Picking up unsold work from Muchelney and visiting Greylake & Swell Wood either side of the pottery. First time I’ve seen the heronry in action.. it was late afternoon, so probably not best for light or activity but there was a strong atmosphere. Big beasts in the wood, primeval noises and the sense that this had been going on for a very long time. All the little birds, tits, nuthatch, woodpecker and dove all dwarved by these seasonal invaders, taking over the roof space. Postures I don’t remember seeing before. Quite hard work to pick out what was going on, looking up high and getting fragments of action through the branches. Birds clambering around breaking off twigs, alighting with crests greased up into trailing quiffs, copulating – a high wire act, somehow carried out in a diligent and respectful manner.

6613 – heronry – ink pen – A5 sketchbook

A selection of recent work including field painting, woodcuts & monoprints on show from Sat.31st Oct – Sat.28th Nov 2015. I’ll be at the gallery from 11-4 on the opening Saturday. All are welcome.

– view to the southwest – bardsey island – gouache & graphite

A week (19th-26th sept) on Bardsey with Kim Atkinson & Darren Woodhead as part of the BTO/SWLA flight lines project, sketching activities around the bird observatory.
Very low key bird wise which may have been for the best… forcing us to look more at the surroundings and the people at work.

– mark extracting a blackcap – bardsey island – gouache & ink pen

– mark ringing a coal tit – bardsey island – gouache

Pretty low numbers of birds being caught, mainly young goldcrests and chiffchaffs.

Tail end of the surveying of the manx shearwater burrows, most of them had gone to see but we stalked Mark, one of the assistant wardens as he went about his work.  Shoving his arm down lots of burrows and coming out with 2 well feathered young, nearly ready to go, but also two very fluffy youngsters who had a way to go.

– inspecting the shearwater burrows – bardsey island – gouache & ink pen

The seals have become much more approachable since I spent time on the island in the 80’s and it was great to watch them with their pups. There were also Risso’s dolphins around the island, first time I’ve had prolonged looks at those.

– seals & turnstones – bardsey island

Towards the end of our time on Shetland we got 2 days of sun. Great to have pitched up at a bay where there was an arctic tern colony.  They were sitting on young chicks and eggs both down on the beach and in the boulder field above.
One of the great things from the trip was having the air full of seabird sound… here the electric sore throat fizzings of the terns (Shetland name apparently ‘Tirrick’, which does a much better job of conjuring the bird than its English name). The thoughtful ‘poo-weet’ of ringed plover (don’t know what the Shetlanders do for that one).  I think the plover were all with well grown young.
Manic ‘kleeping’ of oystercatchers chasing each other around in parties and nearly tripping over their bills in head down piping contests. We saw a bonxie strike one down from one of the groups as they flew round the bay. Clobbering it to the ground, didn’t see how and then bludgeoning it with its bill with the other oystercatchers mobbing it for another 20 minutes or so whilst it plucked and ate a good portion of the bird.

5686 – arctic terns – shetland – ink pen – A5 sketchbook

5685 – arctic terns – shetland – ink pen – A5 sketchbook

5684 – arctic tern & ringed plover – shetland – ink pen – A5 sketchbook

5683 – arctic tern, ringed plover & oystercatchers – shetland – ink pen – A5 sketchbook

5682 – arctic terns – shetland – ink pen – A5 sketchbook

5680 – arctic terns – shetland – ink pen – A5 sketchbook

5679 – arctic terns – shetland – ink pen – A4 sketchbook

5600 – gannets – bass rock – ink pen & gouache – 38 x 56 cms

Back from 3 weeks in Scotland. First the ‘John Busby seabird drawing course’, the 25th year it has run and the first one without John. I think he would have been happy to look down on us. It felt like the group of ‘students’ gelled quickly and we four ‘tutors’ were more actively leading activities… warm up exercises, Betty Edwards type things like continuous line, blind drawing, left hand etc. All seemed really healthy.

Then on to the Shetland isles for 2 weeks.
I’ll try and get to a series of posts about the trip….
Starting with gannets on the Bass.

5599 – gannets – bass rock – gouache – 38 x 56 cms

300615- Bass
hanging. braced fore-wing. unders shaded. diving mask tapered-goggles. arched rump. saw tailed fan flails down. flanked by paddling black marigolds. shorter inners.
deep bruised sea as wind gets up. volcano law another world.
black thumb, bulbous yellow, flailing hand, wiped moustache.
cloud masses rise out from land to cielo blue. above rock ledges teeming, feathers ruffling, mad making guttural growling honk.

5604 – gannets – bass rock – gouache – 38 x 56 cms

5605 – gannets – bass rock – gouache – 38 x 56 cms

5582 – short-eared owl & earth movers – wallasea island – monotype – 50 x 38 cms

More owl printing, jumping up in size for this one.

5576 – short=eared owl & digger – wallasea island – monotype – 28 x 35 cms

Unusual day where I managed to persist with the same ingredients for 3 monoprints… usually ink misbehaves, or the press does something untoward…. but today free to just try different things. Using small rollers, brushing and playing with the balance of the three colours.
Somehow replicating the freedom that I might have when scribbling in the sketchbook, except that in the studio there is a sense of time standing still and the moment morphs.

5577 – short=eared owl & digger – wallasea island – monotype – 28 x 35 cms

5578 – short=eared owl & digger – wallasea island – monotype – 28 x 35 cms