Latest commissions

Meet these three lovelies!

Dolly. Kern Terrier X Schnauzer. A4. Meg Ghyll © 2011

Sugar. Patterdale. A4. Meg Ghyll © 2011

Swift. A4. Meg Ghyll © 2011

Christmas commissions

I am taking Christmas commissions up until the end of September to allow time for completion. Just to get you thinking ahead. I can take them after that but there will be no guarantee they can be done in time. If you are not wanting a commission as a Christmas gift then get in touch anytime :) 

Please refer to the "Commissions" page on my website www.megghyll.co.uk for prices.

Thank you.

Research on the Isle of Rum

Exactly a month ago I was lucky enough get the opportunity to help out a PhD student with some GPS tracking work on Manx Shearwaters. So I took the chance to take my Suzuki SV650 on its first proper long roadtrip up to Mallaig and back.

Scotland

 A fantastic week was had with some very lovely people met. We were living in a hut up a mountain (Hallival) with just a stream for amenities.

Manx Shearwaters are seabirds and they spend their days feeding or rafting out to sea and then come in at night to their burrows when there is less chance of being predated on. We had a set number of burrows that were being monitored and the chicks in them were weighed each day.

GPS trackers were being fitted to the backs of adults and geolocators were being fitted to their legs so their movements could be tracked, where they were going to feed and such. Gripping new research! 

So an excellent week had by all involved, and the weather was very good to us (which I'm told is a rare thing for Rum!) with us only having one night and day of unpleasant weather.

A visit to the Birdfair at Rutland Water

I managed to get along to this yesterday, and despite a hiccup of my backpack managing to deposit it's cargo of walking boots somewhere while on the motorbike, the rest of the trip went much more smoothly. I met up with a friend and we travelled down in the car.

I'd not been to the Fair before and the weather was beautiful...if a bit too hot in those marquees! I especially enjoyed watching the "Artists at Work", where renowned artists added a bird to the board and thus incorporating lots of different styles in one place, a fantastic idea and fascinating to watch. We also enjoyed a talk from Simon King, naturalist and broadcaster. A great day out!

A Skomer Project!

So as I have mentioned I have been fortunate enough to spend the last two months as a Long Term Volunteer Warden on the island of Skomer, off the Pembrokeshire coast, Wales.

There are two public viewing hides on Skomer, North Pond Hide and Moory Mere Hide. I decided to "brighten" them up a bit! With the Warden's permission I took on a painting project during my time on the island and produced two interpretation boards showing the resident birds you are likely to see when using the hides. 

The board for Moory Mere

For North Pond

close up of the Short-Eared Owl

Oystercatcher

Shoveler

A display for my last evening on Skomer :)

I recycled a couple of plywood panels found in the garden, sealed them and began work using acrylic paints. As you all know, pencils are really my "thing" but I thoroughly enjoyed using a different medium and acrylics provide such bright colours, an ideal choice.

I hope they provide a little bit of pleasure for Skomer's visitors, I am very pleased to have been involved with Skomer over the last two months and I cannot recommend it highly enough for a volunteering opportunity or just a day visit. A very special place indeed.

http://www.welshwildlife.org/skomerintro_en.link

Photos from Skomer

Some photos from my two months on Skomer Island, May/June 2011. I had an amazing time, met some fantastic people and saw so much wildlife. I can highly recommend it should you fancy a visit or even a week's volunteering there :)

Sea of bluebells

A Skomer Vole

Loved up Razorbills

Me at Bull Hole

A Manx Shearwater

A view from High Cliff to the Neck

With a razorbill chick close to fledging

Seal!

Common Lizard basking

With Puffins at the Wick

Long time no type!

Not many updates on here for the last couple of months, I've been busy busy on Skomer Island on the Pembrokeshire coast working as a long-term volunteer warden. It's fantastic out here and I'll be posting a selection of my best photos when I come back next week. You may be interested to know I have undertaken a painting project for the viewing hides here which is going much better than I expected seeing as paint is not my first choice of medium! All will be revealed soon!

Easter Art Stall

A big thankyou to all of you who made it to Haworth to visit the craft fair. I had a great day, I didn't make an awful lot back on the stall but I did have some lovely Canadian customers who were really only flitting through our country on the way up to bonnie Scotland! Met some lovely people (which is really what these fairs are about) made a few useful contacts and all in all felt very satisfied with the how they day went.

Finished up at the Causeway Foot Inn outside Halifax, had a lovely sandwich and a couple of drinks before heading round Ogden Reservoir in the sunshine and then the 3 miles home. I was pooped when I got back though!

