Woodland Critter

My mind has been taken up with a mixture of leafy issues and faeries and woodland spirit types. So I managed a quick sketch of a woodland critter, not sure if he’s one of the good critters or one of the more mischievous types, time will tell.

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The Truth About Faeries from A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Lord of the Rings

10th July 2010 to 12th September 2010 – Tullie House Art Gallery, Carlisle

“From the Golden Age of illustration from the 1860s to 1920s up to the present day, this exhibition explores the prevailing interest amongst story tellers, artists, film makers and illustrators in the world of fairies.”

When I first heard about this exhibition my intent had been to visit on day one, real life of course has a way of putting small hurdles in our path which means plans sometimes go out of the window Anyway, today we managed to visit this exhibition, and I’m glad we did. My main reason for visiting had been to see some of Alan Lee’s originals; I’ve been looking at his work in printed form for years but this was my first chance to see an original or two.

We’ve seen quite a few exhibitions at Tullie house now, some of them I had to leave fairly quickly before I fell victim to pretentious-crap-syndrome, that horrible condition where you start to think the artist really did have something in mind when the gathered together a load of old junk and called it art. The Truth About Faeries exhibition makes up for all the bad experiences we’ve had there.

What did surprise me was how some of the paintings affected me, I was looking forward as I’ve said the the Alan Lee originals, what I wasn’t expecting was how Brian Froud’s works would hit me. Staring at Brian’s Green Man and Bluebell Fairy made me realize how far I have to go with a paintbrush, I must admit that looking at Sword by Alan Lee gave me a slight sinking feeling that I’ll never be able to paint moving water in a way that I’ll be happy with now

As much as looking at the delicate works of Brian and Alan made me want to sit down with some watercolours and paint for the rest of the week, looking at The Source of the Anduin by Paul Raymond Gregory made me want to run out and buy some huge canvas and vanish whilst I found part of Middle Earth hidden there. When you enter the gallery to view this exhibition you are greeted by a combination of faeries and green men, turn to your right and look down the length of the room and you are faced with this huge canvas by Paul, it took a fair amount of self control to visit the paintings in turn and not walk straight to this oil painting.

So, why is this a must see exhibition, well really look at the list of exhibitors to start with and then if that does not stir you to action think back to your childhood, did you ever read a Ladybird book, The Elves and the Shoemaker perhaps, well tucked away near the doorway are a small collection of original illustrations from a number of Ladybird books. They are quite simply a delightful glimpse at the art that affected so many of our childhoods.

This is an exhibition we’ll have to visit again, it’s so rare to see art like this in the far North of England that to miss it would be a shame, and once you’ve seen it once you’ll want to visit again

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A3 Watercolour.

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Clouds and Towers

I’ve been plagued by clouds this week, well not plagued as such but they have always been ‘there’ whenever I wanted to do something that did not feature clouds So it felt appropriate that my first sketch should be of clouds over the Shire.

I’ve also been trying to think of some different architecture for watch towers, how they could either blend into or be a prominent feature of the landscape. I’ll be playing with architecture quite a bit over the coming weeks I think

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Rivendell & wandering

I have in the back of my mind an idea to paint Rivendell in oil on a huge canvas, to do this I need a few things to happen. I need to earn enough money so that we can live in Lauterbrunnen for a month or two, and of course I have to develop the confidence to tackle the painting for now I’ll keep sketching ideas…

Oh yes, I feel like a wander in some remote hills too

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Big Tree, Bigger Stone

Sitting at work I was wondering what to sketch flipping through a landscape photography magazine and I spotted a rather nice tree, being tempted to draw trees now and then I decided to use the image as reference and have a go at it

I’ve also been trying to think of landscapes incorporating monoliths of varying sizes and shapes, and so we have…

It’s actually the first scribble for a painting I have lodged in my brain, long way to go yet though

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Birds & Horsey Type Things

We’ve been watching the birds flitting back and forth between the feeders in front of the window. It’s amazing how long they’ll spend picking at the nuts and seed. So, my first sketch of course is of birds on the feeders, sadly they move too quick for me

I have of course had my head in Tolkien, not literally of course, just the World he created I’ve also been thinking of horses as I need to do some horsey paintings for the theme of the month over at John Howe’s website and so I decided to sketch the outside of The Prancing Pony.

Still on the horsey theme I sketched The Fake, it’s a fake unicorn of course, don’t know why the idea crept into my head but I thought I may as well do something about it.

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Life’s a beach

Well, a few sketches inspired by our trip to a beach on the West Coast of Cumbria

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Inspired by the Bank

This weeks scribbles are inspired by our visit to Acorn Bank…

There is a story to go with this building, but I’ve not started it yet Though it also involves some reeds down by the river…

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I was reading The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell earlier today, it started me thinking ahead to our holiday in Northumberland later this year and back to a time when it was a bit more wild than we see it today. A time when a sail on the horizon would not be a pleasant sight for many people anyway

I also attempted a quick sketch from the window at work today, it’s not a bad view to look at twelve hours a day

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