Great artwork (1 Viewer)

I found this guy's work a couple of weeks ago. He has some fabulous bird paintings and impressions of the Scottish wilds. His work is loose and appears effortless. Check him out here:

http://www.glenlyongallery.com/past_collection.htm

Woody

Woody said:

I found this guy's work a couple of weeks ago. He has some fabulous bird paintings and impressions of the Scottish wilds. His work is loose and appears effortless. Check him out here:

http://www.glenlyongallery.com/past_collection.htm

Woody

Click to expand...

Eye-catching composition too.

Thanks for the link, I really like his landscape work and his background treatment. The subject matter is a bit 'paint this and it'll sell' pictures for the hunting fraternity but it is good to see that there is a freshness and impact in the image rather than a feather perfect image of, for example, a flushed woodcock flying away but looking like it's already been shot!

nickderry said:

Thanks for the link, I really like his landscape work and his background treatment. The subject matter is a bit 'paint this and it'll sell' pictures for the hunting fraternity but it is good to see that there is a freshness and impact in the image rather than a feather perfect image of, for example, a flushed woodcock flying away but looking like it's already been shot!

Click to expand...

I know what you mean, though personally I don't have too much problem with artists catering to a market, particularly if that's how they make their main living. It simply makes good business sense to produce what the market requires, hopefully allowing an artist freedom from financial pressure which enables them to persue their own artistic interests too. And, whether you like them or loathe them, in the UK the hunting market generally has more money to spend than the birding one does.

I like reed buntings and warblers, yellowhammers, dunnocks but painting them doesn't really make commercial sense. 'Birders' mostly ignore them, 'the general public' don't know what they are, 'shooters' couldn't give two hoots about them because they're not worth shooting. That makes for a pretty limited market. (I know I'm generalising). It doesn't stop me painting what I want but if I have a show coming up then bring on the barn owls, peregrines and kingfishers!
Hang on, that's three of my favourite birds! It's a good job really!:bounce:

Woody

I have to agree, of course there is nothing wrong with catering to a market, look at many of Peter Scott's works. I think it is nice to see a fresh approach to a tired subject.
Looking at my own works, I know when I'm thinking 'credit card's due for payment!' and if I have the chance to display things locally, there are always red kites and peregrines included to try and tempt a buyer, but as it's so rare for me to sell a picture these days I can paint without the constraint of what would be sellable.

Just to chime in here... my favorite bird artist is: http://www.ian-lewington.co.uk/

Tell me the man isn't brilliant.

jcwings said:

Just to chime in here... my favorite bird artist is: http://www.ian-lewington.co.uk/

Tell me the man isn't brilliant.

Click to expand...

Hi jc

He is certainly very accomplished and obviously a great draughtsman. Some of the birds in flight are particularly impressive: http://www.ian-lewington.co.uk/Collared fly3.htm

For me, personally, I prefer a slightly more painterly approach. The photo realist style certainly seems to appeal to the birder market though, so I'm sure you're not alone! Perhaps it's because almost all birders are used to seeing field guide illustration and like to be able to count feathers?

The other style which seems to appeal to birders is the 'field sketch' style, perhaps because birders often make field sketches themselves and perhaps aren't always pleased with their efforts so they see a favourite artist's paintings as a level to aspire to?

I find the subject of who likes what artist's style and why fascinating. There was a thread on 'Favourite bird artist' a while ago and the range of artists and styles that came up was very wide. It's 'each to his own' and 'horses for courses' I guess.

Woody

Woody said:

The other style which seems to appeal to birders is the 'field sketch' style, perhaps because birders often make field sketches themselves and perhaps aren't always pleased with their efforts so they see a favourite artist's paintings as a level to aspire to?

Click to expand...

I love looking at an artist's field sketches ... probably more than finished works. I like the rawness and simplicity of them -- just something seen and immediately responded to, rather than the self-consciousness that comes from hours of painstaking work. I find it much more revealing about the individual who created it than any polished portfolio. With all of the talent on this forum, I just wish more people here would feel inclined to post their field sketches!

But on the other hand, I'm also a big admirer of Ian Lewington -- he's got some great technical skill and an illustrative simplicity that I find attractive. Of course, I like a lot of artists, all for different reasons. And with a professional illustrator like Lewington, there can't really be a lot of free expression going on given the restrictions of his occupation. But I do believe that any artist worth his salt can still create something of interest even when just paying the bills.

I suppose that there are so many different styles that it's impossible to have a favourite.
I generally like all pictures that respond to having seen the bird in the wild, and I'll be honest, I HATE painstaking copies of photos (using photos for reference is fine) if the photo already exists, what's the point of copying it in paint? The artist should use his skill (and there is great skill in being able to faithfully reproduce something) in something more imaginative. Worse than copying photos are copies of stuffed birds, the result will be a picture of a dead bird pretending to be alive, even greats such as Liljefors used stuffed specimens as models for some of his pictures but as he knew the real thing (it was often himself who shot his subjects) there is the knowledge of the living bird conveyed in his pictures.
I'm very much a believer of getting out in the field and as long as a picture is born in the field there is always a genuinity that appeals to me regardless of fetaher perfection or otherwise (Ian Lewington does sketch in the field and his fieldwork is amazing. I'm less keen on his studio works, where the bird is always amazing, but the background is done in airbrush to make it look like a photo even more!)