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I'm going to be doing a live painting demo at Stoke Gabriel Art Group in Devon, TQ9 6ST UK on Tuesday 7th December. The demo starts at 730pm ((in the Village Hall). Tea and biscuits provided at the half-way mark. Guests are welcome (£2 entry fee). I'll be creating a painting of lambs in the English countryside using interactive acrylics and maybe some watercolour and other stuff depending on time. :-) #animalart #artdemo #artclass

Just a line to say thanks to those who got in touch regarding my recent posts. I'm now closing commissions for this year but will re-open them in early 2022.

Is your loved one a beltie fan? Still looking for the ideal Christmas present? Something with a truly personal touch? There are only 39 shopping days until Christmas! Further to my post the other day, there is only one spot left on my Christmas Cattle Commissions program. If you would like to commission a beltedgalloway painting this holiday season, please email me on info at mikejory dot co dot uk for details

Are you super busy but mildly worried that Christmas is fast approaching? Are you beginning to wonder what to get as a present for your loved one this holiday season? Do you remember that last time you bought something generic… and the look of disappointment on their face? What about that time they got upset after unwrapping your gift and they had to remind you that they’d specifically said “I don’t like that type of thing�. Did they tell you that you never listen. Deep down, did you feel that they were right? You want to do better but are you struggling to think of something that you haven’t done before? Something that is truly unique? Something that they will love and treasure for a lifetime? Something that really shows you have thought carefully about what they would like. Something that shows how much you feel connected to them. Something that shows them that you really know them. Do you have a loved one who is a fan of belted galloway cows?
Well, good news, Christmas Cattle Commissions are now open. If you would be interested in commissioning a cattle painting then please feel free to email me: info at mikejory dot co dot uk The painting shown is “The White Stripe� inspired by a #beltie on #Dartmoor in the UK. The original painting sold to a collector in the US and prints have been sold worldwide.

Thanks to all who got in touch regarding my Belties commission a painting program. Commissions are closed for now but will re-open at the end of October / early November. If you'd like to be on the waiting list for a beltie painting or another commission then please feel free to email me info at mikejory dot co dot uk and I'll put you on the list.

3 out of 5 places are already gone. 
Spaces in the 6 Week Commission-a-Beltie-Painting program are running out, and registration closes in just 12 hours �
If you’re a Tech Business Executive or Scientist struggling with finding the time to search for your dream belties painting this is your opportunity to acquire the beltie painting that you’re proud to hang in your home. Don’t miss out!  
“Mike has so far completed two pieces of art work for me and they are absolutely brilliant, we had several discussions about subject and content and Mike did the rest. Fantastic work by a fantastic artist� - D. Tredgett.
Email me info at mikejory dot co dot uk with "Belties" in the subject and body of your email and I'll send you the details on how to apply.

Just  � 36 hours left �
Time is running out to grab your spot on the 6 Week Commission-a-Beltie-Painting Program
I’ve had several questions over the last couple of days so if you love belties artwork, here are some more details:
✅ On 11th Oct 2021, the 6 Week Commission-a-Beltie-Painting Program will begin. There are now just 4 spots available and each person will work closely with me as I create a bespoke beltie painting for them that they will be proud to hang in their home withOUT them having to set aside hours at a time to tour round galleries and art fairs.
✅ The program is specifically designed to allow you to acquire a truly unique belted galloway cow painting that you and / or a loved one will have a deep personal connection to. It’s designed for people who’ve tried searching on line and visiting open studio events and still haven’t been able to get the belties painting that will truly enhance their living space.
✅ You’ll get the 6 Week Commission-a-Beltie-Painting Program
✅ You don’t need any equipment just access to your phone
✅ You don’t need to provide reference photos unless you have a particular location and / or animal in mind.
✅ You don’t need to set aside hours at a time, the program is designed to fit in with a busy lifestyle so you just review progress and provide me with feedback whenever you have a few minutes.
✅ Cost will depend on the size of painting you commission and the materials used. The most popular option is a 21�x15� acrylic painting on high quality paper at GBP £690.
✅ The finished painting, along with the extra drawings mentioned in my previous posts, are shipped to you by tracked-and-signed-for-courier. For the option mentioned above, I can provide free international shipping.
To grab one of the remaining places on the program email me info at mikejory dot co dot uk with “belties� in the subject line and body of your message then I will send you the sign up details.
Please note, you’ve only got 36hrs before registration is closing. 
p.s. The picture shown is “Storm’s Coming� - the original painting sold to a veterinarian and rancher in the USA.

How a busy tech executive commissioned beltie paintings their loved one has a deep personal connection to withOUT sacrificing their limited free time by spending hours touring round galleries, art fairs and searching online…and how you can do the exact same thing.
Yesterday I revealed information about my 6 Week Commission-a-Beltie-Painting Program to enable you to get your dream belted galloway painting that will be a truly unique addition to your home, will fit with your personal style and is art that you and your loved one will have a real personal connection to.

So here’s the plan.

I am looking for 5 tech professionals who are tired of not being able to find the time to find a truly unique piece of belted galloway cow artwork that their loved one will treasure.

On 11th October 2021 these art lovers will start working closely with me to create a truly unique belted galloway cow painting for their home and / or as a gift for that special someone.

Does that sound exciting to you?

Would you LOVE to stop missing out on your dream painting and start taking the right steps towards FINALLY acquiring some beautiful beltie artwork that you have a genuine personal connection to?

Those 5 people will get: 

✅  The 6 week Commission-a-Beltie-Painting program: during which I will paint an original belted galloway cattle painting for you so that you finally get that special statement piece you’ve been looking for. The program uses the In-Phase Painting system which is a unique method to produce striking works of art in a time-efficient way by combining proven techniques from fine art, scientific research and agile project management.  

✅  Weekly progress reports to ensure the painting produced is tuned to your personal taste.

✅  Full access to the creative process from thumbnail sketches and initial drawings, to image design, colour and media choice all the way through to creation of the final painting so you experience the entire creative journey.

✅  At the end of the process, all preparatory sketches, drawings, experiments, notes etc will be provided with the finished painting so you not only gain a wonderful painting but also a wealth of behind-the-scenes materials and artwork.

✅  Your own App so that you can view work-in-progress images and videos delivered straight to your phone no matter where you are.

✅  Permanent exclusive access to the painting videos - as well as watching the painting come to life on your phone, all videos are downloadable so you will gain a permanent record of the creative process and the story that leads to your painting.

✅  Transfer of image copyright to you so you can be sure that you have a truly unique piece of art that will never be reproduced as prints etc.

“I have been commissioning art work from Mike for over 10 years. Mike listens carefully to the brief and the work is of the highest standard. I would not hesitate to recommend this artist.� - Dr. R. Crook

Interested in commissioning a belted galloway cow painting that will enhance your home and that you’ll have a genuine personal connection to?
Simply email me info at mikejory dot co dot uk with “Belties� in the subject line and body of your email & I will personally send you the details. It’s that simple. Just type “Belties� in the title and body of your email to secure your spot.
Kind regards
Mike
p.s. the painting shown is ‘Hidden by Stone Walls’ inspired by a herd up on Dartmoor in the UK.

Are you a busy tech professional who works in the city but loves the countryside? Do you have a loved one who is a fan of #beltedgalloway cattle? How are you supposed to find a #beltedgallowaycow painting that is the perfect gift for your loved one, that fits perfectly in your home if you don’t feel a personal connection to the art work that you’ve viewed so far? Is it actually possible to purchase belted galloway cow art without buying something that other people already have? I bet you’ve tried art galleries, art fairs and online galleries and nothing has quite worked for you, right? How do you find the time to visit endless art galleries and art fairs if you're a busy tech professional, if your timetable is packed with meetings, scrums, wash ups etc? How do you justify spending money on framing if you’re unsure if you will feel a long-term emotional connection to the art that you purchase? Is the constant quest to find a belted galloway cow painting that you and your loved one truly love really worth it? Can you really get your ideal painting without compromising on style, composition, size and how well it fits in with your own personal living space? If any (or all) of the above questions run through your head… I might be able to help.
I don't have all the answers but I have created several #beltie paintings that have helped tech professionals including those in the fields of #science #physics #engineering and #computerprogramming transform their homes and workspaces and provide unique gifts for their loved ones. So, let me give you a road map, so that you stop hitting dead ends or getting lost on back roads, and instead take the fast lane to a belted galloway cow painting that you can be proud to hang in your home. Let me show you that you can have the art and living space that you’ve always dreamed of. I’ve had many tech professionals reach out to me asking for my help. So I had this idea to build a step by step plan to guide you from wondering how to get your hands on your dream painting to owning a belted galloway cow painting in just 6 weeks AND as I create the painting, you will be able to see it come to life and contribute to its design ensuring you'll have a deep personal connection to the finished artwork. No fluff. No messing around, just a simple plan to take you from wanting your dream painting to having your dream painting. I am only opening this #belties commissions program at select times of the year. If you are interested in claiming one of the very few spots available on this program, email me: info at mikejory dot co dot uk with "belties" in the subject field
Best wishes
Mike
p.s. The painting shown is “The White Stripe� inspired by a beltie on #Dartmoor in the UK. The original painting sold to a collector in the US.

Watercolor portrait painting inspired by Eddie Izzard sitting for Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year.

This week's video is a real-time watercolor painting demo of an impressionist city scene.

Sheep painting work in progress

 This week's painting is a surreal twist on a black cattle painting, check out the finished cow painting 'Welcome to the edge' here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/black-cows-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials used: A2 Daler Rowney mixed media paper; Synthetic brushes: round mop, flat, small round, filbert
Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolors: alizarin crimson, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, violet
ChromaInc Atelier interactive acrylics: cerulean blue, titanium white, alizarin crimson

 

Real-time demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKP7YsVXMLM
In this video, I take you through the creation of a self portrait painting that I created for my entry to Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2022 - mostly used interactive acrylics for this one. Check out the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/mike-jory-artist-self-portrait-mike-jory.html

 'Let's get together' - check out the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/black-cattle-painting-mike-jory.html 

You can watch the real time demo video of this painting coming to life here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpi2tA1-7_A

 This week, I take you through a real-time demo of a painting of four black cattle. These 4 steer were encountered in a field on the outskirts of Exeter in Devon, Uk and I was struck by the multitude of colors in their gleaming coats along with the ever-changing patterns they created as the herd moves around. Cow paintings (well these are steer actually) are one of my favourite subjects, I hope that you enjoy the video!
Materials used:
Daler Rowney A2 Mixed Media Paper; Blue watercolor marker pen, Conventional Acrylics: System 3, titanium white & fluorescents: red, yellow, blue, pink; titanium white. Interactive acrylics: titanium white, tinting white, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow deep, burnt umber. Brushes: 2" decorating brush, 1" and half inch synthetic flats; small filbert and small round (both synthetic)

Check out my finished painting of Nicola Coughlan here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/nicola-coughlan-portrait-painting-mike-jory.html Created this for Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Week, season 3 episode 1.
Materials: Daler Rowney A2 mixed media paper, conventional acrylics: titanium white, cadmium red, cadmium yellow. Chroma interactive acrylic: tinting white, permanent alizarin, cerulean blue, cadmium yellow light. Brushes: 1 inch flat, half inch flat, small filbert (all synthetic)
#PAOTW #myPAOTW #SkyArtsPortraitArtistoftheWeek

We're up to episode 4 of the Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2021. Unable to attend as a wildcard artist due to travel restrictions, I decide to paint the scene from my TV. You can see the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/chartwell-gardens-mike-jory.html

Materials used: A2 Daler Rowney mixed media paper; Peacock blue watercolor marker pen; medium synthetic flat and round watercolour brushes. Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolours: French ultramarine and Cerulean blues, Alizarin crimson and Cadmium yellow light, Burnt umber and Neutral tint.
Chroma interactive acrylics: titanium white; alizarin crimson; french ultramarine blue; cadmium yellow light; burnt umber, orange; synthetic brushes: flats 0.5inch and 0.75inch, small filbert

Inktense travel set sketch of the West Reservoir in London. See the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/west-reservoir-london-painting-sky-arts-landscape-artist-of-the-year-mike-jory.html This painting was inspired by Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2021 episode 3
Materials:
Inktense travel set, A2 Daler Rowney mixed media paper, water brushes flat and round.
#LAOTY #LandscapeArtistoftheYear

 See the zoomable hires watercolor painting 'Gliding by' here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/west-wycombe-park-music-hall-folly-swans-lake-painting-mike-jory.html This week, inspired by episode 2 of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2021, I take you through a real time demo of a watercolour painting of 2 swans on the lake at West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire in England. The painting is created using a little bit of sharpie marker and then the rest is done in impressionist watercolor, the swans are deliberately left partially transparent to reflect the idea that they are moving and we are just getting to glimpse a moment in time.
Materials: A2 The Langton watercolor paper, synthetic bruhses, large round mop; large, med and small flats and a small round. Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolours: French ultramarine and Cerulean blues, Alizarin crimson and Cadmium yellow light. Chroma titanium white interactive acrylic, Sharpie marker pens (light and medium blues) #LAOTY #LandscapeArtistoftheYear

 'This place is really popular' - check out the finished watercolor painting of this restaurant interior here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/restaurant-painting-loose-impressionist-watercolor-watercolour-painting-mike-jory.html
In this week's Sunday Art Show, I take you through a real-time demo of how to use watercolour to create a loose and lively restaurant interior painting. Watercolor is applied in fluid washes taking account of the big shapes in the scene, working from light to dark. As these washes mingle, colour mixing effects and naturally occurring edges are created. Once dry, a ball point pen is used to add defining line work in key areas. Some areas are deliberately left untouched. Then, more opaque watercolor paint is added to enhance the contrast and some detail here and there to create and energetic impressionist scene fully of the buzz of a busy lunch time.
Materials used: A3 The Langton watercolour paper, synthetic brushes, Winsor and Newton professional watercolours: Alizarin Crimson, French Ultrmarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Light, Burnt Umber, Neutral Tint and a blue biro.

 This week, I paint Chartwell House in England using watercolor and a little ballpoint pen. You can see the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/charwell-house-england-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html
In this real-time demo, I begin with a very loose application of watercolour and then gradually define areas of light and dark. Next, I add a few biro lines to include some minimalist drawing. The finishing stages include adding more watercolor and biro to enhance the texture and detail. Enjoyed creating this watercolor painting of a large house in the English countryside.
Materials used: A2 The Langton textured watercolor paper; Winsor and Newton Professional watercolour paints: Cerulean blue, French ultramarine blue, Alizarin crimson, Cadmium red, Cadmium yellow light, Neutral tint; Brushes are all synthetic: Jackson's Raven No 6 Round Mop; Artdiscount own brand small round, generic flat approx half inch wide, Princeton Neptune 1" oval wash; Matthew Palmer branch and detail brush (small) and a No 1 rigger by Daler Rowney; Ball point pens are just random biros I had: dark blue and a light blue. #laoty #LandscapeArtistoftheYear #SkyArts #ChartwellHouse #laoty2021 #episode1

 This week, I do a real time demo showing how to paint some Scottish Highland cows complete with long shaggy coats and big horns. You can see the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/highland-cattle-cows-with-horns-painting-mike-jory.html
This was actually a work in progress from 11 years ago, I had previously created a mixed media drawing from the same reference that you can see here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/highland-cows-mike-jory.html
Materials: For the painting, I had already put down a base layer of conventional acrylic on A2 mixed media paper by Daler Rowney. Over the top of this I use Chroma Atelier interactive acrylics: alizarin crimson, french ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow light, tinting white, titanium white and burnt umber. Brushes: flat synthetics and a small filbert. #highlandcowpainting #highlandcow #highlandcows #howtopaintacow

 'Belties at Budleigh' see the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/belted-galloway-cow-at-budleigh-salterton-beach-painting-mike-jory.html
This week, I paint some belted galloway cows on the pebble beach at Budleigh Salterton in Devon, England to create a surreal watercolor painting. For the first part of the painting, created while sitting on the beach, working plein air, I used watercolour to capture and enhance the vibrant colours in the tree-topped red cliffs of the Jurassic Coast. Then, once I returned to the studio, I continued using watercolor paint along with some watercolour marker pens to add a surreal element to the painting, three belted galloway cattle are added to the scene, one at the water's edge, one actually standing on the water, and the main beltie in the foreground actually standing beyond the edges of the scene!
Materials used:
Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolours: Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Light, Burnt Umber, Neutral Tint. Spectrum Noir Watercolour Marker Pens (Peacock Blue). Chroma atelier interactive acrylic titanium white. Daler Rowney A2 mixed media paper

Esta semana, pinto algunas vacas galloway con cinturĂ³n en la playa de guijarros de Budleigh Salterton en Devon, Inglaterra, para crear una pintura de acuarela surrealista. Para la primera parte de la pintura, creada mientras estaba sentado en la playa, trabajando al aire libre, utilicĂ© acuarela para capturar y realzar los colores vibrantes en los acantilados rojos cubiertos de Ă¡rboles de la Costa JurĂ¡sica. Luego, una vez que regresĂ© al estudio, continuĂ© usando pintura de acuarela junto con algunos rotuladores de acuarela para agregar un elemento surrealista a la pintura, se agregan tres ganado galloway con cinturĂ³n a la escena, uno en la orilla del agua, uno realmente parado en el agua, ¡y el cinturĂ³n principal en primer plano realmente parado mĂ¡s allĂ¡ de los bordes de la escena!
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Diese Woche male ich einige Galloway-KĂ¼he mit GĂ¼rtel am Kieselstrand von Budleigh Salterton in Devon, England, um ein surreales Aquarell zu schaffen. FĂ¼r den ersten Teil des Gemäldes, das ich am Strand im Freien erstellt habe, habe ich Aquarell verwendet, um die leuchtenden Farben in den baumbestandenen roten Klippen der JurakĂ¼ste einzufangen und zu verbessern. Als ich dann ins Studio zurĂ¼ckkehrte, verwendete ich weiterhin Aquarellfarbe zusammen mit einigen Aquarellmarkierungsstiften, um dem Gemälde ein surreales Element hinzuzufĂ¼gen. Der Szene wurden drei Galloway-Rinder mit GĂ¼rtel hinzugefĂ¼gt, eines am Wasser, eines tatsächlich auf dem Wasser und der HauptgĂ¼rtel im Vordergrund stehen tatsächlich hinter den Rändern der Szene!
Cette semaine, je peins des vaches Galloway ceinturées sur la plage de galets de Budleigh Salterton dans le Devon, en Angleterre, pour créer une aquarelle surréaliste. Pour la première partie de la peinture, créée alors que j'étais assis sur la plage, travaillant en plein air, j'ai utilisé l'aquarelle pour capturer et améliorer les couleurs vibrantes des falaises rouges surmontées d'arbres de la côte jurassique. Puis, une fois de retour au studio, j'ai continué à utiliser de la peinture à l'aquarelle avec quelques marqueurs aquarelle pour ajouter un élément surréaliste à la peinture, trois bovins galloway ceinturés sont ajoutés à la scène, un au bord de l'eau, un debout sur le l'eau, et la ceinture principale au premier plan se tenant au-delà des bords de la scène!
Den här veckan mĂ¥lar jag nĂ¥gra galloway-kor med bälte pĂ¥ stenstranden vid Budleigh Salterton i Devon, England för att skapa en surrealistisk akvarellmĂ¥lning. För den första delen av mĂ¥lningen, skapad när jag satt pĂ¥ stranden och arbetade plein air, använde jag akvarell för att fĂ¥nga och förstärka de livfulla färgerna i de röda klipporna pĂ¥ Jurassic Coast. När jag väl Ă¥tervände till studion fortsatte jag med att använda vattenfärgfärg tillsammans med nĂ¥gra vattenfärgpennor för att lägga till ett surrealistiskt element i mĂ¥lningen, tre bältade galloway-nötkreatur läggs till pĂ¥ scenen, en vid vattnet, en som faktiskt stĂ¥r pĂ¥ vatten och huvudbandet i förgrunden som faktiskt stĂ¥r utanför scenens kanter!

