Tuesday 12 August 2008

A beginning

Hello, I'm Mike Woodcock, a wildlife artist from Kent in the UK, welcome to the Scolopax chronicles.

For some time I've been toying with the idea of starting a blog as a way of recording and sharing some of my experiences as an artist and I guess it's obvious if you're reading this that I've made a beginning
! I'll be posting some of my sketches and finished works along with updates on my time 'in the field'.

Next week I'm off on my hols to Norfolk for a week. I'll be staying with my family and some close friends on a 700 acre organic farm in a charming little cottage which has been our holiday destination for the past four years. The farm is criss-crossed with paths and bridleways and it has ponds and woodlands which are home to plentiful wildlife. It's like wildlife artist's heaven to have a virtually private 700 acre nature reserve to wander around and get to know for a whole week. One of the greatest joys of the week is being able to watch the resident barn owls and kingfishers and these two species alone give me enough inspiration for a whole year. When I return I will hopefully have a sketchbook stuffed with ideas and observations to share.

For now I'll just have to make do with a couple of pages from last year's holiday and a finished painting that developed from them. The weather, for my week away last year, was awful and this barn owl was constantly fighting the elements to keep herself and her young supplied with food. Here's hoping for better weather this year...






5 comments:

timwootton said...

Great start Mike - have a fine holiday and look forward to the results!

Mike Woodcock said...

Thanks Tim, not sure how it'll all go yet but time will tell.

Jo said...

Sure is a great start Mike. It is a good idea to leave comments on each other's pages, it starts good conversations going.

Anonymous said...

coool !
at last we can tell you we like your drawings !!

so cool to talk with someone picturing about animals for once !

Mike Woodcock said...

Hi Gynie, thanks for dropping in and taking the time to read the blog, and thanks for the encouragement.