A New Colour

I mentioned in my last post that I was working on a new painting and here it is, the new finished piece. :)
It was inspired by my recent trip to Cornwall where I saw a baby grinning at me while being carried by its mother. I've called it 'The Journey' and it's now listed it in the shop if you'd like to pop over and see.

I've had this tube of violet oxide for a really long time but I've never used it because for some reason I though it was an ugly colour and I didn't see the point in it. Why did I buy it? Well it was so long ago now, I can't remember! Maybe it was because it had 'violet' in the title and you know me, I love all shades of purple. :)
But purple it ain't and because I don't like to waste paint, I'd often feel guilty that this one would stay at the bottom of the box, never used.

crop of 'Looking Back'

 So what happened? Well to mu surprise I found I enjoyed working with it for the first time a few days ago during the painting of 'Looking Back.' The dark background is the violet oxide straight from the tube and for the hair, I just mixed it with white. I'm not sure if you can see from this picture above but in real life the hair is a subtle shade of mauve. I have found a new colour that I like! Who knew?!

So this is how 'The Journey' painting began, a violet oxide and magenta sky. The dark really brings the magenta to life and the magenta brings out the warmth of the dark colour don't you think? I've used it in the rest of the painting too, on the mother's dress and mixed with white for the background.
It's definitely going to get a lot more use now that I've grown to love it!

Is there a colour you can't bring yourself to use? I'd love to hear about it. :)

Thanks for visiting today! xx

Cornwall and Back

How did 2 weeks fly by since my last blogpost?! Things are still pretty busy around here and lots has been happening so let me tell you what I've been doing. Over the half term we had a few days away in Cornwall.

We drove over to the Lizard Peninsula to Kynance Cove (pics above) and then along the coast to another beautiful cove that I haven't been to before called Poldhu Cove. I loved the caves there, I imagined I'd see a mermaid living inside one of them but alas I didn't this time.

The same day that we arrived back home, we had a family celebration for Youngest Son as he's just passed his driving test and had his birthday too!

I'm always inspired to paint when I've been to Cornwall and once the house was quiet again, I finished this painting.

 It's called 'Looking Back'.

 I love the combination of bright turquoise together with the the earthy tones of browns and I've had in mind to do a painting in these colours for a very long time. In the past I've started out with a limited pallette and ended up by adding more and more colours (you know me!) but this time I was very restrained and kept to my plan. :) I added a brushstroke of glitter that you might be able to see in the photo above?

'Looking Back' measures 10 x 7 inches(25 x 18cm). and is painted on canvas board with acrylics and a little glitter as described above. The surface is varnished for protection. I've listed it in my Etsy shop for sale at £40 + shipping (worldwide). Maybe it would make an lovely gift for Mothers Day? :)

I spent a lot of time gazing at the sea while I was away in St Ives and on one particular occasion I noticed a mother walking along the beach carrying her baby on her back. The baby was peeping out sideways from the backpack  and smiling at me. The image stayed in my mind and I thought it would make a lovely painting.

This is the stage I'm at right with it right now, a little bit of collage and lots of changing on my part as I decide what's working and what isn't. I hope to be able to show you the finished piece in a few days time.

But until then, I'll leave you with a video I made of Kynance Cove. I'm new to videoing so please forgive the clumsiness! xx

Mixed Media Girls and some Colourful Stripes

First of all let me say happy Valentine's day to all of you out there in Blogland. ♥ ♥

Thankyou for coming here today and to see what I've been up to of late. :)

You might have noticed I've recently been enjoying working on some little mixed media pieces and I've now finished 3 more!

This one's called 'Peachy' and measures 6 x 6inches. It's painted on box canvas, with white painted sides and wire on the back ready to hang.

'Demeter' and 'Maris' are painted on thick watercolour paper and measure 10 x 7 inches each.
.

Maris

Demeter

They are all now listed in my Etsy shop ready for someone special (is that you?) to give them new homes. :)

♥ ♥ ♥

Before I go, I'll show you my current crochet makings. It's a stripy blanket for ME! I'm enjoying these stripes so much, choosing which colour to use next that I'm not sure if I'm ever going to be able to stop!

For those knitty crochet types that are interested in making something like this themselves, here is the pattern I used, please  CLICK HERE.

See you next time, have a great week! xx

The Mixed Media Girls are Coming!

Hello there, after the very eventful and exciting week I wrote about in my last post, this week has been very quiet in comparison, I've been spending the time working on some new little paintings on canvas board and on paper.
The three you see in the picture above were all worked on at the same time, while one was drying or if I'd reached a point where I wasn't sure what to do next, I'd move on to the next one. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you might have thought they were flying off my art table like a conveyor system! The truth is that they each took several days to complete and they all finished within a couple of days of eachother.

