Art and Friendship

“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”

Khalil Gibran

They say that art is a solitary pursuit, and it’s true that we artists spend many hours alone in our studio quietly painting. However the more that I paint, the more I realise that there is a wonderful social side to art. It’s about connecting. We paint because we want to show the world what we see. 

Scarlet Tiger Moth by Claire Ward

Sharing the results of our creative endeavours with others, makes art all the more pleasurable.

Just as a flower needs sunshine and water, we need a little bit of encouragement and friendship to grow.

 Eyed Hawkmoth (Smerinthus ocellatus) on vellum by Dianne Sutherland Ball

Thankfully connecting with others is easier than ever. The internet has literally thrown open the doors of our studios, allowing us to engage with likeminded people on a daily basis. I am constantly amazed at how generous people can be with their time, thoughts and advice. Their enthusiasm for art and passion for nature is both inspiring and motivating. I am constantly learning from them and discovering new things. 

Thistle on vellum by Sharon Tingey

Best of all, I have made some really fantastic friends through art. It brings me such joy to see their paintings and to hear about the projects that they are working on. When a friend achieves success, I share in their excitement. When I put up images of my work online, they in turn give me encouraging and often insightful feedback. Even when things aren't going to plan, there is always someone will always be ready to offer advice or suggest a solution.

A wonderfully thoughtful parcel of gifts that arrived unexpectedly last week. 

Being part of a vibrant online art community is an incredibly rewarding experience. I'm delighted to say that it's not just online too. I have been getting all sorts of treats and surprises in the post- paints and brushes, natural treasures, papers, books and even some beautiful art. Art swaps are also a great way of making friends and sharing that creative spirit.

"It's a wonderful thing being able to paint together all the time and grow as artists together." 

Scott Burdick

Three sketchbooks from the Natural Sketchbook Exchange. One of the artists has made some beautiful covers for each book

Art can also lead to some wonderful collaborations. I'm thrilled to be part of the Natural Sketchbook Exchange which a group of talented friends started a year ago. The concept is simple- we all started with a Stillman & Birn sketchbook, took our inspiration from Nature and then posted it on. 

Terri Dauncey's beautiful sketchbook and my page of feathers about to be stuck in!

Isn't this amazing? A beautiful page of flowers and a little landscape by Giovanni Cera in Terri's sketchbook

Beautiful birch trees by artist Lorraine Adams with my page of prickles

Debbie Crawford's lovely raspberry ripple peonies in Lorraine Adam's sketchbook

Inspiring work by Aislinn Adams in Dianne Sutherland Ball's sketchbook

My conkers about to go into Dianne Sutherland Ball's sketchbook

Watching the sketchbooks slowly fill up with artwork has been such a thrill, each one is so unique and special. Recently we took a short break just to give ourselves a chance to catch up with our lives, and that's why I have ended up with three of gorgeous sketchbooks here in my home.

Oh, they are such a joy to look through! I’m reluctant to part with them, but have the excitement of getting the next one in the post very soon.

A calendar and a card from Elizabeth H Tudor

And even as I write this blogpost, I hear a knock at the door, and another parcel has just arrived! This time it is from Canada with a lovely calendar and a card. Thank you Liz! What a fantastic surprise!

Art is not just a solitary pursuit, it’s definitely a social one too. It has made me realise that I am truly blessed with my friends. To each and every one of you, thank you for the kind words, the encouragement, the advice, the good wishes, the art, the gifts and for the smile that you put onto my face each day.

"I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let's face it, friends make life a lot more fun."

Charles Swindoll

Conkered

Per aspera ad astra-

Through difficulties to the stars

There has been a battle in my studio this week. Whilst my paperwork mountain was slowly being tackled, a little conker  sat on my desk, patiently awaiting my attention.

 I love painting conkers, (Aesculus hippocastanum). I don’t know whether it’s the rich earthy colours or that tactile smoothness, but they make the perfect subject.

My page of conkers has now been stuck into Dianne's sketchbook for the Nature Trails Sketchbook Exchange

 I have painted them quite a few times now, but always on paper, never on vellum. I did try once, but gave up in exasperation. To get that rich patina you need quite a few layers of paint, and that can be a challenge on vellum. Suddenly you can find that you’re lifting paint off instead of adding another layer, and the more that you try to fix it, the quicker it turns into a blobby, patchy mess.

However, undeterred by the last disaster, I began.

I was feeling confident. I threw on a few initial washes of colour.

It wasn’t long before I was trying to fix things using a dampened cotton bud. Because the paint sits on the surface of the vellum, it's easy to wipe off. Perhaps a little too easy.

 However as I progressed, it became apparent that I had not put in enough blue in my initial washes, essential for that convincing gleam. I began to fuss, and it quickly became a horrible mess. I tried to scrape some of it off, but this is natural calf vellum, not kelmscott, which has a chalky coating, and so I ended up scuffing up the surface. The paint got caught in it and stained, leaving a dark and horrible patch. I wiped as much as I could off.

