There was no update for October as I was in the middle of a six-week trip to Europe.
About half-way through the trip I developed bronchitis which stayed with me to the end of November at which point I caught Covid on my return to Brazil. All of this despite being fully vaccinated for Covid and flu, and wearing masks during my trip. In many locations I seemed to be just one of a very small minority using a mask. C’est la vie!
My trip was the first post-pandemic opportunity to visit my family in various parts of Europe. Without going into full detail I can summarise the trip: visiting Sicily, the Scilly Isles, Bristol, Weybridge and Franconville; seeing my mother, four of five daughters based in UK/EU, all six grandchildren, and my brother; and capturing a host of images to add to my stock portfolio or for use in painting studies.
December activity is likely to be minimal in view of the holiday season, post-travel admin, and planning for 2023 projects. There will be something to report.
In the meantime … happy holidays. Have a great Christmas and New Year.
While September was a busy month it was not really productive in respect of design, painting or photography. A lot going on with my principal focus on planning my trip to Europe. More on this subject next week.
Watercolours
The King Swallowtail (Papilio thoas) became a subject in my watercolour journal after I found a caterpillar, commonly referred to as “bird poop caterpillars” in view of the camouflage appearance, feeding on my recently planted Common Rue (Ruta graveolens) plant, known in Brazil as Arruda.
I let the caterpillar feed, despite concerns about the arruda, but the caterpillar failed to complete its transition to the chrysalis stage. Two more caterpillars appeared though one was attacked by ants and died in the process of converting to the chrysalis. The third made it and now sits protected from attack in a glass jar. It is expected to turn into a butterfly any day now.
I managed to paint both the caterpillar and the chrysalis:
Caterpillar phaseChrysalis phase
The orange “horns” are not ordinarily visible in the caterpillar but, when threatened, the two balloon-like elements rush out of the caterpillar’s head and scare off any bird considering a snack. The “horns” then deflate and disappear.
The chrysalis takes 10-15 days to mature, so any day now!
The Rockpooling Project
I haven’t added more work to the project but I shall be visiting the Scilly Isles in November and, weather and tides permitting I hope to participate in a Safari, take lots of photos, and build an image bank for painting once I return to base.
Product Design
The 2022 Christmas card design is now available in my Zazzle Store both as a greetings card and as a pattern for my paper party plates.
Alan Skyrme Photography
My PicFair site has not been updated for quite a long time, primarily as I haven’t had the opportunity to travel. After my forthcoming trip to Europe I expect to have enough new material to put up for licensing on Picfair and Alamy.
ETSY
My ETSY store, Pipira Rosa, has about 50 items on sale. The digital downloadable prints will be on sale even while I travel but the physical products will be removed while I am away.
I shall upload new products after I return from my trip, ready for Christmas!
While in UK I hope to replenish my stock of watercolour paints and papers.
Outdoor space under a vine-covered pergola (in my mother’s garden, Erice, Sicily
The little shady spot, in the photo above, is going to be where I shall sit painting, drawing and writing under the shade of the grape vine for a short time in the six-weeks that I shall be travelling.
This is the first time since the start of the pandemic that I have been able to travel and I shall, in effect, be re-tracing my steps to where I was before corvid began.
I used to be able to travel frequently (for many years I was aboard an aircraft at a rate, on average, of one flight per week) but my logistics planning skills hadn’t been forgotten. In truth they slowed a bit but part of that slowness was due to a degree of anxiety and depression: the anxiety caused by a tight budget and the depression (albeit slight, as I have regular ebbs and flows) as a result of the financial situation and the realisation that I need to sell more just to be able to visit by family in Europe. Boo hoo.Poor me. Life goes on so stay strong.
Apart from visiting my mother and most (hopefully all) of my many beautiful daughters, and my grand-children, I shall be writing reviews of my travels, as I usually did in the past. This includes quite a bit of photography, so there should be some food reviews and images to publish. I have, for budgetary reasons, had to limit the number of hotels and meals I can include in my trip. I expect to lose weight!
I will be taking my paints and watercolour journal with me so expect to have material to produce some paintings on my return to Brazil. One important thing to do on this trip is to buy watercolour paints and paper. My stocks have been in short supply for most of this year, hence I have not been particularly productive.
My ceramic tile designs have been quite successful so, while in Sicily, I shall be looking for inspiration and hope to release a new range or two when I get back.
