DATE: 06/06/2008 10:13:50 / MOOD: full of life

 

Painting in the studio is very different to sketching in the African bush. My watercolors consist of loose washes with detail added only at the end. In order to achieve the watercolor effects which are a big part of my work, I have to have full control over how the paint dries. This is virtually impossible when I am in the African bush due to the temperature, dust etc. Also, because I use so much water, I need to 'stretch' my paper before I paint. This means soaking the paper in the bath for a couple of minutes, letting most of the moisture run off it and taping it to a board, where I leave it to dry overnight. When the paper dries it will be tight as a drum and I can use as much water as I like without having the paper buckle. Soaking paper like this is also virtually impossible in the bush when you can only carry limited amounts of water with you and that is required for drinking. 

My studio paints are also very different. Instead of the portable set I use in the bush, in the studio I use tubes of Windsor & Newton paint, large white plates as mixing palettes and much larger brushes. Working in watercolor is wonderful but can also be frustrating. There is always an element of holding your breath to see what is going to happen. Sometimes the results are wonderful, sometimes they are consigned to the trash bin! But that’s why I love watercolor.

Alison

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DATE: 05/30/2008 17:11:49 / MOOD: full of life

 

I used to get really annoyed when I saw a piece of artwork named "untitled". I thought it was really lazy and assumed that either the artist didn't know what their art was about or that they thought they were being mysterious and intriguing. However, although I still name every piece of my artwork I can now appreciate the problem. When you have painted a dozen wildebeest watercolors what do you call them all? Or, more to the point, how many meaningful painting titles can my husband, Nigel, be expected to produce? He is the one who usually comes up with a title. Sometimes I paint a piece based around a title which has inspired me but usually the title is the last touch, even after the signature. I'll tell him there's a painting waiting for his attention and he'll go into my studio then come out and start reeling off possible titles. Its very convenient really.
I suppose the strangest thing is that I don't feel a painting is finished until it has a good title. But if I look at the artwork around my home (painted by other artists) I probably can't tell you any of the names of the pieces. So perhaps 'untitled' is not such a bad title after all.

Alison

(By the way, this piece is called "Buffalo Blues"!)

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DATE: 05/27/2008 08:56:34 / MOOD: full of life

This painting has received so many comments from visitors to my traveling exhibition that I thought I'd give you my own comments about it. At first glance it may seem that, like most of my paintings, I have chosen the colors based purely on the mood or time of day I was aiming to portray. However many people are surprised to learn that in this painting I actually stuck fairly closely to the colors I saw at the time. This was a scene from the Dete Valley not far from the Painted Dog Conservation project offices, just outside Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. It was September, very dry and the sun was setting behind the elephants. They had kicked up huge amounts of dust & had been turned into wonderful silhouettes, while the trees behind them were nearly obscured by the dust. This piece is also unusual for me because I based the painting on a sketch completed at the time. Normally I treat painting and sketching as two completely different disciplines with different aims. Sketching is like a life-drawing class whereas painting is creating a piece of artwork, so my painting ideas are not usually taken from my sketchbooks. But this seemed too good an opportunity to pass up. I hope you enjoy "Elephant Dust".

Alison

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DATE: 05/16/2008 11:41:24 / MOOD: full of life

 

For the last three years I have been giving lectures about Africa, about living there, the wildlife, traveling and camping in the bush, the local rock art, my sketching and painting techniques, conservation... the list goes on. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I never get tired of talking about Africa (they may not put it quite so politely!) so giving the talks never becomes boring even though I often cover similar topics. I have given talks at Nature Centers, Art Centers, Women's Groups and for the volunteers at the Bronx and Central Park Zoos. The questions that people ask are always different and perhaps the best comment is when someone tells me they always wanted to go to Africa but didn't know where to start and that now they are going to plan to visit. My current talk is titled “Painting the Painted Dogs” and covers my trip to Zimbabwe where I spent time tracking & sketching endangered African Wild Dogs. I'm scheduling talks right now so let me know if your organization is interested in hearing me speak. You can find the dates of my public talks by visiting my website and checking the News & Events page.

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DATE: 05/09/2008 15:59:21 / MOOD: other

In 2007 I was awarded a Fellowship grant by Artists for Conservation (AFC) to conduct their 5th Flag Expedition. AFC is, as the name suggests, a group of international artists who use their work to support conservation. The Flag Expedition program allows artist members to apply for funding to paint endangered species or habitats around the world. My proposal was to spend 6 weeks at the Painted Dog Conservation project (PDC) in Zimbabwe where I would track & sketch highly endangered African Wild Dogs (known as Painted Dogs in Zimbabwe).