Attempt #2- I have to disguise that horrible dark patch

I decided to start again, but moved the conker up on the vellum to cover the recriminating patch. This time, I decided to start on the polished conker, ignoring the prickly cases.

Sometimes starting again can be the best option. You are aware of the mistakes that you have made and so take care to avoid them.

The colours that I used this time were similar to the ones that I used before, but with a few changes. I used Indanthrene instead of Cobalt and avoided Indigo altogether. For my really dark darks, I used Perylene violet with a little Perylene green. I also used a tiny bit of Transparent Brown Oxide and Burnt Bronzite from my Daniel Smith dot charts for the shell.

I ran out of daylight hours in my haste to finish this, so the photograph of the finished piece is not the best. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out though and glad that I persisted.

Today I was given some glorious lilies, exuberant beauties that are just begging to have their portrait painted. My palette will be washed, the earth colours put away and those delicious purple pigments will be coming out to play! Even the paperwork pile is looking less daunting.

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier - not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.” 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Feathers

A busy desk is a happy desk.

This week has been a challenging one, but when times get tough, the best place to escape is into the quiet sanctuary of my little studio.  I was looking for something suitable to paint when, whilst flicking through an old sketchbook from Egypt, a bag of feathers fell out. They were hoopoe feathers.

A very old sketch done after a trip the the Egyptian Museum

I remember how astonished I was the first time that I saw a Hoopoe bird, Upupa epops, with it’s dramatic crown of golden feathers tipped with black, and striking black and white plumage. They are quite unlike any other bird, and it’s easy to understand why people have always been fascinated with them. 

The Ancient Egyptians revered them, the Greeks and Persians wrote stories about them. They are mentioned in the Bible and also in the Koran, where there is a delightful tale about the Hoopoe, King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. 

They fly in such a strange way too, like giant swooping butterflies, and make a very distinctive call which gives them their arabic name of hudhud.

However my tale of the hoopoe is a little sad.

 There were a pair of hoopoes that lived near my Cairo home (apparently hoopoes mate for life). I used to love watching them foraging on the grass together. Disaster struck one day when a kestrel swept down and killed one of them. I tried to intervene, but I was too far away, and all that was left was a small pile of wing feathers which I duly gathered up.

So feathers became my distraction for the week. 

Having painted three little hoopoe feathers, I decided to paint another large feather that I had found in Egypt. I still have no idea what bird this came from, perhaps a grouse?  Feathers can be quite tricky to paint. Although they don’t wilt or move like plants do, they require a fair bit of patience and a lot of fine brushwork. Once I have mapped out the patterns of the feathers, I then go over with a fine brush building up the layers of colour.

My mystery feather. The other little one came from a cushion

I have built up quite a collection of earth colours and although I do like to mix up my browns, sometimes it’s just easier to use them straight from the tube or pan. I find that the Daniel Smith paints have a particularly nice range of colours- I love their raw umber and buff titanium, both quite unlike any other colour and so useful. Winsor and Newton manganese brown, burnt sienna and sepia were also very useful with the feather palette.

Earth colour chart

A lovely curly goose feather from Frankfurt then took centre stage, lending a bit of movement to the composition. I don’t have a huge range of feathers, but I found a hairband in Tesco which I carefully pulled apart to give me a couple more. I’ve no idea what bird these came from, but they are very pretty.

An unidentified Tesco hairband feather!

I really enjoyed painting these feathers. They are definitely a subject that I will be painting again, although I really need some new ones for my collection. In the meantime, this page of feathers will go into my friend Terri Dauncey's sketchbook, for the Nature Sketchbook Exchange.

“It's not enough to have the feathers. 
You must dare to fly!” 
― Cass van Krah

Cairo

“He who hath not seen Cairo hath not seen the world: its soil is gold; its Nile is a wonder; its houses are palaces; and its air is temperate”
The Jewish Physician, A Thousand and One Nights

I apologise for the break in blogposts last week, but as you can guess from the quote above, I’ve been on the move. My paints were packed, my little seedlings were carefully wrapped up, and we travelled north to Cairo.

View of the Citadel from Al Azhar Park , oil on canvas ©Shevaun Doherty 2009

Cairo is big, noisy, chaotic and yet utterly fascinating. From my very first visit 26 years ago, I have been inexplicably drawn to this city. It’s vibrant, exciting and full of mystery- the city of a thousand minarets. The air is no longer as sweet and fresh, but away from the traffic, the gardens are lush, and there is a wealth of history to be discovered and explored.

The view from our apartment in Cairo

Our home in Cairo is in a quiet area on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by beautiful gardens. This stay was a just short one, mainly taken up with family visits and shopping. With all the distractions going on, it was hard to find time to paint, so I concentrated instead on finishing the page of quick little studies that I started in Sharm for the Nature Sketchbook Exchange I will stick this page of Little Egyptian Treasures into Sigrid Frensen’s sketchbook when I get back to Dublin.

Checking out his portrait

Before I left Sharm I managed to rescue a large scarab beetle from the pool. What a feisty little chap! Even cooling him off in the fridge didn’t keep him quiet for long… he was determined to escape. However I couldn’t resist doing one little painting of him… I especially loved his little antennae. I’m always amazed at how observant of nature the ancient Egyptians were- their scarab beetles are quite anatomically correct.

