Acrylics Archives - Alison Nicholls

Category Archives: Acrylics

When in doubt, choose change.

You know that feeling when you find an artist whose work you love, and then they start changing direction, and you’re not so enthralled by the new work? You wish they’d just carry on creating the work you loved. But if an artist never changes, then they have either stopped learning and experimenting, or they’ve stopped caring – and either way their art will eventually stagnate.

Older artworks in pastel and on yupo paper.

I’ve been painting African subject matter for almost 20 years now, and here are some of the changes I’ve made during that time.

I began, as many artists do, by creating realistic studio art, including both animals and landscapes in watercolor.
In the studio, landscapes gradually disappeared from my work and instead my animal subjects became immersed in watercolor washes.
I became bolder with my color choices (I went a bit over-board with color on occasions if I’m honest).
My experiments with color turned me towards pastel, and I spent a couple of years working in both pastel and watercolor. Eventually I decided to focus on just one medium, and of course I chose watercolor.
I started drawing animals from life in pencil, adding watercolor washes afterwards.
I made a conscious effort to loosen up as I began to understand animal anatomy.
In the studio I started using my sketches as the ideas behind my paintings.
I began limiting my color palette to 3 or 4 colors in each painting.
I started a series of conservation-themed paintings.

Recent field watercolor and older lion demonstration drawing.

I started sketching and painting people – a scary prospect but one I now thoroughly enjoy.
I investigated new painting surfaces and mediums. For a couple of years I painted only on watercolor canvas in fluid acrylics.
I spent more time sketching & painting from life in Africa and started using pen for my drawings, with watercolor washes on top.
Back in the studio I tried to replicate the life drawing I loved by creating daily sketches, lasting 10 minutes each. These were often a mix of pen and watercolor on yupo paper.
I found a stack of heavier watercolor paper and realized I’d forgotten how much fun it was to paint on a heavier paper, so I threw myself back into stretching watercolor paper and using watercolor paints.
I started painting watercolor landscapes again, sometimes including wildlife and sometimes pure landscape.

Until I wrote this, I had no idea I had made so many changes over the years. I feel like I learn something, forget it and rediscover it again a few years later. I’ve come full circle. When in doubt, definitely choose change!

Conservation themed art and a recent giraffe watercolor.

Let me know how your art has changed or, if you are not an artist, how your taste for art has changed.
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

“When in doubt, choose change” is a quote by Hong Kong actress Lily Leung.

What Do You See?

Turning the painting around to view all angles.

‘What do you see’ is the question I ask myself when I’ve painted watercolor washes but haven’t decided what the subject of my painting will be.

Why would I want to start a painting without knowing what the subject is?
Some days I need to just get in the studio and paint, without spending hours planning my painting. I’m a great planner and love to have everything under control, but too much planning also saps my energy. Some days I know I’ll be more productive if I just start mixing color and laying down washes. So that’s what I do.

Once the washes are dry, I start asking myself ‘what do you see’. I turn the painting around, looking at it from all 4 sides, until something jumps out at me. In this case, what jumped out at me was the possibility of the left-hand side of the painting becoming a huge tree trunk. But that may change. We will see!
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Very Peri Painting

2002 will be the year of Very Peri paintings (and Very Peri everything else) because Pantone chose Very Peri as it’s 2022 color of the year.

Pantone’s 2022 Color of the Year – Very Peri

As you can see, I’ve been painting with this, and similar hues for a long time – knowing that the day would come when my paintings would be fashionable!
And now that day has come…
How shall I celebrate?
Perhaps with even more Very Peri paintings!

Leaoprd in Magenta, painting by Alison Nicholls

Leopard in Magenta, acrylic on canvas 20×16″ by Alison Nicholls. Sold

Okavango Palms, watercolor 20×16″ by Alison Nicholls. Sold.

Lone Wolf by Alison Nicholls

Have a Very Peri 2022!
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Every Camp comes with a Hornbill

It seems that every camp comes with a hornbill in African reserves. You only know you’ve truly settled in when you see one (or more likely several) of these big-beaked birds bouncing around.

Yellow-billed Hornbill by Alison Nicholls

Yellow-billed Hornbill III, ink and watercolor on 6×6″ cradled board. Available on Etsy, $180

They come in different sizes and colors but the 2 you are likely to see in camps in southern Africa are the yellow-billed and red-billed hornbills. They can be difficult to tell apart. OK I’m kidding – these 2 species, unlike many others, have been given sensible, descriptive names!

