painting – Page 6 – Kirsten Bailey: Art

Posted on April 27, 2010April 27, 2010 by Kirsten

Art for Art’s Sake

One of the many things I love about creating art is the opportunity it provides me to support more charities. You may remember earlier this year I donated a painting to the Young Variety’s ‘Heart Art Show’.

This year I’ve also been given the opportunity to participate in the Cerebral Palsy League‘s ‘Art for Art’s Sake’ exhibition. The Cerebral Palsy League is the largest non-government disability services provider for people with a physical disability in Queensland. Having taught a student with Cerebral Palsy I’ve seen first hand the necessity of an organisation like this, and so I’m very happy to be able to support them.

This year’s exhibition theme is ‘The Joy of Living’, and I am donating the following painting, titled Sunset Joy:

The painting will be auctioned at the Gala Opening and Cocktail Reception on Wednesday 12 May 2010 from 6:30pm, at Waterfront Place, Eagle St, Brisbane. For more details, please see the Art for Art’s Sake website.

Posted on April 13, 2010April 13, 2010 by Kirsten — 7 Comments

Illustration Friday – Linked

This week’s topic over at Illustration Friday is “linked“. Here’s what I came up with:

It’s titled Entwined.

I really enjoyed creating this one, and I’m happy with how it’s turned out… but painting the way I do can be quite messy:

I’m so glad watercolours wash off easily!

Posted on April 12, 2010April 13, 2010 by Kirsten

Two Happy Stampers April Colour Challenge – Take Two

I recently wrote about participating in this month’s colour challenge at Two Happy Stampers, which involves creating something using the following colours:

I wanted to have another go at creating a painting using these colours, and this is what I came up with:

It reminds me of the shrubs they have around my school which drop white flowers in a carpet all over the ground. The branch of the tree is actually painted in navy watercolour paint although it looks pretty close to black.

Posted on April 5, 2010April 5, 2010 by Kirsten — 3 Comments

Two new works

I love holidays! I get so much painting done 🙂

Here’s what I’ve been working on:

“Sunset Joy”

I’m hoping to donate this painting to the Cerebal Palsy League’s ‘Art for Arts Sake‘ charity auction next month (it has to be accepted first so fingers crossed!)

“Evening Song”

This one is going to be sent to someone special 🙂

I’ve also been working on some new canvas works – I’ll post details here soon. I hope everyone had a lovely Easter long weekend!

Posted on March 29, 2010 by Kirsten — 2 Comments

Media Mention

Well, sort of. You may remember I donated one of my paintings, a watercolour entitled “Reach” to the Young Variety Heart Art Show. While I wasn’t able to attend on the night, I was pleased to be able to support the charity with my donation.

Yesterday, a friend of mine mentioned she had seen a painting that looked very much like one of mine in the free newspaper given out on trains, MX. She gave me a copy, and Lo and Behold, it was my painting:

I’m not mentioned by name, but that is definitely my painting “Reach”. Even though it’s only a free newspaper, I was thrilled to see my painting there! I’m also really happy that my style is distinctive enough for someone to be able to tell it’s one of my paintings even though my name isn’t on it.

Posted on March 28, 2010 by Kirsten

My Latest Work…

My latest work is an acrylic on canvas, the first I’ve done since completing a commission last year. It’s taken me a few weeks to finish, because I just didn’t want to let it go – I kept adding more and more detail. I finally put the finishing touches on it today. I’ve titled it “A Winter Memory”.

In other news, my painting “Persistent Illusion” has been featured on the blog Pardalote Flits. You may remember I was paired up with Michelle from Pardalote in our most recent DUST swap. Her hand-beaded jewellery is gorgeous and I’m honoured to be featured on her blog!
I’d love to hear some feedback on my latest painting 🙂

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Kirsten — 3 Comments

Creating “Brave”

As promised (OK, a little later than promised, but still!) here’s my step-by-step for the creation of my latest painting, “Brave”.

Creating "Brave" - step 2 — Step 2: Using masking fluid, I masked off the edge of the paper and created three separate panels.

Creating "Brave" - step 3 — Step 3 - Colour washes for the background. Here I've done the first two. I tried to give a feeling of the day passing - using the colours of sunrise, midday and twilight.

Creating "Brave" - Step 4 — Step 4: As I wanted to convey the idea of the same tree and bird changing over time, I wanted my tree to look the same in each panel. I usually paint my trees freeform, without sketching them first. This time, I sketched a tree in pencil first, and transferred it to the 3 panels so each would be the same.

