Dottie

I have this cute ceramic tea light holder that my daughter gave me.  Its in the shape of a hen with dots of colour all over it.  It always reminds me of spring.

Here's my version of it in graphite and white pastel on toned paper.

Cockpit

I don't particularly enjoy flying.  Its tedious and I like to be the driver, not the passenger, when it comes to take off and landing or at least see where I'm going.

I was in Ottawa for a few days and on the way back today, there was a stopover  in Halifax.  I wasn't allowed to leave the plane and had been given a premium seat with a view direct into the cockpit.  All those buttons and gages...mind boggling and rather different from driving a car.

So between people coming and going in the limited time the door to the cockpit was open, I did a quick sketch of the co-pilot and part of his working environment.  If you think seats are tight on airplanes, these guys don't have it any easier I thought as I watched the pilot literally vault into his seat using an above head hand grip for guidance.  No way to do that gracefully, either in or out.

Just two more days left in the March Sketch a Day project!  Thanks so much to the artists who participated, it was great to see you join in and the diverse range of work that was produced.  I'll do a little synopsis of my thoughts on the whole project on April 1st.

Duck skull

 
When I had ducks they had the freedom of the farm to wander and some would be adventurous and explore the meadow or the vegetable field, sometimes venturing to the edge of the woods.

Now we all know that its dangerous to go into the woods don't we?  Or so we tell our children.  Those fairytales of big bad wolf, trolls and goblins were all designed to prevent children wandering off, getting lost or getting eaten by something!

Unfortunately the little Khaki Campbell ducks were disobedient children and did go to the edge of the woods.  Where a fox was waiting.

This was a duck skull which I found in the woods, near where several disappeared.  The only good thing out of this is that I have a skull to draw from and they can be difficult to find.  If you've never drawn part of the skeletal structure of an animal or person, I strongly recommend it.  You learn so much about anatomy and how the body moves from it.

Goldfish

 
I think many people have had a goldfish as a pet at one time or other in their life and there's usually a story to go along with how it came home with you.


As a child I never had a goldfish, and never recall seeing them for sale or as prizes at a fair - not that there were any fairs here in Newfoundland then, just the Regatta in the summer.   So I think I made up for it by gathering up fish of all kinds later in life.

I used to have many, many fish at one point, both cold water goldfish, koi and tropical fish as well.  The goldfish mostly lived in a little pond in the garden but a few that were more exotic were always the inside pets.

I have no fish right now, but feel the need for a few live models arising. There is nothing better than watching them move and seeing the light reflect on the gold and orange scales.

Its time to get another goldfish I believe.

Seeds of thought

Sketches, while part of my March Sketch a Day project, often are the first step in the process of creating a piece of art.  From the gelling of an idea, to a rough thumbnail, then a more detailed sketch and finally transformation into something more solid.

This sketch was an original idea which turned into the relief print shown below.  There was a lot of transformation, cutting, altering, errors, corrections and swearing while it went through its metamorphosis, but it emerged on the other side and is now available as an open edition print through my website and  Daily Paintworks.

I use several different types of Japanese paper to print with as I love their ability to take up the ink crisply and dry quickly.  I use oil based inks for printing and find they produce a much more defined piece compared to water-based inks.  I do use water-soluable inks as they're easier to clean up, but am trying some Daniel Smith oil based inks and quite like how they perform too.  The clean up is rather messier so I'll be doing longer printing sessions when I use these I think.

Dreamer

5 x 7

Soaring

As I write this it is dark and I can hear the foghorn's low tone on the headland.  The seagulls have settled in for the night, no more flights til morning. No more soaring on the air currents. Tonight they are grounded to the lonely beaches, cliff ledges and shoreline until dawn releases them again.

Grandmother's footsteps

Who remembers this game from childhood?  In England, the game is either called "Grandmother's Footsteps" and sometimes "Statues" where the person who is "it" turns to make sure that the players are not moving if they hear movement, or it's called "Mr Wolf's Dinnertime", where "Mr Wolf" has to try and catch anyone moving - if "Mr Wolf" cries 'dinnertime' then s/he has to race everyone back to the start line, trying to catch as much 'dinner' as possible.

