Work in Progress

Welcome to my 'Work in Progress' page.  Here you will be able to see recently finished artwork and paintings in progress week by week.

I will also be happy to answer any questions or queries on this page you might have about my work, techniques and the Westcountry's wildlife. coast and countryside.   Just email your question to:  dicktwinney@btconnect.com

New Original Paintings to be done 2010

For Royal Cornwall Show (June):   For RABI raffle

Cornish Sunset - Barn Owl and Horse Drawn Plough

completed

~

For WMN (Devon Show, May): To be published as prints to

celebrate 150th Anniversary of the newspaper.

This painting will feature The River Tamar and Wildlife.

completed

~

Mike and Mary's Alpacas:  special commission

completed

The Boys

The Chy Lowen Alpacas, Tregaswith, Cornwall

             Reuben  Eddy    Maxwell   Casper    Basil    Toffee 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Next Painting      

Small bird study, part of my Source to Sea project

To be used as a demonstration piece at the Devon County Show

Latest commission

A special painting of a 90,000 guinea calf named Emilyann

I shall be working on this over the Royal Cornwall Show

Source to Sea Book Project painting

A first for me, this year I shall be painting at the Port Elliot Festival, St. Germans 22nd, 23rd & 24th July

This will be a view of the River Tiddy where it runs through the grounds with waterfowl of some sort

Grey Partridges:

This is to be my personel tribute to

Achibald Thorburn on the 75th  Anniversary of his death

~

Barn find of a split screen VW for publication of prints

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Completed

The Western Morning News 150th Anniversary Painting

A Westcountry Spring Day ~ Mallard and Wood Anemones

The New Bridge, River Tamar, Gunnislake

April 8th

Today we travelled to Gunnislake to gather reference material for the special painting to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Western Morning News. A truly beautiful day weatherwise and perfect for photography, sketching and getting the general feel of the area.

I have decided to use the New Bridge (built 1520!!) at Gunnislake as the main feature of the painting as I can then portray both Devon and Cornwall in the artwork. It would also have been the main route for the delivery for the Western Morning News into Cornwall back before the Tamar Bridge at Plymouth was built.

After first finding somewhere to park on the Devon side of the river down a little lane up river from the bridge we discovered there was no good vantage point anywhere where you could see the bridge clearly, although there were some beautiful river views and masses of wood anemones everywhere, we have never before seen such a lovely display. There were also a pair of mallard on the river at this point, my living element?

So staying on the Devon side we found a good parking spot up the hill at the entrance to a mine trail and tracked off down stream which involved some pretty difficult terrain for us to actually get near the river itself. The area is riddled with old mine shafts and workings, once again masses of wood anemones and the first of three Brimstone butterflies we would see in flight on that day.  Eventually reaching the river bank we tracked back upstream towards the bridge, beautiful scenery, great views of the river but not the bridge! I was beginning to realise why there are not many pictures available of the bridge from river level.

So looking across the river to the Cornish side we decided to try that next. After several attemps to get to the river bank down through the village of Gunnislake by vehicle we decided to park up in town and walk to the bridge and take it from there.  We found a little lane right next to the bridge for no unauthorised vehicles, perfect we thought, bound to be able to find a good view of the bridge from here but once again the area was overgrown, this time with view-blocking trees, still loads of wood anemones though!!.  We could see great views of the bridge through the trees on the river bank so taking the bull by the horns I climbed over a wall that ran along the side of the lane and river.  Masses of wild garlic here, one of my favourite woodland scents wafted up as I clambered  along the bank towards the bridge, at last, fantastic, the perfect view for my painting, see above, only one snag, I had to climb on a tree hanging over the river to obtain the picture I wanted and I am not quite as fit as I once was, getting on a bit, there was no way I could do any sketching from there so had to settle for taking a load of photographs.

It was well worth the trip I had got all I needed to start painting  and it made a thoroughly enjoyable day out for Ann and me.  The Westcountry really is a fantastic place in which to live and work, we will definately be exploring more of the Tamar Valley in the near future . I shall return as the painting progresses anyway.

Monday April 12th

Started sorting out my photos today, read up on Gunnislake and the River Tamar plus found out some history about the Western Morning News, which, incidentally starts out with a new look today. Did a few rough sketches of ideas for the painting and prepared my canvas, I still, after all these years, get a buzz from a blank canvas. I am really looking forward to this painting which I will be starting properly tomorrow................

