Keeping The Kitties Calm

We had Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night a few days ago when effigies of Guy Fawkes are burned on bonfires, and firework displays take place all over the country. As children we were thrilled with bonfire night and loved saving our money to buy as many fireworks as possible, but these days, sadly, I think it is just a waste of money. The fireworks are very expensive and many of them don't last very long. A large public display is the best way to see the very best fireworks. Personally, I prefer to stay at home and keep the cats company. One of them is deaf but the other finds the noise very distressing, especially the really loud bangers.

I haven't done much in the way of new artwork this week as I am still knee deep in Christmas cards. Making that is, not writing - that will be the next thing.

I thought I would draw some fallow deer instead of red deer for a change. I like their palmate antlers. We have herds of fallow deer in a forest estate a few miles away and it is good fun to drive through the area and see if you can spot the deer. It is a vast area so you are very lucky if you can get a glimpse of them. This picture is called "Sheltered".

This is Mischievous Bird which is the coloured version of the pen and ink drawing I did a while back.

Lindsey Hambleton is a Derbyshire artist who paints beautifully vibrant and colourful images of the English landscape. She builds up her paintings with textures and glazes which give a lovely sense of light. There is lots of gorgeous art on her website here (don't forget to check out the archives). She is also involved in painting scenes from an ancient trackway in Derbyshire called The Derbyshire Portway. Details of which can be found on the website also. I used to live in Derbyshire myself for a short period as a child and the scenery and landscapes of the Peak District are simply wonderful.

Cattle On The Horizon

Ilam Church

If you are like me and love a nice cup of tea, what could be more fun than making it in one of these gorgeous teapots. I think in this day and age of instant teabags in cups and mugs, the poor old teapot is losing ground. It is great to think nostalgically of times past when the teapot sat on its trivet, centre table, with its woolly hat on and the tea left to steep. Yuck...I loathe strong tea. I actually do make tea in a mug and the bag is left in for seconds before being whipped out. I still like the idea of a nice teapot though...! These pots are from Onehappystore here.

Funky Rooster Teapot

Garden Dance Teapot

Frizzle Chicken Teapot

I took a stroll past a local church the other day and took some pictures of my favourite lime trees. At least I think they are limes. They were just starting to turn a beautiful greeny, goldy, brown colour, and looked beautiful against the grey stone of the ancient building. The church dates from 1140 AD but stands on ground which was revered before that date.

I have discovered a new greetings card producer whose work I totally love. Her name is Diane Williams and she goes under the name of "Bird". You can check out her website here. She paints the most gorgeous animal and bird images in gouache and acrylic and also produces greetings cards from them. Below are the three I bought. There are lots more in the series but the shop I bought them from only carried about 6 different designs. If I had owned the shop I would have stocked them all. Diane's paintings are so beautifully delicate, colourful and detailed and each card is signed by her in pencil. The trouble is you would want to keep the cards for yourself instead of sending them to people.

I have used watercolour for years but never really tried gouache. If these are the results you can get I think I will have to start using them.

Geese

Cock Pheasant

Brown Hare

I first came across Grainne (pronounced Grawn-yuh) Morton at the Chelsea Craft Fair which is held in the in the Old Town Hall, King's Road, Chelsea. This was quite a few years ago because I haven't visited for some time now. Her intriguing metallic contemporary jewellery made quite an impact. She uses lots of miniature pieces of found and vintage items to create her beautifully designed work. Go here to find lots more jewellery and other items.

Row Of Flowers Brooch

Blue Horse Collage Brooch

Butterfly Bracelet

The two images below are the work of artist/printmaker Rosemary Farrer. Rosemary admits to being inspired by nature and it shows in the beautiful work on her website here.

First Worm

Snow In Kew Gardens

I love these cushions by Rustique Interiors. Lovely and "folky" tweed with appliqued hearts. They can be found, among other lovely items, here.

Some people will already know of the work of Elaine Pamphilon as she is well-known and represented in the UK's galleries. Her work is beautifully naive and contemporary and full of colour. She paints what she loves which is an excellent reason for painting. Much of her inspiration comes from the lovely coastal area around St. Ives. I love her spontaneous and free style of painting mugs especially, and, of course, her delightful birds. So quirky and whimsical. You can find a huge display of her work on her website here and also at the Bircham Gallery site here.

Blackbird And Berries

Mug And Spoon St. Ives

Molly Talking To The Birds

Sea Song At St. Ives

Bird

Eye Candy

This is a digital drawing titled "Peaceful Birds". I think perhaps it could be improved with smaller leaves and bigger birds....ha ha.

and this is the sketch of the original idea. I liked the design even as a really rough drawing.

These are pen and ink drawings which were originally designed for handmade greetings cards but I never got around to putting them on the cards. I think they look nicer as a montage of coloured trees in a very surreal landscape.

This is a pen and ink drawing with a bit of digital red. It took ages to do all those feathers.

Stripey Hats - a very quirky digital drawing

I love this gorgeous pastel. It is called Butterfly Boy and is by Sharon Yamamoto. I met Sharon some years ago at a craft fair. She is a Japanese American artist whose work is delightfully mystical and magical. She produces some of her images on ceramic art tiles and the colours are vivid and vibrant and much more intense than paintings. I recommend a visit to her lovely website here.

Sunrise Voyage - Sharon Yamamoto

Some tulips and apple blossom to get us in the mood for spring. I am hoping the apple blossom will be out soon as I want to take some new photos. The forecast predicts a very cold week though, so perhaps we shall have to wait a little longer for spring to arrive.

It is March the first today so it must be St. David's Day. So to all the Welsh people all over the world - Cyfarchion - which I hope, translated, says greetings.

