Skybird

The Wetlands (www.wwt.barnes.org)  have started a book corner and instinctively I reached out to search for ….. I don’t quite know what.  What do we look for when we see a pile of apparently random books.  Instant wisdom?  Sudden expertise, Beauty, Romance, Advice or Adventure?

I seized on probably the only Dick Francis that I haven’t read, published in 1974 with the title of Knock Down, hardback too, and only 50p.  Next I picked up Birds Of Heath & Marshland by O. Stepanek with beautiful illustrations by E. Demartini.  Originally published in Czechoslovakia, translated by A. Denesova and with the price tag of £3 I could not leave it behind.  Splendid booty!

I paused in the Car Park before prompting Daisy to jump into the car, and looked up.  The icy air was a piercing blue and I saw what to me was a phoenix rising with pale pink outstretched neck and wide wings.  A sort of flying Loch Ness Monster?  Time I got my eyes tested.  I’m getting too fanciful.  But it was fun.

Dog Talk

There are two types of people in my world, apart from the obvious that is.

There are those dog walkers who smile when they pass me with my terrier, Daisy, and maybe even exchange a few words; and then again there are those who steadfastly refuse to move the muscles of their face for fear of…what, exactly? 

Are they so insulated from the world we share?

But perhaps I shouldn’t misjudge them: they could be reflecting on how to transform the injustices of our civilisation so that the marginalised, the dispossessed, the isolated, can draw closer to the riches that are there for the rest. 

Or are they composing magnificent symphonies, designing gardens, houses, clothes, or shopping lists, or are they just taking some well-deserved “Me Time”?

Never judge. 

But I am warmed by a quick smile or a nod as Daisy and I hunch against the cold or run after a thrown ball  (her, not me, for heaven’s sake!)

Mondrian at The Wetlands

WWT Barnes, in their café, just after 3pm.  Light bathes the regimented windows.  A woman with long light brown hair is turned away from public gaze in a quiet corner.  A square of muslin over her shoulder allowing a peep of a light brown head gently nursing at the unseen breast.  The shadows from the big windows fix on the cornered walls and caught the young mother in its Mondrian frame.  I wanted to capture her too.  But thought I would be intruding into this private world of giving and receiving.

I compromised and secured the memory in my mind by taking a quick photo on my

phone after she had left.  The empty corner seemed bereft without her presence.

Acrylics

Deadline hovering on the horizon for history illustrations.  Preliminary pastels are still disappointing.  How to get the effect I am after?

“Simples” that blinking television creature whispered in my ear.  Use what you’re used to.  Not watercolour this time, but acrylic.  On my favourite hand-made Indian Khadi paper?

No time for colour trials or any more experiments.  Just do it!

The excitement that the finished paintings generated was tremendous!  However, client has the works now, so can’t show you….sorry!

Can’t wait to see how far I can push this new combination and perhaps try with Two Rivers handmade paper.  Always nice to support British Industry!

(www.tworiverspaper.co.uk)

Pastels

Research into cave art continues to enthral – but the pastel preliminaries are not convincing and their dust triggers my asthma.  In the right hands, such as Caro Brownhill’s (www.carobwildlifeart.net) pastel is beautiful.  Mine aren’t the right hands and I don’t react fast enough in selecting the right colours, it’s not done instinctively, because I don’t know them well enough. Pastels and I are not friends!  With acrylics and watercolour it’s a different matter.

Methods & Materials

In the process of producing what my history client wanted, I discovered that acrylics work really well on hand-made paper.  I have been working intermittently with Khadi paper (www.khadi.com made from recycled cotton T-shirts from India ) after participating in a Hazel Soan workshop (www.hazelsoan.com).

Initially I found it an impossible challenge requiring a contradictory brush stroke approach. I left it strictly alone for six months, then cautiously returned and found my way using watercolour and loved it!

Suddenly the challenging nature of the rough surface worked to my advantage and allowed me to leave areas unpainted for reflected light – see these Red-Breasted Geese from drawn initially at the Wetland Centre, Barnes (www.wwt.org.uk)

Let's start at the very beginning...

Hi there and welcome to my blog. I am Romaine Dennistoun, an artist based in London, who specialises in painting wildlife - from life (www.drawnfromlife.co.uk). I have decided to start a blog to record the variety of projects that I am involved in and to keep an online diary.

2013 has got off to an interesting start when I was asked to illustrate prehistoric cave art for a history project. I remembered going to see Werner Herzog's 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams' at the cinema and fell in love with the prehistoric cave drawings. I was enthralled by the power and the purity of line and form and here is my favourite, the Bison painting from the Alatamira cave in Spain.

Bisonte de Altamira (Bison painting from the Altamira Cave, Spain)

I am bewitched by the energy and the extraordinary exaggeration of the bison’s neck, rounded over in such a way as to depict force and fury; its legs tucked up under him as he leaps into the air to charge his foe.  The unknown artist has used some of the rough surface of the cave to emphasise the form of the haunches and even the eye.

Pablo Picasso: “After Altamira, all (art) is decadence.” 

Now how to persuade husband to join me on a trip to Spain to see Altamira for myself?!