Wild Things

Winna Winner!!!

2010-12-18T14:20:00.000Z

I am so sorry it has taken me until now to announce the winner of my little giveaway... I don't know about you but I have had a really hard time using my Blogger account this last week? Anyway, fingers crossed I will get to the end of this post and it will actually upload!

So, as you can see - the winner is the lovely Winna! I will be in touch as soon as I finish this post and will put the finishing touches to my parcel tomorrow. Though I have decided to leave sending it until after the festive season, then hopefully it won't risk being lost in all the extra Christmas post whizzing around our little planet....

Back very soon! L x

I missed my first birthday...

2010-12-03T12:36:00.000Z

Gosh, it's been way too long! I can't believe I missed the first birthday of my little blog, and I really can't believe that it is now over a year since I started it! Anyway, for all you lovely people who visit here from time to time (EDMers etc) I would like to offer a little **GIVEAWAY** as a way of saying thank you for all the support and comments and, well for just quietly reading my ramblings over the last twelve months. It is all very much appreciated you know. The main part of the giveaway will be a set of three of my polar bear cards...

...they have been left blank so you can use them for anything really, just as a snail mail treat to send a friend, who doesn't like snail mail from time to time? I will also add something 'Yorkshire' to the package and, after everything I said in my last post about Mail Art, I will add a little artwork to the parcel itself, just to make things a little more interesting! If you approve and fancy owning the eclectic collection just leave me a comment here..... I will draw a name from a (Santa) hat on Saturday 11th December.

Sadly I still don't really have much finished artwork to offer up at the moment, but not because of lack of inspiration this time thank goodness - rather a case of life getting in the way. I do have these little tomato sketches, not the most exciting subject but I just loved the colours and had to have a go at painting them. Really good fun and all good watercolour practice! They cover EDM 24 - because technically they are fruit, right?

I am also working on this little fella, a snowy fox. I started him a few weeks ago, with the intention of creating another Christmas card - then life intervened. I'll try to get him finished this weekend though, no excuses - I'm on my own, then maybe I could at least make up some cards to share with family and friends this year. Hey, if I get it finished I'll add one to my giveaway! Here he is in his half finished state:

...pop back soon and he'll be here all finished :o)

Once again here in the UK we are in the grips of icy, snowy wonderfulness. This has meant that for three days the school I work at has been closed, which means things must be really bad because our school hardly ever closes!! After two days of horrendous car journeys at the start of the week though, I'm just grateful I didn't have to struggle in - I have also had a streaming cold, you know the type where you feel really, really ill but you can't justify time off work? So, luckily I have been able to stay tucked up and warm and today I am feeling much more myself, though with a bright red nose and still unable to move more than 6 feet away from a box of hankies!

Oh, and Scout thinks the snow is marvellous!

Hope you are all cold free and keeping happy! Back soon, L xx

Snail mail, balloons, Wild Things, and tomatoes

2010-10-19T17:23:00.000+01:00

I’m at home this week and feel it is definitely time I posted something on my blog. I have lots of little things I thought I would share today, here goes:

Since my last post I received a card from Alex Tan featuring one of his wonderful pictures.....

It’s such a treat receiving something like this via snail mail and even more so when it is from someone I have got to know through the EDM group who shares a love of art. I could really get into this whole swapping artwork thing. Mmm, I’ve been trying to think of something to celebrate my first ‘Blogaversary’ – watch this space. In the meantime a small parcel is winging it’s way East from here in sunny Yorkshire, just a little something to thank Alex :o) x

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I had produced a painting of a flower that I hoped would be used in some way to raise money at a memorial event for one of my work colleagues who died over the summer. Well, on Sunday November 14th we are going to have an event at the school – a balloon race. The balloon that travels the furthest will win a prize for it’s owner. All the money raised at the event will go to charity and to pay for a permanent memorial at school – an outdoor, flower-filled classroom which should be beautiful. I have produced a one-off necklace that will be auctioned, and a print of the flower will be signed, framed and also auctioned.

I’m so glad I decided to paint that gerbera, it’s great to know it might raise some extra funding. I will take pictures and post here to let you know how the event goes.

As far as my Wild Things are concerned things are ticking over slowly, but surely. I’m certainly getting lots of lovely feedback! I have decided that as I am at home this week I will remove all postal charges from my items, to anywhere in the world until noon (GMT) on Saturday, October 23rd. I figure a little saving is always good in the lead up to Christmas! I have also had my polar bear printed up onto cards and he looks quite smart so they are now available to purchase.

If I can complete the new ‘snowy fox’ painting I have started this week hopefully he’ll be arriving in the shop in one form or another very soon. Also, a lovely lady has also requested a small, silver pendant version of my wolf – it’s taken me ages to get him to fit the charm! Hope she likes him.

I am also finishing lots of experiments I have been doing with my soldered items and patinas, and in making my own copper findings!!! Never a dull moment!!! My poor old fingernails are shot to pieces though!

Anyway, as a shameless plug... do pop across and have a look in my little shop, you never know, a Christmas treat might be lurking there just waiting for the right person to come along!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/WildThingsPurcell

Today I decided to start working in my new A4 Moleskine - though I have stuck a sheet of watercolour paper onto the page I am working on as I am painting a series of little pictures of some beautiful tomatoes my lovely neighbour Colin has given me. They are all different colours and shapes, such simple things and yet so pretty. All good observational practice. In fact, I shall finish off here now and do some more before the light starts to fail (must buy me a new work lamp this year).

Oh, and finally, remember I sent in a piece of art to the ‘Mail Me Art 2’ project? Well, the book is finally out and my piece made it into the tome – albeit in a little corner of a page – but I’m really chuffed!!! I really enjoyed taking part in that project, it was great having a goal to work towards.

Mmm, mail art – now how about that as an idea to get us all communicating via snail mail as well as over the Interweb? That could be a fun thing to do as a Blogaversary event...... Mmm, I’ll have a think and get back to you on that one :o)

The crayons are out again :o)

2010-09-30T13:42:00.002+01:00

This is my response to EDM# 161 - Draw something you think smells wonderful. It is a lovely leather wallet I bought to keep my iPod Classic in. The old case fell apart at the seams so I decided to treat myself to this handmade leather beauty from hollyhawk designs on Etsy. Even though I have had it for a couple of months now it still has that wonderful new leathery thing smell. I love it. As you can see from the notes around the sketch, I started this drawing in August. It fell victim to my creative block and I only just finished it last weekend!

You'll be pleased to hear that my head is now buzzing with ideas again. I have just ordered some properly printed Christmas cards with my polar bear on that will be available through my Etsy shop.... I have just realised though, that in a months time it will be the 1st birthday of my little blog, so I think I will hold a card giveaway in celebration :o)

I also received a beautiful card from Alex in the post - from way across The Pond! How lovely to receive such lovely post, it has helped me feel inspired again - thanks Alex, and watch your post box!!

Right, I'm off to catch up on creative lost time - while I listen to my new 'Them Crooked Vultures' cd :o)

My mind went completely blank

2010-09-18T19:36:00.001+01:00

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post! Even longer since I posted any finished art work. This has been down to a mix of 'life happening' and creative block. For the last few weeks I have hardly sketched or painted or created anything, apart from that is, the painting of this pink gerbera flower, and this has a sad tale behind it.

As many of you may know I work as a professional librarian in a school. The school is made up of a primary and grammar school and part of my role is teaching library skills classes to the junior pupils. The best part of the job! Through the last academic year I worked with and got to know a lovely young teacher, in fact during the summer term we began to make plans to start a junior book club - coming up with lots of fun ideas for the kids to do - us too. I knew at the time that she had not been feeling too well, food allergies she thought. Then two weeks before the end of term she was diagnosed with stomach cancer and, unbelievably on August 18th I attended her funeral. She had just had her 31st birthday, it doesn't really compute. I was really only just getting to know her but I have really felt her loss. I think we could have been good friends. I can't imagine how her close family and friends must feel.

