Etchings And Other Lovelies

I have really noticed recently the huge number of artists who now have blogs. Not just amateurs like myself but professional artists and craftspeople too. Often when I put in a link to an artists website or Flickr page or Etsy there is often a blog to be linked to as well. Personally, I think it is a wonderful thing because you are able to see how artists go about the business of creating their art or craftwork, the inspiration behind it, the processes involved and the reactions of people viewing the work. What did we do before blogging..?

Fox In A Magical Land

Mischievous Bird - I think I may do a digital coloured version of this when I have a bit more time.

A bit of fibre tipped illustration

These beautiful mosaic pieces are by Russian self-taught mosaicist Irina Charny. Irina incorporates found objects such as bits of seashore glass, beads, wire and buttons etc into her work as well as traditional tesserae. She has a website here and some wonderful examples of her beautifully intricate and finely detailed artwork. Her butterflies in particular are wonderful.

Mariposa

Fortuna

I have been walking out and about in the countryside recently and taking some early autumn photos. The weather has been warm and dry and very nice to walk in, but I am eagerly awaiting the autumnal mists when photography becomes very special and mundane places appear magical. We have been promised that for early October, but can we rely on the weather forecast...hmmm.

Even weeds can appear pretty in close up.

This is a very friendly local horse who I often stop to have a chat with. I don't think he is very interested in conversation but he did oblige me with a nice pose.

Early Autumn Farmland

A couple of weeks ago I made my yearly craft pilgrimage to Stonor Craft Fair in Oxfordshire. Stonor is a tiny village with some beautiful buildings and gorgeous old barns, and is surrounded by undulating hills and woods. It is an idyllic spot and has a wonderful atmosphere. I have visited Stonor House in the past and it is a fascinating home with an intriguing history. The manor house has been owned by the same family for 850 years and the chapel dates from the 1200s and is situated on what was once a stone circle. One of the stones is incorporated into the chapel wall and the others have been rearranged on the lawn.

The craft fair is one of the best in the south-east of England and is very well attended. I spent a really enjoyable few hours there.

Stonor House

Marquees at Stonor
One of the exhibitors at Stonor was Leon Evans who is an illustrator and graphic artist who works in pencil and watercolour primarily. He was displaying his wildlife art at Stonor and the two scratchboard images below really caught my attention. Having cats myself I could see that he had rendered these animals beautifully. I hadn't really come across scratchboard work before and he explained the technique to me in detail. I might get some scratchboard myself and have a go. Looks like fun. You can see Leon's website here.

These delightful cards are produced by using scratchboard by Leon. They are so cute I couldn't resist them.

I really like the almost naive simplicity of Esther Brimage's work. Esther is a UK printmaker who trained in both illustration and printmaking. You can find more of her work on her website here.

Girl With A Dog

Morning Star

I love visiting John Lewis Department Stores. All those lovely items under one roof - a browsers paradise. I particularly like their carpet and rug department. There are so many lovely contemporary designs around now, as well as the traditional rugs of years ago. So lovely to handle them too; the thick warm tactile textures. You could imagine just lying on them in front of a roaring fire - in winter of course. The three below particularly caught my eye for their graphic designs and muted palatte.

Cheese Plant Rug

Harlequin Arcadia Rug

Silhouette Leaf Rug

These gorgeous etchings below are all the work of award winning Latvian artist/printmaker Marina Terauds. I love etchings anyway but Marina's are particularly beautiful. She has a wonderful detailed style and use of subtle colour. Her subject matter includes mythology, nature, the seasons, birds, trees, fairies and lots more lovely things. If you love her work you will be delighted by her website here with lots more images to look at.

Marina also has a blog where you can see more of her inspirations, work and life here.

Summer II

Dream II

Nuthatch II

Sounds Of The Sea

Sun Moon Fairies

Bird In Hand

Fairy's Music

Lady In Hat

Ceramic Figures and Stripes

This is a digital drawing called Dreaming In Stripes. I have drawn quite a few stripey artworks lately so I will probably have a rest from them. I do like stripes though...!

It has been a while since I posted a quirky drawing so here it is. Balancing On Buttons.

A little bit out of season but this is Winter Fox in ink and watercolour

Does anyone else stockpile greetings cards to keep handy in case of necessity? I have a wonderful collection but unfortunately I like most of them too much to part with them. So, a large collection of cards but only about a fifth of them available for sending to people. My two latest cards are both by Canns Down Press from their Royal Academy range but they do lots of other cards in other ranges. You can find their site here.

Sussex Landscape by Eric Ravilious

Bird's Nest Pattern by Edward Bawden

Harking back to Waterperry; they have some lovely statues in the gardens and these are two of my favourites. Miranda from Shakespeare's The Tempest is below. She resides at one end of the long pond and was sculpted by Tanya Russel. She is well liked by the local spiders judging by the webs on the detail picture.

Lamp of Wisdom by Nathan David. This lovely girl is holding court in the formal garden.

Another lucky charity bookshop find recently was the embroidery book by Verina Warren below. Verina Warren is one of the most talented textile artists in the UK. I have met her at shows and seen her work first hand and it is fabulous. Photos could never do it justice. She paints her backgrounds and then stitches into them to create beautiful textiles. She has a wonderful sense of colour and design. I was pleased to find her book, which, although written in the mid-80s is still very interesting and applicable today. She shows lots of ways in which natural surroundings can be used for contemporary design and embroidery. The book is published by Batsford and can be found here at Amazon UK. But, amazingly enough, I see there are several copies for £0.01. That is even better than my charity shop find. Aren't Amazon amazing for finding out of date book bargains? Verina has a lovely website here with lots of images of her stunning textiles.

Pages from Landscape In Embroidery

Embroidered textiles by Verina Warren.

Dorset Hills

Daisy Field

Music Of The Wind

Has anyone else got a passion for alliums? I think they are absolutely gorgeous flowers. Strange that they are related to the very humble onion. We have quite a few in our garden but there is always room for more and luckily they do spread quite easily. I always ensure a thorough shaking of the seedheed at the end of summer just in case. I expect the slugs feast on them when I am not looking but it makes me feel I am doing something to increase the yield.

We start off quite early in the spring with this beauty.

And going swiftly to this (which is actually not in our garden at all but in a local churchyard).

And stopping off by this on a VERY wet day. (This is one of ours and the poor bee did dry out eventually and live to tell the tale.)

And finally to this which I think is just as beautiful in its own way and very photogenic. I also have a passion for seedheads and alliums are particularly fine. I think I can feel an allium drawing coming on...!

I found the intriguing work of Zoe Rubens whilst I was looking for someone else on the Internet. I was amazed at her talent at both printmaking and ceramic and metal sculpture and altered art. She has developed her own techniques and produces very distinctive and quite complex work. Zoe works from a studio in East Anglia. She has a website here and also a very comprehensive display of her work on her Flickr site here. Well worth a visit.

The Lioness Tamer's Tea Party

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Angel In The Bath Etching

These gorgeous ceramic sculptures were created by the very talented Elya Yalonetski who studied ceramics in Russia before moving to Israel, Moscow and Berlin. I find her work enormously appealing because she likes to sculpt similar subjects to the ones I like to paint and draw ie. angels and ladies with birds on their heads. Her work is whimsical and quirky but beautifully detailed. Elya has an Etsy shop here and you can find lots more of her ceramic delights on the Abramtsevo site here and also on Flickr here.