They both have the same long eyelashes, the same habit of quizzically angling their heads, and the same ability to pick up the tiniest seeds with their over-sized beaks. They also add a lovely soundtrack, a background conversation almost, to hot afternoons in camp.

One final note – they’d both be absolutely terrifying if they were the size of an ostrich!
This artwork is available on Etsy, priced at $180 with free shipping in the US.
More next time.
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Black-backed Jackals

For me, black-backed jackals are synonymous with the Kalahari Desert. Their jaunty trot carries them here and there within their territories as they expertly hunt and scavenge, surviving in one of the toughest places on Earth. Then night falls, and their howls pierce the darkness – a beautiful sound, but sharp and cold as the starlight above.

Black-backed Jackal III, ink and watercolor on acrylic, 5×5″ cradled board

The other image of black-backed jackals that sticks in my head is when jackals converge on an area where lions are feeding on a kill. If there are too many lions and it’s dangerous to try stealing, they wait patiently, curled up under different bushes nearby, until the lion pride moves on. Then they all dash in (along with the sharp-eyed vultures which have also congregated) to grab their share of the meat. They eat nervously, frequently scanning the area in case the lions return. Then, when they’re done, off they trot.
Jauntily, of course!

Young Jackal, ink and watercolor on acrylic, 5×5″ cradled board

Both these artworks can be purchased from my Etsy store, and I’ll donate 25% of the price to Cheetah Conservation Botswana.
Until next time, stay jaunty!
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Epomophorus – Bat Painting

I recently completed this commissioned painting of Kenyan fruit-eating bats flying at night. They are circling a bunch of figs which is painted in the shape of Africa from the Gall-Peters map. As you might guess, I didn’t have sketches of bats to rely on for my painting, so I asked permission to use photos from Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation then donated 20% of the purchase price to MTBC. The painting was gradually built up with layers of fluid acrylic, and right at the end I added detail to the bats and figs. I wanted to let the moonlight shine through the bats’ wings, so I let the underlying washes show through in the areas closest to the light.

Painting by Alison Nicholls of Epomophorus bats, Kenyan fruit-eating bats.

Epomophorus. Kenyan fruit-eating bats, fluid acrylic on canvas, 16×16″.

During my research for the painting I learned a great deal more about bats and thought I’d share a few points, particularly in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and how bats have been linked to the virus. We have a complicated relationship with bats, having feared and reviled them for years, associated them with horror films and Halloween. However, they are incredibly valuable, particularly for agriculture across the world, both for pollination of crops and for their ability to control insect populations (reducing crop loss & crop disease and the need for pesticide applications). In Texas alone, bats are estimated to save agriculture over a billion dollars annually!

Check out this short video, from MTBC – Bat Fears in Perspective.

Bat colonies can be huge, so for scientists it’s relatively easy to sample massive numbers of bats for diseases. As a result, we know far more about bats and viruses, than we do about viruses and any other creature. When Covid-19 emerged, a link to bats was highlighted and instead of starting a conversation about the dangers of the illegal wildlife trade, it had the unintended consequence of compounding people’s fears of bats as dirty, dangerous and disease-ridden. In some countries entire colonies of these invaluable species’ have been exterminated to ‘prevent’ disease.

The problem, of course, is not bats, or any other species. The real problem is our invasion of every corner of the planet, our relentless exploitation of wild animals, and the confinement of wild (and domesticated) animals in cruel and unsanitary conditions. If we continue on this path we will inevitably face more zoonotic diseases (diseases transmitted to humans from animals) and possible pandemics.

The way to prevent this is not the eradication of bats or any other species, it is a long overdue acknowledgement that wild places and the species which inhabit them are essential for the health of the planet. So make a point of telling your friends, family or neighbors that many bat species are endangered, their presence is a good sign of a healthy environment, and they consume billions & billions of mosquitoes!

Take care
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Three is a Crowd-Pleaser

Following on from my previous posts, Boraro – Painted Dogs and Three Painted Dogs is Not a Crowd, here is Three is a Crowd-Pleaser. I didn’t originally intend to write a series of 3 posts, but after a little research I found that we humans like thinking in patterns and 3 is the lowest number we consider a pattern (if something happens once we think it’s chance, if it happens twice it’s coincidence, but if it happens 3 times we think of it as a pattern). So maybe my series of 3 posts is not an accident afterall. As IQ Doodle School’s post explains, the Rule of Three is part of “how we think, make sense of, and cluster information”. Groups of 3 are common in our language (ready, steady, go), music (choruses often occur 3 times), plays (3-act structure), art (rule of thirds) and film-making (trilogies).

