Claudia Myatt Artist in Lockdown 07/05/2020 (updated 22/05/2020) | By Mary-Anne Bartlett | 0 Comments I’m writing an in depth book on how to draw, to help build your sketching confidence and so that you don’t have to try and remember everything I’ve said after one of my drawing workshops! I’m in Woodbridge, living on my boat on the river close to the Art Safari HQ. I’ve started doing some Youtube tutorials – It’s a bit of a learning curve but I’m doing a series called Creative Watercolour techniques. Four done, more to come. Have a look and let me know what you think or what else you’d like to see! And bear with me on filming technique! Creative Watercolours 1 Creative Watercolours 2 Creative Watercolours 3 Creative Watercolours 4 It’s not all work – I live on a small boat with no tv and limited internet, so evenings are spent playing my harp, drinking wine, eating too many peanuts and missing my friends, especially the inimitable Mary-Anne Bartlett who lives only a curlew’s call away. On the other hand, these light evenings are lovely and I wouldn’t swap the view from my windows with anyone! Take care everyone, stay inspired and keep sketching.
James Willis Artist in Lockdown 07/05/2020 | By Mary-Anne Bartlett | 0 Comments Fine here during lockdown in Hertfordshire.. I’m very focused on the book which is coming on well and with one month to go it looks more like a book now. 10 big paintings to do for it so I’m flat out. I come up for air to do 2 hours piano practice and then go to bed and start again. I must admit it’s nice not to be rushing around all the time. I’m in major book editing phase! I’m going live online with classes next week. So I may never have to leave the house again! I’m doing painting Wednesday mornings and in a week or so two thirty minute masterpiece at a time art history lectures, just for fun. Oh and the Campari has run out! I’m squashed in here in my studio ready for Wednesday’s zoom. We just had a tea party practice and it worked quite well…about 40 people. (Thank you for the birthday piano tune James! I’m so impressed!)
John Threlfall Artist in Lockdown 07/05/2020 | By Mary-Anne Bartlett | 0 Comments So here in Aberdeenshire.…..the cancellation of all exhibitions and the closure of all the galleries for the foreseeable future means that I have had time to play with some other ideas that I have wanted to do for ages. For example, I have been working on a series of portraits of/for family and friends with a view to ‘putting them out there’ to generate some interest and even commissions. My thoughts are often in Zambia. I’ve got the time now to work up some sketches from our fantastic trip to Thornicroft last year. I don’t quite know which ones I am going to use so have posted a load of them! Ahhh, I find myself wondering when we’ll be back in South Luangwa. I love Thornicroft and all. I’ve been going through Judy’s photos and…sigh sigh!! My daily (dog) walk into the mixed Birch and Scots Pine woodland has been a wonderful solace, tonic and inspiration. We are so lucky to have these beautiful woods within a short walk of the house with the bonus of horizon wide views along Deeside to the still snow streaked mountains of the Cairngorms. Last spring I painted my way through the woods by way of getting to know them intimately, specialist pine forest birds such as crossbill, siskin and redpoll alongside other woodland specialties such as willow warbler, tree creeper and tree pipit in the open glades. It is also lovely to have many yellowhammers and tree sparrows on the adjacent farmland. This spring however I have been writing my way around, reacting to sightings, sounds and experiences and putting together a series of haiku like verses by way of mapping the progression of seasonal changes. One of these days I will put last years sketches and this years writings together!! I certainly feel that this period is an opportunity to be grasped and made use of, to explore ideas and possibilities. Who knows what may come of this? I’ve also been busy baking bread and cookies during lockdown!!! They’re not bad at all!
Roger Dellar Artist in Lockdown 07/05/2020 (updated 07/05/2020) | By Mary-Anne Bartlett | 0 Comments Being studio-bound is not such a bad thing! I am exploring my surroundings near my house in Surrey, challenging myself with unfamiliar subjects. I painted by wheelbarrow the other day. I’d been gardening and sat down for a coffee with Lyn and thought ah, that would make a nice picture. I’m catching up with unfinished projects ,such as six 40×30 pieces for a gallery. I”m also writing articles for Artists and Illustrators magazine. A new addition is requests for on-line teaching and so I’m setting up zoom classes with my existing students. It’s good fun. Keep safe! We spotted that Roger’s pastel painting of the Woodbridge Violin shop appeared in the current edition of Artists and Illustrators – painted while he was here running an Art Safari workshop. I wonder if Russel has seen it?
Karen Pearson – in Lockdown 07/05/2020 | By Mary-Anne Bartlett | 0 Comments I have been making painting tutorial videos to share with everyone in lockdown. It’s a learning process and hard trying to juggle being cameraman as well as artist at the same time. I’ve also been beavering away in sculpture studio making birdbaths and other sculptures….a good time to explore new materials, methods and ideas. I’ve been walking the dog and taking my painting kit and sketchbook with me to sit and paint somewhere quiet in the Surrey countryside….away from the world for a while! Here’s a timelapse video of bluebells I painted near my home. You might like to look at some of Karen’s video tutorials: Bluebell Woods Hen & Brood Paint your own Breakfast Washing Line Karen’s videos are free of charge but donations to her chosen charity are gratefully received! It’s so nice to see the work that many of her students have done over the last weeks.
