Kingfisher on Mother Drain

I had put a last brush stroke on to my painting "Kingfisher on Mother Drain" on Saturday morning. It is so easy to continue to 'niggle', another highlight here or some emphasis there, you just have to know when enough is enough. Three days to dry, varnish, string and label and it was ready to hang this morning. So now it is with my other paintings of Potteric on display and for sale on the wall in Low Ellers cafe at Potteric Carr a Yorkshire Wildlife Nature Reserve in Doncaster.  

"Kingfisher on Mother Drain"

On my last visit to Potteric a couple of days ago, I saw a family of Mute Swans on the very narrow, high sided  Cottage Drain, it found it a very touching scene and resolved to put it to canvas, so this is the "roughed in' start of that painting and hopefully I will finish it this week.

The reserve is looking beautiful today with the hawthorns in full flower and many different greens of  new foliage. Sitting in Piper Marsh Hide this morning I heard a cuckoo for the first time and saw buzzards flying above the marsh.  I hope the glorious 'late spring' , 'early summer' weather continues for a while, I am so looking forward to taking my new 'painting chariot' ( rejigged golf trolley) down to Potteric and trying my hand at painting 'en plein air' !!!!!

My paintings of Potteric are on display and for sale in Low Ellers Cafe in the Field Centre and are listed here:- http://sprotbropainter.blogspot.co.uk/p/paintings-for-sale-at-potteric-carr.html

Thank you for looking in on my blog

Dawn Chorus at Potteric.

On May 6th I joined a group of people for the Dawn Chorus Walk at Potteric Carr Nature Reserve. It was a frosty 5am start and a great opportunity to see the reserve in the early morning light.

 We visited Decoy Marsh first where we saw, and heard, the explosive call of Cetti's Warbler in the bushes near the hide, then on over the railway to Childers Wood. It was the first time I had visited this part of the reserve, it was quite beautiful, the early morning sun light filtering through the silver birches and very quiet apart from birdsong.

 Our walk took us through quite a large part of the reserve and we finished up at Cottage Drain Hide where I saw the the family of Greylag Geese, the subject of one of my new paintings.

"Cottage Drain hide Early Morning 6th May"

acrylic in stretched canvas 18"x24"

 After a very welcome and delicious breakfast in Low Ellers Cafe I spent some time in Willow Pool Hide where I saw the subject of my second painting, the Moorhen protecting her young from a Coot.

"Defending the Family"

acrylic on board and over  the flat frame 

The two paintings which resulted from that morning are now on display and  hanging on the wall in the cafe at Low Ellers.

I have a wonderful subject for a third painting from that Dawn Chorus Walk, a pair of Kingfishers made an appearance on the Mother Drain under the bridge and I am presently deciding exactly how to compose it, what view to take - one of the most interesting and important  things about painting for me.

And the Dawn Chorus Walk, well highlights included cuckoo, green woodpecker and bittern, a gentleman from Chesterfield had forty birds on his list.

 Now that Bittern, wouldn't that make a great painting ?

(Detail)

My paintings of Potteric are on display and for sale in Low Ellers Cafe in the Field Centre and are listed here:- 
http://sprotbropainter.blogspot.co.uk/p/paintings-for-sale-at-potteric-carr.html

Thank you for looking in on my blog.

Spring Morning at Piper Marsh.

A grey day at Potteric today, no sun, so the colours were rather drab apart from  a glorious clump of bright yellow Marsh Marigolds on the bank of a pool and reflected in the water. Some Hawthorns are in flower, and most of the trees are in leaf in many shades of green, but for me, the biggest difference the lack of sun makes is in the colour of the reeds, all the glorious shades of ochre and gold were missing today.

The cafe was very busy so after a warming drink of hot chocolate I carried on to Piper Marsh Hide. I was hoping to see the family of geese I had photographed last week close by the hide but was out of luck.

I had started a painting of Piper Marsh some weeks ago and although I was quite pleased with the trees in the background I have been unable complete the foreground, however I was in luck today with some good photographs of both geese and herons in action, so, fingers crossed.

Finally, returning across Black Carr Field I noted an interesting moss covered tree stump which has definite possibilities as a subject for painting, so that goes on my 'to do' list !

Painting Potteric Carr

Since February I have been able to visit Potteric Carr Nature Reserve two or three time a week on 'good weather' days. The reserve covers 500 acres, has 14 viewing hides and one viewing screen and 8km of footpaths, and I have not yet seen all of it.
The YWT website has a very good map of the reserve pathways and hides at:-http://www.ywt.org.uk/discover-learn/potteric-carr-flagship-reserve-doncaster


It will be fascinating to learn about the wildlife on this reserve and how different it is from my own environment Sprotbrough Flash.
The website edited by the Potteric Carr volunteers is very interesting and informative and has stunning photographs  at:-    http://www.potteric-carr.org.uk/


As the weather improves (hopefully) I plan to take my paints with me, I have not painted en plein air before so it will be a new experience and quite a challenge. I have already sussed out some of the views/subjects I want to paint and look forward to the variety of the seasons.


