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Duke Street, Dartmouth, near to where my exhibition is.
I love this time of year with both Christmas and my birthday coming up. The days since my exhibition have been spent decorating the house ready for the big day. I've got all my children coming this year so I'm particularly excited about it! I'll upload some pics in my next post. :)
We had a visit to Coleton Fishacre yesterday evening to see the christmas-bedecked house and garden.
When I arrived, I realised that I'd forgotten to put the memory card back in my camera so I had to take the photos with my phone, hence the fuzziness but here are the pics anyway!
These little snowy creatures were all in a line along the fireplace of the library. Modern snowmen don't seem to be pipe smokers any more do they?! I love how they all wear hats and carry a cane or an umbrella too. A cane, a pipe and a hat, all essential items in the olden days!
The house and garden look very different to when I blogged about it
here don't they? The trees look a bit spooky!
See you next time.
Happy christmas decorating! xx
Phew that was a busy time! My exhibition in Dartmouth is hung at last and both
Peri and myself are feeling very pleased.
Just the christmas madness to contend with now. :)
Monday morning we arrived in Dartmouth to the sight of this enormous yacht in the harbour. I don't know who it belongs to but with a quick google I found it's called the Lady Lara and is worth £150,000,000, crikey!
Our exhibition is at the Flavel Art Centre, not far from where I took this pic in fact. We set to work with the hanging straight away hoping to get some time at the end of the day to look around the galleries in Dartmouth.
After a very long and exhausting day, time beat us to it so no gallery visits for us this time but it was a lovely day that we both enjoyed so it was well worth the effort.
Peri and her beautiful paintings.
Peri's paintings
And mine.
Light was fading and it was time to look for something to eat. We spied the yacht in the distance all lit up.
It looked unreal!
When we'd almost finished, I made some short videos. Back at home yesterday, I pieced them together and here's the final little film.:
It does what it says on the tin. xx
summer
autumn
winter
Right outside my back door grows a virginia creeper. I watch it change dramatically through the year and constantly marvel at how it can grow back so beautifully from how it looks today in the winter. It seems almost impossible.
I've had a difficult couple of months with health problems and a busy time with family things and my
exhibition so my art making has taken a back seat. I'm still knitting and crocheting though and I've almost finished the jumper I'm making for Middle Daughter. For fellow knitters, you can see the details
here if you like.
As I've got no new artwork to show you, I'd like instead to show you a lovely little film about the artist Del Kathryn Barton. I came across this a while ago and kept it in my favourites folder so that I could watch it again. When I'm missing my painting I like to look at other artists' lives and work. I hope you enjoy watching it too. xx
It might not surprise you when I say that one of my favourite places to be is by the seaside! I mentioned in a previous post that I'm planning an exhibition with my friend
Peri. What better place to have our exhibition than in the beautiful town of Dartmouth?!
Here's the view looking down towards the castle. I took this the other day on a walk through Kingswear.
We're showing our paintings at the Flavel Arts Centre which is very close to Dartmouth harbour. We're busy getting things ready, finishing paintings, making lists and sorting out cards to sell alongside the paintings.
I've finished packaging them all up and I was going to take all the cards for the exhibition but then I thought it would be a nice idea to have some in my Etsy shop to so that everyone can have a chance of buying them. So here they are:
This is the one of the christmas packs, each with 3 different designs.
Please
click here to see more details of the christmas packs.
The other card designs I'm selling individually.
There are 5 different designs, each one blank inside for your own message:
See one there you like? :)
Please
click here to take you to the greetings card section of my shop.
A Passion For Colour
An exhibition of paintings by Jessica Stride and Peri Taylor
8th December ~ 3rd January
The Flavel Arts Centre,
Dartmouth,
Devon.
If you're on Facebook, you can see the event
here.
Thankyou so much for visiting today! xx
♥
I don't want to bore you with tales of how I've had a cold which turned into something nastier so please scroll down to miss out this bit if you like, I won't mind! :)
I very rarely go to the doctors and prefer to wait for my body to heal itself but this time the pain I'd developed in my back was so relentless day and night I had to at least find out what was causing it.
It turned out to be something called sacroilitis. There was no escape from the severe pain unless I stood up or walked when it would then change to an ache which was more bearable.
