Welcome to Nick's dining room table. (3 Viewers)

[Lykos]

:clap::clap::clap:

congratulations

greetings from Gaby

 

[solitaryVSong]

just to clarify though, it's not won anything - it was just liked enough to be put in the magazine and has found a new home somewhere with somebody who liked it enough to buy it. Still it's nice to have it in print.

Who knows it might actually be more helpful to have it in print for so many to see than to have won the prize. A double prize so to speak. Thanks for posting the photo Phil! I'm just sad to say that I won't be picking up my own edition and enjoying it.

 

[RussB]

Congrats from me too! Just flicked through 'Birdwatch' in Smiths (I no longer buy it as its the same old , same old every time, and we're entering a time of austerity) and I was immediately drawn to the Blackcap and a certain Mr. Derry. Not sure If I've seen this particular work before but a superb effort, slightly minimalist but simply oozing life. Very well done, sir.

I also love James Mccallum's geese and harriers - quite masterful fieldwork. David Daly's Ringed Plover deserves rightful place among Lar's meisterworks, too. Weren't bothered about the woodcut winner, though - far too abstract or dare I say it 'arty farty' for me. No doubting the talent and skill needed though.

Russ

 

[halftwo]

Yeay! Well done, that man!

 

[phil baber]

Sorry bout the misunderstanding about prize-winning Nick. But glad you got some good publicity out of it. Nice Blackcap wallpaper!

 

[timwootton]

Top-class and worthy of any prize (whether it won one or not!). Just been through the past few pages of this thread - amazing, just amazing!

 

[nickderry]

eeep! I have been resurrected from the THIRD page! Wow - just goes to show how much new talent is being shown on this forum, it's really wonderful!

So, I have been busy, but the light hasn't been good enough for me to take photos of..... ah let's just upload some then go and stick the dinner on before my frog gets home.

we have here Bittern, Bewick's Swan, Crossbill and some Goosanders.

In the spirit of recycling, the Bittern is also a Whinchat (with teasels for those with a good memory - the dirty study version) and the Goosanders used to be the start of a flock of psychedelic dunlin.

 

[nickderry]

some more -

the Med Gull with some commoner birds of Besançon (well the BH Gull is scarce), Red-breasted Merganser and a Black-throated Diver.

I'll try not to leave two months blank on my thread, it's so difficult to find afterwards!

 

[Strandman]

some more -

the Med Gull with some commoner birds of Besançon (well the BH Gull is scarce), Red-breasted Merganser and a Black-throated Diver.

I'll try not to leave two months blank on my thread, it's so difficult to find afterwards!

I think we all could sense a Derryblast was brewing- first a few warm-up posts here and there- then BLAM

currently enjoying the Bittern most and it so nice to see the Fieldfares- I was feeling guilty the other day for neglecting them in favour of fancy Waxwings

 

[timwootton]

Praise the Lord!!!!! About bloody time. Any further absence from the basement spanning longer than 2 weeks MUST be requested via letter to the committee (and you well know that you bloody upstart! - redstart??).
Well, what have we here then? Besides the general gorgeousness and jaw-dropping quality, both these bitterns will certainly have the great doctor smiling down. There's an undefinable (by me, any way) quality in these that sings from the screen - the second benefits from a more ruggedly substantial approach; the muted colours and cleverly described form make for a spanking pic. You've caught that gentle Bewick's expression in this youngster very nicely and the fly-past kingfisher elsewhere is handled deftly - so easy to have gone overboard here, but I get the impression you stayed true to the experience. Fieldfares and both goosander pics will be bit-chomping for inclusion at the SWLA, whereas the watercolour black-throat should mean an orderly queue forms to purchase it. It's a real stonker that, sunshine.
Now go and feed your frog.

 

[Woody]

WooHoo! The Derry's back!

How do you take a bird like a kingfisher, stick it amongst a couple of gulls, crows and a soddin' pigeon and still manage to keep it so much a part of the scene that it meshes completely?

'Feed the frog' Ha Ha Love it!

Mike

 

[solitaryVSong]

I think we all could sense a Derryblast was brewing- first a few warm-up posts here and there- then BLAM

Better than ever Nick. These seem particularly fluid and effortless! I'll be back for another visit I'm sure.

 

[JTMB]

Outstanding to have you back again, Nick! You need to do a video of you creating one of these sometime so we can watch. I have this mental image of you going into some kind of a semi trance and having these wonderful images just start flowing out of the brush onto the paper with almost no discernable movement. That's how it works, right?! B

 

[mattybohan]

oh, that vertical diver painting is incredible...

 

[Lykos]

spectacularly , :clap:

greetings Gaby

 

[colleenc]

missed you so much ....back later to comment still just in the rightbrain looking at these new awesome works

 

[RussB]

It seems he's back in style. The third page! I've never been demoted off the first page, such is the motivation I get from BF. How many pages ae there anyway?
Back to these latest wonders. Drawn straight to the Bewicks - not seen one for years and I don't think anyones sketched or painted one in as long either. I love the subtleness of this - truly excellent. Then the diver - a great effort with those lovely hints of grey, silver, brown and black. I've been enjoying local fieldfares for the first time in many winters here, and these are stunning portrayals. I can hear that 'chak, chak' and little squeal they utter the more I look at 'em. Everything else is top drawer, too.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, they say.

Russ

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

just your brilliant self Nick

 

[solitaryVSong]

Praise the Lord!!!!! About bloody time. Any further absence from the basement spanning longer than 2 weeks MUST be requested via letter to the committee (and you well know that you bloody upstart! - redstart??).
Well, what have we here then? Besides the general gorgeousness and jaw-dropping quality, both these bitterns will certainly have the great doctor smiling down. There's an undefinable (by me, any way) quality in these that sings from the screen - the second benefits from a more ruggedly substantial approach; the muted colours and cleverly described form make for a spanking pic. You've caught that gentle Bewick's expression in this youngster very nicely and the fly-past kingfisher elsewhere is handled deftly - so easy to have gone overboard here, but I get the impression you stayed true to the experience. Fieldfares and both goosander pics will be bit-chomping for inclusion at the SWLA, whereas the watercolour black-throat should mean an orderly queue forms to purchase it. It's a real stonker that, sunshine.
Now go and feed your frog.

Just have to quote Tim here as I missed this the first time through. What a pleasure to look through more slowly today. Hard to choose my favorites but if I had to it most likely would be the fieldfares and the kingfisher. All of them just flow though, without a hint of overwork or hesitation. If I come back tomorrow I'll probably find new favorites.

 

[nickderry]

keeping busy...

Bitterns are the reason I started sketching, 15 years back, I went on a coach trip with the local RSPB to see them in the Lea Valley, wanting to have a record of these dream birds I took a sketchbook with me and had a go - I was hooked. Sadly, the one sitting hunched up in the reeds was found dead under the power lines that cross this gravel pit, shame, as the poor thing had survived the big freeze there.

After being difficult to see for the past two years, the walltoasters are starting to co-operate once more. Got to find the time to paint up the pencil drawing - I don't usually draw everything in first, but I don't want to b011ox this one up.

Have been working a lot in the town recently as after everything that happened this time last year with publishers etc, there is now a contract in my papers and the book project of a Besançon sketchbook is going ahead (all being well as I know a contract is not 100% certain). Hopefully we'll be publishing in the spring of 2013.