Ian Bowles blog
December 2011 proved to be the end of an era, with my 25th and final annual exhibition at The Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, which was the best ever. The Kent Wildlife Trust who now administer the reserve were there to support me at the Private View and even had a cake made for me with a big ‘25 years’ (see photo of me with Joanne Creighton from KWT), a small thing that meant a lot. So many people who have bought and collected my work over the years came and it was a pleasure to see them. My mailing list has been so important to me, and I am deeply grateful to those who have backed and supported me over these years. What started as an idea for an exhibition or two with the Harrison family has continued so successfully for 25 years. We could have gone on further, but I just feel the pressure more now - anno Domini dam it!!!

Sadly I have had to put the book on hold for a little while, we are hoping to move this year and with the work in my commission book, plus the three main shows this year (to say nothing of a new grandson at the beginning of May), I just couldn’t do it justice at the moment – thankfully my publishers are understanding (secretly they are probably sticking pins in an effigy of me), thanks to Roz and Katy – I will get there.

Managed go get up to the north Norfolk coast for a few days just to remember what it’s all about. A wader has turned up there called a Western Sandpiper which I was watching, this bird is very rare and somehow or ever got itself blown here from North America. The hide at Cley was jam-packed with telescopically tripoded bird watchers watching this rather dull little bird that shouldn’t have been here in the first place – and yet from the same hides were magnificent views of flocks of Brent Geese, Golden Plover, the fantastic Harriers and many other fabulous birds – I’ll leave the rarities to them. That evening though skeins of wild grey geese filled the setting sky in numbers that disappeared into a darkening distance until they were lost to sight - that’s north Norfolk to me!

The RSPB have just commissioned me to paint another Artist’s Sketchbook Calendar for them for 2013, this will be my thirteenth consecutive one for them. So more cups of coffee down at Waitrose as we plan and balance the subjects – nice problem!

The spring will see us putting our much-loved house of 25 years on the market and hoping to sell. My new website is now up and running and I think is excellent – thanks to a very patient Mark at Typecast. So if I disappear a bit through the year please do consult the web and I promise to keep it up to date with our movements – I’m not going far!

January 2012