SWLA 50 Years Anniversary Exhibition

I am currently exhibiting a painting at the prestigious Nature In Art, Gloucestershire as part of the Society of Wildlife Artists 50 Years Anniversary Exhibition.

 

Current SWLA members were asked to chose a fellow SWLA member from any point of the 50 year history and write a short piece on why they have been inspired by that artist. With examples from artists spanning the history of the Society and insights from the members on why they have chosen them, it is a fascinating show with a wide selection of work on display. 

Please click on the link for more information about the exhibition:

http://swla.co.uk/wp-swla/five-decades-a-celebration-of-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-swla/ 

I was deeply honoured to have been chosen as an ‘inspirational artist’ and was extremely touched and flattered that the artist who selected me was the wonderful young painter Nick Derry (http://nickderry.webs.com/).  The exhibition at Nature in Art runs from July 30th to September 1st.

 

Here’s the painting I’m exhibiting and one of Nick’s astonishing pieces;

 

Wings of the North - Waxwings (Tim Wootton)

 Blue-headed Wagtail (Nick Derry)

For details about the exhibition and the fabulous venue for “Nature In Art”, please follow the link: http://www.nature-in-art.org.uk/

 

Oil Painting

With the SOC exhibition now finished and the gallery walls well-stocked with lots of fresh work, I've managed to spend a bit of time making some new pieces.  I don't get  the opportunity to work in oils much during the year as the drying times can be a problem regarding hanging and/or packing, but I adore the medium.  So, I'm getting out the fat tubes and big brushes and seeing where this particular road takes me . . . .
. . . here's a few from the past couple of weeks;

'Heading Out; Gannet' - 28"x20"

'White Boat.Kirkwall Basin' - 16"x12"

'Wave Study' - 16"x12"

New Exhibition at the Scottish Ornithologists Club (S O C)

I've been extremely busy making work for a brand new show at Aberlady, Lothian which opens on 13th April. There will be 52 new paintings on show in the excellent Waterston House, headquarters of the Scottish Ornithologists Club.
All the paintings are now finished (phew!) and the ferry booked. Really looking forward to the trip and the opening. See you on the other side . . .

'White Gyr', watercolour, 28"x22"

'Northern Wings', oil, 40"x30"

'Eider Cascade', watercolour, 22"x28"

'Wigeon & Black-headed Gulls', conte & watercolour, 40"x22"

'Winter Sun', Conte & watercolour, 22"x38"

'Manx Shearwaters', charcoal, 40"x22"

Slow Start to the Blogging Year

Long-tailed ducks at Yesnaby, charcoal, 40"x22"

 

Things have been fairly quiet on the birdwatching/art front for a while.  My art activities have been constrained to the studio due to the extremely short daylight hours and frenetic preparations for my upcoming show at Waterston House, the home of the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club. http://www.the-soc.org.uk/waterston-house.htm

Here’s a small selection of recent work destined for the show;

 

Desert Wheatear, watercolour, 17"x11"

 

Eiders, watercolour, 22"x17"

Hares and Snipes, Conte and watercolour, 37"x22"

Ringles Tangles, Sharpie and wash, 18"x14"

 

Snow Buntings, Sharpie and wash, 16"x14"

 

However, both my birding and painting had a major boost on February 1^st during the morning school run to Stromness. Whilst making a detour to hopefully catch sight of a family of otters I’d seen the previous morning. There was no sign of the otters, but Edie and I were more than compensated when we spotted a white-phase gyr falcon sitting on a hay-bale. Although it disappeared for the rest of the day, it returned on Saturday, giving terrific views to many local and visiting birders. On occasion it would hop around among the local hares – both species seemingly as bemused by the event as each other. I returned to the studio and made an impression of the event immediately, and subsequently a more considered rendition of the bird a few days later.

The White Gyr, watercolour, 22"x17"

 

Although winter deprives me from fieldwork, it does allow time for a few commissions. One of my favourite views around Orkney is that from Outertown towards Hoy, over Scapa Flow. I’ve painted the Hoy Hills a couple of times, and I really enjoyed making this oil painting for a friend. The seascape at Birsay was a self-initiated piece and I think I learned quite a lot during the making of the piece. 

Scapa Flow and The Kame of Hoy, Oil, 30"x20"

Birsay, Oil, 30"x20"

 

Recent encounters with waxwings have been artistically fruitful, with pages and pages of sketches documenting the winter influx. I have made several pieces of work using these, my winter-muse, culminating in a huge 40”x30” oil painting. This piece is unique for me; being almost exactly the image I had in mind at the offset. Most works end up drifting way off line, but this one behaved itself from start to finish!