So what's the connection between a game and a cow?  Its back to the farm in Somerset again.   It was a dairy farm and I rented a cottage on the farm smack dab in the middle between acres of cow fields and hay barns.  As a result, there were lots of cows around and close to the house...sometimes too close.

When the heifers (young cows) were in the field and I had to cross it for whatever reason, they would, as a large group, follow me, presumably thinking I either had food or were taking them somewhere.  They would tramp along behind me, running to catch up and I could hear their heavy breath and loud footsteps. It was like being followed by an army! I often wondered if I'd get trampled in the herd.   However, if I turned to face them, they'd all freeze, mid stride, as a group and wouldn't move a muscle until I turned to walk again.  It became a bit of a game with them at times seeing how many times they'd stop before I got to the fence and scrambled over, leaving them looking a bit perplexed.

I have to admit I felt a bit uncomfortable with them all behind me at times, as they'd get closer and braver as we got nearer the fence.

March hare

Mad as a March hare.

The first time I saw that expression come to life was a peek through a tall hedge on a tiny back road near the farm I lived on, close to Combe St. Nicholas in Somerset.   I was walking the dogs and  a movement in the field caught my eye.  Two large hares were standing on their hind legs, whacking furiously at each other with their front paws.  I stood watching them for a short time, fascinated at their strange dance/fight.  The dogs, of course, wanted to join in, so it was best to move on with them.

This is a common territorial dispute around hare mating time which extends past March I'm told and I was lucky to have seen it in real life.  Of course no digital cameras or cell phones to capture the action then, just my memory.

March Hare in Newfoundland means something different, even through there are hares present, mostly Arctic hares, often mistaken for rabbits.  March Hare was once a little get together on the west coast of the province to break up a long dreary winter, but now has turned into an international literary festival, including work of local poets as well as some of the best writers in Canada and the world as well as the finest professional musicians from across the province.

My March Hare is a memory of the ones I saw in the hedge-lined field in Somerset years ago.  Done with a charcoal under drawing with pastel overlaid on newsprint.  And here's what they looked like in the field.

Puffin

An Atlantic Puffin.  These birds are in the Auk family with a stocky build and colourful beak in breeding season.

Nesting colonies can be seen offshore on the southern shore of the Avalon Peninsula, a short boat ride away.  Often called "sea parrots" because of their coloured beaks, in Newfoundland they're sometimes called "sea potatoes" because of their chunky shape.  Such effort these little birds put into flying, with wings beating up to 400 times per minute and able to reach speeds of 55 miles per hour.  They swim underwater as well as they fly, but only for short submersion times of 20 or 30 seconds.

In December 2011, a baby puffin was found wandering on the streets of Montreal and flown by Air Canada back to Newfoundland for some TLC before being released.

The Line up

The first day of school.  Nervousness, anticipation, excitement, new shoes, new bag, new pencils.  And lining up.

School is often the first formal lining up a child has to experience. Seeing the little faces makes me wonder what's going through their minds and their behaviour and tolerance for the ritual of order gives a glimpse into their personalities and future.

This sketch is of my grand daughter's first day of school.  Head of the line, she looks like she's been there, done that and has the t-shirt.

What's in yours?

Your refrigerator that is.

For the last seven months I've been on a health kick and have lost a significant amount of weight.  As a result, the contents of my fridge have changed a lot.  One, there is a lot less generally in there.  Two, the contents consist mostly of fresh fruit and veg, meat and a variety of salad dressings.

Over on Daily Paintworks, where my small paintings now reside, a challenge is provided weekly.  This week it was What's in Your Fridge?   I'd never drawn or painted the contents of my fridge and thought it could make interesting compositions, so I took a few shots and found some that I liked.  Plein aire isn't really possible with the fridge door open for ages...

I haven't painted it yet, but here's a sketch of what's in part of the fridge door.   The small glass bottles of diet Coke I bought so long ago, they're probably gone off by now.  Like many things, I buy them as art props but still haven't gotten around to using these yet.   I rarely drink soft drinks, so there's little appeal to me to consume them, but the green tinged bottle with the classic shape appeals for a painting.

Hmmm, perhaps its time to have another look in the fridge.

