Whats been keeping me busy.

Some examples here from the last little while that I've been working on . Another Red grouse picture from a trip to Northumberland a while back. A bit more of an Abstract piece for me with allot of positive and negative spaces between the shapes of the grouse. not sure if it shows that in the photo of the piece but here it is anyway.

Continuing on a similar theme is a Golden plover piece that I have wanted to paint for a long while. The inspiration came whilst out feeding my Partridge feeders on the ground I fly my falcons on. We always get large flocks of wintering Golden Plover there . Its a very open high plateau of ground near the coast that the plover seem to like and you can see the Moor which they also frequent from this location too with uninterrupted views straight across the beautiful Devon countryside. This Particular day it was towards the end of the day and I had finished topping up feeders and was about to drive home when my eye was caught by the typical wing stretch of a Goldie on the plough of one of the exposed fields on the top ground. I stopped the truck and glassed the individual which revealed a mass of plover all roosting on the plough there cryptic camouflage blending them perfectly in the young winter wheat. I did some sketches using the scope and then tried to stalk closer for a few shots with the camera. I managed to get some distant shots but nothing fantastic and I just lay on the field watching them sleeping,preening and moving about amongst one another . It must have been high tide and this or the more is where they come to await the turning of the tide. Soon some unspoken signal filtered through their ranks and they all took to the air to head out to the estuary. Because I was already low to the plough I got some good shots of them coming straight towards me and then passing to my right across the low now Golden sky . The sound of their piping calls and the rush of hundreds of wings speeding past is an unforgettable experience.

Another piece I have just recently completed is of the Cann Quarry Peregrine female. Its amazing how attached one gets to individual wild birds that you come to know . This female and her mate unfortunately failed this year to hatch fertile eggs and as I type this they are still at the site but not incubating any longer. I have not been able to visit the site for sometime but I am kept informed about how they are doing by friends that are on the watch team that monitor the site. These are generally a successful pair in recent years and its puzzling why they have failed .However these things do happen and I'm sure they will succeed next season.

I'm still here!

I've been meaning to add a post for ages, and can't believe it's almost a month since the last entry.So here's an update...

The falconry fair went well at the beginning of the month.Despite our best intentions it was a last minute rush to get everything together as usual, every year we plan to be more organised but things just seem to get in the way ( painting, kids etc), and Donna and I end up dashing around getting prints produced, framed and wrapped ready to go right up until the last hour. Maybe next year we will be more organised? As usual though,it was worth all the hard work. I've been exhibiting at the fair now for over15 years , and in that time I've made a lot of good friends and gathered many loyal customers. Although the numbers attending seemed to be down, it was good to see a lot of familiar faces and catch up with people. I exhibited across 2 stands this year which in hindsight was a little ambitious! Nick from Honeybrook generously asked me to exhibit on his stand and I also had a stand alongside my good friend Carl from Gamehawker.I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the people who helped to man the stands, Stan, Chris George and Mark, Carl for booking the pitch, helping to make the display panelsand of course all his words of wisdom, and Donna for all the pre-show organisation.Without everyone pulling together it really isn't possible.I took along a variety of the giclee prints including the 2 new images all of which were well recieved, and of course it was also an opportunity to let everyone know about the new website. All in all a successful weekend.

Since getting back, I've been working on a large commission for a client via the Halcyon gallery, and Donna is researching which events we should exhibit at over the next couple of years. We went to the Devon County show last week and are looking into the possibilty of having a stand there next year. We will definately be at the falconry fair and the falconry festival next year, and we're looking at the CLA and possible trade shows for next year or 2010. We'll keep you posted, and once we know we're definately going to be at a particular event we will add it to the relevant page on the website.

We're also busy looking at possible images to use for new sets of greetings cards, and of course the new premier collection of giclees will be released in the next few months , so we are considering which images to use for them. When the decisions have been made and release dates organised we will let you know.

And of course on top of all that we've been getting lots of enquiries and sales via the website to deal with, so sorry it's been so long since the last post, but now you can hopefully see why. I'll do my best not to leave it a month before I'm back again.

Hugh, one of Carl's good friends entertaining me and Chris Gilchrist with a tale from last seasons hawking. It was good to catch up with so many good friends.