Seal watching

After the cold and wind driven rain of the previous day I was rather expecting the worst for our seal watching trip and woke the next day hoping the rolling waves wouldn't lead to rolling stomachs. Thankfully though the weather was dry and calm with the sun peeking in and out of the hazy clouds.

We headed out of the harbour on a little fishing boat, donning hats as although it was calm there was still a bit of a bracing sea breeze. Although we hit a few waves heading out of the harbour we headed along the coast of Ramsgate and up into the estuary of the Stour into placid waters.

The river itself used to be both wider and busier in the past when it was used to ferry goods up Canterbury and smugglers waited along the riverbanks where they would lure cargo vessels to shore before stealing away in the night up through tunnels carved into the cliffs. 

Now the estuary sits between two national nature reserves where it's coastal salt marshes provide invertebrates for wetland birds and fish for the seals who take advantage of the tidal nature which causes the narrowing of the channel.

We passed a mudflat busy with black-backed gulls and oystercatchers and the odd avocet. A couple of redshanks wheeled by in the sea breeze across the saltmarsh where I spied some Brent geese wading behind a bank of vegetation. Curlews called and flapped by close to our boat enabling us to see there long downcurved bills that they use to probe for shellfish and invertebrates in the sediment.

Then we saw the seals in the distance, almost hard to see at first looking like shipwrecked row boats along the water's edge.  As we headed closer we could see one or two seals bobbing in the water but most lay in small groups along shore, some sleeping but others watching to see what we were up to. There were a mix of adults and this year's pups who had grown massively so to be hard to distinguish although they tended to have paler fur. Older seals appeared more mottled in appearance, some almost dressed in leopard print. We noticed one small pinkish seal that had been born later in the year that we thought might be albino. All the ones we saw were common seals with their rounded faces although we heard the long-faced grey seals also spent time here too.

Most common seal pups have already shed their lanugo (a white furry coat) before they are born. This enables them to learn to swim very quickly (lanugo's are not waterproof) meaning common seals can breed on estuaries where the flooding of habitat is less of an issue for them that grey seal pups who retain their lanugo for a couple of weeks. 

After getting some lovely views of the seals including one splashing around in the water we headed back to harbour. A couple of heavy looking herons flew overhead before sinking back down into the marshland as we passed. I regretted only having my phone on me for the trip and not taking a camera but hopefully I can borrow some photos of the seals as it would be great to paint them.

A little bit of sun on our way back to harbour

Wildlife Watch: Pale toadflax

This year I've been taking part in some volunteering where I help monitor a stretch of roadside noted a Roadside Nature Reserve. Roadsides can actually be important and diverse grassland habitats as they often haven't seen the addition of fertillisers like many pastures have. A species of note here is Pale toadflax (Linaria repens), a plant that is relatively rare in Kent and this is what this Wildlife Watch is about.

Toadflaxes are part of the Plantain family and are so named as their flowers are said to resemble a toad's mouth - not sure i see it myself but the flower shape is quite distinctive with three lower lobes and two upper ones to each flower with each flower having a spur that protects to the back. 

Pale toadflax is a small plant that grows in dry calcareous (alkaline) soils. Its flowers are white or pale lilac that are striped in purple with a yellow central spot. It has a stumpy spur at the flower's base that is straight and flowers in later summer up until October. It is a hairless plant with simple tapering leaves that spiral around the stem in whorls.

Common toadflax - also present at the site

It can hybridise with another native toadflax, Common toadflax - a larger two tone yellow flower to give pale yellow flowers with purple veins. Some of the flowers on the site did seem to have a pale yellow appearance so I wonder if there are hybrids there as Common toadflax is also present; although I'm not sure how common hybrids are.

Pet Breed Focus: The Pug

The pet breed I'm going to look at this time is the pug.

The pug is a small dog distinguished by it's short muzzle, wrinkly face, and curled back tail. The breed originated in China where it was a companion dog for members of royal households where it lived a luxurious lifestyle, often with its own bodyguards. It was then brought over to the royalty of Europe in the 16th century where it was popularised by the House of Orange in the Netherlands following the foiling of an assassination attempt on the Prince after their pug Pompey alerted the family. House Orange then went on to share the breed with House Stuart of England where it may have been bred into the King Charles Spaniel line during a visit, playing a part in the short-muzzled nature of the breed.

At this time the breed was more long-legged and lean in stature and it was after another influx of pugs from China in 1860 that the shorter stockier appearance of the modern pug came to be. Queen Victoria was also involved in breeding of pugs and helped establish of the Kennel Club in 1873.