Anyway, all her colleagues who attended the funeral wore a pink gerbera buttonhole. It had been her specific wish that we all wore bright colours, especially pink (her favourite). The day after the funeral I decided to paint this picture of her flower, just because it looked so pretty and because I wanted to remember how it looked. Now I am about to make a set of pendants using the image to help to raise some money in her memory, and the junior school have decided to use the image for their fundraising campaign in her memory - how cool is that? I'll let you know how things go.

Apart from that I seem to have started more pictures than I have finished and really have struggled with motivating myself. I can't give a particular reason I'm afraid, it's just how it has been. Well, last weekend I couldn't sit down and work on some jewellery pieces as I'd planned because I had ended up in A&E on Saturday morning with a scratch on my left eye :0( however, this Thursday gone I did manage to finish a sketch I had started on a beach, Hunmanby Gap on the Yorkshire coast in July. It's pretty basic but I'm happy with it. Wonderful beach too - I always manage to find lots of fossils there :0) I also did a bit more work on a coloured pencil piece I did to illustrate EDM # 161 Draw something you think smells wonderful - I will definitely get this finished, hopefully tomorrow and post it here. Oh and I managed to list a few more pieces in my Etsy shop so not too bad a day I suppose!

Anyway - here's the beach picture which I will say is EDM # 100 Draw or paint a landscape:

I promise I shall be pulling my finger out in the next few weeks and getting some more work done. I have ordered myself a new A4 Moleskine sketchbook and a book to inspire me on digital artwork so no excuses!! I'd be interested to know what you people reading this do to try to overcome any creative block!

And if the last few weeks haven't been the kick in the pants I needed to remind me that life is just too damn short to dither about, well I don't know what would remind me, do you?

Yey, I'm a Versatile Blogger :0)

2010-08-21T17:30:00.000+01:00

I found out yesterday that I have received a ‘Versatile Blogger Award’ from jewellery designer / maker Shirley! You can see her gorgeous work on her blog Mamasakio.... Thanks Shirley! X

As part of the award I have to reveal seven facts about my good self. I’ll try to do this without being scary ( or boring) :0)

1

I love to laugh. This is a good thing, but sometimes it can get me into trouble because when I am nervous I tend to get a bit too giddy. I think some people might think I am too loud at times which is a shame... I’m like the anxious puppy who wants everybody to be happy, bouncing up and down too much wagging my tail and knocking over furniture. The secret truth is I am actually quite shy, this has been may way in life of dealing with it. I adore comedy in film and on TV... I love Laurel & Hardy and Buster Keaton so very much that sometimes I get teary because I can’t stand the fact they are so long gone! Seeing Monty Python’s Life of Brian at the cinema when it was very first released – was for me, a poor Python-deprived teenager (my parents weren’t fans) a complete comedy revelation. When I feel really down, I watch Matthau and Lemon in The Odd Couple or Curtis / Lemon / Monroe in Some Like it Hot. Spinal Tap makes me laugh hysterically; I love Ealing Comedies and Ben Stiller movies. TV programmes like Family Guy and Green Wing, Spaced, Black Books all have me snorting with laughter, BUT, here’s my comedy ‘dirty secret’.... something I have never announced in public before so please don’t tell anyone else. I never, ever (not even once) found Seinfeld funny. Please don’t hate me.

2

One of my most favourite fiction reads ever is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Please, please read it if you haven’t before. It is magical and achingly sad in parts but well worth it. Just keep a hanky with you! I’m a professional librarian so I had to get literature in!

3

As I noted in my previous post, I once sat on a wasps nest. I was playing hide and seek with friends in the local woods and I found a big tree to hide behind. As I settled down I heard a ‘buzzy’ noise get louder and louder. As I stood up I realised I was surrounded by really annoyed wasps and that was when I saw the smashed up nest. I ran, the fastest I have ever run back home. It probably took me a good seven or eight minutes but I kept up the speed the whole way. When I got home I had been stung everywhere and still had the odd wasp in my hair, on my socks etc. I was actually being looked after by my lovely elderly neighbours that day – they were my adopted grandparents, and they were mortified when they saw me. Now, if that happened to a seven year old child today you would be rushed to A&E pretty swiftly. Back in 197? The cure for all my sting wounds was a liberal application of Dolly Blue. I don’t know how many of you remember Dolly Blue. It might have been called something different outside the UK. It was a substance put in a clothes wash to give your whites that ‘bluey whiteness’ all good people crave. Back in 197? it was already really old fashioned, my mum didn’t use it but thank goodness for Mr and Mrs Dunning’s Dolly Blue! I don’t know what it contained but it took the pain away from all my stings and once I had stopped crying I loved the war paint all over my body!! I can still see the look of horror on my mother’s face when she came to pick me up later that day. I looked like William Wallace.

4

I would love to get a tattoo of a sparrow – a proper, photo-real image of a sparrow sitting on a cherry blossom branch (again a botanically correct drawing of the blossom) but I am too scared to do it :0\ Or am I? :0/ I probably am :0| Ooh, but I would like one..... :0)

5

I love music... I carry my iPod everywhere with me. My all time, forever-favourite band is Rush. My main love is rock / punk / grunge and I play music very loud. I love going to gigs and have seen most of the artists I would like to see. I shall finally be seeing Nick Cave in October (woo hoo!!). Of the artists I still haven’t seen, the one I must see before I die is David Bowie. Some favourite live shows: Eels, Buzzcocks, Futureheads, Rush, The Who, Iggy Pop, David Byrne, The Hives, Mark Lanegan (oh too many to list). Most tedious live show – The Blue Aeroplanes... I was given the ticket.

6

In another life, where science instead of the arts are my forte, I would be a geologist. My alter ego is actually a paleo-archeologist / geologist :0) But I was useless at physics etc so I’m not. I am an artist with a large collection of rubble.

7

I like to go for long, long walks – get away from everything. I don’t get to do it as often as I’d like at the moment. I like to have a sketchbook and a camera with me and just dawdle along taking everything in. If a particular walk is supposed to take around three hours, I need to allow at least six, because I have to look at all the flowers, paddle in streams, sit and watch birds, sketch, climb trees, collect rubble, make daisy chains - you get my meaning. I am very much a rambler.

See here I am, just sitting again... I was watching some finches flitting about in the trees.

I think there are actually way more than seven points there. Point 8 = I’m value for money!
Now the next part of my award entails me selecting 15 blogs that I would like to pass the award on to. This is a toughie because I subscribe to many blogs and I try to keep up with them regularly and I could very easily have chosen many, many more! So, please know I love you all, every blog I have ever left a comment on has been written by a person who has inspired and held my interest or made me laugh in some way, but here are the fifteen I managed to select, blindfold, with a pin:

1 Debra Morris Sketchblog
2 Down a Dusty Lane
3 PAMO BLOG
4 Impoftheyard's Photojournal
5 Mimilove
6 Dan's Canvas
7 Image Maker
8 Raena's Sketch Journal
9 Winna's World
10 Weekly Art Assignment
11 Nanke's Stuff
12 Inklings
13 Colour Blob
14 Andrea Joseph's Sketchblog
and last but absolutely not least this wonderfully inspiring blog:
15 Patrick the incurable optimist I can't remember which of you lovely blogosphere people led me to this site, but thank you, whoever you are x

So, all you winners, if you would like to - cut and paste yourself the award badge from my site and then, if you feel the urge - give us seven interesting facts about yourself, then select 15 other lovelies to receive the award. You don't have to waffle endlessly like me! xx

Buzz if you like, but don't sting me

2010-08-08T13:08:00.000+01:00

Didn't realise how little I had been posting recently.... partly because I've been busy in the proper job and partly because I have been producing some new artwork both for my jewellery and a couple of EDMs on the boil (so to speak - will post these over next few days whan I have caught up with everyone elses offerings). Here is my latest Wild Thing... a bee!

