Ringed Xenica Butterfly, a book and framed works at Coastal Artisans

 Ringed Xenica Geitoneura acantha, walnut ink and handmade watercolours on Fabriano paper, 15 x 15 cm, © Matteo Grilli

 American-Australian writer Geraldine M. North recently published her book Butcher Bird, a collection of short stories from rural Australia. The book is a pleasure to read and features some illustrations of mine. It is available on Amazon 

At Coastal Artisans in Peregian Beach, there are some newly framed works and some Giclee prints of mine among the stunning showcase of other artists and artisans:

Here is a photo of the beautiful beach at Peregian:

Season's Greetings

At this time of the year I always feel the need to thank all the people who have been supporting my art throughout the year. 2014 has been a year full of positive events, lots of art, and encouraging prospects for the future. My most sincere gratitude goes to all those who decided to make my art part of their daily lives. All your contributions not only allowed me to keep making art, they also allowed me to contribute in turn, to some charities I have been supporting for a while like Birdlife Australia, Birds Queensland, ANTaR (Australians for National Title and Reconciliation) and the Queensland Wader Study Group. 

This is a female Hardhead Duck, Aythya australis, from the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. Hardhead ducks do not have bright colours as many other species of ducks but looking closer I could see very interesting and subtle variations of iridescent purple, orange and brown red.

 I'm very excited to attend the Brisbane book launch for the childrens' book 'Poss in Boots' written by Lindsay Owen and illustrated by myself. The book launch will take place in the beautiful location of The Talking Circle, State Library of Queensland, Southbank, Brisbane on Thursday, January 15 at 11am. As music is part of the book's story there will be live folk music as well as light refreshments. It is a free event for which we have to thank the State Library of Queensland for supporting local creativity. Children of any age are very welcome. The State Library of Queensland Shop is currently selling the books.

  Have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year,

MG

Christmas Ideas and a New Painting

I developed this watercolour after taking some photos of this immature Australian King-parrot on the front veranda, the patchy red of the head shows that this is a young male, with time the green feathers of its head will change to a bright red. Below is the first sketch I drew on my sketchbook with some colour studies to find the right mixes and colour harmonies.

Immature Australian King-parrot, watercolour on paper, 16.5 x 23.5 cm, © Matteo Grilli 2014

Christmas is getting closer, it's never too early to order a unique and original gift from my online store, with more than 140 items to choose from and an array of original works (worldwide free shipping), greeting cards, bookmarks, reproductions, a children's book, and more, there is something for any taste and budget. If you are overseas or your order is going to be sent outside of Australia, make sure to order before December 4th to allow enough time for your gift to be processed and delivered. If your gift stays in Australia, you should order by December 18th.

And, if one artwork is not enough, why not ordering a copy of my book 'Watercolour Explorations on Australian Wildlife' containing a large collection of artworks completed between 2010 and 2013?

Until next time,

MG

New painting, a new gallery opening soon and a new book just released

This amazing creature visited the outside of my studio a few times in the summer, I enjoyed getting lost in the detail and movement of all those sinuous scale patterns. This image is available as a greeting card.

Carpet Python, watercolour and white gouache on colored board, 40 x 30 cm,© Matteo Grilli

Recently I was invited to feature my artwork in a new art and craft gallery called Coastal Artisans, opening soon in Perigian Beach. A selection of my original framed watercolours with a sea/beach theme will be featuring the collection. For more information on the event see the attached brochure.

Last weekend I had the pleasure to spend a couple of days in the lovely country town of Crows Nest where Lindsay Owen and I  launched the Children's Book "Poss in Boots' at the Arts and Crafts centre.

We've enjoyed meeting so many people and signing the books, Lindsay wrote the story about four years ago and then asked me to work on the illustrations, it took a while but eventually Lindsay was able to independently publish her book.

'A blue wooden house with a large veranda, a local Bush Band and a little possum with loads of determination and rhythm'.

This cute 14-page book will tell you the story of a little possum with a special love for dancing and music among the inhabitants, animal and human, of the Australian bush...

