29/04: BUSY, BUSY

What a busy few days we've had 

We drove to Birmingham on Saturday and the journey was pretty grim with lots of roadworks enroute making the journey slower than usual.  

We managed to fit in a short visit to Redwings at Oxhill.  This is one of 4 visitor centres in the UK where 50 of the 1200 horses, ponies, mules and donkeys rescued by Redwings Charity can be seen.   I was really amazed how clean and tidy it was - not even muddy bits by field gates.   Most of the horses live outdoors unless they are sick and they all looked very happy and content

It was feeding time when we got there so lots of milling around by the gates waiting for their grub!

These 3 look as though they're plotting something don't they?

You scratch mine and I'll scratch yours!

Standing Guard

and this gorgeous fellow is 18hh.    His name is Major and he is just 5 years old but a real gentle giant

A beautiful Clydesdale - a real bearded lady!

One of the rescue Shire horses.  No need for a fly fringe when you have a long forelock like this

and a pretty thoroughbred

2 Shetlands - or Thelwells as I like to call them (I loved Norman Thelwell cartoon books as a child and spent many happy hours colouring in all the characters - who else remembers them)?

 

Well I certainly got my 'horsey fix' and make no apologies for the number of photos posted ... I have many more and I'm sure one or two of these characters will find their way into future drawings.


We had a lovely curry meal on Saturday evening, one of the best Indians we've eaten in England I think and stayed overnight in a hotel on the outskirts of Birmingham.     At 4am we were woken by a knocking at the door - always a bit worrying when in Bandit Country ;-).   Turned out it was the duty Manager who was investigating the cause of flooding in the room below ours.   We then realised that the carpet in the entrance hall to our room was also soaking wet.    He had a look around our bathroom but couldn't find a leak.
When he left, David worked out that our toilet cistern which was a boxed-in unit was overflowing because the valve had stuck - the flooding wasn't visible outside the unit.   He fixed it and called the Manager back to inspect his handiwork and by way of thanks/apology we got a full refund of the room charge (but actually I think I'd have preferred an unbroken night's sleep)

On Sunday morning we delivered my two pictures to the Royal Birmingham Society of Art Gallery where the UKCPS 13th Annual Open Int'l Exhibition is being staged.     This was the main purpose of our trip to the Midlands.

Then we went back to the Gallery at 5pm for the Private View and prize-giving.

The original selection in February was made by a jury of 3 people -  Ann Kullberg - US Coloured Pencil Artist, Steve Pill - Editor, Artists & Illustrators Magazine and Paul Bartlett RBA RBSA - Artist and Full Member of the RBSA.
The Awards Judge at the Gallery on Sunday was Brian Fletcher RBSA.

I'm very pleased that my Gorilla drawing 'Here's looking at you' received a Highly Commended Award and my prize was a boxed set of coloured pencils to add to my collection :-)

Not a great photo but David took this just before the award ceremony

There were some fabulous drawings in the exhibition and I took lots of photos but its a brightly lit gallery and I got too much 'glare' off the glass in the frames so it probably best to post the link to the UKCPS website where you can see the award winning pictures - albeit not in their frames (and most look so much better when you see them 'in the flesh' in complentary mounts/frames).  Here's the link to the page which also contains a link to the Picasa slideshow where you can see all of the entries if you wish

Award Winners