Oil or Water?

Rain, Frenchman's Creek. Watercolour

Oil or water, obviously they don't mix, I know that! However what drives the decision to use which media, especially when depicting water in all her many guises?
I love watercolour, I am in love with watercolour. I think it is a difficult medium, it takes an almost sneaky type of control on the side of the artist. On the one hand you need to have some experience of what it will do, which colours will cause which reactions. Who will sit happily with who, who will repel and rebel. On the other hand you need to be able to let it go its own way, invite the "accidents" encourage the unexpected. Sometimes the place or mood that I am trying to capture seems to dictate the medium.
The picture above is watercolour. It was a damp, misty day but muggy and steaming too, then it began to rain. There was a cleaning property to the air brought on by the rain and the water in the river seemed to clear showing beautiful patterns of copper and yellow colour. I couldn't imagine catching that feeling in oils. It needed the transparent quality of watercolour.
But...
I also love oils. I love the buttery feeling of the colours, the freedom that the addition of light right at the end of the painting gives you. I can paint and paint and then flick in some light and it is literally like switching on a light switch. All of a sudden the picture is transformed and brought to life. Magic! The picture below is oils. The day was sunny but very still. I was sitting above the small beach at the mouth of the river, where the river widens and meets the sea. Often here are loud and powerful waves but on that day, not a breath of wind. The water seemed almost oily, slightly thick but clear. As the sea slowly sucked out the tide the sand became silver and the pebbles shiny and bright. All I could think of was painting it in oils. Dabbling in all the rich greens and blues that were under the water, speckling on all the yellows and ochres and almost blacks that were the shore.


Ebb Tide, Oil.

Maybe I should stop worrying about being a watercolourist or an oil painter and just be ambidextrous.
I suppose they are a bit like cats and dogs.
Some people are dog people, they just like dogs (that's oils I think, don't you? Quite predictable, loyal but capable of doing tricks and performing very obediently. A dream companion in the right hands, a nightmare in the wrong hands!)
Some people are cat people. So this by rights must be watercolours: Haughty, independent. Make you feel great when they are purring and curled up on your lap but off like a shot for sardines from the house down the road. Startlingly beautiful, wild, free and proud. Or mangy, hissing and untouchable.
And some people are both. I think I must be, the nutty dog woman and the mad cat lady all rolled into one. I suppose one just has to "go with the flow" Try to listen to your emotions, find the feeling that comes from what you are wanting to paint and then reach for your cat or your dog!

Bring on the Birdies

Coot Nest in Victoria Park
pencil and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This year, I've started drawing water birds for the very first time. It sort of goes with the territory. First you have the water - and then the water birds turn up. Water and birds are almost becoming indivisible to me since everywhere I go I see birds when I see water.

Spring was fun with all the tiny birdies coming out to play for the first time. This was after a few weeks of very loud high pitched squawking if anything came near a hidden nest. It took me a while to catch on that was what was going on.

Coots are the sculptors of the waterbird world.

Coots have elaborate 'on the water' nests which are continuously built and repaired it seems while the babes are young. I sketched the family of coots you can see above in Victoria Park. Mum and Dad busied themselves with housework and looking after the nest - which was of course has to be extended extension as their kids grew up and out! It also provided a good chance to study ripples - which are not easy to draw as they change continuously!

Herons on the other hand are complete posers! They also practice nonchalence and studied indifference as a sideline.

Bert takes personal grooming very seriously
pencil in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Bert - my heron at the Ecology Park Pond - never hides when posing prominently is an option.

On the other hand he never likes his fans to get too close and is much happier if we keep our distance.

I find him completely fascinating because of the contortions he goes through in terms of changing what his body looks like. When he's stretched out he's absolutely enormous and yet he can curl his neck and body up and make himself look very small as well.

My sketches of him going through his normal grooming routine (this boy could groom for GB!) were done while sitting on top of the Ecology Pavilion roof looking down at him perched on the rail of Heron Bridge. Which is so named because it's his favourite perching place by far.

He has a routine which is somewhat repetitive and I found it easiest to start several sketches on the same page and then work on whichever one he was in at the time - swopping around as he did.

There's no mistake with the leg. He does all his grooming while standing on one leg. I told you he was a poser!