Thursday 25 February 2016

'Feeding Snipe-The Haven' 17" x 32" oil on canvas The making of a painting

 



 
Last Autumn on one of my regular visits to the Titchfield Haven National nature reserve I watched a group of Snipe feeding in the shallows on the scrape.The day was still and a little overcast and very peaceful as the birds,who normally skulk away in the undergrowth or amongst the reeds,emerged and busied themselves with foraging for food.Snipe are very cryptically coloured to blend into there environment and are very difficult to spot when not in the open and so the opportunity to view and photograph them was too good to miss.In my painting I wanted to try and describe the tranquility of that day and the rich variety of browns and ochres in both the birds plumage and the dry vegetation and reflections.

Monday 15 February 2016

New Elephant oil painting

 

 
 

 
 

My latest oil painting is now complete.This is a record of an encounter next to the Chobe river in Botswana when a small herd of elephants crossed the sand that edged the river to drink.Once they had slaked there thirst they crossed the river into Namibia and slowly disappeared out of sight and I hoped that all would return unscathed to Botswana once more.The painting measures 15" x 30" and will be available for purchase shortly on my website www.clivemeredithart.weebly.com