See the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/melanie-blatt-portrait-artist-of-the-week-mike-jory.html
This week's video is a real time demo of a portrait painting of All Saints singer /songwriter Melanie Blatt. I created this for episode 3 of Sky Arts, Portrait Artist of the Week, season 2. I begin with a loose pencil sketch, then go over this and correct as I go using a blue watercolor marker pen followed by a gray marker. The sketching portion is shown in time lapse but after this short section, the video switches to real time and I talk through my thought process and show painting and paint mixing every step of the way as I apply interactive acrylics to mixed media paper.
Materials used: 7B graphite pencil, blue and grey Winsor & Newton watercolour marker pens, A2 Daler Rowney mixed media paper, synthetic brushes (flats approx half inch and 3/4 inch and a small filbert), interactive acrylics by Chroma (alizarin crimson, french ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow light, burnt umber, titanium white) #PAOTW #myPAOTW

We are up to episode 2 of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Week (season 2). For this week's show, the sitter is BBC radio and television presenter Nihal Arthanayake. This video is a real-time demo of how I created Nihal's portrait painting using interactive acrylics by Chroma Inc. You can see the finished portrait painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/nihal-arthanayake-portrait-painting-paotw-mike-jory.html
Materials: Daler-Rowney A2 mixed media paper; 7B pencil; magenta watercolour marker pen (Winsor & Newton); Chroma Inc interactive acrylics: titanium white, burnt umber, cadmium yellow light, alizarin crimson, french ultramarine blue, cerulean blue; Synthetic brushes: flat brushes (approx widths: 1", half inch) and a small round flat.

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Week season 2, episode 1. Portrait painting of DJ, presenter and author Annie MacManus. This week, I use interactive acrylics to create an expressive, colourful and lively portrait painting.
See the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/annie-macmanus-portait-artist-of-the-week-mike-jory.html
Check out the Portrait Artist of the Week show here: facebook.com/skytv
Materials used: Daler Rowney Mixed media paper A2; 8B or 9B pencil; Winsor and Newton watercolour marker pen (turquoise); Chroma Interactive Acrylics: Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine and Cerulean Blues; Cadmium Yellow Light; Burnt Umber; Titanium White; Flat and round synthetic brushes
#mypaotw #paotw #PortraitArtistoftheWeek #AnnieMacManus

After many months and 26 episodes, the Animal Alphabet Painting Challenge is complete!!! For the final episode, I start with a sharpie marker drawing and the complete the picture using watercolor.
Zebra fish finished painting https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/zebra-fish-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html
Animal Alphabet Paintings complete collection: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/collections/the+animal+alphabet+challenge
Materials used: A4 Daler Rowney mixed media paper, black sharpie marker pen, synthetic watercolour brushes: round mop, rigger, small round and small flat, Winsor and Newton professional watercolours: Alizarin crimson, Ultramarine blue, Cadmium yellow, Cerulean Blue
 

 A few months ago, I took part in the weekly interactive facebook show, Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Week. In this video, I review all the different portraits and techniques from my season 1 paintings and form a loose plan for season 2. Take part or just enjoy the show at 10am (UK time) on Sunday 18th October 2020 and for several days after here: https://www.facebook.com/SkyTV/

This week, we are down on the south coast of Cornwall on a very windy and stormy day, looking over Whitsand Bay to Rame Head and the ancient chapel that sits on the cliff top there. I use watercolor paints to create a range of textures in a multi-layered style to capture the flat, diffuse light that occurs in cloudy stormy weather in England.
See the finished painting, 'Storm at Rame Head' https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/rame-head-cornwall-painting-mike-jory.html
Other paintings featured in the video can be seen here:
Pony and Foal - 'Shelter Me' - https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/pony-and-foal-mike-jory.html
Belted Galloway Cows Painting - 'About To Rain' - https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/belted-galloway-cows-painting-about-to-rain-mike-jory.html
'The Golden Flock' - Colorful Sheep Art - https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/the-golden-flock-colorful-sheep-art-mike-jory.html
'The Gloomy Sky' - https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/gloomy-overcast-cloudy-day-devon-rolling-hills-mike-jory.html
'Sunshine and Showers' - https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/rainy-day-in-devon-mike-jory.html
'Stormy Winter' - https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/devon-valley-landscape-painting-stormy-winter-mike-jory.html
'Evening Blues' - https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/dramatic-evening-sky-and-horizon-mike-jory.html
Materials used this week: Daler-Rowney The Langton Watercolour paper (A2) rough 140 llb; Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolours: Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine Blue; Cerulean Blue; Burnt Umber; Cadmium Yellow; Synthetic Brushes: Round Mop; small round, round flat and square flat.

 This week, I enter a youtube art prompt competition run by US artist Ten Hundred, the prompt being "Reaching new heights". I decide to go surreal and paint some very loose impressionist flowers and plants using watercolor on a large canvas to paint en plein air an arrangement of intertwined flora. Then using watercolor marker pen and a touch of interactive acrylic, I add 5 belted galloway cows amongst the garden life, including one tiny cow atop the highest flower, hence "reaching new heights"! Links to paintings from the video:
"Belted Galloway Cows Reaching New Heights... Can you see us?" https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/belted-galloway-cows-in-flowers-surreal-painting-mike-jory.html
Belties or belted galloway cow paintings here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/collections/belted+galloway+cow+paintings
My surreal paintings here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/collections/surreal
Check out Ten Hundred's art here:
Ten Hundred Art website: https://www.tenhundredart.com/
Ten Hundred Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/tenhundred
Materials:
Primed stretched canvas approx 21"x16"; Round synthetic watercolor brushes: Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolours: Alizarin crimson, French ultramarine blue, Cadmium yellow light, Burnt umber; Winsor and Newton watercolour marker pen Prussian Blue; Atelier interactive acrylic titanium white.

This week, I take you through, step by step, how to paint a street scene in watercolor. Inspired by the sight of a twisted and crooked church spire in Chesterfield, England, I use a combination of simple, clean washes, wet-in-wet and dry brush to create and expressive, impressionist scene of Chesterfield town centre looking at the iconic church tower from a road bordered by a large Tudor building. You can see the finished painting 'Sunday morning in Chesterfield' here:
https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/chesterfield-church-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials: Daler-Rowney The Langton Watercolour paper (A2) rough 140 llb; Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolours: Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine Blue; Cerulean Blue; Burnt Umber; Cadmium Yellow; Synthetic Brushes: Round Mop; small round, round flat and square flat.

This week, I am inspired by a visit to Lynmouth in North Devon and use watercolor and a touch of white acrylic to create this river valley landscape painting. See the finished painting here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/lynmouth-north-devon-looking-upstream-watercolour-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials used: A2 Langton watercolor paper; synthetic brushes (round mop, rounds, rigger, flat); water spray bottle; Winsor & Newton professional watercolors (french ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow, neutral tint); Chroma Inc Atelier interactive acrylic (titanium white - just used for highlights at the very end)

This week, I create a black and white (with a little blue) drawing of a bicycle in impressionist style using a ball point pen (biro) and a Winsor & Newton grey alcohol based marker pen.
See the finished drawing 'halflash' here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/flatland-bmx-halflash-trick-drawing-mike-jory.html

 This week, we are up to episode Y of the Animal Alphabet Challenge and I paint a yak, Check out the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/yak-painting-mike-jory.html see the Alphabet collection so far here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/collections/the+animal+alphabet+challenge
Materials used:
A4 Daler Rowney mixed media paper; synthetic brushes (round and flat); sharpie marker (black); Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolours: Alizarin crimson, French ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, permanent rose, neutral tint, cerulean blue

 

This week, I take a ten minute painting challenge...can I paint a beach painting, working en plein air, in watercolor in just ten minutes? Our location is the amazing Valley of the Rocks in North Devon and the secret beach that sits at the base of the high cliffs. Check out the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/valley-of-the-rocks-beach-lynton-lynmouth-north-devon-mike-jory.html
Materials used: A3 Daler Rowney mixed media paper; Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolours (Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Burnt Umber, Neutral Tint); Synthetic Brushes (Round Mop, round and flat)

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and the UK went into lockdown in early 2020, Oxford portrait artist Tom Croft (check out his website here: http://www.thomascroft.co.uk/ ) responded by creating a movement that would celebrate the most heroic people during this difficult time. Portraits for NHS Heroes used social media to pair artists across the UK (and the World) with key workers in the NHS. This video gives you a glimpse of the impact of the movement, a look at Tom's work and also details how I created a portrait painting for an NHS key worker.
Materials used: wrapped canvas; watercolour marker pens; conventional acrylics; interactive acrylics; synthetic brushes

This week is episode X of the Animal Alphabet Challenge. You can check out the finished painting of a Xenops bird here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/xenops-bird-colorful-painting-mike-jory.html and view the Animal Alphabet drawings and paintings so far here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/collections/the+animal+alphabet+challenge
Materials: Sharpie marker pen; A4 Daler-Rowney mixed media paper; Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolours: Alizarin crimson. Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Burnt Umber; Synthetic watercolor brushes

This week, we're on the pebble beach at Budleigh Salterton on a bright but blustery day, painting a plein air beach painting including red cliffs and a red sea using interactive acrylics. Check out the finished painting 'Breezy at Budleigh' here:
https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/pebble-beach-red-sea-and-cliffs-at-budleigh-salterton-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials used: Aterlier interactive acrylics by Chroma: Pearlescent tinting white, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow light, burnt umber; Daler-Rowney mixed media paper; flat and round flat synthetic brushes; Winsor and Newton field easel; Turquoise watercolor marker by Winsor and Newton

This week, I show you how I created a portrait painting of Dame Mary Beard for week 9 of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year. You can see the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/dame-mary-beard-portrait-painting-mypaotw-mike-jory.html
Materials used: A2 Daler-Rowney mixed media paper, Winsor & Newton watercolor markers (turquoise and magenta), Chroma Inc Atelier interactive acrylics: alizarin crimson, french ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, titanium white, burnt umber, Synthetic brushes (flats and round flat)

This week, I paint a landscape in watercolor using a waterbrush that is inspired by a hidden valley near Exeter in Devon. Tall reeds, trees, hedges, fields and hills all feature in this expressive, impressionist landscape painting.
See a high resolution version of the painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/long-reeds-and-trees-in-english-valley-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html
You can see various home decor items featuring this design here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/mikejory/works/52430181-reeds-and-trees-in-valley-surreal-watercolor-painting?asc=u
Materials: Daler Rowney mixed media paper (A2), Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolors: Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Burnt Umber, Permanent Rose, Synthetic Water brushes (flat and round), paper towel

Week 8 of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Week and for this episode I create several quick sketches using ball point pen and alcohol-based marker then do a painting that you can see here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/professor-green-musician-rapper-portrait-painting-mypaotw-mike-jory.html
Other paintings / drawings from the video: Owl: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/owl-drawing-mike-jory.html ; Beaver: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/beaver-drawing-mike-jory.html ; Cattle on Dartmoor: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/1-black-cows-on-dartmoor-mike-jory.html
Materials used:
Daler Rowney mixed media paper, ball point pen (blue), Winsor and Newton alcohol-based promarker (cool grey), metallic blue acrylic paint, conventional acrylic (fluorescent pink, fluorescent red, fluorescent yellow, fluorescent blue, titanium white); interactive acrylics (alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, burnt umber, titanium white), synthetic flat and round brushes

Episode W of the Animal Alphabet Challenge. Using sharpie marker pen and watercolor, I paint a Wildebeest and then do a painting of a Warthog.
See the finished Wildebeest painting here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/wildebeest-painting-mike-jory.html and the finished Warthog painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/wildebeest-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials used: Sharpie marker (black), Daler Rowney mixed media paper (A4), Winsor & Newton professional watercolours (Alizarin crimson, Ultramarine blue, Cadmium yellow light, Burnt umber), synthetic brushes (round mop, round point, round flats)

We're up to week 7 of the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Week show. In my quest to use a new technique in each of these PAOTW videos, here I combine watercolor (dry brush), ball point pen and graphite pencil in an unusual order to create a mized media portrait painting of Clare Balding.
See the finished painting (hi resolution and zoomable) here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/clare-balding-portrait-painting-mypaotw-paotw-mike-jory.html
Check out Aine Divine's website here: http://ainedivinepaintings.co.uk/
Materials used: Daler Rowney mixed media paper, black ball point pen, winsor and newton watercolors (ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow light, burnt umber), flat synthetic brush, 8B graphite pencil
#paotw #mypaotw

This week, I show you how to paint the view of a garden, fence, parking lot and trees out of a window using a preliminary sharpie marker drawing and watercolor painting.
See the finished painting here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/view-out-of-a-window-plein-air-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials: Daler Rowney mixed media paper (A2); Sharpie marker pens (light grey, brown and red); Winsor & Newton synthetic round mop brush; Artdiscount synthetic round watercolor brush

This week, I demonstrate an unusual technique to paint a portrait of Will Young for episode 5 of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Week. See the finished portrait painting here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/will-young-portrait-painting-paotw-mypaotw-week-5-mike-jory.html
I begin by doing fourteen, really quick (less than 10 minutes each) sketches of Will each with a different expression using just a brown sharpie marker pen and washes of sepia watercolor paint. Then, I create my finished portrait painting using the same technique but taking more time.
Materials used: Brown Sharpie marker pen, Winsor & Newton sepia watercolour paint, synthetic brushes (large round mop and medium round), mixed media paper.

This week, I show you a muliti-media approach to portrait painting including several tips for beginners as I paint Rob Rinder for week 4 of the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Week. See the hi-res zoomable version of my portrait painting of Judge Robert Rinder here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/judge-rinder-robert-rinder-portrait-painting-mypaotw-mike-jory.html
Check out my video on measuring dimensions of your subject using your thumb on the brush handle here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhK1qb_HYqA
Material used for portrait painting demo: Daler Rowney mixed media paper (A3 11"x15"); 9B pencil; Derwent Inktense pencils (colours used: sea blue, tangerine, deep indigo, payne's grey, burnt umber, sun yellow); synthetic brushes (flat (approx 3/8th inch) and small round); Winsor & Newton watercolor marker pens (burnt umber and prussian blue); Atelier interactive acrylics by Chroma Inc (burnt umber, alizarin crimson, french ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow light, titanium white)

This week, I show you how I created this watercolor painting of an elephant using water brushes.
See the finished painting 'Under the golden sky' here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/elephant-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials used: Daler Rowney mixed media paper, Winsor & Newton watercolors (professional range) alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, neutral tint, burnt umber, flat and round water brushes.

This week, I show you how I created a portrait painting of the photographer Rankin for week 3 of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Week. Check out the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/rankin-photographer-john-rankin-waddell-portrait-painting-mike-jory.html
If you want to check out my review (not sponsored) of Liquitex Acrylic Paint Markers video, you can find that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wp4mDcqpvY
Materials used:
Main painting: Flat synthetic and round brushes, Daler Rowney A2 mixed media paper, System 3 Acrylics: Titanium White, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Fluorescent Orange, Ultramarine Blue; Liquitex Acrylic Paint Markers: Prussian Blue (4 mm nib), Light Blue and Light Blue Violet (15mm nib)

This week, I show you how I created a portrait painting of Bernardine Evaristo when I took part in episode 2 of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Week via Facebook Live. You can see my finished painting of Bernardine here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/bernadine-evaristo-portrait-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials used: Clairefontaine mixed media paper (A3), 8B pencil, synthetic brushes (flat and round), Atelier interactive acrylic paints (alizarine crimson, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, burnt umber, titanium white)

This week, I take part in my first Facebook Live portrait painting session via Sky TV's Portrait Artist of the Week show. I, along with thousands of other artist, and #PAOTY champion Christabel Blackburn paint celebrated dancer and choreographer Akrim Khan. For my paint, I used a mixed media approach. Materials: Daler Rowney mixed media paper, ball point pens (turquoise, blue and purple), Winsor and Newton watercolor paints (alizarin crimson, french ultramarine, cadmium yellow, burnt umber), round synthetic watercolor brushes by Jacksons and Artdiscount.
See Christabel Blackburn's work here: https://www.christabelblackburn.com/
See Tai Shan Schierenberg's work here: http://www.taishanschierenberg.com/
Join in with future shows here: https://www.facebook.com/SkyTV/live

This week, I show you two different versions of a primrose inktense painting using a water brush. You can see the first version here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/primroses-painting-mike-jory.html and the looser second version here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/primroses-loose-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials: Daler-Rowney mixed media paper, water brushes (flat and round), inktense travel set, black and lilac sharpie marker pens

This video is episode V of the Animal Alphabet Challenge. I show you how to create a loose line and wash watercolor painting of a vulture, see the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/vulture-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials: Daler Rowney mixed media paper A4, Sharpie Marker Pen, Winsor and Newton Professional watercolors: alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, burnt umber, sythetic mop watercolor brush

This week, I show you how to create a super loose, impressionist style watercolor painting of sheep and lambs in the spring sunshine using a water brush
See the finished painting 'Spring with the flock' here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/sheep-and-lambs-loose-impressionist-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html or check out this detail, available as a print or on a range of products: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/sheep-with-two-lambs-very-loose-impressionist-expressive-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials: Round and flat water brushes, Daler Rowney mixed media paper (A2), Winsor and Newton professional watercolor paints: alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, burnt umber, cobalt blue; water spray bottle

This week, I show you how to paint a uinta ground squirrel line and wash using sharpie marker pen and watercolor
See the finished hi-res painting 'Relaxed but alert' here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/uinta-ground-squirrel-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html
materials:
reference photo from Pixabay
mixed media paper A4 (Daler-Rowney)
Winsor and Newton Professional watercolor paints ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow, burnt umber
Synthetic mop brush and flat and round water brushes
Black sharpie marker pen

This week's video is all about en plein air black cat animal painting from life. Check out the hi-res version of the finished black cat painting 'It's quiet in the garden' here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/black-cat-relaxing-in-grass-almost-bread-loaf-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials:
One black cat
One gravity well (towel or cushion for cat)
A4 mixed media paper (Daler Rowney)
Inktense Travel set
Flat and pointed waterbrushes
Sharpie marker pen

This week's video is just a quick update to let you know that normal episodes will return next Sunday. If you'd like to get a closer look at some of the sheep paintings then you can see them here:
'Spring Sunshine' https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/6-sheep-mike-jory.html
'Well Hello!' https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/5-sheep-mike-jory.html
'It's Sunny Here' https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/sheep-and-lamb-painting-mike-jory.html

This week, I step into the surreal and finish a wip watercolor painting of some belted galloway cattle in a landscape with people wandering around. Check out the hi-res version here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/belted-galloway-cows-and-people-surreal-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials: Daler Rowney A2 mixed media paper, Winsor and Newton watercolor marker pen and professional watercolor paints: french ultramarine, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow, burnt umber, prussian blue
Synthetic watercolor brushes

This week, I take you though the process of applying to the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2021 and the creation of the portrait sketches and paintings that go with it.