Rule of Thirds grid is useful in art & photography to create interesting compositions.

In art you’ll often come across the Rule of Thirds grid. The idea is to divide your canvas into 9 equal sections and use the lines and intersections to help create a more interesting composition. For example, in landscape paintings you will often see the horizon line one-third or two-thirds of the way up the canvas, rather than half-way. Or, if your painting doesn’t have a horizon line (mine often don’t) then you can use the red dot intersections as guides for where to place items of interest. If you look at my paintings, you’ll see that the animals who are the focus of attention are usually left or right of center and often high up or low down on the canvas (close to the red dot intersections on the grid). After a while this becomes second nature so you don’t even think of the grid when you compose a painting.

Trotting, painted dogs, acrylic by Alison Nicholls

In case you’re not convinced, here are 3 more interesting sets of 3’s:
I often use only three colors in a painting. There are 3 paragraphs in this blog post. And African wild dogs have tri-colored coats!

Stay well
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Boraro – Painted Dogs

Boraro means ‘three’ in Setswana, the main language spoken in Botswana. My painting compositions often contain 3 animals because somehow it just works (more about this in my next post “Three is not a Crowd”).

Boraro, painted dogs by Alison Nicholls

A couple of days after I signed this painting, I decided it wasn’t finished. So I added an extra wash of quinacridone gold over the existing gold stripe at the top and, on a whim while I had the brush full of color in my hand, I added shadows beneath the dogs. Even as I painted, I realized the shadows could also be reflections, as if the dogs are standing on wet sand.
Which do you see – shadows or reflections?

My newsletter readers always get to see my art first and this painting was sold as soon as I put it in my July email newsletter. I am donating 25% of the purchase price to Painted Dog Research Trust in Zimbabwe.

Painted dogs greeting card by Alison Nicholls

Boraro – Painted Dogs – was inspired by the greeting card above. Since the start of the pandemic I’ve been painting greeting cards and sending them out to my newsletter readers and Art Safari guests. I paint several greeting card backgrounds at one time, so each set tends to have its own distinct look. Some have traditional washes as backgrounds, some have zig zag lines, some have circular motifs and some, like this one, start with horizontal lines. After the backgrounds are dry I use watercolor and/or ink to add animals, or occasionally people or trees. The cards have been fun to create and have allowed me to experiment, so you can expect to see more greeting card-inspired paintings in the future!

To receive my newsletters and see all my new art before it appears online, just click here. If you add your mailing address you’ll also receive one of my original watercolor greeting cards.

If you’re already a newsletter reader – Thank You! – but if you’re not sure whether I have your mailing address, you can click the Update Profile link at the end of any of my newsletters to find out. Or you can send me an email and just include your mailing address.

Read the other 2 posts in this series:
Three Painted Dogs is not a Crowd
Three is a Crowd-Pleaser.

Stay well
Alison

Learn more about Painted Dog Research Trust in Zimbabwe.
Visit my website: www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica

May 2020 in Art

Every month I make a short video featuring paintings, sketches, studio shots & snippets from my life. May was still a lockdown month but the pandemic was overshadowed by the callous killing of George Floyd, and when I looked at the dates, I found there were long stretches where I hadn’t recorded anything. Here’s May 2020.

Stay well.
Listen.
Change.
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Support People on Endangered Species Day

We need to support people and wildlife on Endangered Species Day. Everywhere people are suffering physically, financially and mentally from the pandemic and obviously this includes many Africans who work in tourism, wildlife research or conservation.

Endangered Species Day 2020

Much vital conservation work involves people rather than wildlife. Reducing human-wildlife conflict, conducting anti-poaching patrols, or helping rural people find sustainable income-generating opportunities are all conservation activities that help people but also ensure the continued existence of endangered species. Endangered Species Day is May 15, and I hope you will consider helping me support people and wildlife through art.
From May 15 – 22:

~ Every order of my art will include a special free gift, as a thank you from me.

~ Shipping will be free within the US, and half-price to all other destinations.

~ I’ll donate the following amounts to African conservation organizations: 50% from orders of Daily Sketches; 40% from original acrylics on canvas, 25% from limited edition prints; and 30% from original watercolor field sketches.

