Foxes, Robins ...and Staffordshire Bull Terriers.

"Twilight on the North Yorkshire Moors"
Original watercolour
by
Glenn Marshall

As a general rule I abstain from putting people or animals in my paintings. I feel that if I add a squirrel then this somehow limits the viewer to seeing a squirrel, when what I really want to do is stimulate the viewer's imagination to see what THEY want to see be it squirrels, pixies or fairies.
There are obvious exceptions of course...how could you portray the Yorkshire Dales without including sheep, or indeed, the North Yorkshire Moors without soaring birds! And including a human figure is a great way of bringing the idea of scale into a picture.
But there was a time when I thought it would be a great selling point to include a cute little animal or bird to clinch that elusive sale!
My first attempt was a snowy, winter woodland painting. It was the perfect time of the year to include a robin...a sure fire winner! I didn't think I'd done a bad job with my robin and brought it proudly to the gallery for exhibiting.
My colleagues went strangely quiet and said how much they admired the concept and that the woodland was well painted etc, etc but no mention of the robin. Eventually one spoke up - "Don't you think the robin is a little bit...large?" he offered. My friends shook their heads in agreement so I had to look very closely again at my effort. They were right....my robin was totally out of scale and was as big as a golden eagle! Never mind, robin deleted and lesson learned.....well almost...
....undeterred my next painting included a fox. This was quite tricky with complicated anatomical details  but I persevered and eventually brought it to the gallery for pre-hanging scrutiny.
This was an occasion for great mirth among my 'friends', and much chastened, I hid the fox behind a bramble bush with just his head showing.
So I learned a good lesson - if you are going to include animals or birds, make sure you do it well or a whole painting can be ruined.
However I did have the last laugh. A good friend of mine bought the painting from the gallery and it has pride of place in her living room and she refers to it to this day as her 'fox' painting.
On the subject of animals I went for a walk with my granddaughter Kate and their two 'staffie' puppies - Tank and Chunk - it will be much joy, I'm sure, watching them grow and play with our staffie - Bonnie.
Staffordshire Bull Terriers ( to give them their full title) are a much maligned breed. Yes they were originally bred for fighting bulls and later other dogs, and yes they are very powerful dogs for their size, but with the right owners they are as loving, and as  loyal a companion as any other breed if not more!
At about eight last night I was still on the laptop but Bonnie came and barked at me to remind us all that it was time to settle down on the sofa together to watch a bit of telly...so maybe they are quite smart as well!