Anyway, the doctor prescribed strong painkillers and anti inflammatories which made me feel like I was in a dream. I couldn't do any 'proper' painting because when I do a painting, it takes a lot of time and concentration so instead I sat briefly each day and made a drawing.
The drawings you see here are the ones I did during this time. I did one each day starting from day one with the picture at the top of the post.
I've had to stop taking the tablets because I started to get bad side effects but my back's a lot better now.
So that was my very strange week!
It's been a while since I've listed and sold my paintings on Ebay so I thought it was about time I gave it another go. I'm selling my 7 x 9 inch mounted watercolours. They're all ready mounted and measure 7 x 9 inches. If you'd like to buy an original painting for a christmas gift, this could be your chance to find one at a very affordable price!
This 'Gypsy Caravan' painting above can be found
here if you'd like to have a look. :)
Here are the paintings I'm listing for sale, please click on the links underneath each one to take you to their Ebay page:
Thankyou for looking and sorry about the medical details, I hope it wasn't too much information for you! ;)
Have a good week! xx
'Edge of the Forest', mixed media on canvas.
This week I've been working on another landscape painting, this one's on canvas and believe it or not started out its life with a big boat in the foreground covered in roses. I thought I'd taken a photo of it at that stage but I've looked through all my pictures and it doesn't look like I have. I'm afraid you're just going to have to imagine what that looked like, sorry!
This one was worked on in the same way as before, building up layers of paint and collage paper, aiming all the while for a balance of shapes and colours. I finally came to a point where I decided that the cottage needed a doorway.
Here's a close-up (above) of how the cottage looked at this stage, I liked it like this but I felt it needed a door.
So here it is with a door and with the walls painted a brighter shade of peachy orange and the green tree to the left a little more finished. I'd changed the foliage against the house at this stage too but still I wasn't happy with it.
That tiny little yellow bush, lovely though it is, had to go...
I added a couple of tree-like forms in front of the cottage and made more of the dark green shape underneath.
It was now complete.
I'm going to be exhibiting this painting in Dartmouth during December along with my friend
Peri. I'll post more about that soon.
I'm still not well but a whole lot better than last time I posted here. I've had some lovely peaceful walks along the coast to blow the cobwebs away and I've been spending the evenings with some lovely colourful wool.
Shall I show you what I've been making?
I fnally finished my jumper. I started this months ago but I'm very happy to say it was finished just in time for the colder weather! I haven't made a jumper for myself since I was in my early twenties and although I used exactly the same knitting pattern as I used then, I had to make it a couple of sizes bigger to accommodate several years of indulgence. ;)
I made a pair of fingerless gloves for Middle Daughter. She works outside some of the time and I thought these would come in handy. This looks like the same yarn as the jumper doesn't it? It's not. I unwittingly seem to go for the same colours each time. (In fact I've just bought some new yarn that looks like both the ones in my jumper AND the mittens, oh well.)
Finally, I'm using up my colourful collection of acrylic to cover some tatty old cushions. I've nearly finished the second one that you see there.
If you're a knitter or crocheter, you might like to find me on
Ravelry where I post my woolly makings.
Bye for now, thankyou for coming to visit and enjoy the rest of the week! xx
I'm very happy to say that I've finished the painting I've been working on over the past few weeks, yay!
Sometimes a painting can take so long that I imagine it'll never reach the end! This one was made during some challenging personal times and maybe that's one of the reasons it took me so long to finish. The strange thing is, that throughout the making of it I kept on thinking of the word 'peachy' and although I felt far from peachy, I decided it would make a nice title for it so I've decided to call it 'Feeling Peachy'!
Here's what it looked like at the very beginning, acombination of collage papers and acrylic paint. I fell in love with that beautiful patch of orange quite quickly and my feelings didn't change as you will see!
I painted the sky mauve and the beginnings of buildings and trees were appearing.
Here's a close-up showing the house I painted, a stage further than the last picture, it looked like it was here to stay but providence had other ideas!
I paint intuitively and therefore have no plan of the subject matter or what colours will dominate. I make layer upon layer of shapes and drawing until I feel there's a harmony throughout the picture.
