Life in general

Snow drops in Dymock woods

Willow at work with Barney the labrador

Well I have neglected my blog, my artwork and my website lately but I'm afraid life in general has gotten in the way. It's breeding time for all of the fowls and we have been busy moving them about to ensure pure breeds and it#s a job which still isn't finished. We've had to lay all the nest boxes with straw and pair up all the loose birds so that we can produce as many eggs as possible.

We've also sourced another 50 odd rescue chickens, we will be collecting these early next month from the same farm as last year as the ones we have had for the past year are laying like it's going out of fashion!

I've also been doing lots of dog training with Willow. She is quite well behaved but is a little wary of strangers and does become a little aloof when they approach. She is a bundle of fun with people she knows well but is almost anti social when strangers try to pet her. So far we've had great success with stopping her barking at passers by our gate and walkers in the wood and she will just sit and let them pass although she does grump under her breath a little, in contrast to a few weeks ago when she would race up to them barking this is an amazing step forward hopefully we will also sort the fact that strangers are also good to give a cuddle too!

I've also replanted both of my mammoth fish tanks, this does cause me immense problems as they are both so deep I have to put my entire arm in up to my shoulder to reach the bottom so I got a bit wet and wrinkly aquascaping!

I've received a few commissions now and will be cracking the whip with these soon and I need to figure out the best course of action now blogger will not allow ftp publishing after May. It took some head scratching and mind boggling for me to figure out how to set up my blog on my website but now they are taking this feature away (why offer it in the first place then?) so I need to decide between going back to a blogspot address or learning wordpress. I'm very annoyed with blogger so I should go to wordpress and make a stand but with a full time job plus a small holding and part time art work to contend with I'm just not sure I will have the time. Once I make my descision I'll post it so everyone will know where I disappear to!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.
Thank you for visiting!

Snow Leopard Wildlife Art

Just a quick update. I think I shall be putting this one aside for a while as I have a few commissions I need to get done so say goodbye to this snow leopard for a while!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Snow Leopard Wildlife Art

Currently I'm still waiting for a cat photo of Lucky but in the meantime Bramble has appeared on my 'to do' list (top right column) plus I've also done a bit of 'me art' in the form of the snow leopard shown above.

The leg looks stightly out of kilter but the leopard is climbing upwards and hopefully when I complete more of the painting it will begin to make sense!!!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Snow, ice and cold weather!

Yet more snow, in a few hours we were snowed in and cut off from the world again...hooray!

As you can see the dogs still want to be outside playing and luckily for Willow, her thick coat means she is totally ignorant to how cold snow actually is!

Zac on the other hand prefers to stay a little dryer, but he's such a pretty boy, it would be a shame if he got too messy!

What a poser he is!

And then he investigates the igloos made by the bamboo bent over with snow, he found a network of these tunnels, we do have quite a few bamboo areas, I really think it's more like a plantation and he had hours of fun mooching about underneath them all!

And just a bit of info, this is the bottom of our garden, we are one step away from the wood, if you follow the little path down it leads to places such as Dancing Green, Kettle Bottom, Hoovers Lane, Watery Lane and Hope Mansell to name but a few of the quirky places we live near!

I've sorted out a new piece of wildlife art to start but I'm holding out for the cat photos to arrive before I get stuck in!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Dog Portraits, Ruby the black labrador

Well I think I'm almost finished, there are probably a few things I will rework and a few minor adjustments to make, just little things that only I will know have been done. I'll stare at it for a day or so and make the little amendments and then resist the temptation to do too much.

The weather has taken a turn for the worse, on Thursday we suffered yet another 'snowstorm' and our lane was impassable but then an artic lorry was directed towards us (ever so slightly off course) and it jack-knifed in the snow blocking any access whatsoever. My other half always wants a sat nav and we do travel about quite a bit, but I'm pretty good at map reading and have to drive because of travel sickness but we always get there in the end. I think sat navs are not very helpful around the local areas as most are narrow lanes meaning every week some little lane is blocked by too large a vehicle!

Anyway, I'm sure you've all noticed the changes to my blog and website but I had a mad moment and decided it had to be done, hopefully this will be my last major overhaul for quite some time but I'm sure I'll add bits and pieces as time goes by just to keep things fresh. 

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!