Mark Boyd – Artist in Lockdown 06/05/2020 (updated 06/05/2020) | By Mary-Anne Bartlett | 0 Comments I have been enjoying the unfolding spring from the saddle of my new bicycle and the soles of my new trainers. I moved to north Norfolk in late January so I have a whole new house and garden to explore – including the wren that sunbathes on the garden fence. I am within easy walking distance of a nature reserve and cycling distance of fabulous birdwatching sites. The newness extends to my studio and the Eeyore-ish pleasure of having space and things to put in and take out of boxes again – it’s bliss! Here’s a little video of one of my prints coming off the press.
Julia Cassels – Artist in Lockdown 06/05/2020 | By Mary-Anne Bartlett | 0 Comments I heard from a great friend who is now a well know cartoonist for the national papers. His days start at dawn, with briefs of the latest headlines for him to interpret and encapsulate into marvelous style of understated irony by the print deadline of 2pm that day. “Julia,” he said, “I’ve been working in isolation for the last 30 years!” Indeed, there are many artists who crave the isolation. To have the space and time to be uninterrupted whilst being creative is a wonderful luxury. It gives us the opportunity to explore, try out new ideas, develop and push our work to new boundaries. It is something that amongst our other commitments of juggling teaching, workshops and family we rarely ever manage to find the time for our “artistic selves”, not to mention the necessity of keeping ourselves financially afloat. However, all of us have had this period of isolated lockdown thrust upon us, not just here in Hampshire… Much as I would relish this chance to paint like a mad thing all-day & everyday in the studio right now, we were half-way through rebuilding our house when the lockdown happened. Immediately everything was halted and we were left with a ladder as our stairs were stuck in Poland. So instead of stretching watercolour paper and preparing canvases I’ve been plastering, tiling, and producing drawings for the landscaping. Swapping Sable watercolour and oil hog brushes for 4” decorators brushes and rollers and rags. (Picture here of me painting the fascia board for the porch roof). My husband who works for the World Wildlife Fund and is often travelling to some far flung corner of the world is grounded here, but taken over the studio for his conference calls while diggers operate outside levelling the ground. My oldest son should be in Myanmar now, backpacking on his Gap year, but found himself trapped in Cambodia and finally made it home via the last flight out of Indonesia. My younger son should be sitting his GCSE’s, instead he has “remote” schooling online and zoom “Classrooms”. However there is a silver lining: I am so enjoying having the whole family here … even if producing endless meals is a challenge! Certainly interesting times……. Julia did manage to go to a bluebell wood last weekend. Have you found one yet?
Jackie Garner Artist in Lockdown 06/05/2020 (updated 07/05/2020) | By Mary-Anne Bartlett | 0 Comments I’m knee-deep in Roe Deer sightings here in Gloucestershire. There’s at least seven individuals around, I can see them from my studio, but they’re not appearing together so it’s hard to know. Very distracting, but in a good way. ???? I’ve been writing a lot. While it would be good to spend all my time painting, being largely without an outlet (April’s Nature in Art residency and May’s Open Studio were both cancelled) that feels a bit futile and writing is creatively satisfying too. So my lockdown activities have mainly been: (1) Finishing Leisure Painter magazine articles (acrylic mediums 4-part series, first one in current issue, see pic). (2) Re-igniting my blog. It used to be about my art world generally, I’ve given it a makeover to become an art teaching blog. (3) Finishing my first eBook (about passive income for artists), which has been partially written for a looooong time. Lockdown has given me a block of time and no distractions of other events. Perfect opportunity to finish it and learn new publishing skills. So while the effects of Covid19 are mostly negative and vile, I’m actually hugely busy and my inner introvert is loving the solitude. Every cloud…
Darren Rees Artist in Lockdown 05/05/2020 (updated 07/05/2020) | By Mary-Anne Bartlett | 0 Comments I’m here at home in the Forth Valley, Scotland with the family. With plenty to do in the garden, we’ve made the most of the fine weather, and with unbroken views to the Trossachs and Highlands there has been, as ever, great opportunities to do landscape painting from the studio. It’s been unusual for me to have the whole spring at home, so I’ve really enjoyed watching the last of the geese flocks before they leave and the welcome arrival of summer migrants. Local lanes and woods have been explored by bike and there are curlews nesting close to the house, so plenty of subjects to watch and draw. So I’ve been busy painting and even kept an element of teaching going with live online tips on bird sketching with both Chris Packham’s Self Isolating Bird Club and the RSPB – all great fun!’ Darren has produced free notes on getting started with bird sketching and drawing – send us an email if you’d like a copy.
Hello world! 10/01/2019 (updated 07/05/2020) | By Peter Jenkins | 0 Comments Welcome to Art Safari’s blog. I first took my watercolours to Malawi in 1991, where I was artist in residence on a scientific expedition which was following the footsteps of my ancestor and his more famous explorer colleague of 5 years, Dr David Livingstone. We spent three and a half months in Malawi, I painted and drew constantly, culminating in an exhibition to raise funds for the Wildlife Society of Malawi. We made the second ever botanical survey of the Elephant Marsh – the first had been made by my great great grandfather Sir John Kirk – as well as a complete bird and animal survey, before walking the full length of the River Shire from the Elephant Marsh to Lake Malawi. During those months I discovered a love of Africa, in particular of Malawi. I also discovered how rewarding it was to paint wildlife from life – a habit that eventually created Art Safari in 1999.