New Merchandise Available

I am very excited to announce the launch of a collection of products featuring my artwork. In case you are looking for gifts, mugs, blankets, pillows, prints, bags and cases, you can find a wide collection at https://auswildlifeart.com/collections/matteo-grilli

Purple Swamphen

Purple Swamphen Porphyrio porphyrio, watercolour and gouache on toned board, 29 x 25 cm,  © Matteo Grilli 2015

The following original watercolours have been recently added to my online gallery:

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

Australian Wildlife Art Christmas Ideas...

Southern Angle-headed Dragon

What about supporting independent art for Christmas this year ? My shop is currently being daily updated with new items:

1. a full range of 24 A5 (5x8'') and A4 (7x12'') prints;
2. a range of 12 A3 (11x16'') prints;
3. worldwide free shipping is available for all original artworks;
4. greeting cards;
5. original and printed bookmarks;
6. Second hand artist's watercolour paints.

    Please remember that when you buy my products you're not only supporting independent art but also the charity associations I support: Australian Birdlife and ANTaR.

    Best,

    MG

Southern Angle-headed Dragon

Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve is a fifty five hectares subtropical rainforest overlooking the Glasshouse Mountains. Entering a rainforest always feels like entering a secret world of new smells, colours and sounds. Just like when entering a cathedral, it comes natural to speak softly, if speaking at all.  It is very peaceful, and before you realise it you are surrounded by Red-legged Pandemelons criss-crossing your walking track, Yellow-throated Scrubwrens hiding in the undergrowth and rainforest pigeons, doves and parrots calling from the high canopy of old trees.

And then what a surprise! You may come across this Southern Angle-headed Dragon, Hypsilurus spinipes resting on a post in front of a Red Cedar, Toona ciliata.

All original artworks available on my store are now shipped worldwide at no cost... just thinking about Christmas.

Best,

Matteo

Portrait of a Jabiru - part one -

This is the first painting from a series all dedicated to the Jabiru or Black-necked Stork, Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus. I found its regal posture, slow movements and secretive attitude very charming.

New items in store:

Set of four printed greeting cards featuring a selection of some favourite Aussie iconic birds: Pale-headed rosellas, Crimson Rosellas and Kookaburras. Size of each card: 14 x 14 cm or 5.5 x 5.5'' Buy Now

Australian Nature Treasures, set of five square greeting cards. Size of each card: 14 x 14 cm or 5.5 x 5.5'' Buy Now

Imagine a walk in the Australian bush just after rain, there are many wet leaves scattered along the path and many of them have very attractive bright colours. Imagine the intense yet delicate smell of the Eucalyptus trees spreading all around, and the sound of your footsteps.

Take a little bit of that unique, simple beauty into your home with this set of forty loose printed leaves of Australian plants, Eucalyptus tree mostly. Each leaf has been cut out from a digital print on paper of my original realistic watercolor illustration.

You can use this special collection to give you home a taste of the charming Australian bush, following are some suggestions on how to use them, please feel free to contact me to share your ideas!

- You can decide to display them under the glass top of a table.
- You can arrange them in a display cabinet.
- You can mount them on a support and frame some of them and use the rest for something else, remember, they're forty.
- You can use them as bookmarks.

Colors may vary from real (they're actually much better). Buy Now

Capturing the Iridescence

Iridescence is a very fascinating feature of feathers in many species of birds from all over the world. Certainly the brightest and most varied examples come from the birds of paradise, yet this kind of feathers are also found in birds that live in a much closer contact with humans, like ducks and chickens.

The former owner of this pair of iridescent feathers was a Pacific Black Duck, Anas superciliosa, one of the most common species of ducks, it is found along every creek and in every park around Brisbane. These two feathers are part of the secondary remiges group, one from each wing and in ducks this group of feathers is called speculum. Each species of duck has a slightly different colour, according to the angle from which we look, we can see a large number of colours, from dull green, grey and brown to a bright emerald green, purple, cyan blue, dark blue, magenta and a warm yellow-green.

Feather iridescence is the right subject to use Phthalo Blue and Phthalo Green with little or no mixing.

Representing feathers' iridescence with watercolours is challanging, one has to rely on the transparecy of the pigments, applying a number of layers of colours making sure to blend them in the right way, at the right moment. For this, I noticed that outside weather conditions also have their part in the painting process. I found particularly difficult to work on this painting during hot and dry weather, while, on the contrary, it was much easier on rainy days, when outside humidity conditions slowed down the drying time. You can probably see the difference yourself, the upper feather was painted on a wet day, the lower one on a very dry, hot day.

A newly opened website about Birds of Paradise gives, among other things, a very clear understanding of how feather iridescence works. The website is also packed with videos and photographs that are truly beautiful and worth a visit.

 And this is a series of eight bookmarks that I just released. They are printed on a beautiful 300gsm recycled paper, you can see more details following this link.