The travel arrangements include:
10 flights
7 buses
5 trains
2 boats (ferry)
metro and taxi
3 hotels
Although much of the accommodation will be with family I would, in the past, have added 5 hotel stays to ensure I stay well-rested and healthy! I doubt I will cut back in future so shall plan and ensure I have adequate funding for the entire trip. Being frugal is one thing but health, especially at my age, is just as important.
Thanks for following.
I hope my next few travel-related posts will be entertaining!
I ought to have provided an update on my productivity for the month of July but as it was almost zero I failed to do so last week.
There were a couple of paintings I managed to create in between other stuff that kept me away from my easel, one being a clover flower on 1st July.
Much of the other stuff was little more than journal painting. The fact is I have run short of watercolour paints so no way to produce much unless its predominantly blue, such as the Purplish Jays I painted at the end of the month.
A pair of Purplish Jays
The other bird portraits I completed were a pheasant, that was having a dust bath, and a Toco Toucan.
Toco ToucanRing-necked Pheasant
Until I can get hold of quality watercolour paints I will limit myself to design work and painting in my journal.
Social Media
Having created a new instagram account for my photography I discovered that Meta had blocked my account for, so they say, infringing some rules. Given that the account (shootinages2022) was operating for just a day or two after confirming my email address, with about a dozen photos uploaded to kick off the account, I found it odd to have been accused of something I hadn’t done. So I deleted the account and also deleted my design studio account. I will keep my watercolour bird account until I find a suitable alternative app.
I am also reviewing my Facebook and Whatsapp accounts with a view to moving to apps that offer a similar service. Facebook has been particularly annoying of late with, on one occasion, a total of 25 posts of ads or irrelevant suggestions between posts of friends.
So all Meta apps are now under review. I have found alternatives and plan to test them in the next few days.
I shall publish the results here, hopefully at the end of this month.
Jaguar (Pantera onca) 30cm square watercolour on paper
Hard to believe that half of 2022 has disappeared already!
June has been a fairly productive month, though still room for improvement. Planning makes a big difference yet one would think that I had not been planning this year. I have plenty of experience in strategic and operational planning in my previous career which has not gone wasted. There are other issues at play but I seem to be overcoming them slowly but surely.
So what have I done in June?
Watercolours
Over 40 paintings completed in June. Most were bird portraits but a few other subjects completed to mix things up a bit.
Dog rose, Betta fish, Purple-throated Euphonia, Heron and blossomDog rose, Betta fish, Purple-throated Euphonia, Heron and blossom
The Rockpooling Project
Almost complete. I let the two most challenging subjects to the end and, to be honest, I am not sure if I will complete them in a hurry owing to the complexity of the creatures: two types of sea urchin – spiky little monsters!
Among the 8 or so illustrations that I did complete in June are:
Slender Spider Crab, Rockling, Three-spot Cowrie and Daisy Anemone
Product design
At the end of May I had 325 products on sale. During June I added another 50 taking the total up to 375. Among these were Sicilian style ceramic tile designs in shades of blue (six of these each in two sizes) based on designs I had already created.
Next Month
July is not expected to be quite so productive as I have a ton of admin and personal issues to deal with. I hope to arrange to travel … though there are a few dependencies … so all a bit uncertain.
I have a long-standing project to deal with too, which involves preparing at least one book for publication. I started the project a long time ago with the intention of publishing at the end of 2020! Maybe I can publish it this year.
Thanks for following.
Feel free to follow me on Zazzle (and take advantage of promotions to buy!!)
In my Easter update I mentioned that April had, up to then, been a slow month. Indeed it had as I managed just a dozen paintings.
In contrast, however, May has been a much busier month as I worked on a few bird paintings, a rockpooling project, and product designs for my Zazzle store.
Watercolours
In the past two months I painted 25 birds, twelve completed in April and 13 in May. In the April group are a set of three that were requested. The subject, specifically, was left to me so I chose a set that I felt would look together – Hornbills:
Great HornbillRufous-necked HornbillWreathed Hornbill
The birds painted in May were, mostly, repeat subjects to replace ones painted in the past.
The paintings made for this project, in support of Scilly Rockpool Safaris, are illustrations of the species found in the rockpools on the Scilly Isles. My daughter, her husband and, principally, my grandchildren (especially Orkney who can be seen doing his stuff on their website homepage), operate the safaris which is aimed at educating visitors to the islands about wildlife. I have visited once (for their beach wedding) and was amazed at how much wildlife exists on the small isles.