Order Your Copy

 

Book Launch and New Greeting Cards

About three years ago my friend Lindsay Owen wrote a Children's Book about a possum... I had the pleasure to make the illustrations for it and now we are very happy to be able to launch the book in the beautiful and picturesque high country of the Downs,  in the town of Crows Nest. The launch will be on October the 11th and 12th, 10am-4pm at the Crows Nest Community Arts and Crafts Inc, 18 William Street, Crows Nest QLD 4355. The book 'Poss in Boots' and the original illustrations will be available for children of any age.

It will be a nice opportunity to meet up if you find yourself in South-east Queensland...

Also, my publisher Nuovo Group has just produced a new range of greeting cards with my artwork, here you can see some examples and if you follow the links you'll be able to order some if you wish. On my Etsy shop there are also a lot of new and old original and unique artworks sent for free anywhere in the world, just thinking about Christmas...

Best,

MG

Mini Square Greeting Cards

Square Greeting Cards

Regular Greeting Cards

Regular Greeting Cards

Free Postage Original Art

New Book Release: Watercolour Explorations on Australian Wildlife Vol.1

I am very happy to announce the recent release of my self-published book Watercolour Explorations on Australian Wildlife Vol.1, 90 pages, 7 × 7 in / 18 × 18 cm, available in soft cover, hard cover with dust jacket or hard cover image wrap and as an eBook.

  'After witnessing the beauty of Nature, often rises a compelling need to capture its fleeting essence to make it visible once again, to linger on that beauty, giving it that little bit more permanence allowed by art. My ultimate goal was to draw the attention to that beauty and to share it. Watercolour explorations on Australian Wildlife is a tribute to nature. It is also a collection of watercolours and drawings completed between 2010 and 2013 in and around Brisbane, Australia.'

 Watercolour Explorations on Australian Wildlife Vol.1 would make a perfect gift for anyone interested in Australian wildlife and nature, birds, natural history, watercolour art, birdwatching or travel, for grown ups and children alike. By clicking on the link above you will be able to see a preview of the book. Feel free to share it with your contacts. 

Thank you. 

MG

Queen of the Backyard

A female Australian Brush-turkey on a backyard's fence.

Stupid, ugly and invasive. These are the most common terms used to refer to this big, ground bird whose secret life has something truly remarkable. The male builds a nest, a mound that can be up to 4 meters across and 2m high, he gathers the material scratching ground litter and other organic matter with his large and powerful feet. Right in the middle of the mound, one or more females lay their eggs and leave them to the care of the father who will cover them with decomposing organic material to keep them warm. Checking the temperature of the nest with his beak, the male will scratch off some litter to cool it down or add some more to keep it warm and will also defend the area with great bravery from predators such as goannas and snakes. 

 

The sex of the young depends on the temperature, just like crocodiles. After hatching, the chick finds his way up to the surface, and leave the nest on its own, completely able to provide for itself with no help from the parents, it is already able to fly and will roost on trees for the night just like the adults. Yes, they are destructive, whether they decide to build a nest or not in someone's backyard, when they scratch the ground for food they can destroy everything, seedlings, small plants, vegetables, and they dig out even sweet potatoes to eat the tuber. But they definitely thrive in many suburban or inhabited areas.

 They showed to be able to adapt to the invasion of humans a couple of hundred years ago and to take the best advantage out of the new situation. For some, they're probably not as beautiful or regal as peacocks, but they certainly reveal a successful story of adaptability towards the change brought by the Europeans. The Australian Brush-turkey - Alectura lathami - .

An amazing insight book about the way Australian birds had to adapt to the harsh Australian environment, to the first human immigrations of the Aborigines and to the latest of the Europeans is Boom and Bust: http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Multimedia/CSIROpod/Book-and-Bust-book.aspx 

Highly recommended.

Silent Encounters - Part 2

Watercolour on paper, 38x25cm, © Matteo Grilli 2012

The young one was restless, begging for food, but the parents were very quiet and still, the female was looking at me through the branches. Male and female have a slightly different colour, males tend to be grayish, females have a reddish or tawny shade on their feathers. Juveniles are something in between with darker  marks especially over the head.