Thanks for reading,

Best,
Matteo

Botanical Studies, Markets and a Creative Exchange

During the past holiday weeks I decided to start working on some botanical sketches of leaves, just to start looking into the never-ending shades of greens and how to achieve them. I'm finding it very daunting yet fascinating. During the last year or so I started studying colours very thoroughly and in doing so I took out all the colours of my palette that didn't have the features I needed to achieve my goals. I ended up using a rather limited choice of favourite pigments which has been able to provide me with any colour I needed so far. I like keeping it simple to get the best and most varied mixes out of them. It worked, until I started mixing to match those greens... Any thought from the botanical artists who follow this blog will be much appreciated.

I started selling my art at the Bardon Community Market which takes place every Sunday 6am to 1pm in Baroona Road, Paddington, Brisbane. This was my very first time trying to sell at a market so my equipment still needs to be improved, my stall still looks small and rather flimsy, but there is a good choice of small-size prints, original artworks, greeting cards, bookmarks and origami. It has been a very nice and rewarding experience so far to be able to show my work to people outside the Internet and I'm very grateful to all those who stopped to take a look, ask questions, sign up for my newsletter, buy or just to have a chat about the local birds. By the way, there is a family of three Boobook Owls roosting inside the thick foliage of a big tree just in front of my stall, so, for all Brisbane residents who are following my blog, you are very welcome to come and say hi and take a look at those amazing owls. I'm planning to sell at the Bardon Market at least two Sundays a month, depending on the weather.

This is a beautiful sculpture I commissioned to the amazing sculptress/artist Harriet Knibbs, I have been following her blog for a while and I am in awe every time I take a visit. Her life-like sculptures of animals have a special effect on me as they remind me of my childhood, when I used to play and collect small toy figurines of all sorts of animals. Also, I have a soft spot for animal sculpture in general and I always thought that if I ever was to commission somebody a sculpture, that had to be Harriet. So I did, but what we ended up doing was a reciprocal creative commission, I asked her for a Common Pheasant and in turn, she accepted an original painting and asked for a Turtle Dove, which I painted for her with much pleasure. I chose the Common Pheasant because it is a bird I've been fond of for a very long time, and it is part of many good memories. I must admit that I miss not seeing it here in Australia. So there it is now, being a good totem on my desk, watching over my creative endeavours.

Turtle Dove for Harriet Knibbs

December News

I found this beautiful butterfly in a flower bed in the Brisbane City centre. Dead. It is a Lime or Chequered Swallowtail, Papilio demoleus. I decided to pick it up and as gently as possible I placed it in my bag. Unfortunately it lost both antennas, but still retained its beauty. I find it surprising how butterflies maintain their beauty for so long after dying.

The November/December issue of the Australian Wildlife Secrets Magazine , a beautiful magazine full of great photography and useful informations on Australian wildlife, just featured an illustration of mine of Common Ringtail possums, one of the cutest night creatures of the suburbs. Australian Wildlife Secrets is published bi-monthly and is available through newsagencies or by subscription and delivered to your door (Australia wide and overseas). Here are two images of the latest issue:

Another awesome wildlife magazine that recently featured my work is WILDLIFE Australia Magazine , published quarterly since 1963 by the community conservation group Wildlife Queensland as a major environmental awareness and educational initiative. The magazine is only available for subscribers both in Australia and overseas. Here are two images of the latest issue:

 To the Chief Editor of Australian Wildlife Secrets, Simon Watharow and to the Editor of WILDLIFE Australia Magazine, Saren Starbridge, goes my most sincere thank you for taking interest in my work.

For those interested into buying my original artworks , I would like to tell you that you are still in time to get them before Christmas if you are in Australia, at no shipping cost. No cost worldwide shipping will be available for all original artworks only until January 1st 2013.

Since this will be my last post for 2012, I would like to thank everybody who have been following and supporting my artistic endeavours, this last year has been really special in so many ways. 

Regardless of your religion or cultural background, I would like to wish you the best time spent with loved ones and a New Year full of inspiration, gratitude, beauty, good humour, good luck and wildlife!

Matteo

Greeting Cards and a Gift for the Readership

I recently thought about giving the readership of Matteo Grilli Wildlife Art a gift, so I'm very happy to inform you that a coupon code is now available for all the readers and visitors of this blog, so if you're interested into getting the code to receive 10% discount on any item/s purchased at matteogrilliart.etsy.com please send me an email and I will provide you with the code.

I thing I've been planning for a long time has now been finalized. I'm very very happy about having just released this series of eco-friendly Australian Birds greeting cards . The cards have been printed on a beautifully textured Italian recycled paper and printed with eco-friendly inks. They can be purchased singularly or as a set. They come with a recycled envelope and are blanc on the inside.

More news about the store? Well, all Medium-size Prints, are now at 10% discount which becomes 20% if purchased with the coupon code, and there is international free shipping for all original artworks.
Also, I just released a collection of Origami Pheasants, the design of the origami is an original of mine as it can't be found in any origami book that I know. Each one has been painted with watercolours. 

Thanks for reading,
until next time!

All the best
M