This week, I show you how I created "Cloudy with a chance of cattle" a mixed media painting using watercolor and acrylic of some steer in amongst a colorful and cloudy sky. See the hi-res image here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/cattle-and-purple-clouds-surreal-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials used: Winsor & Newton professional watercolors, Atelier interactive acrylics, synthetic watercolor pointed mop brushes, flat synthetic brushes, mixed media paper (A4)

This week, I show you a line and wash, sharpie and watercolor painting technique to created two different Tasmanian Devil paintings. This video is also episode T of the Animal Alphabet Challenge. You can see the paintings that I've completed so far for the challenge here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/collections/the+animal+alphabet+challenge including the Tasmanian Devils! (Prints and original paintings are available from the same link)
Materials used:
Daler-Rowney mixed media paper
Black Sharpie marker pen
Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolour paints
Jackson No 6 Raven Synthetic Watercolour brush
artdiscount synthetic watercolour brush

This week I how you how to create a mixed media sheep and landscape painting using watercolor and acrylic. Check out the finished painting in zoomable hi-res here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/sheep-and-dartmoor-hillside-landscape-painting-mike-jory.html
I also visit an exhibition by Katharine Lightfoot, her website can be found here: https://katlightfoot.com/
Materials used:
Daler-Rowney A4 mixed media paper
Winsor and Newton professional watercolors
Jackson Raven No 6 round synthetic mop brush
artdiscount.co.uk watercolor synthetic brush
Atelier interactive acrylics
flat and round synthetic acrylic brushes

In this week's video, I show you how I create a loose and lively watercolor painting of an English seaside town on a stormy winter day. You can see the finished version of "Red Storm at Budleigh" here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/red-sea-storm-at-budleigh-salterton-loose-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html or the cropped version here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/budleigh-salterton-seafront-in-winter-watercolour-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials used:
Winsor and Newton professional watercolor paints, permanent alizarin, french ultramarine, naples yellow, neutral tint, burnt umber
Claire Fontaine Paint On mixed media paper A3
Synthetic brushes: artdiscount.co.uk watercolour brush size 10, jacksons pointed mop synthetic watercolour brush Raven size 6

In this week's video, I show you how I created this painting of a seal, you can see the full painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/seal-painting-mike-jory.html prints and products are also available at the same link. Materials used: Sharpie marker pen (black), Daler Rowney mixed media paper (A4), Winsor and Newton professional watercolor paints: permanent alizarin, ultramarine blue, naples yellow, burnt umber, Atelier interactive acrylic: permanent alizarin, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, burnt umber, Jacksons synthetic watercolor brush no 6 (pointed mop brush), synthetic flat and round brushes.

Just a quick info hit in case you missed the end of last week's video. I'm taking a little break, and the next video will be posted on Sunday 2nd Feb 2020. Hope to see you then! :-)

This week I show you my 10 favourite paintings created over the last couple of years for the Sunday Art Show. I am showing these on my new exhibition website http://thelondonartgallery.co.uk Hope you enjoy the show!

See the hi-res version of this raccoon painting 'Cautionary Colours' here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/colorful-raccoon-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials used:
A4 Daler Rowney mixed media paper
Black sharpie marker pen
Winsor and Newton Professional water colours: Alizarin, Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Neutral Tint, Burnt Umber
Jackson's Raven size 6 synthetic pointed mop watercolour brush

This week I show you how to create a painting of a brown european quail using mixed media, see the hi-res version here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/colorful-quail-bird-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials used:
A4 mixed media Daler Rowney paper
Sharpie marker pen (black)
inktense travel set
flat synthetic half-inch-wide water brush

This week I create a mixed media urban sketch "Cafe Life" that you can see in hi-res here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/people-in-cafe-with-red-cups-sketch-mike-jory.html
Location: corner of a supermarket cafe
Materials used: clairefontaine mixed media paper, inktense travel set, brown sharpie marker pen

"Sheep in the Sky" see the hi-res image here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/sheep-in-cloudy-sky-surreal-impressionist-painting-mike-jory.html
see the surreal cow paintings here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/belted-galloway-cows-under-blue-sky-with-clouds-mike-jory.html and here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/belted-galloway-cows-purple-cloudy-sky-painting-mike-jory.html
In this week's video, I show you how to use loose and lively watercolour combined with impressionist acrylic painting to create a surreal skyscape of sheep amongst the clouds.
Materials used:
Winsor and Newton professional watercolour: alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow, french ultramarine, burnt umber
Atelier interactive acrylics: alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow, french ultramarine, burnt umber, titanium white
Synthetic brushes (rounds and flats)
Daler Rowney mixed media paper A2
Water spray bottle

This week's video is inspired by the festive season and Christmas shopper in Exeter. see the finished painting "Christmas on Queen Street" here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/christmas-shopping-in-queen-street-exeter-mike-jory.html
Materials used: Canvas with smooth finish, Synthetic brushes, atelier interactive acrylics: titanium white, ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow light, burnt umber

A bit late posting this blog, but here are details of the video that went up on the channel on Sunday. This week, I take you through painting a reindeer in watercolour with no initial pencil drawing and a loose and lively style of brushwork. You can see the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/reindeer-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials used: Daler Rowney mixed media paper (A2), artdiscount.co.uk synthetic watercolour brushes, Winsor and Newton professional watercolours (alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, naples yellow, neutral tint)

In this week's Sunday Art Show, I show you how to create a painting of a sheep in an autumn landscape using watercolour and interactive acrylic. You can see the finished painting in hi-res here:
https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/sheep-in-autumn-landscape-mike-jory.html
You can find a gallery of sheep paintings and drawings here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/collections/sheep+paintings
The sheep inspiration came from a visit to the flock at Powderham castle in the summer. The trees were inspired by some bright orange foliage in a car park in Exeter. I use loose washes and lots of different ways of applying the paint to create the finished sheep and landscape painting.
Materials used: 7B pencil, Winsor and Newton Watercolour Set (Cotman), Synthetic round and flat brushes, Daler-Rowney mixed media paper, Atelier interactive acrylics (titanium white, burnt umber, cadmium yellow deep, alizarin crimson, french ultramarine)

This week, I show you an overview of an amazing exhibition of artwork by a range of the region's top painters and sculptors. Each year, the South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts holds an open exhibition. This year, 2019, the open exhibition is being held at Exeter Castle, it runs until 23rd Nov and is open 10am to 430pm daily. Entry to the exhibition is free. If you like to check out the online catalogue of artwork on display then click this link to go to the SWAc website: https://www.southwestacademy.org.uk/open-2019-online-catalogue

In this week's video, I show you how to create a loose and lively watercolour painting of a crowd of people walking through a city street. My crowd happen to be protesting against climate change but the techniques apply to any group of people. You can see the finished painting "Time to stop" (prints are also available to buy) here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/street-protest-in-exeter-watercolor-painting-mike-jory.html
materials used: daler-rowney mixed media paper, ball point pen (brown), Winsor and Newton watercolours (ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, ivory black, lemon yellow, alizarin crimson), synthetic brushes: rounds and flats

This week's video is all about watercolour painting. I show you, step by step, how I created "Autumn at Exeter Cathedral" see the finished painting or buy a print etc here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/exeter-cathedral-watercolour-painting-mike-jory.html
Starting with a very simple line drawing that only includes basic shapes, I take a loose and lively approach to painting Exeter Cathedral in watercolour. Thin washes are applied first, then some quick gestural brushwork is used to pick out details here and there and create a variety of textures. I move trees around to create a better composition for this large building in the county town of Devon, work in an impressionist style, keeping things simple but effective and always maintaining a sense of space and light. Materials used:
Flat and round synthetic brushes, A2 Daler Rowney mixed media paper, Winsor and Newton watercolours: Burnt umber, french ultramarine, cadmium yellow, alizarin crimson. Also used a little bit of atelier interactive acrylic at the end: titanium white, alizarin crimson, french ultramarine. Winsor and Newton watercolour marker pen turquoise

This week, I show you how to combine wet-in-wet watercolour style painting techniques with more traditional acrylic methods, using interactive acrylic for both, to create a painting of a stag with antlers in the English countryside. The finished painting "In My Prime" can be seen in hi-res here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/stag-with-antlers-in-landscape-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials: Daler-Rowney mixed media paper, Winsor & Newton Watercolour marker (cerulean blue), synthetic brushes (flat and round), atelier interactive acrylics: permanent alizarin, french ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow deep, cadmium yellow light, burnt umber, titanium white

In this week's video, I show you a behind the scenes peak at being a wild card artist on Sky Arts, Landscape Artist of the Year 2019 - episode 1 - Smeaton's Tower, Plymouth.

You can see a hi-res version of my painting "Drake's Island after the Storm" here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/drakes-island-plymouth-devon-mike-jory.html

If you want to check out Rob Wilson's website, you can find that here: www.robwilsonart.co.uk

I start out by briefly going through the application process for the competition, then I describe my day, from being filmed, to painting en plein air, meeting famous artists and battling with rain storms. There were lots of possible subjects to paint, including battleships, sail boats, stormy skies, the sea, a lighthouse, grand buildings etc. I elected to paint the view across the water of Drakes Island. All in all, I had a fantastic day! Hope you enjoy the video.

'Autumn sunshine' see the hi-res version of the finished painting here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/pumpkin-carnival-squash-and-autumn-leaves-still-life-painting-mike-jory.html
This still life painting of orange and blue pumpkins nestled against carnival squash on a bed of fallen autumn leaves was created using interactive acrylic on canvas. Materials used:
Atelier interactive acrylic: permanent alizarin, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow light, titanium white, burnt umber, 20"x15" primed smooth canvas, synthetic flat and round brushes.

'Dominique in the sunlight' see the finished painting in hi-res here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/dominique-dominicker-hen-chicken-pilgrim-fowl-painting-mike-jory.html
This week, I show you how to create an acrylic painting of a dominiker hen also known as a dominique or pilgrim fowl. These black and white feathered chickens actually have quite a few subtle colours in their plumage that I've tried to capture. I used interactive acrylics for this chicken painting and this allowed me to readily apply thin watercolor-like washes and thicker layers to dinstinguish between bird and background.
Materials used: Daler-Rowney A2 mixed media paper, Atelier interactive acrylics: alizarin crimson, french ultramarine, cadmium yellow light, burnt umber, carbon black, titanium white, synthetic brushes (half inch and one inch flats, small round brush), water spray bottle

This year, I took part in the Sky Arts, Landscape Artist of the Year 2019 TV show, the episodes start airing soon, here's the trailer...





Landscape Artist 2019 Promo for Social Media from Storyvault Films on Vimeo.

A bit late with the blog post this week, but here's the video that went up on the channel on Sunday

"Rust Reds at Rest" - you can see the finished painting in hi-res here

https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/four-red-poll-cattle-lying-down-in-field-watercolour-landscape-cow-en-plein-air-painting-mike-jory.html

This week, I show you a really quick and fun technique that combines en plein air sharpie pen sketching with en plein air watercolour painting to create a cows in  landscape impressionist painting with trees and hedges in the background. These rust red cattle, Red Poll breed were found in a field near Starcross in Devon.

Materials used: Daler-Rowney mixed media paper A4, black sharpie pen, Winsor & Newton watercolour set, round and flat synthetic brushes, Winsor and Newton field easel

This week, I show you how I created 2 en plein air watercolour paintings of the red cliffs and beach at Budleigh Salterton in Devon. I also show you two other en plein air beach paintings featuring people and the view of this south coast of England beach looking in the opposite direction. You can see the finished paintings here:
https://mike-jory.pixels.com/collections/coastal+rivers
materials used:
A3 Daler Rowney mixed media board and A2 Daler Rowney mixed media paper
Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolour paints set
Sharpie marker pen
Round and flat synthetic brushes
Water from the English Channel! :-)

This week, I show you how to paint three belted galloway cattle against a purple, stormy sky using interactive acrylics.

See the finished painting here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/belted-galloway-cows-purple-cloudy-sky-painting-mike-jory.html

Materials used:

A2 Daler Rowney mixed media paper

Atelier interactive acrylics: Permanent Alizarin, Phthalo Blue, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Titanium White, Carbon black.

Synthetic flat and round brushes

In this video, I show you how to draw a pelican in about five minutes or so. You can
see the high res drawing here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/pelican-drawing-mike-jory.html This is episode P of the animal alphabet challenge, I use a sharpie marker pen and a wide range of mark making to capture the quirkiness and poise of this large-billed pelican bird standing in the sun.

In this video, I show you some watercolour techniques that allow me to paint a river scene including a distant landscape and boats on the water in about 30 minutes. The finished painting 'Summer evening on the River Exe' can be seen in high resolution here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/sailing-on-the-river-exe-at-topsham-watercolour-painting-en-plein-air-mike-jory.html
Working en plein air, I use a combination of watercolor washes applied with a brush and some line work using a watercolour marker pen to quickly create a range of effects and textures.
Materials used:
Winsor and Newton field easel
Daler Rowney mixed media board (A3)
Winsor and Newton watercolour (cotman set)
Winsor and Newton watercolour marker pens
Synthetic brushes (1/4 inch flat and size 16 round)

This week, we are up to episode O of the Animal Alphabet Challenge and I use the usual Sharpie marker pen and mixed media paper to create five minute (or thereabouts) drawing of an ostrich. You can see the hi res version of the drawing here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/ostrich-drawing-mike-jory.html

"Resting Rusties" - you can see the finished painting in hi-res here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/two-red-poll-cows-lying-down-watercolour-painting-mike-jory.html This week, I show you a really quick and fun technique that combines en plein air sharpie pen sketching with en plein air watercolour painting to create a cows in  landscape impressionist painting with trees and hedges in the background. These rust red cattle, Red Poll breed were found in a field near Starcross in Devon.
Materials used: Daler-Rowney mixed media paper A4, black sharpie pen, Winsor & Newton watercolour set, round and flat synthetic brushes, Winsor and Newton field easel

In this video, I show you how to draw a numbat in about ten minutes using a sharpie marker pen and A4 mixed media paper. You can see the finished drawing here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/numbat-noombat-walpurti-drawing-mike-jory.html The numbat, a small striped creature with a pointed snout and squirrel like tail is native to Australia and also known as a noombat or walpurt. This is episode N of the Animal Alphabet Challenge.

In this week's video, I show you how to paint a horse and landscape painting while working en plein air. This is 'Grazing the day away' - you can see the full painting here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/horse-grazing-in-devon-landscape-en-plein-air-painting-mike-jory.html I begin with a simple, gestural sketch using a sharpie pen and A4 mixed media paper. Then, I add colour to the scene of a horse grazing against a Devon landscape of rolling hills, fields, hedges and trees using interactive acrylics. Next, I go through a few different horse sketches and finally complete the painting with watercolour marker pens.
Materials: A4 Daler-Rowney mixed media pad, Sharpie marker pen (black), Atelier interactive acrylics (permanent alizarin, phthalo blue, carbon black, titanium white, cadmium yellow deep, cadmium yellow light), flat and round synthetic brushes, Winsor and Newton watercolour marker pens (burnt umber and cobalt blue)

This week, I draw a magpie in about ten minutes, you can see the finished drawing here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/magpie-drawing-black-and-white-bird-illustration-mike-jory.html This is episode M of the Animal Alphabet Challenge in which I use a sharpie marker pen and A4 mixed media paper to sketch this black and white bird using loose line work. Then I use a combination of hash marks, dots and expressive mark  making to finish this drawing of a magpie.

In this week's video, I show you how I go about creating colour painting sketches in an impressionist style using a herd of cows as my subject. You can see the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/rust-red-poll-cows-two-steer-impressionism-en-plein-air-sketch-painting-mike-jory.html Working en plein air at the edge of a field in Devon, these rust red coloured steer were considerate enough to gather next to the fence to see what I was doing. I start sketching with a black sharpie marker pen on A4 mixed media paper to quickly and loosely define the outlines of a couple of the cattle. Having got the basic drawing in place, I then use interactive acrylics to apply washes of colour to capture the sense of light in the sky and the colours of the distant hedgerow, trees and field. Next, I paint the two cattle using a wash of mid-tone, some deeper shadows and then deep blue highlights. The final sketch painting of the two cows is left without any further detail to give the viewer an impressionism style picture of the scene.

In this video I show you how to draw a llama in about 5 minutes using a black sharpie marker pen and A4 mixed media paper. Starting with sweeping gestural lines, I draw a simplified version of the llama and then add some shadows and texture lines. The finished illustration depicts the llama walking towards the viewer
See the drawing in detail here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/llama-walking-drawing-mike-jory.html
This is episode L of the Animal Alphabet Challenge.

I often drive past Cockwood Harbour and it's rare to see it full of water. This day though, the tide was high so I took the opportunity to do some en plein air painting of the boats floating on the water in this little harbour near Starcross in Devon. As I paint away in the open air, using Daler Rowney mixed media board, Winsor and Newton watercolour marker pen, Atelier interactive acrylics and synthetic flat and round brushes,  cars, cyclists, joggers, ducks and trains pass by! You can see the finished painting here:
https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/cockwood-harbour-near-starcross-in-devon-painting-mike-jory.html

In this video, I show you how to create a drawing of a kangaroo in around five minutes. You can see the finished drawing here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/kangaroo-drawing-mike-jory.html
Using A4 mixed media paper and a black sharpie marker pen, I start with some broken line work to establish the outline of the kangaroo. Next, some selective shadows are added and finally, a few flourishes of line to place the kangaroo in long grass. This is episode K of the animal alphabet challenge.

In this week's Sunday Art Show, I paint a herd of belted galloway cows under a colourful, cloudy sky. You can see the finished painting "Belties Beyond The Sky" here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/belted-galloway-cows-under-blue-sky-with-clouds-mike-jory.html
I begin with using a range of brushstrokes and Atelier interactive acrylics (titanium white, permanent alizarine, cerulean blue, phthalo blue, burnt umber, cadmium yellow light, carbon black) to create a blue sky on A2 Daler Rowney mixed media paper. The sky was inspired by a few clouds viewed from my living room window but I made the painted version more vibrant and dramatic. Once the sky was dry, I used a Winsor & Newton Watercolour Marker pen (Payne's Grey) to outline a herd of seven belted galloway cattle. Drawing all done, I use a series of greys created by simply mixing carbon black and titanium white acrylic to block in the cows. Finally, I add some subdued purple violet highlights to the lead animal using a colour that I'd previously mixed for the purple clouds. Hope you enjoy this episode, see you next Sunday!