Tuesday April 13th

First thing; painted in the sky with lots of clouds to add interest to the reflections in the water.  I continued the sky blue right to the bottom of the canvas so that when I come to paint the river the blue is the exact right one to match the sky.  I then sketched in the bridge and some of the larger branches and trees to act as markers in pencil, this I then have blocked in with paint...........................

Monday & Tuesday 19th & 20th April

After a few days doing other things during this fantastic weather, including taking my Grandauaghter to Paignton Zoo as a Birthday treat (My parents used to take me nearly 60 years ago!) I am now back on the case the last two days being spent painting the bridge and the far background........................

 Tuesday 27th April

Four more days work here;  fading out the bridge a bit, building up the far background and doing the reflections in the river which are proving very time consuming but there is no quick way if you want absolute realism, which is me. Have roughed in the nearside river bank which will be a mass of wood anemones.  Hoping to pop up to Gunnislake this week as the trees will be in leaf now and I suspect the wild garlic to be flowering.

Wednesday April 28th 

Returned to Gunnislake today to see how it had changed in 3 weeks and to check some things I was unsure of. As I thought the wild garlic was in full bloom and the wood anemones starting to fade

.

The trees were starting to leaf up as well and the view of the bridge even more obscured now good job I went up earlier in the month.

Will start adding some of this greenery tomorrow, also 'brown up' the bridge a bit as mine is a bit grey after seeing the original again.......

April 29th & 30th 

Finished the bridge, reflections and water off. did some small alterations after seeing the bridge again earlier in the week.........................

May 2nd and 3rd 

The trees have sprung into life and the pair of mallard we saw on our first visit have swam into the painting!

This painting will be available to purchase once finished, framed and published. With a percentage of its selling price going towards the Western Morning News Anniversary Appeal.  

May 4th - 9th

Nearly there, could finish tomorrow, under pressure now, have to get it photographed, put on a disc, printed and published by a week on Wednesday in time to launch it at The Devon County Show.

Been working on the foreground during the last few days, very time consuming work. Managed to find some wood anemones still in flower, no problem with the wild garlic though as we have masses of it growing in our garden. I always like to work from plants and foliege directly, bringing the  plants, flowers etc. into my studio.

 Tuesday 11th May

Fiinished!!

A Westcountry Spring Day - Mallard, Wood Anemones and Wild Garlic

The New Bridge, the River Tamar, Gunnislake on the Cornwall - Devon border

Signed limited edition Gicle'e prints available from Thursday 20th May. Original painting also available go to 'Lastest Original Paintings' 30% of print and painting sales donated to the Western Morning News 150th Anniversary Appeal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Royal Cornwall Show 2010 Painting

A Cornish Sunset ~ Barn Owl and Horse Drawn Plough

The River Camel, from farmland near Penhale, Wadebridge

March 1st 2010

Today I have started a very special painting to be used as a raffle prize at this year's Royal Cornwall Show in aid of the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) who's 150th Anniversary it is this year. It is also my , somewhat indirect, way of thanking  the many  farmers and landowners whose woods and fields I have walked through and spent time in over the years in connection with my work as a wildlife and countryside artist.

The Project

The painting has to be connected with farming history, wildlife and of course Cornwall. It also has to be a very popular subject to sell many raffle tickets.

So I have chosen the ever popular Barn Owl, one of my favourite birds anyway, as my living element, a Horse Drawn Hay Rake as my farming history and one of my very favourite Cornish views as the backdrop.  The Camel Estuary from farmland near Penrose not far from the Showground itself. This painting will also be included in the book I am working on at the moment 'From Source to Sea'

The Camel Estuary February 27th 2010

The hay rake has come from an Old Farm Auction Catalogue. There are many of these old farm implements lying around in overgrown field corners and our farm buildings here in Cornwall I love to include them in my art..

The Camel Estuary from Farmland near Penhale, Wadebridge, Cornwall

  Here is my first days work. I have sketched out the land/seascape scene directly from one of the many reference photos I took last Saturday. I shall work from this photograph here in my Studio but return often to the site as the painting progresses especially at sunset to get the feel and atmosphere I wish to create.

