Down at the river

It has been a very busy few days.... so much to do. I've been catching up on framing, mount cutting and card making. This week I've got a hand-in and hang for an exhibition, a meeting about a possible pop up gallery (more on this later, it's very exciting), a submission for an exhibition, and also an art fair at the weekend. Funny how deadlines all come at once and it is nice to be busy. Although the art work is done it's all the little bits that still need to be sorted and this is taking soooo much time which has left no time for painting.

I did take a couple of hours off for a lovely walk down at the river and guess what I saw.....a kingfisher!

I was so excited, I'd never seen one before. I thought at first it was a dragonfly that I'd seen out of the corner of my eye, it's colouring was amazingly vibrant. He was darting about so fast and only stopped for a minute or two where I tried to photograph him but being that he was so small and I was quite far away this was the best photo I got. I watched him/her for about twenty minutes and on the way home I had the biggest dopiest grin on my face. Magic!

I've started to try and learn the vocabulary of the river, it's a whole new terrain for me with very distinctive characteristics. The reflections and the way the light catches the river surface seems very different from the sea. So far only a few small sketches but I'm very excited about learning this new language. I think this will be a new series, same subject - the effects of light - but on new (for me) surfaces of river and foliage.