Step 5 - 3rd background wash. I did this panel a little later as I was waiting for the masking fluid I used to create the stars to dry. Step 6 - The tree sketch transferred onto each panel of the painting. Step 7 - Trees and birdies painted in. Step 8 - Masking fluid rubbed off, painting completed!! Hope you liked learning about how I created this painting 🙂

Posted on March 5, 2010March 5, 2010 by Kirsten — 3 Comments

Saturday Selections – Queen Anne’s Lace

I remember when I was a kid there was an empty field (we called it “the bush” even though there were hardly any trees), where we used to love to go exploring. One Spring the field was filled with Queen Anne’s Lace, and to my young eyes it was an amazing sight. I gathered up armfuls of the beautiful flowers to take home to Mum – who was slightly less than impressed, and explained to me that they were weeds 😛

I still love the simple beauty of Queen Anne’s Lace, and last weekend was inspired by the memory to create this painting:

I had a browse around Etsy for Queen Anne’s Lace themed items, and was amazed at how many beautiful things I saw! It was really difficult to narrow it down to a few items for this week’s Saturday Selections. Here’s what I came up with:

First up is this gorgeous Teal Green Queen Anne’s Lace Jersey Scarf by Papavier. It looks so soft and cuddly and I love the asymmetrical design.

What better to pair such a gorgeous scarf with than this Ecofriendly Hemp Bag featuring Queen Anne’s Lace by Uzura? The colour matches beautifully, and I love the contrast of the dark Queen Anne’s Lace on this bag compared to the light design on the scarf. It’s eco-friendly and big enough to fit all your bits and pieces in, and maybe a bit of shopping too – perfect for taking to a handmade market!

I knew I wanted to include a pendant in this post, and there were so many beautiful ones to pick from on Etsy that I agonized over my choice for a while. In the end, I was won over by this amazing Engraved Queen Anne’s Lace locket by Star Creations. The detail is just incredible and I love the little bird’s nest.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little trip down memory lane 🙂 Try doing a search for “Queen Anne’s Lace” on Etsy – there really are hundreds of beautiful things to find – and don’t forget to check out the stores of the lovely people I’ve featured today. Have a great weekend!

Posted on February 28, 2010February 28, 2010 by Kirsten — 1 Comment

A Productive Weekend

It’s been a great weekend for me art-wise!

Yesterday I presented a talk and tutorial to the lovely ladies of the Springfield Lakes Art Group. I demonstrated some of my watercolour techniques to them, and talked a little about my keepsake boxes and promoting art with Etsy. I was really nervous but had a great time.

This is the painting I did as part of my demonstration:

Today I finished and delivered the commissioned piece I was working on for a dear friend of mine. It was very satisfying to see it finally hanging on the wall:

As one door closes, another opens they say – well, as I completed this commission, I received a new one – a customer wants a personalised painting similar to a painting I sold titled “When it is Dark Enough”. I look forward to the challenge of creating a piece she’ll enjoy!

I finished two other watercolours this weekend too, titled Poppy Field and Winter’s End. I also started work on two acrylic paintings which I hope to include in the upcoming Abundance exhibition.

I got a print done of my Sunset Storm painting for a customer in the US, and at the same time did some 4″ x 6″ prints of various paintings to make into cards. I also put in an order for some new business cards from Moo.

As you can see, I got a LOT done this weekend – I didn’t get any housework at all done besides cooking dinner tonight, so I owe it all to my wonderful husband that I got so much arty stuff done 🙂

Posted on February 10, 2010February 10, 2010 by Kirsten

I’m a writer!!

I’m excited to announce that I’ve been invited to write for Handmade Spark.

The site is designed for sellers and buyers to connect. Through the blog sellers wil learn about marketing, blogging, how tos, and much more. Buyers will find new shops and items through the handmade features posted by me and a group of writers. Handmade Spark is also a directory where sellers can submit their links, like Twitter, Facebook , and blogs.

I’m really excited to be involved, and I hope I can bring a little something different to the website as I’m so far the only Aussie writer.

My first post is about ACEOs. I was inspired by the fact that I made my own first batch of ACEOs this weekend. I love the way they look on the little easel! If you’d like to find out more about ACEOs, you can read my post on Handmade Spark.

aceos

In other news, my painting Two Hearts, One Love has been featured on a Valentine’s Day post at Calico & Co., the Indie & Handmade Blog. There are lots of other pretty things there too! 🙂