I have then roughed in with paint (Chromacolour) the general view and have penciled in faintly the hay rake (you can just see it here) I will be blocking it in with paint tomorrow. One of the wheels is to be the barn owls perch.

March 2nd and 3rd

What a couple of days I have just had with this painting.

Yesterday I blocked in the Hay Rake,  took me most of the day but I wasn't really happy with it it just seemed wrong somehow plus I found out it was actually built in the USA and although many were imported into the UK I was unsure whether any actually made their way down here.

I decided to sleep on it and in the morning came to the decision it would have to go, so another couple of hours painting it out.

After much searching through my old farming books and the internet I decided the Farming Element would be a single furrow horse drawn plough of which I had masses of reference and one used to be in the hedgerow of one of the fields I used to walk in.

So here is todays offering...................

I have popped a rough barn owl on the handle to see how it fits  in......................

March 4th and 5th

Been working on the sky and background for  the last two days.

I wanted a nice still Spring sunset and yesterday evening it was perfect just the colours I was looking for. Lots of warm golds which I can pick out on the barn owl and the plough.....................

Monday 8th & Tuesday 9th March

Back for some restful painting after a hard weekends gardening. Fantastic weather though with some great sunsets very similer to as portrayed here. Gradually working forward now with the neatly strimmed Cornish hedges which will be blended in with the far background tomorrow.

Wednesday and Thursday 10th &11th March

All gradually coming together now, everything must blend in from far distance to immediate foreground. I have been working at getting that lovely soft purple/blue haze that we get get at this time of year.

I have been back to the site to check the shadows at sunset as my original visit was in the morning. I have also been working on the plough today. There is something just magical about this old farming  equipment.

I have used a bit of artistic licence on the gateway into the next field and moved it down the hedge so that it enters the painting and breaks up the long straight hedgerow, it also opens up the view, lightens up the foreground and takes the eyeline through the gateway to the fantastic estuary view.

Friday 12th & Monday 13th March

Another weekends gardening!!!

Another two days work finishing off the plough and starting to put in the immediate foreground, brambles etc. There is also a pile of stones in this overgrown field corner as is often the case.

Tomorrow it is the owls turn, something I am really looking forward to .....

Tuesday 16th March

Magnifying glass and glasses for todays work here's the finished Barn Owl.

Wednesday 17th March

Finished off the plough today, really enjoyed this, I love taking a perfectly good piece of machinery then 'aging' it.  I took the reference from  a fantastic set of books I have called 'The Standard Cyclopedia of Modern Agriculture and Rural Economy' they were published in 1908 and consist of 12 volumes. If ever I need to find out any farming info from the past I can nearly always find it there.

Sunday March 21st

Finished

A Cornish Sunset ~ Barn Owl and Horse Drawn Plough

Image size: 35cm x 55cm  Chromacolour on canvas panel

Well here it is finished, the culmination of around three weeks work, a very special Cornish painting for a special purpose.

I am delighted with the end result and feel I have brought together all the elements that make this painting so suitable to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Royal Agrigultural Benevolent Institution. The Original to be raffled at this years Royal Cornwall Show.  A signed limited edition of 150 Gicle'e prints will also be available at £50 each published in time for the Show.

---------------------------------------------------------

Recently Finished

   The Duchess and Scamp 

Well here it is  finished 'The Duchess and Scamp' my wife Ann's 44th Wedding Aniversary present from me for putting up with an artist, in every sense of the word, for over four decades!

The Duchess is around 14 years old now and was dumped in the car park opposite my Studio, we never really wanted a cat because we had lots of rescue birds that lived free in our back garden so we called her Rover and pretended she was a dog!! We needn't have worried as she is so laid back that chasing birds would be far too stressfull, she does meow at them occasionally though when she's feeling energetic.

Scamp came to us from a friend who was a RSPCA warden at the time. Scamp had already lived in two unsuitable homes when he came to us aged around 4, he is now 12 but still acts like a pup. Him and the cat are great pals and often sit together as portrayed here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just back from the photographers

My Latest Bird Painting

Winter Visitor ~ Redwing

A study of a visiting redwing to our garden this winter. It came for several days during the bad weather and always perched on this silver birch post at the end of our beech hedge.