I have a sheet ready to print so that I can start preparing some soldered bits and pieces. I am going to make some little charms and pendants with a 'Halloween' Wild Things theme. Yesterday I started a painting of a spider... now, let me explain that I have a very stupid and irrational fear of spiders. I live in a country where spiders are not a threat, yet just the thought of one scuttling along makes me want to run for the hills. Ridiculous! So I am finding myself as normal, totally engrossed in the painting I am doing and then, every now and again... shuddering at the subject matter. I have no real fear of any other living thing. As a child I once sat on a wasps nest (long story) and was stung everywhere. Am I frightened of wasps / bees / stingy things? No. I once had the little finger of my right hand almost ripped off (no seriously - I have a cracking scar to prove it) by a rearing pony. Am I scared of all things equine? No. As a child I was bitten several times by dogs - once on the face (again small scar to prove it) - I'm not frightened of dogs, never have been, which is why I got myself into so many scrapes with them because I always threw my arms around any dog I saw as a child :0)

Being scared of spiders is silly. I have never been hurt by a spider, never had a spider trauma... apart from the time my friends child held the biggest one up under my nose saying 'Look what I found Lesley....'. I was horrified, my instinct was to leap over the fence into the neighbour's garden, or worse still chuck the child and her find into next door's garden. I told her I thought it was beautiful and she should put it back where she found it because it's family were missing it, which she dutyfully did. I think (hope) the rictus smile and my googling eyes passed her by. I would hate to be responsible for imprinting the same fear in another generation.

So, deep breaths, keep calm Lesley, and get that painting finished!

TTFN, xx

Street art by C215

2010-07-27T19:15:00.000+01:00

Hi all! Really quick post here because I have been meaning to share this with you all for ages. I am really into street art... by that I mean the clever, thought provoking stuff. This guy's work, I think, is simply beautiful. I kept my eyes peeled on my recent trip to London & Paris in the vain hope of spotting one of his works, but I didn't, one day! He is known as C215 and I think this video sums his work up. What do you think? Hope you like xx

Rainy days can be good

2010-07-16T16:36:00.001+01:00

I am nearly half way through my summer holiday - though this last week has been so rainy and blowy it hasn't been the expected week of day trips and ice cream I had thought it might be. Still, just being off work is bliss, and the weather has meant I have felt justified in getting on with more making of Wild Things. So, here is a very quick post about my newest item, just listed in my Etsy shop, a necklace made using my seahorse painting. I'm really pleased with this piece, I have used chain instead of ribbon for the necklace and think it works really well. Fingers crossed someone else will love it too :o)

I'm off to work on a big, fluffy bumble bee painting that will hopefully be used in some jewellery pieces too. I'll be back soon, hopefully with bee complete and some sketches from days out I will have when the sun comes back out - because it will, it always does! Maybe I'll get a proper chance to have a play with my shiny new camera kit too!! Watch this space.

It's all OK I used a rubber.....

2010-07-11T16:24:00.000+01:00

It has taken me ages to come up with an idea for EDM 206 'Draw something familiar to you that you know is called something else in another region', but I have had real fun with this. I'm not trying to match the comedic level of the extremely talented Andrea Joseph when she tackled the whole 'fanny' issue (insert lots of English blushing & - see her post for February 19th HERE - you will need to scroll down a couple of posts to see it).

I have had the odd idea for this one then last week, while going over my Paris sketches I found a page I had abandoned. In true EDM spirit I decided I should try to mend it, but I just seemed to make a bigger mess. That's when I thought about using my rubber.... and that was it, an idea was born.

I set to with the already messed up page, made an even bigger mess - and loved every minute of it!! Then I painted a RUBBER on some watercolour paper, cut it out and stuck it on top of the pencil scribbles.

You see I know that generally speaking a 'rubber' to my lovely friends across The Pond has an entirely different meaning - you know what I mean boys and girls ;o) Yet here in the UK it is absolutely an everyday term for well, a rubber. You would never get anyone here asking to borrow an eraser to rub out pencil marks. Even typing the word doesn't seem right! It's funny isn't it how things can have such varied meanings? But it all leads to fantastic innuendo (or as I prefer to call it 'In Your Endo) - which is VERY British humour. Google the 'Carry On' films sometime (Oooh, Matron!). And, more importantly it's all part of the beauty of the English language that adapts and adopts fer more than any other language (probably).

I found this British - American glossary online and think it's wonderful, thought you might like to see it too? You can swap it round between countries, which makes it even more useful.

Armed with this glossary my American chums can now also appreciate this little anecdote from my childhood:

I would have been possibly 10 or 11 years old and at school pen-pals were being organised between the school I was at and the school we were partnered with in Lille, France. We all had to write a letter to a pupil at the French school. These letters were to be passed around the pupils in the equivalent French class and they would reply to us. I was very taken with this idea and laboured long and hard over my letter, illustrating it (of course) and sticking pictures to it. After a couple of weeks, friends in my class started to receive responses from the French pupil who had picked them. I began to get more excited. Every morning I ran downstairs and asked if my French letter had arrived. I was obsessed with receiving my French letter. I told everyone I met, family, friends, complete strangers, that I was going to get a French letter through the post. I didn't flinch when I noticed the strained looks and stifled grins on the faces of the adults I told this to. After I can't remember how long, my lovely Dad could take it no more, sat me down and told me why I should re-phrase what I was saying. I have never been so mortified in my entire life. Well I have, but those are other stories ;o)

Now I leave it to you to look up French Letter in the glossary I have supplied you with!!! More blushes!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend xx

Is it really already a month ago?

2010-07-03T19:01:00.001+01:00

I have finally got around to photographing some of the sketches I did in Paris - here's the first, a sketch I made at Pere Lachaise cemetery:

It's not the best sketch I have ever produced by any stretch! It was a very hot day and my paint was dry almost as it hit the paper! I also ended up having to use several different drawing implements so - the lines are a bit messy - and as for the perspective!! Still, I really enjoyed painting it, and as with any on-the-spot painting it evokes so many memories, the smell of the trees, the sound of them, the overgrown plants and patches of grass - and of course the heat!

I'm going to class this as EDM # 29 Draw something architectural - I think it fits that category fairly well and it is an EDM I may have otherwise avoided doing. Cheeky I know!

More to follow when I get my act together, hope you are all having a lovely weekend. :o)

Finally, I make and list my wolf necklace...

2010-07-01T17:35:00.000+01:00

Just a quicky (ooh err). I made one version of this necklace, managed to scratch the glass in the process and then in the most ridiculous, slap-stick accident that Buster Keaton would have been proud to choreograph I managed to smash the piece completely. !!!!

I salvaged the bead dangle and the silk ribbon necklace and produced another soldered pendant, so here he is...

He needs to find a new, secure home before Mrs Clumsy handles him too much - so he's alread been listed in my Etsy shop! :o)

TTFN, L xx

All the world's indeed a stage....

2010-06-27T18:48:00.001+01:00

I had a lovely day Friday! I had sold my little fox necklace within 24 hours so, when I got home from the day job the first thing I did was get him all parcelled up ready to put in the post on Saturday. Also, when I got home I found a parcel from Revelle (EDM group) containing a print of her fabulous raven picture, and.... found another parcel containing a DVD about my favouritest band in the whole wide world - Rush. I have been a fan since I first discovered music *&/! years ago. What a lovely set of things to come home to!!

For those of you not familiar with Revelle's artwork, you can check it out here:

http://revelleimagemaker.blogspot.com/

I have just listed another necklace - containing a print of one of my fly agaric toadstool paintings. I'm quite pleased with it and was tempted to keep it myself!

I have also been quite naughty and treated myself to a brand new 'proper' camera this weekend.... not really had time to play with it yet though, maybe you'll get some practice pictures to look at by the end of this coming week! Of course, as soon as I decide to shell out some hard earned cash on a luxury like a camera, it looks as though my cooker is about to die on me :o( - typical! At least I bought the camera first... if I'd thought I would have to pay for a new cooker, I would have shelved the camera idea!

Right, I'm off to watch Rush :o)

Bye for now, L xx

I'm gonna get you little fishy.....

2010-06-24T14:38:00.000+01:00

Now you'll probably only get that quote if you live in the UK and have ever watched Red Dwarf... one of the silliest Sci-Fi programmes ever - well worth a view.

I'm hoping this little fella will kill two birds with one stone - he's going to be adapted for the bits and pieces I am making to sell - but he was also painted with EDM 166 in mind - 'draw a fish'.

I just need to do something about the green blobs - make them look more like seaweed!!! I've used watercolour, gouache and coloured pencil in this picture and have really enjoyed painting it - though my it was fiddly!!

I have also listed another item in my Etsy shop today...

Things are going slow, but you have to work hard for good things don't you? I'll keep chipping away!!

You'll notice a little Wild Things Facebook button over on the right.... I'd love to see you over there if you do engage in Facebooky activities! If you have your own artwork / craftwork on there, we could share the love - man :o) xx

Green things

2010-06-20T12:01:00.000+01:00

Just thought I'd share a couple of very quick watercolour sketches I produced while out walking the pooch. I haven't really posted any decent artwork in a while, and these I hope fit the remit of another EDM - No. 116 - something green.

The first is of a tree stump that I have a fondness for - it's all mossy and attracts lots of birds. I just sketched it with the paints, and am quite pleased with the results...

The second painting - again a quick watercolour sketch (the paper was not so good for this one) of some hawthorne bushes edging a field. I love hawthorne, all twisty and knotty and in the swathes of beautiful flowers in spring are just gorgeous...

On a slightly different note I actually listed my first necklace in my Etsy shop, using a print of the himalayan poppy I painted last year. I'm quite pleased with the finished piece - I hope someone will like it enough to purchase!!

Thought I would ask you all too - what are your favourite flora and fauna? Wild or domesticated - I'd love to know... it might help get my creative juices flowing Wild Things wise - don't worry though, if you do inspire a painting / product I won't insist you make a purchase!!! :o)

Have a lovely rest of the weekend folks, I'm off to finish a seahorse painting!!

Racing around to come up behind you again....

2010-06-17T09:24:00.004+01:00

It's weeks since my last post and next week it's mid-summer. How does it happen? This year it seems scary how quickly time is passing!!

The last few weeks have been a real 'uppy-downy' time, I had my first Etsy sale (hurrah) then went away and had a fantastic few days in London and Paris. Came home, back to the proper job then, completely wiped out by some kind of virus. I won't go into details - it involved sinuses. Got myself back in the saddle yesterday, feeling much, much better, so today I am up bright and early and I fully intend to get the creativity back on track.

In my last post I mentioned (& posted a photo) of a fungus I had found on a walk in the woods. On our first day in London we went to the British Museum and look what I came across:

Now, I know this picture is a little obscure... I took it with my phone, but it is an ancient piece of 'bracket' or 'horse hoof' fungus, found in Yorkshire (yay!) dating back thousands of years. This piece was deliberately cut to be used as tinder. Evidently once lit, the fungus has very slow, steady and reliable burning properties. The fungus is still used today for the same thing. So the next time you are camping in the middle of nowhere and need fire lighters, here's the fungus you need....! The black 'roll' in front of the fungus by the way.... is an equally ancient roll of birch bark that someone had prepared also for lighting a fire. Clever ancient Yorkshire people! I'm sure I've oversimplified this, and some of you may have nodded off - not having the same fungal fascination as I.

What can I say about Paris? We had the best weather possible (we always do... if you want guaranteed fab holiday weather just ask when and where I will be and get yourself booked in). I have trecked through Paris several times, schlepping between train stations with heavy rucksack on my way to somewhere else, but had never stopped in and around Paris. We spent four days hammering the Metro tickets and visited every site we wanted to see.

Here's the obligatory - 'look at me I'm definitely in Paris' picture!!

The one place we spent time looking at and going into was Notre Dame Cathedral. What a stunning place (so stunning you get three shots)...

Another place we visited was Pere Lachaise Cemetery, final resting place of Great and Good such as Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde and Edif Piaf. I love cemeteries... this place is amazing. We only really had a couple of hours at the end of our second day, but we found Jim:

and Oscar:

...all covered in lipstick kisses. Some think this is vandalism but I kind of think Oscar would approve - if he could.

The narrow lanes of mausolea here are simply fascinating and to my mind quite beautiful. I love these places - if you visit London, treat yourself to an alternative day out and go to Highgate Cemetery. The lengths people and families will go to the memorialise themselves and / or their loved ones is quite extraordinary.

Then I found this family tomb and found myself particularly drawn (I don't know why) to the amazing figures guarding the door...

And what did I find when I looked through the door? 'Do, do, do, do. Do, do do, do.' (to the tune of the Twilight Zone theme if you will)...

My initials... such beautiful stained glass, amazing!

Right, I'm off to do what I said at the start and get my creative day under way. Watch this space for sketches I produced on my travels... I haven't had time to scan them yet.

Thanks to everyone for all your continued interest in my blog and the lovely comments you leave for me! A big hello to lovely new people who keep popping up too.. thank you for joining in! xx

P.S. I have just updated an Etsy treasury I started before my hols... do nip over and have a look - there is some lovely work and you might recognise some pieces by other people there!!! ;o) x

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4bfe9b748ccc8eef382fadc7/if-you-go-down-to-the-woods-today

A walk in the woods....

2010-05-20T15:52:00.001+01:00

Today I have finally listed my very first item for sale on Etsy.... yey!! Only one, but there will be more added over the next few days. I spent the morning, which was beautiful, walking through woods with Scout the dog, taking pictures to use in my listings....

So far, just the wolf is listed... the others will be on a.s.a.p.

It was beautiful just walking through the trees, all just a stones throw from where I live. How lucky to be able to stroll along and enjoy it all. I came across this growing on the trunk of a birch tree... now I have to get a book to see if I can identify this particular fungi.... it was very pretty.

Scout enjoyed herself too (although she got very hot)!

Right, now I'm definitely going to sit down and finish an EDM - hope to post at the weekend! x

Treasure everywhere....

2010-05-18T19:44:00.002+01:00

Hi there... no new artwork I'm afraid, which is very frustrating. I've been having a busy time in the 'day job', I was ill for a couple of days last week :o( and, I'm fighting the husband every evening to get a go on t'internet (as we fondly call t'world wide web here in the wilds of West Yorkshire) because he has been busy nearly every evening working on assignments for his Social Work stuff. He wins - his work has to take priority at the moment, but hey, here I am having a sneaky half hour catch up (before I have to leave him with the machine, in peace again).

I am however, just about ready to list some items for sale at last on Etsy, just photographs to take now and hopefully I'll get that done tomorrow. This has led me to spend some time browsing the wonders of other peoples Etsy shops and oh the stuff I have found (and wish I could afford!!) - I thought I'd share some with you here.

Polar Bear wood carving by Sandra Healy

Well, I can't deny the polar bear obsession at the moment and I think this guy is lovely - and I'm sure the piece would be really tactile too. He could have a spot on one of my shelves anytime.

'A three legged dog bit me' by Paul of Navarone

I just love the humour behind this one, and the 'bumf' that Paul of Navarone has put down as the blurb for the piece really amuses me! Very 'Pythonesque'. I see that he is based in Glasgow, say no more, my husband and his lovely family are all Glaswegian. I think there is something in the water..... :-)

'Beetles and Weevils Collection No 1' by Golly Bard

OK - this is just plain cute!

Last but not least.......

Birch bark cuff, Plumberry by Bettula

I think this is just lovely, and so original, birch bark is just beautiful, have you ever looked at it closely?

So, there you are, just a few pretties that have taken my fancy recently. A bit of virtual window shopping. I should do this more often.

Be back soon with my own online shop news hopefully and an EDM I've been trying to complete for a few days!

Drum roll.....

2010-05-08T13:45:00.000+01:00

..... I just interrupted my husband during his stint of gardening so that he could pick the winner for my giveaway!

..... and the winner is......

Yey! Thank you everyone who joined in this bit of fun. It's lovely to be sharing something finally. Now I must send an e-mail to Revelle and ask her to pick her pic!

Back soon with lots of new stuff, I'm having a very productive day so far..... x

Dance to the music

2010-05-06T17:32:00.002+01:00

A quick post of a picture that represents something I need - inspired by the EDM group challenge:

Yep, for me it's music... I always have it playing and, since I saved up for my first Sony Walkman (1983 - remember?) I've always had a selection to take with me whenever I'm out and about. My husband and I finally upgraded all our music systems a couple of years ago - we'd been running on a system made up of elements of my old Hi-Fi set and his, both well over 20 years old :o) ...overnight we changed this to the best new digital stuff we could afford and also bought a really lovely new turntable because we have hundreds of albums still on vinyl (which we still regularly play) as well as all the CDs and digital downloads. In fact we are about to start digitising all the vinyl so we can upload it to our iPods. Oh my little iPod how I love it!! I carry it everywhere with me, play it in the car; plug it into computer speakers when I work alone in the library in school holidays etc,etc.

This is a very quick sketch, rough around the edges but it conveys the message well enough. The album it is set on (I had been listening to) is 'Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes' by TV on the Radio if your'e interested - great played loud!

I never properly learned to play an instrument, though can play lots of them by ear, but I just can't get beyond the most basic sheet music. My husband is a musician though, he plays a bass. Played bass, he hasn't been in a band for a while now. When I first met him he was in a band called The Keep. Amazingly a video of them playing their song 'Sit Down' has turned up recently - filmed back in 1989!!! Where did the time go?

I will be making the draw for my giveaway on Saturday.... do leave a comment at this post if you haven't already - if you'd like the chance of receiving one of the items!

TTFN, L x

First ATC swap....

2010-05-03T11:02:00.000+01:00

Just wanted to share my first ATC swap with you. I am a member of UK Handmade and a lovely lady called Kella set up an ATC swap group that I decided to join. I have never done anything like this before but, ever up for a creative challenge I though it would be a great idea. The theme for the swap I joined was 'songs'. This seems to have been approached from lots of angles, I've have just noticed on the Flickr group that one lady has done 'the dawn chorus'... well you can't really get much lovelier music than that can you?

The card I received was from Jane who makes the most beautiful crocheted items and her 'card', I don't really want to call it that because it's made of the most gorgeous golden silks and velvets and beads, is inspired by the most recent album by Corrine Bailey Ray...

Lovely isn't it?

I had to send my ATC to Kella (check her beautiful craft work here) this time. I think I have mentioned the group Eels before, there isn't an Eels album I don't like and many of their songs I absolutely love. So I chose, without even realising I was chosing to illustrate yet another Wild Thing, the Eels song 'I Like Birds':

On the back I collaged lots of astronauts and a rocket launch, an auto-car and lots of little birds which I then covered with a layer of tissue paper with my details written on in bestest, neatest handwriting...

I loved making this and can't wait to have a go at another! Keep an eye out now for the little sparrow - he'll be turning up in jewellery very soon!

Oh, and don't forget to leave a comment on my previous post to be entered for the giveaway! Ta ta for now, x

Update and giveaway!!!

2010-04-29T13:32:00.007+01:00

Hi all! I have meant to post an update about my Mail Me Art 2 envelope for the last few weeks now but kept forgetting! Oops!

Basically, I found out just before Easter that my piece had arrived safely at its destination, and hadn’t in fact been dropped on a leafy lane to be buried under falling leaves, lost forever..... You can see my effort and the hundreds (literally) of other fabulous Mail Art pieces if you follow this link:

http://mailmeart.com/going-postal/gallery/mail-me-art-two/?album=1&gallery=14

It doesn’t matter whether or not my effort actually finds its way into any new book that might get published. I just really enjoyed being inspired by the other artists and making the effort to take part. This design by Michael Hacker (http://www.michaelhacker.at/) was the winner for the month of January (when my envelope was received by them):

.....and quite right too! Simple and fun, a great design, I love it!! It's of an animal though - I'm biased!!

Now, finally.... the GIVEAWAY I have been promising forever!!!

Just leave me a comment here, and on Saturday, May 8th at 1pm (GMT) I will draw a name out of a hat to win one of these:

Sorry, the detail in the photograph isn't brilliant - the polar bear looks a bit washed out here, but the original paintings feature in my previous post so you can get a better look there. These pendants are 2" square, the pictures are prints of the original paintings, printed on Bockingford Inkjet 190g/m paper and treated with protective spray that protects from UV damage etc. The reverse has hand coloured paper where I have signed and numbered the piece. I am sticking to limited numbers of five of each piece, these are the first of each run for these images. The prints are sandwiched between two sheets of glass that are sealed with lead-free, silver content solder. If you win you can choose either the polar bear or the wolf and I will finish it off as either a pendant attached to a silk ribbon necklace OR a miniature for you to hang on a wall somewhere. If you decide to take the polar bear I think he'd make a lovely Christmas tree decoration. Anyway, it's up to you - I am happy to post anywhere - not just the UK.

Good luck!!

Oh, and sorry the giveaway has taken so long - hope you think it was worth the wait! :0) x

Oh, oh!! Etsy shop to look out for real soon.....

I've been waiting for tomorrow all of my life...

2010-04-08T18:31:00.000+01:00

Pushing two weeks ago I promised a giveaway and I have to apologise because I still can't post it, because I haven't been able to finish it, because of the mess up with the computer (see earlier rant) which had led to several unforseen knock-on glitches...... grrr!

Deep breath...... and...... relax.

I've been putting all my positive energies into more sketches and paintings though, and have been really enjoying myself. The enforced delay has also made me look at another (and I believe hopefully better) way of finishing off the jewellery pieces so, of course, there's a good side to all the glitches.... and hopefully, as soon as I can post my long-awaited giveaway you might think it was worth the wait :o)

My obsession with all things bear like continues. Why? I don't know but I'll run with it. I need to perhaps visit a wildlife park to see some in the flesh, do some sketches from life, though I'm not sure where I would go. Here is my new polar bear picture... I'm going to turn the image into cards I think and adapt elements of it for the jewellery:

I sketched the bear after watching a beautiful National Geographic documentary about Russian wildlife. The same programme also inspired this picture:

Tell me why is it that bears and wolves (and lots of other animals) look like you should be able to walk straight up to them and sink your hands and face into their fur without having your face ripped off?!!!

I'm going to have my dinner now - and blast out 'Soul Mining' by The The - one of the few 80s bands I still listen to! xx

Come on baby, and rescue me!

2010-04-05T11:39:00.001+01:00

I am not posting as regularly as I'd like to, but just to tide over the next couple of days until I get my 'giveaway' organised I decided to share this story....

My friend sent me one of those e-mails - you know the type, one that goes around the world and no one knows where it started. This is just a fabulous story though and I'm sure you'd enjoy it too. So here are the pictures and the words that came with them. I don't know where they originate from, but whoever took them and shared in the first place, a great big thank you! Oh, being in the UK I had to Google the location, so in case you weren't sure - like me - Donner Summit is in California.

"A bear was walking across Rainbow Bridge (Old Hwy 40) at Donner Summit, on Saturday when two cars also crossing the bridge scared the bear into jumping over the edge of the bridge. Somehow the bear caught the ledge (see unbelievable photo, below) and pulled itself to safety. Authorities decided that nothing could be done to help Saturday night so they returned Sunday morning to find the bear sound asleep on the ledge.

After securing a net under the bridge the bear was tranquilized, fell into the net, lowered, then woke up and walked out of the net.

There is a moral to this story you know. This old bear made a wrong move and found he was hanging by his nails. Somehow he was able to pull himself up onto the ledge where he saw he was in a very bad, impossible situation and what did he do? Yep, he took a nap and sure enough the situation took care of itself while he was asleep. The moral is that when confronted with a bad situation sometimes the best solution is take a nap. So next time you see someone asleep at work, they could be just problem solving!!"

Right, I've got lots of work I should be cracking on with now..... think I'll go for a nap xx

One step forward (two steps back)

2010-03-27T20:29:00.000Z

Exactly a week ago today I was sitting in front of my PC with a growing sense of doom as the anti-virus software was telling me that file after file on my computer was corrupt and being removed to quarantine. After an eight and a half hour scan (!!!!) the whole thing ground to a halt when the anti-virus software finally 'stopped responding'. You can use your imagination as to the language used by my good self to describe both machine and software at that stage. A week later - PC returned to 'factory new' conditions; iTunes library lost; all my internet favourites vanished into the ether, though luckily (amazingly) all my documents and picture files were ok and saved by the nice man at the PC shop - I'm back. The reason for the problem? Bullguard anti-virus software company released an update by mistake which basically told the system that all my program files etc were corrupt, though they weren't, and so the computer (for want of a more technical way of putting it) ate itself up from the inside out!!! Aaargh!!!! So now, my little plans of beginning to sell my artwork online have been setback by a good few days. I'd hoped to launch everything this weekend, I shall work my little socks off to get things started next weekend now.