Met another very talented Sophie and her family at their cupcake and generally scrumptions confectionery stall. 

Sophieisticakes Ltd :)

I hereby declare this Website...

...OPEN!

Yes, this is my website, made from scratch by me. Because I have made it from scratch and I really do not claim to be a techy genius then you may find it looks a bit odd in certain browsers. If you use the Mozilla Firefox then you should find the site appears as it should (i.e. no strange white spaces or odd layout...) and in general this should be true of Google Chrome. Internet Explorer however is proving to be awkward so although all the links should work and the text will be on the screen and readable, it may not look quite as I have made it.

So basically if you can open it in Mozilla or Chrome then that would be better :)

Here we go then, my new site!

www.megghyll.co.uk

Thankyou for looking, if you have any constructive feedback then by all means let me know :)

New Banner!

Nicely ready for my Arts Stall tomorrow, look out for me if you're going to be there, 10-4 at the Bronte Schoolrooms, Main Street, Haworth :)

Meg's Mugs now for sale!

Please see new page about Meg's Mugs. These will be available to buy on my stall this Easter Sunday in the Old Schoolrooms, Haworth. Would be great to see you there!

Meg's Mugs are also available at Oates&Wiles in Haworth. http://www.haworthvillage.co.uk/index.php?Page=37&Shop=7

Thankyou!

Today is a good day!

I am pleased to announce I am the proud owner of a smashing Bike Pass Certificate so I can ride whatever I like, on motorways, with pillions and most importantly without L plates! See attached photo of ceremonial burning of aforementioned plates :)

A visit to BCTF - Harrogate Craft Fair

So yesterday was my first visit to the British Craft Trade Fair, so inspiring and it really makes you appreciate just how talented we as a nation are. Ceramics, glassware, jewelery, sculptures, textiles, bags, clothes, cards, everything and all so very unique! I took a lot home from my trip, chatted to a few people and hopefully made a couple of contacts. In particular this lovely lass, an illustration graduate, and it was her first year at the fair. She had a beautifully presented pitch and clearly a great future ahead of her.

http://sophiewardenillustration.blogspot.com/

Updated Flickr account, hurrah!

Just somewhere else to see drawings :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/megghyll/

A new piece, "Labs on a Heath" on A3.

Soon you should be able to see this piece up on display at the Causeway Foot Inn near the scenic reservoir Ogden Water, outside Halifax. Not for sale, however I am hoping for prints to be made up later on in the year.

"Labs on a Heath" - A3

New series on Madagascar

Starts this evening at 8pm, BBC2 with David Attenborough. Not to be missed although I'll be watching it on BBCiplayer later on :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ymh67

My Big Garden Birdwatch Results

Nuthatch

Long Tailed Tits

Goldcrest

Song Thrush

Nuthatch 2
Robin 3
Chaffinch 2
Blue tit 4
Dunnock 2
Long-tailed tit 8
Blackbird 5
Great Tit 1
House sparrow 6
Jay 1

Bullfinch

 Great Spotted Woodpecker 2
Carrion Crow 2
Coal tit 1
Song thrush 1
Woodpigeon 2
Goldcrest 1
Magpie 1
Grey heron 1
Bullfinch 2
Starling 3
Goldfinch 1

     Fieldfare 1        

 

 Not bad at all :)

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

Yep, it's on this weekend! Are you taking part? Lovely weather for it :)

http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

Pencil sketches from the Calf

Using my own photos, these are some sketches I was asked to do for a report.

A Sedge Warbler

Lazy seals

The Four Lighthouses

A Date for your Diary!

I am now booked in for a stall at one of the Haworth Craft Fairs on Easter Sunday, 24th April. Come along to see original artworks, handmade cards, mugs and a little special crafty project I have in mind!

http://www.haworthcraftfairs.co.uk/Events.html
I had a stall here last Easter and the place was full, lots of interesting stalls selling a wide variety of products. Come along, just for a day out and don't be afraid to say hi!

Targets for the New Year

I don't believe in "resolutions", I've subconsciously tried to keep to one for as long as I can remember and that's to not bite my fingernails...it never works! So I shall call them targets that don't involve any sort of pressure and I can see how they go. These are they:

• to compile a collection of wildlife drawings ready for an exhibition at some point in the year
• to promote my work at more crafty type fairs

Fingers crossed! (and who knows, maybe they'll even have fully fledged fingernails on soon! :D )