Summer Blog Holiday - Next Post 19 September

I have had such a busy week that I haven't had much time for creating artwork so the pieces below were both done quite quickly. I have plans for doing much more in the next couple of weeks as I am taking my summer blog holiday. The weather is quite autumnal now and the nights very chilly. Where has the summer gone? It only seemed like yesterday that we were admiring the spring greenery and now the leaves are starting to turn golden. I daren't mention the C word but I am starting to think about what image to use for my C cards.

I really enjoyed drawing this cute little pen and ink bird. Very decorative.

Pen and ink portrait of a woman

I took delivery of my moleskine for the Sketchbook Project today. This is an American based project whereby anyone who joins receives a sketchbook which they then fill up with artwork and send back to the originators. All the sketchbooks from all over the world then tour galleries and museums all over the country, before reaching the Brooklyn Art Library where anyone can view them. Finally they are put on the Internet for even more people to browse. I think it is a brilliant idea. You have to make sure you return your book to them before Jan 15 2011. I first learned about it from the lovely Caroline's studio as she is also participating. You chose your theme and then get sketching. My theme is "if you lived here" and I chose that because I can do lots of quirky little habitations. That theme has gone now but there are still a lot more to choose from. The Sketchbook Project website is here if you want to take a look.

I will be posting some of my sketches for the book in the coming weeks.

On a visit to the lovely and ancient market town of Thame recently I visited the huge and beautiful church. I found a couple of interesting pieces of statuary in the churchyard. The dog below is so lifelike it could almost be real,

but it belongs to this stone dedicated to a local animal lover.

This was the only angel I found but she is a beauty. If you look carefully she seems to be gazing at a brown moth.

It looks like it was carved but was definitely alive.

I found a lovely pigeon perched on a gravestone and just asking for his photo to be taken. The strong sunlight really brings out the colours of the stones.

A cute and tiny Thame cottage. It doesn't go back very far either. Just one up one down by the looks of it. Bit of a little doll's house really. I definitely wouldn't have enough space for all my books in there.

I found several interesting books in charity shops in Thame too. One of them is Drawing Techniques by Giovanni Civardi. I will tell you about the others in a later post. It is only a slim book but has some lovely pencil and ink illustrations and techniques about how to achieve them. I would like to spend a bit more time drawing with my pens as I feel I have neglected them a bit lately. Oddly enough I could have bought this book used for 74p from Amazon plus postage but at least my donation went to a good cause. Isn't Amazon amazing? It is no wonder they are loathed by book sellers.

Some nice flowering seedheads I spotted on my travels recently.

Flowering Artichoke

Echinops - Globe Thistle

Giant Thistle

I am a great fan of mixed media artwork although, for some reason, I don't often feature it on my blog. These gorgeous creations are the work of the very talented American artist Stephanie Rubiano. Stephanie originally trained as an scientist but found her love of art eventually took over. She is someone after my own heart with her beautiful vintage ladies and children with crowns and wings. You can see lots of her work on her website here, her Flickr site here, and her Etsy shop here.

Magpie

Eggsquisite

World Of Blossoms

Numero Uno

I visited a lovely little gallery in a local town today and found a couple of really nice greetings cards to add to my huge collection. This one is taken from a screenprint by Jane Ormes. Some of you will already be familiar with her work as she is a very popular artist. She creates wonderfully quirky screenprints and you can find lots more here at Rostra and Rooksmoor Gallery. Jane's own website is here, and she blogs here. I had to laugh that she hates men in flip flops. I think flip flops are horrible on anyone.

The second card is one by Sarah Venus of Flytrappublishing. I have mentioned Sarah and the website in a previous post. Well worth a peek here for anyone who doesn't know of them though. I think this is a great fairy linocut image.

Sarah Kirby is a UK artist and printmaker who produces the most lovely graphic linocut images. She is based at Leicester Print Workshop. She also teaches printmaking and artist book making. It would be great to take some of her workshops. I think her work is really beautiful and I particularly love her birds and trees. You can see lots more of her artwork here on her website.

Love Trees

September Bird

Mrs Griffith's Starling

72-78 New Walk