Holding Onto Sunshine

I've been making some crocheted bunting. It's great for using up bits and bobs of leftover wool that have lurked in the bottom of my bag for years! I've been wanting to try making crocheted triangles for ages and now that I'm between woolly projects I'd thought I'd give it a go...

 and here it is ~yay!

Meanwhile on my painting table there have been a few new pieces taking form..

I'm enjoying working with inks at the moment, they're so adaptable. You can use them diluted like a watercolour wash, or with a pen to make lines. I love how the FW inks are so opaque that the light colours sit really well on top of the dark ones as you can see here.

This one I've called 'My Blue Cat'. Please click here to see it in my shop!

 This next one is painted on wood panel. I've used collage papers as well as ink and the wood was so light in colour that I didn't even need to prime it before I started. Can you see my favourite iridescent pale blue ink on her dress?

'Claramay' can be found on Etsy if you just click here.

I love working on wood panel. It's like a frame so that it's easy to hang on the wall when it's finished. The panel is about 2cm deep.

I enjoyed it so much that I made another painting...

 This one's called 'Holding Onto Sunshine'. It's also a mixed media piece using collage papers, inks, Posca pens and acrylic paint. 

I love the shiny chocolate papers that you get at christmas and I always keep some. You never know when they might come in handy! Below you can see the tiny twinkles of light as they shine through.

Holding Onto Sunshine is available in my Etsy shop. Please click here to see!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my new work. Have a great week! xx

Beautiful Trees

My latest new paintings have definitely been inspired by the lovely spring trees that are around at the moment.

I've been having fun playing with inks on paper making beautiful textures.♥♥♥

I love the colours but I wasn't happy with the composition. It somehow didn't seem right....

....so I turned the painting upside down!

 and drew a lady wearing a beautiful dress of branches.

I call her 'Blossom in the Wind'. 

She's searching for a new home so if you think you might be able to help her, please click here.😊

I love how the little twinkles of light picks up the leaves of the trees and flowers.

This new painting that I've recently finished twinkles in the light too! I've used gold paint on the bird and the fern leaves. It's a mixed media painting on cradled wood panel. The leaves are dimensional, giving the surface extra interest.

I've called it 'Pink Flower in my Hair'. You can see more of this piece in my Etsy shop if you click here.😊

This is one that I'm currently working on using beautiful green inks and it's soon to be listed in my shop. Please message me if you'd like a chance to buy it before it goes live.

Thankyou so much for visiting today, I hope you have a fantastic week ahead.xx

New Paintings and a Visit to Tintinhull

I've been busy making daily paintings and here are a few of my most recent ones. I also have some finished paintings for sale listed in my Etsy shop but more of that later.

Sometimes it's nice to have a break and a few days ago we visited Tintinhull in Somerset. The house is very beautiful and because of its smaller scale than most National trust properties, very homely too.

 The view from the house into the garden is very pretty.

It's lovely to wander around the garden, arranged like little rooms that link one to another.

 A feast for the eyes from the beautiful and delicately coloured pale lemon tulips and hyacinths ♥ ♥

and the Heuchera Plum Royale. (I had to Google that!) 😉

How very perfect don't you think? A very pretty house and garden.

So now I'd like to show you my newest paintings. This one above is called Marina and is painted on 300gsm (140lb) watercolour paper with inks. I've listed it in my Etsy shop if you'd like to see more details.

I love mermaids and this next one is called Viridia.

I've used iridescent ink an the background, lovely and shimmery. Please click here if you'd like to see more of her.

There's something magical to me about the woods, like a deep memory that I can't quite recall. This painting above is called Wood Spirit. I've painted this on cradled wood panel and the surface has some lovely texture. She's looking for a new place to live. Could you be the one to give her a new place to dwell?

Thankyou for visiting! I hope you've enjoyed looking at my pics. I'm still very busy producing new work and will return soon to show you. 

If you can't wait that long and would like to see my works in progress and new work fresh from my paint brush, I update my Instagram and Facebook on an almost daily basis so do come and see me there, it'll be lovely to see you. Have a great week. xx

Daily Doodles and a Tip for Keeping Them Going.

Hello again!  Sorry it's been a while, I've been without my laptop for the past few weeks and I can't work out how to post on Blogger using my tablet so as you can imagine, it's good to be back using a laptop again!
So would you like to see what I've been doing? I've been making a doodle day in my art journal, doodling whatever happens to come out on the page. I never plan them, they surprise me as much as anyone with the imagery that comes out.
Now is the time you might want to go and grab a cup of tea and come back here to settle down for a few minutes because there are quite a few I have to show you!😁

These first few are done using my trusty Posca pens.  

 

 

These are done in watercolour with the addition of black and white pens.(above pic and below)

More watercolour with some black penwork.

My other new favourites are my Tombow pens that you might remember me talking about in my last post.

 They make lovely bright strong colours if you layer one on top of the other. ♥ ♥ ♥

And then my drawings took a different turn.

I started to make paintings with very limited colour.

Some were only black and white, can you believe it! Here they all are in close up...

A little colour started to creep back into the last two. It was only a matter of time wasn't it?😉

So what is my🌟golden🌟 tip for keeping these daily doodles going? Well I shall tell you.😄

I make my doodles in the morning before I do anything else with my art journal ready next to my art supplies ready for action. I set up something to listen to while I'm drawing like a podcast or a Youtube video. This helps my mind switch off from the imagery and that's where the surprises happen! 

The routine I'm in now is when I've finished the drawing, I cover the next empty pages of my art journal with a background of acrylic, watercolour or inks so that they're dry and ready for the next day. This can be just a plain colour, or even black as I've done in some of the pictures in this post. It's great to have already made a start when I come to the pages the next day. A lot of people get alarmed by a blank white page but if it's already covered in something then it's almost already a painting isn't it?

At the beginning of each of these drawings, I felt as though I was making a mess, doing a terrible drawing, but it doesn't matter. I told myself no-one needs to see these.

Except that now everyone can see these and I had fun making them.  I hope that if you're artistic in any way this will inspire you to have a go. 

Let me know how you get on. I'd love to hear! xx