goatwatching

Here's Capricornus, the goatfish constellation. I hummed and hah-ed about whether to have a snowy landscape (because the Zodiacal Capricorn has its time in December/January) or an autumnal one, because that is when you can actually see Capricorn in the stars.

I went for the autumn one, as you see.

I've been looking out for the constellation, but the autumn skies aren't as crystal clear as winter ones, and so far it's eluded me. But the moon is waning so maybe I'll get to see it soon.

Here's another pic I did recently, for the Canal and River Trust in Devizes. It's a panorama of the Caen Hill locks. I tried posting it up a few weeks ago, but the internet's been a bit dodgy out in the wilds. 

canal cuisine

I woke up the other morning, hopped out of bed and the boat started rocking as though we were side seas in a storm. Unusual behaviour on a canal on a bright and calm June morning. 

It wasn't the boat, it was something in my head. Off to the medics I went; it's either labyrinthitis (an infection of the inner ear) or possibly something else... so I'm off to see the ENT folk soon. My kind GP referred me for an emergency appointment. 

"How will you contact me?" I asked the receptionist.

"By post" she said.

In present NHS terms, I guess that emergency means sooner-than-two-years. I'm grateful we've still got the NHS. 

So I'm not very good at moving around much, as vertigo and nausea cut in. On the plus side, if I sit still and draw pictures, that's mostly fine.

I saw the drowned fox floating near the Avoncliff aqueduct, and wanted to paint it. Finally did, then. It was of course Sherry Jim wot ate the badger.

not being touristy

You can't keep a good goat down. After their escapade on the aqueduct, they'd been rounded up by their nominal owner. And on Sunday morning they were outside the boat, delicately nibbling brambles, breakfast of champion goats.

I moved the boat down to moor alongside the Dawdling Dairy, and put out my pictures. So visitors could go for ice cream, storytelling, coffee, bike repairs and art, either separately or all at once.

It was a good day, notwithstanding a small group of the cravat-wearing classes sneering their way by, remarking 'It's very touristy round here' as they glanced dismissively at my pictures. I reminded myself that the english middle class is essentially both philistine and anti-life, and was cheered immensely by a chap from California who enthused over my canal pictures, and bought two prints! 

He'd recently bought some prints by Eric Gaskell, so my pictures will be hanging in distinguished company.... 

As the sun set, Sarah splashed along in her new rowing boat and we went adventuring in Conkwell woods, collecting kindling for her stove. On a rotten stump, the leaves of bluebells had been nibbled right down by the deer, whose dietary preferences are evidently rather more gentle than those of the goats.

Sarah dropped me home and rowed away as the first owl began hooting. 

the K&A West End map

At last, I've finished this map. It's the West End of the Kennet and Avon Canal (that is, the section between Devizes and Bath), and includes as many as possible of the names by which the local places are known on the canal, as added by the K&A Facebook group members on this Google map.

Crikey! It took far longer to draw than anything I've done before. The first version got junked because it looked a bit rubbish; it's difficult trying to represent something that's essentially linear, on an oblong. The dimensions are dictated by the intended use of the map as a double page spread in the book I'm working on; but I'll also be doing some prints of the map, as it seemed so popular when I uploaded it last night.

After four days scarcely stirring from the drawing board, it was time to shake off the cabin fever. I took the panniers out to the bicycle - and was snapped at by the arctic gale that howled round me like a pack of hungry steppe wolves. It can get a bit harsh up here in the wide open spaces of the upper Avon valley, let me tell you.

So I went back in again, and stoked up the stove.

Fortunately, I have dried milk powder and flour, so I can still make a decent cup of tea and bread. Having skipped lunch yesterday I was achingly hungry, so made bread dough and, as soon as the wood in the stove had burned itself into a bright glow, I added the wire shelf and flattened out some balls of dough. Putting them onto the shelf inside the stove was rather difficult, as they were of course floppy. But after a very few minutes the underside was a fine colour and hard to the touch, and it was a doddle to take them out and flip them over; at which they obligingly inflated, and then came out, like puffballs but rather nicer smelling.

glowing nicely

flipped over and inflating nicely. The embers are still glowing, honest; the flash hides them

ready to eat! -after I've added bacon and egg, obviously 

another starry picture

....here's Leo, and a fireball, and the Alton Barnes white horse as seen from the canal near Honeystreet. Just a picture I wanted to do; and the generator charged up the boat batteries while I had the big computer running so that I could do the digital processing....

Been v busy sending off Christmas orders lately. I did a small print run of cards for my own use, like this- life on board nb Eve...

