birds and mosaics, mixed media adventures

Well my blog has been a little neglected for the past few months, so thought about time I shared a little of what I've been up to.

During the Summer Skyeworks Gallery had a charity exhibition and this was one of my pieces, made from collage, paint and paperclay. My little blackbird was voted one of the exhibition favourites and is now available as a card. a proportion of the card sales are to go to Scottish Autism.

Time and tide cards

My little blackbird was the first time I had mixed paperclay with collage, but I had made several other bird paperclay mosaics over the Summer.

And new for the festive season, little Robin Mosaics,

Feast, a taste of Skye

Over the past couple of months I have been very busy making a large commissioned piece of work for the Flodigarry Hotel on the Isle of Skye.
The owners of the hotel contacted me and asked if I could create an abstract piece using colours of food from their fantastic restaurant kitchen.

I began by visiting the kichens and taking lots of photographs of the food.
All  typically Scottish, fresh seafood, salmon, venison and fresh herbs  salads and vegetables

From these I decided I wanted to create a waterfall of colour cascading down the canvas.  The canvas size was much bigger than I usually work, 2 metres x 1 metre.

Work in progress... a very messy studio!

The paper fragments punctuated with reed like divides, ( Actually made from drinking straws set into moulding paste and covered with mulberry papers)

Finally the finished piece was revealed on Saturday night at a special party.

Feast, A taste of Skye.

Messages in the Breeze, Summer Solstice

Begining of a new piece.

Hello patient blog readers, as usual my poor blog is a little quiet these days, although I am not.

This is the beginning of a new commissioned piece which I have just finished. Virtually all  my pieces start off this way, lots of layers of torn paper.

A while back I did a canvas called messages in the breeze, it was inspired by the old folklaw tales of dandelion seeds being carriers of messages for those loved ones we have lost. This is a new take on the idea, still including the dandelion seeds but using a moonlit sky. The photos show the canvas at various stages.

 And finally..... finished, Messages in the Breeze, Summer solstice.

What May will bring

It's been a lovely couple of weeks on the Island, working in the gallery a few days a week gives me a chance to chat to folk about my art and meet lots of interesting people. last week I met a lovely local lady who bought the piece above, and three others!!  Infact she already unbeknown to me had several of my pieces in her home. It was a delight to see the joy on her face when she talked about them. Paintings are so personal and knowing they have gone to such a loving and appreciative home is really fantastic.
Had a lovely message from 'Giggles' one of my dear blog readers this week saying she could visualise my work as greeting cards,
well.... as if by magic...

                                             

     

I had my first cards printed a couple of months ago and they have been selling very well!!

On Skye the weather has been beautiful recently,

 May is a beautiful month, and indeed my favourite, I am filled with enthusiasm for all those lovely yellows and bright fresh greens.

I began work on a larger canvas a couple of weeks ago, As well as the usual reds and golds I always use, yellows and greens are creeping into the layers.

Add a wee croft house...

And is done,,,,

'What May will bring'

Because In May anything seems possible.

Back to the workshop

Evening song, flown to new home

Been a long and busy winter but within the last few weeks I have finally got myself back in the workshop to start making new things. House renovations took over much of the winter and it is so lovely to paint pictures not walls!
My hard work is paying dividends as three of my 4 pieces in Skyeworks Gallery bird exhibition have sold and flown off to new homes.

Best friends

Best friends which also sold on the first day of the exhibition was one of three bird paperclay mosaics I made especially for the exhibition. They received such positive feedback I think I may make more! They are made by piecing together small handmade tiles often imprinted with wild flowers gathered from my garden, which I paint and then seal with various mediums.

Anyway, on to pastures new..
Skyeworks gallery where I work and exhibit most of my work opened a new mixed spring exhibition yesterday and I have three new pieces on show.

Staffin bay, watching the tide

These are two... twins possibly because they are both of a beautiful area on North Skye called Staffin bay.

Over to Staffin Island

Staffin bay.

Exhibition news

well good intentions to blog regulary seem to have gone by the wayside, but here I am with a few minutes in the day spare to update my blog friends.

Its been a busy few months, during February and march I have had an Artist in the spotlight exhibition running in Aberdeen, at a small city centre gallery called Junction Arts.

One of my paper clay mosaics made for junction Arts gallery

I am really enjoying working in Skyeworks Gallery and over the winter have collaborated with the gallery owner to complete a year of Art events, the first of these opens on Monday 10th of April.

                                                        

It is a Bird Themed exhibition. I have four pieces on show...

a sneak preview???

Goldfinch and robin,