Chimpanzee - miniature painting in watercolour

Chimfunchi Chimpazee © Tracy Hall 2009

Watercolour miniature 1.75" x 2.25"

This is my latest miniature and has been so much fun to work on! My brother lived for many years in Zambia and spent time at the Chimfunchi Orphanage, where young chimpanzees are cared for and rehabilitated. This painting is an amalgam of several of them, and since I needed to record the progress of this piece I've included a few stages below as I went along:

On the easel

work-in-progress © Tracy Hall 2009

The weather outside may be undecided but the sun is shining on the easel here just now. I'm surrounded by flower photos from the garden in summers' past, and looking forward to seeing them again outside! This is a commission piece progressing, 28" x 20", watercolour on arches hot pressed paper.

Herring Gull miniature painting

Herring Gull © Tracy Hall 2009

2.25" x 3.25" watercolour on board

This is my latest miniature painting, a Herring Gull perched on the casings used to build the Churchill Barriers. I find rusty metal and weathered wood irresistible, but must admit this one was a lot more work than I had anticipated!

Scapa Flow was an important natural harbour for the Royal Navy during the wars. Early in WW2 a German u-boat managed to get past the blockships (which had been sunk as a defensive measure in WW1) and torpedo the HMS Royal Oak, prompting Churchill to visit the islands and initiate the building of the four barriers to protect the fleet. They were built from massive concrete blocks which were made using these enormous shuttered mould thingies (a technical term), some of which have been left at the Burray end of the third barrier, and provided the starting point for this painting. Both the remains of the blockships and the barriers are very popular with birds throughout the year.

The third barrier on a good day

They have been used ever since by the locals as causeways linking the islands with mainland Orkney. It is not recommended to try and cross in high winds at high tide though (imagine a very long, powerful car wash with stones in it) although the addition of safety rails was a big improvement some years back. The more recent wave wall wasn't :) It can certainly make a trip to the supermarket quite exciting in the winter.

Spring Chicken

© Tracy Hall 2009

3" x 3" pencil

During April one of the local galleries are having a Spring themed show, with all work cd sized, so I did this little sketch for it. Money raised from the exhibition will go to the Red Cross Hospital Guest House Fund - this is where people from the islands can stay when they or relatives are in Aberdeen for treatment. Last of the hens for a while, promise :)

Orchid watercolour painting

'Orchid' © Tracy Hall 2009

12" x 16" watercolour on Arches

This lovely plant was a gift and I happily settled down to paint it, taking some photos as well, as always, 'just in case'. But of course orchids bloom for so long it wouldn't be necessary to use them to complete the painting, I felt sure. I had to leave it for a few days to meet some deadlines, but...orchids bloom for so long, I wasn't unduly worried.

Until I noticed the flowers starting to turn brown and wilt. Within a couple of days the entire stem was dead and not a single bloom remained. In all the years we have had orchids, I've never seen that before. Anyone out there know what the trouble could be?! I am hoping it was just very traumatised after whatever it had been through prior to arriving in my kitchen and that when it has had a chance to settle down it will manage to flower again successfully. I also haven't been able to identify it, which would possibly help, but think it may be a kind of Cymbidium. The nursery had helpfully provided no information whatsoever! The photos weren't brilliant, but at least enabled me to finish it.