 

Detail

It is surprising to see their agility and nocturnal activity comparing to their sleepy and quiet behaviour during the day. When threatened, they rely on their amazing camouflage, standing still and assuming an elongated posture to resemble a dead branch.
 

Work in progress

Tawny Frogmouths are very elusive an mysterious birds, hiding many secrets about their behaviour and biology. Professor Gisela Kaplan's book Tawny Frogmouth reveals many of this bird's secrets, it is the most comprehensive book about this 'Aussie icon' so far, gathering years of research revealing its very surprising hidden secrets. A truly recommended read.

Tools

At the end of these two paintings 'Silent Encounters' linked by the same story and experience, I was a bit surprised that 95% of the colours used is a mixture of just Burnt Umber and Neutral Tint, making it all appearing rather monochromatic.

On Life-changing Books - part two -

I found this French book of the American bird artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes in a second-hand book stall at the summer Sunday street market in my hometown Porto Recanati. I was a teenager and at that time I had no idea about who this artist was, but I was into watercolours and birds and the book was a good bargain and I could read French. I was surprised to read that he was self-taught and also stricken to see the level of detail and yet expression and movement.

Red-breasted Merganser ©Louis Agassiz Fuertes

At 22, self-taught, Fuertes (1874-1927) was considered the most talented American bird artist of the time. An intimate knowledge of his subjects' lives and behaviours allowed him to truthfully represent birds expressions and attitudes combined with an exact ornithological rendering.

He took part as an artist and illustrator in ornithological expeditions and scientific explorations over USA, Greater Antilles, Mexico, Colombia, and Ethiopia. Definitely an inspiring life.

Killdeer ©Louis Agassiz Fuertes

He used to work from life, patiently and rigorously observing the living bird relying on his prodigious visual memory to flawlessly capture expressions and attitudes, he also worked from dead specimens to take life-size measurements and other details both drawn and written very thoroughly.

I found a beautiful website-archive with many of his paintings and sketches which is really worth a visit, click here, I hope you'll enjoy.

Common Potoo ©Louis Agassiz Fuertes

And this is also the last post for this year, with many more on the way about my latest endeavours, I would like to wish all the readers and followers, regardless of what religion you may follow, if any,  a good time spent with loved ones, and best hopes for the new year to come.

Take care                                     Matteo

On Life-changing Books - part one -

When I was a kid, my mother, knowing about my passion for drawing and nature, got me a book which I regard now as one of those few that propelled me into seeing things in a different way. The book is called 'La natura e' meravigliosa' or 'Nature is Wonderful' in English, but the original Dutch title is 'Een zucht van verwondering', published in 1990. A huge collection of watercolour paintings and drawings, detailed yet as simple and humble as nature can be in her smallest forms: nests, insects, leaves, animals and birds, which all together narrated the events of nature, the changing tides, the migration of birds, the change of season, life between the dunes of sand by the northern seas, and then into the woods and the countryside of the Netherlands. Everything was narrated by a crystal clear text explaining the ways of nature and the interaction with man. I was stricken by the simple beauty of bare pencil and watercolour.

© Marjolein Bastin

After this book I decided I would have become a watercolourist. Marjolein Bastin (1943), the artist behind it, is Dutch, and clearly shows how the closer we look the more we see. Her strong bond with every living being, no matter how small and ordinary, has always been part of her life and has motivated her to start drawing and sharing her discoveries to the world. Worldwide renowned for her illustrations and licensing products, Marjolein Bastin has never stopped looking at things with the curious eyes of a child, capturing the hidden and overlooked beauties of nature, just as she sees them, imperfect, yet beautiful, small, yet no less important.

© Marjolein Bastin

Nature artist, writer, children's author and illustrator, Marjolein Bastin divides her time drawing inspiration from the nature of her homeland, the Netherlands, Missouri, Cayman Island and Switzerland.

Her books are among my most treasured ones, still reminding me to look at things closer to find something more and new and to change my point of view to find a new perspective.

http://www.marjoleinbastin.com/nl

© Marjolein Bastin