This pheasant painting has ben a long time coming. This is the fourth version, the other 3 ended up in the bin! Deeply frustrating, but sometimes it goes like that. Occasionally the painting flow like a dream, from initial idea through to completion without a hitch. This one was a battle from start to finish!
The First version was of a pheasant crouching. That one didn’t even see a lick of paint. When I had finished drawing it I left it aside of a while like I usually do. When I came back to it was clear it was bad.. so in the bin in went.

This is painting below was the second version of the painting which I abandoned, the composition was wrong in the middle. when I started painting it, it become clear it was wrong, so in the bin it went and I stared again.

The 3rd one went in the bin, I won’t even post that. as it is in shreds.

A pheasant was standing in a field chatting with a bull.

“I would love to be able to get to the top of yonder tree’, sighed the pheasant, ‘but I haven’t got the energy’.
‘Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?’ replied the bull. ‘They’re packed with nutrients’.
The pheasant pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. And so on. Finally, after a fourth night, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. Whereupon he was spotted by a farmer who dashed into the farmhouse, emerged with a shotgun, and shot the pheasant right out of the tree.
Moral of the story:
Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there!

Roald Dahl’s book Danny, the Champion of the World made poaching pheasants magical. The method was called a ‘sticky hat’, a raisin’s had a horse’s tail hair threaded through it, It would get caught in the pheasants throat, preoccupied, it can then be caught!

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PG live at Islington Business Design Centre was my second trade show of the year.(first one was Top Drawer at Earls Court in January) I managed to add another 5 desigsn to my collection, which now stands at 26. All the new designs went down well and I have picked up another 20 new stockists. Making the total number of shops that stock my cards about 50.

I was stand number 676. A lucky one I reckon. Same time next year, see you there!

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In in Norse mythology there is a world tree,it is called Yggdrasil. In that tree there are nine worlds. In one of the worlds lives mankind and in another the gods. In the other worlds various other beings live, like Elves and Dwarfs. There are other creatures living in the tree, one is a squirrel that carries messages between a hawk sitting between the eyes of an unnamed eagle that is at the top of the world tree and a dragon, Níðhöggr that is lurking at the bottom of the tree. The squirrel is called Ratatoskr.

The squirrel is a bit of a trickster it would seem, although there is no mention in norse mythology exactly what these messages are,in the Prose Edda ( a set of 13th ceuntry poems that deal with Norse mythology) it states…”‘An eagle sits at the top of the ash, and it has knowledge of many things. Between its eyes sits the hawk called Vedrfolnir……The squirrel called Ratatosk…..runs up and down the ash. He tells slanderous gossip, provoking the eagle and Nidhogg.”

Early christian religion portrays the squirrel as stoical. An early manuscript features an image of a squirrel using its tail for shelter in a rainstorm. The inscription reads, “I shall endure and expect once again more favorable things however bad it is now, it won’t be bad forever”.

This painting of a Red Squirrel is autumnal colour-wise. I used a lot of Burnt Sienna, but was carefull it would not go to brown, so used rose madder genuine and prussian blue to balance the colour palette.

Below is the painting in progress.

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Bambi eat your heart out! Well I walked a tightrope with this one. I wanted to add a fawn to my collection but wanted to steer clear enough of the Bambi Factor but be able to wiff a bit of the 1926 films charm and cuteness, Reckon I pulled it off? Those eyes are a little larger than they should be! Those ears are cute, but again a little oversized! Big ears! Big eyes!

I also wanted a wiff off the Greek Goddess Diana,the huntress. She has often been dipicted with a deer on roman and greek representations of her. She had the the power to talk to and control animals. In almost all sculpture I have seen of her she looks lean and flighty.

I kept to my art deco-ish design ethos and distilled the shape to a simple one that was dynamic, well I think so! Those ears spoil the streamlining though! don’t you think?
Below is the painting in progress.

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I have been meaning to add a horse to my collection for a while. if you were to look at my sketch book you’d see page after page of horse sketch. I finally settled on a greek theme. I nearly went with the The Trojan Horse, But I changed my mind!

The Siege of Troy.
In a nut shell the story goes like this, Paris, a trojan, steels Helen from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta. Why did he do it? The poor lad was manipulated by the powers above! It started with a vanity-fueled dispute among three goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite sparked by another Goddess, Eris (strife), Eris inscribed an apple,”to the fairest” and tossed it umogst the festivities at a wedding sparking the quarrel between the 3 goddesses about who indeed the fairest. Zeus (king of the gods) wanted to settle the dispute and so sent the three goddesses to Paris to settle the argument. Who was the fairest? well,each Goddess tried to bribe him, the most tempting bribe to Paris was Aphrodite’s who offered Paris the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Oh dear!

Menelaus and Agamemnon (his brother) led a greek expedition to Troy to retrieve Helen from Paris. This was the start of the Trojan war which was a 10 year siege on Troy

The war terminated with the scam of the Trojan Horse. The Greeks built a wooden horse and hid an elite group of soldiers in it, they wrote an inscription on it,”For their return home, the Greeks dedicate this offering to Athena” (the goddess of wisdom) and left by boat back to Greece. (well they appeared too!) The Trojans despite a warning from Laocoon, Helen and Cassandra that it was a bad idea, pulled the horse into the city.

The elite force inside the horse now attacked, as did the greek army that had not sailed back to Greece but had just laid in wait. Troy fell, game over. Goodnight Vienna!

Spring is in the Air

But war and con tricks don’t really fit with my theme of Animals in there natural habitat! Fortunately there are a lot of horses in greek mythology.

The Anemoi were the four wind gods, They were often depicted as horses, each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came. Zephyrus was the west wind, the gentlest of the winds, known as the messenger of spring.

Zephyrus is most commonly depicted as a winged youth, the most famous myth about him is his rivalry with Apollo (greek sun god) for the love of Hyakinthos. Hyakinthos chose Apollo and this drove Zephyrus mad with jealousy, yeah you guessed it, It’s a greek myth, it’s going to end badly, and it does! Zephyrus saw Apollo and Hyacinth playing quoits in a meadow, Zephyrus insane with jealousy struck the quoit with a gust of wind which struck Hyakinthos on the head and killed him. Very sad! In his grief Apollo created the hyacinth flower from his blood.

Zephyrus’ Roman equivalent was Favonius, who held dominion over plants and flowers

Below you can see the watercolour in progress.

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Good badger, Bad Badger. In literature, the badger falls into either one of these two camps. “Good badger” like Kenneth Grahame’s Mr Badger and, “bad Badger” like Beatrix Potter’s Tommy Brock, the rabbit kidnapper in, “The tale of Mr Todd”.

However the good/bad badger portrayal is relatively recent, only really becoming apparent in the 20th century. Stories about badgers stretch right back to the 11th century, an Anglo-Saxon poem from this time, shows a noble creature defending its family from attack.

Storey tellers have placed human characteristics upon badgers that have come to inform our overall perception of the animal. They are wise, courageous and persistent? Also because they are nocturnal, they are seen as mysterious. This nocturnal aspect of their nature has in turn had an influence of their portrayal in literature, badgers are often, alone, grumpy or gruff!

In European folklore the badger character is intimately associated with the bear and is considered a forecaster of the arrival of spring, as populations of bears in Europe dwindled the badgers significance in folklore increased.

Image © Daniel Mackie

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Long eared owl

I have been meaning to do this long eared owl for a long time. I have practically have a sketch book full of variations on this design.

In Roman and celtic mythology owls are associated with wisdom. But they are also associated with the darker aspects of our psyche, This is probably because the are nocturnal. The hoot of an owl late at night in a deep dark wood in 100 B.C would probably send a shiver down your spine. However, the owl is was often seen a guide to and through the Underworld. Owls were also able to reveal to you those who would deceive. Handy!

Lord Tennyson’s poem, The Owl (1830) re-enforces the owls ancient association with wisdom and it’s sinister nocturnal activities.
Tennyson describes the owl as having,”five wits”
Not only having them but,”warming” them!

“Alone and warming his five wits The white owl in the belfry sits”

The poem is a description of an owl watching over events in a rural landscape. The suggestion is that from its vantage point in the bell tower (This is an interesting position! In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, lady Macbeth says, hark! Peace! It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman)
The owl is indifferent and superior to all the goings on in the countryside. The five wits suggest an extra sensory perception!

