Blog Anniversary Giveaway Winners

The winners of my first anniversary blog giveaway are Pamela of From The House of Edward blog, Dolores from True Blue Canadian blog and Robyn from Art Propelled. If you could let me know your mail addresses ladies I will send the prints asap.

This is a digital piece entitled "The Place of Dancing". It was from the title of a song I heard a while back and liked.

I must say a big thank you to Caroline for this great blog award I received a little while ago. Pop over and have a peek at her lovely blog at Caroline's Studio and say hello. I have a very healthy clutch of awards now from some great bloggers.

I had a nice little sea poem to post with this pen and ink drawing but in the end it wasn't applicable. It mentioned ships and my little boat is anything but. This is called "Safe Harbour".

This is a pen and ink drawing with digital colouring. Originally I was going to keep it all black and white but a tiny bit of colour crept in - like it does.

The cherry blossom is in full bloom locally and looks fabulous. So pretty when the sun is shining on it which it has a lot lately. I think summer has come early. I noticed today that another favourite of mine, the lilac, is out. Such a plentitude of flowers in spring.

Four lovely linocut prints by Robert Taverner who died in 2004 after 50 years as a printmaker. There is a lovely collection of his prints here.

Pollarded Trees and Houses

Pony and Paddock

Cottages and Reeds

Flint Barn

I really like these beautiful, contemporary sculptures by Australian, Sally Curry. So simple with lovely textures. Sally handbuilds her figures using earthenware terracotta. You can find a lovely display of her work at The Handmark Gallery.

One World

Gift From Crete

Flora

I have just discovered another treat from Mark Hearld. This is called St. Paul's Pigeons and is a collage. Love the bright colours. Pigeons are such common and humble birds but some artists have the ability to make them appear special, and Mark Hearld is one of them.

These little sculptures are delightful. I love the colour combination of the turquoise and yellow animal. They are by Allen and Mary Dee Dodge and they produce lots of interesting sculptures and figurines which can found on their website here.

The lovely images below were created by Suffok painter and printmaker Penny Bhadresa. She uses mainly linocut techniques but also collage, mixed media, acrylic and watercolour. Her subject matter reflects her love of nature, landscape and architecture. Her style is bold, colourful and graphic and she imbues her work with lots of shapes, texture and patterns. I love stylised art and I find her work very compelling. The hares particularly seem to have a sense of myth about them. She is a very successful artist and can be found in many galleries, among them St. Judes Gallery and Cambridgegallery. Penny's own website can be found here. The two acrylic paintings were from an article about Penny in "The Artist" magazine in 2004.

Harvest Hares

When The Boat Comes In

The Wild One

The Boxers

Guinea Fowl (Acrylic)

Snow Sprinter

Apples and Pears

Snow Fowl

Black Hens (Acrylic)

I decided to visit our local car boot sale as it was a lovely spring morning. I have watched as this boot sale has grown over the years from just a few stalls to a whole field full and it is now one of the most popular ones in the area. This sale is very organised as all the stalls are in neat rows which make it easy to know where you have been. Occasionally you can come across an absolute gem for next to nothing but most of the stuff is, frankly, tat. There seems to be a huge market for other peoples' tat. It makes me smile to see what dreadful things people have given house room to. I wish I could have taken some photos for you but I thought that might be frowned upon. A couple of classics were the dachshund crudely made of straw with bits of string tied at strategic points to stop the animal falling apart, and the huge pink metal flamingo with a light attached to the body like a huge, walking lamp. Just a couple of items that should have been consigned to the rubbish tip many moons ago. Did I buy anything?...well yes I did. Three brand new little glasses for 60p (ours keep getting broken) and a DVD of Pan's Labyrinth for £2. It is a wonderfully bizarre, creepy film with very dark undertones. Definitely not your average fairy tale. I am very satisfied with my purchases today.

First Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway

I have now been blogging for a WHOLE YEAR....taa daa. Time for another giveaway to mark the occasion. If you want to enter a comment on this post I will draw three people out of the hat (or other receptacle) on Sunday and send each a copy of my print below.

These are the three prints that I will be giving away. Although this is a photograph of them, the colour on the computer is always brighter than in real life.

This is the actual digital image of my folk angel. This drawing has been waiting unfinished on my worktable for several months because I didn't know what else to do with it, but it does look well in colour.

Pen and ink oystercatchers with a hint of digital colour. I love oystercatchers. They are such pretty birds and lend themselves very well to artwork

A fishy tale in watercolour and ink

The images below are the artwork of illustrator and artist Stuart Kolakovic. I love his folk art style and his wonderful palettes. I was inspired to create my folk angel with a similar palette to his but mine is quite a bit brighter. These are very contemporary but also traditional. I love his work and you can find more on his website here. He also has an Etsy shop here.

These lovely papier mache creations are by Julianna Bollini who has pages full of them and other delightful creature on her Flickr site which you can see here. She also has a website called Barco de Papel which the Internet translates from Spanish as "ship of role". No idea what that means but it must be good. She has a lovely blog here if you speak Spanish, or you can just look at the great photos.

Nancy Nicholson is a English collage and embroidery artist and she produces some lovely work. These contemporary embroidered birds are stunning. Unfortunately there is very little about her on the Internet.

Cannot have spring without some sheep and lambs. I love the little black faced fellow in the second picture. He looks as if he should be the black faced mum's lamb but she already has two pristine white ones. I am sure he was reunited with his real mum though.

Aren't the spring flowers wonderful at the moment. Forget-me-nots don't look very much from a distance but if you get the camera lens really close, they are very special.

If anyone wants a real treat, listen to Andrea Bocelli and Hayley Westenra singing Viva Per Lei whilst two amazing skaters are performing on youtube. I love listening to youtube music when I am writing my blog.

These delightful ceramics are by Kazakhstan artist Natalya Sots. Natalya lives in Chicago now and has a shop on Etsy where I first saw her work. Her modelling, colours and sense of humour are such a treat. Her Etsy shop is here. She also has a website here and a Flickr site here with lots of pictures of her work. I love the cat with a bird on its head.

The images below are the artwork of Geoge Birrell. George is a Scot who trained in Glasgow and started painting full time in 1989. Much of his subject matter relates to the buildings and fishing villages of Scotland. His beautiful paintings are bold, graphic, well designed and very colourful. His work also seems to have a stylised and slightly naive quality about it which, in my opinion, is much nicer than a exact rendering of the subject. It is amazing how many exceptional artists come from Scotland. There are masses of sites on the Internet showing George's work but the following sites here and here and here give a good display.

Autumn Garden - this is definitely my favourite of his work. I love the explosion of gorgeous colours.

Chateau Ecossais 2

Blue Mill

Boats and Tarry Wall

Castle Saltire

Harbour Blues 2

Mill and Moon, Orkney
Net Profit

Five Boats

Crowsteps

I cannot believe I have been blogging for a whole year this week. That time has simply disappeared I know not where. I must say I do enjoy it, although it takes up a lot of time and quite a bit of effort. I am always amazed when I read blogs which were started in 2005 or 2006. Those people must have great dedication to have carried on so long. Regarding mine, the pictures come easily, it is the words I have to search for.

I expect everyone in the whole world knows of Scot Susan Boyle by now. How to go from being unknown to becoming so famous in just one evening. What a mad, mad, world we live in. I think she deserves it though. She seems a really nice, down-to-earth person.