The dogs are nomadic and often difficult to find, which is why I wanted to base myself at a 'dog' conservation project, where the staff would have a better idea of how to find the dogs. I also wanted to spend time at a conservation project, rather than a pure research project, because I wanted to see how the project benefits the local people. PDC has extensive links with the local community. They employ approximately 60 local staff and have close links with schools and villagers in the area.

So, in August 2007 I set off, flying into Johannesburg in South Africa then up to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. PDC is located a couple of hours away, just outside Hwange National Park. The day I arrived was the opening of the new Visitor Center so all was buzzing. I had a couple of hours to settle in and then spent the next 6 weeks sketching, writing and photographing.

More to come soon...

Alison Nicholls

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DATE: 04/25/2008 13:52:02 / MOOD: other

Sketching wildlife in the African bush definitely requires the right materials.  There are many occasions when you have to sketch from your vehicle (when the alternative is to get out and see if you really can outrun a lion, I'd say sketching in your vehicle is a good way to ensure that you will sketch again another day!). A compact watercolor field kit is essential because the dashboard will no doubt be covered in maps, binoculars, camera lenses, GPS etc and there is no room to put anything down. Often I just use watercolor pencils instead of paints and sketch on Yupo paper. Yupo is great for watercolor in the bush because it is a synthetic material and doesn't absorb water. This means that no matter how much water you use, it remains flat. So I don't need to stretch it before I paint. Of course the synthetic nature of the paper also makes it a very interesting surface to work on - a little like painting on glass.

Another key ingredient of painting gear for the bush is that you need to be able to stop painting and pack it all away in no time at all. This became very obvious one day while my husband and I were sitting in Khutse Game Reserve in Botswana watching wildebeest and springbok on the pan below us. Suddenly I heard a cry "Wild Dogs on the pan!". At the time I was sitting on the roof of the truck painting a landscape but I reckon that within about 30 seconds I was inside the truck and we were hurtling down the sandy track in pursuit of the dogs. We found them. My sketch remains unfinished...

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DATE: 04/18/2008 15:22:57 / MOOD: full of life

Hi,
Since I created my site here I've had a few people asking why I moved to Africa, how I paint in the bush and why I paint African wildlife. All good questions considering I am English and didn't even go to Africa until I was in my late 20s. So I thought I'd try to answer some of the questions...
My parents moved all over the world so I really have no 'home town'. I met my husband while at college in the UK. He was studying engineering and I was studying international relations & history. After college we lived in London for 5 years, I worked as a computer programmer (yes, really!) but we always intended to travel, so when he was offered a transfer to Zimbabwe we jumped at the chance even though we had little idea about the country and continent that we were moving to. In late 1994 we arrived in Harare and proceeded to spend the next 18 months traveling all over the country & loving the freedom, the wildlife and the lifestyle. As a child I was always drawing but since my late teenage years I had hardly drawn a single piece. That all started to change as I found the time and inspiration all around me. Soon I was painting watercolor landscapes and then I moved on to the wildlife.
In 1996 we moved to neighboring Botswana, a country of similar size but less developed & with a much smaller population. In Zimbabwe most of the national parks had excellent, basic accommodation but in Botswana we spent more time camping in remote areas. Most of Botswana is covered by the Kalahari Desert and my first impression was that it was hot, flat, dusty and there wasn’t too much wildlife. It is strange how time changes your views - now it is the Kalahari that springs to mind when I think of Africa. There is certainly not the same quantity of wildlife that you find in the wetter northern parts of Botswana but the space, the silence, the stars, the remoteness and even the harshness of the place all draw you back. There is no water so you don’t find elephants & buffalo but you do find all the big cats, wild dog, giraffe, numerous antelope species, brown hyaenas and other desert-adapted species. Your campsite has a dirt track leading to it, no fences, no water, no facilities of any kind. You put up your tent under a thorny acacia tree and at night you sit around your campfire watching the moonrise and listening to lions. Absolute magic!
So, as you can see, I quickly settled in. We stayed for nearly 7 years in Botswana and then moved to New York at the end of 2002. Now I am a full-time African wildlife artist. It might seem strange to leave the place that provides the inspiration for my art (I don’t paint from zoo animals and only paint species I have spent time watching in the wild) but there are frustrations in living in Africa and there is a better market for my art here. Also, my paintings are slightly impressionistic so I don’t find it necessary to be in the bush to paint them. In fact I find it easier to be away from the bush and all the distractions. Then I can concentrate on my composition and exclude all unnecessary details. When I’m in the bush I sketch in detail. Its like a life-drawing class. But when I get home I don’t often use those sketches as the basis for my paintings. Instead I come up with ideas while walking my dog.
I hope that answers some of the questions but I’ll keep blogging so let me know if there’s anything you’d like to know about living and painting in Africa.
Alison