The imagery reveals itself to me as I'm working. I love the layering effect because I feel it gives so much depth and mystery to the painting. This can take a long time but it's a way of working that can occasionally happen quickly or like this painting, can take an age!
And so it had to be. The big house had to go and in its place seemed to be a smaller green one. At this stage I was trying to convince myself the painting was finished but I kept getting niggling feelings about the way the little green house overlapped the lighter house on the right hand side. I wasn't comfortable with it.
So I changed it...
I also removed the row of green flowers that were on the left hand side and added more detail to the patch of green next to my sacred patch of orange. ;)
I'm very happy with the outcome, it always amazes me that throughout the process a painting can look to me such a mess a lot of the time and then things begin to click into place until finally everything is as it should be.
And that's the reason we do it isn't it? :)
I'm not going to be offering this painting for sale yet because it's going to be part of an exhibition I'm having with another artist in Devon. More about that in a future post. Please
click here for more details.
If you find that you quite like this painting and would like to have it as a beautifully framed print or a tote bag or a rug (yes a rug!) or something else, I've listed it for you in my
Society6 shop. Do pop over and have a browse, there's loads to see!
So I'll leave you with a few examples below and say a big thankyou for coming here today and for reading down the post to get this far. :) I've been quite ill this week but I'm slowly recovering. It's nice to have reached the weekend and have time to relax a bit isn't it? I hope you have a lovely weekend and enjoy looking at my new designs. xx
♥
So autumn is finally here. I love the sunshine this time of year, the long shadows and low magical sunlight. Having said that, every year I try to resist the fact that summer is over, wanting the season to stretch as long as it can but this year I'm making new plans for my shop and retocking it with lots of new items!
I've been asked many times if I have prints available from my paintings so I thought it was about time I stocked up the shop with oodles of them!
Each one is printed on Epsom archival matte photographic paper and the colours are clear and bright, hard to tell them from the originals.
Each one is printed A4 size and have a white border to make framing easy. Please
click here to take you to the print section of my Etsy shop. ~ There are lots to choose from!
Now September has started, I'm starting to work on bigger paintings again, playing with paint and colours. I shall be back soon to show you my progress.
See you then! xx
The change of the seasons are almost upon us and as I look back over the past weeks I've had a lovely summer with days filled with nature, the countryside and the sea. Lots of inspiration for new images!
Today is the first of September and real life commences back at home with a new routine and trying to get up at an earlier hour each day which is some mean feat for me let me tell you!
This September beginning today, I'm going to be listing new prints in my Etsy shop. They're a lovely quality and are printed on Epsom archival matte paper. Each one is A4 size with a white border for easy framing.
I've shown you just a few here but over the next couple of weeks I'll be listing new ones in the shop daily so please pop over and have a look when you have a moment, there could be the very one you've been looking for!
Please
click here to see the prints currently listed. (more soon!) xx
I've just come back from one of my favourite places, can you tell where it is from the picture above? ;)
We stayed right next to the harbour which had beautiful views and just a step away from the beach.
If you've been to St Ives you'll know how lovely the shops are, so many hand-made goodies for sale!
One shop I like to look in is called Kudos.
Click here to see the treasures inside! It's an Aladdin's cave of beautiful artifacts. Just
look what I saw in the garden there!...
And if that wasn't enough, there was even a lifesize mermaid! How amazing would it be to have this in your garden?!
One of the reasons I love St Ives is Porthmeor beach, it has the best sunsets. I'd love to show you a dazzling example but the evenings were a little overcast and I only had my phone with me. I hope this gives you some idea...
I really don't mind if it's not sunny every day when I'm in Cornwall. One of the days it rained so heavily that we decided to go in the car to Falmouth. I knew that
Falmouth Art Gallery has a collection of Pre-Raphaelite art and when I saw they only had the one on display I was quite disappointed for a moment.
That was before we stepped into the next room and saw a lovely exhibition of the work of children's illustrator
Rodney Peppe!
You might be thinking these aren't illustrations and no they're not. It was actually his automata that I loved.
There were so many to see but I made a little video of my favourite ones. It's only 1
½ minutes long, have a look! :) ...