 

Wings of the North, oil, 40"x30"

 

 

 

S W L A and the Langford Fieldsketch Award

turnstone at Evie Sands - fieldsketch

 

The Society of Wildlife Artists Annual Exhibition;  the premier exhibition of wildlife art in Britain – possibly the world.  The Society’s inaugural exhibition was held in London and opened by James Fisher in August 1964.  I first exhibited with the SWLA in 1986 and, finally this year, have been elected a full member.  They say that good things come to those that wait . . . 

pintails and wigeon - fieldsketch

 

. . . and this year I was astonished but incredibly delighted to receive the inaugural ‘Langford Field Sketch Award’.  The Award is given to “an artist who shows a fundamental understanding of the subject through their work in the field . . . for a body of work that captures the essence of the subject which has been drawn from life”.

goldcrests

 

goldcrests

 

I always joke that Autumn lasts about three hours in Orkney; the first serious blast of breeze strips any trees and shrubs of their leaves and deposits them somewhere due east of Scandinavia, yet this year we have enjoyed beautiful proper autumn days, typified by invasions of warblers – many goldcrests from the near continent and the exquisite yellow-browed from Siberia.  I spent a few sessions with these birds.

yellow-browed warbler in sycamore

 

British butterflies

 

It was also a pleasant diversion to be asked to make a small painting for a couple I know.  Butterflies occasionally feature in my work, but often they are overlooked in favour of the birds – but this was a piece I was keen to do.  As with most of my paintings, I spent a wee bit of time sketching before committing to the finished article and I was lucky to have several pages of butterfly sketches from my trip to Sark with the Artists for Nature Foundation last year.  Some of the quick watercolour sketches had a nice sense of vitality to them and I tried to keep some of that in the finished painting.

painted lady, red admiral and buddleia

 

waxwing - fieldsketch

 

waxwing - fieldsketch

 

I have a favourite bird – it’s the one I am looking at in any given moment.  But, to narrow that field down a little, it is the arctic skua.  Well, it is when they’re here, at any rate.  And when they’ve left for the Southern Hemisphere, I can look forward to greeting my other favourite birds – waxwings!  These little northern birds bring a splash of colour at the time of the year it is most needed.  Their sleek and beautiful plumage resonates against the dank and grey late autumn light; gem-like.  Nothing lifts the soul like seeing waxwings, and hearing their Christmas jingle-bell calls.  This autumn waxwings have arrived in their hundreds and I’ve spent a lot of time enjoying these delightful birds – and drawing them.  

 waxwing - fieldsketch

waxwing - fieldsketch

waxwing - fieldsketch

waxwing - fieldsketch

Last Few Days of Maine Show

Just a few days left of my exhibition in Maine, US - all work now with big discount.  Please follow the link below;

http://www.projectpuffin.org/TimWoottonExhibit.html

Inside-Out, Outside-In

female blackcap, watercolour

 

Three-quarters of the year past already!  2012 was the year I was going to spend every available moment in the field working on plein-air landscapes and fieldwork.  As it turned out, I could count the number of dedicated days in the field on two hands but, although I enjoyed every second of those rare days, the rest of the time has been spent in the studio and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Dunter Family, watercolour (from the private collection of Mr. Ysbrand Brouwers)

 

For years I’ve struggled to make the artistic connection with working in the field and the paintings produced in the studio.  Field drawings will always contain certain vivacity simply as a product of its inception and, almost diametrically opposed, studio work (given the generally less hectic timeframes and occasionally more comfortable environment) may have more of a ‘settled’ feel to it.  Of course there are many examples of mad, frenetic studio work . . . I’ve been there.

Fulmar Pair Fly-by, charcoal

 

Walk The Line, watercolour

 

I suppose the main thing is to not see the one as the more valid –whatever we do as artists ought to have a vein of truth trickling through it.  So recently I’ve tried to enjoy the fieldwork for the chance it gives me to get close to the subjects – whatever they may be, and not to worry too much at the time about what comes next.  This apparent lack of connectivity between what I’m thinking in the field and what may happen in the studio has become quite liberating and curiously, I’m finding that pure experiences of being in the field are manifesting themselves into paintings and drawings much less self-consciously.  (Of course, these kinds of self-analytical explorations should always be dosed with cellars-full of salt . . .)

Charcoal Trout

 

Three Brown Trout, charcoal and watercolour wash

 

Anyway – all this studio time has been good and I’ve also valued my time in the field even more than previously.  In fact – I’ve even been ‘bird-watching’ a couple of times . . . . . although some visual rendering has usually emanated from this, no matter how much I’ve tried to stop it.

Should I Stay or Should I go, charcoal

 

And the highlight of my particular exhibiting year will soon be here; the Society of Wildlife Artists Annual Exhibition at The Mall Galleries, London.  After last year’s simply incredible Birdwatch / Swarovski award and being elected an Associate of the Society, I was delighted to have one of my submissions reproduced on the official invitation to the Private View of the exhibition on 31^st October.

Black-headed Gulls On The Fly, conte and watercolour

SWLA, 2012

Sting In The Tale: Lesser Whitethroat and Willow Warblers, conte and watercolour

SWLA, 2012

 

Shame I can’t get down to see the show in person . . . again . . . and a shame I didn't go out 'bird-watching' til after the enty deadline, because I would have loved to have had the opportunity to show thsi piece, based on a 25 second encounter with a yellow-browed warbler; 

Yellow-browed Warblers, conte and watercolour