This year I plan to focus more on the landscapes inhabited by the birds that I love watching, vital for their survival and very fragile. I hope to map the changes in the seasons in terms of the colours and textures of the landscape but also the resident birds and those passing through, wintering or here for summer breeding.
I have four particular places in mind but these may change as time passes, Hayle Estuary, the North Cliffs, Stithians lake and home.
Here are a few sketches from the weekend, at this point I am just trying to gather information, trying not to use colour but feeling that I really needed it, the colours were so intense. Vivid yellows and blues, so a little colour sneaked in in the end.
Mostly I am trying to establish the scale of the birds in the landscape and the way their presence and movement within it gives it such energy. It is not really about they way they look as drawings but more about the practice of drawing, sitting in the landscape and trying to make sense of it and distil it with a chunky graphite stick. I want the paintings that come out of these drawings to be quite loose and abstracted.
You can see some more resolved paintings here https://www.suzysharpeartist.com/portfolio