You might have noticed my Etsy shop is closed at the moment. This will be just until the end of August when I shall reopen with lots of new items for you.
See you again soon! xx
I've just returned from somewhere that I've never visited before but have often wondered what it was like there,
The Lake District, in northwest England.
Coniston Water
It's a long drive, about 4 hours north but well worth the journey. The weather was quite overcast, apparently they get a lot of rain there but that's a good thing when you see how very green it is!
Lake Windermere
We found a lovely place to spend the evening, at the edge of Lake Windermere is
Waterhead. The sun peeped out for moments while I took these pictures.
Not far from Lake Windermere is a farmhouse built in 1626 called
Townend. The interior is so lovely, here are some photos I took while I was looking around.
the kitchen
The large glass jar would be filled with water and placed in front of the candles to magnify the light on dark days and evenings. Great idea, I must try that sometime.
Lovely carvings everywhere on beautiful dark wood
and cosy bedrooms.
Although probably quite cold in reality. :)
Finally I'll show you my favourite place of all during my visit to the lakes, the little village of
Near Sawrey.
We visited the house of Beatrix Potter and had a stroll around the village looking for images from her books.
View from the vegetable garden of Beatrix Potter's house 'Hilltop'.
She took images from the house and village for her illustrations and included details like the beehive and the iron gate you see in the picture above and inside Hilltop, the furniture and rooms.
After she was married she moved to a house opposite Hilltop called 'Castle Cottage' but still used Hilltop for storing her drawings and for inspiration.
Castle Cottage, Near Sawrey, Cumbria
Hilltop was left to the National Trust after her death with the understanding that it was to be kept in its present condition for others to enjoy.
And enjoy it I did!
Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter at the front door of Hilltop.
Thankyou Beatrix. :)
I thought I'd share with you today a quote from a book I'm reading at the moment. It's called 'Simple Reminders' by Bryant McGill and Jenni Young. The painting is from a commission I did for a lovely client but I thought it fitted these words so well.
'On the still calm waters of surrender, the reflections of clarity appear.'
I'll leave you to ponder this thought and to wish you a lovely calm and peaceful Sunday. xx
Summer's such a lovely time for colours! I took the photo above at a local National Trust property,
Coleton Fishacre in Devon.
Quite often when I visit here I don't go into the house. When I first used to come here many years ago, the house wasn't open to the public but when it was, I was one of the first to have a look around. We had to wear what looked like plastic carrier bags on our feet to protect the newly finished flooring.
I'm very pleased to say that's not the case these days. The house was near to closing for the day so we had a speedy look around the lovely art deco rooms, not much time for photo taking I'm afraid.
But I did take a quick photo in this room. I love wood and the beautiful wood on these chairs was just gorgeous.
The garden there's pretty lovely too with my favourite summer flower, delphiniums.
♥ ♥ ♥
Such colour! ♥ I'm told these are called Penstemon.
Can you imagine little faery people living here by the stream? I can. :)
Summer's a busy time for me, not much chance to make any new paintings but I do have time to do a spot of this in the evenings....
I'm making myself a jumper, something I haven't done since I was in my twenties! I thought it was about time.
This yarn is so soft ......and that colour?
oooOOooooo!
Woolly people might like to see my project in progress
here on Ravelry.
Thankyou for visiting today, I hope you have a lovely sunny weekend.xx
Every year at the time of the Summer Solstice it's a family tradition to go for a walk somewhere high up, with a good view of the sunset.
When my brother lived in Swindon we'd go to Barbury Castle but now he's moved to another area, this year we thought we'd go to a different place that's closer to where he now lives. I blogged about our Barbury Castle walks in 2011 here and in 2010
here. :)
They say you can see 12 counties from here. The view was spectacular even though it was getting dark and a little cloudy. We could clearly see the Brecon Beacons, the Mendips and the River Severn to name but a few. I'd love to come back again one sunny day during daylight hours, it really was an incredible view.
My photos don't do it justice at all but I think you get the idea! What a perfect place to watch the sun go down on the longest day of the year.
