Winter Tightens Its Grip

Well, we are still deep in snow at the moment. This is the second fall we have had this winter. The first day was exquisite but it has gradually gone down hill since then. Our friendly neighbourhood birds are voraciously hungry and I am having to restock the bird tables twice a day. It makes me laugh to see them expending valuable energy chasing each other away from the food even though there is plenty for everyone. Interestingly enough, they only seem to chase their own species.

I decided to give the paints an airing this week so this is a watercolour and gouache piece called Pale Winter.

and here is the sketch where it began. The geese trio I photgraphed on one of my forays to the local park in the autumn.

This is a digital piece called "Deer Archetype" although the deer is rendered in pen and ink.

The beautifully surreal paintings below are the work of Irish born artist George Callaghan. He now lives in Tasmania but returns to Ireland regularly. You can find lots more of his work here and here at whiteimage.com.

The Antrim Coast, Moonlight

Down By The River

Village In The Snow

We went for a lovely long snowy walk yesterday and fed the birds along the way. The fast moving rivers were unfrozen but the lakes had a covering of ice. The sky was heavily overcast and we were expecting snow all day but only a very small covering appeared overnight. The children are all back to school now after an extra, post-Christmas week off. We had a brief snow -free week and then we had an even heavier fall to replace the first one, but there might be a hint of a thaw in the wind over the coming week.

These snowy pictures are from our first heavy fall of snow.

I often buy Magic Patch magazine even though I don't quilt. It has some beautiful photographs of quilts and this month I spotted a very talented fibre artist called Lorraine Roy. Lorraine is a Canadian who is greatly inspired by nature and she brings that love into her gorgeous quilted wall hangings. She has developed quite a complex technique which involves lots of tiny pieces of fabric and thread. I won't go into detail about this because she explains it very well on her website. Her website displays her work beautifully and if you click on the thumbnails you can get an enlarged version. She has worked lots of tree designs which I find particularly interesting. You can find her site here.

Sycamore

Red Mulberry

I read about The Keeping Quilt on another blog and as the author was very impressed with the illustrations I decided to get myself a second hand copy from Amazon for less than £2.00. It is a delightful story of a Russian Jewish immigrant family who pass the quilt down four generations and it is variously used as a wedding canopy, table cloth, blanket etc. The beautiful illustrations are pencil and only the quilt is coloured. It is a lovely book and I am very pleased with it. It is by Patricia Polacco and can be found here at Amazon.

Like lots of folk I love the beautifully graphic folk designs of Sanna Annuka and I couldn't wait to buy the biscuit tin in M & S with her design on. The biscuits were pretty special too....! The tin is now home to my large collection of pens, pencils etc.

The beautiful ceramics below are the work of Lisa Katzenstein. She hand paints her lovely designs of flowers and seeds on each vase. You can see Lisa's website here.

Leaning Vases

Tall Vase and Large Vase

Michael Rothenstein was an artist of many parts including oils, watercolours, collages and mixed media but it is for his printmaking that he is best known. He began printmaking at the age of 40 and also taught the discipline to others. Much of his work is abstract or semi abstract but it is his figurative birds and cockerels that I particularly like. I love the powerful colours and bold, graphic lines. You can find lots more of his art here at Michael Rothenstein.

Bird And Sun

Forest Birds

Cockerel Turning Round

Whirling Feathers

Red Leaves

A Mixed Bag

I hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween. We had a fairly uneventful trick or treat evening. We only had one tiny little person who was quite unrecognisable as a human being until a little voice piped up "trick or treat". I thought it safest to agree with a treat. Some years we have a flurry of rings on the doorbell and other years we don't have any.

I actually managed to get my linocut finished this week. It has been on the go for quite a while. When I am not sure how to proceed with a particular piece of art I tend to leave it for a while and then go back to it and see if something springs to mind. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. I have pieces of art that I haven't been able to finish for some months. I find, on the whole, it is helpful to go back later and see the piece with fresh eyes.

The Apple Seller

This is a watercolour of a Red Kite that I drew for a friend. I have just added a digital background but the original was on white paper. Getting the feathers right was very tricky but luckily Red Kites have now become very common (whereas once they were virtually wiped out in Britain), and there is lots of reference material around.