My paintings of Potteric are on display and for sale in Low Ellers Cafe in the Field Centre and are listed here:-  http://sprotbropainter.blogspot.co.uk/p/paintings-for-sale-at-potteric-carr.html


Thank you for 'looking in' on my post, I intend keeping this blog up to date with my progress in learning about, and painting on this most interesting nature reserve.  

Potteric Carr Event on 12th Feb.

I was one of a number of artists exhibiting at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trusts 'Natural Arts Open Day' at  Potteric Carr Flagship Reserve (Doncaster) on Sunday 12 February. Despite the weather the day was a great success.

It was a good opportunity for local artists who take inspiration from their natural surroundings to exhibit their work on the reserve, and as these are the subjects I most enjoy painting I had decided to get involved.

April Moorhens at Potteric Carr

My paintings were displayed in Low Ellers Junction Cafe, a perfect venue right in the centre of the reserve

I am very gratified to have been asked to leave my paintings on display (for sale) and I will be adding to them in the coming weeks.

                                                         Low Ellers Junction Cafe

I now have a static page on this blog of my paintings for sale in Low Ellers Junction cafe, 

Potteric Carr Nature reserve see :-

http://sprotbropainter.blogspot.com/p/paintings-for-sale-at-potteric-carr.html

My Christmas Painting.

Around and about with my camera a few weeks ago I took this picture of Sprotbrough Falls and the stumps of trees which had recently been felled on the bank, I thought I would like to use it as a reference photo for a painting of a winter scene.  

I wanted it to be a fairly large painting so I chose a pre stretched canvas 20"x30" and gave it two extra coats of white gesso primer. 

I like to take progress photographs of some of my work, but, on this occasion I was short of time, and the weather didn't help, so I only have one picture of the painting about one third complete.  ( I have a particular spot outside that I use to photograph my work) 

To give an idea of the view,  if you are familiar with the River and Falls at Lower Sprotbrough, and you stand on the towpath with Boat Inn behind you, the tall conifer  in my painting is on your right hand side, in front is the canal (Sprotbrough Cut) then the island with the fence, on the other side of which is the River Don and Sprotbrough Falls. 

When I started the painting I had not decided exactly what I was going to include in the middle ground so I did a fairly complete painting of the Boat Inn and one of the cottages. However when I was at that stage where decisions have to be made I put in a couple of trees on the island and although these obscure quite a bit of the buildings, conifer and poplar in the background I feel I could not have it any other way.

So for what it is worth here is my "Winter at Sprotbrough Falls"

"Winter at Sprotbrough Falls" acrylic on stretched canvas 20"x30"

My Spring Garden Paintings.

I had  not submitted work for exhibition for many years when in 2010 I decided to 'have a punt' at the Doncaster Open Exhibition in Doncaster Museum. My painting 'Woodpigeon Preening in My Spring Garden' was submitted, accepted and subsequently sold. I have to admit I was rather chuffed !!!

So I thought I would have another go this year. 

I settled for a painting I had started in mid summer, then, with some dissatisfaction with the subject, colours, and other niggles with the composition, I had decided to put it to one side, telling myself that I would go back to it on another day.

 The subject was flower pots by my gate, mostly pelargoniums, the colours mainly various greens with some red and pink and a little white, 22'x28' acrylic on board and frame. It just didn't work.

                                                  

First I did some fairly drastic 'painting out' of all the areas I was unhappy with.

Then I re-arranged the pots making them larger and getting rid of the smaller ones, this greatly simplified the shapes and the 'bones' of the composition.

I also changed the upper third of the composition to reveal a distant view of the river, the far bank and the falls, and roughed in some details.

By now I was satisfied with all the changes I had made.

 

I started to do more work on the top third of the painting, adding the gateway on the left, some trees on the far bank, and emphasising the river and rocks below the falls.

The sunlight catches the foliage of the top of the garden hedge and in the centre of the top third of the painting stands the trunk of a large Skyrocket Juniper,  not a good compositional feature but I was stuck with it and the shade it cast over the pots and some of the gravel strewn ground.

I had decided that this was going to be another Spring painting, with pots of daffodils, pansies, a small cherry, tulip leaves, remains of a clump of snowdrop and the grey leaves of senecio greyii. The large rock in the foreground is to hold the gate on a windy day.

Almost finished, but I spent a whole day fiddling and refining this and that, here and there, celandines on the bottom edge extra primroses for contrast then with the addition of the three blackbirds, I was done. 

"Garden Pots with a View" was submitted to the Doncaster Open Exhibition, and was accepted, but
this year I didn't make a sale. The painting is hanging above my television and it will do me very nicely for the next few months until Spring comes again.