Paint Party Friday and Sunday Sketches

Hi guys,

Well my blogging is becoming increasingly sporadic and I do apologise for that. Life seems to be getting in the way of my art which can be very frustrating sometimes but also can't be helped.

We had an interesting week which began with my littlest hurting himself on the trampoline and my husband and I spending our 12th wedding anniversary in the hospital emergency department. Luckily it was a nasty sprain not a break but the poor little guy has been hobbling around all week, and still isn't right.

I've been working on some lesson plans for next term as I shall be starting my artist in residence position, I'm so looking forward to that. The school holidays are about to start so I hope to put some of these plans into place and try them out on my own boys first so that I can see what works and what doesn't. I'm nervous but so excited about this new direction my art is taking me, i shall keep you posted on how it all goes.

In the meantime I managed to work on my large canvas which I showed you last post as well as a couple of  portraits of my beautiful nieces as well as a quick sketch I did in front of the tele this afternoon.

I hope you all had a great Easter and look forward to seeing what you've all been up to!!! :0)

Paint Party Friday - My biggest canvas to date! :0)

Hi everyone just have some progress shots of my biggest canvas that I've worked on so far. It's 3 panels which I'm going to hang in our new room. I've never done one this big before so I'm really enjoying the process. Here are some pics of how far I've gone with it so far:

 I googled some photos of some lotus flowers and chose this composition. Sketched the design.
They almost take up my entire dining table!

 Next up I used craft glue and paper towel to make more texture on the lily pads, and texture paste on the petals. Then I painted the background!

This is just the first layer of colour on the flower, I'm going to go a bit more tan/orangey in the flower so as to compliment the blue. Hoping to do some more tomorrow. I'm having a lot of fun though and have to get on a chair to take the photo :0) There is something quite liberating about working on a large piece. The size and subject matter are right out of my comfort zone but I'm loving the process.

 These next pictures are of some lesson/project ideas that I've been putting together for my stint as 'The artist in residence' which I'm hoping to start next term at the boys school I'm so excited about working with the children and hopefully inspiring them to love art as much as I do :0) My first project I think will be to do a painting like my tree one below that I have created as an example but also thought it would be good to give the kids other options if they aren't into trees.

 These are two photos that I took the other morning of the flowers in my garden after we had quite a down pour, it wasn't until I looked at the pic above on my computer that I realised that I had captured the reflection of the flower inside this precarious rain drop! LOVE it! :0)

Just had to share this one too I thought it was sooooo pretty!!!

Hope you've had a great week and I look forward to seeing your paintings this week! :0)

Paint Party Friday and Sunday Sketches

Hello my arty blog friends! It's been a while since I blogged! And here I thought that once my boys were at school I'd have more art time! Well as usual things have been crazy, we finished our final stage 3 renovations (extension) and so that threw a spanner in the works and in the meantime I've been applying for a new job! There is a possibility that I may be the artist in residence at the boys school which is such an exciting opportunity for me! So I've been busy with paper work and creating project ideas. Just waiting on finding out the budget for the school and whether it is possible to do fingers crossed! :0) I'm also applying to be a teachers assistant so that I can fill in when need be. So as you can imagine this is a very exciting time for me :0) I'm also kept busy with lots of paper work from our business as well as trying to squeeze in some art time!

I did however manage to squeeze in this painting during the week!

Acrylic on canvas page!

I'm also working on a jewellery box for myself, I picked up this already made box at our local hardware store then decided to paint it! Here it is so far!

And last but not least I'm having a giveaway on my facebook fanpage so if you are interested in entering click on this link

Good luck!! :0)

Paint Part Friday and Sunday Sketches - Fallen Angels

Hi guys!

Well I didn't make any challenges last week, just too caught up in Summer holidays (although if you saw the weather here today you wouldn't think it was anywhere near summer, rainy, cold and yucky!)

We're on the downhill run now with the school holidays, my baby starts kindy on Monday and the other starts year 3 on Tuesday then I'm hoping to get back into some sort of routine, I need to get stuck into the office and do some business paper work and of course some new art directions!! I have enjoyed spending time with the boys but even they are are ready to get back to school.

This week I have been working on some new angel paintings, I decided to combine my angels with my pretty ladies and they have combined to make 'Fallen Angels'.

Very much an experiment:

I think this one was my 'ugly' phase, I kinda liked it but decided to have another crack at it! This was painted on a canvas board with gouache paint!

Now I think I'm quite happy with number two! This one was also painted on a canvas board but this time with acrylics!