In this video, I demonstrate how to draw a jaguar using a sharpie pen and some mixed media paper. Starting with loose line work, I then add some tone and then put the pattern down on top. This is episode J of the Animal Alphabet Challenge.
See the drawing here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/jaguar-drawing-black-and-white-big-cat-illustration-mike-jory.html

In this week's video, I show you how to paint a horse and foal using interactive acrylic paint. This demo starts with an A2 sheet of mixed media paper and a pre-prepared outline drawing that I did with a burnt umber acrylic paint marker. Next I add a couple of wet in wet washes of acrylic paint to create a soft textured background. Following completion of the background, I show you how I approach painting the horse and foal using wet in wet techniques.
Materials used: Daler Rowney mixed media paper, Liquitex acrylic paint marker, flat and round synthetic acrylic brushes, Atelier interactive acrylics: titanium white, permanent alizarine, phthalo blue, cadmium yellow, cadmium yellow deep, burnt umber, water spray
You can see the finished painting in close up (just click on the image after following the link) here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/horse-and-foal-painting-mother-and-child-on-dartmoor-mike-jory.html

This week, I show you a few different ways to draw an impala. Using a sharpie marker pen and some mixed media paper, I start with a fairly careful depiction of the full impala, sketching in everything from antlers to feet and then use cross hatching and dots to add tone. Next I show you a loose gestural sketch of an impala head and neck and antlers, keeping things fluid and using only partial outline. The third technique, I show you how to quickly apply a simple tonal treatment to draw an impala at the water's edge. You can see two of the finished drawings here:
'On point' https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/impala-antelope-drawing-side-view-mike-jory.html
'Awaiting' https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/impala-with-antlers-head-drawing-gestural-antelope-mike-jory.html

This week, I take a wip of a black angus steer on dartmoor that I created using liquitex acrylic paint marker pens. I block in the sky with marker and then switch to using Atelier interactive acrylic paint to create a finished angus cow painting. Also, this video includes a look at several other paintings that I've done over the years on similar subject matter.

See the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/black-cow-painting-angus-steer-on-dartmoor-mike-jory.html

You can see the acrylic paint markers demo video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha8lazOwbXY

Materials used:

A2 Daler Rowney mixed media paper

Acrylic paint markers by Liquitex

Chroma Atelier interactive acrylics

Flat and round synthetic brushes

Water spray bottle

This ten minute drawing of a heron in flight was created as episode H of the animal alphabet challenge.
See the finished drawing here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/heron-in-flight-drawing-mike-jory.html
Materials used: black sharpie marker pen and mixed media paper A4

This week, I create a mixed media painting inspired by the flowers in my garden. Working en plein air I draw and paint flowers and plants using Sharpie markers, inktense pencils, interference acrylics, interactive acrylics and acrylic paint marker pens on A2 mixed media paper. The finished painting is a stylised, vibrant depiction of roses, hydrangea and string of pearls plants. You can see the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/summer-flowers-roses-hydrangea-lobelia-fuscia-mike-jory.html

A five minute drawing of a cute little gerbil with paw raised. Used a black sharpie pen and some A4 mixed media paper. This is episode G of the animal alphabet challenge.

This week, I start with several biro (ball-point) pen sketches of sheep, working en plein air on an A4 mixed media paper pad, I stand at the gate to a field on the outskirts of Exeter and draw the flock, several quick studies. Then, I head home and start working on a much larger (A1 mixed media paper) painting with a watercolour marker pen. I add to the initial drawing using washes of inktense pencils dilute with a clean wet brush. After the inktense is dry, I then use Atelier interactive acrylics to bring the painting of sheep in the Devon landscape to life, keeping things loose and gestural in an impressionism style.
See the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/sheep-and-landscape-painting-with-dramatic-light-and-purple-sky-mike-jory.html and you can see on of the ball-point pen drawings of a sheep lying down here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/sheep-drawing-biro-sketch-en-plein-air-mike-jory.html

This week's animal alphabet challenge is a five minute flamingo drawing using a sharpie marker pen and some mixed media paper (A4). In this episode, I also include a gallery of some other bird drawings that I've completed over the years. You can see the finished flamingo sketch here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/flamingo-black-and-white-drawing-illustration-mike-jory.html

This week we're down in Cornwall at Fistral Beach doing some en plein air drawing and sketching. The weather was overcast and there were very few waves so instead I focused on drawing an RNLI lifeguard truck and some people and surfers on the beach using a Sharpie pen. Have outlined the scene, I then used inktense pencils to add washes of colour. Also, explored the cliff tops checking out the view and did some monochrome drawings using a brown sharpie marker pen.
Materials used: sharpie pens, A4 mixed media paper and inktense pencils
You can see the finished colour drawing here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/lifeguards-and-surfer-at-fistral-beach-coloured-pencils-mike-jory.html
No waves today monochrome drawing https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/surfer-standing-in-shallow-water-on-a-flat-day-with-no-waves-in-the-sea-mike-jory.html

We are up to episode E of the animal alphabet challenge. Here I use a sharpie pen and some mixed media paper to create a black and white drawing of an elephant walking along in the bright sun. You see the full drawing here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/elephant-in-bright-sunlight-drawing-mike-jory.html

This week, I use a watercolor marker pen to draw a chameleon. Then a clean, wet brush is dragged through the line work to add subtle tones and shading to the chameleon sketch. The finished drawing is completed in about ten minutes. See the finished painting here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/chameleon-black-and-white-watercolor-sketch-mike-jory.html

This week its quick sharpie pen drawings of a dingo (wild dog from Australia) and a donkey for episode D of the animal alphabet challenge.
Materials used: sharpie pen and A4 mixed media paper

This sheep painting tutorial starts with a narrow nib acrylic paint marker and then continues to show how to use the giant nib acrylic paint marker pens to create a series of different effects and marks. I did a sheep painting using paint markers a few weeks ago but this one is different as after the marker pen work, I switch to applying normal acrylic paint with a brush to enhance the sheep picture. Hope to see you next Sunday for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show
See the finished painting here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/quirky-blue-sheep-painting-mike-jory.html

Camel drawing using Sharpie marker pen on mixed media paper. Here's the third of a new series on the channel. This is the Animal Alphabet challenge. I'm aiming to do some quick studies of animals from A to Z,  this week with a sharpie pen sketch of a camel. Episode A, B and C done, 23 more to go! The idea is to do drawings of animals that I don't normally depict. :-) I'll still be doing the Sunday Art Show on Sundays as usual too. See the finished drawing here:You can see the finished sketch here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/camel-drawing-mike-jory.html

This week I am, 'Enjoying the morning sun' - I go looking for deer in the grounds of Powderham Castle in Devon but find sheep first. Inspired by the scene, I use A4 mixed media paper, a black sharpie pen and inktense pencils to create an enplein air drawing of a flock of sheep sheltering under a copse of trees. Then I continue to search for deer :-). See the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured...
materials used (affiliate links)
mixed media paper A4 https://amzn.to/2Wt7PV3
black sharpie pen https://amzn.to/2KHnR6q
inktense pencils https://amzn.to/2Www0SF
Hope to see you next Sunday for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show.

Here's the second of a new series on the channel. This is the Animal Alphabet challenge. I'm aiming to do some quick studies of animals from A to Z, starting this week with a sharpie pen sketch of a baboon. Episode B done, 24 more to go! The idea is to do drawings of animals that I don't normally depict. :-) I'll still be doing the Sunday Art Show on Sundays as usual too. See the finished drawing here https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/baboon-drawing-mike-jory.html

This week, I am inspired by giant jelly fish at Exmouth Marina to paint a picture of 3 sail boats with blue sails gliding across the silvery water of the River Exe in Devon. You can see, and zoom in on, the finished painting here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/sailing-boats-with-blue-sails-on-the-river-exe-at-exmouth-mike-jory.html This is a mixed media painting called "Weekend on the water". I start with a few thumbnail sketches using biro then move onto mixed media paper and put down some loose lines with a fluorescent marker pen and some acrylic paint markers. Most of the painting is then blocked in with washes of watercolour before the image is brought to conclusion using interactive acrylics.
Materials used (affiliate links)
A3 mixed media paper https://amzn.to/311ccFj
Winsor & Newton Neon marker https://amzn.to/310HZX5
Liquitex acrylic marker pens blue and gold https://amzn.to/2QB655Q and https://amzn.to/2EOVWhd
Winsor & Newton Watercolours https://amzn.to/2W7DK8r
Synthetic flat and round brushes https://amzn.to/2GUCy2z
Atelier interactive acrylic paints:
Phthalo Blue https://amzn.to/2E2DzFb
Burnt Umber https://amzn.to/2LlQFUb
Permanent Alizarine https://amzn.to/2H2NNq2
Cadmium Yellow Deep https://amzn.to/2GTOqC2
Titanium White https://amzn.to/2UY2BuJ
Hope to see you next Sunday for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show!

Here's the first of a new series on the channel. This is the Animal Alphabet challenge. I'm aiming to do some quick studies of animals from A to Z, starting this week with a sharpie pen sketch of an armadillo. Episode A done, 25 more to go! The idea is to do drawings of animals that I don't normally depict. :-) I'll still be doing the Sunday Art Show on Sundays as usual too.

This week, I paint a red angus bull against a bright yellow background using interactive acrylics. I'm really enjoying using my new colour palette and the different hues that can be created. As you can see from the painting, lots of vibrant purples, reds, oranges and blues. You can see the finished painting in more detail (just click on the image after the link) here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/red-angus-bull-painting-cattle-breed-mike-jory.html
Business cards with this design are also available here: https://buff.ly/30KDBv1
Materials used
Daler Rowney Mixed Media boards https://amzn.to/2GTLJAs
Synthetic flat and round brushes https://amzn.to/2GUCy2z
Atelier interactive acrylic paints:
Phthalo Blue https://amzn.to/2E2DzFb
Burnt Umber https://amzn.to/2LlQFUb
Permanent Alizarin https://amzn.to/2H2NNq2
Cadmium Yellow Deep https://amzn.to/2GTOqC2
Titanium White https://amzn.to/2UY2BuJ
See you next Sunday for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show!

I'm gradually working towards creating en plein air, animals in landscape paintings and hope to eventually be able to work outdoors in the same way that I do at home. This week's video is a step on that journey. I wander through a field of sheep and create several quick studies of different parts of the flock. Some sketches work better that others but it was great fun working away in the fresh air using the inktense travel set. Here are the materials that I used (affiliate links):
Daler-Rowney mixed media pad: https://amzn.to/2JtnHA5
Derwent inktense travel set: https://amzn.to/2WjDSWM
If you want to check out the finished business cards then you can see them here: colour sheep: https://buff.ly/2VNytYx or the monochrome sketch design: https://buff.ly/2VKTNxH

Hope you enjoy this little outdoor art adventure and hope to see you next week for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show!

This week, I paint a colourful pheasant walking through a countryside landscape using interactive acrylic over a conventional acrylic under painting. You can zoom in on the hi-res finished painting "Strutting My Stuff" here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/pheasant-walking-in-english-countryside-landscape-painting-mike-jory.html
Materials used (affiliate links)
Daler Rowney Mixed Media boards https://amzn.to/2GTLJAs
Synthetic flat and round brushes https://amzn.to/2GUCy2z
Atelier interactive acrylic paints:
Phthalo Blue https://amzn.to/2E2DzFb
Burnt Umber https://amzn.to/2LlQFUb
Permanent Alizarine https://amzn.to/2H2NNq2
Brilliant Magenta https://amzn.to/2VecEfv
Cadmium Yellow Deep https://amzn.to/2GTOqC2
Titanium White https://amzn.to/2UY2BuJ
I often leave paintings unfinished with a view to returning to them at a later date. This pheasant picture was a WIP from 3 years ago and was inspired by a pheasant that came walking past our house, something of a surprise as we live in town (though relatively close to some country lanes and fields). I was reminded of the painting the other day when I again, saw a pheasant in town, this time crossing the road at a traffic lights-controlled pedestrian crossing! It was great fun returning to this almost-forgotten WIP and finishing it...finally! :-) See you next Sunday for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show.

This week, I paint a black angus bull using interactive acrylics. Decided to paint this following a viewer request. Materials used (affiliate links)
Daler Rowney Mixed Media boards
Synthetic flat and round brushes
Atelier interactive acrylic paints:
Ultramarine
Burnt Umber
Permanent Alizarine
Cadmium Yellow Deep
Titanium White
See the hi-res version, zoom into different parts of the painting or buy a print etc here:
Enjoyed painting this with a slightly different palette to usual as I used cadmium yellow deep & permanent alizarin for the first time along with the usual colours above. Started with some loose painterly lines in burnt umber and then gradually added thin layers of colour to build up the deep shadows and darks. The interactives allow for very subtle highlights to be readily blended and the cadmium deep yellow background makes the dark hide of the angus bull really pop. Hope you enjoy this one, see you next Sunday for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show.

This week, I'm back in the car for a quick bit of sketching using a Sharpie marker and some mixed media paper . Parked at the side of the road in the village of Alphington near Exeter, I create a drawing of the street scene. Working from life and inspired by the presence of the fish and chip van (Scoffers) this picture features several parked cars, houses trees and a handful of pedestrians including a dog walker. Great fun taking this little breaks in the day to do some en plein air (almost!) drawing with simple materials. You can see the high resolution version here

This week, we are up on the hills above Exeter in Devon. While doing an en plein air landscape study, some sheep come walking into view so I quickly take a few photos for reference then return home to create a mixed media painting. The finished painting is of three sheep in the Devon landscape with rolling hills off in the distance and trees and bushes in the foreground. I used an unusual colour scheme for this one with lots of blues and purples. You can see the finished painting in high resolution here:
 Materials used: mixed media paper (A2), Derwent inktense pencils, winsor and newton watercolour marker pens, Atelier interactive acrylics, medium and small flat brush, small round brush, 3 inch decorator's brush and a giant flat brush.
See you next week for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show!

This week, I use interactive acrylics, a medium flat brush and A2 mixed media paper to create a painting of a Dartmoor miniature pony. This video actually shows some extracts from an animal painting artist workshop that I recently held in Exeter. For those that came along, thanks very much for attending, hope you find this a useful record of some of the stuff we did and I've included some bonus info using on-screen captions. I also did a painting of a steer that you can see here


The image below shows how we can begin to construct a sheep from simple lines and structure, here we've used watercolour marker pen and a damp brush.


Contours are a useful tool for creating an illusion of 3 dimensions, this doesn't have to be as obvious and bold as the examples below but these images illustrate the idea.

This week, I have some fun creating a boldly coloured, simply treated painting of a sheep in about ten minutes. Also, included some captions with bonus info and tips throughout the video for the first time. This ten minute sheep painting was created using Liquitex acrylic paint marker pens and Daler Rowney mixed media paper. Really good to experiment with different styles, techniques, materials and time limits. See you next Sunday for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show.

Beautiful weather in Exeter over the last few days, so with a sketch pad (mixed media paper), biro and sharpie marker pen in hand, I grabbed a few minutes each day to draw: a man, a cat, some houses, some hills, a mill and some grand buildings. Also, created some business cards and put up a poster for my next art class. Great fun being out in the sun! See you next Sunday for the next episode of The Sunday Art Show.
See the business cards here, sketch from Cathedral green, and the sketch of the guy at library.

Back at Bedruthan steps for this week's video. Some of you may remember the previous Bedruthan sketch that was a black & white watercolour study from the cliff top. This time, I venture down the steep steps onto the sand, walk among the huge rocks and take in the view looking south out across the ocean. Then, back home, I paint a 20 minute watercolour study of this view, this time in colour. I'm planning a series of studies of different aspects of this beach, each time, refining my technique and using different media. You can see the hi resolution image of the painting here: or a different framing of the same pic, that I think works better here
Materials used: Winsor and Newton watercolour paints, Daler-Rowney mixed media board A3, synthetic round and flat brushes, water spray.
See you next week for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show.

Following on from last month's workshop, I'm holding another art class in Exeter on Friday 5th April (1pm to 4pm) at Exwick Parish Hall, Exwick, Exeter, EX4 2AA. Cost is £25. All welcome!

Inspired by the rugged and colourful landscape of Dartmoor in Devon, in this video I paint a grazing belted galloway cow against a back drop of grass, heather, gorse and rolling hills. Just a quick study but using watercolor allows expressive washes and mark-making in a relatively short time. Also used a little bit of ball-point pen for the fluffy bits on the cow. You can see the high resolution version here:
Materials used: Winsor and Newton watercolours, prussian blue watercolor marker, large and medium synthetic pointed round brushes, smooth A4 mixed media paper, paper towel, blue biro

This week I thought I'd show you a little behind the scenes footage of an art class that I ran in Exeter last week. The finished sheep painting is called "It's a strange world" and you can see the full version here, or a close-up of the sheep here

This week, I play a game of hit and run at the beach. Taking a walk / run along Exmouth beach round the headland to Sandy Bay in Devon, I stop at 5 different locations to create a quick monochrome watercolour study of the scene.


The beach was amazing today as the tide was further out than I'd ever seen it at this location.


For a couple of the sketches, I even place the paper in the sea to try and achieve interesting effects.


 Great fun, an amazing day drawing and painting in watercolor at the beach, working en plein air, on a day with a particularly low tide.



Materials: Mixed media paper, smooth finish, A4 size, Winsor and Newton watercolour marker, burnt umber.

Here's a link to the paddle boarder cartoon inspired by the same location

and the colourful sky painting inspired by the same location

Check out hi-res versions of

Sketch 1: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/exmouth-beach-watercolour-sketch-mike-jory.html

Sketch 2: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/exmouth-beach-monochrome-watercolor-study-mike-jory.html

Sketch 4: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/sandy-bay-beach-in-devon-sketch-mike-jory.html



Here are all the drawings from the day:

Starting at Exmouth beach, this pool in the sand caught my eye.

Standing on some rock that jutted out into the sea, I was able to capture this view looking back to the beach.

This little experiment didn't really work, put down a few lines then swiped the paper across the surface of the sea, the watercolour didn't move in the way I was hoping.

Simple sketch but it captures a nice sense of light.

Second experiment with the sea, put down more squiggly lines and then let a small wave hit the paper producing much more interesting marks.

This week, it's a viewer-requested video, painting a Texas longhorn steer in acrylic. Materials: A3 mixed media paper, atelier interactive paints: magenta, cad red, ultramarine blue, phthalo blue, cad yellow, burnt umber, titanium white; small round and half inch flat synthetic brushes, watercolour marker pen
reference photo link:
View the hi-res painting here
Starting with loose line work using a watercolor marker pen, I block in the steer with interactive acrylic. As the painting proceeds the colours get warmer (orangey browns) and the shadows deeper. An undulating cast shadow is included on the ground. The inclusion of a deep blue background really makes the colours sing and enhances the sense of hot sun.

I'm running an artist workshop in Exeter on Friday 1st March 2019. This art class will focus on painting animals and landscapes. Full details on the poster!

