Thursday, January 14, 2010

Bags Of Art

Like everyone else I have been shocked at the extent and severity of the dreadful earthquake which affected Haiti. My heart goes out to those poor people and I hope the international aid gets through soon. Apparently it was one of the top ten worst earthquakes ever in terms of damage and mortality. Here in the UK we cannot even imagine how awful it must be for the Haitians.

Nearly all the snow has disappeared now. Our lovely magical winter landscape has gone but we did have a wonderfully clear and bright sunny day to make up for it. There is just the odd dwindling snowman here and there to remind us of what we had, and the photos of course.

A ink and digitally coloured drawing called "Nurturing".


This is a pen and ink drawing that I am working on at the moment. I have a bit of a love/hate relationships with squirrels. They do have a tendency to take over the bird tables for hours at a time. I suppose bird seed tastes better than tree bark.


A small pen and ink sketch called I Shall Not Pass This Way Again. The woman is squatting by the tree but it is a very difficult position to draw accurately and I don't think it is very convincing.


This is a design I did for my header a while back but I have reworked it. The daisy petals are coloured now instead of just the centres. I have been using it for my card backs.


Today was a brilliantly clear and warm (for winter) day. A complete and total change to the dark, snowy days we have had for the last three weeks. I could only get the top half of the tree in the photo but I took others of the bottom half of the tree. Definitely worth a drawing I think.


Shetland Pony

This is the original colour of this leaf. I haven't photoshopped it.


When I am visiting a National Trust property I usually make a beeline for the NT shop. They have some lovely items and gifts. I really like these bags. I would get plenty of books in these.

Madeleine Floyd Birdsong Bag


Double Bough Canvas Bag


Batik Canvas Bag


and with a lovely rooster design like the one on this tea cosy, it makes you wish you used a teapot instead of tea bags.
David Harban is a UK artist who has been printmaking since 1999, especially etching and aquatint. His work is quite diverse but he specialises in some amazing gargoyles and stone heads that can be found on English church and cathedral walls. You can find his website here and more of his work here at numberninethegallery.

Botanic II


Tree VI


Sheep


These two beautiful designs are from UK textile designer Brie Harrison. Brie has some more gorgeous designs on her website here. These prints would make lovely cushions. They make you think of summer a few months in advance.

Wallflowers


Sweet Marigolds


Matthew Metz is a well known American ceramic artist who decorates his work with beautiful carved images of birds, leaves, trees and iconic looking faces. He seems to have a strong folk influence but also says he is inspired by Asian, Greek and Roman pottery and early American decorative arts. I find his work fascinating and inspiring. You can find lots more of his craftwork at these sites - ferringallery and theclaystudio.




I came across UK artist and printmaker Kay McDonagh's beautiful etchings quite a long time ago on Ebay but have since seen her work on her website here and also as greetings cards. A lot of Kay's work features dogs and cats and she tries to capture the character of the animal. She certainly succeeds because her animals are full of personality and not a little humour.

Glamour Puss


Twist Of Fate


My Mouse



Top Cat

26 comments:

Caroline said...

Hi Cathy! I'm sure you're happy to be snow-free again! I must say, though that I have so enjoyed seeing all the super winter-white photos everywhere. Another very entertaining post this week - love your pink goose pic - you're so clever with this sort of image! The ceramics are striking and might inspire a lino cut! I do love the kitties too! Thank you!

Dolores said...

Cathy, I am always amazed when I look at your work. Where do your ideas come from? I went back to take a look at your book picks. Very interesting and I may just pick one up for myself.

sea-blue-sky & abstracts said...

Top notch artwork as always, absolutely beautiful, I love it all. The National Trust bags are gorgeous and your pen & ink squirrel is really lovely. Bfn. Lesley

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Lovely lovely!
The colour of that leaf! Amazing.

Cathy said...