...I scanned it before I coloured it; was thinking I might do a colouring book, as they seem quite popular at the mo. If that is your thing, feel free to download the pic and have a go!

the exhibition in Bath

Last week was the exhibition in Walcot Chapel, Bath, for Gypsy, Roma, Traveller (and Boater) Month, organised by Julian House in Bath. I was v busy painting in the run up to it, and displayed eight paintings, of which the one above, of Jacqui at home on Aster, is the latest.

I sat in on the exhibition for quite a while, and got to meet all sorts of interesting and interested folk. Here's Brian, whose granddaughter once owned Netty, the boat in this picture. She'd asked him to come along and say hello, as she is over in West Wales.

Here's Maggie Smith-Bendell, author of Rabbit Stew And A Penny Or Two, who came for the opening of the exhibition and talked about her life

...and here are Jenks and Helen, whose boat rides on Lady Lena are apparently the most romantic thing you can do. Ever. Helen is the sculptor. Connie and Sam, the organisers of the whole thing, are there on the right.

....and Katie, with her picture....

Bath exhibition of canal art

June is Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month, and Bath-based charity Julian House is organising  some events in the Bath and North East Somerset area; one will be an exhibition of art, craft and photography by members of the gypsy, Roma, traveller and boater communities, at Walcot Chapel Gallery in Bath.

Some of my pictures will be included- I'm busily working on a series of paintings showing people and life on the cut (as we call the canal).

There will also be work displayed by Chris and Jinny, the wonderful Skyravenwolf team; also sculpture and photography (I shall add more details as I learn them!)

The exhibition will run from 22-28 June.

Here is the Facebook page for events in B&NES.

holding up a slightly dodgy mirror to nature

My second picture in the new series; Sarah with her shiny Lister, newly-rebuilt and painted red. I was quite pleased with this pic, because it looks like Sarah; the trouble with drawing real people is that you feel a bit of a failure if the picture ends up looking nothing like them. Which happened with the next picture, Craig and Kane. Craig's on the left...

Funny business; I dumped the first version, and worked and reworked this one before thinking "Sod it, I'll be here all year at this rate" and just finishing the damn picture. It looks like someone, but it just doesn't look like Craig. 

It's like when I did the pictures for The Bristol Downs; a natural history year. Having taken the job on, I suddenly realised that it wasn't enough to do nice pictures; I had to do accurate ones. 

...which isn't really the case with the current project. But it would be nice if they were. 

Maybe I'll come back to Craig.

Uffington Hare

The new picture, following on from the Questing Vole, shows a hare looking up at Lepus, the constellation of the hare, below Orion and pursued by Sirius (though you can't see them in this pic, just in case you were looking). I drew the picture then scanned it and coloured it using Paint Shop Pro. This is good for those deep, smooth colours, as you see; I'd made two starts at this picture using watercolour, and put them aside as it just wasn't the medium for the picture I had in mind. 

As several people asked if it was going to be available as a card, I thought I'd better get some printed up; the cards won't be ready for a few days yet, but I've just picked up some prints and they can be got here on Etsy

Questing Vole cards

The Questing Vole cards are proving popular... I was distributing them around Bristol on Wednesday, and this morning was in Devizes and Seend, and sending a parcel of them off to Australia! If you'd like some, they're available in my Etsy shop. I've also had some printed up as giclee prints, and the picture is available in a limited edition of 50. You can get one here,  again in the Etsy shop.

on small publishers who sell online

When I published Inking Bitterns, I set up my own website to promote, inform about and sell it. You can find it here. I also registered the book with with Nielsens, the people who supply ISBN numbers; and I think it is from them that the big online sellers get their info on what is newly published, and, in the case of Amazon, automatically list the book. It was odd seeing all these Big Sellers advertising my book, especially because I had decided not to sell through Amazon, because they take such a big cut that I would have made a loss on each sale, quite apart from any other consideration, like, you know, TAXES.

So yesterday I got yet another email from someone who wanted the book, but had been discouraged by going to Amazon and finding that it was listed as CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE - we don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

I tried putting a review on the Amazon page, explaining this and suggesting where prospective buyers could go to find the book. But the review wasn't accepted- it jut dropped into a hole in cyberspace.

