Tag Archives: cheetah art

Running to Catch Up on World Cheetah Day!

On this World Cheetah Day, I’m sprinting to get this out in time… and sharing a quick field sketch of 2 hunting cheetahs from my recent trip to Botswana. The sketch was created in pencil then the watercolor was added once I returned to camp (without reference to photos or video). In the spirit of sketching the fastest land mammal, it was all done very fast!

Below you’ll find links to some great cheetah conservation organizations. Hurry up and check them out!

Cheetah field sketch by Alison Nicholls

Cheetah Conservation Fund
Cheetah Botswana
Cheetah Zimbabwe
They all deserve your support to help conserve cheetahs and the habitat they need to thrive!

Until next time…
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

African Field Sketch #1 – Creepers and Cheetahs

Field Sketch #1: Creepers and Cheetahs was sketched on one of those rare occasions when I have time to sketch the animals and then add the background too. I was fortunate that the cheetahs had chosen such a beautiful place to rest, lying half way up a termite mound, with the lovely loops of the creepers (vines) behind. The black bird perched there is a fork-tailed drongo. The watercolor was added when I returned to camp, purely from memory, with no use of photos or video.

Creepers and Cheetahs Field Sketch by Alison Nicholls

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, 11×14″, all signed and numbered by me.

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.

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

Over the next few weeks (Nov 1- 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.

Wherever and whenever you see them, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them!
Until tomorrow…
Take care
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Cheetah Egg!

Kalahari, my painted ostrich egg, is now available on the Cheetah Conservation Fund’s 25th Anniversary Online Auction site. (Yes, this is a post about a painting of a cheetah on an egg, not a post about a cheetah’s egg. I just couldn’t resist using that blog post title!)

Kalahari – Ostrich Egg painted by Alison Nicholls

You can bid on it here, and the proceeds will help the Cheetah Conservation Fund, based in Namibia, with their excellent programs which help to conserve cheetahs & their habitat. Here is a little more information about my cheetah egg!

Kalahari
This ostrich egg painting features creatures found in the Kalahari Desert – the ostrich, the cheetah, the giraffe and the springbok; while the top of the egg shows guinea fowl feathers and porcupine quills. The colors of the egg also represent the colors of the Kalahari. White is for the wide, flat, salt pans. Blue is for the huge, pale pastel skies. Brown is for the thorny scrubby brush and tall grasses.
The egg is painted in acrylic and varnished.
Bid on Kalahari!

Read more about the creation of this egg:
Ostrich Egg design Rolls On
Ostrich Egg is Easier to Balance than to Paint

Learn more about the Cheetah Conservation Fund

Until next time…
Roll on…
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Art Challenge Day 4 – A New Medium!

Towards Evening, watercolor on paper 8x10" by Alison Nicholls

Towards Evening, watercolor on paper by Alison Nicholls

A Shady Spot, watercolor on paper 12×12″ by Alison Nicholls

Sun Spots, acrylic on canvas 29x29" by Alison Nicholls

Sun Spots, fluid acrylic on canvas 29×29″ by Alison Nicholls

I don’t work from an easel, I paint with my work flat on a desk. What this means is that I can’t get too far away from my work without moving it off the desk and standing it up. As a result, I found that I was often working close-up, which made my use of color weaker, and increased my use of detail. When my works were framed I felt I had to walk up close to really see them, when actually I wanted to be able to stand across the room and see them. I needed to be bolder. So over time I strengthened my colors and gradually background landscapes disappeared, as I removed everything that I felt was unnecessary in my compositions. Then I switched from watercolor on paper to fluid acrylic on watercolor canvas. Which is how I am painting now. I love the vivid colors, the lightweight canvas, the fact that I don’t have to stretch paper anymore before using it and the fact that I can frame without mats and glass. It took a long time but I think I found my medium!

Tomorrow I’ll show how my subject matter has progressed since I switched to fluid acrylic.

See you tomorrow…
Alison

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Art Challenge Day 3 – Field Sketching

Mabuasehube, watercolor field sketch by Alison Nicholls

Gemsbok (oryx) watercolor field sketches by Alison Nicholls

Cheetah Trio Field Sketch © Alison Nicholls

Cheetah Trio Field Sketch, watercolor by Alison Nicholls

Once I started taking my watercolors out into the bush to sketch I reached a turning point. Gradually my sketches progressed from landscapes with tiny animals in them, to pages with multiple animals on them, to full page sketches which I now sell as finished pieces and as limited editions. During these years I was awarded an Artists For Conservation Flag Expedition. I spent 6 weeks with the Painted Dog Conservation project in Zimbabwe sketching all kinds of wildlife including highly endangered African wild dogs. This period of time when sketching was my top priority for 6 weeks made all the difference. I now knew that sketching from life made me far more aware of the movement and anatomy of animals than working from photos had ever done, and as a result I was able to speed up my sketching and could turn to my sketches back in the studio for inspiration. But, even more critically, I could create compositions in the studio without any reference material, because I now had images of real, moving animals buried deep in my artistic memory. Now I felt I was getting somewhere!

Tomorrow I’ll show how my studio work progressed to become full of color & space. In the meantime, the next artist I’d like to nominate is Hazel Jarvis. We have been on many a sketching jaunt into New York City and Hazel’s work is always fabulous regardless of which medium she uses.

Until tomorrow…
Alison

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Art Inspired by Africa