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

so not the bottle of dooley's that just disappeared?! It's awful, painting is such an addiction that despite being fed up of it, I'm now painting crag martins instead of preparing my lessons for tomorrow, I think maybe tomorrow will be 'Bonjour children, today we're going to revise everything in your exercise books!'

Trip out would be what I need to do, only one month of work left then I'm on the dole for 3! Yippee

Ah, that Dooleys is over-rated **** water! ....Maybe you spilt some on the Gooosander painting;)

Perhaps we should all challenge ourself to creating an image with our favourite beverage, Mine would be a guiness watercolour! Will think about this....

Red wine stains well Nick....!
 
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the dooleys was very cheap, someone had spilled a load of sawdust and wood glue on the bottles so it was highly reduced! As I drink the contents rather than lick the bottle I thought I may as well get it. Guinness is good (for you) but hard to come by in France, and I'd probably end up painting toucans and pelicans with it. Give me a cheap nasty red any day.

Ideal painting scenario for me, bottle open, music up loud, big brush, big paper - makes for the all singing, all dancing Nick's painting drunk again! (Which I must be typing this crap, but somehow don't feel it!? Bad Dooley's!)
 
Nick, the latest are really superb - your work is so honest (if that makes sense!) - hard to say which ones I like best, they all have individual quality, the sandpipers seem to have a Scarfe/Steadman appeal which I like a lot, although the woodies (#1 esp.) work brilliantly as a colour comp. As for the Goosander, well if any image could sum up a 'bad hair day', then it's a Goosander with it's head to the wind, which is the feel of this sketch ... Love it!!!
 
Something for a mellow mood . . .

Hi NIck - just a quick thank you for posting the beautifully transluscent, alive little goosander painting. As Alan mentions, it's so true to the original observation yet with that added Derryness, so absolutely required.

I hope this image might bring a smile to your face (that's assuming you aren't already grinning like an idiot with drink! ;) )

In May 1995, I spent several days on the Welsh Islands painting and researching a commissioned article for BirdWatching magazine. This was my first 'from-life' seascape. It depicts Ynys Bery (Peregrine Island) as seen from the summit of Foel Fawr, Ramsey Island. There was a lesser kes on the island at the time, too!

Pour me a vod, whilst you view the piece, will ya?
 

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effects of alcohol worn off, bad Dooley's. That's a very Welsh scene indeed, something about the heavy sky and the sparkle in the air. Ynys Bery Cymraeg (lived in Wales for five years and the only Welsh I ever learned was dw i ddim yn siarad cymraeg - I don't speak Welsh, that and bocsis car-r-r-r-dboard, which is cardboard boxes - am looking forward to being back there for a few days at least this summer, maybe I'll do some landscape work.)

back to your picture Tim, it's beautiful, sadly the vodka got knocked back a few days ago and hasn't been replaced, but you can have a 'iechydd da' from a dooley's!
 
Damn teachers. ;)

QUOTE]

Technically, I'm not a teacher, I'm a classroom assistant, that means (as far as teaching English is concerned) I do the job of a teacher for less than minimum wage, so sponging off the French government for three months rather than working is my way of evening out the balance :cool:
Also I get more time to paint that way!

Ooh, got to be at work in 7 hours, better get to bed.

Just finished painting a crag martin on its nest, will post it tomorrow!

Night all.:flyaway:
 
Just got back from an entire morning of singing 'head shoulders knees and toes'. Why can't I be teaching adults instead!?

Here's last night's crag martin. Also started a new bee-eater picture, a bit more landscape with one or two birds darting overhead.
 

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That's It, Nick!!! Brilliant combination of colour and tone, excellent composition, wonderfully alive bird and expressive combination of your two recent techniques - a total success and a delight to see. Bravo!
 
funny how the one that I paint on a whim at the end of a night and spend least time on turns out more successful. Glad you like.
 
Still in a 'fed up' sort of mood, must be something to do with the fact that I've got to set tests for the kids this month and I really don't feel like it. There's been very little output from the dining room table recently, we've even used it to eat at twice this week! This is a bad state of affairs that needs changing.

Here we go:

Some bee eaters in a landscape, I could have picked at it a bit longer, but was fed up of it and didn't really see how adding more to it would have improved it.

The nightingale got picked at a bit too much and was destined to be one of those that I should have left alone, but being an acrylic, I managed to work back and get the bird looking less like a scrub-robin.

The purple herons from April have dipped their beaks in white acrylic, now I've just got to paint them back in, they're suitably longer this time!

Maybe Thursday afternoon I'll try for the Bonelli's warblers again.
 

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I've been having a rather uncreative few days, feeling very homesick and getting fed up of France, and to make matters worse, nothing I paint manages to look good. So, I spent this afternoon feeling miserable and indulging in gin, in any case my plans to go birding had been scuppered by thunderstorms all afternoon. But once the gin started to take over my rational thoughts, I decided 'sod it', let's go and have a quick walk. Well, my sketchbook has turned into papier mâché round the edges and I got soaked, but I now have this goosander with chicks to add to my portfolio:
 

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Oh for the wonders of gin - when blended with passion and talent!!! This one's right back up there Nick. Perfect design and scrumptious little birds - excellent.
 
Beautiful Nick. The birds are so much part of the environment and I can see their energy, especially the little'uns, and I love to see the weather in paintings. Not sure I'd have wanted to be out in it, but for a goosander family I think I would have risked dissolving!

Woody
 
Thanks guys, and no hangover! Bonus. We've got a couple of pairs of goosander around the town, and some of them get to be quite tame. This family were following the bank towards me when I had the idea of hiding behind a sign for the boats. Sure enough, they didn't notice me until I was right next to them, which is when they 'ran' away across the water.

I used to love sketching in the rain when I was still in Wolverhampton, the hides at Belvide reservoir seem like a luxury nowadays. Now, I usually try and avoid the rain.
 
Thanks guys, and no hangover! Bonus. We've got a couple of pairs of goosander around the town, and some of them get to be quite tame. This family were following the bank towards me when I had the idea of hiding behind a sign for the boats. Sure enough, they didn't notice me until I was right next to them, which is when they 'ran' away across the water.

I used to love sketching in the rain when I was still in Wolverhampton, the hides at Belvide reservoir seem like a luxury nowadays. Now, I usually try and avoid the rain.

The longer your feeling sorry for yourself the better Nick. Wet Goosander family will be a great addition to an incredible portfolio of a rapidly developing artist of great talent...

Cheers!

Ps, I am half pissed and looking forward to a hangover as I type!
 
Here's what I'm working on at the moment, have invested in a hairdryer to help cut drying time as waiting for paint to dry is really as boring as the proverb says, and I always ended up smoking too much whilst waiting and then carrying on before the paint had dried which meant bad mess. So here's the sketch, the layout and the first layer of paint.
 

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