So then I wrote to Amazon, thus:

I am the publisher of Inking Bitterns - it is a book of illustrated poetry, and I sell it at a low price because I think that's important. So I haven't used Amazon to sell it, because it would mean my making a loss on each sale. But you have listed it anyway, presumably as an automatic response to its listing by Nielsen.... and you have marked it as out of print. Feedback from other sources tells me that people wanting the book have been put off by this information; it is in fact sold through my own website, and has been ever since I published the book.
Could you please remove the listing for Inking Bitterns, or amend the information you have on your listing?
Dru Marland
Gert Macky Books

...and got this reply

 Amazon Your Account Amazon.com
Message From Customer Service
Hello,
I understand your concern about published book "Inking Bitterns" which is listed on our website; I'm very sorry for the information you found on the book.
Given the case, I would like to introduce you to our Author Central; in order to make changes into the listing of the book, "Inking Bitterns" on your end, please join our Author Central. Author Central is a resource designed to help authors become more active participants in the promotion of their books.
Amazon's Author Pages also offer customers a new way to browse favorite authors, discover new books, and more. The pages also include bibliographies, biographies, and discussion boards.
You can find out more at:
http://authorcentral.amazon.com
For further assistance, kindly click the link below so you can contact our Author central customer service through phone or email:
https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us?ie=UTF8&language=en_US&openi...
I hope this helps! We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Hmm, it didn't help. A further mail, after a complicated trawl through the Author Pages:

I would like the information on Amazon about Inking Bitterns, a book that I published, to be amended so that it does not claim that the book is out of print. The book is in print, but has never been available on Amazon because it is not economic for me to sell on Amazon.

...and another reply, which may be more helpful (time will tell)

Hello,
I understand your concern about the book you published.
I forwarded this information to the appropriate team so they can check and correct the issues found on the details page of the book.
Rest assured, as soon as I hear from them, I'll get back to you via e-mail.
Thanks for giving me time to find the resolution to your inquiry and we hope to see you again soon.
Best regards,

...Meanwhile, the book is, and always has been, available from GERT MACKY!

stained glass for narrowboats

So, Tony asked if I could paint his cratch board window, and I said, “Of course!” and then thought, but did not say “…well, at least I think so….”

And then I went away and did a bit of mugging up on the topic. And drew up a design. And ordered some paints. I used Pebeo Vitrail, a solvent-based glass paint that promises to be waterproof but advises against the use of dishwashers. I thought Tony’s boat would be safe from that. 

I sellotaped three bloody great pieces of paper onto the side of my boat, and drew up a template; there’s precious little room on board Eve for a drawing board like my old one. Then I cut out the template and stuck it to the back of the glass, and lined in the design using Pebeo Cerne outliner. This creates a black bead, something like the leaded strips you get between panels of stained glass, which is of course the intended effect.

As I was moored outside the Barge Inn at Honeystreet at the time, I had some interested spectators; one (whose name I didn’t catch) said “I’ve got a tattoo just like that!” and showed me. And so he did; it was a rising sun over the Uffington white horse, surmounted by his daughter’s name. 

“A bloke in the field here did it for me” he said. The field in question being the camping field next to the pub, where assorted tipis and old vans and buses were assembled ready to welcome in the equinox. “Quite like Stonehenge in the old days”, I remarked to Boat Teenager, who had been kept awake for most of the night by the band, and would have gone in to listen except that there was no-one else of her age around. We agreed, though, that the band, despite the billing, were not what we’d call psychedelic. I’d been hoping for something a bit Hawkwind at least. “Who?” asked Boat Teenager. I went back to my painting.

It was hard to get a smooth coverage of the larger areas- the green hill with the horse on it was particularly difficult- either the paint was too thick, and the brush strokes very much in evidence, or if I thinned it it was too thin.... I tried stippling it, which created a far better effect. I subsequently tried sponging, on the background to the wheat- I cut off pieces of washing up sponge and dabbed the dark brown paint on with it; this was an effective method.

a hare, of course!

there's a harvest mouse in there somewhere


...there it is!

Spitfire

This bridge traverses so much sky,

Such clear depth of open air

As tempts my aircraft under there;

It seemed ungrateful not to try.

I held my breath. A sudden flick

Of shadow on my face; my joy

Reflected in that waving boy;

The cliff face zipping by so quick-

Now, zooming high, I see the far

Welsh mountains in the dawning glow

While Bristol's half-asleep below,

And steer towards the morning star.

I was in Bristol yesterday for the IsamBards' second poetic outing, a walk around the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This poem was my small contribution, which they kindly invited me to make as I'm so keen on the stories of the pilots who've flown under that very bridge.


Laura Hilton, the Clifton Suspension Bridge's Visitor Centre Manager, introduces the poets Deborah Harvey, Pameli Benham, Stewart Carswell and David C Johnson

talking to whales about poetry

It can be a bit scary, trying to come up with an idea for a picture when the brief is 'do whatever you like' - this is one of two pics I did for the forthcoming edition of Broadsheet, the Exeter-based poetry broadsheet. The other picture is being used, so here's this one because I quite like it even so.

The last Broadsheet was really good, and good value too. Check it out. And there's still time to submit, if you fancy it and live in the South West....

