The National Exhibition Wildlife Art (NEWA) has been in existence  for an astounding 17 years, and has regularly drawn over 17,000 visitors, making it Britain’s largest open, selling exhibition of wildlife art.

NEWA enables talented newcomers to the wildlife art world to exhibit with long established artists and displays paintings with sculptures, prints, mosaics and mixed media. The first three days of the exhibition, NEWA’s Wildlife Weekend, will also feature informal demonstrations by award winning wildlife artists.

Ruddy Shelduck by David Cook

The exhibition is housed at the Gordale garden centre (at Burton on the Wirral) but don’t be put off by the “garden centre” setting. The artwork benefits from the natural light and there is plenty of space to view the art without feeling cramped, even at the busiest times. 

Whether you are a collector, artist or simply love to see wildlife art, visit the NEWA website  http://www.newa-uk.com to whet your appetite, and then be sure to visit the exhibition in July. If visiting the Wirral isn’t feasible, don’t forget all the work can be viewed and bought online.

If you’re an artist wanting to enter, check out my previous NEWA blog post too. http://garnerwildlifeart.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/national-exhibition-of-wildlife-art-review/

I’m taking part in the Festival of Birds at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, Slimbridge, Glos. It promises to be a great event – Simon King will be opening the renovated Zeiss hide, there will be guides in the hides to help with bird identification, wild bird feeds and decoy demonstrating. Indoor events will include wildlife art, talks, trade stands and even poetry reading.

I’ll have original paintings, prints, puzzles and cards on display and will be at Slimbridge all weekend to chat with visitors about wildlife art, wildlife watching and my latest projects. I hope you’ll visit too.

For more information please visit http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit-us/slimbridge/festival-of-birds/

Not to be outdone, the WWT London Wetland Centre will also be holding a bird fair.  The London dates are 20-22 April 2012 and I’ll be there too. Here’s their website http://londonwildbirdwatch.co.uk/

Lynx Editions, the publishers of the fabulous Handbook of the Birds of the World, has announced the first HBW World Bird Photo Contest. They’re certainly aiming high: to become the “most important bird photography competition at the world level”.

The contest is aimed at promoting the discovery, understanding  and conservation of the world’s birds whilst encouraging innovation and maintaining excellence in bird photography.

There will be three winners, ten honourable mentions and four special prizes.

Submission is open until March 26 with the winners announced in May. See their website for ules and submission http://www.hbwcontest.com/

If you love wildlife photography but aren’t so handy with a camera, don’t miss the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year at Nature in Art, Twigworth, Glos. The exhibition dates are January - March 18. More details available from their website http://www.nature-in-art.org.uk/

Feedback is good: I’d love to know if you found it too easy or too difficult or just about right, so don’t be afraid to get in touch.

Next Christmas’ Brainteasers will have an art theme.

And here’s your distraction: Jackie Garner’s Christmas Brainteaser Pack. Although it’s wildlife themed, you don’t need expert knowledge of the subject. With a codeword, riddle, crossword and spot-the-difference (and lots more) it’s suitable for all the family. Best of all, it’s completely free. You can download it here. http://www.jackiegarner.co.uk/Christmas-brainteaser-pack.htm

I’m already planning an art themed brainteaser pack for next year, so any feedback about this year’s version will be welcome.

Feel free to share the link with friends and family.

Happy Christmas, Everyone.

Firstly, what is meant by drawing? Is it as a preliminary before adding colour or will it stay as a drawing in it’s own right? Is it a large or a small work, undertaken indoors or out, or is the artist working in a classroom situation? How long will does the artist have to complete the drawing? What medium will be used? Will the artist be standing or sitting? (You see why 140 characters wasn’t enough?)

All of those have a bearing on the angle of the support, whether it’s a sketchbook, board, paper or canvas.

So what are my preferences? Here’s a quick run down.

When I’m drawing wildlife in the field I tend to be sitting down with the sketchpad on my lap, though if it’s a big drawing I may kneel with the drawing on the ground in front of me. (I blame my future arthritis on this.) It depends on the terrain, but the surface will usually be horizontal +/-10 degrees.

In the studio I usually work at a drawing board, again almost horizontal but a slight tilt upwards. The original questioner said he doesn’t draw flat as it can distort the image a little, but as I tend to work at the drawing board standing up any distortion is minimised.

Sometimes I find myself drawing in a museum or gallery. In this instance I’ll probably be standing up with a sketchpad held at 30-40 degrees, trying not to be jostled or get in the way of other visitors.

In a life class I prefer to stand at an easel so the surface is perpendicular, especially important if I’m using using pastels or charcoal. In an upright position the excess pastel falls away form the surface of the work. Warning: arm muscles may protest the following day if you’re unused to drawing at an easel.