********
Do you remember this painting from my last post? I thought I'd show you it displayed on my wall complete with its frame. It's now in my Etsy shop so if you'd like to see it in more detail, please
click here. :)
I've been busy a-painting this week and today I finished this new mixed media piece. I've added lovely glitter to the flowers trees and hair and it looks so sparkly when held to the light bringing the whole painting alive!
I've popped it on Etsy and it's called 'Rhythm of Life'. The measurements are 20 x 16 inches and it's ready to hang on the wall. Please
click here if you'd like to see the full listing.
I've been quite behind with visiting blogs lately but I hope to catch up with all your lovely blogs soon. See you there! xx
Has it really been over a month since I've posted here? I do believe it is!
I have some new paintings that I've recently finished but first of all I'd like to show you some of the delights that I saw on my visit to the
Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
The picture at the top of this post is a beautiful embroidered silk portrait of the wife of Charles I. Her face is made from linen covered wood with painted features and the hair is real! The date is c.1660.
The picture below is a small section of a larger painting that caught my eye. I love the blue ethereal landscape, it could be a painting all of its own couldn't it?
more detail below...
The painting above is by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609). It was quite a small painting but something about it kept making me go back several times to look again. There's such emotion in her face.
The painting above is by Roelandt Savery 1576-1639. I love all the detail and the slightly surreal quality of the animals. The waterfall's pretty amazing too!
I found a small room off one of the main halls that I hadn't noticed on previous visits. It was a small treasure trove of medieval art...
I took 2 pictures of this little statue so that I could enjoy all the details later on...(like today!)
Isn't it exquisite?
I would describe myself as a very spiritual person although not at all in a religious way but I do find religious art so incredibly beautiful!
Sorry if you wanted to find out the whys and wherefores of these medieval pieces but I was so enamoured by their beauty that I forgot to look!
So then, are you ready to see some of my own newest creations?
This first one is called 'Under The Trees'. It's painted on board which is something I haven't done for ages. I enjoyed the feel of the paint on the board so I shall definitely be doing some more.
It's not available on Etsy yet because I'm going to be framing it before it's ready to go out into the world.
This one above is called '
Down By The River' and is on canvas measuring 20 x 16 inches.
Please
Click here if you'd like to see more details of how to buy it. :)
Lastly, I'd like to show you my painting (below) which I've called 'You Are My Sunshine'. This one is on heavy 300gsm watercolour paper and measures 12 x 12 inches.
I began '
You Are My Sunshine' as I do with all my mixed media pieces by layers of colours and abstract mark making. Before I knew it a goose appeared.. a GOOSE! I've no idea how or why but I knew it needed some love so I painted in a girl to take care of it and...et voila!
I'll be listing this one on Etsy very soon.
Thankyou for coming here to see my doings, it's very lovely to have you here. xx
What is this 'painting' thing that we do,
where we lay down colours that please our eyes?
And add images we like,
a cottage,
a tree,
then lose them in more shapes and colours,
stamping and stencilling,
splashing and dripping?
When there seems to be no end in sight as the cottage comes and goes, layer after layer?
Where we relish and enjoy the thick gold paint as it twinkles on the canvas, adding more, then taking more away?
Until finally...
A new painting is born.
Thankyou for visiting here today!
This new painting is called '
Sunlit Cottage' and is now available to buy in my Etsy shop.
♥
xx
Spring crept up behind me and pounced.
While the earth stirred into new life, already the colours of Spring flowers were fading.
A remembered bluebell walk had now transformed into green.
I love to walk in the woods, each time of year has something new to show. I love how the light from the sky shines through the trees and this was my inspiration for this painting. I call it '
Green Glade'.
(crop)
(crop)
It measures 16 x 16 inches (40 x 40cm) and is painted with mixed media on deep box style canvas. Please click
here to see more details. :)
Still inspired from my time in the woods, here's another new painting on canvas, it's called '
The Tree of Life'. This one measures 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)
and as I do with all my paintings on canvas, I've attached brass hooks and wire on the back so it's ready to hang. Please click
here if you'd like to see all the details.
(crop)
(crop)
I'm currently working on two more in this series, so do come back to see how I get on. :)
For those of you who have Facebook or Instagram, you can follow my progress as it happens
here and
here. Come over and say hello, it would be lovely to see you there too!
