29/07: ODDS N ENDS !!

I haven't posted much recently, but plenty has been happening behind the scenes.

I guess the best news is that Richard was transferred to the Homerton Neuro-rehab hospital on Monday - about 3 weeks ahead of schedule.   As usual, we were given very little notice and had to do some last minute rushing around/plan changing.  Richard has made steady progress in the last 14 weeks and has good movement in the right arm and leg which we feared might be paralysed.   We are confident that the Homerton team will be able to help Richard with his other problems to enable him to return to a lifestyle very close to the one he enjoyed pre-motorcycle accident!

Nana's portrait has been approved, I've made inroads on the next double human portrait on 'mid-grey' pastelmat paper but am still not 100% sure about the background colours .. so am awaiting a delivery of light grey and hope this really is 'light grey' and not 'mid grey' this time.

I have (confirmed) orders for  9 human portraits - most are group portraits - and enquiries for 4 more (2 x doubles) so as a little light relief I've been toying with a very 'quick and nasty' cat drawing in soft pastel on velour. The subject is Thomas O'Malley a very photogenic cat belonging to a fellow artist - Daisyree (Holland).  I just love Tom's mobile ears - they seem to point in different directions in every ref photo I've seen and he always has a brilliant 'quizzical' expression.   I really don't like using soft pastels/velour but thought this would be a quick way of completing a picture with background.   I intend to apply for Full membership of SOFA (society of feline artists) this year and need to submit several pictures to the jury (some of which I have here and framed) and also a selection of sketches and supporting material including full body pictures (not the head/shoulders portraits I usually do).   I have a few pics here that I will submit but not sure about this one.

This is just about 2 hours work -  I've worked very quickly with the intention of scrappingthe picture if I can't make it come good within a couple of days ... its very different to my usual style so I'm enjoying it whilst still not sure if it will be one for the album ... or one for the bin!  It makes a wonderful change from human portraits but does mean I have to clean the working area down before I switch back to coloured pencil drawings - pastel dust gets just everywhere !!

So, if you're looking in Daisyree, thanks for the wonderful ref photos which I'm basing this on - but with lots of background changes.  I usually like to complete one small area of a picture before moving on so this is totally new to me and I'm making lots up as I progress:

Whitstable is enjoying its annual 'Oyster Festival' just now - approx 2 weeks of celebrations and wonderful things going on all day, every day.   We did go out and about with the camera on Sunday, photographing events at a local dog show on Tankerton Slopes where we bumped into fellow local artist Vic  http://artwithapencil.blogspot.com/

and then we walked along the beach path to Whitstable Harbour.  The path was lined with trade stands from companies producing food and drink from our own County of Kent - so lots of opportunities for sampling the produce.    The weather was beautiful and the beaches/harbour crowded.   I took hundreds of photos but hope to take a good look at them tomorrow and maybe post just a few to give an idea of what goes on in our part of the World.