In the 1500′s there were commonly thought to be five senses and five wits. The inward and outward wits were the product of many centuries of philosophical and psychological thought.The concept of five outward wits(senses, taste smell, etc) and five inward wits(“common wit”, “imagination”, “fantasy”, “estimation”, and “memory”.) came to medieval thinking from Classical philosophy. but in Early Modern English, “wit” and “sense” overlapped in meaning. Both could mean a faculty of perception.
So for the owl in Tennyson’s poem to have five wits; it would suggest it was in position of considerable mental agility!

(above) in progress.

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I have been meaning to add a frog to the collection for a long time, but it took me a while to get a simple enough composition. Unusually for me the creatures environment is not entirely within it, the frog is in the water!

Frogs feature a lot in folklore and mythology, The Battle of Frogs and Mice is a fable attributed to Homer about the futility of war. There is of course the frog prince, a spoiled princess reluctantly befriends a frog, kisses it (in Grimm’s fairy tales she throws it against a wall!) and it turns in to a handsome prince.

I Like this fable from Aesop, The Frogs that Desired a King. Unlike a lot of the other fables by Aesop, this one drawers a number of different conclusions. The conclusion I reached after reading it was not the same as a number of historical analysts, notably Martin Luther, a German 16th century monk and Roger L’Estrange, a 17th century English royalist. I was in agreement with William Caxton, a 15th century English merchant who was responsible for introducing the printing press to Britain .

So what do you make of the fable?

There is a group of frogs and the ask Zeus for a king. Zeus throws a log into their pond, initially the frogs are frightened by the splash, but soon get bolder and venture over to the log, they climb onto it, then they start to make fun of it. They then ask Zeus for a “real king”. This time Zeus gives them a water snake, who promptly starts eating the frogs. The frogs immediately appeal to Zeus, but this time Zeus says that the frogs must live with the consequence of their request.

In later versions it is a stork that eats the frogs not a water snake.

So….Martin Luther, concluded that as a result of human wickedness there is a shortage of good rulers and humanity deserves the rulers it gets, concluding, the frogs must have their storks.

Roger L’Estrange concluded that the mob (the frogs) are never satisfied with what they have, a king or no king, a government of no government, they will always shift opinion and are restless.

William Caxton concluded that, he that has liberty should keep it well, for there is nothing better than liberty.

Above painting in progress.

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Image © Daniel Mackie

Heraldic badges of royalty have given rise to many of the most common pub names in the UK, The White Hart is one of them.

The White Hart was King Richard II’s heraldic badge.

When Richard II was crowned King of England in 1377, he was just 10 years old. He adopted the White Hart as his emblem. Why? Well, it is complicated. It has a lot to do with piety, alchemy, mythology and two colours – red and white.

A bit of background. Richard II’s grandfather (Edward III) was a warrior king whose overriding interest was war. In particular, war with France. His heir to the throne was his son, the Black Prince, who was a chip off the old block you might say. He too loved war. Sadly he died before his father, but not as you might think with a french sword though the belly but of amoebic dysentery, which sounds a nasty way to go! The next in line to the throne was the little boy, Richard, who was the Black Prince’s son.

Bearing in mind Richard’s warmongering family background, lets have a look at the medieval cerebal landscape back in 1377, in particular the meaning of colours, white. No surprises represents purity, innocence and virtue, Red. representing, you guessed it power and passion. This is still true today, but in the 14th century these two colours were also woven into mythology and alchemy. In Mythology one of the best examples is the Arthurian legend of Joseph d’Arimathie. Joseph brought with him to Britain vessels containing the (Red) blood and (White) sweat of Christ. The “vessels”, were the Holy Grail. Potent stuff! In Christian alchemy there are three elements, Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury, that together make up the “Holy Trinity”. Sulphor (Red) Represnts the centre of the Universe, or “our father who art in heaven”. Salt is the Earth , or ” salt of the earth”. and Mercury (White) is the messenger, or, “The Holy spirit”

The purpose of alchemy is to purify the “earth” enough to allow Mercury and Sulphor to interact correctly. (The soul is reformed and relation to God purified) Since Christian alchemy is based upon the concept that the human soul was split during the Fall, Mercury and Sulphor were seen as coming from the same original substance and so should be united again.

Still with me?