Studies into the modern pug in the UK show that the breed has seen significant inbreeding and that the 10,000 or so pugs here have the genetic diversity of just 50 individuals. This has perhaps fed into some of the health problems that many pugs can experience such as hip dysplasia which affects over half of pugs. The short muzzle makes them more prone to eye damage and many have breathing difficulties or an inability to regulate body temperature through panting. They may also reverse-sneeze when excited where they gasp or snort due to an elongated palette although this is usually harmless, and sedentary pugs are more prone to weight gain. Along with a few other smell breeds of dog there is a small risk of NME - an inflammation of the brain and meninges, sadly this condition is fatal with no known cure.

The modern pug is a stocky small dog with a short face and underbite; popular colours include light tan and dark brown. It is a sociable companion dog that can be strong-willed at times should they get away with it. Pugs are smart and loving dogs with a youthful sense of fun they retain throughout their lives. They like to spend time napping and are particularly sensitive to the moods of their owners who they love to be around, shadowing them as they move about.

First still life: Part 2 The glazing

Now that the black and white painting has been done it's time to turn my attention to glazing colour into it. To do this the colour is diluted with more oils to allow for transparency (in this case I'm using liquin) with a little medium to ensure it dries. I kept these colour glazes relatively 'pure' in that I did not dull or muddy their vibrancy by the addition of black or white paint. These are built up in layers so the transparency provides a luminescence to the painting. Each layer is allowed to dry (around a day) before a new layer is added.

A reminder to where we were at the end of the underpainting stage:

In my first layer of glazing I glaze crimson into areas of the grapes as well as some yellow. It gives the impression of a faintly tinted photograph in my opinion.

Another couple of yellow and crimson layers are put in the grapes along with adding cool blues to the glass and I add some golden brown into the foreground.

I then warmed the grapes further with red. So far I have worked the layers over the highlights largely ignoring them. The highlights were cooler, more blue in colour so I would work them later. Areas of the stem were glazed with green and then brown glazes.

I then put the highlighted areas back in to the grapes with a simple white glaze to work over later. I also glazed the foreground and background with a warm brown including the dark clear areas of glass. . glazed over blueish hues.

Finally I worked blueish glazes into the grapes and added another brown background/foreground colour glaze. I also added some more warm red to a few of the grapes to finish.

I feel pretty happy with how it turned out although it's so shiny with the liquin glazes it is very difficult to photograph. I am interested to see how this technique would work with wildlife and pet paintings and hope to give it a try soon!

Let me know what you think of my first still life attempt :)

First still life: Part 1 The underpainting

I can't be exactly sure but I think it was seven or eight years ago back in college when I last attempted a still life and never in oils. However after seeing some fantastic still lifes recently I've been wanting to give it a try, plus it gives me an opportunity to try out a different oil painting method.

The painting technique I'm trying out is called Grisaille, from the French 'gris' for grey, it involves creating a tonal black and white painting and then glazing in the colour afterwards. This does two things, first, it allows the painter to focus on tone and detail when working on the greyscale underpainting.  This makes the painting process easier as you don't need to worry about mixing various colours in tonal shades. Secondly, by building up the colour in thin layers brush strokes are softened to blend them together creating a smoother effect and a luminescent quality is added to the painting as the colours show through each glazed layer.

I usually work from start to finish in colour and deepen the tonal qualities and add detail as I go and I wanted to see whether working in this way would benefit my artwork in future.

So both inspired by some of the work I've seen (and slightly influenced by my time working at a vineyard) I raided the fridge for some grapes and grabbed a wine glass for my still life. Lighting is very important for a still life as well as the composition of elements within it so I tried a few setups to photograph before selecting one as my reference.

Here's the photo I'm using

I chose to eliminate the background entirely so the focus was solely on the subject matter especially as I didn't think the actual background of the photo would add anything to the image. Instead I would leave it dark, something like the dramatic paintings I like from Caravaggio. 

So here are the stages of me building up my greyscale underpainting.

Sketching the composition out

Adding in the first layer of background

Second background layer is added. Starting to work on the grapes and glass from rearmost to foreground

Building up the details and working on the grapes. You can start to see the textures and light now.

The finished underpainting

So far I'm pretty happy with how the painting has gone. Next step will be the colour glazing, something I'm very new to so it'll be interesting to see how it goes!

Wildlife Watch: Ragwort

Ragwort.

