Lots of new paintings! Check out the portfolio painting section if you havent already http://www.hollyalp.com/portfolio.htm

Ahh the end of the year is drawing closer (hopefully not the end of the world, as some people believe oO) our moving day is nearly here and with it a nice new start in a nice new place.  I can't wait! And with a small army of our friends and family to help us, hopefully it wont be tooo much of a hassle .... hopefully .... 

After lots of hair pulling and pen chewing, i finally have the new website up and running in French and English.  The biggest change is that's it's no longer Elysiumrain but HollyAlp.com instead.  As much as i loved the old name, my own name is more convenient and easier for everyone else to remember... despite it being anything but 'easy' to make the changes (i really need a new pc -_-)  I plan on keeping the old domain name Elysiumrain running to divert the traffic to this one, until hollyalp.com grows in popularity, that and I can't just give it up after 9 long years, (Yes, its amazing what we he humans grow attached to).

Good bye Elysium Rain ... x

This will be my last blog entry for a while.

Like the seasons, my life has undergone some major changes. Doors that were previously closed are now open and I feel the urge to try something new and exciting. My Spanish summer will be cut short as I journey to Australia (arriving in the middle of the winter) to try a years working holiday (which I might extend to two providing I survive the three months of seasonal work). I can honestly say this will be the biggest thing I have ever done on my own, that if I don't try this now then I probably never will.

My adventure starts in Sydney, possibly heading up to Cairns later on in the year. Updates to the website shall vary depending on my access to the Internet and software. I hope to continue working on my art and fantasy novel.

One of my last paintings in Spain using acrylics and pastels and some miniatures and commissions.

To new food, culture, koalas and Skippy - Adios España and G’Day Australia !

This will be my last blog entry for a while.

Like the seasons, my life has undergone some major changes. Doors that were previously closed are now open and I feel the urge to try something new and exciting. My Spanish summer will be cut short as I journey to Australia (arriving in the middle of the winter) to try a years working holiday (which I might extend to two providing I survive the three months of seasonal work). I can honestly say this will be the biggest thing I have ever done on my own, that if I don't try this now then I probably never will.

My adventure starts in Sydney, possibly heading up to Cairns later on in the year. Updates to the website shall vary depending on my access to the Internet and software. I hope to continue working on my art and fantasy novel.

One of my last paintings in Spain using acrylics and pastels and some miniatures and commissions.

To new food, culture, koalas and Skippy - Adios España and G’Day Australia !

The Spanish Fallas has come and gone and Easters on the way. For those of you not familiar with the Fallas please check out http://www.fallasfromvalencia.com/ I highly recommend the Falla’s in Valencia – incredible craftsmanship, time and skill goes into making these sculptures but the ones in Valencia are by far the grandest - it seems such a shame to burn them!



Arty bits
My entry piece for the children’s illustrator’s competition at the London Book Fair.



There wasn’t really brief for this (at least I couldn’t find one on the website ?!) so I based my theme on Once Upon A Time - the starting point of all classic illustrations. The idea was to have the characters almost coming alive and falling out of the book, even the letters seem to be making a dash for it as the dragon and the knight battle it out and the book catches fire. I was pleased with the result, unfortunately I didn’t win the competition, but at least I have another picky for the old portfolio.

Over the last couple of months I’ve been working on some private, miniature commissions. As you can see, my commissioner’s have quite an imagination!

The Spanish Fallas has come and gone and Easters on the way. For those of you not familiar with the Fallas please check out http://www.fallasfromvalencia.com/ I highly recommend the Falla’s in Valencia – incredible craftsmanship, time and skill goes into making these sculptures but the ones in Valencia are by far the grandest - it seems such a shame to burn them!



Arty bits
My entry piece for the children’s illustrator’s competition at the London Book Fair.



There wasn’t really brief for this (at least I couldn’t find one on the website ?!) so I based my theme on Once Upon A Time - the starting point of all classic illustrations. The idea was to have the characters almost coming alive and falling out of the book, even the letters seem to be making a dash for it as the dragon and the knight battle it out and the book catches fire. I was pleased with the result, unfortunately I didn’t win the competition, but at least I have another picky for the old portfolio.

Over the last couple of months I’ve been working on some private, miniature commissions. As you can see, my commissioner’s have quite an imagination!

With Halloween approaching I have been painting (and baking) lots of spooky miniature plates.

And the not so spooky ...

