Hardwick Hall (46)

This painting is from a photo I took of Hardwick Hall, at the end of a summer’s day when the shadows were just starting to creep across the lawn.

Hardwick Hall is an imposing Elizabethan house in Derbyshire. It was built in the 1590s by Bess of Hardwick, who, at the time, was the richest woman in England after Queen Elizabeth I. It has not been altered since – much of the furniture is original and magnificent tapestries still line the walls of the house. There are a great many windows in the house, which is unusual for the time and a sign of conspicuous wealth. As children we were taught a little rhyme about it: ‘Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall!’

Hardwick Hall will always have a special place in my heart because it is very close to the village where I grew up. Hardwick Park was our playground - we often had picnics there as kids, I used to ride my horse, Fudge, through it, and my brother played cricket on the cricket ground behind the hall. In those days, the road through Hardwick Park was open to through traffic. That was before trucks started to use it as a short cut, which resulted in it being closed and traffic being diverted a long way round.

I painted this picture last year, while I was living back in the UK. My 12 year old niece, Bethany, and I spent a day together and decided to each do a painting from my photo of Hardwick Hall. Hers was in acrylics and mine in pastels. I thought hers was much better than mine – kids are often amazingly creative.

Seagull (9)

This seagull was painted from a photograph I took while walking on the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path in 2006. My friend, Ally, and I had just sat down to have a rest when it came and stood very near us and started screeching. We weren’t sure whether it was defending its young or scrounging for food!

This is one of my early paintings and at the time I didn’t have many pastels. I also hadn’t learnt the art of blending colours to make new ones, so the palette is more basic than in my later paintings.

Sheep at Badgingarra (29)

This painting is of a scene from a photo in a tourist brochure depicting sheep dogs herding sheep along a red dirt track - a common sight in country Western Australia. Badgingarra is a small wheatbelt town, mid-way between Perth and Geraldton, 200km north of Perth.

I found the light in this scene very interesting and it was challenging to capture the brightness of the light playing on the trees and the track in the background and the huge shadows in the foreground cast by the dogs and trees.

It was also a good exercise in seeing the components of the photo as shapes and tones rather than particular objects. For example, the sheep look like they’re one mass, and the dogs are just blobs of black and white (strategically placed of course!)

Pelican (18)

The Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus) is the largest flying bird in Australia with a wing span of up to 2.5 metres. It also has the longest bill of any bird in the world (up to 50cm long). The capacity of their pouched bill is 7 litres.

Pelicans are a fairly common sight in Fremantle and I decided to paint one after I’d seen some on a morning walk along the beach. I sourced the photo from the internet.

Taking the plunge (38)

I like seagulls – but they’re another creature that gets a hard rap. They may be scavengers but they have a lot of courage, and are very handsome and photogenic birds.

I remember reading Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach many years ago (I’ve just discovered it was published in 1970 – can you believe that?!) The tale of a seagull learning about life and flight and wanting to be better than the average gull inspired me.

I took this photo of seagulls stood at the edge of the sea at Myalup, south of Perth. It was dusk and they looked to me like they were lining up to take an evening dip, each waiting for someone else to take the plunge first!