New Painting of a Barn Owl preening itself on the go. This is in Oils and i'm trying to get the lighting right....I seem to take forever at it as I like to look at it a lot and go from there. I don't seem to continuously paint until i'm finished. I tend to take breaks, sometimes days on end to just look at it and then decide my next step. It's from near where i live.

I painted the background first and then placed the owl on top of the oils....It seemed to work as the colours that are in the background are coming through the over painted owl slightly giving it more of a sense of it being there. The background still needs a lot of work and the foreground is going to be quite detailed and grassy so i'm just taking my time and getting the lighting right as i go.

My classes will be starting in about 3 wks so i won't have a lot of time to do it...hopefully I'll get it finished soon.

The painting of the tawny owl will be in an exhibition at the Dock museum next month.

I spent Yesterday with a great group of people teaching a workshop on drawing and painting the Barn Owl.

Graham Smith from the World Owl Trust came with his Barn Owl 'Orinoco' who was a little star during the day!! He talked about the Barn Owl and the work of the World Owl Trust and then the group spent 2-3 hrs drawing and sketching and then transferred their drawings to watercolour paper ready to paint.

I really enjoyed it and was so glad that the group learned you have to know your subject to paint it!!  Someone hit the nail on the head when she said she was surprised how soft they feel compared to how they look in a photograph!! So hopefully for Ulverston's next exhibition there will be some paintings of the Barn Owl in!! Thanks to you all....you made me very welcome x

      Really going into the shadows on the whole picture now. Using a lot of glazes and very thin colour. Mainly Burnt Umber, Raw Sienna but using it quite thinly....tending to scrub it out which can't be very good for my poor brushes but it works for me...i think!!

Changed the Tawny Owl a lot...I lost it at one point but i think I've managed to bring it back....I have these mad ideas then I find they don't work and wonder why I tried them in the first place.

I'm going to be working on this at my exhibition at Muncaster 30th May 2010 - 3rd June 2010 so maybe people will give me their opinions!!

I've still got a load of detail to do but I get impatient with it and I have to work up the shadows to see if it's going to look right.

I was going to do this painting a lot lighter but I prefer the moody lighting.

       Started to put lots of glazes in now . I'm building up the shadow colour.

       Trying to be careful not to go too dark but i like strong light and shadow as I    think it creates an atmosphere.

I'm switching between painting the detail and putting shadow on the painting.

I've also put a darker blue to the top left hand side as i'm trying to give it an evening feel...will have to look at it for a while to see that it works!!

I've still got lots to do on the Tawny but i'm trying to get the shadows right first and then i can see how much detail on the feathers is needed.

Never done a blog before but here goes.

At the moment i'm half way through a painting of a Tawny Owl. It's in a very busy tree which i found when i was up at Muncaster.

I'm not a very conventional oil painter but if it works why not use it!! I also tend to kill a lot of brushes by scrubbing on colour rather than laying it on!! I work in a lot of glazes which i suppose is the watercolourist in me.

    I started this by tinting the canvas board and then painting  a sketchy image in Burnt Umber and white. Then i start laying on colour but still quite sketchy. After this i can see if it's going to look ok and if it's going well. The next stages are my favourite parts which are starting to bring it to life and work it up.

 At the moment i don't get full days at it. A lot of the time on it is a morning here or there as i'm teaching. I'm also working for an exhibition up at Muncaster at the end of May and if i don't get anywhere near finishing it i'll take it up with me to demonstrate.