Methods & Materials

In the process of producing what my history client wanted, I discovered that acrylics work really well on hand-made paper.  I have been working intermittently with Khadi paper (www.khadi.com made from recycled cotton T-shirts from India ) after participating in a Hazel Soan workshop (www.hazelsoan.com).

Initially I found it an impossible challenge requiring a contradictory brush stroke approach. I left it strictly alone for six months, then cautiously returned and found my way using watercolour and loved it!

Suddenly the challenging nature of the rough surface worked to my advantage and allowed me to leave areas unpainted for reflected light – see these Red-Breasted Geese from drawn initially at the Wetland Centre, Barnes (www.wwt.org.uk)

Let's start at the very beginning...

Hi there and welcome to my blog. I am Romaine Dennistoun, an artist based in London, who specialises in painting wildlife - from life (www.drawnfromlife.co.uk). I have decided to start a blog to record the variety of projects that I am involved in and to keep an online diary.

2013 has got off to an interesting start when I was asked to illustrate prehistoric cave art for a history project. I remembered going to see Werner Herzog's 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams' at the cinema and fell in love with the prehistoric cave drawings. I was enthralled by the power and the purity of line and form and here is my favourite, the Bison painting from the Alatamira cave in Spain.

Bisonte de Altamira (Bison painting from the Altamira Cave, Spain)

I am bewitched by the energy and the extraordinary exaggeration of the bison’s neck, rounded over in such a way as to depict force and fury; its legs tucked up under him as he leaps into the air to charge his foe.  The unknown artist has used some of the rough surface of the cave to emphasise the form of the haunches and even the eye.

Pablo Picasso: “After Altamira, all (art) is decadence.” 

Now how to persuade husband to join me on a trip to Spain to see Altamira for myself?!