It Rained On My Parade

This is a digital drawing called The Magic Land. A bit of a colour extravaganza really, but would definitely be noticed in a crowd. I don't know why blogger makes digital art look blotchy. This drawing took hours and there is definitely not a blotch in sight.

This is the preliminary sketch of The Magical Land. I didn't change the initial design as much as I usually do.

This is a digital image and as you can I wasn't quite ready to leave last week's fritillaries. This is the first time I have ever drawn a rabbit. I found the feet quite tricky.

The two images below are by artist Alexey Terenin. He grew up in Prague and was educated in Moscow. His work is very contemporary and strongly narrative and he has exhibited all over the world. I find his art visually beautiful, fascinating and intriguing. He has an extensive display of his work on his website here and if you want to see more of his art don't forget to check the gallery and the archive. I particularly love his Bridge Made Of Wings below.

A Bridge Made Of Wings Letter Delivery

I couldn't resist posting some photos of my brother and his partner's kittens. They are about 7 to 9 weeks old here and their eyes are just changing from blue to green. They are at the very active and into everything stage and also the scratching and biting stage which my poor, lacerated hands give testament to. They are little darlings though.

Abby in the basket

Mum Pixie with son Lickety

Poppy playing with dirty trainer laces Lickety

Poppy

I wandered into one of my favourite London shops to get out of the rain on Friday. Paperchase is a never-ending delight of a shop and you want to buy practically everything but I managed to hold myself back. They sell books on the top floor now and I found this little gem. It is by Elisabetta 'Kuky' Drudi and is a guide to designing and drawing patterns for fashion. It is full of wonderful pattern blocks and glorious colours and shapes. Below are three pages from the book. I am not going in for fashion design but patterns are a strong part of my artwork and this book will prove to be very inspiring I am sure.

These are some examples of the gorgeous designs from the book. Lots of complex patterns and colour combinations

I found a wonderful textile artist called Elizabeth Cook who produced the lovely items shown below. She creates eco friendly home furnishings made from felted, recycled wool and reclaimed fabrics. The items are then appliqued with gorgeous leaf designs. I think her work is simple, stylish and stunning (a nice bit of alliteration there). Her website is also beautifully designed and easy to browse and can be found here. She has lots more designs like these.

These two greetings cards are by Andrew Pavitt for Art Angels. I love the stylised, printmaker style he has used. Lots of other lovely images by Andrew can be found on his website here.

This is a Kelly Hyatt card for Beaumonde. Kelly is very well represented at Paperchase and has some lovely designs on offer. I really like this stylised peacock.

The images below are all the work of artist Robert Kipniss. I think I have found someone who loves trees almost as much as I do. Robert Kipniss is a painter/printmaker who was born in America in 1931. His work is stylised and mostly monochromatic which enables you to appreciate his beautiful lines without distraction. There is a wonderfully haunting quality to his work and trees and landscape figure strongly. I love his work for its beautiful precision and simplicity. He uses the techniques of oil, lithography, drypoint, drawing and mezzotints. As you can imagine he is very well represented by galleries and on the Internet but the Weinstein Gallery here has a huge collection of his work and is well worth a visit.

Together

An Island In The Forest

Evening Figures

Far Away

Breezes ll

Winter

A Late Awakening

It rained on my parade. I had decided to visit the Hatfield Craft Fair on Friday which involves a journey into London by train and then another out to Hatfield. I reached London but it was cold and raining heavily so I decided to visit some favourite haunts there instead of making my way to Hatfield. Hatfield Craft Fair is held outside in huge marquees but it is very unpleasant and squidgy in wet weather (believe me I have done it). It is a wonderful place on a nice day with about eight huge marquees containing masses of lovely art and crafts. Apparently it is the largest event of its kind in Europe. It is held at the Tudor palace of Hatfield House - home to Elizabeth 1. You can wander in the estate grounds which contain many massive trees of four hundred years old and more. It is worth going just to see the trees. Anyway that is all neither here nor there because I didn't go!