Inspired Naturally – Kate MacAndrew, artist and school workshop leader based in Derbyshire

 It’s been a good day today. I have managed to dedicate most of my time to painting. After completing my eagle owl I wanted to finish my Fudge portrait before starting something new. I have enjoyed getting back into it and am making progress. 

Have a great weekend everybody!

It’s been a while since I updated you on my Eagle Owl painting….

It’s finished! Here is a step by step of its progression:

 I’m amazed how quickly I’ve managed to finish it – I tried to be strict with myself and plan ‘painting time’ to ensure it got done. I have to admit I didn’t really need to force myself to paint, I have enjoyed every minute of painting this chap.

As this post’s title suggests I am off to Yorkshire for a long weekend – hopefully the weather will be fine *crosses fingers* I thought I’d leave you with some links for you to browse if you get chance over the weekend:

• If I had a girl I would definitely get her this (in fact, I think I might be able to get away with having one myself!) 
• My blogger friend Kate is having a special birthday giveaway here
• My very talented website designer is having a HUGE giveaway here
• I am planning to try this receipe very soon
• I have been meaning to give this a go myself – hopefully one day soon I will make the time to do it!
• Finally, this ’how to’ is just fantastic!

Hello, I hope everybody had a great weekend – mine involved entertaining 40+ guests in our home/garden for my OH’s Mum’s birthday. It was very enjoyable but tiring! Despite having lots to do over the weekend, I managed to get some more of my eagle owl painting done:

As you can see I’ve toned down the circles in the background and continued to build up the detail on the owl’s front. The next step is to continue this to the right of the owl, until the whole bird has lots of texture.

Whilst enjoying a great family and friends weekend I noticed that my large poppies had FINALLY decided to start opening! I have lots of them dotted around and they have been reluctant to open until this last Saturday…

Beautiful aren’t they? I’m hoping to be able to use some of these photos in some future artwork

Have you had any nice surprises in your garden recently?

Here is another painting update – the changes are more subtle now but you can just see where Ive added detail to the right side of the owl. I’m also beginning to add more of the darker brown areas before I can go in lighter.

Hi everybody, today I thought I’d share with you the progress of my eagle owl painting. I have to admit I am loving getting stuck into painting the feathers! I also had to start the eyes though – I hate having them looking empty!

I thought I’d give you a quick sneak preview of my owl painting – just beginning to get colour in the background. Will post more detail soon, happy Thursday

I am pleased to announce I have finished the painted background of Bunty and I am really pleased with how it’s turned out. I have been wanting to start a new painting for a while and had a couple of photos in mind as potential studies. I finally settled on this eagle owl image, taken by my OH on our trip to Scotland last year.

I am working bigger this time, on an A3 piece of watercolour paper as apposed to A4 like Bunty is painted on. I’m looking forward to working on a larger scale because I really want to have fun with painting the feathers!

Hi everybody, I’m writing this post from my garden as I try to soak up as many rays as possible – the sun has been out most of the day and this is the first chance I’ve been able to enjoy it!

I thought I’d firstly share with you a couple of etsy treasuries I have been features in:

My Butterfly on Clematis print was included in a collection of flower images by the lovely Clare Loveday

and my Spider cushion cover was included in a collection of spider themed items by Jennifer Smith

I have also been sent an image advertising the Summer Food & Gift Fair, the next big event I will be exhibiting at. It is being held at the stunning Roundhouse in Derby after the Christmas fair there was so well received. If you are in the Derbyshire area I would highly recommend a visit.

I am also nearing the completion of my chicken painting – i have added more depth to the straw ans have begun work on the background. I am basing the background on a photograph I took of some forget-me-nots with a hazy green/brown background. I have started laying down the darker colours before I start lightening it up.

and finally, I was over the moon when I had the chance to purchase something from Kelly Clark aka Umber Dove – she has the most wonderful blog and I don’t normally get across to her etsy shop in time to be able to buy something. This time I did and this beautiful painted pebble will be arriving with me very soon

This photo was taken by Kelly for her Etsy shop listing

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everybody x

I thought I’d share with you an update of the 2 paintings I’m working on:

Here’s ‘Fudge’ – As the picture shows, I have now begun adding layers of paint onto his tummy. I have started really dark and am now slowly building up lighter. This will give  me the depth and detail I’m looking for.

And here’s ‘Bunty’ – progress on her is a little slower and not as obvious. I am working on adding the sheen to some of her feathers before adding washes of colour to bring it all together. I’m looking forward to starting the straw she is laying on!

Today I thought I’d share with you a few chicken updates!

This week I have been lucky to find 4 eggs waiting for me from my girls (previously never had more than 3 in any one day) This was perfect timing for pancake day on Tuesday and I have to say they tasted especially delicious!

I have also managed to do a little more painting on my Bunty image – really enjoying seeing the different layers coming together. I still need to decide what will be going in the background but for now I think I’ll just continue concentrating on getting the chicken just right.

In other news, I am off to Paris on Monday *squeal of excitement!* so I will be without my computer for 5 days but will aim to at least upload some photos on Twitter if I can! I will look forward to updating here with all the events and photos from my trip!

I better start thinking about packing!