effects from their rather unusual lunch.

I did continue with my kitten, I have darkened the background to make him stand out more but much more work is needed on it yet.

Spots before the Eyes

I have been busy drawing out my new cat, which has been very time consuming, so I decided to do another dog study with Derwent drawing pencils. This time I chose a Dalmatian from my reference photographs.
It is approximately 9 x 7 inches on a bluey/grey Mi-Tientes pastel paper. I airbrushed a little acrylic to finish him off.
Please note this went through a horrible stage in the middle, but hopefully it ended up OK.
In these studies I am trying to give them a more 'immediate' look, concentrating on expression and structure rather than my more usual 'every hair drawn' finish. It is teaching me to only include what is important to the finished work, so I'm hoping this carries through into my more detailed work, time will tell.

colored pencil
Dalmatian
Derwent pencils

Whippet Sketch

I have not a lot of stamina at the moment after my hospital visit, and even less patience. So I decided to have a break from the grey cat and work on a sketch.

My usual style of working as you have probably realised, is highly detailed with many layers. To avoid producing a hybrid of loose and detailed,I decided to work with Derwent Drawing pencils. These are really creamy, come in 24 natural colours and have a really thick lead.

Derwent say 'the creamy, extra wide strip encourage loose, expressive tonal drawings'

I had a look through my reference photographs and selected a young Whippet as he had the short coat and beautiful bone structure i was looking for.

I set myself the challange of producing a sketch with character, you can judge if I succeeded. The one thing I would stress, is that I would never, ever, do the eyes loose, they are the soul of the portrait to me.

I intend to offer open edition giclee prints of this one in the near future.