common seal miniature painting and a book

Keeping Watch (Common Seal) © Tracy Hall 2010

1.75" x 4" watercolour on board (ghost penny shown for scale)

A wander along the beach here is usually accompanied by one or more seals; they'll keep pace with you and their natural curiosity means its sometimes hard to work out who is more intrigued by the other's presence. My latest miniature painting hopefully captures some of that 'watching you watching me' business. The old norse name for Orkney was 'Seal Island' and both common (or harbour) and grey seals can be found here.

Quarto Publishing got in touch some time ago to use some of my paintings in their forthcoming title 'The New Encyclopedia of Watercolour Techniques' (Search Press) and I'm pleased to say a copy reached me today - and full marks to the postie who had to walk down the track with it! I didn't see the earlier editions but this one looks quite good and there is some lovely work and demos included.

If you're in the UK I hope you have been able to enjoy the recent snow...and haven't been too inconvenienced by it. Its very pretty but hopefully it won't hang around too much longer! This is the beach here this morning -

catching up

The purple-faced leaf monkey miniature painting (no, that won't be the title) is now finished and beautifully framed by Liam at Brampton Framing, who I can highly recommend (this is deliberately in a wider frame but they also carry a very good selection of mouldings suitable for miniature society exhibitions).

I shall be taking part in The Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers Society of Washington DC (MPSGS) 77th Annual Exhibition which opens on November 21st at Strathmore Mansion, North Bethesda, MD, USA and features a wealth of beautiful miniatures from around the world. I was very happy to receive an Honourable Mention for my Eider painting (above). I was also delighted to receive an Honourable Mention for Water lily (below) in Blossom II Art of Flowers which opens next February in Florida.

Water Lily © Tracy Hall 2009

2.25" x 3.25" watercolour on board

Finally a short video of the seals on the beach here this morning...sometimes it just takes awhile to get comfy and find someone you want to sit next to!

Monkey painting - watercolour miniature

Purple-faced leaf monkey © Tracy Hall 2010

3.25" x 2.25" watercolour on board

My latest miniature is of a monkey from the rainforests of Sri Lanka whose name is a bit of a mouthful - the Southern Lowland wetzone purple-faced leaf monkey or langur (Trachypithecus vetulus vetulus). Because of loss of habitat, these monkeys are one of the most endangered primates in the wild and as a result there are breeding programmes in zoos like Edinburgh.

It was fun to have lots of hair to paint, although I am not sure I've finished yet so may go back in for more :) The penny is just there for scale. I took a few photos as I was working and ran them together below...but since I left the eyes til last this time be warned he looks distinctly odd in progress!

Below are some snippets from some recent paintings for the jigsaw market which I'll be able to show in full next year after they are published: