I missed my first birthday...

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

Update and giveaway!!!

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 like birds...

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!!