Out of Africa Exhibition

"At the Waterhole"

Oils on board

I will be exhibiting several paintings at the Out of Africa exhibition to be held at the Heron Gallery in Weston-Super-Mare from Thursday July 17th until Thursday July 31st. The gallery holds an exhibition roughly every six weeks, with a percentage of sales donated to a wildlife or conservation project. Beneficiary of the Out of Africa exhibit will be the Luhimba Project in Tanzania.

Later in the year come the Autumn Colours exhibition (Sept 25th - Oct 9th) and the British Wildlife exhibtion (December), both of which I hope to exhibit at.

To contact the Heron Gallery email Emma Fraser at - theherongallery@hotmail.co.uk

Vanishing Wildlife

Well there I was the other day, out the garden taking reference shots of leaves and branches for a little owl commission I'm currently working on, when an unexpected wildlife close-up presented itself. I had all the images I needed (there's only so many angles you can frame a leaf from), with just one pic left on the memory card, and was on my way down the garden path to the front door when the one of the local male blackbirds flew past my head, landed literally no more than three feet away from me in the crook of a willow tree, and posed there collins bird guide style ready for painting.


Never one to pass up a chance of a nice composition - especially one with no need of a zoom lens - I carefuly removed the camera from it's case, and moving silently like a ninja slowly assembeld the tripod, all the while keeping a beady eye on the blackbird. Then with SAS-style stealth I flicked the camera on, waited for what appeared like hours while the damn thing powered up, carefully muffled the beeping with my hand, focussed the viewfinder, and ....click


The blackbird emptied his bowels, and within a second vanished laughing into the trees, leaving me with a lovely close up of another branch.


Still, it is a very nice branch.

Insert blackbird here

Death wish squirrels

Well, it's spring and sure enough the grey squirrels of the Lyhner Valley here in Cornwall are hurling themselves from the safety of the trees straight into the path of my Jack Russell terrier, seemingly intent on mass suicide. Naturally, he has been enthusiastically returning the compliment by chasing them through the woods to within an inch of their lives.

A squirrel, in happier days

Art of Conservation 2008

First post..hmm.. bit of a tricky one, how to kick off the blog and all that. Well, as luck would have it I've just had some good news art-wise, so this seems as good a place as any to start...

My oil painting "The Buzzard Rock" has been selected for inclusion in the Artists for Conservation Foundation inaugral exhibtion The Art of Conservation to be held at the Hiram Blauvelt Museum of Wildlife Art in New York in September. I've had my fingers crossed about this one for several months ever since I was selected for the AFC in January, so am very pleased and quite proud that a small piece of Bodmin Moor(where the painting is set) will be sailing across the pond to fly the flag for Cornish moorland-lovers everywhere! The pic will also be featured in the hardcover book to be published in conjunction with the exhibit, plus there is also the further possibilty of it being chosen for a year-long touring exhibit to be held at various venues across the United States in 2009.

For more details on the exhibition, and it's official beneficiary the Wildlife Conservation Society check out the AFC website here

Now all I need to do is get working on the frame, and a very large box to pack the thing in...