Hi Caroline, yes the snow has all gone but we are being threatened with another fall tomorrow. Just when I wanted to go up to London too. Those ceramics are gorgeous and I agree they are very inspirational.

Cathy said...

Hi Dolores. I get my inspiration from so many sources but a huge amount comes from seeing what other artists are doing. There are so many inspiring images on the web. I could spend all day browsing if I had the time.

Cathy said...

Thanks Lesley. Those pesky little squirrels are so drawable...lol. I love those NT bags too. I might get myself one on my next visit to the local shop.

Cathy said...

Thanks Pamela. I was so surprised when that leaf came out brilliant green amongst all the dull colours of winter. Nature is a wonderful thing.

Acornmoon said...

I think you must be the most prolific blogger in town! Ten blogs in one, I need to take another look as you have posted so many wondrous things. Your drawings are so lovely, I think grey squirrels get a bad press on the whole.

Cathy said...

Thanks Valerie. Hope you enjoy checking out the artwork I have posted.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Your picture Nurturing is beautiful and your squirrel is adorable! I also love Glamour Puss, what a character. David harban's picture with the doves is also particularly lovely

Cathy said...

Hi Juliet. I really like Glamour Puss too. Kay seems to get such amazing expressions on her animals.

ArtPropelled said...

Top Cat is gorgeous and so full of character!I keep going back to look at him.

Cathy said...

I thoroughly agree Robyn. Kay McDonagh has a unique talent with characterising animals.

Old World Primitives said...

Hi Cathy,
I just adore everything that you have posted this week! The rooster print tea cozy does make me wish I used a teapot... it's so adorable. Your squirrel rendering is amazingly detailed and lifelike as well. And the cat and dog prints are just too cute.

Stephanie

Chatters said...

I love your nurturing piece, its beautiful and the squirrel is a really lovely drawing. I feel exactly the same about squirrels. I love them but then they can be little so and so's, by jumping on the table and taking all the poor birds food.

Some more lovely artwork, my favs are the cats and the sheep. Thank you for introducing me to a couple of great artists

Holly Zemak said...

A feast for the eyes this week. Nurturing is such a clever piece and I have to agree with you about the squirrels, it is a bit of a love hate relationship. They can eat you out of house and home. Well done pen and ink. I have greeting cards from Kay McDonagh.

Cathy said...

Glad you like it all Stephanie. I was thinking just the same thing about the tea cosy. I love those cockerels.

Cathy said...

You are very welcome Amanda. I have been doing my usual dashing out to chase off the squirrels to day actually. We have five of them visiting now. Goodness knows what we will do if they have little ones.

Cathy said...

Hi Holly. I love Kay McDonagh's art and I think it works very well as cards. As for those pesky squirrels....!

LOVE STITCHING RED said...

Love the Madeleine Floyd Birdsong bag and the David Harben tree, but I love all your posts and thank you so much for bringing lovely art to our attention. it must take you ages to research and find these beautiful images for our pleasure

Happy weekend
Carolyn ♥

Artist said...

love the squirell one!!

Cathy said...

Hi Carolyn. I have a file with lots of lovely artwork that I have found on the net stashed away. I do spend quite a lot of time browsing and following links though. Other peoples' work provides me with lots of inspiration as well as people who read the blog so it is labour of love really. My biggest problem is trying to think of a post title each week...haha. Mine sound so banal compared to others.

Cathy said...

Thanks Artist. I will have to get that one finished now.

Kat Mortensen said...

Hi Cathy!

I love those NT giftshop Birdsong bags; they are fantastic! Wish we had a NT here.

The cat and dog etching are really great and I would love to have any of them.

I commented below as well.

Hope things are better there weather-wise.

Take care,

Kat

Cathy said...

Hi Kat, yes the weather is back to our normal winter mode now. Cold and wet. The snow was interesting though and I loved the photos. The cat and dogs are wonderful. She is very talented. I wish I could get those sort of expressions on animals.