Owl in Watercolour

Watercolour

 

 

 I painted this little owl to celebrate the birthday of a special friend who shares my love of birds, particularly owls. 

Every May, as part of the medieval festival in Castiglion Fiorentino, there is a brilliant opportunity to get up close to these beautiful birds of prey.

The Usual Suspects

 This year for once I had my Nikon and my sketchbook.

Talk about a patient model!

So my watercolour for Felicity was made from my sketches and photographs. 

Sketches in Spain

Watercolour postcard - Alcazaba, Alhambra

In September we were very fortunate to have three days in Granada, Spain with dear friends from Sydney. I took the opportunity to climb up on to the roof of their holiday house to paint a postcard for Alison S, who was next on my list in the A Postcard from My Walk exchange.

Granada is a stunning little city blessed with beautiful scenery, wonderful weather, great food and the fantastic historical Alhambra palaces. Of course three days and only one visit to the Alhambra was not nearly enough! Anyone planning a trip to Granada, make sure you book tickets for the Alhambra well ahead of your visit. We only scraped in at 7pm on our last day.

The city has the best bus system in the world. Sydney take note. See the M.C. Escher Sky & Water print on the back of the bus. He was inspired by the fantastic Moorish art of the Alhambra, particularly the patterns of tiles. I almost wept when I saw how much there was to see and how impossible, in the time available, to absorb even a fraction of it.

I didn't attempt any sketches of the Alhambra apart from the postcard for Alison but I know it will be a powerful influence on my future paintings and prints.

Meantime I did manage another couple of quick sketches.