A place to rest

Last week I mentioned that I had several pieces in Skyeworks  HOME TO THE HILLS charity exhibition.

well in addition to my moonlight and hares, the above piece has sold too!

moonlight and hares

The idea for the little ginger tom came from a sketch I found in an old portfolio from my art college days (many moons ago! ) It was an ink drawing of my adorable ginger tom cat named Stan.

He was the sweetest of cats. Although not the smartest of felines he was gentle and kind.

'stan' pen and ink

I used his sleeping pose as a start for my composition. Stan is rather famous now as he featured in one of my older pieces made for my mother featuring all her cats. They were of not alive at the same time but I thought it would be fun to group them together.

four very fine cats

Anyway this is how my 'Place to rest' collage began.

Using black gesso covered bits and pieces.

Intensified some areas of colour. and added more papers.

Blended and sanded the paper layers adding detail with white fine-line pen.

Used some fine line texture paint to make the foliage and crackle glaze over his face.

I thought he looked better awake than asleep.

Finally a liberal sprinkling of gold flakes which contrast beautifully with the rich reds.

linking to paint party friday

Lady Nancy

It was my birthday recently and swirlygirl made me a beautiful canvas....

Lady Nancy is gorgeous.... :)
I also received this gift... A fabulous cat balloon.....

How cool is he? However his presence in the household is not appreciated by all......

There is a bit of a standoff situation at the moment, Ill keep you posted. :)

Banoffee pie :)

Artists in blogland Postcard swap

In the post very soon!

Finished my postcards for the Artists in blogland postcard swap so will be posting them very soon. Its also the theme of the Artists playroom this week. This is my first postcard swap and Ive found it lots of fun, looking forward to the postman arriving soon with some beautiful returned cards.

 Dinner date

My first card is my favourite,

 Let me introduce Mr Murphy,
Mr Murphy is looking for love and so far has been rather unsuccessful but encouraged by Melvin over at butterfly mind decided to sign up for a bit of online dating. Alas despite putting on his finest bow tie he has been stood up! Murphy is a positive chap and looking on the bright side he now anticipating an extra large portion of baked sea bass, after all there are plenty more fish in the sea :)

Close your eyes and dream...

 

 Through the butterfly window... 

 

My other postcards have a dream theme. The Butterfly window had me thinking as I was making it of a programme I used to watch as a child, no idea why! It was called 'Playschool' and half way through the show the presenter would introduce three windows, square,arched and round asking which "we should go through today?"It was just a way of introducing a way into a video clip, but I loved it and always wished for the round window. Although going through windows can be fun, to flutter out the window into the wide open world is even more exciting.

Continuous drawing

Over at Butterfly mind I have been inspired by Jez and her continuous drawing, she has been on what sounds a challenging but rewarding course at Liverpool Tate called ' Drawing the line'. I thought I'd have a go at drawing my cat, during the winter months all he does is sleep, so he is quite a willing model. The idea of continuous drawing is that you keep your eyes on the subject and not on the paper, the results can be either awful...or surprisingly interesting. It makes each line or mark you make hugely important. Its ages since I tried it.. think I must have been at Art college.... so here goes...

I've drawn in blue ink so I couldn't rub out any bits I didn't like, I went over the lines though once I had finished so you could see more clearly.

And after all that excitement he is still asleep.... :)

Cerulean Mermaids and Four very fine cats.

Back catalogue

May through to July I kept busy!!. Both of these canvas have gone to new homes.

Another post

Here's another picture to view

STRAWBERRY MOON

MIXED MEDIA CANVAS


This canvas is a mixed media piece made from paper, fabric and acrylic paint,  moonbathing is far safer than sunbathing with virtually no risk of sunburn :)