An amazing unseasonably warm and sunny February day led me down to the sand of Exmouth beach to use my inktense travel kit and some water colour marker pens to paint a quick en plein air riverscape inspired by the view across the mouth of the River Exe to the sand of Dawlish Warren and the Haldon Hills beyond.
See the finished pic here and here's a previous video of me standing in the sea painting from the summer.
Materials used: A4 mixed media paper, inktense travel set, winsor and newton water colour markers, sea water to fill the water brush! :-)

This week, it was too windy to paint en plein air so I worked from inside my car to paint the rolling hills of the Exe Valley in Devon. Parked in Duryard Valley Park, high above the city of Exeter, I use a water brush and inktense to create a quick sketch of the rolling hills and hedge-lined fields. Really good fun! This week I use: A4 smooth mixed media paper and the inktense travel set. The colours included in this little set are: Sun Yellow, Mango, Poppy Red, Dark Plum, Mid Ultramarine, Bright Blue, Racing Green, Teal Green, Kiwi, Burnt Yellow Ochre, Natural brown & Ink Black. To read Cindy Schnackel's article on waterbrushes, click here.

This week, I do some en plein air sketches of horse in a field on the edge of Exeter. You can see the close-up of the art work here.
Materials used: A4 mixed media paper, inktense travel set, ball-point pen.
Had great fun sketching some horses using my new inktense travel set and a water brush for the first time. This presented me with a few challenges as the horses moved from time to time, and the brush, while very good, wasn't what I was used to. I did 3 different studies on the first day, with varying results, then came back the next day but used biro to draw this time, followed by inktense painting, then added some final texture and detail with the ball point pen again. Great fun drawing and painting in the fresh air but a little chilly! Hope you enjoy this real time video.

Materials used: Winsor & Newton watercolour marker, smooth watercolor paper and a flat brush (half inch). This week, I return to the brush and pen watercolour sketching technique I used a couple of weeks ago to paint this bison. I'm calling this picture of a bison standing side on "I see you looking!"
To see a high resolution image of this bison watercolour painting, click here
You can see the bison drawing patterned duvet cover featured in the video here
and the floor cushions here

This week, I try a little experiment using the following:
Paint-On Multi Techniques 250g/sqm A4 paper by Clairefontaine
Spectrum Noir alcohol-based marker pens
Winsor and Newton watercolour paint & half-inch flat synthetic brush
biro (ball - point pen)
Standing right next to the churning water at the weir on the River Exe in Devon, I do a quick watercolor en plein air study of the river and trees. Because the water is so turbulent, once in a while a splash lands on my painting creating some interesting marks. Then, once I'm back home I use biro pens to add some characterful line work to include and enhance the splash marks into the design. You can see the hi-res version here

Ten minute cheetah painting or drawing real time. See the hi-res finished picture here: Inspired by the watercolour marker and wet brush technique that I used last week, I decided to try the same thing for an animal in this case a cheetah prowling along. Here I use a lamp black Winsor and Newton watercolour marker, a half inch flat synthetic brush and some smooth mixed media paper. Starting with loose gestural lines, using the brush tip of the watercolour marker pen, I quickly outline the general form of this big cat. Next, I use the wet brush to soften lines and create areas of tone and shadow to create a sense of three dimensions. The spotted pattern of the cheetah's coat is treated selectively and carefully to enhance the 3D effect. Then I used the fine line nib of the pen for some final details. This simple technique proved to be a really efficient way to draw this cheetah walking through the long grass and it's something I plan on exploring further in the coming weeks.

See the close-up of this watercolor seascape painting / drawing here
This week I visit, for the first time, the amazing Cornish beach, Bedruthan Steps and, inspired by the view from the cliff top, looking down on the array of massive rocks that sit on the sand, I create a black and white watercolor sketch of this spectacular seascape using:
A4 "Paint On Multi-Techniques" mixed media paper by Clairefontaine (but any good mixed media or watercolour paper (smooth finish) would work)
Winsor and Newton lamp black watercolour marker pen
flat synthetic half inch brush
some clean water

This week, we draw a mixed media cow head using watercolour marker pens, a flat, clean, wet brush and some atelier interactive acrylic paint.
After doing some gestural line work of the cow's head, the clean wet brush is dragged through the watercolour to create some tone. Next, I add some purple lines and follow this with acrylic highlights. Good fun to experiment with unusual colour combinations.

This week we return to the beautiful beach Widemouth bay in Cornwall for a ten minute en plein air mixed media seascape painting. Materials used: Watercolour paper (smooth finish), Winsor and Newton field easel, Winsor and Newton Watercolour marker pens, Winsor and Newton Watercolour paints, Derwent Inktense Blocks, Synthetic flat brushes (1 inch and half inch).
Sitting on the sand, work in the open air, I begin having put a few loose lines down with the watercolour marker pen. Next, I block in a few areas of colour with the watercolour paint and follow this with applying the inktense blocks with directly and with a brush. The watercolour markers are used again for a few final lines. This was a really lovely few minutes, sitting in the warm autumn sun, looking out to sea and painting loosely and freely.

In this week's video demo I paint a black cat using Atelier interactive acrylics.
Materials used:
Daler-Rowney Mixed Media Paper (A3 size)
Synthetic flat brushes (1 inch and half inch)
Synthetic round brush (size 10)
water sprayer
Winsor and Newton watercolour marker (lamp black)
Atelier interactive acrylics: cad red, cad yellow, ultramarine blue, burnt umber, titanium white
Starting with a loose outline of the cat, sitting in the winter sun, created using the watercolour marker pen, I begin by blocking in the cat with a black created from burnt umber and ultramarine blue. Next, I add patches of copper and blue highlights and include a loose yellow and green background. The details of the cat's eyes and face are left to the end, all in, it took around 20 minutes painting time to create this acrylic study of a black cat sitting in the sun.

This week, I do a goat painting demonstration in response to a viewer request. The materials I use are:
WHSmith Mixed media paper (A3)
Synthetic brushes: half in flat and a small round brush.
Atelier interactive acrylics: cadmium red, cadmium yellow, ultramarine blue, titanium white, burnt umber.
Water spray bottle
I also use the website wheeldecide.com to create a wheel of fortune and use it to decide which colour to use next throughout the video. This results in a slightly different look for this painting compared to my normal style, I really enjoyed using this technique to do a fresh style.
The finished painting is called 'Content with the view' - gestural impressionist painting of a white goat with horns standing in a field, with yellow hills in the background, against a blue sky looking off into the distance. Inspired by a goat in Somerset, England. This picture was created with interactive acrylic paint on mixed media paper and I actually used a wheel of fortune to select colours and the order I used them for the first two thirds of this painting. This resulted in subtly different colour combinations compared to my usual style. You can see the hi-res version of the painting here: click on the image to zoom in on a particular section.

This week I explore a hidden arboretum in the village of Newton St Cyres in Devon and work on a loose en plein air study of the trees using:
Winsor and Newton field easel
Winsor and Newton watercolour markers
Atelier interactive acrylics: cad red, cad yellow, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, burnt umber, magenta
Synthetic flat brushes: half inch and 1 inch
Daler Rowney mixed media art board A3 size
Tucked away behind a picturesque English churchyard lies a hidden arboretum. Sitting on the grass, I work en plein air to create a loose impressionism style acrylic painting of the light playing across the trees and grass.

Have you ever let fate decide your creative direction? This week I use a wheel of fortune (www.wheeldecide.com) to select 3 colours from a range of Sharpie marker pens. Then I use this colour combination to create a drawing of a pair of ballroom dancers. I start out putting down some loose gestural lines to depict the energy and flow of the dance, next I refine lines with the second colour. Finally, I block in different sections of both male and female dancers using the third and second colours.
Here are the materials I used:
Daler-Rowney Mixed media paper
Sharpie pens
reference photo (royalty free) can be found here.
see the high resolution version of my drawing here you can click on different sections of the image to see a magnified version of the art work.
This is a fun little experiment that can lead to new creative avenues to explore!

Materials used: Daler Rowney Mixed media art boards, Winsor and Newton field easel, Derwent Inktense blocks, Atelier interactive acrylics, winsor and newton watercolour marker pens.
This week I'm back at Fistral Beach in Cornwall creating an en plein air mixed media study of a surfer walking back up the beach from the sea. I start with inktense blocks to create a series of washes, switch to acrylics for the rest of the painting and add a few finishing touches with some watercolour markers. Check out the hi-res picture here (click on the image to enlarge a section) https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/surfer-walking-back-up-the-beach-at-fistral-beach-in-cornwall-mike-jory.html

Materials needed if you want to follow along:
Photo of an animal of choice, paper or canvas, drawing medium of choice, 3 colours would be useful (I use a Sharpie pen in this video), a spare long-handled brush (or a stick would do).
In this week's video, I demonstrate, with help from Exmouth Art Group, a simple two box method for quickly getting the proportions of animals accurate. Working on a drawing of a cow, I start by using the classic, thumb on brush measuring technique then transfer these measurements into drawing a well-proportioned box that will contain the whole animal. Next, I do the same style measurements for the head of the animal allowing me to draw a second box within the first. You can also see how this technique works for members of Exmouth Art Group who attended a workshop I ran on painting animals.

In this week's episode, I am sitting on the sand at Widemouth Bay beach in Cornwall painting an en plein air seascape using Winsor and Newton watercolour paint and synthetic brushes. Once I'm back home, I add a couple of finishing touches with some acrylic. Had great fun filming this on an unexpectedly hot and sunny October afternoon. Here's the link to the Chrissycanvasart youtube channel that I mention in the video: https://www.youtube.com/chrissycanvasart

In this beaver painting demo, I start with a very loose line drawing in blue watercolour marker and add a series of thin acrylic washes using atelier interactive acrylics to bring this beaver to life. The whiskers were added using blue biro pen. I was able to complete this little painting in just over ten minutes. If you want to check out the brush work in more detail then you can see the hi-res image here. for some of my recent beaver drawings check out these links: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/beaver-drawing-mike-jory.html and https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/beaver-sketch-mike-jory.html

Cartoon style alligator drawing created in about ten minutes using mixed media including acrylic paint markers (Liquitex), watercolour markers (winsor and newton), prolene marker pens and inktense blocks. Good fun to have a change of pace this week drawing this alligator head in cartoon style

This week, I return to the banks of the River Exe to paint the scene that featured in a previous video in a looser style. If you would like to compare the 2 landscape paintings, then the previous version can be seen coming to life in this video: https://youtu.be/U7e4Ta9NLaE For both paintings I use Atelier interactive acrylic but for this one I also use watercolour markers for a couple of finishing touches.

Starting out with an outline of the pig in watercolour marker pen, I used large and small round brushes to add thin layers of watercolour paint to create, form, light and shadow on this pig. Finally, I add a few details to the face and head in this ten minute watercolour painting of a pig.

This week I use a simple line and wash technique to paint a herd of cows in watercolour. Each cow is outlined using watercolor marker pen, then a clean damp brush is used to create areas of tone.

Posting this a day late due to a visit to Buckingham Palace, but the video did go up on Sunday (just) as usual :-) This week I paint an impressionism style flock of sheep and lambs using Atelier interactive acrylic paint in real time.

This week, it's a cow painting completed in about 20 minutes using interactive acrylic paint. Featuring a more subdued than usual colour palette, I move the paint around with brushes as normal but also use some paper towel to cover areas with soft variations of tone. If you'd like to zoom in on the brushwork of the high resolution version, then you can do so here

This week, I do a quick en plein air painting of a misty morning at the beach. Using Atelier interactive acrylics, working in the open air, I watch the waves roll in at Fistral Beach and paint the subtle colours in the morning mist over the water. This is just a quick study but captures some of the atmosphere of being at Fistral beach when there's a sea fret. See the hi-res pic here

This week, I go through a real-time acrylic painting of a sheep looking straight at you, mainly focusing on the head of the sheep. This time, I painted using a textural, impressionist style and also included a background landscape. If you want to get a closer look at the brush work, you can see the hi-res version of the painting here.

In this real time acrylic painting video I create a painting of a black cow lying down in amongst the heather and gorse up on Dartmoor in Devon. This landscape animal painting features impressionist style distant hills and plants along with a precisely painted cow. Using Atelier interactive acrylics throughout, this video has no soundtrack, so you can just sit back and enjoy the painting of this black cow come to life. This video acts as a tutorial for both landscape and animal paintings. 

This week, I'm back down at Fistral beach in Cornwall to do some en plein air paintings using acrylic. In this video, I go through a painting from start to finish in real time while sat on the beach and also chat about the other paintings I created on the same day. Had a brilliant time in the sunshine taking in the sea air! Hope you enjoy this week's episode of the Sunday Art Show.

 

This week it's a real time video of a mixed media, watercolour and acrylic painting of a deer with antlers standing with perfect graceful posture, alert yet relaxed in a woodland glade perhaps. Prussian blue watercolour marker was used to create a gestural line drawing of the deer, then more watercolour lines, dragged through with a clean wet brush introduced soft-edged patches of background colour. Next, acrylic paint was added to the deer to provide bold shadows, light and form in contrast to the gentler background. Hope you enjoy the creation of this vividly coloured, impressionist style deer painting.

This week, I am down in Cornwall at Fistral beach when I notice a couple of seagulls have landed next to me. I quickly start on an en plein air, race against time as I sketch these birds with a combination of watercolour and acrylic. Filmed using a go pro style camera attached to my head, you can see what I saw at each stage of the drawing in this real time video.

Sorry for the late-in-the-day post, been painting all day at the beach! This week’s episode continues from last week’s episode and features more en plein air beach paintings

Had an amazing day at Dawlish Warren beach, painting en plein air the view across the water while standing in the sea. This was so enjoyable and relaxing, like having a 3 week holiday compressed into an afternoon! See the acrylic landscape / seascape painting come to life in real time! See the finished painting here

In this week's episode, I use mixed media to draw a herd of friesian cows. However, these are rather unusual in that I depict them with bright purple! Starting with a prussian blue acrylic paint marker, I do some loose gestural drawing to place the cows in the field, letting the lines freely wander to create a sense of movement and expression. Next, a mauve watercolour marker is used to block in the dark areas of each cow. Following this, a wet but clean flat brush is lightly dragged through the purple patches to create more subtle shadows and areas of texture. Finally, I preview the design on a tote bag.

Check out a hi resolution image here (click the pic after the link for hi res close up) https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/purple-friesian-holstein-cows-drawing-mike-jory.html

Check out the bag here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/featured/purple-friesian-holstein-cows-drawing-mike-jory.html?product=weekender-totebag

This week, I take a visit to Sidmouth on the south coast of Devon, England and use the view to inspire an English beach scene panting tutorial. This real time video of how to paint a coastal scene uses a combination of watercolor marker pens and atelier interactive acrylics to create a vibrant Devon beach scene featuring red cliffs, purple and blue sea, wet sand and a few people walking along the beach. Finally, I show 3 different ways to frame the same painting. You can check out the 3 different versions here (click on the image for a high resolution close-up of the brushwork)
panoramic version:
square version:
tall and narrow version:

This week, I try a mixed media experiment to draw a friesian cow using watercolour marker pens, then take a clean wet brush to move the paint around, spray the paint with water to create effects, then use interactive acrylic paint to fill in the background and put some highlights on the cow. See you next week, for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show.

In this week's episode of the Sunday Art Show, I use Atelier Interactive acrylics to paint a sheep lying down in the English countryside. Inspired by a flock on the edge of Exeter in Devon, thin washes are used to suggest background hills and hedgerows, then thicker paint is used for the foreground grass and sheep that includes a wider range of colours and textures. See you next Sunday for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show! :-)

In this episode of the Sunday Art Show, I spend about ten minutes experimenting with a combination of alcohol based marker pen, acrylic paint and acrylic paint markers to create a painting (or drawing) of a sheep in bright sun light.

In this week's episode of the Sunday Art Show, I work on a quick ten minute painting to capture some hills, trees and hedges in acrylic. Really enjoying the challenge of these quick ten minute studies, I hope to use a more considered version of this composition in the near future for a landscape painting based on the countryside near Exeter, maybe with a few sheep in the bottom left of frame and a few up on the distant hill.

In this week's the Sunday Art Show, I demonstrate how to paint an oak tree using acrylic paint. This oak tree painting tutorial uses conventional acrylic paint first, then this is over-painted with atelier interactive acrylic paint and a variety of brush strokes, mark making and blending techniques. You can also see some close-ups of the painting here.

In this week's episode of the Sunday Art Show,  I use acrylic paint to capture a typical English countryside scene in this ten minute painting demonstration. Vibrant colours and gestural brush strokes are used to  capture the hills, fields, hedges and trees of the Devon countryside in this real time landscape tutorial. Hope to see you next Sunday, for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show:

Today, I paint a real time ten minute landscape painting that is inspired by the view of the River Exe from the end of Dawlish Warren beach. I sketched in a few lines while standing on the Devon sand and enjoying the sunshine. Then, back at the studio and working from memory, I use Atelier interactive acrylics to quickly create a scene of a boat on calm blue water with rolling hills in the distance. See you next Sunday for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show.

In the latest episode of the Sunday Art Show, I demonstrate, in real time, how to draw a lamb in about ten minutes using Spectrum Noir alcohol based marker pens. (New episode next Sunday)

The Sunday Art Show: In this real time animal painting video tutorial, I begin with a blob of blue interactive acrylic paint in the middle of the paper and then, with a spray of water and a flat brush, start to move this around on the page to demonstrate how to paint a pig. This is another ten minute painting challenge, a really good way to emphasise efficiency of painting technique and an opportunity to experiment with new colours and techniques. See more of my work at http://www..mikejory.co.uk

In this episode of the Sunday Art Show: A real time ten minute acrylic sheep painting tutorial. I begin with some loose line drawing of the sheep using a big acrylic paint marker pen and then complete the painting using atelier interactive acrylics and expressive, impressionist style brush work. This video demonstrates how to paint a sheep in just a few minutes but you can check out more detailed sheep paintings and drawings here: https://mike-jory.pixels.com/collections/sheep+paintings
See you next Sunday for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show!

How to paint a cow in about ten minutes. A new episode of the Sunday Art Show: This 10 minute ish video tutorial demonstrates how to paint a cow (side view) using acrylic paint in real time. I use the easy to blend, atelier interactive acrylics and start depicting this classic farm animal by blocking in the mass of the head and body very loosely, no line work. The finished acrylic painting shows this brown and white cow walking along through a green field with a cobalt blue background. Join me next Sunday for the next episode of the Sunday Art Show.

 

In this video, I create a vibrantly coloured acrylic painting of a sheep in about 10 minutes using atelier interactive acrylics. The great thing about the ten minute painting challenge is that is forces you to work quickly and efficiently and really examine your own technique. For this sheep, I used some ultramarine and cobalt blues, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, burnt umber and titanium white. So, if you want to know how to paint a sheep quickly, this sheep painting tutorial may be for you.

I've been trying out the Spectrum Noir alcohol-based blendable marker pens of late and in this video I start by briefly chatting about a 10 minute drawing of a sheep I completed recently and then move on to a real time ten minute drawing tutorial of the same sheep but on a bigger scale.

I've just started reading the book "Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World" - anyone who has shared an office with me will testify that my desk usually acts as a visual advertisement for the title of this book! :-) - only got through the intro and chapter 1of the book so far but I am really enjoying it. Much of the beginning centres on a concert pianist who produces an incredible performance despite having a defective piano. The point of the story being that sometimes difficult circumstances can help us to think outside the box and create things that we otherwise wouldn't have. 