There, rant over! I do hope that none of you lovely people who stop by here have been troubled with the same problem. If you have, and you haven't been to the Bullguard site yet since - they are saying on their forum that you can ask for a subscription refund, you need to e-mail their payments dept. Good luck!

Just to brighten this post up - here are some quick design sketches I have been working on this week for my Wild Things jewellery....

Watch this space next week as I am going to run a little giveaway of one of my necklaces, to say a big thank you to everyone who has offered me words of encouragement on my art since I started this blog! You'll need to get your name down to be in with a chance of getting the goods!

Oh, and I promise, no more venting of spleen! xx

It's all gone Pete Tong...

2010-03-23T09:15:00.001Z

...which means it's all gone very wrong here in the UK (rhyming slang). On Saturday my shiny 8 month old PC died because of a mistake my antivirus software company made.... basically they have trashed PCs around the world! It's a long and very boring story but if you use Bullguard security software you'll probably know what I mean.

I collect my hard drive today, reset to factory settings :-( so hopefully, will be up and running again by the end of Thursday.

Basically, all I want to say is - 'I'll be back'. xx

If you go down to the woods today.....

2010-03-18T14:02:00.000Z

I have to share this link with everyone as this website has been captivating me for weeks now. It is a WildEarth TV channel - a webcam that is set up in the den of a hibernating black bear called Lily and her little (extremely demanding) baby Hope. They live in a place called Ely in Northeastern Minnesota, USA. This link comes with a warning however - if you look you WILL be hooked, and if your'e hooked, you'll get nothing else done!!!!

This is Lily - photograph taken from the Wild Earth website.

http://www.wildearth.tv/static/wildearth/channels/we_bear_den.html

This kind of website is what makes the internet a wonderful thing, how fantastic is it that I can sit here in my little Yorkshire house in the north of England watching a black bear and her cub live in the wild on a different continent?!! Enjoy!!

Oh and I'll be back very soon with some new artwork, L xx

Gearing up

2010-03-13T11:07:00.000Z

As you can see I have changed the title of my blog... I was never very happy with 'Making Marks' I just felt I had to think of something suitable and at the time that was all I could think of. I am about to start selling some of my hand made work and will be doing so under the name 'Wild Things' (the tag line being - 'hand made things with wild things on') and so it seems a sensible idea to tie this blog in with my little business venture.

The picture at the top illustrates the state of my little buisiness venture as it stands today though - I don't even think I could call it organised chaos could I?!!! Guess what I'll be doing this weekend...

Just to add something a bit more creative to this post I thought I'd put up a non-Wild Things pic that I keep working on - a watercolour of Lindisfarne in Northumberland, a place I have visited many times since I was a child. This is a painting I keep coming back to. It's taken from some patched together photographs of the castle and harbour, I am trying to work much more freely with the paint. I have already made a mess of the sky and will try to rectify it at some point but its all being done on practice paper, just for fun really so I am enjoying the process:

Right I off to try to create some order out of chaos! Chores today, creative fun tomorrow. Have a good weekend guys! x

Rock chicks

2010-03-10T21:16:00.000Z

While I am here, I just wanted to share this. Now, generally I don't like to think of birds in cages, but it has to be said that these little finches do seem happy and well cared for. This is an art installation at the Barbican in London by the artist Celeste Boursier-Mougenot. The little chap with the twig could give Jimmy Page and his violin bow a run for his money.

All in a days work

2010-03-10T20:50:00.001Z

I have managed to finish a couple of others since producing these, hopefully, within the next two to three weeks I will be able to try my hand at selling some through online outlets. I just have final details to sort out but I will let you know when I am up and running.

I have treated myself to a book to try to help my thought processes regarding getting on and making some money from my art. I've had time for a quick flick through and it actually looks pretty good, so when I have finished here I shall make myself a warm drink and snuggle down in bed for a read. The book is 'The Creative Enterprise' by Lisa Sonora Beam (available on Amazon):

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has read this book - or perhaps if anyone could recommend anything else, or a website perhaps?

I have my usual day off tomorrow, which I usually try to enjoy by getting as much out of the day as I can - artwise. I have an appointment at the dentist in the morning though, and will be seriously numbed-up and feeling sorry for myself by the time I get home. I shall spend some time this evening preparing some good things to entice me to 'crack-on' when I get back and not wallow in self-pity!!!

Getting there...

2010-02-25T16:55:00.000Z

Here is my first finished pendant - made entirely by myself - painting, embroidery, beading, frame, necklace. You might recognise this image from the Christmas cards I made, but this is a newly, specially painted polar bear for the piece. The back of the pendant is glass too, with the same blue, swirly background as on the front and more of the embroidery. It is one and a half inches square, so I have a bit more area to play with than with the pendants posted previously. It was quicker to make than I thought it would be which is great! Am working on a couple more today, trying to see which images work and which ones don't.

Again, there is not enough daylight though, it is so grey and foggy here. I really should invest in a good work lamp with daylight bulbs and stop moaning shouldn't I? While there is still a bit of light left I will go, crank the music up (my lovely husband has just bought me the new Midlake album, been dying to hear it) make some coffee and get more work done.

Help me I'm hungry

2010-02-19T13:13:00.000Z

Just a quick post... I finally got my act together and worked on one of the recent EDM challenges 'Draw something from your pet's point of view'. Here is my quick watercolour sketch.....

This is the jar I keep my dog Scout's favourite biscuits in. Here is the proof of how much she loves her biscuits....

Dogs! x

Money don't grow on trees...

2010-02-17T17:21:00.002Z

.... but I have been spending it this week, on materials and bits and pieces, as if it did!! This week is seeing months worth of ideas and work come together in some designs I have made for pieces of jewellery I hope to begin selling sometime over the next few weeks (when I have my Paypal / bank account sorted :-) ). I thought I'd post a couple of the pages from my design sketchbook here just to give you a feel for them and see what people think.

Firstly, here are a couple of necklaces I have already made using 'pre-fabricated' sterling silver pendants. Each pendant is 1" square. I will eventually have around a dozen of these to sell, each one will be different as the images are all hand drawn and painted individually. I don't think I will buy any more of these pendants (lovely as they are) as I imported the pieces from the US and was hammered by customs! I have made the bee necklace to keep and I think I am happier with the silk ribbon / clasp combination here than the one on the toadstool pendant.

I have come up with what I think is a much more interesting solution to make my own pendants for the the next designs..., these will also include a small amount of embroidery and beading (hope I'm not over-egging the pudding). Hopefully I will have a couple of finished pendants to show you in the next week or so, the square ones will be 1 1/2" square and the rectangular ones will be 1" x 3". Again, all the designs will be hand drawn / painted / made by me. As you can see I will be concentrating mainly on 'flora and fauna' as subject matter.

Ignore the odd thing on the right!! It's meant to be a fern pattern with an embroidery design running through it... it doesn't really work very well does it? I might use the fern leaf idea for the reverse of some pendants but not sure yet.

There'll be a general 'otherworldly' fairytale quality to everything, I'm obsessed with fairytales, they definitely inspire some of the images..... anyway, I do hope you like them!

Now I'm off to draw Scout's jar of doggy biscuits from her point of view - for the EDM I have been promising myself I would do all week!

The best things in life are free...

2010-02-11T15:21:00.000Z

... but art supplies are not unfortunately! I have been very naughty today though and treated myself to a new batch of supplies, some new gouache and acrylic paints and various sundries. I'm preparing for my week off next week, when I intend to spend lots of time sketching and painting - please don't let me get a mental block!!! I will post images of my efforts here. I am hoping (finally) to prepare some bits and pieces to sell too, hopefully as a means to at least try and pay for the materials I have bought! I'm feeling very fired and inspired.