~ My donations will go to African People & Wildlife (Tanzania), Painted Dog Research Trust (Zimbabwe) and Cheetah Conservation Botswana.

Crash – Rhinos on Endangered Species Day (photo features my painting, Thandi the rhino and Dr Will Fowlds of WFA).

Speaking of endangered species, last month I was able to donate US$2000 to Wilderness Foundation Africa in South Africa, from the sale of Crash – Rhino Poaching in South Africa. I’m delighted when my conservation-themed paintings help fund efforts to conserve species under threat, and South Africa’s rhinos definitely fall into that category. Read more about the painting and rhino poaching here.

Check out my art for Endangered Species Day!

Stay well.
Alison

Painting with 1 Brush

Painting with 1 brush is a great way to learn that every brush, no matter it’s size or shape, can create a variety of unique strokes if you experiment. For a long time I didn’t make much use of my 2 inch-wide flat wash brush, but recently I completed this painting, Elephants Love Oranges, almost entirely with this brush. The width of the brush ensures that I can’t be too detailed, and even rounded shapes like the elephant are made up of lovely, angular brush strokes. It’s great for background washes, excellent for painting thorny vegetation, and wonderful for filling the negative spaces between the branches. After adding a little colored ink on the branches and thorns I decided I was done!

Detail of Elephants Love Oranges, 20×16″ acrylic on canvas by Alison Nicholls

We’re often advised to experiment with color, but experimenting with brushes is equally important. You might even find a brush-stroke that helps define your own unique painting style.
Stay well and keep creating!
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

March 2020 in Art

Here’s my March 2020 Art video. March was the month the Covid-19 pandemic became a reality for those of us in the US. I tried to continue as normal but this month definitely felt disjointed and I felt distracted. Take a look.

Stay healthy, stay positive, stay put!
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Streaming from my Studio Every Wednesday

Yes, I’m streaming from my studio live every Wednesday at 2pm EST (7pm UK time).
If you’d like a look behind the scenes; a view of what’s on my easel; a glimpse of my German Shepherd; a peek at my art materials; or a sneak preview of my next painting, join me live on my personal Facebook page.

I’ll be here, come rain or shine, every Wednesday at 2pm EST (7pm UK time).
If you missed the earlier sessions, here they are:
March 25, 2020
April 1, 2020

1 Second Everyday

I discovered 1SE (1 Second Everyday) a couple of years ago and it works exactly as it sounds – you select 1 second (of video or a photo) for every day and add it to your timeline, then you mash the seconds together to create a video. There’s also a Freestyle option, which doesn’t associate each entry with a date. We all know that video gets far more attention online than photos, so even if I have a selection of photos of artwork I can combine them to create a video. It’s really helpful in marketing my art and Art Safaris. I just got the Pro version ($30 annually) which allows you to remove the ISE branding and date stamp, add music etc (should have done this long ago!).

Here’s my January in Art video…

It’s also great for personal videos and it’s amazing how much 1 second of video can do to remind you of an event or day in your life. So check it out. You might just become a convert like me!
More soon.
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Vines and Giraffes

I changed Vines and Giraffes significantly when I was half-way through the painting. It’s not unusual for me to make changes when the background washes dry because I start seeing new things in a painting, but I rarely change anything as late in the process as I did in Vines and Giraffes.

Vines and Giraffes acrylic by Alison Nicholls

I had completed the background and the twisted vines were well underway when I caught a glimpse of them from the side. Immediately I knew this was a better composition when it was turned 90 degrees, and luckily for me, vines grow in all directions, so I turned the painting around. I had to rethink the giraffes, but they fitted into the new composition nicely and I’m pleased with the contrast between the hard lines of the vines and the soft washes surrounding them.

I drew on the canvas with archival pens to create detail on the vines, to highlight the edge of some of the washes and to create impressions of the giraffe coat markings. I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to watermedia (even though I’m using fluid acrylic on watercolor canvas) so had to give myself ‘permission’ to draw on the canvas! It’s not realistic detail I’m after, it’s abstract markings in various colors, which give the painting a level of interest when seen close-up.

I’d be interested to hear what you think of the mix of washes and pen.
More soon!
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Crash – Rhino Poaching in South Africa

Crash features the rhino poaching crisis in South Africa and the painting even includes a line indicating the poaching statistics for the last few years. It has been on my drawing board for many months, but after hearing a talk by Dr Will Fowlds, Project Co-ordinator for Wilderness Foundation Africa (WFA), I decided to complete the painting and donate a large percentage of the purchase price to WFA.