I actually use this technique when I paint from time to time. In the example below, I restricted myself to using just one brush and ended up creating a sheep painting that has a look that's truly unique compared to others in my portfolio. Check out "The Golden Fleece" in more detail here.

"You know what Martha? I heard that Beatrice in the next field is very impulsive, she's like a bull at a gate with everything she does!" This is 'Chit Chat' A couple of cows having a chat in a field in Branscombe in Devon United Kingdom. See the painting / buy a print etc here.

'Guardians of the Valley' Two cows, horns still intact, lying in the misty twilight of a Devon sky while surrounded by green and yellow fields overlooking a valley lined with hedgerows. See the painting in more detail here.

"The Courage of Youth" - This young cow was found in a field north of Exeter in Devon. In this acrylic painting I've deliberately used non-realistic colors but at the same time endeavored to keep the hues harmonious so that they are striking but not jarring. The "blue lighting" has become something of a signature in my work and can be seen in several ofmy animal and figure paintings. You can see the painting in more detail here

In episode 14 of the cows in Devon landscape painting, I do some further work on the cow lying down in the sun. First, I add a sense of texture to the hide of the animal and then include some very dark green in the deep shadow areas. The dark green is used to depict the light that bounces off the grass and onto the cow's skin. Finally, I do further work on the cow head, introducing blue shadows and simplifying my treatment of the subject.

In episode 13 of the cows in Devon landscape painting demo, I work on the head of the cow lying down. Using a small round brush, marks of titanium white, magenta, cerulean blue and brown are applied and then I make use of the interactive acrylic blending properties and blend these marks together with a flat brush.

In episode 12 of the cows in Devon landscape painting, I do a bit of field work... that is to say, I paint the field that the cows are in, adding some blades of grass to the edge of the cast shadows and generally adjusting the colour of the grass surrounding each cow. I then work on the hedge in the background, selecting the colour so that it best complements the cow in the middle.

In episode 11 of the cows in Devon landscape painting demonstration, I refine the shadow areas of the cow lying down on the grass and also draw in its front leg that I had somehow missed before. It's funny how, despite careful observation, key elements of a subject can be missed or forgotten. Sometimes, this works out well and actually makes for a better painting but in this case, the cow definitely needs its leg! :-)

In episode 10 of the cows in Devon landscape painting, the cow lying down in the sun gets a similar treatment to the two cows in shadow. Continuing with the idea of complementary colour pairs i.e. dark blue and orangey brown used previously, the left hand cow now gets some pale blue and a brighter orange brown layer added. The brighter coloured acrylics both add to the sense of sunshine and help to make this cow the focus of the painting.

In episode 9 of the cows in landscape painting, I begin by further working on the shadows of the two right hand cows using pure blue. Then I add an orangey brown to each cow and, having sprayed the painting with water, make use of the blending properties of the Atelier interactive acrylics to create some interesting effects. Next, I work on the face of the middle cow using some lighter blues and titanium white.

In episode 8 of the cow painting, I refine the line work on the middle and right-hand cows. My style of painting is iterative in nature, I typically work by putting down some quick lines, then block in, then add tone and colour. This is then followed by adjustments to any and / or all of the above. This little video is a good example of me going back over work already done in order to refine the image. In particular, I adjust the shapes of the cow heads and the lines of their backs with ultramarine blue. These adjustments have the added benefit of hiding the lower part of the tree which is a little too light at the moment.

In episode 7 of the cow painting, I add some shadows to the cow on the left and redefine the line of its back as my initial mark had become lost under the layer of green paint. Because this animal is lying down in the sun, my plan is to have a higher level of contrast and range of colours on this cow compared to the others. Then, I place some cast shadows under the middle cow and darken certain areas next to the cattle.

In episode 6 of the cows in Devon landscape painting, I begin by using a mix of magenta and white on the brush to introduce some blossoms on the tree. To do this, I change the angle and orientation of the brush each time I paint a blossom to create the illusion of light striking the flowers in a different way. Then I use blue to enhance the shadows on the central and right-hand cow.

In episode 5 of the cows in landscape painting video, I begin by using a large frayed brush to depict a tree in the foreground on the right of the painting. Next, I use a reddish brown to create some shadows on the cow on the right, then do the same thing for the middle cow. This step starts to bring the cows to life as the begin to look like 3D objects with light beaming down on them. Finally the cow lying down on the grass also gets some shadow work done.

In episode 4 of the cow painting video, I continue to work on the impressionist landscape in the background of the picture. First, I use a flat brush to introduce a field on the left of the painting, then, using a mix of colours on the brush, I roll the brush across the paper to create the impression of a line of trees.

In episode 3 of the cow painting series, I use a mix of blue and white in varying proportions to block in the sky and then use multiple colours on one brush to produce a variety of marks in order to create the impression of some distant trees and a hill. Notice that a little blip of yellow ochre shows through the blue in the sky, and I deliberately leave this in the painting as an interesting effect.

In episode 2 of the cow painting videos, I put down a colour beginning. This is a fun technique that allows you to quickly cover the paper in a range of colours in a haphazard manner. This provides an array of random colours and textures, some of which may show through in the final painting. In general, I use colours that will suit the final stages e.g. blue for distant landscape, blues, yellows and greens for the grass. However, sometimes I will use an apparently inappropriate colour for a subject. Here, this is done with the sky, where I put yellow ochre down, to be over-painted later in blue. The idea is to allow some of the ochre to peak through here and there, or show through a semi-transparent over-layer to provide a sense of warmth to the sky.

Cow painting episode 1: If you're interested in how to paint a cow then this series of videos will be worth a look. In this first episode, I use blue acrylic paint to put down some quick lines describing three cows in the Devon countryside. These cows were encountered on a walk along the canal in Exeter, occupying a field next to the Turf Locks pub. Two of the cows are standing in the shelter of a tree while the third lies on the ground basking in the sun.

Finished painting! In episode 17 of the sheep and lamb painting and detail on the lamb is finalized including orangey brown areas where the light is catching the wool and the inclusion of some blue / green reflected hues on the side of the head. Following this, further highlights are added to the grass and the tone of the area next to the lamb's nose and mouth is adjusted. Then, I sign the finished painting, photograph it, check that it has uploaded okay to my website and demonstrate how you can zoom in on a part of the painting to check out the brushwork. To see the finished image and look at hi-resolutions sections of the image, click on the image below the video. You can also purchase prints via the same link.

In episode 16 of the sheep painting video, having previously worked on the adult sheep, adding more detail to the face, I now give the lamb's head a similar treatment. The eye is defined, the colour of the skin and wool changed and more detail added to both the head and body. This painting is nearing completion, see it all finished in the next episode! :-)

In episode 15 of the sheep painting video, I describe the eye of the adult sheep in detail, then use some interactive acrylic to apply a wet-in-wet technique to the face combining blue and white to define the features. This paint is then used to enhance the highlights on the wool. Finally, some warmer colours are added to the ear.

In episode 14 of the sheep painting video I add a variety of textures, marks and colours to the foreground grass. This is done using a few different techniques including applying different colours to different parts of a large frayed brush, applying paint to the edge of a palette knife and simply painting directly. These lighter hues contrast against the darker ones applied to same region earlier.

In episode 13 of the sheep painting video, I add a softer purple shadow region to the foreground lamb and then re-paint the highlights along the edge of the lamb's back. Following this, a range of colourful shadow areas are added to the grass under and around the left-hand sheep. Into the closing stages of this painting now but there are still a few more episodes to go. Please remember to subscribe to my youtube channel.

In episode 12 of the sheep painting video, more detail is added to the lamb this time using warmer colours including orangey browns and ochres. These warmer hues, as well as being appropriate colours for the lamb, also help to create the illusion that the lamb is closer to us than the two adult sheep that are predominantly described with cooler shades.

In episode 11 of the sheep and lamb painting demo I add some highlights to the foreground sheep. A good tip when painting highlights is to include a range of colours. Here, for example, I use pure titanium white, a mix of white and blue and some golden orange where appropriate. The marks are made in a shape and direction to reflect the texture of the wool of the sheep.

In episode 10 of the lamb painting demonstration the foreground sheep gets its belly expanded with some deep shadows. Then, an over-layer of purple shadow is added to the sheep. Working in layers in this way allows some of the multi-coloured first application of paint to show through the more uniform layers that follow creating interesting subtle effects. At the end of the video, the sheep finally gets a second ear! :-)

In episode 9 of the sheep and lamb painting demo, I redefine the background trees and add some light, mid and dark tones to the background sheep. The detail on both trees and the background animal are kept to a minimum to help create the illusion that these three are further away from the viewer than the foreground sheep and lamb (both of which will be painted in more detail eventually).

Episode 8 of the sheep and lamb painting. My painting is very much an iterative process. I make some marks, lines and or shapes, as a first approximation to the image I want, then I adjust these to improve the image, adjust again, and so on until I'm happy. This little video is a good example of this. Having spotted some areas that need adjustment, I re-draw the lines describing the foreground sheep and lamb.

In episode 7 of the sheep painting video we follow on the introduction of the darker shades by picking out the areas on the foreground sheep and lamb that are really catching the light. Rather than use pure titanium white everywhere there is a highlight, it's a good idea to introduce a hint of other colours, in this case blue, to the brightest regions.

Epsiode 6 of the sheep and lamb acrylic painting and here I add some purple blue shadow areas to the two animals in the foreground. This colour is chosen to give a sense of harmony and flow with the similar colours used in the sky.

In episode 5 of the sheep and lamb painting demo I take inspiration from the view out of the window to depict a colourful sky full of purple and deep blue clouds. The useful trick of including a dab of white on the edge of your brush to get interesting effects is also demonstrated here.

In this episode of the sheep painting I block in the grass using not just green but a range of colours. The paint is applied with a very frayed decorators brush that I find is a very useful tool both to cover large areas quickly and achieve various effects.

In part 3 of the sheep and lamb painting demonstration I block in the sky with a mix of cerulean blue, titanium white and a touch of burnt umber. Next, I use some pure yellow ochre to block in the animals, applying this in a thin coat to allow the burnt umber line and shading work to show through.

In part 2 of this sheep painting video, I continue to use the Liquitex acrylic paint marker (burnt umber) to introduce some hills and trees to the background Devon landscape. Then, I begin to add a sense of light and dark to the painting by defining the shadow regions on the sheep and lamb.

Sheep painting part 1: Starting with an acrylic paint marker, I begin this painting by establishing the outline of two sheep and a lamb. Just keeping things loose and simple at this stage.

I've recently started using Liquitex Professional Paint markers in my work. These marker pens, that are filled with acrylic paint rather than ink, are surprisingly expressive as they provide a wide variety of mark and line. They are also really useful for painting on location. I've used them to create drawings and also begin paintings. In the video below I go through the type of marks you can make, chat about some of my recent work using these pens and then do a quick cow sketch to show them in action.

Had a great time painting a Belted Galloway Cow at Exeter Art Society the other night, thanks to everyone who came along!

Here's the finished painting
(above) that I did for the demo, this Belted Galloway cow was created
using Atelier Acrylics over the top of dried conventional acrylics, one
of my favourite techniques.


Everyone at Exeter Art Society made me feel very welcome and there was
lots of insightful (and humourous :-) ) discussion during the demo. The
photos here (above) are: top left: setting up for the evening, as I painted, my progress was projected onto the screen; mid left: people starting to arrive, there were about 37 people in attendance; bottom left: an audience member grabs a pic of the finished painting; right: micro exhibition and laptop slideshow for the half-time break.


Recently discovered this mixed media paper (above) and it's great to
paint on especially after sealing the surface with a coat of acrylic.


To start, I did some very quick and very loose line drawings (above)
where I don't worry at all about the results, it's a good way to warm up
before moving on to the main picture.


These patches of colour (above) were used to demonstrate the unique
properties of the Atelier Acrylics. The paint on the left is
conventional acrylic, the patch on the right is Atelier interactive.
Initially, they both looked identical and, once dry, I asked each person
in the audience to feel that both patches of paint were dry. Once
everyone was satisfied, I sprayed both with water and demonstrated that
the patch of conventional acrylic was completely waterproof by rubbing a
brush over the top. However, when a brush was used on the Interactive
paint it was reactivated and was easy to move around on the paper (this
makes for much easier blending than conventional acrylics allow).

As mentioned in recent posts, I was lucky enough to be named a finalist in the Devon Life Magazine Landscape Artist of the Year 2016. The work of the six finalists is now showing in an exhibition at the Mayne Gallery in Kingsbridge and here are some photos from the private view that took place the other night.

I have some paintings going on show for the first 3 weeks of April at the Mayne Gallery in Kingsbridge, South Hams, Devon. The exhibition is to celebrate the work of the six finalists in the Devon Life Landscape Painter of the year competition and also features work by James Tatum, Cherry Lyons, Peter Blakesley, Laura Boyd and Johanna Mcweeney

Very pleased to hear that I have been selected as one of six finalists in Devon Life Magazine's Landscape Painter of the Year Competition. My painting 'Feel The Heat', an acrylic landscape painting of a Devon landscape was the image selected. You can check out the article in the February issue of the magazine.

Final part: In episode 8 of Focus for Five, I continue to block in the clothes, including a stripey shirt and then begin to fill in some of the negative space. The idea behind this painting of a group of people is to paint or draw for just 5 minutes a day, hence "Focus for Five", which allows one to be creative even on a really busy day when life would otherwise get in the way.

In episode 7 of Focus for Five, I add some highlights to the faces of the people and begin to block in the clothes. The idea behind this painting of a group of people is to paint or draw for just 5 minutes a day, hence "Focus for Five", which allows one to be creative even on a really busy day when life would otherwise get in the way.

In episode 6 of Focus for Five, I demonstrate how to mix a flesh tone so that I can begin to define the faces, hands and arms of the pedestrians. The idea behind this painting of a group of people is to paint or draw for just 5 minutes a day, hence "Focus for Five", which allows one to be creative even on a really busy day when life would otherwise get in the way.

I continue using acrylic to block in some more of the buildings in
episode 5 of Focus for Five. By blocking over the first layer of paint,
you can selectively allow parts of the textured, multi-coloured
under-layer to show through e.g. on the people. I find this is a really
efficient way to create interesting effects. The idea behind this
painting of a group of people is to paint or draw for just 5 minutes a
day, hence "Focus for Five", which allows one to be creative even on a
really busy day when life would otherwise get in the way.

In episode 4 of Focus for Five it's back to the acrylic to add some blue sky and work on the buildings. The idea behind this painting of a group of people is to paint or draw for just 5 minutes a day, hence "Focus for Five", which allows one to be creative even on a really busy day when life would otherwise get in the way.

In episode 3 of Focus for Five, I complete the line work for the picture
using watercolour marker. The idea behind this painting (of a group of
people) is to paint or draw for just 5 minutes a day, hence "Focus for
Five", which allows one to be creative even on a really busy day when
life would otherwise get in the way. Check out the video below:

In episode 2 of Focus for Five, I continue to explore the technique of
painting or drawing for just 5 minutes each day. The idea is to find
time for art (or to be creative in some other way) on even the busiest
of days. In this episode I use watercolour marker on top of a dried
layer of acrylic paint (see episode 1) to begin to draw some people in
the picture.

With the best will in the world, it can sometimes be difficult to find
the time to paint and draw. Sometimes, life just takes over and suddenly
weeks have gone by and easing over to the easel just hasn't happened.
Over the years, I've found that by allocating a short period of time
each day, I've been able to keep things moving along even when life gets
hectic. I thought this technique might be helpful to others so here's
episode 1 of 'Focus for Five'.

I'm currently continuing the theme I started with 'This Way To The Beach' (below)

 and 'Going To Town' (below)




 As you may have noticed from the pictures above, that theme is belted galloway cows in unexpected places! I'm really enjoying placing these visually arresting animals in unusual environments and thereby creating unusual interactions. For example, in 'Going To Town' the pedestrians seem oblivious to the bovine visitor. However, in my current painting (still in progress, see below) the group of people are aware of the three belties that are stood in front of the cathedral. I've always enjoyed painting people but being able to combine animals and people in one picture is proving to be a real treat :-) Here's the painting so far...

6)
If using thin paint, don't be too afraid of going over the edge of your
subject in places as this will often produce a nice soft edge.




Art by Mike Jory: website facebook twitter

Atelier Interactive acrylics open up new creative avenues for artists to explore. Conventional acrylic paints, once dry, are totally waterproof. Atelier interactive acrylics are different in that, even when touch-dry, the paint can be reactivated by spraying the painting surface with water. Here are some of the benefits that I've found over the last few years of using them.



1) Blend at your leisure, for painting pleasure.



Blending colours and tones is really easy with these paints. A technique that works well for me is to apply a block of colour and then lightly spray the area with water. Next, a second colour is applied very gently through this area of wet paint. Check out some examples below:

In the detail of 'A Lunch Interrupted' above, you can see I've blended cerulean blue and purple with a very dark blue on the side of this black Angus cow. The image below is a detail from "Come On, Keep Up" and I've used a similar technique with this calf painting, particularly on the hind quarters.











2) Terrific textures



Using a similar technique to above but being a bit firmer with the second layer of paint you can create really interesting textures and I sometimes use these for the fur, wool or hair on animals. Check out this example below, a detail of 'It's Sunny Here', where I've used this wet-in-wet technique to introduce some texture over the bridge of this sheep's nose and below the eye on the right side of the painting.








3) Heavenly hatching



Cross-hatching is the use of a pattern of criss cross fine lines to shade an area of a picture. This is most commonly done with drawings where you can use a pencil or pen to create the pattern one line at a time. However, it can also be done with a brush and I find spraying water onto interactive acrylic still on the palette to create really fluid paint and then applying this with a large frayed brush can create some really nice effects. The technique has been used on the side of these belted galloway cows shown below (you can see the full painting 'Hidden By Stone Walls' here).












4) Made a mistake or two? Now you have a Ctrl-Z undo!



You know when you're using a Windows program and you suddenly realize you've accidentally deleted something or made a mistake...just press Ctrl-Z and all is good right? Well now you can do the same thing with your painting. With normal acrylic, once the paint is dry your only choice is to paint over the error. With interactive acrylic, you can simply spray the dry paint with water then take a damp paper towel to remove the mistake. This is something I do in the video below.








5) Paint interactive acrylic on top of conventional acrylic



If you do your under painting with conventional acrylic then, once dry, you now have a wonderfully smooth surface upon which to apply interactive acrylic. This is a technique I've used many times and I really love the way the interactive paint slides over the dried conventional acrylic paint. Here's an example where I used this technique. (You can see the full version of 'Strike A Pose' here).







 

Hope you find this info useful, feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions.

This was a really cool project I worked on with Paula Matthews from Manor Farm in Surrey. Paula provided me with a range of photos of her herd of belted galloway cattle. I created a black and white logo of a belted galloway cow (based on one of the farm's cows) and Paula then had it printed onto bags, banners and a van. As the preparatory work for a logo and a painting are essentially the same, Paula also commissioned a painting of some belties in the Surrey countryside which is now on display in the farm shop. Check out the photos below and you can see more belted galloway cow art here.

Following on from the series of horse painting videos, here I take a totally different approach and talk about some of the things that usually go on behind the scenes when creating a painting. Here, this includes taking reference photos, doing some thumbnail sketches and some experimental paintings before completing the final picture. The finished painting "Along The River Exe" depicts my version of the view from Cowley Bridge which is on the edge of the city of Exeter.