Here's the first one, it's called 'Noctambula.'

It measures 7 x 5 inches and is painted with acrylic paint and collage paper on canvas board. Sometimes I like to incise into the wet acrylic paint to make fine lines. I actually use an old knitting needle for this! It's a very satisfying thing to do because I can put little details in that  I find difficult to do with a brush.

Noctambula

The next one to be finished is called 'Tangerine Rose' and is made in the same way but this time on thick watercolour paper. It measures 8 x 6 inches.

Tangerine Rose

The third one is called 'Maiara'.

I like the combination of using pieces of torn printed paper with paint and often the printed paper ends up being totally covered in paint so in the end only I know it's there!

Painted on paper, Maiara measures 8 x 6 inches.

Maiara

All these are now listed in my Etsy shop at £30 each and I'll ship to you worldwide. Please click here if you'd like to see more details about them. :)

Thankyou for your visit today, have a lovely weekend! xx

Ancient Men, A Graduation and a New Baby.

There's a good reason for my quietness here over the past couple of weeks. So much has been happening, I don't know where to start!
I'll begin with last week, when I was immersed in a new illustration project.
It involved drawing men. Now those of you who are familiar with my paintings will know that this is a rare thing indeed and at first it felt quite a challenge to me.

I've done a lot of life drawing in the past so when I started to draw a man's form instead of my usual lady ones, my memories of life drawing came flooding back to help me.

They're almost finished but sometimes work has to stop while life events take over doesn't it? Two BIG events took over the beginning of this week.

On Monday, Youngest Son had his graduation ceremony at Birmingham University. He's a primary teacher now, working in Devon.

Tuesday saw the birth of Ruby Rose, Middle Son's new baby daughter. It was a bumpy journey into the world for this little girl but after the long ordeal both mum and baby are now doing well

and while the drama was unfolding in the hospital, I painted a card to welcome her into the world.

Phew! What a week! :) xx

My Daily Doodlings

Do you like to doodle?

One of my new year's resolutions is to doodle more and last week I managed a doodle a day. 

This one was done with my black Pitt pen.

 Prismacolors are lovely to sketch with, the colours are juicy and you can press as lightly or as hard as you like to get varying textures.

So many to choose from, it was satisfying to stick to just the blues for this one,

with a hint of orange. :)

Fineliner pens are nice to use because their points are thin and fine, great for patterns.

And another done with my Pitt pen.

You might have noticed a set of colours peeping at the top of the photo?

The lovely bright colours of my new set of Inktense sticks that I had for Christmas! They're so big and chunky, after playing with them on this small sketchbook page I think I need a larger area to work on next time.

My sketchbook is A5 size. I like that size because I use it as an art journal or visual diary.

I buy hardback ones because it reminds me of a standard sized book like a novel. I love to look at other people's sketchbooks, especially when they're used in this way. It's like a picture book of their thoughts.

I've accumulated a lot of them over the years, too many pages to show you here but if you'd like to see a few from the past, please click here. (warning: make sure your scrolling finger is on tip-top form!)

Thankyou for visiting today! xx

Monday Morn and the New Year's Resolutions Begin

 At the end of my last post I promised to return soon with my new year's resolutions. They've been brewing in my mind for a very long while, too long I've put these daily tasks off. Even my enormous turn of the year on new year's eve (it's also my birthday) didn't jumpstart me into action. I thought some magic in the universe might do it for me but no it didn't. So it's down to me then is it? ;)

Ok here we go:

No.1:  exercise

I used to do this a lot and I remember how much better I felt when I did it regularly.

No.2:  stop using my body as a dustbin

I do. If it's in the house and it tastes nice then it has to be consumed. By me. My clothes no longer fit comfortably and I don't like being uncomfortable.

No.3:  do yoga

I've done yoga on and off for most of my life since I was 17 but over the last year or so it's been off. All the time. 

No.4:  doodle 

I only usually only doodle when I'm on the phone but I've been told that my best ideas come out in my doodles. It seems that I might make some interesting discoveries if I doodle at other times too. Let's see what happens!

No.5:  play the guitar

A year and a half has gone by without me having the time or energy to play my guitar. No more excuses, I want to play again.

No.6:  use Instagram

I recently joined Instagram but I found it difficult to take photos using my phone. I now have a tablet - yay! My plan is to use it to take photos of my works in progress and it'll be easier to post them on there (and of course here too!)

So there are my promises to myself and I'm starting today, Monday. 

Wish me luck! xx