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DATE: 01/20/2008 16:51:39 / MOOD: other

Hi,

Since I created my site here I've had a few people asking why I moved to Africa, how I paint in the bush and why I paint African wildlife. All good questions considering I am English and didn't even go to Africa until I was in my late 20s. So I thought I'd try to answer some of the questions... 
 

My parents moved all over the world so I really have no 'home town'. I met my husband while at college in the UK. He was studying engineering and I was studying international relations & history. After college we lived in London for 5 years, I worked as a computer programmer (yes, really!) but we always intended to travel, so when he was offered a transfer to Zimbabwe we jumped at the chance even though we had little idea about the country and continent that we were moving to.  In late 1994 we arrived in Harare and proceeded to spend the next 18 months traveling all over the country & loving the freedom, the wildlife and the lifestyle. As a child I was always drawing but since my late teenage years I had hardly drawn a single piece. That all started to change as I found the time and inspiration all around me. Soon I was painting watercolor landscapes and then I moved on to the wildlife.

In 1996 we moved to neighboring Botswana, a country of similar size but less developed & with a much smaller population. In Zimbabwe most of the national parks had excellent, basic accommodation but in Botswana we spent more time camping in remote areas. Most of Botswana is covered by the Kalahari Desert and my first impression was that it was hot, flat, dusty and there wasn’t too much wildlife. It is strange how time changes your views - now it is the Kalahari that springs to mind when I think of Africa. There is certainly not the same quantity of wildlife that you find in the wetter northern parts of Botswana but the space, the silence, the stars, the remoteness and even the harshness of the place all draw you back. There is no water so you don’t find elephants & buffalo but you do find all the big cats, wild dog, giraffe, numerous antelope species, brown hyaenas and other desert-adapted species. Your campsite has a dirt track leading to it, no fences, no water, no facilities of any kind. You put up your tent under a thorny acacia tree and at night you sit around your campfire watching the moonrise and listening to lions. Absolute magic!

So, as you can see, I quickly settled in. We stayed for nearly 7 years in Botswana and then moved to New York at the end of 2002. Now I am a full-time African wildlife artist. It might seem strange to leave the place that provides the inspiration for my art (I don’t paint from zoo animals and only paint species I have spent time watching in the wild) but there are frustrations in living in Africa and there is a better market for my art here. Also, my paintings are slightly impressionistic so I don’t find it necessary to be in the bush to paint them. In fact I find it easier to be away from the bush and all the distractions. Then I can concentrate on my composition and exclude all unnecessary details. When I’m in the bush I sketch in detail. Its like a life-drawing class. But when I get home I don’t often use those sketches as the basis for my paintings. Instead I come up with ideas while walking my dog.

I hope that answers some of the questions but I’ll keep blogging so let me know if there’s anything you’d like to know about living and painting in Africa.
Alison

 

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DATE: 12/12/2007 17:28:06 / MOOD: full of life

I am a wildlife artist, working in watercolor. I lived in the southern African countries of Botswana & Zimbabwe for nearly 9 years and as a result I paint the African wildlife I got to know so well. I return to Africa on a regular basis and recently spent 6 weeks at the Painted Dog Conservation project just outside Hwange National Park in north-western Zimbabwe. My trip was the 5th Artists For Conservation Flag Expedition and my aim was to spend time searching for and sketching highly endangered African Wild Dogs, known as Painted Dogs in Zimbabwe. This gave me an excellent title for my expedition - "Painting the Painted Dogs - Artistic Study of an Endangered Hunter". The trip was great. I got a completely different perspective by staying at a conservation project and also managed to spend a lot of time at the community projects which are so important to conservation.

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