This has been helped by the re-discovery of an artist I had come across vaguely years ago and then, I am ashamed to say, had not thought about much. However watching an obscure little art programme on TV last night, this man was featured and I totally fell in love with his work. Not least because there are some beautiful images of The Peoples Republic of Yorkshire! The artist is John Piper, I'm sure you will already know about him. I have been researching his work on the internet all morning and love it. Am very tempted to be extremely naughty and order a book I have found about him and his work. I am offering a couple of images here which are from the website The Art of John Piper

Conisbrough, Yorkshire

Elgin, Scotland

I can't recommend the website highly enough, the work is just lovely. I now have to visit Coventry Cathedral sometime as well because he worked on the design of the stained glass windows, when the new Cathedral was built after the original was destroyed in the Blitz. The images of the windows look magnificent.

Don't you just love re-discovering artists and their work?

Roll on next week! x

You say it's your birthday

2010-02-07T16:15:00.001Z

I have had such a busy few weeks (months) in my proper job I have hardly found time to produce any artwork. Which has made me feel very sad. It was my husband's birthday last weekend and I didn't even manage to get his birthday card finished on time! I have worked on it all this weekend and when he gets back from walking the dog, I will present it to him! I hope he likes it....

Each picture basically represents a band he loves - so he has to work out which bands they are! He will, he's a music anorak, nothing will pass him by! If he really likes it I'll frame it up for him. I really enjoyed doing this. Some of the images were more successful than others I think, but they were all universally fiddly to do as each square is around an inch and a half across.

The lack of recent artwork other than the above has made me have a look through some old images I have on the computer. As this post is about Paul's birthday I thought I'd post this picture too. A watercolour I did last summer (in daylight - when can we have proper daylight again???) - part of a series of studies I did trying to master painting snowy mountains. We had visited Zermatt in Switzerland a couple of years previously and this picture was an effort to portray Paul with a dramatic mountainy backdrop. Still not sure of the success of this piece, my sky wash is a bit weak, but I am quite fond of it because of the memory it evokes - so, here is Birthday Boy in the Alps!

Right, the light is disappearing on another weekend (where do they go?) so I'd better go and do something useful. I have more time to myself again now, and from next weekend a week off the proper job - yey!!! So, hopefully I'll find time to have a go at a couple of the EDM challenges I have been wanting to try - my fingers are itching to get cracking.....

Deliver the letter, the sooner the better...

2010-01-23T12:05:00.000Z

Well, I did it! I have just posted a painted envelope to the Mail Me Art 2 project and I'm really excited. I've enjoyed doing this so much, I really needed to set myself a little project and be disciplined about a piece of artwork, and I've done it! Hurrah! I don't even mind if I never hear about the envelope again, I even just like the idea of that little bit of art being out there, somewhere, hopefully making someone smile.

I'm a children's librarian, I love children's books and their illustrators, so I decided to come up with idea that reflected that. I have tried to make my piece look like it could be a page from a children's book - which meant me having to make up a bit of a story.... so, the idea is that the front of my envelope is supposed to be the illustration from a fictional - fiction book (!) you flip it over (turn the page) and on the back is the page that explains the whole piece - hopefully!!!!

So here's how it all came together, a bit at a time (without boring the socks off you). I had a few ideas for the front first, sketched in my little sketch book...

Idea number 1:

Idea number 2:

So you have basically got a small decorated envelope, on top of the larger envelope. I wasn't keen on either of my ideas for the 'smaller' envelope, then found this 'scribble' in an old sketch book that I quite liked...

So, that became the basis for the 'smaller' envelope design, which was essentially supposed to look like a piece of post that had been dropped onto the ground on an Autumny, leaf covered path. The the little envelope itself is slowly being covered in leaves. Here is the collage as I started to build it up:

As you can see, I painted each bit seperately, including the Autumn leaves, then glued them down, overlapping each other. The final front of the envelope, after hours of painting, cutting, gluing and sticking looks like this:

You can see some of the flyagaric toadstools have managed to find their way in! The back of the envelope I hope will help you understand my thinking for the whole piece:

The size of the piece is bigger than A4, I'd say about 13" x 9" ish (in old money!). I have thoroughly enjoyed doing this. I'm really fired up to set myself another project now, got to keep going! If I hear anything - i.e. whether or not the envelope actually gets to it's destination, I'll post something here. Watch this space! x

No need for words

2010-01-16T17:04:00.001Z

In light of the Haiti earthquake, this is the link to the British Red Cross:
http://www.redcross.org.uk/emergencysite/default.aspx?id=88916

The button to the right is a link to the American Red Cross.

xox

We come from the land of the ice and snow....

2010-01-13T12:50:00.002Z

....though perhaps not from the land of the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.... !

I thought I'd put this picture from the BBC website (in case you haven't seen it - if you are outside the UK it won't have been broadcast on your EVERY news bulletin) showing the UK under it's blanket of ice and snow. It is a NASA picture and quite breathtaking I'm sure you'll agree?

I find myself at home again because of the weather - so am starting on a little mail art project I have decided to work on! I'll post pictures when I have something to show - the final piece will include some of these flyagaric toadstools! I have decided to make the piece to look like an illustration in a children's book! Watch this space! x

Snow (hey oh)....

2010-01-06T09:12:00.002Z

No artwork to post today - even though I had an unexpected day off work yesterday because of the snow. Snow days are the best, a real excuse to just relax and not beat yourself up for being lazy, for just one day! Actually I wasn't too lazy, I did get a couple of little jobs done that I have been putting off for a while (never a bad thing) and I have been thinking about 'pictures and projects I'd like to tackle in 2010' - coming up with some good (?), fun, silly ideas. Watch this space....

I also spent some time looking at other peoples artwork and found the BRUSH - PAPER - WATER blog, posted by Chris Beck (see my list of blogs). It's a lovely blog, with some fantastic work by different watercolour artists so I thought I'd share. I've also listed his own blog - 'I'm painting as fast as I can...'.

Just to brighten this post up, here's a picture of my doggy, Scout (after the little girl in one of my all time favourite books 'To Kill a Mockingbird'). We'd just got back from a long, snowy walk and she was waiting patiently for us to get the house door open so she could run to her comfy bed and get warm. The snow was blowing in her eyes, so she's blinking a bit. I've also noticed in this picture that her face is showing more grey fur - aww, she's getting a little older and it makes me feel sad!

If your'e a UK resident (or anywhere with lots of snow....) I hope you can enjoy it rather than have to drive in it (me in half an hour) or, get stuck in it!

2010.........

2009-12-31T16:06:00.001Z

I can't believe that tomorrow will be the first day of 2010. Is it just me or does that sound far too space-age. Aren't we all supposed to be living in bubbles, wearing all-white papery disposable clothing and eating food that comes in fantastic colours, in vacuum packs? I suppose some people do eat food like that but I'm thinking maybe I have watched Woody Allen's Sleeper just once too often.

Anyway, December has been really busy hasn't it? I have hardly found any time for artwork which has been a little bit depressing. I have spent nearly all the time I have had working on one coloured pencil picture in my sketchbook. Based on some studies I did in the local park in early summer and a couple of photographs I took at the time, this picture has taken me a..g..e..s......!! I have had a love / hate relationship with it while drawing it, but I finally finished it this morning and thought I'd share it here. I have also included a couple of pictures I took at the end of a couple of drawing sessions, just to see the progress. Not sure how interesting you will find them, but I have noticed other people posting 'progress pictures' and I find them really interesting.

I have never really used coloured pencils as much as I have recently but I find them really good to use in my sketchbook and, in the long process of re-gaining my drawing skills I have found them invaluable. You really have to concentrate, it makes you think about where a mark has to go on the paper and the colour combinations you want to achieve. After this picture I really want to say how impressed I am with people who use coloured pencil as their main medium! I am feeling happy with this picture, and a little more confident with my pencil work, though as I was finishing the picture a book was delivered (a treat bought with some birthday money):

.... and as I flicked through it quickly my eyes fell on the work of Andrew Holmes and I nearly wept! All drawn with coloured pencil on paper....

