Who Rides The Tiger

You may have noticed the Flickr gadget on the right sidebar. This is my new site to record all my drawings and artwork over the past year which I have produced for my blog. I thought it would be easier for anyone who wanted to see my work, to be able to see it all without having to go back to over a years' worth of older posts. I am still uploading them so it is not completed yet.

This was inspired by the old Chinese saying in the text. I have simply substituted the he for a she. This is an ink and watercolour drawing.
A purely digital image called A Tree To Be Proud Of. The leaves of the tree took ages to draw. I think they look a bit like a herringbone pattern.

This is a detail of my pen and ink and watercolour drawing called Sheltering The Red Birds.

And the complete drawing.

This is another Art Angel greetings card by Clare Curtis. This is called Winter Fox and is a linocut. It would make a lovely Christmas card. I love the contemporary graphic design.

This youtube song is called "My Immortal" and is beautifully sung by Gregorian. It was originally sung by Evanescence but I prefer this version.

The paintings below are by the very talented and imaginative artist Simon Garden. His work has a lovely sense of mystery and narrative, even when the people he paints are doing everyday things. You can find lots more of his artworks on his website here, and also here and here.

Copse

Blackberry

Leaf Gathering

These beautifully quirky ceramics are by Helen Martino. She has exhibited widely and is extensively collected. Many of her works display women in ordinary situations relaxing, dreaming or chatting to unseen persons, but she has quite a varied repertoire. My favourite of her pieces is the lady in the gold trousers below. Her website is here. You can also find a good selection of her work here and here.

This is one of the most beautiful blues I have ever seen. Definitely one of my favourite colours. I took this picture a couple of years ago and it achieved front page on Flickr.

Some handsome bovines I came across some time ago. I love the curiosity of cows.

Oystercatchers are always great to see in real life and in art and craft. I often use them in my own work. These cute fellows are embroidered by Amanda Wright. They are also known as "Sea Pies" which is a lovely name for them.

I love this vintage bird embroidery found at a sale by Flickr member Art Craft Thrift. I think the red bird is an American Cardinal.

I love all birds but I am particularly fond of rooks. They epitomise the English countryside for me. The sounds of them quarrelling and chatting while building their nests in the rookeries in February is an enduring sign that spring is on its way.

These images are by artist and printmaker Adrienne Peverall. Her work is varied but very much inspired by Cornwall where she lives. I have always loved her rook etchings and paintings. She gives them such character and personality. You can find some more of her images here.

And here are three of my photos of rooks. They are very wary birds and very hard to get close-ups of unless you have a long range lens. These were tempted by a bit of food.

The paintings below are all the work of Irish artist and sculptress Margaret Egan. She imparts a wonderful sense of narrative and mystery to her figurative artwork, almost as if the viewer could step into the lives of the people she paints. She is also has a great love for and talent for painting the seas around the Irish coast. Two galleries where you can find lots more of her art are Courcoux & Courcoux and Solomon Fine Art.

Ladies Day

Yellow Dress

Moment Of Happiness

After The Ball 2

I will Go On

Surrender

White Lady

The Artist

I enjoyed watching Britain's Got Talent along with a huge portion of the country. There were some really good acts. I think Susan Boyle has a beautiful voice but I think she was definitely suffering from serious nerves on the night. Apparently she has been hounded by the paps recently and for someone previously living in relative obscurity, that must be quite frightening. I am glad in a way that she didn't win. She is now well known enough to make the most of her singing but will not have the terrible stress of appearing on The Royal Variety Show. She may not agree with me of course..ha ha. I am also glad the little girl Hollie didn't win for the same reason. She seemed to be having trouble coping and I don't think her voice is strong or reliable enough for public singing at the level of TRVS. Diversity, the winners, were absolutely amazing. Incredible choreography from the leader. I think they are on a par with Flawless for great dancing but Diversity just came out with the better showing on the night. I am sure Flawless will find their dancing careers boosted though. I hope so anyway.

Textiles and Linocuts

It is my first year Blogversary next week and I will be having a blog giveaway again. I will probably have three winners but I haven't created the prizes yet...ha ha. All will be revealed as they say...next week.

