Dear Art World Those April showers have finally arrived - this morning in suburban Bradford, we have rain, lots of rain and hopefully this will help the rockery flowers and potato seedlings to grow soon. These were planted by our middle son, Aidan and his dad, Michael recently. Now the local weather forecast is out of the way, let's talk about my current coloured pencil work and projects in the pipeline. You're probably already aware, if you've been following my art blog, that I have a Work-in-Progress which is a double-portrait of a couple, however, their identity is being kept under wraps, including title of the work, until the finished product rolls off my art production line. Another WIP image will appear later this week. To add to my "mini" series of orang-utans (Cradle for an Ape was my first wildlife portrait of a baby orang-utan), I am working on an A3 size female orang-utan and hope to produce a hairy, bearded male at some point in the near future too, once I've taken some reference sources/pics - and no, I'm not flying out to one of the rainforests in Borneo or Sumatra to obtain these images, I'll have to make do with a local wildlife park or zoo. And finally.......I'm busy staring at a blank canvas (or three)! I have been in this situation for several weeks now, not permanently transfixed, but contemplating how I produce a triptych with the Derwent Artist range of coloured pencils on three small canvases. These have been primed with several layers of white gesso and as soon as I can find a spare slot, I shall begin. Watch this space! I do need to thank a fellow CP artist, art educator and celebrity "pencil magician", Malcolm Cudmore for providing some advice on which pencils to use and how to prime the surface prior to drawing. Take a look at his gallery, he's the leading pioneer of CP on canvas and wooden panel supports. Thanks for providing the inspiration to have a go, Malcolm, you're number 3 on my list of top-notch favourite CP educators, alongside Ann Kullberg and Lee Hammond! What better way to thank him? With a link below to his CP gallery and website. If I can produce half the quality of Malcolm's fine art, then I'll be a contented emerging artist. Good days to everyone reading my art blog, the sun's peaking through a blue sky now in West Yorkshire. I can see clearly now the rain has gone! Tara. http://blog.malcolm-cudmore.com/?page_id=105