Caroline Ireland and Stained Glass

I went for a slightly 20s hairdo here. The flowers are fibre tipped pen colours. Don't you just love Staedtler fine tipped pens? I am not sure if she is wearing anything apart from the flowers though...!

I like stark white trees on coloured backgrounds. Could be a bit Christmassy with a wee bit of a tweek here and there.

Pen and ink illustration of a woman and a tern. I love terns with their cute black caps. I will have to try and get my ladies to "smile". They all look far too serious for my liking. Mind you having a bird about to entangle itself in your hair is probably quite a serious matter.

Pen and ink with digital colouring. I had high hopes of this one originally but it didn't turn out as I intended. I suppose it is an example of co-ordination with nature. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

Some examples of stained glass windows found local to my home. You probably need to click on them to get a clearer version.

The following images are of artwork by Caroline Ireland and are produced using a combination of wet watercolour and pastels. I think my favourite one is the bird in the tree. It is a magical explosion of colour.

Sunday again and time for another blog. I spent some time doing one of my favourite things this week, and that is looking in old churches. I love everything about old parish churches and even better if they are over 500 years old. I think so much prayer, meditation and thinking of others in churches becomes embedded in the atmosphere, and I must say I have never been in a church and felt uncomfortable. I particularly love looking at and photographing stained glass windows. Admittedly much of the stained glass we see in our churches today is Victorian or later. The very first churches had plain glass windows. I stand and gaze in awe at the artistry and craftsmanship of the men and women who designed and made these beautiful objects. A bit like wonderful monumental sculptures of angels in churchyards, they are often overlooked. Not by me though. A church local to me actually has a tiny stained glass window dating from the 1300s. Isn't that incredible?

I have posted a couple of my photos of windows that I have discovered in my travels. Stained glass has a unique quality of colour that cannot be replicated by any artistic media that I know of. It has a intensity and vibrancy all of its own and although we all try to replicate that, we never can. I certainly cannot anyway. I have quite a few books on stained glass which I like to browse through now and again when I am looking for inspiration for colours. I particularly like the depictions of angels with the fabulous colours and patterns of the wings and the robes.

Anyway, to change the subject; my featured artist this week is Caroline Ireland. I have long been an admirer of her work but it is not for the minimalist. Her artwork has colour in spades. In fact, I think she probably uses every single shade of colour known, in each picture. I love them for their vivid, beautiful colours and patterns and mystical subject matter. She can be found at the totallyessential website here. If you click on the artists directory at the top, then click "I" on the alphabet, it will show you Caroline's name second down on the list. Some of the pictures I have posted are no longer on the website but she has lovely work there and it is well worth a look. She does with colour what none of us would dare.

Well, that is all from me this week. Hope you enjoy my artwork. I have placed it well away from Caroline's....lol.