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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Welcome to Nick's dining room table. (1 Viewer)

He's certainly back with a vengeance! Another superb collection of work. My picks of the bunch are the sarnie terns - what drama captured with just three or four tones of blue and grey! - and the snipe - that's just phenomenal.

Russ
 
Very nice to have you back Nick, the work is of the usual standard, just improving all the time...

The Sandwich Tern roost piece is soooo good. There's stacks of stuff in there I find exceptional, suffice to say the broad brushstrokes, use of colour and ability therein to create form is mind boggling.

It's almost disgraceful to pick best bits out from such a great collection of paintings, but I've got to. That Snipe painting is just the bizz...

With regard to leaving the brush down for a while, it happens. Usually when one returns to art with fresh eyes, often after a period of thought and introspection, the results show a little more focus. It's not a bad thing to recharge the batteries and indulge in a little life beyond the brush.;)
 
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And when no-one was looking - this magical thread went Interstellar and passed the 200K views - each one blindingly brilliant!!!
Congrats and Hip Hip Hip!!!
B :)
B :)
B :)
B :)
:t::t::t::t::t:

course, no-one else of Birdforum will ever know or even care, but we do!!!​
 
phew- always a worry when the Derry thread goes quiet

and always intriguing to see what gets tabbed as favourites amongst the favourites- I stopped longest over the high-activity group of gulls, curlew, ringed plover and all

that second Ferruginous Duck is a stop and stare too- that restraint in the colour gives it extra power
 
One major criticism Nick!

You are not ME! (And I am not Nick Derry!:-O)

And I wish I could have done a string of beauties like these!:-C

Off the scale in many multi-media ways! Eclectic in explosive and warm ways.B :)

Life pumps out of them. Not over-worked. Each, a suggestion of reality and experience. Just enough to vibrate the frequencies needed. Very special.

When I strive for complication, I learn from you, that suggestion and simplicity is the key.

It is "the leaving out of over-working" that is your strength. And that comes fron a "sketch-mind." Aspirational!:clap:|=)|
 
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Clear the table!

After several months absence from the thread, the dining room table has been well and truly cleared away. Some of you may already know, but the dining room table belonged to Sébastien and we decided to call it a day with our relationship in November. Apologies for not being very present here during that time, normally in difficult situations I throw myself into painting, but I just didn't feel any real inspiration to pick up the brushes - I managed to get plenty of birding done though! Being single certainly has that advantage! :t: I just wanted to share some of the last few works to come from the 'table', before it becomes part of the past.

We had a lingering red-throated diver at Osselle at the end of the year, I couldn't resist capturing the moment as its path from one pool to another coincided with a flock of rooks going to roost, the bullfinch is from last spring in the upland forests, we have a misty buzzard and one of two rock buntings that were present on my patch for me and me alone - as nobody else managed to find them, I found them three days apart (early bird and all that!)
 

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and a few more - so as the table is cleared, where do we go now? Well, a new thread will be born, (probably tomorrow as the light's gone for today!) I've been living in my little bachelor pad for a month now, it's rather good, a nice studio for painting with a kitchenette in one corner and a bed in the other - what I've always dreamed of really. There are trees outside my window and already I've got Short-toed treecreepers, greenfinches, tits and chaffinches outside, and a few days ago a few red kites drifted over.

And so to end, a great grey shrike (no longer my biggest bogey bird - I've had the privilege of Captain Excubitor's company three times this winter), a few trips to the top of Franche-Comté (1400m) in November's unreasonably mild weather gave me my lifer Alpine Accentors on the third trip, along with a Snow Bunting for good measure (there is still a painting to do of the Pygmy Owl I got on trip two - where Zippy broke down), and the last painting to come from the dining room table, the Pallid Harrier that had been seen one day and that I went looking for two days later, surprisingly, I saw it - and very nice it was too!

So, thank you for dining with me, clear your plates and good guests do the washing up after! ;) See you "Chez moi" for the next chapter.........
 

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so sorry Nick, this time of transition can be so hard, even if it is for the best most times, all that energy going into a relationship, wondering what the heck it was all about. Smart Boy you just picked up your brush again, and Kazam! brilliant work, even more sure and solid than before. Great maturity here and your usual dazzle, but something new, a sureness of line and the compositions fresh exciting, out of the box but seemingly effortlessly balanced Bravo. Sad to leave the table, but since you are offering a new venue to bask in your amazing art, I'm willing to get up, just throw my dishes out, less stuff to move that way:t:
 
so sorry Nick, this time of transition can be so hard, even if it is for the best most times, all that energy going into a relationship, wondering what the heck it was all about. Smart Boy you just picked up your brush again, and Kazam! brilliant work, even more sure and solid than before. Great maturity here and your usual dazzle, but something new, a sureness of line and the compositions fresh exciting, out of the box but seemingly effortlessly balanced Bravo. Sad to leave the table, but since you are offering a new venue to bask in your amazing art, I'm willing to get up, just throw my dishes out, less stuff to move that way:t:

Hey Nick! Nice to see such imaginative work again. I have to agree with most of what Colleen's written both on a personal and artistic level. Seeing these is like the early arrival of spring - something you don't know how much you missed until you experience it.

As usual you show how a special sighting can then be transformed into an equally special painting with the use of artistic imagination and skill. I'm partial to the very first one but each one offers something striking.

Welcome back!
 
Can only agree with the above.
You've certainly brightened this winter up now .good to see you back mate and looking forward to just sitting back and admiring your talents
 
Hello Nick,
I spent most of last night and this morning looking through your thread, and I am left with an artistic hangover. I am a bit worried that I might have to re-think my approach to the field of bird art! I do know one thing: While I consider my own attempts so far to be illustration work, yours are definately works of art - even your field sketches. You are like a mix of Lars Jonsson and Matisse, and I'm allready a big fan! I'm looking forward to a lot of inspiration, and one day I think I'll have a Derry! on my wall.
 
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