I really had fun creating this piece! I let the water and paint flow down the page, creating a background that grew organically, and then added my details later.
The original painting was sold via my Etsy store – You can purchase prints and products of this work via Redbubble.
A starry night falls in a colourful garden of trees.
This original painting is available for purchase in my Etsy store. Prints and other products available via Redbubble.
I really struggle with coming up with names for my art pieces, which I’ve talked about before.
For this whimsical painting of brightly coloured trees, the title ‘Forest Flags’ was inspired by the following quotation:
“The forests are the flags of nature. They appeal to all and awaken inspiring universal feelings. Enter the forest and the boundaries of nations are forgotten. It may be that some time an immortal pine will be the flag of a united peaceful world.”
– Enos A. Mills
I love painting with lots of colour, and this painting is definitely no exception! Painted on 8″ x 10″ high-quality watercolour paper, this original painting is available for purchase in my Etsy store.
This original watercolour painting was created on high-quality 8″ x 10″ watercolour paper. You can purchase a copy in my Etsy store.
It’s been a little while since my last update, and there’s been quite a few things going on since then!
In August I was lucky enough to be involved in an exhibition called Heart Felt at the Mezzanine, Entangle Living art. What a fantastic space! The gallery space (the Mezzanine) is housed in an old butter factory, and is located above an amazing store which sells live plants (including unique indoor plants grown using the Japanese art form Kokedama), handmade homewares, gifts, and small artworks. For those who haven’t visited, it’s well worth the trip up to Dayboro. We took the family up for the day during the exhibition, had a lovely morning looking at the Dayboro markets, and the kids were very impressed by the little lolly shop a few doors down from Entangle: Living Art!
I was thrilled to be able to participate in this exhibition alongside some amazingly talented artists, and was able to sell three paintings to a lovely lady who viewed them at the exhibition and contacted me afterwards to purchase.
In September I participated in another exhibition. This one had a unique concept – it was called ‘Ipswich on a Palette“, and invited artists to create a scene representing the city of Ipswich on a wooden artist’s palette. I chose to represent a Jacaranda tree – it’s one of my favourite trees and is very iconic to the area of Ipswich (even though it’s not a native plant!) Every year in Goodna there is a Jacaranda festival, and I just love seeing all the trees in bloom!
Another project I’ve been working on is decorating a Popobe Bear for the Toy to the World charity exhibition. This exhibition has been running for several years, but this is the first time I’ve had a chance to participate. Creating my bear was fun and challenging! I am very proud of how he turned out, but I don’t think he compares to some of the other artists’ entries I’ve seen. It really is an amazing group of artists! All proceeds from the charity auction go to the Victorian AIDS council. Opening night for the exhibition is tonight, and the exhibition runs for 4 days. For those of you (like me!) who are unable to get to Victoria to see the bears in person, there will be an online charity auction held through Facebook. I strongly recommend you to check it out, because I’ve seen a sneak peek of some of the bears, and they are INCREDIBLE. Seriously proud to be involved in such an amazing exhibition alongside so many great artists, and for such a wonderful cause.
Apart from the projects mentioned above, what else have I been up to? Well, I’ve been working on a commission and a new series of works. More to come!
This week’s topic over at Illustration Friday is ‘love’. I haven’t participated in one of these prompts in a really long time – I think the last one was back in January 2011 (and ironically, that post is all about how my new year’s resolution was to participate in prompts more often. Whoops.) I decided to participate this week because the topic is one that really suits my painting style.
One of my favourite things to do is represent people as trees, showing the relationships between the people using colour, size, spacing and other elements.
In one of my most recent paintings, I used two trees to represent the love of a couple. I represented the theme of ‘love’ in a variety of ways. Firstly, the trees themselves are shaped like hearts. You will also notice many hearts in the swirls of the leaves if you look closely. I painted the trees very close together, overlapping. I also deliberately allowed the paint to run and mix at the point where the trees touched – I wanted to convey the way that in a close relationship, people become part of one another. I used the a mix of the red and blue in the colours of the sky to also show this connection.
You can purchase this original painting from my Etsy Store or my Facebook page. Prints and art products available at RedBubble and Society6.
Many people are looking for interesting art for their walls to represent their families. I myself have grand plans for a family feature wall in our next house.
I can create a work of art for you that represents your family in a unique way. In my family tree portraits, I represent the family using a number of my signature swirly trees.
In the portrait, I represent each parent in a different primary colour. I then represent the children as a secondary colour that is a blend of the two parents’ colours, to represent that the children are a blending of the two parents. I also use hearts to represent the love the family shares. I can do any variation on this theme you like, including creating a portrait for blended families with stepchildren. It is a great way to have an artwork on your wall that uniquely represents your family. These paintings can be created as anything from small watercolours on paper to large acrylic paintings on canvas.
Another way your family can be uniquely represented on your wall is in a painting like this:
In this painting, only a couple are represented – however, smaller birds could be added to represent children. Once again, a painting like this can be commissioned as anything from a small watercolour to a large canvas. I have plans to create a painting like this for my own family – but I think I might make the background more like this one:
If you’d like to commission a painting that represents your family in a unique way, please contact me!
I love painting in watercolours – it’s definitely my favourite medium. My watercolours are a bit unusual compared to many I’ve seen, as many of them are abstract or naive in style. I love making abstract watercolours because it gives me a chance to let the paint have a ‘mind of its own’.
Many of my favourite abstract watercolours are inspired by science, like my ‘Moons of Jupiter’ series:
Some more ‘space’ inspired works:
From the very big to the very small – some of my other abstract watercolours are inspired by microscopic images:
But I think my favourite overall is this one – it’s only a tiny painting, but it has a lot of detail:
Here’s my submission for this week’s Illustration Friday topic, ‘Atmosphere’. For once I’ve taken the topic very literally, and I’ve painted a picture of the Earth’s atmosphere:
The weekend just past was super-busy for me. I had a stall at The Handmade Expo, which was great fun as always. We had a great turn out this month with people out and about voting. A big thank you to all those who stopped by my little stall! After the Expo we visited family and then the next day attended a birthday party.
With a weekend like that, I was very pleased to be able to get a few evenings to myself to get some painting done! Of course, sleep is overrated 🙂