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My Painting of the Week | Autumn 2020
Welcome to your weekly update of all my latest wildlife paintings. I spend many hours watching wildlife in its natural habitat in order to capture the individual character of each of my animal subjects. Enjoy!
Click here to meet the wildlife models that inspire these paintings
November 21st, 2020
Puffins
Painting of the Week
This week’s painting is a throwback to the summer before lockdown when I spent a happy day at Bempton Cliffs watching puffins. The towering chalk cliffs of Bempton is a mecca for wildlife and I also watched gannets and a peregrine falcon that day.
November 14th, 2020
Pheasant on Snow Patrol
Painting of the Week
This painting was inspired by a particularly bossy pheasant. I had accidentally strolled into its territory and it marched right up to me. Although I didn’t pose any threat, it patrolled the invisible line of its territory, keeping its beady eyes on on me.
November 7th, 2020
Mrs Kes Guarding her Nest
Painting of the Week
This portrait was inspired by the remarkable courage of a female kestrel whose brave battle to hang on to her nest despite several attacks from tawny owls, barn owls and jackdaws inspired us all to keep going during lockdown – and I hope will give us the courage we need during this second wave!
October 29th, 2020
Tawny Owl on the Lookout
Painting of the Week
Tawny owls become very aggressive in autumn as they fight one another over territory and at times the battles can be vicious. The tawny owl featured in this painting actually lost an eye in one such spat. At the time I thought its modelling career was over, but thankfully the eye healed and I went on to paint this portrait.
Click here to read more about tawny owls in autumn and to see how this owl recovered
October 22nd, 2020
Two Weasel Kits Branching Out
Painting of the Week
In this painting I wanted to capture the playful nature of weasels as well as their phenomenal climbing skills. I had seen these two kits chase one another along this impossibly thin twig and was amazaed. I hadn’t realised what incredible poise and balance weasels had until I started watching them closely.
Click here to read about my research into weasel behaviour
October 12th, 2020
Grey Partridge Pair
Painting of the Week
I painted this some time ago now and was reminded of it after spotting some grey partridges out in a stubble field this week. Grey partridges, also known as English partridges, are a native species, but it is rare these days to spot them. Here on the Yorkshire Wolds, you are more likely to see a red-legged, or French, partridge.
October 6th, 2020
Badger and Two Cubs
Painting of the Week
It’s National Badger Day today and so something from my collection of badger paintings seems an appropriate choice. I’ve watched generations of badgers grow up at the sett near my home on the Yorkshire Wolds. This painting was only possible once the badger clan got to know me well enough to emerge from their underground den with their cubs.
Click here to see more of my badger art | Click here to read about the wild badger models in this painting
September 30th, 2020
Blue Tit on Lookout
Painting of the Week
I am always on the lookout for interesting backdrops for my bird portraits and autumn berries are a great favourite. Here, I chose a spray of red hawthorn berries to balance this blue tit’s strident pose. I like the way the dark red colour offset the blue too. Have you ever noticed that a blue tit’s legs are also blue?
September 24th, 2020
Squirrel Nutkin
My Painting of the Week
To mark Red Squirrel Awareness Week this week, I’m pledging £10 from every sale of my limited edition print ‘Squirrel Nutkin’ to Red Squirrels NE, a conservation partnership protecting red squirrels across the north of England. Red squirrel populations are still tragically low in England and I hope together we can raise enough to help restore numbers.
Click here to read about the red squirrels I photographed in Yorkshire for this painting
September 14th, 2020
Pheasant’s Flight
My Painting of the Week
I was trying to get across the essence of the Yorkshire Wolds in this painting, with its criss-cross of dale sides and its abundant wildlife. I wanted to capture that moment when you turn a corner on a walk and come across a wonderful wildlife scene like this.
September 7th, 2020
Hedgehog in Autumn Leaves
My Painting of the Week
When this hoglet got caught in a rat trap in my garden, I took it indoors and nursed it back to health. But before I released it back into the wild I took some, artful, photographs of it posing in a bed of autumn leaves as studies for this painting.
September 1st, 2020
Puffin Trio
My Painting of the Week
I’m kicking off this autumn with a look back at summer and my painting of this ‘trio of puffins’. Commissioned just before lockdown, thankfully I had plenty of research material to work from in order to complete this painting in my studio. I have photographed puffins often, travelling both tothe Farne Islands and, closer to home, at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, to watch them and so I have many stories to tell of their antics in paint.
Read about the puffins that inspired this painting here
Read More
Follow the link below to see my summer choices for ‘wildlife painting of the week’.
Read about the stories behind my paintings here:
https://www.robertefuller.com/diary/category/wildlife-photo-of-the-week/
Author: Robert E Fuller
A wonderful picture
I just LOVE your devotion to protect wildlife, Robert, no, really, I do!
Thank you!