Sometimes Here Sometimes There

What I'm currently working on

Here's a little sneak peek at another painting for my August show at The Guild in downtown Charlottetown. This one is still in progress and I as of this moment have no idea how much more I'm going to do to it.  It could be close to done or it may have a ways to go, not sure.  While this painting isn't of a particular place (none of my landscapes usually are) it was inspired by a certain movie which I bet if you thought real hard you might be able to guess. Does the house by the sea give it away at all? I watched the movie Practical Magic before painting this and have been listening to the movie soundtrack while I work.  I painted the house to look somewhat different as I didn't want it to be the actual house in the movie, just inspired by it. I painted the sand and cliffs a reddish brown because of the red sand and cliffs on this lovely island I live on.  The sheep I added simply because I've been meaning to add sheep to something :) This piece is 16" x 40" in size on stretched canvas. Please excuse my fuzzy iPhone photos!

Step by Step Progress of a Painting

Lately I've been taking in progress photos of my paintings using my iPhone camera to e-mail to my mum. Today I thought I'd share the step by step photos I took of one of my more recent pieces. This piece was done in acrylics on a 16" x 20" stretched canvas. You can see the entire finished painting in August when it is unveiled at my solo show at The Guild in downtown Charlottetown Prince Edward Island. Or if you can't make it and see them in person I will be unveiling them on my blog after the show. These photos aren't the best being cell phone photos but you get the gyst of it! Enjoy!

HUGE News!

 

I have been wanting to post my great news for a little while now but you know how it is, busy busy busy! So here it is! Remember how I had sent in an exhibition proposal to a local gallery hoping to get my first solo show underway? Well..... I was accepted!!!! I will have about three whole weeks in August and September for my very own solo show! There will be 29 paintings on display, all different sizes and all but one will be for sale.  I'm SUPER happy about this news of course! We're just working out the details right now. If you're on the island this summer please PLEASE stop by and take a look! I'm unsure what day the opening reception will be but I'll keep everyone posted. I would LOVE to meet anyone and everyone willing to come out and take a look! Oh! Ha ha! I forgot to mention where the show will be held lol! My loverly wonderful super fabulous exhibit is going to be held at The Guild on the corner of Richmond and Queen Street in downtown Charlottetown PEI. I can't thank The Guild enough! LOVE you guys!!!! SUPER FABULOUS!!!!

The above image is of a very small portion of a new painting to be revealed at my show this August!

New Artwork!

Close up taken with Instagram on my iPhone. I LOVE Instagram!!!!

My newest little mermaid is swimming around on an abstract mixed media background! This painting was done on a collaged 16" x 20" stretched canvas. I'm loving this combination of colours!
Notice how all but one of my mermaids so far have had red hair? They're redheads in honour of my own little redhead Elsa.
An acrylic 12" x 12" stretched canvas portrait of my sweet little bunny rabbit Elsa in one of my favorite outfits I've dressed her in so far. I painted her holding her favorite stuffed toy, a little grey monkey.  Obviously this painting will stay with me forever :) The stars are done in metallic gold paint and look super neat when they catch the light!

Another painting made specifically for our home. This one is mixed media on a 16" x 20" stretched canvas. It reads "In this family we PLAY hard DREAM big SMILE often LOVE deeply". I'm going to be adding more inspirational wording to my work in the future.

More New Work

Coloured pencil on 100% recycled paper. What can I say, I LOVE bunting!

Coloured pencil on 100% recycled paper. This was inspired by Jennifer Murphy's creations :)

Coloured Pencil on 100% recycled paper.

More mermaids! Acrylic on a 9" x 12" piece of watercolour paper.

My New Endeavor

December third was my 31st birthday and it was by far my best birthday yet! I spent the day with my three favorite people, had a yummy dinner at a good restaurant called the Red Water Rustic Grille and was given a very cool gift by my lovely husband Oliver. The very cool gift was a set of watercolour paints, brushes and palette! Something I've wanted for some time now! Here is my first attempt at watercolour painting....

I have a lot to learn and I find learning a new medium to be challenging but fun! This picture was done on 9" x 12" watercolour paper for my beautiful wonderful Oliver.  I'm not 100% happy with it but hey, it's my first try! I am finding that I need more time and more concentration for watercolours than I do for acrylics.  Acrylics are SO much easier! Plus I can easily fix mistakes when using acrylics but watercolours are less forgiving. The above image is chalk full of mistakes that if I had been using acrylics would be non existent now so with the watercolours I need to concentrate on being more careful and thinking things through before putting brush to paper. I'm looking forward to the next chance I get to try my hand at my latest endeavor!

