Tag Archives: African wildlife art

Wildlife Art in the Flinn Gallery

Soon my paintings, including Zebra in Mopane, will be hanging in the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich, Connecticut. We have some great events scheduled around this exciting exhibition, so come and see the wildlife of Africa, Mongolia, Alaska, India, the Rocky Mountains, Central America and the Long Island Sound from the unique perspectives of a diverse group of artists.

Zebras In Mopane, acrylic by Alison Nicholls

Here are the details you need to know!

Thur March 31, Flinn Gallery
Opening Reception: 6-8pm.
Sat April 2, Flinn Gallery
Children Sketching Animals: 11am-12pm. Sold Out.
Artists Talk: Susan Fox (Mongolia), David Rankin (India) & Karryl (Rockies), 2-3pm.

Mon April 4, Explorers Club
Artists Talk: Alison Nicholls, Susan Fox, David Rankin, Sean Murtha & Karryl, 6pm.
The Explorers Club, 46 East 70th Street, New York City. Registration Required.

Sun April 24, Flinn Gallery
Artists Talk: Alison Nicholls & Sean Murtha, 2-3pm.

The exhibition runs from March 24 – May 4, 2016. The Flinn Gallery is located at 101 West Putnam Ave, Greenwich, CT 06830. Wildlife Art: Field to Studio is curated by Lillian Lum, Alice Sherwood & Claudia Schipper.

Come and join me at one of our exciting exhibit events!
Alison
www.ArtInspiredByAfrica.com

African Wildlife Sketch #16 – Crashed – Painted Dogs by Alison Nicholls

As you probably know, Painted Dogs (African wild dogs) are highly social. They rarely fight, even over food (unlike most other predators), and will regurgitate food for sick and injured adults in their pack. During my recent travels in southern Africa I saw 4 different packs, and that included a lot of pups. Every time they finished playing they would all flop down together, in a pile. There were heads on backs, feet on heads, tails in faces and ears everywhere – a perfect expression of their highly developed social nature, and a perfect painting composition!

Crashed Field Sketch © Alison Nicholls 2015

Crashed field sketch, Painted dogs, African wild dogs, in watercolor by Alison Nicholls

All my field sketches, are created in Africa directly from life, or sketched back at camp purely from my memory of sightings. They are completely finished in Africa and I use no photos or video reference at any time in their creation. It is always tempting to add finishing touches back in the studio, but I avoid this to ensure that my field sketches really are field sketches.

The Original Field Sketch is watercolor & pencil on watercolor paper, 11×14″, priced at US$300. Limited Edition Giclées are also available, priced at US$120 each. Only 10 copies are available, printed using archival inks on watercolor paper, 14×11″, all signed and numbered by me.

A donation will be made to African conservation from every sale.

Until Nov 22, I will be sharing 1 of my new African field sketches every day. The new sketches are shown to my newsletter readers a full day before they are shown here. Click here to Join my Mailing List and see the sketches as soon as they are released, or see them here 1 day later.

Wherever and whenever you see them, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them.
Tomorrow’s sketch is of browsing elephants.
Until then…
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

African Wildlife Sketch 7 – Crashed (painted dogs)

These painted dog pups (African wild dogs) were sketched in Botswana. They were nearly 4 months old, beautifully colored (not actually purple!) and full of life. Everywhere I looked were pups running, leaping fallen logs, falling off logs, chasing each other and then cautiously approaching the vehicle in a crowd of long legs and huge ears. Soon after, they all collapsed in heaps under bushes and trees. That’s when I was able to create this sketch. I added the watercolor back at camp, which is where my artistic license crept in with the coloring!

Crashed field sketch. Painted dogs (African wild dogs) in watercolor by Alison Nicholls

This Original Field Sketch is watercolor and pencil on watercolor paper, 11×14″, and priced at US$300. Limited Edition Giclées are also available, priced at US$120 each. Only 10 copies are available, printed using archival inks on watercolor paper, 11×14″, all signed and numbered by me.

A donation will be made to African conservation from every sale.

Wherever and whenever you see them, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them.
Tomorrow’s sketch is of another sleeping predator – a male lion.
Until then…
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

African Wildlife Sketch #5 – Browsing Giraffe

When I sketch giraffes I realize just how strangely they are put together. Whereas circles form the basis of most of my animal sketches, with giraffes there seem to be more triangles involved. Their necks look ridiculously thin from some angles, their knees and feet are huge when seen up close, they have an amazingly long tongue and big males often have faces covered in lumps. Somehow, despite all this, they manage to be one of the most elegant animals in the African bush!

Browsing Giraffe Field Sketch by Alison Nicholls ©2015

This Original Field Sketch was sold yesterday, but Limited Edition Giclées are also available, priced at US$120 each. Only 10 copies are available, printed using archival inks on watercolor paper, 11×14″, all signed and numbered by me.

A donation will be made to African conservation from every sale.

Wherever and whenever you see them, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them.
Tomorrow’s sketch is of a zebra in mopane scrub.
Until then…
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

African Wildlife Sketch #4 – Hippo Pod

I have hardly any sketches of hippos, because you normally just see their ears, eyes and nostrils protruding above the water. This pod were partially submerged, but the way they were lying gave me just enough to sketch. It is a very simple piece, but I think its simplicity makes it effective.

Hippo Pod Field Sketch by Alison Nicholls ©2015

A donation will be made to African conservation from every sale.

Wherever and whenever you see them, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them.
Tomorrow’s sketch is of a browsing giraffe.
Until then…
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Art Challenge Day 2 – Wildlife in Detail

Zebra, pastel 20×16″ by Alison Nicholls

At Rest, cheetah in pastel 20×16″ by Alison Nicholls

Pride On The Move, lions in pastel 20×30″ by Alison Nicholls

Day 2 of the Art Challenge.
After a while, surrounded by wildlife during my bush trips, I decided I really needed to start using animals in my paintings. I switched to pastel for a while and loved using the colored papers. But using this like a drawing medium meant that once again detail was the focus of my work (still surrounded by space, but lots of detail nevertheless) And if you want this level of detail, you really have to work from photos, something I desperately wanted to get away from, but couldn’t figure out how.

Next time, I realize that field sketching is the way out of my dilemma.

And the next artist I’d like to nominate for the Art Challenge is Karen Laurence-Rowe, whose paintings are so wonderfully expressive (I was particularly struck by her giraffes). So enjoy her work and I’ll be back tomorrow, with field sketches.

Until then…
Alison

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Art Inspired by Africa