Thankyou so much for visiting today, I hope you have a lovely week. xx
Hello there, It feels like ages since I've made a blogpost! The Easter holidays were very busy for me with family visits and lots of errands to catch up with.
There was a garden to tidy...
It's a fantastic view from this garden in more ways than one because I can see both Youngest son's flat and Middle daughter's flat from here PLUS the pretty harbour of course!.
The apartment that this garden belongs to is let out to guests most of the time but it's nice to come here and enjoy the view when jobs need doing.
A working visit to Exeter just had to include a visit to my favourite cafe there,
Their food is delicious and it's so beautiful in every room, even the garden is lovely and colourful as you can see from my photo above. The main attraction for me is their art exhibitions that they have in the upstairs room.
Back at home again and Eldest daughter and her babies came to stay and we had a day out at a local country park where the children were allowed in to groom the ponies.
It was hot and sunny, so unexpected after all the wind we've been getting up until then!
I'm hoping to be able to do some more painting soon. Today I''m posting several paintings to Germany and the USA, it's so exciting to think of them going to their new homes across the world!
A heartfelt thanks to my lovely customers, past, present and future! xx
As you can see from my photo above and the title of the post, this is going to be all about my love of pretty cottages! I took this one above of Rose Cottage at Cockington Village near Torquay, I love the thatched porch don't you?
Here's another from the same area, with a gorgeous garden too...
This next one that I took is in Lacock in Wiltshire.
I can feel my heart beating faster just looking at the little leaded windows and the beautiful old stonework!
If you've been to St Ives then you might recognise Norway House. (above) How sweet is that fenced garden with the tall hollyhocks?!
Helford Village in Cornwall is such an idyllic place with thatched cottages nestled around the creek. It's the same area where the novel 'Frenchman's Creek' by Daphne du Maurier is written. I took this photo while on holiday in Cornwall last summer and I was reading that novel at the time so it made it even more enjoyable for me to see.
So now that I've shown you some things that catch my eye when I'm out and about, you'll easily be able to see where the inspiraton for this new painting came from.
I call it '
On a Distant Hill' and it's mixed media on canvas and measures 16 x 12 x
1½ inches.
I've painted it on deep sided canvas. The photo above shows you the texture of the pink flowers too.
(crop)
(crop)
I've listed it on Etsy, please
click here if you'd like to see more details about it. :)
I enjoyed painting the little house so I decided to make another painting, this one with a cottage by the sea.
I had a lot of fun with the colours. :)
(close-up)
(close-up)
This one has already sold (thankyou! ♥) but I'm hoping to make some more cottage paintings after the Easter Holidays.
Enjoy your weekend and I hope to see you soon. xx
Hello Spring!
It's finally here and what an entrance! A glorious warm sunny day today following the excitement from yesterday of the solar eclipse. It must mean that new starts and changes are afoot don't you think?
My paintings seem to have changed with the lovely sunshine. What do you know? I've found myself painting flowers again.
(close-up crop)
(side view showing the deep sided canvas)
Here's my new painting hanging on the wall. I love my purple walls. :)
It's called 'Morning Revelation' and measures 12 x 6inches, which is 30 x 15cm. It's painted on box canvas (I think some people would call this gallery wrapped canvas?) and the sides are 1½ inches, or 4cm deep. As you can see above, it's ready to hang on the wall, no need of a frame. Please click here to see all the details. :)
You might have noticed my blog banner is now sporting this new cheery painting. I thought it would be perfect to welcome in the Springtime!Thankyou for visiting here today, I wish you a lovely Spring (or Autumn!) Equinox day wherever you are. :) xx
I love a bit of sparkle don't you? I'm quite partial to a mermaid too so I decided to put the two together and make my mermaid of gold!
I loved using the gold paint and seeing it shine when tilted to the light.
She's painted on 10 x 7 canvas board and looks beautiful when caught in the light.
Little golden fish swim with her and I've used touches of pale blue iridescent ink in the background too, creating a watery magical sea in which they swim.
Her hair is a pure golden colour and swirls around in the water, decorated with tiny flowers.