So Richard is keen to distance himself from his warmongering father, He wanted a pious ideal of kingship. What better animal to adopt as an emblem than the white hart. Why? Well for a start its white, and by the time richard had become king in 1377 Christianity had already kidnapped the white hart from earlier mythology for its own purposes: the white stag had come to symbolise Christ and his presence on earth. In 1128 the story of David I, King of Scotland and his close shave with a stag cemented this symbolism. A stag charged him, he begged god to save him, The stag vanished into thin air leaving behind a cross where it’s alters had been! This married with the alchemic observation that white (Mercury) represents the holy spirit and legends like the the one of Joseph d’Arimathie made the white hart a potent symbol of not only purity but of divinity.

So next time you are in your local White Hart pub raise a glass to King Ricard II.

Image © Daniel Mackie

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The goldfinch is rich in symbolism, it has been featured in hundreds of Renaissance paintings. In Paintings of the Madona and child the bird if often perched or nesting in Mary’s or the christ childs hands. So what is the weighty symbolism that places the goldfinch in the centre of, for example Raphaels painting, Madonna del cardellino? Its symbolic meaning stems form its elaborate plumage and its feeding habits. Goldfinchs have red checks and in the medieval mindset, these were acquired while the bird was trying to remove christs crown of thorns in an act of mercy. Goldfinches also eat thistle seeds and together these two things associate the bird with Christ’s Passion and his crown of thorns.

Another layer of meaning has been attributed to the eating of thistle seeds, In europe they were used as a medicinal ingredient to combat the plague. So through this association the Goldfinch also became a good luck charm. Bestowing good heath and warding off disease from those who either saw a goldfinch or owned one (more on that later).

So with the warding off of disease and vibrant health associated with it, the Goldfinch also came to be a symbol of endurance.. This symbolic combination when rendered in Renaissance painting of the Madonna and child came to be an extend metaphor of the salvation christ would bring through his sacrifice. Hallelujah!

So all of the Christian symbolism is symbolism enough for any bird you might think! But, no! there is more! Freedom! Freedom Freedom!

The Goldfinch is very dextrous. Because it feeds on thistle seeds it has become a deft touch with its feet and beak and can be trained to perform tricks. Known as a Draw bird, it has the ability to pull up a weight (a thimble if water) attached to a thread, by looping each length under it’s foot. The Gofdfinch has been a popular choice as a cage bird in Europe for ceuntries. Carel Fabritius 1654 painting, Shows a The Goldfinch tethered to it’s pearch by a delicate chain.
You might say, if you were a cynic, that the Goldfinch has brought this upon on itself, showing off with its fine singing voice, beautiful plumage and deft touch with its feet and beak.

The Caged Goldfinch comes up as a reference to freedom in two poems by Thomas Hardy, “The Caged Goldfich” and, “The Blinded bird” both communicate the same outrage of having freedom taken.
In fact a number of other poets have used the Goldfinch in their work. Russinan poet Osip Mandelstam knew a thing or to about freedom, he was was excelled by Joseph Stalin’s government during the repression of the 1930’s, his poem “The cage” illustrates freedom withheld.

When the goldfinch like rising dough
suddenly moves, as a heart throbs,
anger peppers its clever cloak
and its nightcap blackens with rage.

The cage is a hundred bars of lies
the perch and little plank are slanderous.
Everything in the world is inside out,
and there is the Salamanca forest
for disobedient, clever birds.

Finally, show me the money! “Gold”-finch. Across the Ceuntries there has been the assumption that what is brightly coloured must be a symbol of wealth. For example, this is woven into ryme in The courtship, marriage of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren,

“Who gives this Maid away?
I do says the goldfinch
and her fortune I will pay”

So for a small bird, the Goldfinch has been loaded with a lot of symbolic bagagge.

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Image © Daniel Mackie

Elephants are weird-looking Creatures. Like the giraffe, hippopotamus and rhinoceros they kind of stand alone in their unique appearance.
Early depictions of Elephants are fantasy like, this is because back in the middle ages Europeans wouldn’t have had access to the real thing, and with no first hand experience elephants were depicted like horses with trumpet-like trunks and tusks like a boar, and sometimes with hooves.

It wasn’t until the Ancient Romans, who kept the animals in captivity, that anatomically accurate elephants were depicted. There are examples in mosaics in Tunisia and Sicily. As more elephants began to be sent to European kings as gifts during the 15th century, depictions of them became more accurate.

Maybe its because of their strange appearance that they have been revered by many cultures throughout history.
In Buddhist, Hindu, Islam and Christian cultures, the elephant symbolises positive things like wisdom, peace and learning.