There's a strange love-hate relationship with this biennial plant in the countryside. There are nineteen species to be found in the countryside and although this includes the likes of Oxford ragwort, brought here by the Victorians, you will most likely encounter Common ragwort. A native plant but one that is very much treated like a foreign invader with much time invested in removing it. The reason? Well it's pretty toxic, particularly to horses and cattle. This isn't much of an issue when it's alive as it has a bitter taste and grazers are unlikely to eat it unless the whole field is jaundiced with the plant or overgrazed. But when a field is cut for hay ragwort loses its bitterness whilst retaining its poisonous qualities.

Interestingly, a green dye can be made from its leaves and a yellow one from it's flowers.

However it is also quite an important plant from a wildlife point of view. It provides a habitat and food for at least 77 species of insect, 30 of which use ragwort exclusively, and it is a significant food source for 22 of the remainder. This includes some scarce species such as the Sussex emerald moth and Picture-winged fly but one of the best known is the Cinnabar moth.

This is a striking black and red day-flying moth. With red lines running along the outside its black forewings each splodged with two heavy red spots; its scarlet underwings peek though underneath. It's one of the most colourful moths we have in the UK and often mistaken as a butterfly as a result. Its caterpillars are equally distinctive, wasp-like with yellow and black stripes to warn predators of their poisonous nature (they absorb toxins from the plant)

Although it also uses the plant Groundsel as a foodplant for its caterpillars, ragwort is significant in it's survival as it provides toxins to make the caterpillar and moth unpalatable and is also a much larger plant for caterpillars to feed on, meaning more caterpillars survive.

Studies looking at Cinnabar moths have shown population declines due to the persecution of its foodplant ragwort so it may appear strange that many conservation organisation tasks are focused on removing what is a native and ecologically important plant.

Well it's largely so a hay crop can be taken. This is a way of managing levels of nutrients of grasslands. The hay itself can then either be used to provide food for a countryside organisation's livestock (as grazing is used to manage grasslands as well) or to sell to make some money. Ragwort can also be an issue if it takes over an area as it is a quick coloniser of bare ground and can take over and dominate some fields, this is more of an issue if next to other people's hay meadows as the seeds are wind dispersed.

Outside of these circumstances though I believe we should live and let live and leave ragwort and the insects that depend on it to get along with things out in the rest of the countryside. Sure, control ragwort where it's likely to be an issue but not look to eradicate it.

Lawn bioblitz & Wildlife Watch: The teasel

So this is the second year of a section of our lawn being under a hay-cut (however much my dad grumbles about it) so it's time to go out for another bioblitz and see what's there. It's a little later in the year than the one I carried out last year and most plants are in a post-flowering stage so I may have missed a few (last year's survey was in June as opposed to August).

Last year's count was 24 species of plant which you can find HERE.

This year's list:

1) Cat's ear
2) Dandelion
3) Smooth hawks beard
4) Spear Thistle
5) Meadow bent
6) Rye grass
7) St John's Wort
8) Ground ivy
9) Red clover
10) Wild strawberry
11) Creeping buttercup
12) Ribwort plantain
13) Cow parsley
14) Hop trefoil
15) Teasel
16) Wood avens
17) Daisy
18) Primrose
19) Cowslip
20) Unknown grass similar to wheat

The list looks very different this year owing to it being later in the year with many of last year's species not being recorded at all. Four less species were recorded which may seem like a decrease in biodiversity but is due to the survey taking place later in the year when fewer species are flowering and hence not visible. It was good to see a cowslip flowering on the bank earlier in the year and there are a couple of other species present that weren't spotted last year, notably Teasel which is a large flowering plant that I'm going to look at for the Wildlife Watch - of which there will be two this month as I missed July's. I will aim to carry out next year's count a little earlier in the season as I know I've missed a few species such as the buttercups this year.


Wildlife Watch
The Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum)

The teasel is a striking architectural-looking plant, growing up to 2 metres, with a prickly stem and unusual spiny cone-shaped flowerhead containing small lilac flowers arranged in a ring. These florets appear as two bands in the centre of the cone and migrate outwards towards the edges during the July-August flowering season.

It's leaves too are strange. Arranged opposite one another they form a 'cup' at their bases and often collect water. These pools of water help prevent sap-sucking insects from climbing the stems. Studies of teasels have also shown that they are partially carnivorous, absorbing nutrients from insects that have drowned in these leaf-pools leading to greater seed production. The teasel is a biennial and only becomes a tall plant in its second year. It spends its first as a basal rosette close to the ground distinguishable by short curved spines on it's bumpy leaves. 

It has wildlife value as a nectar source for insects such as bumblebees and butterflies in the summer and the seeds provide an important food source for goldfinches in the autumn and winter months. The name derives from its use to 'tease' cloth as it was used to full in cloth production.