House Martins Movin in ?

Hi everyone , I've been feeling real down about the fact i have not done any field sketching in a long while , been chained to the studio and you can get sucked into a rut of painting at the easel to long!Well that changed today when through the open skylight windows I heard the chatter of house Martins , Now I've wanted House Martins to nest nearby for a long while I've got such fond memories of them nesting in my old Junior school. Also in the village where I grew up they seemed to nest on almost every building in the old part anyway.So I was thrilled today when one pair seemed to repeatedly make passes up and down the back of our and the neighbours houses. They kept landing just under the fascia boards and genuinely seemed to be scoping the place out. Is this real late though for House Martins to be nesting?? Although Seem to remember being told that they will nest a few times in the breeding season.Well I do hope they are going to move in. I did some Sketches of their activities , and I hope you like them it certainly lifted my day and got me sketching albeit from the back garden!

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.

The Falconry Fair 2008

Hi everyone , just another plug to let you know that I will be at the Falconry fair next weekend 4th and 5th May in Telford. I hope to see you all . Don't forget I will have the two new images released on my stand which will be at GAMEHAWKER by vantage vc ltd.Hopefully I should have a Banner up this year so you can find me easier.I will also have work on show at the Honeybrook stand.All the best see you there.
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At the Printers

Well yesterday I went up to see my good friends Ian and Eve Heard at Faraway island Giclee.

Ive been working with Ian and Eve for around three or four years now and enjoy my visits to their beautiful farmhouse which overlooks the rolling countryside just outside Tavistock.Driving through the lanes the countryside seems to be coming into full bloom now . The weather had been more like February than April over the last few days but today at least seemed to be shouting spring is in full swing! As I pulled up outside the farm house and started to unload what I needed for the appointment two buzzards Wheeled overhead and a cock Pheasant crowed from a nearby hedgerow. The Cuckoo's will be back soon and last year you could stand here and listen to them down in the valley below.The garden outside the studio where Ian and Eve work was full of birds and I was rewarded with the lovely sight of a pair of Bullfinches feeding on the buds of the apple trees. Ian and Eves background is in illustration, design and print and have been in the business a long time and in the last few years have been working with many artists like me in producing high quality Giclee prints. The one thing that I love about working with Ian is he is also an Artist and seems to understand the way the process works from the Artists point of view, He is a multi talented guy , artist , musician, print maker and writer! Working also with such people means that the artist can be involved all the way through the process from scanning of the artwork right the way through the long proofing process and the final signing of the editions.I decided in the end to go for releasing two images after the poll, "Arctic Visitor", and "Golden eagle and blue Hare" They were level pegging for so long that it was so hard to predict a clear winner. I know that some people will be disappointed that the Peregrine pieces will not be released as yet but I will not rule out that they may be released at a future date. So anyway the process has been started of proofing the two images for print and over the next few day's that will continue until we are happy with the results.

New online shop is now up and running!!

I'm pleased to say that the online shop is now up and running, so please form an orderly queue, get your wallets and purses out and get spending! www.andrewellispaintings.com
We've aimed to make it as simple to use as possible and so the price you see is the price you pay- there is no postage and packing to add on top for customers in the Uk and Europe.We will send to other destinations, please contact us for postage costs.

I will be meeting with the printers to do the scanning and colour management on the new
giclee(s) tomorrow. The results of the poll were really interesting, and I think we will run another poll later in the year. The only disadvantage of it being that I think that it was maybe possible for people to cast multiple votes and this will obviously have affected the result. So now I'm trying to decide which of the top 2 to go for, or if time and money allow whether to put both into print. Once the decision has been made I'll let you know.

Not much time left to vote

As I'm writing this there are only 3 days left to vote in the poll . So if you haven't done so already please vote to tell me which image you would most like to see available to buy as a print.Two images are currently neck-a-neck so every vote will count. When the poll finishes i will publish the results for you to see, and next week I'll be going to see Ian and Eve to set the wheels in motion to put an image into print in time for the falconery fair- 1st bank hoilday weekend in May. The new print will be available to buy both at the fair and online at my website. The shop pages for which are being built as we speak!