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

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!