This next piece is my entry in Andrea's (Falling Ladies) book for the Creative Sistahs project that I'm involved with. Now this entry is for November and I have to say I found creating a November inspired piece in February a bit tricky just because I couldn't really think of anything in particular that November inspires me with, so I looked back to last November and thought about what I was doing then. Well November last year for me was very chaotic, I was in the throes of making pendants and bookmarks etc for a couple of Christmas markets that were coming up. So I thought well Christmas was coming up and I love painting Angels, I decided to combine my Angels with my 'lovely ladies' and together I felt they reminded me of a 'Fallen Angel'. Which I thought could be my little tribute to Andrea's beautiful and emotion filled 'Falling Ladies'. Phew!! I hope you can see my little thought process there and I hope that Andrea likes what I have created in her beautiful book.
I just need to finish off my written page then this will be winging it's way to Kathy! :0)

Lastly I thought I'd just show you what I had created for last weeks challenges but didn't get the time to post.

 These were both painted on water colour paper with gouache, I'm loving the brightness of gouache without it being too thick!

This little lady was inspired by my sketch of the little girl with attitude that i did a few weeks ago. I'm trying to work on my characters and facial expressions!
Hope you are all having a great week! :0) x

Paint Party Friday - A new toy!

Hi guys I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!! We had a lovely time down the coast!

 The weather was beautiful!

 The boys had a lovely time at the beach!

 Splashing in the waves with their grandparents.

 I even dipped in my toes! :0)

The boys collected so many hermit crabs, don't worry we put them all back ;0)

 I tried drawing a sand frog :0)

Hubby gave me an airbrush for Christmas. I've never used one before so it's been like learning to draw all over again! I've been watching videos on youtube and trying to figure out how to use it! I'm struggling with doing fine lines so really need a proper lesson I think. I do however love using it for shading and managed to do a couple of paintings the last couple of days and experiment with it!

 This one is on a canvas board and I really loved how it popped when I used the paintbrush on top just for the fine lines!!

 This one was a practice run, just on paper and I realise that the paint really bleeds into the paper I just couldn't seem to make a fine line.

 I have been meaning to paint this bag for weeks. I really love how the shading turned out I think it really gives it a soft quality! :0) I used the fine paint brush for the thin lines. I'm hoping that I'll be able to master this way of painting but I guess it take practice! :0)

Hope you all have a great New Years weekend and I look forward to visiting you all! :0)

Paint Party Friday/Sunday Sketches - Busy busy busy! Hand painted T-shirts

 Hi everyone, this week I've been working on my hand made T-shirts, if you didn't see my last post I am working on some hand painted t-shirts for some loved ones for Christmas. I did Queen Ruby! And the next one was this froggy ballerina for her little sister Willow.

 Apparently Willow (who is 18 months old) is a huge frog fan so I couldn't resist turning one of my frogs into this ballerina! It is painted with fabric paint then heat sealed to set the paint!

 I'm really happy with how she turned out and hope that Willow loves her too!

This next piece is for a friends little girl who is turning 5 'Bella' apparently loves My little Ponies especially the unicorn one so I couldn't resist incorporating that into her t-shirt. Bella is such a cutie I almost always see her with her hair in plats so I feel like she's turned out quite like the real thing :0)

 This one was definitely a challenge in so many ways but I really enjoyed doing it!

 I love all the bright colours I was able to use! I hope Bella likes her too!

My next project that I'm working on is a new canvas bag, this time I'm using my owls I've sketched the design so will work on that this weekend. I'm off to bed now but will catch up with you all in the morning! :0) Happy Friday!!!

Paint Party Friday - The Romantics

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I last posted. We've been away at a family wedding, had a market as well as helping out at my little one's school, the lead up to Christmas is starting to get crazy already.

I'm now back into some kind of routine and I've been thinking about which direction to take my art next. When I started my art journey a few years ago (after a long break without creating) it was children's art and illustration that first caught my attention. Since then I seem to have gone in all sorts of different directions, jewellery, mixed media, figurative art. Lately I've been feeling the call back to childrens art. So after our weekend away I was inspired by all the love in the air at my little sisters wedding and created this piece with a few different characters that I've been playing around with.

'The Romantics'........

 I created some dancing frogs a while back for an Illustration Friday piece and I felt like they needed to be brought out to play again. This one really needed a moustache heheheh

 

 Really love the snuggly owls!

Ants in love!

I'm working on some hand painted T-shirts for some family members for Christmas so you should see some of these characters re-appearing :0)

I'm looking forward to catching up with you all over the weekend it's been a while since I've been able to blog surf etc and I need my fix! :0)