If you'd like to own this pretty mermaid of gold, please
click here to see all the details. :)
Thankyou for coming to visit today, I hope you're having a lovely week! xx
I mentioned in my
last post that I was working on a new painting and here it is, the new finished piece. :)
It was inspired by my recent trip to Cornwall where I saw a baby grinning at me while being carried by its mother. I've called it '
The Journey' and it's now
listed it in the shop if you'd like to pop over and see.
I've had this tube of violet oxide for a really long time but I've never used it because for some reason I though it was an ugly colour and I didn't see the point in it. Why did I buy it? Well it was so long ago now, I can't remember! Maybe it was because it had 'violet' in the title and you know me, I love all shades of purple. :)
But purple it ain't and because I don't like to waste paint, I'd often feel guilty that this one would stay at the bottom of the box, never used.
So what happened? Well to mu surprise I found I enjoyed working with it for the first time a few days ago during the painting of '
Looking Back.' The dark background is the violet oxide straight from the tube and for the hair, I just mixed it with white. I'm not sure if you can see from this picture above but in real life the hair is a subtle shade of mauve. I have found a new colour that I like! Who knew?!
So this is how 'The Journey' painting began, a violet oxide and magenta sky. The dark really brings the magenta to life and the magenta brings out the warmth of the dark colour don't you think? I've used it in the rest of the painting too, on the mother's dress and mixed with white for the background.
It's definitely going to get a lot more use now that I've grown to love it!
Is there a colour you can't bring yourself to use? I'd love to hear about it. :)
Thanks for visiting today! xx
How did 2 weeks fly by since my last blogpost?! Things are still pretty busy around here and lots has been happening so let me tell you what I've been doing. Over the half term we had a few days away in Cornwall.
We drove over to the Lizard Peninsula to Kynance Cove (pics above) and then along the coast to another beautiful cove that I haven't been to before called Poldhu Cove. I loved the caves there, I imagined I'd see a mermaid living inside one of them but alas I didn't this time.
The same day that we arrived back home, we had a family celebration for Youngest Son as he's just passed his driving test and had his birthday too!
I'm always inspired to paint when I've been to Cornwall and once the house was quiet again, I finished this painting. It's called 'Looking Back'.
I love the combination of bright turquoise together with the the earthy tones of browns and I've had in mind to do a painting in these colours for a very long time. In the past I've started out with a limited pallette and ended up by adding more and more colours (you know me!) but this time I was very restrained and kept to my plan. :) I added a brushstroke of glitter that you might be able to see in the photo above?'Looking Back' measures 10 x 7 inches(25 x 18cm). and is painted on canvas board with acrylics and a little glitter as described above. The surface is varnished for protection. I've listed it in my Etsy shop for sale at £40 + shipping (worldwide). Maybe it would make an lovely gift for Mothers Day? :)
I spent a lot of time gazing at the sea while I was away in St Ives and on one particular occasion I noticed a mother walking along the beach carrying her baby on her back. The baby was peeping out sideways from the backpack and smiling at me. The image stayed in my mind and I thought it would make a lovely painting.
This is the stage I'm at right with it right now, a little bit of collage and lots of changing on my part as I decide what's working and what isn't. I hope to be able to show you the finished piece in a few days time.
But until then, I'll leave you with a video I made of Kynance Cove. I'm new to videoing so please forgive the clumsiness! xx
First of all let me say happy Valentine's day to all of you out there in Blogland. ♥ ♥
Thankyou for coming here today and to see what I've been up to of late. :)
You might have noticed I've recently been enjoying working on some little mixed media pieces and I've now finished 3 more!
This one's called '
Peachy' and measures 6 x 6inches. It's painted on box canvas, with white painted sides and wire on the back ready to hang.
'
Demeter' and '
Maris' are painted on thick watercolour paper and measure 10 x 7 inches each.
.
They are all now listed in my
Etsy shop ready for someone special (is that you?) to give them new homes. :)
♥ ♥ ♥
Before I go, I'll show you my current crochet makings. It's a stripy blanket for ME! I'm enjoying these stripes so much, choosing which colour to use next that I'm not sure if I'm ever going to be able to stop!
For those knitty crochet types that are interested in making something like this themselves, here is the pattern I used, please
CLICK HERE.
See you next time, have a great week! xx
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