Tripod

 Tripod's been the "adopted child" for more than six years.   He was a cat living wild for a couple of years around the farm, then through a series of events ended up in the house and has stayed ever since.

His wild days still manifest themselves in his hunting ability, his blood curdling growls in his sleep, his fights with other cats who venture onto the property and, of course, his missing limb.

He's showing the signs of aging.  I don't know his age and the vet says his teeth are those of an older cat, so who knows precisely.  The injury to his front leg that caused the amputation is an unknown too, perhaps a snare, another animal, its hard to tell.  And I suspect there's  a direct link to his eye on the same side as it never opens fully and in this sketch, lying on his beloved newspaper, he looks a bit like a pirate.

Things you may or may not know about Tripod:

• He adores lying on paper.  As soon as preparation is made to light a fire, he makes a beeline for the newspaper laid on the floor, hindering use.

• He only eats human grade tuna and dry cat food, one particular brand.  He obviously had never eaten it when he first arrived and would not chew it, nearly choking.  I was trying to figure out how to do a Heimlich manoevere on a cat...

• He will not eat freshly cooked fish or meat of any kind.  Ever.  He looks at it, sniffs it, looks at me in disgust and walks away.

• He will only drink water from a puddle or stream outside, never from a dish inside.

• His three-legged mobility state can go from Tiny Tim the cripple, to seek attention, to faster than a speeding bullet if a rabbit is in view.

• If slippers are left on the floor, he lies down and puts his 1.5 front feet in one of them and lies there til disturbed.  Why, I have no idea.

• He despises dogs.  He will stalk and physically attack any dog, any size, any disposition.  It can be the most cat-friendly dog in the world and Tripod will launch himself at it unprovoked.  I know there are foxes and coyotes and hunting dogs in the woods around the farm and I imagine he had his fair share of confrontations in his wild days, so this may account for his behaviour.
• Unless shut in the house when you go outside, he follows like a dog.  Anywhere you go.  And flings himself down on the ground in front of you, often tripping you. People wonder why I go for a run with a cat under my arm.  Well, its because I have to bring him back home because he's followed me and its just easier to carry him than wait for him to catch up.

Yes, this cat is very, very different.  You'd really have to experience him to understand.  He's not your average cat at all, more like a dog in many behaviours.

Equality

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Equality.  Whether size, shape, colour or sexual preference, are differences really strong enough to cause hurt over?


Others could compare all the differences but none of the similarities, make these two keep hiding in the confines of the sugar bowl forever.

“Once upon a time they was two girls," I say. "one girl had black skin, one girl had white."

Mae Mobley look up at me. She listening.

"Little colored girl say to little white girl, 'How come your skin be so pale?' White girl say, 'I don't know. How come your skin be so black? What you think that mean?'

"But neither one a them little girls knew. So little white girl say, 'Well, let's see. You got hair, I got hair.'"

I gives Mae Mobley a little tousle on her head.

"Little colored girl say 'I got a nose, you got a nose.'"

I gives her little snout a tweak. She got to reach up and do the same to me.

"Little white girl say, 'I got toes, you got toes.' And I do the little thing with her toes, but she can't get to mine cause I got my white work shoes on.

"'So we's the same. Just a different color', say that little colored girl. The little white girl she agreed and they was friends. The End."

Baby Girl just look at me. Law, that was a sorry story if I ever heard one. Wasn't even no plot to it. But Mae Mobley, she smile and say, "Tell it again.”

― Kathryn Stockett, The Help

Mackerel

 Mackerel

6" x 12"  

Available from my Daily Paintworks gallery

I was sketching out some ideas for new prints and one of them is a mackerel.  These fish are found in many parts of the world and there are a lot of variants within the species.   I love their torpedo like shape and dark stripes along the dorsal section.

This started as a simple sketch, then I added watercolour over that, then a little pen work and finally some touches of soft pastel to finish it off.

You can watch for another variation in print form in my Fishy Bits series this year.

The catch

The salt-cod fishery was a mainstay of Newfoundland and Labrador’s economy throughout the nineteenth century. It consisted of three branches: an inshore fishery off the island’s coast, a Labrador fishery, and an offshore bank fishery. Of these, the inshore fishery was both the oldest and largest, with roots in an English migratory fishery dating back to the 1500s.