The most curious thing about the elephant is obviously it’s trunk, there’s little else like the elephants trunk on earth. Part snorkel, part fingers, part nose.

So how did the Elephant get it’s truck? Well according to Rudyard Kipling, in his “Just So” story, “The Elephant Child” got his truck because of his curiosity of what the crocodile has for dinner. In fact the elephants curiosity nearly kills him. He finds out that the Crocodile has “elephant child” for diner! The crocodile bites him on the nose and in his struggle to get free the elephant stretches his nose into a trunk. So long and so handy does it become for swatting flies and flicking cooking water over its body that every elephant ever since has had one!

The”Elephant Childs” near-fatal adventures serve as a reminder not to let our questioning minds rule us. The Elephant Child comes face to face with death because he desperately wants to know what the crocodile eats for supper. All the other animals have warned him not to ask. But he didn’t listen.
It would suggest that although curiosity could have fatale consequences, it may also empower you. I think the sentiment is be brave, be curious and expect the unexpected!

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Image © Daniel Mackie

Doggy paddle, The most ancient of all swimming strokes. It was the first swimming stroke used by ancient humans, learned by observing animals swim. Maybe Aesop, the Ancient Greek story-teller was watching a dog swimming when he wrote the fable, “The Dog and its Reflection”. He was however more interested in the nature of the dog rather than its swimming abilities! It is a moral about being content with what you have.

“The Dog and its Reflection” is a warning that he that covets often will lose it all. Dogs are greedy and live in the moment and in Aesop’s fable a dog has stolen bone and it making off with it. He crosses a river and sees his own reflection in the water. Thinking it is another dog carrying a bigger bone, he opens his mouth to bark and loses his bone.

Infact Aesop wrote a number of fables about dogs. He tends, in my mind to give them a bit of hard time. He outlines characteristics, that shows them in a poor light. For example, he illustrates their stupidity and greediness as a negative. We in the modern world may perhaps look upon these characteristics as playfulness and tenaciousness! He portrays the dog as enslaved in “The Dog and the Wolf”, but ask any dog owner and they would probably say the reverse is true! Maybe in ancient Greece things were different. However there is truth in Aesop’s fables, and his particular use of a particular animal in a particular fable is part of their incisive message. Although Aesop’s fables were written 2500 years ago they still pack a punch.

“The Dog and the Wolf” is about freedom. A starving wolf meets a well fed dog and comments upon how well the dog looks. The dog thanks him for the compliment and tells the wolf about his comfortable life and suggests the wolf comes and joins him. The wolf, sick to the back teeth of hardship and worrying about where his next meal is coming from agrees to join the dog. However, the wolf notices that the dog has some fur missing round his neck and asks the dog about the bald patch. The dog tells the wolf it is where his master puts on his collar and chains him up at night. The wolf is appalled that the dog has traded his freedom for a full belly and immediately leaves.

Have you ever been described as a dog in a manger? I hope not. This is another of Aesop’s fables where the dogs reputation come out poorly. This one is about spite. There was a dog lying in a manger who did not eat the grain but who nevertheless prevented the horse from being able to eat anything either. Know anyone like this? Someone who keeps something that they do not really want in order to prevent anyone else from having it. A lot of two year olds have this habit! But hopefully they will grow out of it!

There are four dogs in The DM Collection

This is the watercolour in progress, as you can see Rose Madder Genuine and Quindercrome Gold feature! I am such a fan of these two colours! I have noticed a peculiar thing! All the dogs I draw tend to have a slight comic element that the other creatures i paint don’t have! This must be an unconscious thing!

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Images © Daniel Mackie

In western culture, if the owl were to take an IQ test he would probably score highly, probably, “superior intelligence!” A score between 120-129, not quite Genius, (130+) but pretty smart! Lord Tennyson’s poem, The Owl sees the bird as superior to all its countryside brethren. Looking down its beak at all that goes on around him! I have touched on lord Tennyson’s poem before. This poem was written in 1830, quite a while ago. But when did the owl become wise?