Alton Barnes White Horse

Here's the finished picture that I showed in the earlier stages in my previous blog post. The Alton Barnes white horse looks out over the Vale of Pewsey, which is a lovely, wide open place where you can sit up on the Down and gaze over to Salisbury Plain and imagine the far distant past, in between admiring the evolutions of the huge jet fighters that occasionally wheel over the Plain, and the distant rumble of artillery.

I had a paint crisis on Saturday, when I put on a wash for the sky, and it went horrible. I use Daler Rowney hot-pressed paper, because it is really smooth and allows me to paint very fine detail. But the flip side is that it won't suck up huge amounts of paint. So I did a quick dash to Bristol (Wiltshire seems a bit deficient in art supply shops) and picked up some gouache from Harold Hockey's. The sky is painted with Winsor and Newton's Permanent White, which is their most opaque; and Brilliant Blue mixed in with it. 

ars est promovere artem

I thought it looked a bit off-colour....

The Vale of Pewsey is new territory for me; I was over there a few months ago for the Art Trail, where I met my friend Jan Lane, who was also on the trail, at the Pewsey Gallery, where her work is on display. She had given them some copies of Inking Bitterns last year, and they had managed to sell them. So I was very happy to meet Sandra, who is one of the people who run the gallery, and even more happy when she asked me to drop some cards across, too.

Sandra at Pewsey Gallery, finding my cards amusing...

...then Jo at the Devizes Bookshop, cultural hub of the town, agreed to take some of my prints. So I called by to see how things were going. The upstairs gallery has work by a permanent group of exhibitors, but Jo kindly found some space for my pictures too.... 

making pictures

I'm starting to crank up the illustrating and publishing behemoth that is Gert Macky (population: 1), and actually had a nice little commission last week. It's for Judi Sutherland's new poetry site, The Stare's Nest, which is open to submissions of poems in many styles, with a general theme of political issues, social justice, equality and diversity. 

At the moment I'm relying on natural light to paint by, so it's helpful if I don't moor in the shade of trees, which, as it happens, was exactly where I was at the time; so I did a fair bit of painting up on the foredeck, which was quite congenial in the hot weather.

To scan a painting, I need to set up the little Honda 240V generator on the afterdeck, then crank up the desktop computer and scanner. I'm hoping the generator is producing clean enough power to not damage the computer, but it has had a couple of cranky fits, so fingers crossed...

Then when I've done with processing the image, I put it on a memory stick and send it off from my MacBook, which is tethered to my iPhone - both these are new to me, and vital connections to the greater world. I get 2GB of tethering per month with my phone plan, but I can also get wifi at libraries, thanks to an enlightened council.

Slowly getting things sorted!

mapping

Here's a new map I've just done, for a walk guide. It's of Clifton, the suburb of Bristol that's poised on the side of the Downs overlooking Hotwells and the Avon Gorge. It was a challenge to try to represent the characteristic buildings in a way that worked within the limited space, and didn't interfere with the clarity. Not sure just how successful it has been.

I drew the map in black ink, then scanned it and coloured it in Paint Shop Pro. The same technique as I used for this picture, which is intended for the cover of this year's Wales Antiques Guide

inking bitterns - poems and pictures for wild places

 ...is now published.

It's a collection of poems from Colin Brown, Liz Brownlee, Stewart Carswell, Alana Farrell, Deborah Harvey, Alan Summers, John Terry and Cathy Wilson;  and it's illustrated throughout by me.

It costs £5, and you can easily buy it online from the Gert Macky website. Or, if you have the good fortune to live in Bristol (and if not, then why not?) - you can get it in the Durdham Down Bookshop, or Stanfords in Corn Street.

After our quick jaunt round Wiltshire yesterday, it can also be found at Devizes Books and the Corsham Bookshop,  both fine shops worth a visit even without the prospect of this particular book.

We'll be reading from the book at Halo, Gloucester Rd, on Monday 2nd December, and at Foyles on Friday 6th December.

And I'll be at the Local History Book Fair at the Bristol Record Office on Saturday 7th December, which is very handy for the Create Centre, who have their Festive Fair at the same time.

Uffington lark

uffington lark a4, originally uploaded by Dru Marland.

...whoops, accidentally posted this here from Flickr! -oh well, since it's here... Last picture for the anthology. All done now, and time to finish the editing and formatting. Thank goodness for Adobe InDesign, says I.

I like the effect in this picture; it's an ink drawing scanned and processed in Paint Shop Pro, except for the skylark which is a watercolour. I remember seeing the church tower in Uffington village, just like this, when I stopped on my way there a few weeks ago, as I was returning to Bristol from Oxfordshire. Though it was sunset on an autumn day, then. I got up onto the hilltop above the horse as the twilight deepened, and was alone with the soughing of the wind in the dried grass, and the call of the kestrels.