Sunday 6 September 2009

Wednesday 26 August 2009

blue tit on a rainy day....




what a shocker of a wet day!!

so to cheer myself up Iand because theres a million blue tits in the garden and they cheer me up, I thought I'd draw one!! their chubby happy birds. and look a lot more funky than sparrows!

la concha / Peine del Viento...Spain/Sbaen


redemption way

Wednesday 12 August 2009

new paintings....



Hi, thanks for taking time to have a browse of my art work. Recently I have been taking trips outdoors and painting 'plein air' as the term goes. It has been really encouraging and fun to paint in the outdoors, and I have found it really reflective and moving to be surrounded by the subject I am trying to paint. Just a few days ago as I was painting away, a fox casually strolls past my hide out underneath a tree , not noticing my presence there. Not seen a fox in broad daylight strolling across a field in a long time, and this seem to capture the moment of what I was aiming for. The sponteunous events of nature and its freshness and lively on going processes , breaking down and re generating, living and breathing, not caring - just being. In a word, being outdoors and painting has been class. A good class room to be in and learn from. Hope you enjoy my work.
Steff

Thursday 30 July 2009

Thursday 16 July 2009

missfit banana's


series of small short paintings this one in a traditional still life theme - painting it I was thinking - like an elephant, like an elephant - being bold and brash but careful I don't wake the lions up .... : D

machen hill towards the sea



apologies for the dark image - both these new images (this one and the above) are getting photographed again shortly)

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Sing a Song of Sixpence

("I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." quote from 'To Kill a Mockingbird)




(Robin 2 - a light less labored version)


(Robin 3.... with worm)


whats that rhyme? something about sixpence and a blackbird...backed in a pie .. well I'm back drawing birds again... yesterday after recovering from a mysterious fluey type thing (one of the lecturer's at college has it and thought it was hayfever but it isn't) I managed to create 5 smallish drawings of one the coolest birds around here. Between the hours of 9 and 5 your sure to see it on machen mountain singing happily while soaring some gidy heights. I actually felt like being a bird the other day. Strange as it may sound I don't think I'm the only one out there who wishes he was a bird sometime.(Or am I?!)

I think it would be quiet mad just going for a fly around South Wales and a sunny afternoon like today. Don't you think? I'd be well up for it. If Icarus has succeeded I'm sure he wouldn't have come back down to tell us all. He'd have been top busy riding the pockets of hot air and pooping on unsuspecting cars , illigally parked outside the shops.

Oh, And to my knowledge , skylarks aren't sort of trapped in that 8 hour window...they can fly whenever they want... unless their pooping on your car that is.

Steff

Monday 18 May 2009

blue martin.. .. summer is on the way...



Summer is already rolling by and the Martins are busy nesting and dancing in the air. I've just been to Milan for a 4 day holiday and loved everything about Italy. There's martins there too but their smaller. There a very unique bird and I always think about them as being super agile. The blues are perfect for ink washes too.

Detail of 3 paintings for the Norwegian church show





Friday 17 April 2009

stranager in a bottle



here'r my first carder method painting. I've played with certain aspects of his method, but this was definitely using the method following it as closely as poss. although.... the mini jar on the right was painted with stand oil instead of the delq mixture.. but ... other than that.

im not sure i like it. its not drawin properly and the wine glass is off. but then.. so the angle is tilted- the black box - is an off angle so it doens't look majorly awkward. well. to me it looks very awkward. but i enjoyed painting the tea pot. its 50years old. ultra retro...my mother bought it for her parents like 40-50 years ago. so i'd imagine its worth a lot in retro-ville. Price it up for me if you ever visit!

oh- the reflection in the wine bottle, that's me. police songs are always a good listen to when painting. and message in a bottle came to mind as its all about reflection and identity.

Wednesday 8 April 2009


wood pigeon

gold crest / blue crest
coffee/tea charcoal , conte crayon pastel pencils

Tuesday 31 March 2009

wren

robin

hedge sparrow




My first post....

a wren a sparrow and a robin.
their all british birds. birds of a feather...

coffee/tea washes and drips.
mostly drawn with my fingers with charcoal then detailed with pastel pencils.

hope they look really old. i was going for that old feel you see in drawings in museums. i ink with coffee - that helps with that.


Coffee/tea bags / charcoal, crushed, 2 cloves of garlic and season with salt.



enjoy :)