UPDATED :15.7.2010.
15.7.10
A few days down the road and the wings have been started and work on the neck and chest nearly completed. Much happier with this one than the 1st attempt.
9.7.10
The next drawing started !.... Had to put exclamation mark in...... as usually after each drawing I feel I need to "go and have a lie down" for a few months.
( If my wife Annette is reading this......."Of course Dear...after I have made the beds..done the ironing...loaded the dishwasher, fed the cats and chickens and hung the washing out.)
But since there were so many areas for improvement..I thought that I had better get started whilst I could still remember what I intended to improve....
Anyhoo...the start of the new improved Flying Hare.... I am enjoying it and the feeling of " It's going just right. "...
Here is the 1st stage completed... Image Size to be 20 inches by 28 inches.
12.6.10
Gosh ! The year is certainly flying swiftly by....which is appropriate.... as I have now finally finished the flying hare drawing...just in time for the village exhibition next week...
I have called it
On a satisfaction level I would give it a score of 5 out of 10...I think such a creature would be more delicate, graceful and elegant than I have depicted it here...
Still... there is always the next drawing and copious mental notes to myself how to do the next one betterer.
Anyhoo...Here it is. Hastily photographed at night, it has a rather yellowish look.
I recall my Photography lecturer's words at college.. "Mr Beattie ! You have absolutely no empathy whatsoever with the camera !"..... "Too bloody right !" was my reply ..."Photography is the last bastion of the untalented... I will draw or paint what I wish to depict... It will take me by far , far much longer, require far more skill and effort...but it will be a thousand times superior and worthwhile than "point and click".......
I got D minus...... I was trying for an F !
28.12.2009
Well...survived Christmas and looking forward to the New Year...
Looking back I feel I could have accomplished more...a head full of ideas... but distracted by the volume of work generated by my framing business... not that I am complaining as it is certainly profitable but soooo boring and tiring and at times frustrating.
However, having completed only one etching this year and a couple of large sketches is pretty poor show.
New years resolution Number One... Artist 1st ..
Shall plunge headfirst into printing larger portions of existing editions to meet demands and set aside time for new works...
28.10.09
Finished today. "The Hellibore Hare" .
4.10.09
Well... just got back from a refreshing week away in North Wales. Loads of inspiration for landscapes as the views from the cottage grounds alone were stunning. Did the tourist bit and I must say that of all the areas visited, I rate the town of Conwy as being one of the best.
Here is how far I've got along with the"The Flying Hare" whilst away. I had hoped to finish it but Annette insisted that we went everywhere...
Walking the city walls of Conwy was exciting and at times breathtaking (especially if you looked down at the wrong moment..I'm fairly sure I maintained my "machismo" and only the occaisional girly whimper escaped my lips)..at the end of so many steps and stairs your knees and ankles feel like they have been pounded with large rubber hammers.
Still...wouldn't have missed it for the world and will most definately go back again in different seasons.
Anyhoo....the picture is at this stage.
12.8.2009.
Oh hum.... Been rather busy of late.... mostly framing up existing work to meet the "peak" holiday sales. The larger Green Hare (to be called "The Hellibore Hare") etching plate, is propped up on my desk begging to be completed and I start each day with the statement "Maybe today you'll get your final etch" and something else crops up.
I have started a new pen and ink sketch "The Flying Hare" to convince myself that I can actually get something "new" done..for the moments when I think I have to do something other than edition and frame. It was started whilst stewarding a PCC show .
During a cigarette break outside the exhibition a feather blew past me on the floor and the idea "What would a Hare look like if it could fly?" popped into my head. So this is the inspiration that could lead to an etching and a sculpture/s . Winged ears would be fun to work out and weld...
Anyhoo..here's a pic of the started picture.... Actual size 20" x26"
25.6.2009.
For a normally quiet month, June this year has been exceptionally busy and prosperous. What I thought would be a quiet art show in our village hall, held over the past 6 days, has been especially successful and drawn attention to mine and my family's work.
My wife Annette and daughter Hannah, both sold pieces of their work before I did... (O.K.. lap it up you two!). I later sold "The Sea Hare III"..... (does Victory dance with gestures towards wife and daughter)
My hearty thanks to all the people who organised , arranged and put up the exhibition and ran it. I am wondering ... where I shall go now for daily tea and Bara Brith (Mair Lloyd's homemade!) and a good gossip.? Hopefully, the exhibition will become an annual village event.
Nearly forgot... The 2nd large painting I managed to finish at the St david's exhibition was one I started over 15 years ago "Manor Eifed Monarch" of a cockerel owned by friends. It had lain in the bottom drawer of my large plan chest along with other paintings I had "put aside" to finish later when I was in the mood.
Two days work saw it completed... I think I'd better look at the others now.
10.6.09
The year is flying by! Just finished this large watercolour, gouache, pen and ink study, in the first week whilst baby-sitting my annual exhibition at St David's Cathedral in Pembrokeshire. Now what am I going to do to avoid having to talk to loonies for the rest of the show ?