Another scarab beetle painting with a pectoral amulet from Tutankhamun  ©Shevaun Doherty 2011

Scorpion tail, Scarab beetle, Monkey's Ear Seedpod and Coral Tree seedpod  ©Shevaun Doherty 2014

In the gardens in Cairo, I found some wonderful seedpods. The first was from the delightfully named Monkey’s Ear Tree, Enterlobium cyclocarpum. The seedpods ripen to a rich black colour, giving the tree it’s name, but I decided that an immature green seedpod would look better on the page. I also painted the very elegant seedpod of the Coral tree, Erythrina lysistemon. I love this tree- the flowers are stunning too and are always the first to bloom in spring.

Strawberry shell, gecko egg and lovebird feather

Pages like this are a great excuse to dig out the little treasures that I have found over the years. I added a tiny gecko egg, a strawberry shell (Clanculus puniceus) and a couple of feathers from a lovebird that we once had.

Sigrid has a young son called Bertus, so I thought that it would be fun to complete the page with a scorpion’s tail. I found this scorpion on a trip down the Nile a few years ago- I had to smuggle it back to Cairo because my daughters were horrified that I would want to keep it! Alas all that remains is the tail, but I think it still looks quite impressive.

The remains of the scorpion found in Kom Ombo

The completed page of  Little Egyptian Treasures  ©Shevaun Doherty 2014

Alas our trip came to an end. 

I waved a sorry goodbye to Egypt, "Om il Doonya, Mother of the World", and headed back to Dublin. What an inspiring summer it has been! I already have my return ticket for next year.

Flaming Hot

The Flamboyant Tree, Delonix regia     ©Shevaun Doherty 2013

They say that once you have drunk the waters of the Nile, you are destined to return.

There must be some truth in that, because for twenty five years I have been coming back to this beautiful country. It really is wonderful to be here once more, back to the palm trees and shimmering heat, and my lovely home by the sea. It took a few days to unpack, settle in, and  recover from the long trip. I am delighted to say that my paints, brushes and large tube of paper all arrived safely too.

My studio overlooks the gardens and the pool, and you can just glimpse the turquoise sparkle of the sea through the palm trees … it’s not surprising that I love it so much!

 My only grumble was that the air conditioning in my studio wasn’t working. It’s fine in the morning, but by early afternoon the sun has crept around to that side of the house and with temperatures of 41°C, it makes painting a challenge! Somehow I don't think I'm going to get that much sympathy!!

Yes it is!!
Bird's eye chili peppers Capsicum annuum 2014

The dates are still not quite ripe. They hang in clusters, small, green and hard, and tantalisingly just out of reach. They need a few more weeks of sun to ripen. However, there’s plenty to keep me inspired and busy whilst I wait. I decided to do a small study of one of my favourite trees, Delonix regia, also known as the Flamboyant Tree or  Royal Poinciana

It is considered one of the most beautiful trees in the world, and you only have to see it in bloom to realise why. It is covered in an exuberant mass of fiery red blossoms. Quite simply, it’s a stunner! 

Sketchbook studies 2010- I didn't have a lot of reds in my art box then!!

I have painted this tree, or rather, I’ve attempted to paint it many times. One day I will do a painting that does it’s beauty justice. The flowers themselves aren’t too difficult, but the lacy fern like leaves with their multitude of tiny leaflets are not for the faint-hearted! It also has pretty impressive seedpods of up to 50cm in length! I was grateful to be able to look up my earlier studies to see what colours I used- it makes life so much easier when you take note of your colour palette!

Sketchbook studies 2012... better paper, a bigger selection of reds but a poor photograph (sorry)

Sketchbook study 2014

As this was just a sketchbook study, I decided to experiment and include a plein air study of the tree as well. Okay, I confess! The fact that there happens a tree growing right beside the pool where I have a comfortable sun lounger and an umbrella did play a part in this decision. It was great to loosen up and splash the paint about a bit, and I also had a bit of a splash in the pool to cool off when I had finished! 

This little piece will be stuck into a sketchbook upon my return for the Nature Trails sketchbook exchange.

A little plein air piece finishes it off nicely. The colours used were Winsor lemon, Winsor yellow, Winsor yellow deep, Winsor orange, Winsor red, Vermillon (Sennelier), Dark red (Schminke), Pink Madder (Pebeo), Alizarin, Quin red, Quin violet, Cerulean, Indanthrene and Perylene green.

So onto the next painting whilst I wait for these dates to ripen! The SBA are holding an exhibition in Palmengarten in Frankfurt in October, Poisonous and Medicinal Plants. I love this theme. I’ve already started a few studies in preparation. I won’t say much more, except that it involves a trip to the Spice Shop in the local Souk. Thankfully the air conditioning is now fixed… I’ve no excuse!

Plein air sketch of the local spice shop, 2009

I hope you are all enjoying your summer!

 “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”

 Jawaharial Nehru