Crash, acrylic & ink on canvas, 20×30″

Crash – Rhino Poaching in South Africa

Crash is the collective noun for a group of rhinos, and sadly it also sums up the downward spiral of rhino numbers worldwide. In South Africa more than 1,000 rhinos were killed for their horns every year from 2013 to 2017, and a horrifying 1,215 dead rhinos were recorded in 2014 alone. The number of rhinos killed by poachers dropped to 769 in 2018, but the consensus is that poaching continues at high levels, while the drastically reduced rhino population has just made rhinos harder for poachers to find. Rhinos in some reserves are protected by military style anti-poaching units, because well-armed poachers are often organized by the international cartels who run drugs and guns. Corrupt wildlife & government officials, police officers, judges and reserve owners have played their part on the killing fields, while many brave rangers have died across Africa protecting rhinos.

African black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) and white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) are both vulnerable to poaching, killed for their horns which are smuggled to Asia for use in traditional medicines. A growing Asian middle class with purchasing power has increased demand, and a Vietnamese Cabinet Minister who claimed rhino horn cured his cancer exacerbated the situation. Advertising in China and Vietnam has educated some consumers, explaining that rhinos are brutally killed to obtain their horns; that the horn is made of keratin, a protein found in hair and fingernails; and that the horn has no significant medicinal properties, however, some wealthy consumers now buy rhino horn purely as a social status symbol.

My painting, Crash, echoes the striking ancient rock art found across South Africa. It shows a black and a white rhino, and beneath them human figures stalking & shooting, hacking off a horn and selling it to a middleman. 2 rhino-head outlines are hidden on the left side of the painting, and the deep rock crevice is a reproduction of a graph showing rhino poaching statistics in South Africa between 2003 and 2018. There are small dots along the line, starting at bottom left, indicating annual figures. The baseline or horizontal axis is not shown, but lies just below the dot for 2004. Every 2 inches (5cms) in vertical height from the baseline represents 100 dead rhinos. The figures for individual years are as follows: 22 rhino deaths (2003), 10 (2004), 13 (2005), 24 (2006), 13 (2007), 52 (2008), 84 (2009), 333 (2010), 448 (2011), 668 (2012), 1004 (2013), 1215 (2014), 1175 (2015), 1054 (2016), 1028 (2017), 769 (2018).

South Africa is currently home to approximately 39% of Africa’s remaining 5,500 black rhinos and 93% of Africa’s remaining 17,000-19,000 white rhinos. South Africa’s poaching crisis is particularly shocking, but rhinos are being killed for their horns in every African country in which they live. If the poaching continues unabated, future generations will see rhinos through the eyes of our ancestors, as paintings on cave walls, instead of watching them living wild in the African bush.

US$2000 from the sale of this painting will be donated to Wilderness Foundation Africa to support the dedicated people working to protect Africa’s amazing rhinos.

***

On the 2015 Africa Geographic Art Safari at Kariega Game Reserve, we saw Thandi, a white rhino and her young calf. Our guide told us the harrowing story of Thandi and how she survived being poached, left in agony with a large portion of her face destroyed after the poachers hacked off her horn. No-one knew if she could survive but she was treated with all kinds of new techniques by the vet on the scene – Dr Will Fowlds. Thandi’s recovery has been astonishing and hopeful, especially as she is now helping to bring life to a new generation of rhinos.

Thandi & calf, Kariega Game Reserve

I hope Crash will help bring more awareness of the rhino poaching crisis and also raise some much-needed funds for the protection of rhinos.
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Shepherd’s Tree and Giraffe

Trees, rocks and landscape features will be making more of an appearance in my upcoming paintings and here’s a great example – Shepherd’s Tree & Giraffe.

Shepherd’s Tree and Giraffe, 24×16″ acrylic on canvas by Alison Nicholls. Sold.

Shepherd’s trees are not tall but can be very sculptural, and they’re frequently browsed by giraffes, which of course also have elegant lines. I took the giraffe silhouette from a sketch I made in South Africa, and the tree shape I created in the studio, after studying my Shepherd tree sketches from Botswana.

The painting has a limited palette of only 3 colors – Naples yellow, cerulean blue & quinacridone magenta. Naples yellow is one of my favorite paint colors and I’ve added it to my field sketch kit too as it’s perfect for dry season grasses and the coats of many animals. These 3 colors make a wonderful range of grays, browns and pinks and even greens.