In Ancient Greece, Athena, The patron goddess of Athens and the goddess of wisdom, had the owl as her symbol. Was she wise? Or was the owl wise? It is a little bit unclear. Across cultures and across time it would seem owls are wise! Having human characteristics placed upon animals is called Anthropomorphism and it first appeared in literate in ancient Greece in a poem by Hesiod called Works and Days. It was written in about 700 BC and is a story about,”The Hawk and the Nightingale“, it was later attributed to Aesop the famous fable teller in accent Greece (two centuries later) and it’s not as punchy as some of his, i.e. The `Hare and the Tortoise, but Hesiod was first and at his doorstep all the creatures of the world can lay the blame of their Anthropomorphism.

After Hesiod the flood gates opened, next Aesop and his animals fables, The Jataka Tales and the Panchatantra, Then come fairy tales like The tale of Cupid and Psyche (Rome in the 2nd century) in which Zephyrus, the west wind (a horse), carries Psyche away. Another example is in 13th century Egypt, The Tale of Two Brothers, this one has talking cows. More recent examples are the Brothers Grim, then into the modern times, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, Beatrix Potter, The Wind in the Willows, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Winnie-the-Pooh and on and on an on…..

So When and how did the owl become wise, well its to do with Athena and darkness.. Athena’s wisdom and the owls are it seems intertwined. The greek goddess took the little owl and used him for her symbol. There is the suggestion that owls were her favourite birds. Did she take the owl as her symbol because in ancient Greece it represented the wise or was it because Athena was the goddess wisdom that the owl became wise by association? Still in the dark? Well here is food for thought, owls are nocturnal, and this association with the dark and being able to see in it has something to do with the “wise old owl” status. After all if you can see in dark it would suggest you can see things that others can’t. It is not much more of a leap to suggest that because you can see all things clearly you would be able to asses whether something is true or right. Very wise!

Images © Daniel Mackie
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Erithacus rubecula, the beloved Robin Redbreast, was this year crowned Britain’s National Bird after claiming a respectful 34% of the general publics vote. Close in contention was the ever silent Barn Owl, the cat scolding Blackbird, and despite a final song, even Her Majesty’s Mute Swan nestles in at a mere 7th place.

So why do we love the feisty feathered friend of the gardener: a bird that is so territorial that they’ll peck one of their own to death if certain bounderies are not respected?

Well, for one thing they’re very pleasing to the eye, and unlike many other bird species – where the male notably has a more attractive plumage – both sexes of the Robin show off the characteristic war paint. But upon closer inspection, is it indeed red?… What’s that you say, it’s orange? (How dare you!) But of course you’re right: the name for the colour orange didn’t even exist until a certain citrus fruit was brought to European shores in the 16th century. (Let’s leave peaches alone for the time being).

And as we go about our business being a nation of gardeners, the bold and plucky Robin will happily perch on your spade whilst you take a breather from turning over your rich and fertile beds. To you, he’s your chirpy little garden companion, an extra in your very own Disney feature, but to the opportunist Robin, you are a work horse, slaving away in the dirt and hauling out deep dwelling Goliath-like worms to the surface for a warriors dinner.

Then there is the Christmas depiction of this red-breasted icon, and if there’s one creature which is so closely associated with the festive season, it’s the Robin, (yes, then the donkey). From acquiring a coloured breast whilst tending to a crown of thorns belonging to a certain Jesus Christ, to even delivering our many Christmas cards – yes you heard right, back in the days of Queen Victoria they gave the name Robins to the postmen who were adorned with sprightly red tunics.

So if you hear bird song on a cold and frosty festive day, it will more than likely be the Robin, because only they are tenacious enough to hold their territories all year round; lucky for us with a beautiful song. And if there’s more than one, (if they haven’t yet pecked each other to death!), then by all means use a ‘carol of Robins’ for your collective noun.

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Image © Daniel Mackie

Image © Daniel Mackie

Well, even though it’s not out of place to see a hare in broad daylight sitting quietly in its ‘form’, (a shallow depression in the earth), they are fundamentally nocturnal, and are a lot more active when the moon takes the place of the sun.  But night time was once a very dangerous place to go ‘haring’ around, as the moon was once believed to actually cause madness, (hence luna / lunacy), and it was even believed that sleeping under the moonlight invited madness.  So knowing that the hare regularly went about its business under a mania inducing moon, it was thought that this was the cause for their excitable episodes during spring, where males and females, (Jacks & Jills), are seen to uncharacteristically gather in droves, frantically chasing and boxing one another.  The mad March hare was indeed seen as ‘moon-struck’.

