Birds and Railway Engines

Since delivering my last painting I met the recipients at a wedding and they were thrilled at the painting of their cottage. Always nice to get feedback on ones efforts. Despite the recession I took the plunge and bought a new telephoto lens for my camera a couple of weeks ago. An ultra zoom it enables some great opportunities for birds. I captured these Gadwalls at a local nature reserve on a very cold day.


This morning the preserved steam locomotive Tangmere was passing nearby so took the opportunity to get a photograph as she crossed the railway viaduct on her way to Fareham.

Train chasing again

I have been chasing trains again! When trying to obtain reference information for paintings you have to grab the opportunities when they present themselves. A coupl of weeks back I had a jaunt up to Oxfordshire to photograph the last survivor of the old Southern Railway King Arthur class locomotives 'Sir Lamiel' arriving a little late at one of my chosen locations she was just pulling away so only had the chance for a couple of grabbed shots.


The next was a little closer to home so I had more time, and despite the sun not fully co-operating by staying out these are a couple of the Bulleid Merchant Navy Class "Clan Line" running a Pullman special excursion from London to Southampton E Docks.

She is shown here having just pulled out of Eastleigh, her birthplace 48 years ago.

Here she is arriving in Southampton Docks having just crossed an ungated public road, a rare occurence these days.


I hope to commit this magnificient engine to paint shortly, so what this space, in the meantime you can see a couple of my other railway paintings on my website www.artyman.co.uk

A short holiday

After a rather dismal summer I managed to find a few days sunshine and took the opportunity to grab a short holiday on the Isle of Wight. Whilst not baking temperatures it was sunny and very pleasant with some stunning scenery near where we were staying. I have plenty of photographs, and perhaps the only slight dissappointment was that there were no old Southern Railway locomotives when we visited the Isle of Wight Steam Railway at Havenstreet. They did have a fine collection of vintage carriages though, so not all was lost and they will prove useful reference for future paintings.

These are a few of the photo's that I took showing some of the magnificent views from St Catherines Down and further west along the coast toward Freshwater.








Since returning home I have sold three paintings at exhibition and now need to settle down to some serious work over the coming months to complete a commission and prepare for next years round of exhibitions.