Shepherd’s trees have tiny leaves which spiral around the spiky branches but the overall effect is that the branches themselves often look green. I knew I needed to paint them boldly and left them until the end because I was afraid of ruining the painting at this late stage. To try and prevent that potential disaster I practiced painting the leaves on a separate piece of canvas, then dived in and painted them in bold strokes.

I’m delighted with this painting and would love to hear your opinion too. My newsletter subscribers always see my new work* before I post it on my website or on social media, and this painting sold when it featured in my October newsletter. So if you want first view of my new work, you can subscribe here. I’m donating 25% of the purchase price to African People & Wildlife to help in their ground breaking work in Tanzania.

See you next time!
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

* except my 10-minute daily sketches, which are posted to my Etsy store, Instagram and Facebook.

Learn more about African People & Wildlife.

10-Minute Daily Sketches on Etsy

A 10-minute daily sketch is a great way to start the day, keep my sketching skills up to speed, and experiment with line and color. Every piece is unique. They are available at my Etsy Store priced at only US$60 each and 50% of the proceeds are donated to African conservation organizations. I begin each one with an ink drawing then add watercolor or fluid acrylic if time allows.

Wild Elephants sketch by Alison Nicholls

These daily sketches began when I attended a Portrait Party organized by New York City Urban Sketchers. There were nearly 100 artists, divided into groups of 12 and we sketched each person in our group, one at a time, for 10 minutes. I enjoyed this experience so much that I continued doing a 10-minute portrait sketch every day after that.

Leopard Lines sketch by Alison Nicholls

Soon I decided to revert to my usual African subject matter as I realized this would be a great way to keep my sketching skills up to speed for when I return to Africa and sketch animals from life. As my daily sketches started accumulating I decided to sell them on my Etsy Store, with 50% of the proceeds donated to the African conservation organizations I support. These include African People & Wildlife (Tanzania), Painted Dog Research Trust (Zimbabwe), Cheetah Conservation Fund (Namibia) and others.

Kudu Bull sketch by Alison Nicholls

My daily sketches are based on the amazing photos taken over the years by my husband, Nigel. Working directly from photos is not normally something I do, but when I set a 10-minute deadline I have to concentrate on the basics and eliminate unnecessary detail, just like I do when I’m sketching from life in Africa.

Painted Purple (painted dogs) by Alison Nicholls

Every sketch is unique, priced at only $60 and 50% of the proceeds are donated to African conservation organizations. I’ll be posting new pieces to my Etsy Store every few days so please join me for my 10-minute daily sketch journey!

Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

See my husband, Nigel’s photos on Instagram.
Visit African People & Wildlife website.
Visit Cheetah Conservation Center website.
Visit Painted Dog Research Trust website.
Visit NYC Urban Sketchers Facebook Group.

Even in front of Nature, one must Compose

“Even in front of nature, one must compose” is attributed to Edgar Degas.

There are some who will argue that nature is perfect and it’s arrogant to compose, to rearrange things, in your art. But we all do this, all the time. You are composing when you move left or right to get that perfect photo of a landscape. And artists are certainly doing this all the time in their paintings. Even those who paint wildlife in minute detail using photographic reference are likely to be moving things around and combining several photos to compose their painting.

My style of art doesn’t rely heavily on photos or often include a landscape element, so composition choices in the studio are wide open for me. This can be both daunting and liberating, which is why I spend an inordinate amount of time deciding on the composition for my paintings. How many animals? What are they doing? Are they close to the viewer or far away? These are some of the numerous questions I ask myself when composing a painting in the studio.

I used to think I wasn’t composing when I was field sketching in Africa, but I realized I was wrong. For example, if I see a herd of 20 elephants, I’m not going to just start sketching the closest one, then move on to the next until I’ve sketched every animal in turn. If I tried that I’d be hopelessly confused because the animals would change places and keep moving – my sketch would never be completed and would most likely be a mess. Instead, I usually I pick an animal in the herd who I will base my sketch around. Once I finish that animal, I look for another, in a different pose, which will complement it. Then I pick a 3rd and a 4th. I may not have an idea of how the finished piece will look, but I’m definitely composing as I sketch.

So I’m not about to argue with Degas on this point – “even in front of nature, one must compose”!

Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Zebra Painting Demo!

