Internet Inspiration and Nicholas Hely Hutchinson

I really enjoyed drawing this very simple tree and bird picture. It was also inspired by a ceramic design but I cannot remember where I saw it. If it turns up again I will post it.

This image is called "A Bouquet of Tulips" - pretty self explanatory really. It is pen and ink and digital colour.

I have been meaning to post this image for ages. Do you remember a couple of months ago I said I was doing a linocut? This is my first proper linocut and I must say I am quite pleased with the result. The cutting is easy - the printing is very difficult. I take my metaphorical hat off to those people who can produce perfectly printed linocuts.

Can't have Christmas without an angel drawing. I decided to make this one very non-traditional.

She is pen and ink and coloured fibre tip pens.

This is one side of a design for gift wrap by Penny Kennedy. Lovely modern leaf motifs. Irresistible.

This is the other side of the gift wrap. Two designs for the price of one. Very nice indeed.

This Flickr upload by allerleirau really caught my eye. Presumably it started life as a pen and ink drawing. It can be found on the Flickr group Mid-century modern ceramics and table ware. I would love to own a set of these Danish designs.

I love this graphic ceramic design. It is another mid-century design but wouldn't look out of place on contemporary crocs. It was uploaded by allerleirau on Flickr.

This is an example of mid century ceramics. A lovely fun design uploaded by Flickr user littlelollylittlelegs (great name).

The paintings below are all the work of Nicholas Hely Hutchinson whose website can be found here. I recommend clicking on the pictures to enlarge them to get the best view.

I was thinking the other day how the Internet has transformed our lives as artists and craftspeople. It has opened up so many new avenues of inspiration. We have so many sources of great art and craft images on places like artists blogs, Flickr, Etsy and just typing in, say, printmakers in a search engine brings thousands of websites to our notice. What a visual feast. There are so many individual sites that we never need look at the same site twice, probably for the rest of our lives. Prior to the Internet, my personal inspiration favourites were art books and I must admit I still love them. Nowadays most of them tend to come from charity shops rather than be bought new though. It is amazing what wonderful books people give away: some of them big, glossy coffee table books originally costing £30 to £40 with fantastic photography. Most can be picked up for less than £3.

Flickr has so many art sites including drawing, painting, illustration, printmaking, doll making, cross stitch. The list is endless, with thousands of pictures on each site and most being updated daily. Before we bought our family computer, my brother wet my appetite with a fantastic tapestry site and I was hooked for life.

Nearly every artist these days seems to have a presence on the Internet from the humblest amateur to highly regarded professionals. I found a Flickr group on mid-century ceramics the other day and it opened up a whole new world of designs on cups, plates etc. Nobody can make the excuse these days that they are short of inspiration. The Internet can be a very harmful and damaging place if used unwisely but like most things in life it has a positive and negative aspect and we have to employ balance to make the best use of it.

My featured artist this week is one of my all time favourites. He is Nicholas Hely Hutchinson, an English painter living in Dorset. When you look at his work you enter a magical, surreal world of beautiful colours, delicate landscapes and supremely elegant people and animals. He uses the English countryside as his inspiration but adds magic from his own imagination. You can easily imagine elves and fairies peopling his landscapes. His work covers a broad spectrum of subject matter but my favourites are the glowing hillsides and trees which he does so well. Have a look at his extensive website here. You will be glad you did. I have a couple of old exhibition catalogues of his paintings which I treasure. Now if I could afford an original.....!

Blog Giveaway Winners and Batik Artists

I have picked the winners of my blog giveaway and I have decided that you are all winners. The nine people who left comments on the previous post are all going to receive a set of the greetings cards. I may have to reduce the white deer four to three as there are so many of you though. Perhaps you can all let me have your full names and addresses so that I can get them in the post asap before the Christmas rush begins and I hope you all like what you receive.

This is my pen and ink drawing of my own metal tiara design but inspired by the one below.

This is the photo of the lovely silver and gold tiara from the book of the same name by Geoffrey Munn.

A digitally coloured drawing of a very stylised willow tree.

Not sure what she is doing on a tree but it was fun drawing her.

This is an organic form inspired by a old book of plant photographs. I added a few bits of my own of course.