I got my paints out this week and had a dabble with watercolour. This turned out completely differently to how I planned but I like the result. If you have ever wondered what hides beneath tree roots, now you know. It is the "Spirit of Trees". The golden accents are from a wonderful gold leaf pen I bought from the stamping tent at a local craft fair. It cost an arm and a leg but is the best ink resembling gold that I have ever found.

This is a pen and ink drawing called "The Woman Who Planted Trees". I really enjoyed all the detail on this. I may decide to do some more versions with different women and different trees.

This is a closer look. The textured body of the tree is thousands of tiny circles.

This is my second attempt at a linocut. It is the best of quite a few tries. I find the cutting fairly straight forward but the inking up and printing very difficult. I always seem to have too much or too little ink. This is actually carved from one of those soft pink speedball pads which are wonderful to cut through (no cut fingers) but I don't suppose you can get as much detail as with the more rigid lino. Still, I don't think it is too bad for a beginner.

If you like finely detailed and complex images then this one by Georgian artist Nick Japaridze should appeal. His style is incredibly fine and the colours glow like jewels. He has a technique whereby he multi-layers oil paints. He has lots more like this on his website here.

I really like the colours in this contemporary image by Edward Vardanian named "The Eden".

Love this touch of vintage plate design with a folksy feel. This is a Norweigian plate and is from Etsy seller EyeCandi.

Some more delicious spring flowers. These are grape hyacinths.

I popped over to my brother and his partner Lesley's home today to see how the kitties are getting on. There are three of them but they are notoriously difficult to photograph. This is the only picture that came out reasonably. This kitten is cute perfection itself. I love his big feet and spotty belly.

Sheba is a very elegant and superior sort of cat with some awesome claws.

My mind has been turning to linocuts this week. You can see my effort at the top of this post. I had a good old browse on Etsy to see what other people were producing and found some lovely images.

These two images of crows are by artwellspring on Etsy and I absolutely love them. I love black birds anyway but they are so beautifully textured and very simple and graphic. Just what linocuts should be, although these are linocut and woodblock combined. I will just have to keep practising. It is a technique I find very enjoyable but the printing seems to be a bit difficult.

Another nice contemporary linocut over collage image by ciaobirdie on Etsy. I particularly like the palette she has chosen.

If you like black cats you may be tempted by blackcatsonly on Etsy. She has some lovely linocut images of cats and they are reasonably priced too. I love this one especially.

At one time I used to see a lot of Roger la Borde greetings cards around but I haven't seen any for ages until I spotted these two little gems in a local bookshop. If you want to see some more of their designs the website is here.

I found some lovely gift wrap by Caroline Gardner the other day. Her work is so gorgeous. This is Caroline's website here.

The following images are all tapestries and embroideries from some wonderful textile artists.

The following 5 beautiful hand stitched embroideries are by the Finish textile artist Riitta Liisa Haarvisto. These must have taken months to stich by hand but they are so lovely that it was well worth it.

This is Soul Birds by my favourite tapestry weaver Kirsten Glasbrook. You can find Kirsten's site here.

This tapestry called The Norns is by Faroese tapestry weaver Marianna Matras. It depicts the Nordic goddesses of fate who weave the fate of mankind at the foot of Yggdrasil, the world tree. It is a beautiful iconic piece - simple and graphic and is inspired by a painting by William Heinesen. The Norns would make a good subject for a drawing I think.

Beautiful tapestry by Inge Flierl who is a German tapestry weaver. You can see a few more of Inge's tapestries here.

Tapestry by Murray Gibson called Visitation. I love this piece, especially the central motif and the way it fades at the edges. You can find masses of Murray's lovely complex tapestries on his home page here.

Tapestry by Liza Collins. I love her bright, spontaneous, organic pieces.

Easter is with us once more and has brought in some wet and drizzly weather with it. Lovely word, drizzly and exactly describes that irritating, persistent light rain that is "neither nowt nor sumat" as they say up north. Apart from being an important Christian festival, it is also a time for families to do things together and I feel really sorry for all those people who have arranged family days out only to find that the weather is inclement to say the least. Nearly all Easter events take huge amounts of someone's time and effort to arrange and unless they are under cover, they can get ruined at the last minute. Such a shame.