Newsletter

Here to Ignite, Encourage and Inspire your Creative Flame

‘Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.’ Thomas Merton

Please note: some items are repeated for the benefit of new subscribers. Thank you 😊

Hey there my friends I hope you’re all keeping well. Can’t quite believe we’re already in May, this year seems to be whizzing by. For a while I felt like I was balancing plates, so many things all going on at the same time and finding it difficult to balance things out so to speak. So what do you do when this happens? Well it seems I sit and doodle lol, and yep sure enough, in no time at all, things settle down and seem to achieve an equilibrium all by themselves. As for the resulting doodle – I have plans for this as an underpainting for something else. So nothing wasted, time or materials. Faith in ourselves and our ability to deal with things, big and small, comes from being in a place where all you can do is have faith it seems.

This week I’m pleased to be able to let you know that my art workshop this month will be the Puffin in Acrylic. This was originally due to take place in February but had to be postponed due to Covid. But now we’re good to go and I’d love to see you there. It’s due to run on Saturday 28th May at the Martin Mere Wetland Centre, more information can be found below or by clicking on one of the following links 😊

Wildlife Art Workshops New for 2022

Six dates have now been confirmed over at Martin Mere Wetland Centre. One running each month until, and including, June. The mediums alternate between Watercolour, Acrylic and Pastel, and all workshops are suitable for beginners. More information can be found over on our exclusive Art Workshop page on the Martin Mere website as well as on the Workshop page of my website. If participants would like further mediums added then extra dates can be slotted in to suit. So if your passion is coloured pencil or you love oil painting then just let me know.

Diary Dates

Patching’s Art Festival	14th – 17th July 2022
Exhibition of Wildlife Art	29th – 31st July 2022
Art Safari in Uganda	15th – 30th September 2022
North West Birdwatching Festival	15th & 16th October 2022
Art Safari in Uganda	16th February – 3rd March 2023

Patching’s Art Festival – an international four day art event celebrating the best in art & craft. Open to all there’s something for everyone, the chance to meet over 250 artists, a lot of which will be demonstrating (including me demonstrating for Caran d’Ache). Plus ‘hands-on’ workshops and art material offers all set in 60 acres of beautiful Nottinghamshire countryside.

Exhibition of Wildlife Art – ‘an exciting three day show featuring the work of some of the world’s most talented wildlife artists. The biggest and most successful, open selling, exhibition of Wildlife Art outside of London. All exhibited work is for sale and many artist demonstrate whilst there.’ I’ll be demonstrating whilst exhibiting there this year and would love for you to drop by and say hello.

Art Safari in Uganda – a two week tour taking in some of Uganda’s best national parks, optional gorilla and chimpanzee tracking, visiting a rhino sanctuary and so much more. With a maximum of 6 participants this art based safari ensures you’ll have all the natural world of Uganda has to offer, plus plenty of 1 to 1 guidance from me when you need it to enable you to capture all that you want on paper or canvas. More information below.

North West Birdwatching Festival – Open at 8am, start your day by watching the spectacle of thousands of wild geese leave the roost before heading for breakfast in the Martin Mere restaurant. Over the two day there will be an array of guest speakers and exhibitors, artists and photographers including photography workshops, guided reserve walks, and more. I’ll be exhibiting and demonstrating throughout the weekend and would love you to drop by and say hello.

Latest News

On My Easel

So the past couple of weeks I’ve had a painting on my easel that I’ve been restoring for a client. An interesting time, that allowed me to put my existing skill set to the test. I’m very pleased, and somewhat relieved, to say that all went well and the painting is now back with it’s owner and looking like new 😊 Not the kind of work I’d want too often though lol.

Next on my easel was this little Pied Wagtail. Working from my own reference images I sketched this little guy onto some spare printer paper, managing to sketch a little larger than first planned (and like I did when I was younger I had to Sellotape two pieces together lol). Setting the completed sketch to one side I began to plan out my background for this piece. I then applied washes of acrylic paint to my 14″ x 10″ canvas, softening the background a little by airbrushing a lighter mix of colour. I could have achieved this look with a brush but it’s just quicker using an airbrush and thinned down paint. My next step was to transfer my initial sketch and I did this using a white trace-down paper, then I began to block in colour refining the shapes along the way, as you can see in the above photograph. Hopefully my next newsletter will include the finished image and I’ll have something new on my easel to show you.

For the love of Uganda

Calling all artists, would you like to take your love for art and wildlife one step further? Then why not join me on safari in Uganda this coming September? There’s so much to see and do on this adventure of a lifetime; safari drives, boat cruises, gorilla tracking, chimpanzee tracking so much more… Any questions? Then contact Lesley who’s looking forward to hearing from you.

‘Capture some of Africa’s finest wildlife in art that will help your memories last forever. We are very excited about our new partnership with wildlife artist Kerry Newell and hope this art safari – based on one of our classic wildlife safaris – will become an annual feature in our tour calendar.’

Subscriber Question

Q. How can I add depth to a pastel painting?

A. Adding depth to any painting, whatever the medium, can sometimes be a challenge, especially if you’re not working from a reference image with a decent amount of depth in it. A few simple ways to add depth to a project: Having an area, whether that’s the foreground or the background that is out of focus, and gradually (beginning at the subject) decrease the amount of ‘in focus’ detail as you move towards the area that you want to be out of focus. Another way is by increasing the contrast in one part of the painting and decreasing it in other parts, such as the background. Areas with a high contrast will look closer to the viewer. Another way of increasing depth is in the use of colour, cool colours look further away whilst warm colours look closer to the viewer. I hope this information helps you. My Hedgehog in Pastel video uses all three techniques to achieve a feeling of depth.

I may not always have a video on my YouTube channel to go alongside a subscriber’s question, but when I do I’ll be sure to add it.

Okay I’ll sign off for now and grab some lunch before heading back to my easel. If you have time I’d love for you to connect with me on social media and show me the projects you’re working on at the moment.

Thank you once again my friends for spending some time with me today, and please feel free to leave a question or suggestion in the contact form below.

Wishing you all the best, until next time, as always, stay safe and stay creative, Kerry xXx

• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Mail