Christmas Trees

Before I show you the real tree, here's a little painting I made with watercolours.

 It measures approx. 14 x 20cm (that's approx. 5½ x 8ins.)

It's painted on strong 300gsm watercolour paper with Scmincke paints, my favourite!

Have I got time to list it on Etsy before christmas?

Yeah!

Click here if you'd like to have a look at the original painting my shop. Please be quick if you'd like it to arrive with you before christmas as the last date for posting to the USA is 11th December. (UK customers have until the 18th.) ~  Thankyou for looking! :)

Now onto the real tree...

If you've visited me here in christmases past you'll remember my trusty old fairy. She's survived yet another year much to Youngest Daughter's pleas to get a new one. "She's not even a Barbie!" she exclaimed in disgust.

 Good! I don't want Barbie dressed up, thankyou VERY much! ;)

I have nothing against Barbie in particular although I was actually a Sindy girl as a child. I had a Tressy too. Anyone remember those? 

For those of you who don't know who Tressy was and for those of you who do and would like to go back in time for a moment, here's an old fashioned ad from long ago. The part where the hair comes out of the top of her head has to be seen. 

Hilarious!

I just noticed on the video it said 'Jess Hair stylist'. I can't make any claim to that fame I'm afraid! I remember my own Tressy's weird hair snake thing got jammed and that was the end of those Fabulous Hairstyles.

I'm getting off track. Back to the christmas decorations.

The tree's looking all pretty inside and those blue lights you can see are through the window out in the garden.

Not the best photo to show how they look but you get the idea. :)

Look at that, we're all christmas treed up and it's not even cold today.

My roses think it's spring!

Have You Started Decorating For Christmas Yet?

Have you started decorating for christmas yet?

Is your tree looking splendid?

Maybe you have more than one?

What about your other decorations around the house. Have you adorned your fireplace with evergreens and flowers

and decorated those old household ornaments with festive arrangements?

Are your candles lit for the dark afternoons?

Or do you have beautiful lighting that looks lovely just as it is?

You might have guessed these photos that I took yesterday weren't taken at home but at the lovely house in Wiltshire called Stourhead House. 

You didn't think it was mine did you? :)

 The garden there's lovely too, always something beautiful to see.

I must get on with my own decorations!

I shall be back before long to show you. xx

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My Colourful Birds

Two Birds, mixed media

 Hello, how are you on this December day? You might remember these paintings I'm about to show you when I blogged about them in the summer here and here.
Since then, they've been on their adventures in exhibitions but now they're back, I've listed them for sale in my Etsy shop. :)

'Summer Breeze', mixed media

Each one measures 40 x 40cm and is painted on 3½cm deep box style canvas. (That's 16 x 16ins, 1½ins deep).

'Two Birds' (cropped)

I love the colours, so bright and warm. I have them on my wall at home at the moment to cheer up these winter days!

But I'll be more than happy to sell them to a lovely new owner! :)

Summer Breeze

I love to paint birds. My fascination with them came originally from reading fairy tales. (I still like to read fairy tales!) They appear as other beings, having human-like attributes. 

To me they convey emotions and are such a lovely shape to draw and paint!

I thought I'd have a re-jig of the sections in my shop, listing the paintings according to subject matter rather than materials used. 

What do you think? :)

Diverse Projects

I've been given several different projects lately, each one very different so yesterday it was nice to spend a little quiet time playing in my art journal. It's good to play, it feeds my paintings especially the more intuitive ones like these...

I've just collected these from an exhibition in Bristol and I'll be listing them for sale in my Etsy shop very soon. :)

So how about the projects I've been working on lately?

The first one I'd like to share with you is a commission I made that was a business logo for Pink Sky Healing.

Here's the sketch I made with the client's ideas...

Sketches can look very different to the finished painting so I hoped she'd like what I did with the colours and detailing.

and she did!

Dena's a reiki healer and reads angel cards. She's also an ordained minister and is currently studying craniosacral therapy. I wish I lived closer to her but I'm the other side of the globe! Her website is well worth a visit. Click here to see it and her blog.

The next project I've been working on is a commission for an apartment sign.

As you can see, the original one here does the job but it looks so tired and has seen better days don't you think?

 Time for some upbeat colours! 

It's by the harbourside in Brixham so there had to be blue. I thought about painting shells or maybe a starfish but decided to keep it simple. A nice big shiny sun lifted the feel of it.

And here's the finished sign, all ready to go. :)

Better? :)

and finally, a new commission popped into my inbox this morning, a challenge and something I've never tackled before but one I'm happy to take on. I shall reveal all when it's done. :)

Bye for now, have a lovely weekend!

xx

Christmas Paintings

I've been designing some new christmas cards for this year. I started them a few weeks ago so you'd have thought by now I'd have the cards in the shop? Well I would have done but my printer is on the blink. Doh!

This one's a little familiar don't you think? ;)

While I'm here, let me show you the paintings as they progressed.

Here's the snowglobe one that you might recognise from my new blog header? It starts as a pencil drawing.

I tend to use very heavy watercolour paper 300gsm so I don't need to stretch it or to hold it down too much with tape.

Then comes the painting stage which involves the fun part, choosing the colour scheme, (my favourite part!)

and here we have it.

The snowglobe painting is finished. :)

(cropped)

The reindeer painting was made in the same way, I didn't need to tape this one down at all. (Doesn't that water in the cup look dirty?!) I get so involved in the painting I don't like to leave the table to change it. :)

(close up crop)

So here we have the 2 finished christmas paintings!

Christmas Reindeer 

Christmas Snowglobe

I don't yet know whether I'm going to be able to make christmas cards with them in time but the originals are now available to buy in my Etsy shop. Each measures 10 x 7ins (approx. 25 x 18cm) and costs $40.

Please come and have a look!:)

Thankyou for visiting! xx