It’s November…it’s Pig Month!

And it’s back to the sketching and the blog.

Leaving the academic world( probably briefly) regular sketching is back on the agenda. But I do like a purpose and this month it is pigs, pigs, glorious pigs.
In connection with Chris’ excellent “Salute the Pig” Blog I am going to be working on a series of pig prints and need to brush up on my sketching and get to know pigs a bit better. So on Saturday we went down to Franklins, our favourite farm/shop for their Open Day.

Their pigs are a delight, ranging from super cute little piglets to a magnificent Saddleback Boar. Loosely penned, very busy, very funny and very happy. Particularly because of the steady supply of apples which were coming their way.

Yes we eat pork, yes we know they are going to be killed, we are not starry eyed about it. But if we eat meat from animals which have had happy lives we do feel a bit better about it all.

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Franklin’s Pigs. Sat 29th Oct So to get started, some Franklins pigs.

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Little snuggling Saddlebacks

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Love those ears!! I also decided to collect the older pig drawings together in a Tumblr page here:  Pig and Pencil …yeah! Go pigs!

Other stuff: Medlars
It wont be all pigs. I am doing some observed drawings ( nice just to sit and simply draw something) and have set my Easton Group a monthly theme to work to during the winter break. Last month was “Harvest” I drew some medlars. The fruit with some delightfully rude names. It’s a very Anglo Saxon sort of fruit.

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Curious things… I am bletting them ( hmmm) in order to make some medlar jelly. I wonder if pigs like medlars. More of these odd little things to come, their history is interesting.