‘I shall go into a hare,

With sorrow and sigh and (probably) mental torment.’ 

(Translation of a ritual rhyme by Scottish witches, describing the psychological undertakings when taking on the spirit of a hare.)

Classic hare country. Photo © Harry Miller

But to a more visual connection, where the hare can actually be seen living on the moon!  We are all aware that when the moon is full you can see the shape of the ‘man in the moon’, but next time the luna one is beaming away in the fullness of its phase, try and make out the side profile of a hare in the darkened patches.  But don’t stare at it too long… ’cause you’ll go mad!
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Image ©Daniel Mackie

Probably the first mention of turtle doves is a context of love is in the new testament (Luke2.24). A pair are sacrificed for the new-born baby jesus. Note a pair! Turtle Doves form strong pair bonds. This and the biblical reference has resulted in them being emblems of love.

Often the first introduction to turtle doves is a result of hearing or singing the famous christmas song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas. Turtle Doves feature as the second gift.

I have been meaning to expand my christmas range of cards, but not get two christmasy in the process! It wasn’t really on my radar to do any more than one creature with it environment within it at a time. but two seemed like a good idea as i could link the imagery within them.
I felt I had to be a bit careful with the reds and greens on this one, as i didn’t want to get to Father Christmas! Obviously a snowy landscape is not the turtle doves natural environment! As soon as there is whiff of chilly weather they up sticks ad fly south! In fact they head off to sunnier climates in September. But it had to be snow if it was christmas!

I used my old favourite, Rose Madder Genuine with alizarin crimson to pick out the flowers in the wings. The rest I kept that lovely bluish grey mixing Burnt Sienna with Cerulean blue. When you mix these two in the dish they are a perfect match!

This design came relatively easily. The bird designs tend to come with less of a fight than the other creatures! Just keep it simple!(like my owls) You can see the first thumbnail I did in my sketch book (above) and the final result Below.

Image ©Daniel Mackie

Image © Daniel Mackie

A lot of this woodland survived for 7000 years up until medieval times: but by then more and more trees were being felled to make way for farmland, as well as for fuel and ship building.  What made matters worse for the native squirrel was their very own dashing red fur coat, and squirrel pelts were in high demand; especially with the ruling classes.  This is in contrast to European folklore where it was deemed as unlucky to kill a squirrel, and those who did so were said to lose their hunting skills.  (This superstition has biblical routes, where it is said that upon witnessing Adam & Eve tuck in to the forbidden fruit, the angelic squirrel hid its eyes from this act of sin with its own tail; to save the squirrel from further embarrassment the creature was thus given a bushier tail).

There was a glimmer of hope for the squirrel population when the Victorians attempted to replant the forests, but just when things were starting to look up for the reds, the Victorians – who had a habit of introducing non native species to Britain – released the infamous American Grey Squirrel!  The rest, as I’m sure you know is history.  But help is now at hand, in the shape of a very unlikely ally: the Pine Martin.  Even though the pine martin predates little Squirrel Nutkins, it seems that wherever this weasel relative is being reintroduced, the reds are somehow taking the place of the greys.  This is believed to be so because unlike the reds, the greys didn’t co-evolve with this serial-squirrel-killer, and due to their habit of foraging more on the ground, and their bulk, which prevents them from reaching the spindliest branches away from a pine martins reach, the greys number is sadly up.

How far this trend will go is uncertain, but unless the pine martin makes the likes of London’s Regent Park its home, I think we’ll always have a few greys to entertain us – and entertain me they certainly do.

See this and other designs available as prints and cards at The DM Collection

Image © DanielMAckie

“Hooray!  Let’s do it again.”

… ugh! where’s the sherry!!

Yes it’s nearly that time of year again, where every respectable Partridge, (if they know their worth), should frantically search out and scramble up the ever elusive pear tree.  In doing so they create and complete the most extravagant Christmas present known to man!

But if you are scratching around for Christmas present ideas, you’re better off heading to the market, because you’d do very well to actually come across a ‘partridge in a pear tree’.  If you were to spot one of these birds, you’re more than likely to find them on their feet rather than the wing, as they like to spend most of their time pecking around on farmland for seeds and insects.  They also nest on the ground; and all being well they are very successful at it too, as these magnificent hens produce one of the largest clutches of eggs know to man – potentially up to 22!

