Curlews and Larks

I'm very happy to have seen my first Curlews and Larks of 2012 up on High Brown Knoll on Sunday.  Both species were being very active and vocal in the spring sunshine, no doubt pairing up and scouting for nesting sites.

The blue sky and sparkling light also highlighted a favourite aspect of the tops for me - the tiny pools that form amongst the rushes - so peaceful and remotely beautiful.

28 sculptural drawings

My complete collection of 28 Drawings Later, arranged on the plan chest in a somewhat random manner, showing the hastily built temporary white walls created as a kind of booth for taking photos of the artwork - all held together by bits of string, bulldog clips and insulation tape.

A book by Jane Hyslop

The Leeds book fair was up to the usual standard and I enjoyed a good wander round the tables stopping to chat to artists and handle books that took my fancy.  There's almost too much to look at so I always seem to do an initial trawl and then go back to about 8 tables for a thorough view.

I bought a small book by Scottish artist Jane Hyslop.  I've seen her work on-line at her website whilst idly Googling and liked what I saw so it was good to find something I could afford and take home with me.
This ones called Edinburgh a visual handbook - I love the colours, the drawing style and the way every things put together.

15th International Artists' Book Fair at Leeds

Tomorrow I'm off to see the Artists' Book Fair at Parkinson Court, University of Leeds.  Its on for 2 days and I prefer the Friday when its less hectic.  If you like Artists' Books then this is not to be missed as there's always loads of lovely, inspirational work to see and books to handle.

I've 'borrowed' this photo by Paul Laidler from the website of Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research UWE  http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/about.htm, its from the 2010 Fair where the exhibits extend beyond the circular reception desk and into the distance.  Admission is free by the way.

28 Drawings Later - The Fourth and Final Week

Here's the drawings for the final week of the challenge.   It was even harder than the third week, trying to do something different each day. My normal way of working is quite slow with a lot of thinking and playing around with an idea so it was exhausting keeping up the pace.

I decided to allow colour in, for a change and one day I also had to break my self set 3D rule as I could only manage a flat drawing.  The final drawing is a reiteration of the 26th with Photoshop additions, using masks and adjustment layers that take me a long time to do skilfully.  A sunset over water has to be one of the all time landscape art cliches, but you do see an awful lot of them round where I live and hopefully the diorama element gives it a different slant.