So far I have painted over 40 illustrations and have another 10 or so to do this month.
The Sea Hare (at the head of this post) is one of the sea slug species that have been completed. The examples are shown below.
In addition to these illustrations, a few of which were made a year ago, I have prepared some colouring pages for the visitors to take home.
Product design
I now have 325 products on sale via my Zazzle store, Alan Skyrme Design Studio, with about 20 new products added per week. I had mentally set a target but wasn’t sure if it was achievable. Practical experience helped so I now do 3 per day rather than more, or fewer, to instil some discipline.
There is always a temptation to do more but I need the discipline to ensure I can plan ahead without disrupting my workflow.
The Zazzle Store is divided into Collections. I have 11 collections at this time, though will expand to a maximum of 15 over time. The collections are:
Ceramic Tiles
Paper plates, napkins and party stuff
Ceramic coffee/tea/soup mugs
Wall art
T-shirts
Home Products (throw pillows etc)
Practical Products (tote bags etc)
Home and Office (mouse-pads, stationery etc)
Vegan/vegetarian inspired products
Seasonal gifts, calendars and cards
Bird, animal and nature inspired products
The products can be regarded as a bit expensive in comparison to other outlets BUT, they are all customisable so buyers can use my designs to create other products, or add narrative to personalise products, AND Zazzle often provides store-wide discounts – some of which are very good, so well worth visiting regularly to check for bargains.
Thanks for following. Feel free to buy my products!!!
While I have built up, thankfully, a modest following on this blog, on Instagram and other social media, with buyers (thank you!) in UK, USA, Brazil, Italy and Asia, it was suggested to me that I should provide quick links to my sales outlets to make them more easily accessible. So here they are and I shall re-publish the list every once in a while together with latest news..
These are Travel, Nature, and Food images that I have on sale. I have not added images in the past two years owing to Covid19 travel restrictions but I expect to add a few hundred images over the next few month so please return regularly to see what is on offer.
While I also use my PicFair portfolio for Travel, Nature and Food images I decided to create images that may have appeal for buyers of wall-art though, this portfolio too, will be expanded this year.
On this site I have a growing number of watercolour bird paintings on sale, in addition to which I show additional acrylic works or other watercolours that are not on sale (or were sold privately). I decided not to sell prints of these paintings as I feel it undermines the value of the original work as unique items.
This is one of my two ETSY stores. The products on sale here are downloadable versions of some of my watercolour bird paintings that are licensed for printing at home.
This is my other ETSY store but I stopped selling on this platform at the end of 2019 owing, initially, to emergency travel and, later, because of the Covid19 pandemic which prevented me from fulfilling sales. I hope to have this store back on line later this year.
When I am not painting, taking photographs or writing I create designs for application to products. These are sold through Zazzle.
The products that I specialise in include tee-shirts, mugs, cushions, ceramic tiles and stationery items. Zazzle allows buyers to customise products on sale using my designs.
Feel free to visit (and buy from!!) these sites. I produce new paintings and designs every day, uploaded to the appropriate store on a weekly or monthly basis, so the number of items is constantly growing.
Easter holiday and midway through April. Time flues! I have not done much painting but have been busy with my design work.
The designs have, mostly, been in the form of new Sicilian style ceramic tiles that I sell through Zazzle and I shall continue my focus on this after the Easter break.
I am planning a trip to Sicily in May as my mother has had significant back problems in the last two weeks, having fractured a couple of vertebra a couple of years ago. She is 94 and a tough character but needs support. My brother will be there for a while before I can get there .,. travel is still difficult despite Covid19 seemingly improving.
While I am based in Sicily I shall continue to paint, design and photograph but at some stage will also visit my daughters and grandchikdren in Paris and UK. I hope to buy some paint and paper stock while there.
Watercolours
The only paintings completed so far this month are the Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) (above). From a photo I took during my days (3 years) in India, these were common birds especially in the Botanical Gardens, Gachibowli, Hyderabad a short walk from where I lived. They share many traits with the hummingbirds of the Americas and can sometimes be seen hovering when collecting nectar.
Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) Quite a common bird in India where I saw several, including the odd one mobbing other birds, presumably in competition for food.
Both watercolour painting on A4 paper Prints and original on sale.
Skyrme Gallery 