Farne Islands

I finally looked back my sketchbook from my Northumberland trip and scanned the images in!



電車とバスを乗り継いで、ファーン島へ渡る船が出るSeahousesへ。港のベンチに座っているとホシムクドリが食べ物をねだってやってくる。



Eiders at the harbour in Seahouses. ホンケワタガモがいっぱい。

そして翌日、風が強く、沖にあるStaple島は周りを回っただけだったが、Inner Farneへは上陸できた。ナショナル・トラストにより管理されており、Staple島は午前中のみ、Inner Farneは午後のみと、一般の人が上陸できる時間が制限されている。



We were welcomed by the arctic terns' attack, of course!  Each nest had a numbered stone nearby for research purpose.  





ニシツノメドリ。個人的には、太平洋側のツノメドリよりよっぽどかわいいと思う。目があまりツノメになっていず、丸く大きく見える。
Farne Islands are the place for puffins.  So I did lots of their sketches. But because of its unique bill shape, it took me a long time to get the hang of how to draw them. And since we could only spend two and a half hours on the island, it was rather difficult.



Shags were nesting there, too.  (ヨーロッパヒメウ)



I was sitting and drawing this shag on the nest and got lots of birds' dropping on me!

Rock Pool Study

On the last day on the Seabird Drawing course, I went to tranquil Tyningham Bay. I was thinking of how to continue sketching and painting in the field back in Japan, where I have nothing like the seabird colonies that allow me to sit in front of almost steady birds and paint.



I wasn't very successful with that mission.  I did some scrabbles of eider families and curlews and cormorants in the distance as well as a landscape painting.  



But I was also tempted by the idea of rock pool study.  I head that John Busy loved Tyningham and its rock pools. 
I found a green crab, which seemed to be a shore crab. There were many periwinkles.    



The last evening, we had a temporary exhibition of the best works from the week.



It was just amazing to see what everyone achieved during the week.



Thank you so much, Darren, Greg, John and Kittie for helpful tutorials, Mark,  Chris and Duck Hotel for organising the course brilliantly, all the amazing participants for inspirations and last but not least John Busby for creating such a wonderful course.

On the Cliff

St. Abbs Head is a beautiful, colourful place.



And I think I was a bit destructed by its too many colours on the painting above.



So back to limited colour palette...



I felt that there were fewer guillemots this year on the cliff.  But it seemed to be because youngs had already fledged and they were out on the sea.  I spotted several chicks, very cute ones!  



There was a kestrel's nest with four healthy youngsters, too.  It was really interesting to watch them.  When a parent brought food, some sort of a mouse or a young tit, chicks fought each other to get it.  Then one who manages to grab it tends to move away and eat it with its back to others, hiding the food with its wings.



Fulmar.

Go Bass Rocking

The most special day during the special week was when we went on the Bass Rock, the island of thousands of gannets!  



I like puffin but my favorite is still gannet even though one pecked me as I climbed up to the chapel through their nests.  I walked too close to one nest.  It was my fault.  The chicks were already big white fluffs but they all looked tired in burning sunshine.  It was a very hot day and I got sunburn, too.  



When you are in a special place and you want to make most of it, it is difficult to try new things because you are afraid of making mistakes and having nothing to bring back.   
But I am happy that I tried this piece and it somewhat worked.  I painted the shadow first and drew gannets on top.  



One discussion made me think a lot during the course was that we are all on our artistic journey and in order to get somewhere we need to keep learning and experimenting and discovering.  We don't always have to make a good final piece when drawing/painting.  Bad sketch or painting as a result of trial or learning process is sometimes more important than a good one that is the same kind as you make before.
And having whole day sketching allows us to do a little bit of mess.  
I don't think I achieved much during the course in that respect, though. But the thoughts are in me and I can try from now on.

Parliament of Puffins

The second day on the Seabird Drawing Course, I went on to Fidra, a RSPB's island on the Firth of Forth and I spent all my time watching puffins.



I found it very important for good sketches to spend enough time at one place. It is only after I take all in, what the birds are doing, how they move, the environment, the weather etc when I can finally start sketching something nice.







With two sand eel, one facing this way and the other opposite.



The right one had a sprat on its mouth.

On the 4th of July, after the drawing course, I visited the Island of May, too, thanks to my friend.
The sea was really choppy for crossing but it was worth while visiting that day because it turned out to be a bright evening.  



The sun was shining toward us so I tried to capture the light and the shadow, rather than the outline of the birds. I wished I had enough time to pull out my paint box.  