Until 1992, when the moratorium was announced.   The fishery is now a ghost of its former past.

And this is part of its past.   An old photo from the archives of a young fisherman selling his catch on the wharf at St. John's harbour in the early 1900s caught my attention as I browsed the archives.  The stance. the features, hand in pocket of overalls to keep warm, told the story of a life that comes with harvesting from the sea.  I needed to capture that in a quick oil sketch.

Spring - SOLD

 Spring - SOLD
acrylic on stretched canvas 7" x 5"

Available from my Daily Paintworks gallery

You know when it arrives.

The sun is brighter, the air is warmer.  You swear you think the grass is getting green again and there's a promise of daffodils and tulips poking their way through the soil.

You fling open every window in the house to release the winter worn air and replace it with the new season.

Then you start cleaning.

Pre-flight test

Young ducklings are such fun.  They’re curious and active and talkative.  Their bodies seem to grow before your eyes as they get taller and stronger.

Then one day during the wing testing exercises, the stretching, flapping and running across the yard and suddenly they become airborne.  The flight is usually short and they seem surprised that they can actually do this.   Most of the ducks test their flying ability in the first year and seem to lose interest after that, preferring to stick closer to the barn or field, which is likely a good thing with predators never far away.

The Chase

It's here! The Chase is the print for March in my Fishy Bits! project 

The codfish is a classic Newfoundland image.  A codfish chasing a capelin still common especially in summer when the capelin are plentiful and the cod become too full to ever be tempted by a fisherman.

A few weeks each year recreational cod fishery is open and many people take to the water to get their quota of five fish daily.   Last year the fish they came back with were huge - too large to sacrifice to me for printing.   So I made my own!   You can purchase your very own cod/capelin chase hanging on your wall by visiting my website  

These are printed using oil based ink on Japanese papers.  The piece here is printed on Masa paper. 

I'm presenting the finished prints in various frame options over time to give you an idea of how they look framed.

This is a simple frame, 13" x 13" square with a 5" x 7" opening.  The print area is 4" x 6" and the larger opening allows space for the signature and title to show.   Sorry about the reflection of me ghosting the image, a hazard of photographing glass.

Left or right?

Which is your drawing hand?  Left or right?  Or are you ambidextrous?

My right hand is my drawing hand, my most everything hand.  The left goes along for the ride but doesn't have the dexterity for fine skills such as drawing.  Any drawing I've tried with my left look like a child's drawing - shaky, broken lines without the smooth strokes that the right hand can produce.

This sketch is of my right hand.  I was lying in bed, considering light and shapes and hands and took some shots of my right hand and wrist with my cell phone camera.  Drawing extremeties can be challenging for artists, but as with most everything, if its broken down into simple shapes then built up from there, the intricacies can be figured out.  The idea of a small series of hand drawings, perhaps in charcoal piques my interest.

Did you know?

• Approximately 8 to 15% of the adult population is left-handed.
• Studies indicate that left-handedness is more common in males than females.
• Left-handedness, in comparison to the general population, also appears to occur more frequently in identical twins, and several groups of neurologically disordered individuals
• Statistically, the identical twin of a left-handed person has a 76% chance of being left-handed, identifying the cause(s) as partly genetic and partly environmental.
• It is also noted that many bisexuals and homosexuals are left-handed more than their heterosexual counterparts.
• Also people of South Asian, Eastern European, Southeast Asian descent are more left-handed than any other ethnic groups in the world, while people of Western European, Northern European, and African descent are less left-handed.

Jellyfish

 I'm fascinated with jellyfish and depicting their shape and movement in the water.  Light passes through them and creates amazing colours that you'd never think possible.  Blues, yellows, purples, reds...  However, this sketch is simple pen and ink, finely hatched.  The beauty of the jellyfish is that the shape is simple but complex too, allowing the pen to build up layers to create form without worrying about strokes out of place.

I love to see them floating in the water, long tentacles trailing into the dark water.  Their movement is so graceful, like a ballet in water. But have you ever seen a jellyfish like this one?  The comb jellyfish, a voracious feeder, eating its own weight in food daily.