Craft Hope For Haiti - Setting A Great Example

After reading about the Craft Hope for Haiti shop on Etsy on a fellow bloggers post, I decided to donate a couple of my prints for the cause. They were the two below: Hiding In The Long Grass and Cockerels Amongst The Seedheads. Pleasingly they both sold quite quickly and I have just posted them both off to their new owners today. The Etsy shop is doing fantastically well and has already raised over $20,000 and sold over 1000 items for Doctors Without Borders. I think the people who are running the shop are to be congratulated for their very hard work and the time and effort they have devoted to raising such a large amount in such a short time. It is still open for both donations and sales so pop over and have a look if you haven't already. You can find the shop here and the website here.

The Time of the Owl is an ink drawing with a digital background. I can often hear an owl in the woods near to my home at night. I think it is a tawny owl and its call is mesmerising and very atmospheric. It makes me think of the 1967 novel I Heard The Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven.

A pen and ink drawing called "The Reader".

This quirky little drawing is Valentine Goose. A bit early I know.

As anyone will know who follows this blog, I am a great fan of multicoloured stripes. What better stripes can you have than these lovely Pantone mugs. For those who don't know, Pantone are a company responsible for standardising colours used in the arts, industry, computers, schools etc all over the world. A little collection of these would look very nice on our mug tree.

I visited my favourite local contemporary art and craft gallery the other day and spotted this lovely bracelet which was just calling out to me. I had seen its necklace a few weeks ago during the Christmas Exhibition but hummed and haared like you do, and then it was too late because it had been sold. This bracelet looks so dainty and pretty with its multicoloured beads and silver heart and fittings.

Ploughed fields and frost and sunlight on the tree make for a lovely winter scene.

I love the way a few leaves seem to cling on all winter.

I found a couple of lovely greetings cards the other day. This is called Winter Birds and is a screenprint by Alice Melvin. Alice is an illustrator and produces some lovely images which you can see here on her website. This is from Art Angels publishers. This is Robin from Alice's website. I love her detailed and decorative pattern approach.

I couldn't resist this stunning card by Kate Osborne. It is called Sussex Born and is published through the almanac gallery. I have mentioned Kate's beautiful watercolours before and you can find her here.

Brendan Hesmondhalgh's clay work is characterised by large, life-like representations of animals but with wonderful textures added. His birds and animals have wrinkles and folds of skin and feathers and all the little "faults" the real animals and birds have. I saw his work in person at Art In Action at Waterperry a few years ago and his pelicans below were garnering lots of attention. You can see more of his work here at sculpture lounge.

Two Pelicans at Art In Action Show

Hare

Hen

The exquisitely detailed works below are by UK artist Edna Bizon. She creates very realistic images of particularly still lifes, animals and nature in oil. I think "performance" below is absolutely gorgeous. You can find lots more of Edna's work at Llewellyn Alexander here.

Performance

The Garden At Leven's Hall

Startled Jersey

The Quiet Garden, Sissinghurst