My Little Mermaids

I've been inspired by nautical wood carvings of mermaids as of late. So far I've put this inspired mood to use in the form of two small acrylic paintings on canvas but I'm also hard at work on something bigger. The painting I'm currently working on is 9 " x 12" in size on watercolour paper. Who knows, maybe I'll make a whole bunch of little mermaids! My mermaids are not at all modest and are lacking in the typical sea shell bras other popular mermaids have sported in the past. My mermaids are also not nearly as perky as most other mermaids and have what I like to refer to as 'mom boobs" lol!  Check them out below.....

 
5" x 5" in size this little mermaid sports red hair in honour of my own little red-headed angel Elsa.

Another 5" x 5" red-headed mermaid.

The Flue, a Deadline and So Much More!

 
I've been so busy lately! First I had that art related event to deal with, then the flu hit my little family hard and nearing the end of it I suddenly realized that I literally had one day to put the finishing touches on my art exhibit proposal before the deadline. I was dealing with a bad flu, sinusitis and two sick kids while trying to write a proposal and THAT right there was quite a tall order! Luckily I managed to get things together and handed it in just in the nick of time! So now I just wait and see what happens. I'm not sure when I hear back from the gallery to find out if I got in or not so I'm trying to just put it to the back of my mind and get on with life for now. In the mean time I'm drawing and painting and painting some more! Here's some of my latest work....

 
Acrylic on an 8"x 8" canvas. This painting came about after looking through my newest interior decor book by Rachel Ashwell entitled Shabby Chic Inspirations. A really lovely and inspiring book :)

Acrylic on a 5" x 5" canvas. Tiny but so very pretty!

Acrylic on an 8" x 8" canvas. It started life as a tea cup painting, then came the strawberries and then later a bird when I felt completely bored with a cup of strawberries. Who puts strawberries in a teacup anyways? I guess I do!

Coloured pencil on 100% recycled paper.

Coloured pencil on 100% recycled paper. I made this little illustration to go on the front of my sister's birthday card. She likes owls and her favorite colour is blue so a blue owl was in my mind a must!

Coloured pencil on 100% recycled paper. This was very much inspired by my favorite artist's (Mark Hearld) work.

A New Approach to Painting

So I have been trying something a little different as of late in regards to my approach to painting. I'm painting quickly, slapping paint on thick and not blending and blending and blending to perfection. I'm not looking at reference pictures for hours on end studying them carefully. Instead I'm just glancing at my reference material briefly and as little as possible, trying to just go with the flow and not allowing myself to over think everything as I would normally do. I'm also open to flaws, imperfections in anything and everything. So it's not perfectly straight, the angle is just a little off? So what! Art isn't about perfection, for me it's about enjoying what I do and this is enjoyable!

Above is a painting I did last Friday. It took just over two hours to paint. It's a portrait of my own real life antique Singer sewing machine. I didn't pay too much attention to whether it was in scale or not, it's a little off but I love that! I had alot of fun with this one and I LOVE the color combinations here! 9" x 12" on watercolour paper.

And here (above) we have my latest coloured pencil sketch. This one depicts a Gypsy Cob standing in a field next to a bow top Romany Gypsy vardo. A gypsy wagon is called a vardo. They are usually painted in bright lovely colours with a good deal of decorative painting. We have one Gypsy Cob here on the Island. A gorgeous horse I was lucky enough to visit at his home. You can read about my visit with Fynn here.

Illustration Friday Again!

This week's theme for Illustration Friday is 'Fuel'. I figured the painting I did last night (above) would work for said theme.  Coffee is my morning fuel, without it I am powerless against the effects of drowsiness. It gets me going and usually keeps me going for most of the day. I am a one cup a day sort of gal, I don't like to overdo it. Although I'll admit to breaking that rule every once in a while when the day is not over and I still have much to do and little energy to do it with. On those days I like to have an espresso mixed into a hot chocolate! Naughty I know :)

The above painting and the one below are acrylic on 9" x 12" watercolour papers. The sides were cropped just a tad as they didn't fit in their entirety on my scanner. These paintings were a record for me, I finished them in only two hours each, two hours start to finish! The fastest paintings I have ever managed! While working on the above painting throughout the first hour I was certain it was not working but thankfully things turned around and I'm perfectly happy with it. The painting below was done today to go with the first one. They look great next to each other! I love the colours I chose for these!