This is a detail of the larger painting 'Riverside' and here the focus is on the cow and calf standing in / next to a hedge on the bank of the River Exe. Painted in acrylic, the original, full version of the painting is 40" by 50" but custom-sized prints are also available.

This is 'Going To Town'. Painted in acrylic, this surreal picture depicts a belted galloway cow calmly strolling across the road in the centre of an English city as pedestrians and shoppers go about their day. Perhaps this bovine beauty has wandered from Dartmoor to the capital city of Devon? Notice how the cow, bus and skateboarder are painted in the most detail to form three corners of a triangle that the viewer's eye can bounce around.

Here's the final episode of horse painting videos, here I put on some finishing touches and the demonstrate how you can view the high resolution image so you can see the brushwork up close. Working on some more videos but they'll be shorter than this project has been and will also include some location shots etc.

In the penultimate episode of the Dartmoor horse video, adding indian yellow to the background makes the colours on the horse pop! :-)

Episode 8 of the wild horse painting video includes a lots-of-colours-on-one-big-brush technique.

Here's episode 7 of the horse painting video, adding some colour to the face this time...

In episode 6 of the wild horse painting video I add some texture to the hair using a large brush and interactive acrylic paint. You can also find out how Lego people help me think about the easiest way to paint hair!

Part 5 of the wild horse on Dartmoor painting video demonstrates another advantage of using Atelier interactive acrylics over the top of conventional acrylic....you can undo your mistakes :-) Here I work into the background of the painting more, including using several colours on the brush at once to introduce the beginnings of some foliage in the foreground.

Episode four of the wild Dartmoor horse painting introduces one of my favourite techniques. Having let the conventional acrylics dry, I now start using a wet-in-wet technique by applying Atelier interactive acrylics over the top. There's more detail on the blending techniques you can use with these paints in future episodes but for now, you can see how I start to approach introducing more colour to the horse.

Here's part 3 of the wild horse on Dartmoor painting video demonstration. In this installment, I have some fun putting in some background colour with a big brush, varying the tone of the background to enhance the contrast where light and shadow fall on the horse.

Here's the second part of the video demonstrating how I go about painting a wild horse on Dartmoor. In this episode, I block in colour and tone to give the horse a three dimensional feel, establishing regions of light and dark tone using conventional acrylic paint over the top of the watercolour markers used in part 1.

Set myself the challenge of filming an entire painting from start to finish with narration along the way. Talking while painting was tricky at times but good fun. I've split the video up into digestible portions, so here's part 1 of a painting of a wild horse on Dartmoor Here, I use Winsor & Newton watercolor markers to put down the initial drawing. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions about the techniques or materials used.

The countryside that is the Exe Valley to the north of Exeter is, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful in the world.
Here you will find a meandering river, lush green fields, beautiful trees and rolling hills in addition to thatched-roof cottages
that are hundreds of years old and look like they've just popped out of The Lord Of The Rings. It is this area that provided the location for my next set of cow paintings. An early summer morning's drive on a sunny day, I was heading north and had just crossed a narrow stone-walled bridge (and by 'narrow' I mean 'barely more than the width of my car') when I glanced
left and saw a large herd of light golden brown cows basking in the low morning sun. This view led to the painting 'Guardians of the Valley' which depicts two horned cattle lying down, almost as if they are in the middle of a conversation, in a grassy field
that overlooks a valley with rolling hedge-lined fields.

I was first inspired to paint cows when walking through a field at the foot of Cam Peak in Gloucestershire in the south west of England. On a sunny but chilly day I was admiring the beautiful hedge-lined countryside with my family who had wandered a little away from me. When I turned around I was faced with a sizeable herd of Friesian or Holstein cows walking towards me. I took out my camera a fired off some photos as the black and white patchwork quilt of cattle ambled their way closer and closer. No aggression here you understand, simply curiosity combined with perhaps hunger...pretty sure these were the normal style of cows i.e. herbivore! Anyway, the movement, interaction and expressions on the faces of these animals really struck a chord with me and it became apparent that much of what I found fascinating when painting people was also present when observing animals (no disrespect to any portrait sitters intended!).

The first cow painting to come out of my experience with the cattle of Cam Peak was 'Who Are You?'. This is also, I think, the first narrow painting I produced and this relatively unusual aspect ratio is one I've enjoyed returning to over the years. The lead cow peers out of the canvas at the viewer while a couple of other members of the herd are suggested in less detail. The scenery is actually inspired by the view across some rolling hills from the edge of the road on the way to Dartmouth in Devon.

Cow painting - Who Are You?

I’d always been slightly reticent about working from photographs but this painting made me realise that I could produce work in my painted-from-life-style providing I tapped into the mindset I have when painting from life. The way I do this is to display the photo on the computer screen and then place the computer between 6 and 15 feet away from me as I paint at my easel. This encourages me to ignore the detail in the image and work in the same way I would if a real cow was in front of me, off at a distance.

I used a different section of the same photo to create ‘Morning Walk’ next. Like the previous picture, this cow painting was created with acrylic paint using gloss medium to add some translucency to each layer of colour. It was the creation of this image with its clear blue sky above a bustling quartet of Friesians that made me really fall in love with painting this subject. The sense of movement that I feel comes across is in part due to the loose and expressive brush strokes used, especially with the 3 cows on the left. In addition, I found that using blues where one would normally expect to see blacks or browns gives the image a vibrant look that was in keeping with the reflected light I used to enjoy painting when depicting flesh tones.

Cow Painting: Morning Walk

My bovine acquaintances were not yet done providing me with pictorial inspiration as I used another photo of the same herd as reference for ‘You Again?!’. This is a large (about 40” x 30”) painting on canvas of a group of Friesians, again with hues of blue, this time within the Gloucestershire fields (the background is inspired by a view from Cam Peak). Another key step in the production of this cow painting was the use of interactive acrylic paints from Chroma Inc. These acrylics are great as once dry they can be reactivated by spraying them water. This can be done repeatedly and allows the paint to be readily blended. At the time this was a revelation to me and now, some 6 years later, looking at the blending of deep blue on the group of cows on the right genuinely brings a smile to my face because it records a moment in time when I discovered a whole new level of artistic technique. (I should point out that I’m very aware that blending paint is anything but new, but the ability to do so without long drying times or solvents was, to me at least, brand new at this time).

After these paintings I started carrying a camera with me often and whenever I saw a herd of cows in a field whilst on my travels I would park the car, hop a gate, climb a tree etc in order to get a few shots.

Cow painting: 'You Again?!'

Fellow artist Helen White was kind enough to interview me a couple of years ago. In the resulting article I briefly mentioned the Alexander Technique and how I found it helpful with my art. It occurred to me that this may be a little-known fact so I thought I'd expand on it here:



The Alexander Technique is a well-established way of becoming more self-aware so that we may begin to notice habits and patterns we were previously not aware of. Once we notice these things we can then begin to take gentle steps to make long-term change for the better. The Technique can have a profound effect on sporting ability, dramatic performance and chronic health problems. It's also a really cool thing to do if you're an artist, here are some reasons why:









1) More Energy.

The more you study the Alexander Technique the more you are able to perform your day-to-day activities using less energy than you thought possible. This means you have more energy to direct elsewhere as you choose. This may mean creating bigger and better paintings, more artwork, or simply having more energy to devote to marketing and promoting your work.



2) Better Observation Skills.

Almost all artistic endeavours begin with an observation of some sort. As you become more tuned in to your own habitual patterns of posture, tension and movement you also become more aware of, and notice in greater detail, the idiosyncrasies and postural habits of others. This can be a huge help when drawing portraits, life studies and / or caricatures for example.



3) Work More Fluidly.

When painting, I typically begin with loose, expressive brush strokes, this usually continues through the middle stages of blocking in etc but as the work approaches completion and I tackle the fine details the fear of spoiling what has gone before can creep in and this can lead to a loss of expressiveness and fluidity. Studying the Alexander Technique has allowed me to spot this undesireable response far earlier than normal and so nip it in the bud.

Here are a couple of examples of artwork where I feel I've maintained fluidity















4) Better Accuracy.

If you've ever been, for example, to a life drawing class or painted a still life, you've probably used masking tape or chalk to mark the position of your subject so that an elbow or orange doesn't wander into the wrong position. However it's less common, but just as important, for the artist to mark the position of their easel and where they are standing. It's also likely that few have considered that their point of view may change as the day goes on, in particular, if we gradually slump as we tire. The Alexander Technique allows one to maintain poise throughout the day and thereby work from a more consistent point of view.









5) It's Fun!.

The Alexander Technique is really good fun and a totally rewarding form of education which can lead to new artistic choices.


You can find out more about the Alexander Technique here.

Giant giraffes gracefully looming, metallic hares boxing and children singing, it's the 2015 Doddiscombsleigh Art Show!

Doddiscombsleigh is a small village in amongst the picturesque hills and winding hedge-lined lanes on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, UK. Every two years an art show is held, exhibiting work by 80 artists (mostly, but not exclusively, from the Southwest of England), to raise funds for the local primary school. Typically, tens of thousands of pounds are raised during the 2 and a half days of the show.

This was my first year exhibiting at this show and I was really impressed by the range and quality of art work there. Even more impressive was the number of people in attendance. It is notoriously difficult to get large numbers to attend local art shows, especially at out-of-the-way locations, but somehow the 'Doddi' team achieved excellent attendance at their show and I'm talking 'shoulder-to-shoulder, excuse me, sorry, excuse me, can I just get through?, turn sideways, wiggle-your-hips-to-get-close-to-a-painting' levels of attendance! It may be the widespread publicising they do, it may be the quality and range of the art, it may be the fact the show raises money for the local school, it may be the fact this is a long-running (~16 years) show and something of a fixture on the local art calendar, it may be all those combined, but whatever it is, it's pretty cool to see up close!

Here are some paintings and drawing of sheep and lambs from the Devon countryside that will all provide a cheery spring feel to any room.

Here's a new painting of a belted galloway cow wandering towards a beach under a stormy sky, this one's called "This Way To The Beach".

Raising funds for the local primary school,Doddiscombsleigh Art Show 2015 takes place at the end of October and features the work of approximately 80 artists from across the South West of England.I'm going to be showing a mix of original framed paintings and hand-embellished stretched-canvas prints at the Exhibition which takes place from Fri 30th October to Sun November 1st 2015 at the Teign Valley Community Hall, Christow (which is a few miles outside of Doddiscombsleigh).
Here's the first of the pictures I'll be exhibiting, a bright, colourful and expressive painting of sheep in a Devon field illuminated by the bright sun on a warm day, this is 'Summer Light'.

Working on a painting of some black cows on Dartmoor I'm using Atelier Interactive Acrylic's Phthalo Blue. It's the first time I've used this particular blue and I really like how translucent it is.

I've been drawn to painting Belted Galloway cows again of late, and although a familiar subject for me, I've enjoyed experimenting with technique. This first picture is titled "Against The Fiery Sky" and depicts a single cow, painted in loose broad strokes, stood in profile while backlit by an orange sky created using interference acrylics. This gestural piece has an atmosphere that I like and, for now at least, I've decided to leave the details out, not even including eyes, as I feel the image has a sense of mystery. As with all the images on this blog, if you click on them, you can view a larger image of the painting, and if you click on this you can zoom in to see the detailed brush work.


Next up is "This Way To The Beach". I often take walks along the Devon coast, including the beach at Exmouth. At times, the sky and light playing across the distant hills has a quite otherworldly quality that seemed in keeping with the unusual look of the Belted Galloway with it's single white stripe. Placing the animal at the edge of some terrain that defines the local area yet is alien to these animals makes for an interesting juxtaposition and the landscape is really a simplified abstraction, much more about mood and light, that also provides an interesting contrast with the more realistically-painted animal.


Painting "Hidden By Stone Walls" I really enjoyed making use of the versatility of acrylic paint, the background paint being rendered using dilute washes in the way watercolours are traditionally used in contrast with the thicker, light-impasto-with-visible-brushstrokes used to create the foreground cows. These different applications of the paint, along with the background cow, help create a sense of depth and scale. The brushstrokes on the foreground cows also help create a sense of the hair on the animals' coats.


"A Purple Patch" shows Belted Galloway cows on Dartmoor grazing amongst the purple heather and yellow gorse. The sky was painted using thin layers of paint, including interference colours to give some shimmery light. The distant hill was created by mixing the paint "in-brush" which is a quick way to create interesting blends. Having blocked in the foreground with thick acrylic, interactive acrylics were then used to paint the final layers and add texture.


Finally, "Misty Moor" actually has a jet black Angus cow in the foreground, knee-deep in the gorse and ferns of a Dartmoor landscape. Off in the misty mid-distance are a group of Belties, while hazy distant hills complete the scene.

One of the coolest things about the internet is being able to connect with an international audience. Check out this great email I got the other day :-)

'Hi there, I volunteer teaching art at a public school in Northern California. We are currently looking at Still Life of Fruit. I found your lovely, amazing and fun "Wrong Field" and have been using it is an example of Fruit Still Life. The students love this image! They had a few questions (6th graders especially). I told them I would try to get in touch with you. Questions are: 1. Is it a Giant's field of fruit that the sheep wondered into? 2. Is it a normal size sampling of fruit with a sheep toy? 3. Is it a distance perspective thing? Monumental fruit and sheep in the distance. 4. They are convinced something is happening behind the orange...and the sheep has a weird tail! There were many more comments, but overall the students love this piece and so do I. We were also looking at still life from Cezanne, Van Gogh, Chardin and Caravaggio. I used your art as an inspiration for them to create their own masterpiece. So, thank you for inspiring us and please let me know what your thoughts might have been when you painted "Wrong Field".'

Here's the painting "Wrong Field?"

Here's a collection of cheery and brightly coloured paintings of classic 1950s jivers bopping the night away in vintage style with the girl wearing a poodle skirt and saddle shoes while the guys rocks the traditional teddy boy look. I've tried to convey a sense of movement and fun in all of these pictures which typically use a mix of acrylic and marker pen. Hope you enjoy! :-)

Sometimes a drawing is a preparatory sketch for a painting and sometimes it's both preparation for a painting and an artistic statement in its own right. Here's a selection of paintings and the drawings that preceded them.

'The Young One' above is a pencil drawing that inspired 'Courage of Youth' below. This is a nice example of how identical subject matter can be treated very differently. The drawing has quite carefully considered lines and cross hatching whereas the painting is more gestural and impulsive.


The influence of the pencil sketch (above) of two sheep on a Devon cliff top can be clearly seen in the painting below 'Spring Sunshine'. The sheep on the left has a very distinctive look which I haven't seen before in paintings and this is, in part, why I decided to make this pair the subject of a painting.


'Back To Mum' above partly inspired 'It's Sunny Here' below. The influence can be seen in the adult sheep, I think the pencil drawn animal has a stronger sense of emotion than the painted version but I am constantly drawn to the colour combinations and sense of light in the painting.

I'm going to be exhibiting at the Doddiscombsleigh Art Show this autumn and very much looking forward to taking part in a group show for the first time in a while. The show raises funds for a local school and exhibits a wide range of artwork, primarily by artists from the south west of England. Check out their facebook page for the latest info.
The exhibition is still 8 months away but I've started working on new paintings already, here's a work in progress of a Devon lamb

Encountered a couple of black sheep in a field along the banks of the River Exe the other day which led to the mixed media drawing 'Fifty Shades Of Black' below. I've used a range of different tools here including pencil, ball-point pen, copic marker, watercolour pen and highlighter pen. The copic marker is running out of ink which gave some interesting and varied texture to the marks. At points I let the edges of these marks guide the more detailed line work with the biro. This is a fun reversal of the normal way of working where the colour is used to fill in the shapes defined by the lines (and I find it works equally well with cartoons).

I've taught several Physics courses over the years, often to students who are working towards a Degree course. The leap from GCSE to A-Level can be daunting for some and, at the very least, there are a lot of new concepts and definitions to get to grips with. Sometimes, injecting some humour into proceedings by visualizing an idea in an unusual way can stimulate class discussions and help lodge facts in the long-term memory. So, here is a policeman (UK-style) and a charging rhino, helping to depict the definition of Electric Field Strength! :-)

Belted Galloway cows can be seen wandering the countryside of Devon, particularly on Dartmoor. They are an almost unbelievable site on first viewing with their designer white stripe around their midriffs and are living liquorice allsorts standing against the lush greens of the English countryside. I've painted these animals a few times over the years but decided to do a cartoon version recently, perhaps inspired by the imminence of Valentine's Day.

'Belted Galloways In Love!' is a cute cartoon of a bull and cow nuzzling up to each other (see below).



This is drawn on bristol board which I love for its incredibly smooth surface. I started with some loose pencil lines and then blocked in colour with a blue highlighter pen. A mid grey copic marker was used to add the darker tones while a blue coloured pencil added a lighter layer. I then defined the lines with a black ball point pen and my favourite part of this picture is where I've followed the shape of the marker lines with the biro (see the chest and side of the cow on the right). You've probably already noticed the white stripe on the central pink heart to echo the white stripes on the cows. Less obvious are the little blue heart shapes on the edge of the white stripe on the right, just a little touch to echo the pink hearts elsewhere in the design.

Here's a snooker cartoon I did recently using the same technique I posted the other week.

I painted 'The Golden Fleece' above using just one flat square brush and by using the corner, edge or angling the brush in different ways I was able to make a wide range of different marks and brush strokes. It was a really rewarding painting experience and a good reminder for me of how some of the best creative moments can occur when limitations are imposed on us, either by choice or not. Deliberately choosing a limited palette forces one to make bold decisions with colour, restricting the time to complete a painting makes for bolder strokes, and limiting oneself to the use of a single brush encourages a creative approach to mark making, plus it's really good fun!
The sheep and lamb painting above has combined both abstract and representational aspects and reminds me of some life studies I painted a few years ago under similar constraints. Practicing this style of working helps me reinforce the importance of simplifying form while allowing oneself the freedom to take risks with an uncontrolled flourish here and there.
And I really like how the lamb in the bottom right corner almost disappears into the painting :-)

Having recently posted a selection of drawing and painting pairs (preparatory drawings that work well in their own right and the paintings they inspired) I happened to come across another drawing in a portfolio the other day.

'Moorland Shadows' depicts two miniature Dartmoor ponies grazing in the setting sun and was inspired by a photo I took just before my wife and I had an almost-too-close encounter with these horses (they like to nip!).



And Moorland Shadows led to 'A Moorland Meal' that you can see below!

'On The Move'


'Oh I Say!'