If you do approach a partridge, (with grand ideas of pear trees and ‘Eleven Lords a leaping’), they will rightly try to escape: at first by hot-footing it – where they are actually very good at selecting their get away route, carefully putting obstacles such as stones and foliage in the way of the pursuer – or as a last resort they will take to the air, but with their short wings and plump stocky bodies, it is in dramatic and exhausting fashion, and they’ll be keen to come back to earth as soon as it’s safe to.

You will find one explanation as to why the partridge is mostly ground dwelling and reluctant to take flight in Greek mythology, where the first ever partridge appeared when Daedalus threw his high achieving nephew, Perdix, from a cliff in an envious fit of rage.  Upon witnessing this, the Goddess Athena saved the tumbling victim by turning him into a bird, (hence the latin term for the partridge is Perdix perdix).  Following this traumatic experience, and remembering all too well his near fall to death, the partridge is generally very wary of high places, chooses not to take long flights, and does not nest in any tree; and yes, you can tell your ‘true love’ that this does include the pear variety!

buy greetings cards of the and other designs like it at The DM Collection

Image © Daniel Mackie

Many cultures have stories and fables about foxes being tricky and sly, and this one keeps with that theme. But Aesop’s fable suggests that the Hare in this tale already knows the fox is untrustworthy, but still out of deadly curiosity wishes to know more… mmmm, the fox sensing an opportunity suggests the Hare comes to his house for “Dinner”. Now there is the red light Mr Hare!

The hare in this fable pays with his life for not using caution to stem his desire to know about the foxes nature. Rudyard Kipling was probably aware of this fable. He illustrated this in his Just so Story, The “elephants childs” curiosity leads him into a deadly situation with a crocodile.

I often work on more than one painting at a time, generally I have three on the go at any one time, I usually draw them all out first and once i am happy with the composition etc I then paint them one by one, This seems to have the effect of linking the ones I do together as they often has similar colours or motifs. I used to do four at once but one always turned out to be a stinker!

I did these two together, both painted on Saunders Waterford watercolour paper stretched on the drawing board. As you can see, Rose Madder genuine and Quinacridone Gold Feature in both of them, although I did use Prussian Blue in the fox, This colour is becoming favourite! The blue in the hare’s body is cerulean blue mixed with Davy’s Gray.

Image © Daniel Mackie

Image © Daniel Mackie

Image © Daniel Mackie

Image © Daniel Mackie

These two designs are available as cards and prints at The DM Collection

Image © Daniel Mackie

Badgers live underground in setts which they inherit from previous generations; some can even be over a hundred years old.  They’ll continue to clean, maintain, improve, and develop these dwellings as they see fit, (no town council permission required), and can often house an elaborate tunnel network which connect numerous sleeping and breeding chambers.  The world record for the largest badger sett goes to our very own European badger, Meles meles, which involved a sett composed of 50 chambers, 879 metres of interlinking tunnels, and an astonishing 178 entrances!  Being extremely experienced underground dwellers, they even know a thing or two about water drainage, and you’ll find that 9/10 setts are situated on slanted ground; maybe this once lead the good folk of Yorkshire to allegedly believe that the legs of a badger were uneven on one side so they could easily run alongside hills!

This elusive relative of the weasel mostly likes to reside in woodland, especially if there are bluebell shoots to eat in early spring, but like ourselves, being omnivores, they’re also partial to something slightly more substantial to go with their greens, so what’s really ideal is to have a woodland sett which backs on to fields: here, with a multitude of entrance holes, they can capitalise on all there is to offer; including a freshly ploughed field where they can spend their nights dining on hundreds of earthworms.

Unlike its African cousin, the Honey Badger, Meles meles isn’t a fearsome lunatic, and although the red fox will show him some well deserved respect, (have you seen those claws!), it has been known for foxes, and even rabbits, to share the unused quarters of a well developed badger sett – although the rabbit might just want to make itself scares if Mr Badger runs out of worms to eat.

Photo © Harry Miller

‘There’s no security, or peace except underground. No, up and out of doors is good enough to roam about and get one’s living in; but underground to come back to at last–that’s my idea of HOME’. 

(Thoughts from Mr Badger in Kenneth Grahame’s enchanting novel: ‘The Wind in the Willows’).

Buy cards and prints of this design and other woodland creatures at The DM Collection