I found these delightful geese on the internet the other day. They are the work of mixed media artist Kathleen Mattox who has a blog here.

I had a lovely gift in the post from Catriona Millar. You may remember that she was my featured artist on December 13th 2008. She emailed me about the blog post and said she would send me a copy of the recipe book which features her artwork. I received it the other day and it is a wonderful book called Fun with Spinach by Mike Robson. It has lots of beautiful paintings by Catriona. So thank you very much Catriona and the best of luck with your delightful art. Catriona's website is here if you want to pop over and have a browse.

I have decided that this is my absolute favourite of Catriona's paintings. I just love the theme and the pastel colours she has used.

The embroideries and artwork below are all the work of English textile artist Audrey Walker. She is the daughter of a Cumbrian embroideress and produces textile work which is almost painted on the cloth by her stitches. She originally trained as a painter in Edinburgh and has always been particularly interested in figurative work. Her work is layered with fabric and millions of machine or hand stitches. Her sense of colour, shade and tone is incredibly subtle and beautiful.

I have met Audrey at the Knitting and Stitching Show in London in the past and have also visited exhibitions of her work and it is truly lovely. Some of her pieces are huge and you have to stand back quite a distance to appreciate them fully. It must take hours and hours of painstaking work to put in so many tiny stitches but what she produces is well worth the effort.

I love the way her subjects gaze at each other and into the distance; speaking without words. There is a quality of mystery and stillness about them. Most of the pictures are from a Ruthin Craft Centre book that I bought some time ago and also the superb Diana Springall book called Inspired to Stitch which has to be one of my favourite books - but that is another story.

Temptation

Study for Woman at Window

Adam and Eve

Hear No Evil

Who's There

Beach Woman

Study For Temptation

Gaze 1v

This image shows the detailed stitching in Audrey Walker's work. Close up the stitching is very visible but she has such an comprehensive knowledge of shades and tones, that if you stand away from the art, it all gells together to make sense of the form. You will probably need to enlarge the image to see the stitching properly.

I have had a good week drawing on the computer. Birds have made their appearance again...don't they always. If it wasn't for birds my repertoire would be very much smaller.

After posting a picture of an Anita Jeram kitty last week I am now thinking about drawing cats. Cats are easy to draw in pointillism but that style takes months to do so I will have to think of a different technique of making a cat look like a cat, or I may just draw a stylised cat. The wonderful thing about stylising images is that no one can look at them and say they are wrong. They can be whatever you want them to be as long as they vaguely resemble felis catus. Having two cats in our house and family and neighbours with cats, there is no shortage of inspirational material.

Tag - Seven Things I Love And Pretty Pictures

This is a pen and ink drawing called "Out Of Place, Out Of Time". I tried a new ink technique to draw the tree and get some texture into it and I think it worked quite well.

This is called multicoloured tree for fairly obvious reasons. It is a design I have used several times in different colours because I like the shape of the tree so much.

This is a pen and ink and digital image which I had fun playing around with.

I found some nice geese photos the other day and thought they would translate nicely into this scene. Quite a subdued palatte this time.

I fell in love with this delightful image by Anita Jeram for Two Bad Mice cards. I think this cat has so much character. I would love to find him sitting among the flowers in our garden.

I found another lovely card by the Japanese company Mocchi Mocci. Their cards are too nice to give away so I collect them myself.

I was given a lovely blogger award (thank you Caroline) and tagged the other day by Caroline of the delightful Caroline's Studio blog. I have to post 7 things that I love. That is easy peasy for me as I have trillions of things I love but I will try to whittle the list down to manageable proportions. Caroline illustrated her list with images, which is a great idea, so I am going to do the same thing.

You can see I have found the Text Colour button on blogger, can't you....lol. Didn't even know they had one!

7 Things I Love

1) Bluebell woods in springtime. This one is close to where I live.

2) Art and Craft and other inspirational books. This is a tiny proportion of my collection!!!

3) Ancient churches like this one in South Bucks which dates back over a thousand years and contains Roman masonry in its fabric.

4) Wonderful old trees like this amazing ash tree at Clapton Court in Somerset and photographed for Thomas Pakenham's beautifully illustrated "Meetings with Remarkable Trees".

5) Split into two between my two cats - Tiggy

and Jack

6) Rooks (real and artistic) like this beautifully illustrated one by Deborah King in her childrens' book called Rook.

7) New York Baked Cheesecake posted by Flickrite {vickybee} ties with the wonderful Il Divo. To eat a piece of cheesecake whilst listening to Il Divo is the ultimate of course.

The following beautiful images are the work of English landscape painter Mervyn Goode.

Autumn Track

Sheep And Frosty Shadows

Foxgloves And Gate

Sheep Beside The Stile

Oak And Stile

Spring Tree

Field Maple

Autumn Glow

One month to go till Spring. I cannot believe the winter is passing so quickly. The spring flowers have arrived with mild, balmy weather. I remember reading as a child that time seems to pass more quickly as we age but this is worse than I imagined. I don't get half the things done in a day that I used to....very worrying!

Mervyn Goode is one of my favourite English landscape painters. He has an amazing gift creating art which shows us the England we used to have and would like to have again. He originally studied landscape architecture but then decided to become a painter. His work is very distinctive and his style readily recognisable. It is easy to see that he has a great love of nature, trees and the countryside and enjoys portraying it in his own way. He has exhibited widely and successfully for many years. He lives amid the beautiful scenery of Hampshire and so must have lots of inspiration for his work. I used to live in Hampshire myself and it is a lovely county.

You can find his art on many sites on the Internet but the Bourne Gallery have a good display and also the Nevill Gallery.