PLEIN AIR & OBSERVATIONAL ART
RAIN OR SHINE, DAY OR NIGHT - I'LL BE THERE SKETCHING
● Sketching outdoors in front of my subject is a special and irreplaceable experience essential to my practice. It allows me to quickly and freely capture the essence of the subject and study it as closely as possible to get better at depicting it realistically.
● Much in the spirit of the Old Masters I then use some sketches to inspire large studio artworks.
Others are simply results of an irresistible urge to document a certain inspirational, memorable subject and the way it made life more interesting.
SWLA JOHN BUSBY SEABIRD DRAWING COURSE 2025
● I won the Greg Poole Seabird Drawing bursary to attend the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) John Busby Seabird Drawing course and spent a week sketching various seabird colonies in Scotland in a group of wildlife artists.
● To build upon last year's experiences I worked on refining my sketches and capturing compositions with multiple birds and their interactions, focusing more on their fascinating behaviour, seascapes and colour beyond form and anatomy. It was a fantastic, unforgettable experience that took my skills and creativity to the next level. Thanks to my talented tutors' and peer feedback I have improved my confidence in outdoor sketching and experimented with watercolour further, trying gesso-primed paper and improving my use of colour.
● It was great to visit new places this time, most notably the amazing, one and only Bass Rock. Immersed in a colony of thousands of gannets, drawing and painting them with no need for a telescope or binoculars was a new experience like no other for me and a memory to last a lifetime. It was a transformative adventure that left me full of wonder and buzzing with ideas for new work and a desire to keep progressing my plein air skills further
'Gannets of Bass Rock' - watercolour on gesso-primed paper, 42cm x 30cm, 2025
'In the Sunshine of Her Love' - watercolour on paper, 42cm x 30cm, 2025
'On Top of the World' - watercolour on paper, 42cm x 30cm, 2025
'A Fine Balance' - watercolour on paper, 42cm x 30cm, 2025
Watercolour sketches of kittiwakes, razorbill below, and pencil sketches of gannets, guillemots, razorbills and other seabirds
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SWLA JOHN BUSBY SEABIRD DRAWING COURSE 2025
Group exhibition at the end of the course
SWLA JOHN BUSBY SEABIRD DRAWING COURSE 2024
● I was selected to take part in the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) John Busby Seabird Drawing course and spent a week sketching various seabird colonies in Scotland in a group of wildlife artists.
● It was an incredible, unforgettable experience which has taught me so much. Thanks to my talented tutors and peer feedback I have grown more confident than ever in outdoor sketching and experimented with new media, most notably watercolour.
Observing the seabirds and other wildlife, such as bottlenose dolphins and minke whales, was magical and left me buzzing with ideas for new work and a desire to develop my new plein air skills further
SWLA JOHN BUSBY SEABIRD DRAWING COURSE 2024
Group exhibition at the end of the course
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