The little picture I have drawn, took me hours, spread over seven sessions.... how long must these take?!! Like I said, I am thoroughly impressed with anyone who uses coloured pencils as their main medium! I am really only a beginner. I'll get back to the drawing board...

If you would like to see more of Andrew Holmes' work it can be found at: http://www.plusonegallery.com/index.cfm

along with lots of other very talented people.

So, to round off for now I'd like to wish anyone who takes the time to come and read this a very happy and prosperous 2010. I hope the year brings you all you could wish for. Also, a big thank you once again to anyone who has been kind enough to leave comments for me, I can't tell you how encouraging you all are. Wherever you are in the world, however you celebrate - have a good one! xx

Paper roses

2009-12-06T13:19:00.002Z

Just a quick post because I wanted to share this website with anyone interested. I came across the artist Su Blackwell and her art after reading about her in a Sunday paper. She creates the most beautiful paper sculptures from old books.

I can't think of a more beautiful way to make use of old books once they are past their useable sell-by date. It is quite hard to actually recycle old books because of the glues and the different types of paper and card used to produce them.

Here is a picture of one of Su's creations from The Independent newspaper this week -

Her website address is - http://sublackwell.co.uk/index.php

Enjoy!

More lilies considered....

2009-12-03T11:46:00.001Z

I have not been able to draw in daylight since the weekend, until today that is (and typically today is very grey and rainy). I decided to draw some lovely lilies I have in a vase, but just concentrating on the lines - not trying to deal with the shading. I'm fairly happy with the pictures - it's definitely all good practice!

The perfume from the flowers is almost overwhelming! I'm waiting for the sneezing to start!

The sun is just trying to break through now, so I'm going to settle down and see if I can work on a painting I started a couple of weeks ago. I do like Thursdays!

Rain, rain go away...

2009-11-29T15:28:00.002Z

The weather this weekend is horrible! Just awful! I have managed to finish sticking together all my Christmas cards which is great though! This has been a good way of filling in the dark evenings. Here is a batch of them, I know Polar Bears are solitary creatures, but is there a proper name for a group of them I wonder?

Here is also another picture I did of a polar bear, while coming up with ideas. I have really enjoyed drawing them but feel a real urge now to get back on with some drawing from life again. Today I set myself up a small still life and managed to work on it for a couple of hours, but the light has gone so quickly today I have had to abandon it half finished. I won't be able to work on it now until Thursday, but I will definitely complete it. The lack of decent daylight at this time of year is so frustrating. I really want to get outside and do some drawing, but the weather just spoils everything!

Dashing through the snow...

2009-11-26T16:11:00.001Z

Well he's probably ambling rather than dashing - here's the polar bear design I have painted for my Christmas cards. I am busy printing lots off onto Bockingford watercolour inkjet paper and am really quite pleased with the results. I can recommend the paper as a very reasonably priced way to reproduce your artwork. You can buy more expensive and, one would assume, better quality inkjet papers but I am really happy with this. I shall definitely use it again.

Today should be my final push at the Christmas cards, hopefully at the weekend I'll find some time to work on something fresh. I have got lots of things I want to do...which first though...?

Cut, glue, draw, cut, stick....

2009-11-22T10:56:00.003Z

I am spending my weekend producing Christmas cards. It's the first time I have done it in nearly twenty years! I have to say I have thoroughly enjoyed myself, I'll post some pics when all is finished. In the meantime, I have been flicking through my artwork and decided to post a couple more pictures.

The first one is a scan I made of one of my paintings which is now framed up and hanging on a wall. It is nearly ten years since I did it, but I still quite like it. I found the original picture in a magazine I think and really liked it. The credits for the original photograph are pencilled in at the bottom of the scan.

The second picture is a study of a beautiful pink, Himalayan Poppy. They grow in my garden - early summer and look fabulous for too short a time. I painted this during the summer (pre. this blog) but looking at it today I thought I might share it.

Right, I'm going to make tea and finish my cards. Then I will chill for the rest of the day. Proper job in the morning.....

Consider the lilies....

2009-11-19T14:17:00.003Z

Well, I have to say once again a great big thank you to everybody who took the time to leave such lovely comments after my last entry. You have all really made me feel positive about my work and I can't thank you enough.

Here are a couple more offerings, first a study of some lilies that I worked on over a few days. I have resisted the urge to draw over it with pen! I think I'll leave it the way it is.

The second picture is a quick watercolour sketch I did after a visit to Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumberland. It shows only a small part of the ruins but there was a tremendous storm gathering, while this tower and the grassy slope that led up to it remained bathed in sunlight. Not sure how well I captured it but it was beautiful at the time! Dunstanburgh Castle is extremely dramatic, set on top of a rocky crag with the most stunning beach - Embleton Bay, sweeping away to the north. Northumberland is my favourite place ever, I go back again and again!

I have also been naughty this week and treated myself to a lovely new book, 'Illustration Play' published by Gingko Press. Gingko Press publish some great books - real eye candy (I'm speaking with my professional librarian head on now and, as far as I am concerned, 'eye candy' is definitely a technical term in librarian speak) it's always worth keeping an eye on their web site. I am eagerly awaiting its arrival, I shall tuck myself up this weekend with the book, a pot of tea and some good cake!

While I am here, I'd like to share a photograph I took in Manchester of some street art by Shepard Fairey. I know anyone who lives in Manchester will be more than familiar with it but it made my day coming across it the way I did.

I think the bags of rubbish, waiting to be collected underneath it, really illustrated how tucked away it was and, of course, how beautiful the piece is. I stared at it for ages!

I like birds...

2009-11-15T16:16:00.009Z

I gave spent the weekend trying to come up with ideas for Christmas cards. The pictures have been copied from images found in books but I really enjoyed doing them. I am getting more and more relaxed with my drawing skills now, but really feel I need to loosen up quite a bit! I want to get much more flowy and free with my drawing. I try to put far too much detail in and fiddle around when I should stop.

Until I began this process of rediscovering my creative self, I had forgotten how graphic my art is. When I did my art foundation course (in the late 1980s) I focused on fine art. I feel now I should have focused on graphics. Why did nobody tell me?

Anyway, here are a couple of coloured pencil and ink studies I came up with as card ideas, I'm not going to use these but I quite like the studies anyway. I shall post the actual card design, after I have sent them out to friends and family!

I am also posting an ink and watercolour study I did of some pebbles. I love rubble! If I had been clever at science at school, I would have loved to have studied geology. But I wasn't, so I satisfy myself with a sizeable rubble collection. The picture is of fossils, pebbles, sea-glass and ceramics, found on beaches in Yorkshire and Northumberland.

When I have a minute I will design myself a better banner - the one I have at the moment is rubblish!!

Baby steps...

2009-11-12T15:22:00.007Z

Here is a basic little picture I have produced of the old lighthouse at Flamborough on the Yorkshire coast. It is going to be a thank you card for my sister-in-law, who spends half her life there, I do hope she likes it!

I have had my day off from my 'proper' job and have spent as much of my time as possible producing some still life work, and trying to learn to use my paints a little better. I really wish I had kept a hand in with my drawing over the last few years, but sadly I have been rolling along with the rat-race, feeling that art work was far too luxurious a thing to be spending my free time on when other jobs needed to be done. When I get the chance I will scan some pictures and upload them - maybe this coming weekend. I hope that as the weeks and months pass, there will be a noticeable improvement in my work!

Many years ago I was self employed, producing hand-painted fabrics and textiles along with a very good friend I met at art college. Our business did well, on paper, but we never managed to earn enough to actually give ourselves any kind of livable wage. It's a sad fact that that's just how it is for many creative people. So, the art gear was packed away, only to be dusted down a couple of times and never with any serious thought to trying to pursue a living out of it again. I think my confidence had taken a rather large battering too. But life is too short to let that govern your life.

However, I'm older and (a little) wiser and, am looking to hopefully begin to earn from my art work again. If I can just get enough to pay the mortgage and the bills, that would be a wonderful start. We'll see. For now I won't give up the day job!