I have finally decided to get into gear on my fieldfare and redwing picture which has been sitting forlornly in the “On The Easel” section of this blog for some time now. As it is going to be such a large work and will take quite some time to complete I decided to paint a smaller piece depicting fieldfares and whitethorn berries to iron out any problems I might have with the larger piece. Problem is I am gone half mad already painting berries and there are still soooooo many to do! I shall  work on them for another few hours this morning and begin the birds on Monday.

Check out the “on The Easel” page for progress on this painting.

This picture is quite large in itself measuring 350mm x 550mm.

I have been working hard at the easel  since Xmas and have been rewarded with a few lovely paintings. I have been inspired by some beautiful January sunsets and decided to capture the light and include some birds in the compositions. I painted a pair of paintings featuring woodcock flying out of cover at dusk on their way to their feeding grounds. They look stunning in their frames. They can be purchased separately or as a pair.

I have also painted a sunset featuring geese on their way to roost. It is a wonderfully evocative painting and I have included a snap of the mounted as well.

I have had a lot of enquires over the last year if I had any plans to produce some prints of my work. Well I am glad to say that in conjunction with wildlife artist Colin Woolf who is doing the printing, my first prints will be be available shortly. I have taken some orders already and I am offering the prints at a special introductory price once they become available. Please contact me if you would be interested in purchasing one of them.I will post the prices  and sizes next week on a blog update. The prints are offered on their own or framed.

These are the subjects for the prints, a leveret, woodcock. goldfinches and a red deer stag.

I was showing my work at the Antique and Fine Art Fair in Dromoland Castle on the weekend. It is a fantastic venue for any event with beautiful views of the lake in front of the castle and mature parkland surrounding it. My sister was lending me a hand. She was a bit of a  shutterbug with my camera so the following images are hers! (She is the woman  examining the painting in one of the images).

I have decided to release prints of some of my watercolour and pencil works. I announced this for the first time at the show and there was a lot of interest and I have taken some bookings already. I will be giving further details on this site over the next few days.

I hope that the Christmas period has been good for all of you and now that everyone is back to a normal routine that the rest of winter will not be long slipping by.

I have started a number of new works included hares and woodcock but my big challenge is a painting which features Fieldfares and Redwings gorging on whitethorn berries. It will be a lot of work so hopefully the end result will look like the image in my head! By the way  the page colour looks grey instead of white.

My next show is the Antiques and Fine Art Fair in Dromoland Castle, Co. Clare next Saturday and Sunday(18/19th), from 11am -6pm each day.

Well it is hard to believe that Christmas has slipped by and we are now in the new year. I would like to wish all of my blog followers and folks who bought art of me this year a healthy new year.

As some of you know I have been offering a painting of mine as a prize in a draw open to people who have seen me at the shows that I have done since  the Equus Live Show in November. I had the draw last night and I am delighted to announce that Angela Barrett, from Kildare won the framed piece pictured below. I spoke to her earlier today and she was delighted.

I am busy at the easel today working on a large picture which will feature thrushes. It is just at the planning stage but I am excited to begin it. It will be a lot of work. I will try to get an image up in the coming days.

Hello all,

The festive season is really beginning to crank up now and I am busy preparing for the Christmas Crafts Bazaar held in the Franciscan church.This event is getting stronger each year and there is plenty of great stuff on display by the various vendors. Combine this with seasonal music, mulled wine and brightly lit trees it makes for a great event. Details regarding opening times are to be found in the”exhibitions” header in the top menu.

I have being painting foxes, robins and even a few city scenes for a change. Drop by if you get a chance! Deck the trees with…..

I spent a few hours today painting moorhens and just having a bit of fun with the paints. I couldn’t help but giggle when I was painting their oversized feet. They reminded me of the old song “Your Feet’s Too Big” (I love the Fats Waller version! ).

I spent an hour planning my next painting this evening. It will involve quite a bit more work than the moorhens. I will keep you informed!

(By the way the background colour is white and not grey as the image shows)

I was flicking through a few photos of water birds this morning and my eye caught some images of moorhens. I do not know why but they never struck me as “paintable” birds . As I looked carefully at the images for the first time my eye caught the blues, browns, purples of the body plumage and the outrageous  crimsons and yellow of the beak and legs! I had always thought of moorhens as just little black birds that just scuttle off as soon as a person appears cursing them in that irritating shrilly call of theirs! Their oversized feet lend them a comical look and I knew I just had to paint them. I spent a few hours doodling and then began this painting. I hope to finish it tomorrow.

I am going to call it…”It Takes Two to Tango”.

Doodles

Optics hate it, clothes hates it, even skin hates it but birds love it. Mud, Glorious Mud!  What on earth am I talking about you may ask? Let me explain. As I mentioned in my last blog post I was heading up to Clontarf castle for the INREDA Xmas fair. Well the following day I decided to head off to the Bull Island Reserve to sketch and photograph its feathered residents and migrants. The day was dull and light bad and so the photography side of things didn’t overly excite me but I spent some valuable time sketching and painting wildlfowl. This is an important discipline of being a wildlife artist and the opportunities at Bull Island are superb.

Where would I begin? There were rafts of wigeon and pintail, parties of teal, shoveler and mallard .There were curlew, godwits, dunlin, turnstones, greenshank, redshank, sanderling, and knot. Herons and egrets were stalking the shorelines and the incessant soft calling of the large numbers of brent geese made for a beautiful chorus of birdsong. The incoming tide was slowly pushing all these critters towards me but by the time they were really close and would make great photographic closeups the light was gone!

I have included a few of my snaps at the end of the blog. I left the reserve at twilight and drove the long journey home to Connemara tired but well pleased.

Oh and by the way the Christmas fair was an excellent one with top quality vendors. I do hope they run it again next year.

Doodles

Time is flying and the evenings are getting longer so that must mean that the festive season is around the corner. The Christmas fair season has kicked off and I must admit I love them! My family dread me going to these at this stage as it usually means that I return laden with green and red scarves, little trinkets turned from wood and such, and these somehow end up in their Xmas stockings! Well what is wrong with that?

I have had many requests  from Dublin based folk who viewed my work online and would love to see it in person to show it in the city, so I am heading up to the big smoke tomorrow for a Xmas fair in Clontarf castle, to be held on Sunday between 10 am and 6 pm. The organisers have told me that there will be 40 quality exhibitors attending and the castle venue should be fantastic for a good atmosphere.

I better get cracking and finish off a few festive paintings!