Mike's conservatory (6 Viewers)

[birdboybowley]

Great to see this stuff Mike! Am heading back to SE Asia in November so looking forward to getting my mind stimulated by their excellent birds. Nice shapes with those macaques too

 

[timwootton]

Superb. It's late so I'll be back - but just superb.

 

[phil baber]

All rather lovely in a travelogue flowering sort of way! But am so glad that these memories ar being worked up into your inimitable style. I'll sit back, re-read the above and wait for more wonders to be born. A taste of humid joy and colour!B :t:

 

[solitaryVSong]

Back to the hill and the mynas were always around foraging through the grass and goosestepping around the munias. 'The mynastry of silly walks' Sorry!


Mike

Not sure if this is an indication that you're feeling better or actually getting worse.B


Had to wait a day to come back and try to digest all of this. What a pleasure it's been. And I think that the variety of media, styles and subjects just add to the overall impression - a skilled artist alert to all he sees and putting it down.

There's just too much to have favorites. I love the scratchy tentativeness of some sketches but also the smooth, certain lines of others. And then there are the paintings. I did have to wonder about that Yellow-breasted Chat down toward the end though! I see it's really an Oriental White Eye. But boy my first impression was of a Yellow-breasted Chat whose throat was just a bit too small.

 

[colleenc]

A feast of inspiration and pure joy of a new world, thanks so much for putting it down here, just awesome

Get well soon, can't wait to see the paintings.

 

[Andrew H]

Ive sat and re read this twice today (even Mrs H has sat and read it), and Im still amazed at what you've come back with. The primary scribbly scratchy sketches right through to the 'jungle study', finished with the colour studies...all magnificent.. As others have said, the memory will live with you and may make an appearance on canvas in the not too distant future....Im sure you.ve enjoyed the ride.....even if you dont feel like it right now....

 

[RussB]

Some great stuff here, Mike. What an excellent and inspiring travelogue! What, with the recent Birdfair, my daily dip into Chris Gooddie's excellent 'Jewel Hunter', a trawl through some recent 'Birding Asia' mags and now this lot it's no wonder I want to head out East again! Your White crested laughingthrush sketches evoke certain memories - how 'smew-like' is that head?!

Ps - get well soon. Lemsip? Sounds like you've got a dose of the summer 'man flu' -as the fairer sex like to call it. More like pnuemonia, me thinks!

Russ

 

[phil baber]

Mike?

Seriously. Are you malaria safe? The stuff's wonderful 'n' all, but would rather the flu be just "flu." If you get my meaning...

 

[Woody]

Mike?

Seriously. Are you malaria safe? The stuff's wonderful 'n' all, but would rather the flu be just "flu." If you get my meaning...

Feeling a bit better now thanks Phil, the gunk is out of my sinuses and the sore throat isn't burning anymore. I'm still a bit washed out, but on the road to recovery at last! Hopefully I'll be able to get back to painting over the weekend.

Mike

 

[Lykos]

beautiful..all of them...the colors are great

 

[JTMB]

Wonderful and wonderfully prolific set of sketches, Mike! What a great opportunity to see and draw a bunch of new species. Glad you included a couple of the landscape sketches to give a sense of that as well.

 

[Woody]

A bit more progress on this old beast today.

More definition on the foliage top right and top left continues to morph from one thing to another. Originally I had red brick in the top left but I found it was dominating too much and interrupting the flow of the 'ring' of red brick I have going around the rubble pile. I need to add one more to my red brick ring just to the right of the owl, enlarge the brick in the bottom left and strengthen the colour of the ones just to the left and behind the owl. Then there's just the tidying and fiddling left to do and I can move on to something more exotic!

Nearly there!

Mike

 

[colleenc]

brilliant Mike

 

[mark richards]

wonderful light a shadows mate....fantastic stuff...mark

 

[timwootton]

I assumed the previous version was finished - I can see now this is a step on from that, Beautiful work which surely only requires a frame?

 

[JTMB]

Fantastic piece here, Mike! The rocks are just magnificently done here - a real inspiration for those of us trying to render rocks with this kind of depth and dimension.

 

[solitaryVSong]

I assumed the previous version was finished - I can see now this is a step on from that, Beautiful work which surely only requires a frame?

Like Tim I thought this was done when I saw the previous version even though you indicated it wasn't. But your changes make sense and it is much better now. It really is a stunning painting. I'm sure you'll know when it is really and truly done. It's amazing too that it shows just how rich a pile of rocks, and a bird, can be!

 

[Woody]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. It's currently undergoing a couple more changes brought on after consultations with my family.

It doesn't matter what I do with it now though, there's no way I'll be able to convince anyone in my family to like this picture! It's ugly, boring, it's a pile of rubbish and an owl would never be there, nobody is ever going to want to buy that etc etc!

I'm not listening!

Mike

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

Looks like you had a great trip Mike.
LOve the little fellow on the rubble. Esp.the little calf face 2 o'clock from him on the pale rock.

 

[nickderry]

so much to go through here, so I'll have to pop back again to have a second (and third.......etc) look.