I used to go to a drawing class where we tended to rest the drawing board against the back of a chair in front of us. The angle would have been about 45 degrees.

Sometimes I “draw” directly with a brush, as in the roe buck sketch. The angle of the surface has to be shallow or the paint would run too much and be difficult to control.

As I said, there’s no simple answer to What angle do you draw at? The reality is though, we should draw at whatever angle feels comfortable. We can’t produce good work if we are more aware of how we’re working than what is being produced.

I’ve just received an invitation to enter, but the question is: shall I? I entered in 2011 and had my woodpigeon painting show briefly within their gallery section, so it would be good to go one better and be on the show properly.

Given their disregard of wildlife art though, are the judges just going to dismiss anything inspired by the natural world? Their view last time: “In general art exhibitions natural history art sits very badly and out of place.” You can read my previous blog post on the programme here http://garnerwildlifeart.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/show-me-the-monet/

So my challenge is to come up with a painting that undeniably wouldn’t be out of place, before the imminent entry deadline, or there’s no point in entering.

Hmmm, undecided. Watch this space.

The Ashmolean Museum has arguably the best Egyptology collection in Britain, housing some 40,000 artefacts, but the old displays were victims of severely limited space. With the six new galleries much more of the collection may now be displayed.

The first refurbishment was hugely impressive, so I’m eager to see how the new Ancient Egypt galleries compare. Here’s a preview http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturevideo/artvideo/8913917/Ashmolean-Museums-new-Ancient-Egyptian-galleries-preview.html

and here’s an explanation of the new development from the Ashmolean Museum http://www.ashmolean.org/news/?id=164.

I can’t wait to visit the museum with my sketchbook in December, so watch this space for my review. If you visit before then please share your experience via the comments section of this blog.

Carter was a gifted artist whose skill was recognised at an early age. He was interested in the wildlife depicted in ancient Egyptian art, and made detailed watercolour copies of the tomb paintings. Alongside these he painted the actual species he believed them to be, much as I have been doing for my own Egypt project.

Carter’s original paintings are held in the Griffith Institute in Oxford, and until now have only been available to view by visiting in person, though some have been published previously.

My colleague, John Wyatt, has been working at The Griffith Institute with Jiří Janák  to bring these wonderful images to a wider audience. The result is an online album with additional text relating to the identification of each species and information of where the original Egyptian paintings may be found.

http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/Carter_birds.html

Ultra-cheap watercolour paper. Just accept that some things are expensive or they don’t work. Watercolour paper falls in to this category. One of my students once had some particularly nasty cheap watercolour paper, the surface of which appeared to be made of regularly spaced tiny dents, obviously formed on a machine. The paint sank in to the dents giving an unpleasant spotted look to the painting. Ugh! No one will thank you for the gift of cheap watercolour paper, unless it’s through gritted teeth as they try to be polite.

The 50 “Artists” brushes for £10 set. No it’s not a bargain, whatever the retailer would have you believe. The bristles will stick out in the wrong directions before falling out. Possibly useful for creosote, glue or DIY but not for Art. DO NOT BUY. This also applies to any large-quantities-of-something-for-not-much-money e.g. coloured pencils, paints… Anyway, you want to be associated with something wonderful, don’t you, not to be remembered as a cheapskate?

Fabric brush case. A borderline “avoid” as brush cases can be very useful… but in my experience they need to be of a rigid material. Otherwise the top can bend over in your art bag and then the tips of the brushes bend too. It’s difficult to paint with a brush whose bristles stick out at right angles to the handle, and truly heartbreaking if it was your very best brush.

Any product with the “Made Easy” tag: e.g. the Watercolour-Made-Easy book/ the Painting-Skies-Made-Easy DVD/ the brush claimed to make painting trees easy… Sorry, it’s not easy unless you want to do it badly. Buy good quality kit and learn to do it properly. Rant over.

A hardback sketchbook with perforated pages. I fell in to this trap with my Falklands sketchbook. It seemed like a good idea as I’d be able to removed selected pages as necessary. In reality all the unselected pages fell out after a short time too. A spiral bound book would be a better bet; pages can be removed easily but those that should stay put do so.

So that’s it for my 2011 Christmas Gifts for Artists guide. Now you’re all ready to hit the shops or the web and receive plaudits for being so organised.

The next step though is up to you. Share this guide with those who are likely to be buying for artists. Use it to start a debate with friends and family about what arty gifts you’d really like. I’m sure you’ll agree and disagree with some of my suggestions so don’t be afraid to add your comments and suggestions to these posts. We owe it to artists everywhere to get the word out there about what artists really want for Christmas.