This is the linocut I started when I had my little blog "holiday" a few weeks ago. No it didn't take that long to do. I just put it aside because I wasn't sure what to do for the background. I decided a bird on her head would look good. My art motto could be described as "when in doubt draw a bird". I quite like it but I think I may rework the stars. They look a bit clumpy.

Every so often I like to put some of my designs on greetings cards for my and my family's use. This is the latest batch.

I was searching for something in vain the other day among all my art accountrements when I found my long lost charcoal sticks. I used to use them quite a lot years ago but then they disappeared into the great black hole that is my workroom. I can see they were bought years ago because they only cost £1 for a pack of about 20 sticks. Anyway, I decided to give them a whirl and I came up with these two very sultry ladies. I like them for doing spontaneous drawing. Most of my work is very precise and considered and it is good to break the bonds now and again. Mind you I was very dirty after this little effort. Now I remember why I stopped using them - ohh and I didn't find what I was originally searching for either.

This gorgeous graphic illustration by Mikki Rain is one of my favourites. So beautifully designed and great colours.

I found these two great card designs by "Alice Palace" which is a small company producing greetings cards in Evesham in Worcestershire. It is run by two sisters Alice and Liz and the emphasis is very much on fun. The cards have little bits of text here and there and sayings to make people feel happy and lots of magical designs. They have a wonderfully crazy website here and that includes a great blog with lots going on. I shall certainly be visiting again.

Two autumn inspired pieces - the lovely ceramic plate is by Etsy seller SayYourPiece. She produces some great ceramics here...

and a wonderful piece of graphic art by Semen Kapralov entitled Riddle Of Autumn.

I visited a local town's antique shops the other day and one of them features lots of Christmas goodies like Gisela Graham. I love her wonderful figures. There is a large range now and they are all lovely. I couldn't resist this tin Rudoph with his stripey legs and scarf and upright antlers. Here he is with my brass Rudolph that I bought from a charity shop ages ago. They seem to be getting to know one another and I am sure they will soon be firm friends...

and these are two lovely Gisela Graham girls that I bought last year. I have posted this picture before but I thought you wouldn't mind seeing it again as they are so cute.

The trees are all knee deep in their autumn colours now. Lots of beautiful browns, golds, yellows and oranges. These are all views from my locality. I think walking in autumn is the best time of year, perhaps even better than spring. I would be quite content in a world of spring and autumn only. I just wish the gorgeous colours would last longer. The weather forecast tonight is for rain and gales and that will soon bring the leaves off the trees...sigh.

I love quirky - and these pieces by Jenny Southam definitely fit the bill. Jenny creates her ceramics in hand built terracotta which is then glazed. Her characters do delightfully prosaic things like drinking tea in the orchard and painting toe nails. She has a website here with lots of her ceramics on show and a view of her wonderfully busy studio.

Pew Couple With Hearts

Lovers In An Orchard

I found a lovely card whilst out shopping the other day by an artist I am not familiar with. Her name is Lisa Hooper and she is an artist/printmaker who produces beautiful images of wildlife and nature. Her curlews are a delightful linocut and so is the wonderful hare image below. Lisa was born in Hampshire but now lives and works in Dumfries and Galloway - a beautiful area of lowland Scotland which I have visited a number of times. She also creates handmade books, and paper batiks and other forms of printmaking, as well as teaching workshops. I wished I lived up there and could take one of her workshops. You can see what she does on her interesting website here, and there are lots more of her artwork displayed at the Rockcliffe Gallery here.

A Head Of Curlews

Machars Hare

The work below is by very talented artist/printmaker Guiliana Lazzerini. Her work is very varied both in media and subject matter but one theme which is recurring is her love of her homeland in Italy, although she now lives and works in Yorkshire.. The soft, bright colours of her landscapes are beautiful. She also produces monoprints and other monochromatic scenes, and birds feature a great deal in her artwork. You can find her work in lots of galleries if you enter her name into a search engine but her own website can be found here.

Young Dreamer

Birds Watcher

Southern Village

The Messenger

Forest Breeze