This original watercolour painting is painted on high quality 9″ x 11″ watercolour paper, and is available for purchase in my Etsy store.
Prints, and products like the ones featured below, are available via Redbubble.
This painting is available for purchase via my Etsy store. Prints and products are available via Redbubble.
I love painting. Scanning my paintings and then uploading them to Etsy, Redbubble and my website, is not quite as fun. I have a bit of a backlog of paintings I need to scan and upload. I painted this one last year and I’m just getting around to posting it here. I love pastel colours although I don’t use them all that often. I like how this one turned out!
What are your thoughts. Do you prefer bright rainbows or pastel rainbows?
This painting is A4 size so it’s easy to frame without having to get a custom frame made. The original is available for purchase in my Etsy store. Prints and products like the ones featured below are available at Redbubble.
In case you can’t already tell, I love painting trees! I especially love painting trees in a whimsical, rather than true-to-life, way. Sometimes this manifests as swirling branches:
I love painting in lots of different ways – it means I never get bored. Which style is your favourite?
You can purchase my original painting Autumn Tempus from my Etsy store. Prints and products like the ones featured below are available from Redbubble.
The Heart Felt exhibition at :the mezzanine:, Entangle – Living Art, is happening in just under a week and I’m starting to get nervous excited!
This is the first time I’ve been involved in an exhibition since before my daughter was born, and I think the theme fits perfectly with my painting style. Many of my paintings, especially my ‘family tree portraits’, feature hearts and convey feelings of belonging, love and connectedness.
I really enjoy being involved in exhibitions. Not only do they give me an opportunity to showcase my work, but they also allow me to see the work of others. My husband is staying home with the kids on Friday night for the opening, so this exhibition will also an opportunity for a kid-free night out!
If you enjoy my work, I really hope you’ll take this opportunity to come and see it in person. I do my best to scan or photograph artwork carefully, but seeing it in person really brings it to life. There are also 6 other artists showcasing their work, and from what I’ve seen of their work so far, I’m extremely honoured (and maybe a little intimidated!) to be showing my work alongside theirs.
“Heart Felt” opens at 6pm on Friday 4th August at :the mezzanine: @ Entangle – Living Art, 38 Williams St, Dayboro. The exhibition runs through until August 27.
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!
How do you give a title to your artwork? This is something I often have difficulty with. I recently finished a painting I’m struggling to find a title for.
I feel like the title should help the viewer to understand the meaning and inspiration behind the work. But I want the title to be interesting and in some cases, a little mysterious – especially in my abstract work – I want the viewer to have the chance to make up their own mind.
Sometimes, a title comes to me immediately – often this is the case for the simple images – a group of colourful trees on a night sky background becomes ‘night colour’, or an image of a baby bird taking its first flight becomes ‘brave‘.
For other paintings, I have more trouble thinking of a title. Sometimes I’m inspired by quotes or poetry – My painting “Hope is the thing with feathers” is inspired by a poem by Emily Dickinson.
The title of my painting ‘Beautiful Mysterious’, of a star filled galaxy, was inspired by a quote by Albert Einstein:
Fellow artists: How do you come up with titles for your work? Is it something you struggle with, or does it come easily?
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve done more painting than I probably did during the whole of last year.
There were lots of reasons for it including work (my day job is teaching) as well as some difficult things I was going through. I just wasn’t in the mood to paint, and when I did give it a go I wasn’t happy with the results.
For one reason or another, I seem to have gotten my ‘groove’ back, and have lots of new ideas for paintings running around in my head. I’ve decided to finish off any unfinished work before I get to the new stuff.
You might remember a while back that I started a commission for some friends of mine. The challenge was to create a large acrylic on canvas version of my painting Colours of Nature. Well, I finally finished it! All those little swirls took quite a while but I’m very happy with the result. I can’t wait to see it hanging up!
After finishing this painting I felt such a sense of accomplishment, I wanted to do more!
First I painted this one, which I’m calling “Rainbow on a Cloudy Day”. It’s a LOT smaller than the one above – it’s only 4″ x 6″. It can stand up on its own so can be put on a shelf instead of hung on the wall.
After completing this one I really wanted to have a go at some other new ideas in my head (and play with some new paints) but I thought I should finish off some unfinished work. So…
I finished this one, which has been sitting and waiting patiently for more than a year for some attention. Well, it’s nearly finished anyway – all I have to do is spray on a coat of sealant and it’s done. I have done many watercolour paintings in this style, but it was a challenge to create the same effect with a canvas! I’m eager to try to do more like this.
Finally, I also finished this painting:
There was really no excuse for not getting this painting finished earlier, as all that was left to do was the tree trunks and branches – all of the detail work in the swirls was already finished. I’m very happy with how it turned out in the end!
Hopefully I will be able to keep you up-to-date with lots of new work in the future!
Because, seriously? I’ve had enough of winter. I’ve always been more of a warm weather girl. I love the way everything seems to come alive in the warmer months. The sun is up longer, people are out longer, and I get to wear nicer clothes (I get heartily sick of covering up everything in a big coat in the winter time).
So, even though it’s not *quite* spring yet, and the winter westerlies are still blowing strongly and sending the kids at school crazy (what is it with kids and wind?), I though I’d share with you some Spring Etsy favourites:
From left to right and top to bottom:
1. Inspired by the new green leaves and fresh buds of Spring, this pretty necklace is called “Spring Talk“. It’s one of the many beautiful jewellery designs from KuroNeko – I couldn’t resist adding several things to my favourites list!
2. These pretty pink and green earrings from Treasured Lily Designs are called “Spring Kissed Me Bang” – the name is inspired by the following quote: “I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face.” I’m definitely looking forward to a big old smooch from Spring!
3. I have a thing for little tins and boxes. I have more of them than I have stuff to put in them, but I find them hard to resist! These 3 Mini Tins in “Spring Field” paper from Annie Howes Keepsakes are just gorgeous!
4. Who says stubbie coolers are just for the boys? I would love to bring out these Preppy Pink and Green Can Koozies by Pink Gasoline at our next BBQ!
5. This Poppies Pleated Bag by A Touch of Stardust would be the perfect accessory for that spring outfit!
6. I’ve discovered a new favourite artist with Bit O’ Whimsey. This gorgeous print of an original mixed media painting is called “Springtime Meadows” – be sure to click on the link because I couldn’t fit the entire picture into my little collage! Like me, Kandy from Bit O’ Whimsey makes wearable art pendants from her work, so if you can’t afford an original or a print (or like me you are running out of wall space!), a pendant might just be the way to go.
I recently started work on a new canvas piece. I was hoping it would be ready for last week’s Handmade Expo, but the details are taking a while to do!
Here’s what it looks like so far:
Eventually it will be a painting of three of my swirly trees in Autumn colours. Usually I do this style of painting on a small scale in watercolours, but this one is a larger canvas painting (20″ x 24″).
You can see I’ve started the swirls on the left hand side tree – eventually all the trees will be covered in swirls. I’m also using a textured gold glass paint on this painting. I will add the trunks and branches of the trees last.
I haven’t thought of a title for this painting yet – any ideas?