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

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!

Hello everybody, I hope you all had a good Easter and enjoyed another long weekend! Aside from pottering around in my garden, watching the Royal Wedding (which I loved) and enjoying a friend’s BBQ I have begun painting the straw on my chicken painting. I’m pleased with how the painting is developing and thought it would be interesting for you to see my progress from the beginning.

I am also finalising my catalogue which will be available to both the public and for buyers wanting to buy trade. The catalogue will have my complete collection of mounted prints, cards, badges, cushions etc – I am just waiting for the delivery of 2 new badge designs which I need to photograph before it can be sent to the printers. If you would like a catalogue please get in touch and I’ll send one out to you when they arrive.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

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!

Hi everybody. I’ve been quiet over the last week because I’ve had a very nasty sickness bug. I’m still battling feeling nauseous but have managed to take some photos of my new wren badges that arrived yesterday. These are now available in my online shops here and here.

I also thought it would be interesting to show you the development of my painting of Bunty:

I’m new to painting chickens so I’m just enjoying experimenting. I have yet to start the details on the feathers in the middle and at the back. Once the detail is in I’ll start layering washes over them to tone them down and make them look softer. I’ve also blocked in where the straw will be. This is really only the beginning, there is so much more detail to add before I can start adding washes, highlights etc. It’s all good fun though!

Have a great weekend!

Using the above photo of Bunty for reference I have started a new painting! I have never painted a chicken before so it’s a challenge but I’m enjoying it. I thought I’d drop in and show you a few photos taken with my iPhone (using instagram) of my progress:

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

You may remember my posts about the progress of my painting of Smudge, my cat I sadly lost at the end of 2009. Well, since then I have wanted to paint his brother, Fudge who still lives with my parents. I have recently chosen a photograph with a great composition, complimenting the angle I painted of Smudge. I hope to hang the paintings up together so I decided to change this photographs background to a darker colour in my painting. Here’s my progress so far after about 4 hours of painting:

As you can see, the ginger colour is in its very early stages – it will take lots of layers to get it to the right colour and with enough texture! It feels great getting back into painting for myself. I will keep you updated as I progress with it.

iven the fact I have been crazy busy with getting all the info for this blogsite done and trying to keep on top of my ever-growing to-do-list I haven’t updated my painting progress in a while. Having said that, now it’s all about the little details, adding small amounts of texture where it’s needed. This update doesn’t look too different from the last one – these little bits of texture don’t stand out as much as the initial parts of the image. The eye is the bit I’m most looking forward to and I’ve decided to leave it until the very end!

The beautifully designed letter ‘G’ I have used to begin my post is from this site – a great link from Jo’s newsletter  at The Darling Tree.

In other news, I’m reaching the end of a very long program of training for the London Moonwalk on 15th May, raising money for Breast Cancer. Click here to find out more about this fantastic event and here if you’d like to sponsor me! The event begins at midnight and 15,000 people will be walking the 26.2 miles to raise as much money for breast cancer as they can. Last weekend a group of friends and myself who are completing this together walked 14 miles and this weekend is our 16 mile walk – so far we have managed these distances without too many injuries! I received my event number, t-shirt, cap and bra (which we have to decorate for the event) yesterday – it’s all becoming very real now and I’m very excited!