Friday, May 2, 2008

Oystercatchers

Finally my stylised pen and ink rendering of oystercatchers in the estuary.


This is my oystercatcher wool needlepoint which I am quite proud of. It took an extremely long time to complete and has lots of shades of blue and green.


This is part of my original oystercatcher drawing. It has a striped border which isn't shown here.



My sketch and my present unfinished painting. Not too sure about it now that I have seen it again.

I think I may have mentioned before that I love birds and I love drawing and painting them, probably more than anything else except trees and leaves....oh and not forgetting angels of course.


Oystercatchers are some of my favourites because they are very pretty with their black and white plumage and orange legs and beaks. I have watched them in real life, if a good distance away, poking and prodding on the beach for cockles and mussels but probably not a lot of oysters. They are all being eaten in the posh restaurants.


I have drawn and painted and crafted a number of oystercatchers over the years and I never tire of them. I am in the process of painting another oystercatcher picture at the moment. It is still in the "not quite sure what to do with it" stage but I am hoping to have a bolt of inspiration sometime soon. The picture above is my sketch and the actual original which is incomplete. The oystercatchers are easy as I just copied them from another picture that I did four years ago but the background is stumping me a little. I have got as far as a few wavy lines so far.


I also produced a pen and ink stylised drawing of oystercatchers in the estuary some years ago which I really like. I love stylised work, almost more than completely naturalistic.


The other oystercatcher artwork I have included is a three panel wool needlepoint which took me forever to finish. It shows three different pictures of oystercatchers and if you look closely you will see my present oystercatchers reversed. When I create a nice image I often use it many time with different backgrounds and in different media. It is a bit like ringing the changes with the same outfit with different accessories. If you do it cleverly enough sometimes people don't even realise it is the same outfit.....!!! Hope you enjoy the artwork anyway.

8 comments:

Old World Primitives said...

I love watching shorebirds too! Your pen and ink rendering of the oystercatchers is my favorite, I really like the style.

Unknown said...

Beautiful work.

Azure Accessories said...

Thanks for stopping by...your etchings are wonderful!!!

Cathy said...

Thanks for that Stephanie. There is something about shorebirds particularly that is very attractive. Along with puffins and penguins they are very "drawable".

Thank you Amy. Glad you like it.

Cathy said...

Thank you Azure Islands. Your blog is really lovely and very inspirational.

Anonymous said...

I love that pen and ink drawing the best. I'm really attracted to strong graphic work like this. Wonderful piece.

Cathy said...

Thanks Mellanie. I love bold graphic work too. I love the look of linocuts which I am always trying to get around to doing. In fact I may just do that this week.

Bridget Farmer said...

hi there. hooray for oyster cathers eh! I've always loved them and when i moved here to australia i met a new type called a sooty oyster catcher, they are all black with red legs and beak.

I'm very into birds these days too, and always drawing them! It's always good to find another bird lover.
bridget