Wednesday 26 November 2014

WOYWW 286

This is how my desk looks this Wednesday.



You can see my latest WIP.

 I didn't apply my usual layers of collage for this background because I wanted it to have a more painterly look.  At first the background was very dull looking so I took inspiration for the colour from the Klimt portrait  you see in the background.


In reality the colour is a much more fiery shade of orange than the camera has picked up.

Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for all the lovely comments left recently .I really do appreciate them . Please accept my apologies if I have not responded personally or managed to return the favour by visiting your blog this past week.

Thanks for visiting. x

Friday 21 November 2014

Coloured Pencils Again

Today something for both Paint Party Friday and Art Journal Journey.

This months theme over at AJJ is 'Inspired by the Masters'. The idea is that you create something in the style of a famous artist. For my first offering I chose to work in coloured pencils in the style of 'Modigliani'. You can see it here.

At the moment I have been focusing on using coloured pencils, a medium that I am trying to improve on so my second offering for AJJ is also in coloured pencils along with gel pens. The artist I have chosen this time is 'Klimt'.


I have a lovely book on Klimt and I used the picture on the left  as inspiration for this piece.


coloured pencil & gel pens
on black paper.

I had such a terrible time trying to photograph this. The daylight is really bad today so I had to put the electric light to highlight the gold  in her hair. It's times like this I think I should make the effort to set up my light tent 

Thanks for visiting. x


Wednesday 19 November 2014

Catch up and WOYWW

Over at Art Journal Journey which is hosted by the lovely and very talented Susi this months theme is 'The Masters' It is a chance for us to pay tribute to some of our favourite famous artists by creating something in their style.
Since my recent blog break I have been very lax and not joined in with AJJ but today I have put that right. So this post is for both AJJ and WOYWW

Firstly here is my desk.



On it you will see a book of postcards illustrating the work of 'Modigliani' from which I took inspiration for this.

coloured pencil on 
5x7 inch black paper.

For this I used coloured pencils, a medium that I am not yet comfortable with as mentioned in a previous post, as I usually work mainly in acrylics.

 I was inspired to try working on black paper after seeing a beautiful piece created by a very talented artist Judith Logan-Farias over on her blog Judith Logan Art. If you haven't already come across her work you are certainly in for a treat.

I want to send out a BIG thank to all who visit my blog and for leaving such lovely comments especially those sending their congratulations on the sale of a couple of my paintings recently.

Thanks for visiting. x



Monday 17 November 2014

A good Day.

I had some good news today as I found out that not one...but two of my mixed media paintings have SOLD. They were in an exhibition over the weekend and both bought by the same person as a gift for her daughter.

You may remember them.


Within
Sold


Dance
Sold

They were originally shown in an exhibition in a local gallery in August and one of them was featured in the window for the first week of the exhibition (which I was extremely pleased about) but did not sell.

My former textile tutor very kindly invited me to show them in her exhibition of her students work and luckily someone liked them enough to purchase them so I am over the moon.

She has also given me another opportunity to show a couple of pieces in her next exhibition which is being held over the next couple of weeks. Here they are.

Contemplation

 
 The Gift

Keep your fingers crossed for me.......... x

Sunday 16 November 2014

If at first..........

........ you don't succeed try, try again.

A while ago I posted a drawing I did in coloured pencils. I didn't like it at the time and now I look back on it I can't believe I posted it for the world to see .Lol! Not that I think the whole world visits my blog but you know what I mean.

Well, I thought I would give it another try. My first attempt was 'unpostable'. (I think I made that word up.) Then I had one last ditch attempt and this is how it turned out.


Maybe with a little more practice I will get to like working in them but for now the 'jury' is out.

I am linking this post to Sunday Sketches over at Alexandra's blog Blue Chair Diary Illistrations.

Thanks for visiting. x

Friday 14 November 2014

Sisters

Hello and welcome,

If you are one of the party goers visiting for Paint Party Friday you may have missed an earlier post I did on a WIP  based on sketch I did a while ago. When I originally did this sketch I loved the faces so much that I didn't want to add anything more to it in fear of changing the look of it.


I came across it while going through my sketchbook looking for something else and decided to use it as a basis for a mixed media painting. I think that once in a while a work, for what ever reason, seems to 'speak' to you. Touches you in someway more than others do. For me, when I look at this sketch, this is one of those times. It was something that I felt could not be captured again in the painting.

  Sisters
Mixed media on card


I am pleased with the way it turned out but I don't think I have captured that same 'feeling'. I would be interested to hear your thoughts. x

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Mini Concertina book

A while ago I reminisced about  a little souvenir concertina book brooch which I had when I was a child. The type of thing that when you are a child you buy on holiday then gets pushed to the back of the drawer and eventually gets thrown away. I wrote about how I would love to own one of them now but after having searched on line only found one that a lucky lady owned and posted about on her blog.

Happily I was lucky enough to come across one a little while later at a Vintage Fair. I couldn't believe my luck and it was of one of the places in which I spent my holidays as a child. The Lake District in Cumbria.




Since my first post on the subject I have been wanting to make a mini concertina book and this week at the back of one of my drawers I came across a strip of heavy watercolour paper leftover from an old project which was ideal. So I got to work and this is the result.



I used leftover papers that have images of  ink and paint from cleaning off stamps and brushes. I just love the random marks you can get, hence the  name of my little book, 'Serendipity'.




The cover is made from a brown tag which is stamped with a script stamp and scrunched, opened up and scrunched again until it feels like fabric. I then painted it with some acrylic wax to seal the surface, then added a metal eyelet and some twine.

I am really pleased with the way it turned out and hope to make more in the future.

I am linking this post to WOYWW as this is what has been on my desk these past few days. To see other peoples desks from around the world click on the button in the side-bar and take a look.

Thanks for visiting. x

Wednesday 5 November 2014

WOYWW

What's on my work desk this Wednesday?


This is a sketch I posted a while back.


I really liked their faces so I decided not to add colour because once I start painting my faces they can change a little and sometimes quite a lot.

This week I have used them as inspiration for my latest mixed media painting.



The background is made up of scrapbook papers, stamped images on tissue paper, gesso and acrylics.

I hope you will pop by again to see it when it's finished. x

Linking this post to WOYWW