"The Hare and the Gibbous Moon"
Two seascape etchings added to the online catalogue. "Foaly's Cove"and "Approach"
21.2.09.
Ahem...clears throat....Sorry that I disappeared for a few days. we moved to Sky etc...and unaware that the change affected the website hosting ...both email and website addresses went into limbo...
I won't bore you with the saga of getting everything up and running...still not sure it is fully working even now!
Unfortunately... I have not been able to recover any emails sent to my david@original-etchings.co.uk address that may have been sent during that period.
I have another new email address..DAICELF55@sky.com if any problems arise.
Finished this morning! "The Sea Hare III"
Slogged on with it last night and did the last couple of hours on it this morning: Still feel I could make it even more complex...but enough is enough.... don't want to totally overwhelm people with my awesomeness-ness.
I'll save it for the etching which I am now itching to do...
Now to get it framed and ready for delivery to the exhibition (Snow permitting...Yay! we are finally having a Winter.) tomorrow.
Sorry about having to plaster "copywrite protected" all over it..but there has been an upsurge of sad little "hack"artists around lately, that think they can plagiarize my and fellow "proper artists" work freely and without consequence.
Intellectual Property covers all the elements of the design, composition, proportion etc.... You can reverse the image ,change bits etc... in an attempt to disguise your plagiarism ..... but ,another artist's work is ALWAYS recognisable especially by the artist from whom the original has been ripped off.
My response in these instances will be....as my old Housemaster once said...... "I shall fall upon you like a ton of bricks...one brick at a time".
Be warned ... I will persue and prosecute!
25.1.09.
Cracking on (at last!) with this new piece "The Sea Hare III"... pen and ink. ( well o.k .... Bic Biro.) Decided that I'd like to work vertically on this one. It measures 13"x 25" and I am enjoying working on the idea of using Mackerel colouration and patterns in the fur to make the animal more marine-y.
Luckily, one of our cats (Purdy) has such markings and is only slightly puzzled by the intense stares directed at him whilst I work out his body patterns.
It is definately showing sign as a potential etching. Possibly I will get my act together and manage to bring out two larger etchings of this and the Green Hare (half done already), this year. ?
3.1.09
Happy New Year etc... Having switched to SKY to receive all the marvellous benefits of the proported "absolutely wonderful system".... pause for hollow laugh ..... I am finding all manner of facilities suddenly not there.
So if you have tried to contact me..please be patient. Normal Service will be resumed as soon as we can find out where the hell everything......especially email accounts, have dissappeared to.
Annette (Bless Her) is labouring to re-establish various facilities whilst restraining me from throwing a chair at the computer.
30.11.08
Well, finally got some time, having completed what are, hopefully.....my last commitments for 2008 exhibition-wise, to update and add some images to this site. Finished..somewhat "at the gallop" is this piece..."The Sycamore Hare", for a Christmas exhibition.
Now I can get on with finishing the larger etching of a Green Hare (long,long,long overdue) and some welding over the coming winter months..who knows if I knuckle down I might finish various projects in time for Easter?
I must say I have only partly enjoyed the round of exhibitions this year but found them tiring and felt throughout that there should have been much more work ready to show.
Maybe the next exhibition???
15.11.08.
To quote Granny Weatherwax ....."I Aten't Dead"
Just too busy. As soon as I have some spare time...I'll try and update this page.....must go!
22.7.08.
Just a quick update.
Exhibition preview went well. Thanks to my co-exhibitor Jill Nicholls....who did the snacks. I've never had strawberries dipped in dark chocolate before.
On the way home I bought some cherries and strawberries and choccie and made a huge plate of them...I went to bed feeling a bit sick.
Here's me posing (trying to look erudite,dignified, and not in the least bit smug) ....for the newspaper photographer (Nick Herman) who took this shot. Gosh.. I look tired as actually I was feeling completely knackered.
The waistcoat my wife Annette embroidered for me many years ago depicting a Hare and a Cockerel was much admired.... maybe I should have sent that to the preview and stayed at home... but then I wouldn't have discovered chocolate strawberries.
Also in the exhibition ... the earlier smaller Hare which I decided to call "Hare Stare"
16.7.08.
The day before the exhibition set up. Sea Hare blasted with a blowtorch ...absolutely amazed as it started to "colour" from the heat....and then waxed it as it cooled.
Just a hasty shot as I have dozens of other pre show jobs to do (panic.panic.panic!).....but pleased as Punch with it.
8.7.08
7 days to go....The Sea Hare sculpture is progressing well and now needs to be joined to his ears....and I am having fun.! . So I should have at least two pieces ready for the exhibition.
Having reached this part of the page regular visitors may be wondering where has all the other features going back as far as 2006 gone?
Thanks to the current new website hosting "hosts" Telivo... there are severe restrictions on my bandwidth....of course they will offer me more..if I am prepared to pay extra for it!
So I have decided to edit it somewhat in an attempt to keep the website up and running. Most assuredly I shall be lookinging for a less restrictive host in the near future...and shall read the small print in the contracts!