On a completely different note this is for Phyllis who shares my love of interesting and knobbly trees. This one is mega knobbly and I think it must be several hundred years old. We discovered it on a walk one day in Hertfordshire.

One of my favourite batik books with lots of lovely illustrations.

A great batik book by the Batik Guild with lots of interesting images of batiks being created and the history of the batik.

This is an artwork by Sandi McCann

The three batiks below are by Jessica Hughes. She has an amazing style and sense of colour

The two batiks below are by Alla Sviridenko. You can find the link to her website in the text at the bottom of the post.

This wonderfully coloured batik is by Susan Schneider.

The following images are by Marina Elphick. She has also illustrated books with her lovely batiks. I have posted the link to her website in the text at the bottom of the post.

Faux batik surface design

Well that is my first blog giveaway completed and I decided to make everyone a winner because it seemed a shame to choose, plus the fact that it is nearly Christmas. Also I had completed a lot of cards so I have enough to spare for everyone. I will get them finished and in the post asap. Will everyone who made a comment on the giveaway post before my last comment please let me know your names and snail mail addresses. I hope you will all like the cards. I certainly have enjoyed creating them.

My artwork this week is mainly drawing, probably because I can draw quite quickly and I haven't had a lot of time to spare. The metal tiara drawing is inspired by the picture of the actual metal tiara. I obviously didn't copy it exactly but I love the artwork itself and it is made of silver and gold which makes it rather precious. I got a book of tiaras out of the library for that picture so expect a few more as there are some wonderful ones in there.

My featured artists this week are batik artists. I love batik and have several books about it with wonderful illustrations. It is something I have always wanted to try but never got around to it. It is amazing how much detail the featured artists have created in their artwork. Alla Sviridenko is a silk painter as well as a batik artist but her work is well worth seeing whatever the method. Her website can be found here. Jessica Hughes doesn't appear to have a website but Marina Elphick can be found here. I hope you enjoy the pictures of the artworks.

50th Blog Post Giveaway

This giveaway is to celebrate my 50th blog post. I am giving away sets of eight handmade greetings cards to the lucky winners. There are one each of the four bird designs below and four of my white deer with trees design which I posted a couple of weeks ago. Go down the posts to the 2nd of November to find it. If you would like a chance of winning just leave a comment on this post before Sunday 30th November and I will put your name in the hat. If you are not a blogger you will need to let me know your email address.

These are the greetings cards for my giveaway. There are eight in total - four bird designs and four of the white deer design. All the cards are blank and will arrive with white envelopes and in cellophane wrappers.

I was trying for a dramatic costumed look with this drawing.

This image is called Victorian Necklace

I absolutely adore this wonderfully vibrant and stylised tapestry by Lilian Hill called Crested Birds. If I owned it it would have pride of place as a wall hanging where I could admire it every day.

Beautifully colourful tapestry called Sheep Among Flowers In A Meadow woven by Miriam Bawden The following artworks were all created by the multi-talented Mark Hearld and are a mixture of paintings, collages and linocuts.

This is my 50th blog post. Amazed that I have got this far really. I haven't actually been blogging for nearly a year because to start with I used to post several times a week. I gradually reduced it to weekly for convenience and time really. A weekly post suits me fine at the moment.

I have decided that my blog giveaway will be a set of eight handmade greetings cards featuring some of my new artwork and some of a previous piece from a couple of weeks ago which seemed quite popular. I had a lot of fun producing the four white bird designs but they took quite a long time. I hope whoever wins them will be pleased with their prize. I used to make a lot of handmade cards at one time but they do take quite a while as I print the image and then mount it on the cards. My computer printer isn't up to printing on stiff card so this is the only way I can do it.

I had a birthday lunch with three good friends the other day. It was quite a surprise, but a very welcome one. It took about 20 minutes to eat the meal and then 3 hours to gossip about all and sundry. We used to all work together at one time but three of us have gone on to other things. It was lovely to catch up on what everyone was doing and have a good laugh into the bargain. The world would be a duller place without friends.

My artist this week is the talented English artist Mark Hearld. He produces work via linocuts, collages, paintings and ceramics. He is inspired by the natural world and animals and birds play a large part in his work. He doesn't appear to have his own website but his work can be found at various sites including St Jude's Gallery, and The Yew Tree Gallery which shows some of his ceramics.