'Ready To Chomp'

'Farm Animal Fun' is a cartoon painting of farm animals painted for my 2 year old nephew. Cows and tractors are big favourites of his at the moment, in part because there is a herd of cows in the field next to my sister's garden. Anyway, I started out with a few line drawings of different animals as shown below:



I also came across this cartoon bee from a couple of years ago that I thought would sit nicely in a corner somewhere

And here's the finished painting,

It's about 20"x30" on canvas, the butterfly and bee wings are painted with interference acrylics to give them an iridescent finish, plenty of colourful cows huddled in the corner, notice one cow has snaffled a candy cane and is munching away, the pigs are looking happy at the completely unhealthy (well apart from the apples) feast in front of them, while the lambs they are a leaping. I actually drew the feathers on the chicken with watercolour marker and then painted over these with acrylic, this caused the lines to blur a little, but I like the effect so I've left it as is (the idea is similar to another technique I've used recently). Finally there's a bright red tractor on the hill! Hopefully it will be well received! :-)

Near the South Downs, is a shepherd's cottage made of stone, with a living room painted white, combined with earthy tones,
In the fire place a wood burner and to the side, logs piled high, through a small white-framed window, you can see the bright blue sky,
Across the ceiling, bare wood beams, see them you are able, and by the fire sit heavy books, upon a low low table,
So take a seat in a wooden chair, or on the plush settee, now look at walls, for now so bare, what paintings would you like to see?

Relax and ponder, thoughts a wander, let your mind release, for a vintage touch, choose 'The Grazing Goose' and feel a sense of peace,



But that fire is bright, with orange and red, another idea pops quickly into your head,
The flames a flicker like a 'Sun Storm', the bare brickwork, colours matched, all earthy and warm.



Antique chairs of varnished wood, eat a delicious meal right now you could,
View 'Shelter Me' and the windswept moor, your feet at rest on terracotta floor,
Reminded you are, of days of chill, and yet you feel warm as you have your fill,



Now for a delicious dessert, another helping is your goal
'Baby Blue', chestnut brown, expressively painted, it's a foal,



Or to match flowers and apples with colours bright, a touch of the surreal, like you might,
In 'The Wrong Field' is that fruit big, or is the sheep small? You take something else from the bowl as you ponder it all.




Now the bedroom doth beckon as draws in the night, so you take in a view of hedgerows bright, 'Nodding Bells' depicts many a petal, it's vibrant yet restful, as on the bed you settle.



Embroidered cushions, pristine sheets all fresh and clean, your eyes alight upon a country scene,
'Spring Sunshine' depicts rolling hills and three Devon sheep, something to dream of as you drift off to sleep.



This post was inspired by the article 'West Sussex Cottage' in Country Homes & Interiors magazine. If you would like more information regarding my work, please feel free to contact me via facebook or email info@mikejory.co.uk

The brush used to paint the living room walls is now severely frayed, it's had a rough life, been neglected and become distorted, has been cleaned less thoroughly than it should of and yet still it holds pride of place in my brush pot next to the sleek sables, hefty hog hairs and streamlined synthetics! Why? Because this beaten up, paint-splattered, divergent-bristled old friend is one of the most expressive painting implements I have. Covering a large area of canvas with a single colour is now far more interesting due to the undulating tones created by this brush, check out the background of 'Ready, Steady...' below


This brush is the perfect implement for expressive and care-free brush work. This cow painting 'The Luminary' was mostly painted with this very frayed, 1 inch brush. The tattered state of the bristles means that mark-making takes on a quality that can be both precise and uncontrolled at the same time i.e. although the area covered or the line drawn may be clearly defined there is a delightful randomness of marks within and / or at the edges, and this is something that can bring a new level of interest to a painting.


So remember, respect the elder statesmen of your brush pot, they have fought many a battle, picked up a few scars, but what they have lost in youthful beauty they have more than made up for in strength of character and unpredictable behaviour! :-) Here are a couple of other pics that have benefited from the frayed brush treatment.

'Fox!' (below)


'Time For A Nap' (below)

You've just moved into your beautiful new home and you are surrounded by lush woodland, the sun shines through the windows, leaving a dappled leafy pattern on your bare walls...wait, bare walls!? You need to bring a little woodland life into your living space! Here's a selection of drawings particularly well suited to a contemporary woodland home.

I've enjoyed using this technique of late, first I do a line drawing using a biro (ball point pen), I prefer blue ink but any color would work, then I use a light grey Copic felt marker to do some shading. When you go over the pen lines with the marker the ink bleeds slightly which means you can shade in both grey and blue/grey with the one marker. The bleeding can also lead to some interesting blurring effects and these 'happy accidents' sometimes add a sense of movement to the drawing. I tend to use a marker that's running out of ink when I do this because you can get a wider range of tones by applying different pressures, plus you don't wreck the nib of a brand new marker! The effects are quite subtle but it's a fun way to enhance a line drawing.
Here are a couple of examples where I've used this technique, it's probably worth clicking on the thumbnails and then clicking again on the image to get the magnified version in order to see the effect properly.

'Dry Brush' is a painting technique where very little paint is applied to the brush and the brush is then wiped on a cloth and / or scumbled over a spare piece of paper until there is almost no paint left on the bristles. Having created an almost dry brush, this is then dragged, tapped, swept or pressed across or on the artwork to create a range of effects. The amount of paint you leave on the canvas is proportional to how hard you press. I love using this technique because it creates effects that are somewhat unpredictable and could never be deliberately drawn. You can also build up layers to create deeper tones, or put one colour on top of another to optically mix different hues. When using this method with acrylic, almost no drying time is needed so you can work really quickly and often the results have the feel and appearance of using pastels, charcoal or pencil. Because of the minimal paint load, you can also use thin or absorbent papers that under normal circumstances (wetter or simply more paint) would severely buckle.
The method is also ideally suited to underpainting, giving a sense of movement or combining with other media such as marker pen, biro, pencil or simply 'thicker paint'.
Here are a few examples:

"Taking The Air II" (below)

This is a mixed media painting of two wild horses roaming free on Dartmoor in Devon, England. Here you can see how many different effects and tones can be achieved with essentially the same grey. Once I'd blocked in the main shapes and allowed them to dry, I was then able to work into them with biro (for the foliage) and Sharpie (for the horses). The distant hills are painted in blue and left without line to create a sense of distance and to provide just a hint of colour to the image.



"In The Winter Sun" (below)

This sheep with lambs drawing incorporates a very simple use of the dry brush technique. Here regions of grey have been put down as a simple first indication of where to place the animals. These have then been drawn over with felt pen. Although the dry brush is minimal, it lends a sense of weight to the animals and provides some atmosphere with the hint of distant trees in the background.



"Overlooked" (below)

This is a good example of how dry brush can simulate the appearance of pastel, particularly with the blue of the dress. The paint being dragged across the paper in much the same way as a side-on pastel stick is used to shade in areas. Here, the line work is also done with a brush but in the conventional way. The over-laying of thicker white paint to create the hair provides a nice textural contrast and demonstrates how the illusion of different surface textures can be created.



"Day Dreaming" (below)

Back to monochrome for this study of a young woman pensively resting her head on her hands. Guiding the brush in the same direction as the surface contours of the object depicted is a useful way of conveying form as shown here on the arms and hair.

Here are the rest of the collection of cat cartoons that were mentioned in my previous post.

If you read articles on painting or drawing you'll often come across the phrase 'happy accident' to describe the wonderful effects than can sometimes (though alas, usually quite rarely) occur by mistake. I think the phrase is probably most often used in reference to watercolour painting where the intermingling of different washes is naturally unpredictable.

Anyway, the other day I came across a few old envelopes, these are the sort of envelope that official things like bills arrive in and the idea of taking something that usually contains an item that doesn't sit within my 'top ten things I'd like to receive in the mail today' and using it to created something more positive took my fancy...yes that's a very elaborate way to say 'I decided to start drawing on the back of an envelope!' :-)

Doodling on an old envelope is, I'm guessing, as old as envelopes themselves, but for whatever reason I decided to draw on the inside surface of the paper which (in the UK at least) has a light blue octagonal pattern on it. I grabbed a black gel pen and started drawing a cartoon image inspired by our pet cat Limelight who likes nothing better than joining us in bed and settling down in 'duvet valley' (known more commonly in the States as 'Quilt Canyon'!). The funniest part of this is that Limelight likes to check out potential landing spots before taking a leap onto the bed so this pair of lime green eyes appear, peeking over the edge of the bed, surveying the luxurious land above. So, I ended up creating the drawing below.

As you can see, the drawing is on the blue octagonal background mentioned before. I was happy with the image and liked the unusual effect the inside of the envelope provided. So, I did three more cartoons, all Limelight-inspired, and then scanned them into the computer. I don't normally modify images of my drawings and paintings on the computer beyond making slight adjustments to contrast etc but I was curious to compare the look of the lines on the blue background to their appearance on traditional white. I selected the 'paint bucket' tool and clicked on the duvet in the drawing intending to flood-fill everything (except my black lines) with pure white. Instead, a 'happy accident' happened as the program only selected parts of the drawing upon my first click (see below). What's cool is that the there is now more depth to the simple line drawing as the blue appears to recede from the stark white of the duvet, and even better, random petals on the floral pattern remain coloured in. Of course, I could have continued selecting areas to turn the background completely white but I really like the effect and the random way in which it occured.

Anyway, the finished drawing is called 'Is There Room For Me?' :-)

As the year draws to a close, thought I'd take a quick look to see which paintings were the most popular this year. So here is a top five countdown of the five best selling paintings of 2014 (except there are actually six!)

In joint fifth place we have 'You Again?!' a painting inspired by a group of Cotswold cows in a field near Cam Peak in Gloucestershire. This picture uses Atelier interactive acrylics which made the blending of the blue on the cows really good fun. The original, which sold to an art collector in Plymouth, is 40" by 30" and now hangs in a house on the site of an old Cornish dairy, quite appropriate!


Sharing place number five is "Ready Steady..." a painting of a new born lamb being steadied by its mother as it takes those first tentative steps. Inspired by a visit to Bicton College near Exmouth during their annual open day 'Lambing Sunday'. The yellow ochre and rust red hues used for the background and straw give this work a really warm feel and make it perfectly suited to the walls of a country retreat.


In at four, a cow on Dartmoor! 'The White Stripe' is a belted galloway cow grazing on the high moorland of Devon's major national park. The unusual and striking appearance of these cows sits perfectly in the almost alien landscape and light of Dartmoor. (The area was used by Steven Spielberg as a filming location for the movie 'War Horse'). The original painting sold to an art collector in Pennsylvania, USA.


Into the top three now, we have 'Come On, Keep Up' with a peaceful summer day in Devon basking a herd of wandering cows in warm light as a young calf looks back to see if its companions are staying with the pace. My favourite parts of this painting are the depiction of the calf and the loose brushstrokes used on the foreground flowers.


'Courage Of Youth' is the second best-selling painting of the year. Since painting this bold young cow that I happened upon near Silverton in Devon many people have commented on the unusual colours used and I think it's the bold contrasts and simplicity of line that make this an appealing image. For me, creating a high impact work in the most efficient way possible i.e. using the minimum number of brush strokes is one of the greatest joys in painting.



Finally, the number one best-selling painting of 2014 is 'Summer Light', a bright and vibrant depiction of some sheep on a hot June day in a field next to the road that leads to Exmouth. The funny thing with this work is that I almost didn't finish it. A few years ago I was preparing for a large one-man show at the University of Exeter and while searching through a portfolio for extra paintings and drawings I happened upon this picture, which at that time was only half finished. The painting had been sat in the portfolio un-viewed for several months, but upon rediscovering it I decided it had potential, finished the painting that day and included it in the exhibition. The original sold rapidly and 'Summer Light' has remained a strong influence in my paintings of sheep that have followed.

If the cold and frost are making you long for long days and warm to the idea of warmer weather then why not re-visit summers gone and anticipate summers to come with one of these three?

"Summer Haze"


"Come On, Keep Up!" (Detail)


"Wrong Field?" (Detail)

Whether you prefer to 'throw pillows' or 'scatter cushions' you can do so with a range of sizes and designs. Here are some floral patterns inspired by the wild flowers of the English countryside. See the full collection here.

Bring some warmth into a room with one of these paintings painted in an earthen colour scheme using yellow ochre as the main hue.

Whether lying among the heather and gorse on Dartmoor or roaming in the fields, black cows make for a stark contrast with the lush green Devon countryside. For me, painting 'black' is all about using anything but black, and you'll see that in fact these cows are painted in shades of blue, red, orange and brown...among others!

North East Biodiversity are using one of my images from a project I did a few years ago for the Big North East Ponds Dip

Saw some amazing sculptures at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London recently!

About ten years ago I designed a logo for BMX rider Lee Musselwhite and it's cool to see that Lee is still riding and still using the logo for his company Inspire Promotions. The logo has also recently appeared on the Lee Musselwhite model of Origaudio's headphones.

A couple of my horse paintings appear in this month's Country Homes & Interiors magazine, thanks to Carol Wortley Bishop http://carolwortleybishop.co.uk/ for arranging this.

Paintings on show at BizzyBe Gallery in Exeter

'This is my spot' - pencil and pen drawing of a grizzly bear cub sitting in long grass

"Over There" - pencil drawing of 2 deer

"Dry Brush" - painting using the dry brush technique of a stag with large antlers grazing on some dry brush!

'Lamb' - drawing of a lamb's head using pencil on bristol board

'A moment of calm' - drawing of a grizzly bear and cub using pencil on bristol board.

'Wembury Blue' - this acrylic painting was inspired by the view looking east from the rock pools of Wembury Beach on the south coast of Devon near Plymouth on a bright sunny day!



 The beach is well worth a trip for scenic walks, soaking up the sun of whiling away the hours exploring the hundreds of rock pools. The painting above is also available as a high quality fine art print and on a range of greetings cards.

 devon coast art

A couple more deer drawings...



 'Look at that'



 





 'I'm about to...'



 

'Oh I say' - mixed media drawing of a piglet looking a little haughty









farm animal paintings

"What did you say?" - pencil drawing of 2 sheep with horns.







sheep horns art

'Listening' - pencil sketch of a young deer, pausing to listen ...



 

"Huddle Up"









sheep drawing art

'Walking in the Sun' - pencil sketch of a pig walking along casting a shadow

pig art

'Always Ready' - pencil sketch of a young deer

'Are You Looking At Me?'





 "Are you looking at me?" - A monochrome pencil and ink drawing of a cow greeting a visitor to the field with a quizzical look.

tree art

deer paintings

 

My white goat painting "Strike a Pose" is going to be used by Dufour as the cover illustration for 'Bluebeard's Goat and Other Stories' by H.L. Mencken which will be released early next year (2013).

I've recently been doing some graphic design work for Manor Farm in Surrey and you may spot this black and white cow logo on their van if your driving in that locale!

Manor Farm Surrey: quick sketches of belted galloway cattle in preparation for a painting

Sheep standing in the spring sunshine painting "Spring Sunshine" - inspired by sheep from the cliff tops of South Devon near Branscombe, Devon in England.

A big thank you to Helen White who recently interviewed me for UK Handmade.

The Migraine Action Art Exhibition starts today! Check out the show at http://www.mikejory.co.uk

Cattle society Holstein UK are kindly helping to publicize the Migraine Action Art Exhibition, check out the article on their website here.

Here are the next couple of stages in the cows by the river painting that I first posted about a few days ago.

Just blocking in color mainly at the moment and also including some multi colored darks in the foreground which will act as shadows in the hedgerow...

Here are the next couple of stages in the cows by the river painting that I first posted about a few days ago.

Just blocking in color mainly at the moment and also including some multi colored darks in the foreground which will act as shadows in the hedgerow...

Quick thumbnail pencil sketch of a sheep and lamb grazing, just trying out some different ideas

If animal and landscape painting isn't your thing then perhaps commissioning a portrait painting would appeal? During May and June 2012 I will donate a percentage of any portrait commissions received to Migraine Action as part of the Migraine Action Art Exhibition.

Quick color experiment: drawing of a sheep using mixed media, pencil, color pencils, copic markers and biro / ball point pen. Using multiple layers of different media often produces unusual color / lighting effects and I'm currently working on different ideas in preparation for the Migraine Action Art Exhibition.

A trip to Stoke Canon near Exeter led to seeing these cows grazing near the river, a quick sketch of the scene (above)




The pic above shows the layout transferred to canvas (this is a 40" x 50" so a really generous size and great fun to work on). I've actually added some interference acrylic as well which will give a hint of iridescence in the finished work. You can see the effect in the pic below which shows the same canvas under different lighting conditions. This is a technique I've explored before in illustration but only recently adapted to landscape and animal painting.




Quick interlude! The next 2 pics have nothing to do with the painting but I couldn't resist including a couple of shots of this double rainbow! :-)






Back to the painting, here I've added in the outlines of 3 cows...



I'm hoping to include this painting in the Migraine Action Art Exhibition if I can get it finished in time...we'll see how it goes over the next few weeks...

Just a quick publicity photo* for the forthcoming Migraine Action Art Exhibition which is an online show of paintings, prints and gifts that is being held from May 1st 2011 to June 30th 2012. Here are the paintings from the photo:









*Photo by K. Jory
Hair by Kathedral
Wardrobe by Lindariffic USA ;-)

From May 30th to June 1st 2012 I will be holding an online exhibition of paintings to help raise funds for Migraine Action.

You can find out more here and there will be more info on the way soon!

Christmas Print Show at Gloss Gallery in Exeter, Devon Friday 2nd December to Saturday 28th January




If you're in Exeter City Centre over the next few weeks why not take the 1 minute walk to the beautiful Gloss Gallery which exhibits a wide range of work by local and national artists alike. Whether you want to spend tens of thousands of pounds on an original painting or buy more affordable work by emerging artists then Gloss has got you covered.

One of their current shows is the Christmas Print Show which runs from Friday 2nd December to Saturday 28th January. There is a wide range of work and media including some of my hand-embellished giclee animal prints, glass ware by Will Shakspeare and work by Paula Youens, Simon Ripley, Cathy King, Simon Uden, Sally Hebeler, Emma Molony & Catherine Cartwright from the Double Elephant Print Workshop.

The Christmas Print Show is the perfect place to purchase a unique Christmas gift!

Photos below: Prints from Artists from the Double Elephant Print Workshop currently showing at Gloss.

2012 Calendars featuring a range of cow, sheep, horse and landscape paintings are now available. The perfect gift for Christmas! :-)

Established oil painter Martin Bentham has a range of work on show at The Art Room in Topsham until 6th November. Animals, people, landscapes, trees, walls and plants are all depicted in his distinctive style of oil painting that almost carves form into the paint and then includes delicate details on top.

I went to the Robert Lenkiewicz exhibition at Torre Abbey a few weeks ago and with only a couple of weeks left (the exhibition ends on 2nd October 2011) I thought I would write a few lines about it.
First of all, if you like art, you should go! Plymouth-based artist Lenkiewicz was famous and infamous for his art, unusual life-style, major projects, book collection and headline-grabbing activities (perhaps the two most well-known being his faking his own death and the possession and preservation of  the corpse of his long-time friend and model "Diogenes" (whose embalmed corpse is on display at the exhibition)).
There are several examples of Lenkiewicz's exquisitely precise and vibrantly colored paintings on show, but even if his artistic endeavours are not your thing (I've heard his work described - I feel unfairly - by fellow artists as either "chocolate boxy" or "bloody awful") you should check out this exhibition for the insight into his working process that is provided by the less-often exhibited sketch books and watercolor paintings.
In addition, the Abbey has stunning paintings from many artists of different eras on permanent display that are well worth a look too.
You can find out more about Robert Lenkiewicz at theLenkiewicz Foundation Website