Showing posts with label Goddess. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goddess. Show all posts

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Quilts, Chickens and Susan Seddon Boulet

This is my latest cockerel (rooster) drawing. This is the simplified version with a white background. Quite uncluttered compared to the one below.
This is the full version. I am not too sure about this one though...it seems a bit busy to me.
This is a digital drawing with a slightly different palette to the one I use normally. A change is as good as a rest though.
This is a pen and ink drawing with a touch of digital colour. It is called "Conversation With A Black Bird".
This is one of a series of tree guardians that I created some time ago. It is pen and ink and watercolour.
I came across a book recently about the work of a wonderful American quilter called Ruth McDowell. Her quilts are amazingly complex and she does wonderful things with patterns...lots of them. I love her chickens quilt below. You can find here website here where she has a large display of quilts.
Part of another Ruth McDowell quilt
A local hen
I know how this woman feels. There are days when your hair just won't go right.
Nice beads and stripes. I think I bought this gift bag just so that I could take a photo of it.
This is the Michael Babcock book which has been written about the beautiful artwork of Susan Seddon Boulet. I discovered this book whilst on holiday with a friend in Cumbria in the 90s. I didn't get my nose out of it for the rest of the holiday...lol. The following images are the artwork of the late Susan Seddon Boulet. There are lots of links to Susan's work on the Internet but this site has an excellent display of her work. Just click on the images to get a larger version.

Pele
Athene
Changing Woman
Bird Woman

Ix Chel
Kaltes
Selene
Psyche
Titania and Oberon
Tlazolteotl
Triple Goddess
White Shell Woman
There is something very endearing about poultry....hens and cockerels that is. I love the little muttering noises they make when they are rooting around on the ground. It is a very comforting sound. My mother tells me that she used to keep hens and cockerels at one time but they had to stop because of the problem of rats with small children. Such a pity as I would have liked to have grown up surrounded by these quirky little birds.

As an adult I am still enthralled by them and I photograph them whenever I can. We have a rare breeds farm in the vicinity and they have some beautiful old English varieties. The plumes and tail pieces and feathery feet are probably not the best accountrements to have in English wet and muddy weather but they make great photography. My favourites are the huge, proud, strutting cockerels keepiing a close check on the female contingent. I like to draw the tail feathers particularly....the more outrageously bouffant, the better.

My cockerels this week are not too outrageous but I enjoyed drawing them. I decided to put them in with some totally surreal and colourful trees. The wonderful thing about colouring drawings digitally, is that you can save the original and then try different looks on a copy and delete it if you are not happy. You have to be much more careful with watercolour. No changing your mind with that medium...lol.

My featured artist is the late, great, Susan Seddon Boulet. She was a San Francisco Bay artist who died of cancer in 1997 aged 55. She was a huge loss to the art world in my opinion. Susan was English by descent but born in Brazil when her parents emigrated there from South Africa. She was always enthralled as a child by the world of fantasy and nature. After marrying she used to sell her early work in her local park...I wish I had been there then...lol.

Her work is primarily heavily layered oil pastels with ink. It is this layering which gives her art that beautiful, shadowy, mysterious feel. Her favoured subjects were anthropomorphic images of mythological and legendary figures such as Merlin, Athene etc. The images I have posted are from the book of her art by Michael Babcock which I bought years ago.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Flora/Chloris and Sarah Young

This is one of my new Christmas card designs. I haven't used this old gold colour for a background before but I really like it. Not traditionally Christmas looking but I think it works with the white deer.
This is Chloris - the first of my flower goddess drawings. I loved doing that hair. She looks better in the enlarged version.
This is a page from my new sketchbook. Sorry about the quality of the photo but it has been VERY dark here today.
This is Flora - the second flower goddess. She is very stylised but I am pleased with how she turned out.
This is a gorgeous Christmas card by Judi Trevorrow. It is designed for Milkwood Publishing and you can find their website here. They have some beautiful designs and great artists. I bought a large selection of their cards when I was on holiday in Cornwall a couple of years ago.
Lovely soft pastels in this angelic card by Sarah Summers
This is a great sheepy card by Anuk Naumann. Watercolour at its best.
Petra Borner Christmas Card. So beautiful and graphic. I love all her work.
The following images are all the work of the highly talented artist and printmaker Sarah Young.





















When I get a drawing theme in my head it is very hard to shift and I tend to overdo it sometimes. I was leafing through a library book the other day and I spotted a painting of Flora, the mythological Roman goddess of flowers and spring. Her Greek counterpart was Chloris (love that name). Wasn't there a perfume called Chloris once? If there wasn't, there should have been. It is a perfect name for a flowery perfume. Anyway, I digress. I decided that a female portrait with flowers in the hair was a perfect theme for the run up to Christmas...... don't ask. I ended up with quite a batch of Flora/Chloris artwork so I chose the two I liked best to post in the blog this week. I hope you like them.

Harking back to last week's blog and my mention of my sketchbooks. Well I have been a very good artist and used my lovely new sketchbook properly without first drawing on scrap paper. I have gone a bit more illustrative and quirky for my sketches but found them very enjoyable. Quirky is good. When I produce a sketch I dislike, I then tend to do another on a little piece of scrap paper to paste in the sketchbook and cover up the unwanted one. Back to sketches on scraps of paper...I know, I know...!

My featured artist this week is the wonderful English artist and printmaker Sarah Young. She lives on the South Coast of England and is very well known in the art world for her beautiful work in various media. Her work is multifaceted but is very strong on myth and narrative. Not only does she paint, but she also produces monoprints, collographs, linocuts and silk screens and has had work published. She has also added some wonderful dolls to her repertoire. A multi-talented lady. She has a wonderful and extensive website here hosted by Jon Tutton who works with Sarah. Jon also co-produces a very interesting art blog called madeuk which is well worth a look. Hope you enjoy the links.