With Halloween approaching I have been painting (and baking) lots of spooky miniature plates.

And the not so spooky ...

Wow, what a summer! Like every summer out here my paints (unlike myself) have spent the last several months chilling in the fridge. Yep, you read that right; my paints (mostly my solid watercolours) have a lovely habit of melting in high temperatures. Never the less I somehow managed to do the following –

Activities for the National Honey Show - http://www.honeyshow.co.uk/

Until now, I knew very little about beehives, the brood, the super or the number of frames involved in storing honey, one things for sure, I will never see a jar of honey in the same light again!

For those of you wanting to know more, a photographic Inside a Beehive book is available through CMI Publishing with 9x7inch frame by frame photos of bees and their beehive. http://www.constructive-beekeeping.co.uk/ Cover illustration - you can imagine how long it took to paint all of those bees!

A bit of a contrast to the bee scene, I finished a painting of some butterfly koi.

We had koi when I lived in England, very beautiful and calming to look at.

I’ve recently updated the website and added a new art section - http://www.elysiumrain.com/Art%20and%20Activities.html along with my new Teeny Tiny Creations - http://www.elysiumrain.com/TeenyTinyCreations.html.

Miniatures will up for grabs on ebay later this week.

Wow, what a summer! Like every summer out here my paints (unlike myself) have spent the last several months chilling in the fridge. Yep, you read that right; my paints (mostly my solid watercolours) have a lovely habit of melting in high temperatures. Never the less I somehow managed to do the following –

Activities for the National Honey Show - http://www.honeyshow.co.uk/

Until now, I knew very little about beehives, the brood, the super or the number of frames involved in storing honey, one things for sure, I will never see a jar of honey in the same light again!

For those of you wanting to know more, a photographic Inside a Beehive book is available through CMI Publishing with 9x7inch frame by frame photos of bees and their beehive. http://www.constructive-beekeeping.co.uk/ Cover illustration - you can imagine how long it took to paint all of those bees!

A bit of a contrast to the bee scene, I finished a painting of some butterfly koi.

We had koi when I lived in England, very beautiful and calming to look at.

I’ve recently updated the website and added a new art section - http://www.elysiumrain.com/Art%20and%20Activities.html along with my new Teeny Tiny Creations - http://www.elysiumrain.com/TeenyTinyCreations.html.

Miniatures will up for grabs on ebay later this week.

Art and Crafts … well, mostly crafts. I have been busy making birthday presents and celebrating my own birthday as well!

For my ma's birthday present I wanted to make something in memory of the puppy we rescued. We only had her for a couple of weeks before we found out she had internal problems, that no amount of love, time or money could help her. She had two weeks of affection and I thought it would be nice to make something to remember her by – esp for my mum, who mentioned framing a photo of her. I had the idea of a wall hanging, something based around the puppies name – Poppy. Unfortunately I couldn’t find an oval frame to use as a base (their always rectangles!) so I bought a plastic mirror to use instead. Actually it worked really well - I decorated the outside with clay poppies, covered the back with clay and painted a portrait of Poppy on some watercolour paper. Hopefully mum wont see this online before her birthday in August <<

It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever painted, partly because she was so young I found it hard to paint the detail I normally would with older dogs, but mostly because of the subject matter. I decided to draw her at about 6 weeks old instead of 5 so her features look a bit more developed (or how I’d imagine them to be). I’m quite pleased with the final result and I hope mum is as well.

I’ve had a couple of commissions for the pens that I make. One was of a falcon -

Also, (and rather random) I've painted some miniature plates for dollhouses (ebay of course!). They seem to be selling well and attracting a lot of attention. Everyone is asking me if I use a magnifying glass – believe it or not, I don’t use anything! No glasses, no magnifier – nothing but my own eyes. My sight is awful far off, I have glasses but surprise, surprise, I never wear them. My sight is, and always has been fantastic up close. I even had to scan the plates because my camera couldn’t pick up the detail!

I plan to commission these and place photo's on my website as soon as i can.

Apart from the art i wanted to mention that earlier in July we had some crazy weather! I thought they were tornados until someone corrected me and said they were waterspouts … hmm, it doesn’t have quite the same impact does it? "Run! A waterspout is heading towards us!" as opposed to "Run! A tornado is heading towards us!" Oh well, waterspout it is, even if it does conjure up images of a garden hose >> ho-hum.

Behold – the dreaded waterspout!