 

Seabird Drawing Course 2015

I am sorry for being very quite here but I just came back to Japan with wonderful memories of three and a half months in Britain.
The best of all, if I must pick one, was the Seabird Drawing Course.  It was my third time to join it but it was as special, if not more, as before.



We were welcomed by this sign board made by Darren Woodhead at Duck hotel, Aberlady!  

This amazing week-long course in sketching seabirds in the field, based at East Lothian, was originally founded by John Busby in 1988.   Very sadly, he had passed away a few weeks before this year's course started and it had to be run without him.  But many people who have been tutoring or joining the course from the very early years said that the atmosphere and the sprit of the course haven't changed at all over the years.  And it was as great as the two years I joined in 2012 and 2013.
I was also glad to hear that John Busby's Seabird Drawing Course will continue running next year and after.      



The first day at Dunbar as usual and we were caught in a shower as usual.  But it was the only time we had spots of rain while drawing this year.  



Sketches in charcoal pencil.



First day, we all struggle.  Everyone tries to work in their comfort zone.  But what is great about this course is we have a week to loose up and try new things.  



Kittiwakes are nesting at these ruin of Dunbar castle. What a location to pick ones home!



Darren's talk on what we should think when we draw birds after dinner.

Reduction Lino puffins

I know that this week was one of the last few free days in Cambridge for me but I decided to go antisocial and stay at my room to work. All the artists have this phase, I suppose. And this is what I came up with!



Puffins from Farne Islands in reduction linocut. Limited edition of 10!

　

版を彫って刷ったあと、同じ版を彫り進めて別の色で刷る方法だ。どこかで間違えたらそれまで。そのスリルもまたおもしろい。
Reduction linocut really requires you to plan ahead about layers and colours but once you start it, no going back.

Bumblebee

Yesterday, my landlady came into my room and handed me this poor bumblebee dead on the driveway. "I thought you might like it," she said.
She knows me too well!   And I feel very lucky to be living here. You could easily be kicked out of a house when found to have strange collections like insects and feathers and a skull of a vole (which I cleaned using a drop of her bleach).



Buff-tailed bumblebee.（セイヨウオオマルハナバチ）

Northumberland Coast

I went up to Northumberland for a few days, seeking for more seabirds!  
The main purpose of the trip was to visit the Farne Islands and we did go on the Inner Farne in spite of the extreme wind condition we had up there.  One day, it was 40 mph and, of course, the boat didn't run that day.  



While waiting for the boat time, I sketched Bamourgh Castle from the sand dune north of Seahouses. Oilseed rapes were still in bloom up in north.



ニシツノメドリが繁殖するファーン島に渡る船が出るSeahousesは電車が通っていないので、Alnmouthまで電車で行き、そこからバスに乗り換えた。帰りの電車の時刻まで、Alnmouthの町をぶらつき、エスチュアリをスケッチ。

I did a lot of sketches of puffins, eiders and arctic terns but I accidentally send the sketchbook back to Japan.  Very stupid of me!  So you have to wait for a few more weeks before I put them up here.

Field of buttercups

Sit in a field of buttercups and enjoy the moment is one of the best things to do at this time of the year in Britain.  



ケンブリッジの街の中心から数十分歩いたところにあるグランチェスター・メドウ。カム川沿いに、この牧草地をのんびり突っ切っていくと、グランチェスターの村に出る。村とはいっても、パブとお茶ができる果樹園「オーチャード」があるだけ。とくに目玉となるアトラクションは何もないけれど、ぶらぶら歩いて、牛やコブハクチョウやマガモを眺めて、お茶をして帰ってくるのがイギリスの休日だ。
Whenever I have a visiter in Cambridge, I always take him or her to Grantchester.  The walk can really tell you what I love about England.  

 And this time, I finally visited Hampstead Heath, too.  I had been wanting to visit there because of the paintings by Constable, Turner and other famous painters.  A Japanese writer, Soseki Natsume, is said to have often walked in the park when he was in London in early 20th century.  



I could see the top of the Gherkin from there.

While I was in London, I visited the Ravilious exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery with my friends. It was really inspiring!  The show was mostly about his watercolour works.  But I though I could tell that he was sort of thinking in a printmaker's way.  He applies colours as layers.  And the use of hatching in watercolour really makes his works unique.  I secretly tried watercolour hatching in the sketch above...I need to practice a lot to get neat parallel lines.