Zebra Painting Demo is my latest video. I started a larger zebra painting which didn’t quite go to plan (it happens to us all), so I started again. But this time I painted on a smaller, pre-stretched watercolor canvas. Although the painting looks quite complex, when you watch the video you’ll see that it was painted in just 2 stages. 1st came the wash and once that was dry, the stripes, all in the same color palette. Enjoy the video but don’t miss the quiz question below!

Do you know what the longest land mammal migration is?

You might be thinking it’s the wildebeest migration in Tanzania and Kenya, but it’s actually the zebra migration in northern Botswana. Between 1968 and 2004 this migration was halted by the existence of miles of fences separating Botswana’s beef cattle from wild African buffalo (an attempt to prevent outbreaks of foot and mouth disease). Once the fences were removed in 2004, the migration started all over again. The average lifespan of a wild zebra is usually between 15-25 years, so none of the zebras alive in 2004 were alive in 1967, before the fences went up. That means none of them had ever been on this migration route. Nevertheless, when the annual rains began, zebra started trekking from the Chobe River down to Nxai Pan and others moved from the Okavango down into the vast expanses of the Makgadikgadi salt pans. It just proves that if we let them, animals will find their own way!

Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Watermedia – Mud and Magic

One artist’s mud is another artist’s magic in watermedia – that’s the conclusion I’ve come to recently as I spent time mixing interesting greys. Here’s a good example. I used Raw Sienna, Cobalt Blue and Cadmium Red Medium Hue to create the dark purple-grey-blue you see below.

Mixed watermedia color on palette

Wait a few minutes and the hues start to separate out – now the color on my palette has turned a distinct pink.

Separated color on palette

So whats going to happen when I use it, wet in wet, on my watercolor canvas? Here’s the result when its dry – you can see hints of all 3 of the original colors and there’s a lovely, subtle granulating effect too. Is this what you expected when you saw the original color on my palette? I’m guessing not!

Zebra watermedia wash when dry

Using mixes like these takes a little confidence because the end effect will be so different to the color you see on your palette. Its the magic of watermedia!

Alison
www.artinspiredbyafrica.com
Read more of my blog.

Lion Painting Demo

My lion painting demo shows how I used fluid acrylic and colored inks on canvas to create the painting, Preoccupied Pair. I started this painting in December and added the finishing touches a few days ago. Miraculously, I remembered to video nearly all the painting sessions so I could create this lion painting demo from start to finish!

Preoccupied Pair is based on my watercolor field sketch from Botswana (below). The watercolor shows a mating pair of lions walking through grasses. You’ll notice the 2 pieces are quite different, because I rarely recreate a field sketch as a studio painting. In the studio painting I felt the lions needed to be larger and closer to each other, and I wanted to eliminate most of the background vegetation and the termite mound.

Mating Lions watercolor by Alison Nicholls — *Mating Lions*, field watercolor 11×14″

They are 2 very different pieces of art, but each reflects my intentions and the different ways I work in the field and in the studio. Both pieces are for sale with a 25% donation to African conservation organizations.

Do you have a preference for 1 piece or the other?
Alison

See my watercolor field sketches.
See my studio acrylics.

Art Tips by Alison

There are many Art Tips I can think of but this is perhaps the most important one, if you want to be a productive artist…

Sorry about the psychedelic video towards the end.
Although its quite appropriate I suppose!
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

What Happens to Failed Paintings?

Artists make mistakes. Its true. Shocking, I know!
So what happens to my failed paintings?

If you liked the penguins you just saw (which it seems many people did) then here’s a look at the next version, which I’ll be sending to Artists For Conservation to feature in their Silent Skies Mural, showing all 678 species of endangered birds.

And now I’m off to work on my next piece for the Silent Skies Mural – some White-backed Vultures.
Thanks for watching!
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Giraffes – Paintings in Stages by Alison Nicholls

Giraffes are unique in so many ways – which makes them perfect for painting. As you’ll see in this video, I started with simple washes of fluid acrylic on watercolor canvas. When they were dry I looked at the washes from every angle and suddenly the compositions jumped out at me – 2 bulls browsing in the narrow gap between tall shrubs, and a cow and her calf gazing off into the distance.

A donation will be made from the sale of these paintings to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. The original paintings are currently on view at the Rye Arts Center in Rye, New York, until April 21. You can also see them on my website here.

Read more about the Giraffe Conservation Foundation.
The Rye Arts Center is located at 51 Milton Road, Rye, NY 10580.

Take care
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com