My latest commission has been this gentle tableau of otters cavorting in and out of the river. I was originally going to tackle this project with glass appliqué but the detail of the painted pieces of glass combined with the strong lead lines have worked out even better! I am really pleased with the natural colour palette and painting too and, as my eldest son said, (yes, he noticed!!!), “You are drawn in to look more closely at it, Mum”.

So take a closer look yourself……..

The swimming otter I traced from an artwork found on google. I did at first mix up some brown paint but I was worried it would fire too pale so I mixed in some black too. After firing it the first time I then added some further shading with a matting layer and fired again. You can see the shading a little better on the Otter on the tree roots.

For the undergrowth I applied a matte of paint and allowed it to dry and then freehand scraped it away in leafy-ferny patterns. Very relaxing and enjoyable. I could do more of this!

Above are what the otters looked like after the first firing.