A Northwich Christmas

'A Northwich Christmas', Acrylic on board...

This is my home town in all it's Christmas glory. I really enjoyed painting this for Anthony at the Chronicle. I was quite nervous earlier when I took it to their office. Everyone crowded round to see as I took it out of the bag. I think they were expecting a snow covered scene of Cheshire and were pleasantly surprised. It will be published on the front page of the Christmas edition of the Northwich Mail.

I have wanted to do some night paintings of Northwich ever since seeing the work of Manchester artist, Liam Spencer.

Good things

You'll never believe it but I've been asked to do a painting by the Chronicle for one of their papers. It has to be Northwich in full Christmas glory. I'll post it here when I've finished it.

I'm so glad that I had the exhibition. As well as selling a few more paintings I've had some other exciting spin-offs too.

I'm hoping the drawing group will take off sometime in the new year, I don't want to put everyone off by arranging it when the weather is too cold. It's a bit of a lottery.

My exciting news!

I'm recovering from creative burn out by making lots of marble magnets at the moment (I will post a picture at a later date) and haven't had anything much to report on from an artistic point of view so sorry for the lack of posts.

My exciting news isn't art related...

We've put in an offer on a house...

and it's been accepted!! We're sooo excited!!

I knew that if I decided to have a load of business cards and postcards printed with my address on that we'd find a house! I was right! I should have had them printed a lot sooner :-)

So hopefully we'll be in the new house by the end of January. Yipppeeee!

Some of my favourites

Some of my pastels

Box canvasses

My sister and family are coming over from Lincolnshire today to have a look at my work. I can't wait to see them!

I'm going to take my superglue with me and a stapler just in case my little business card boxes have fallen apart. They shouldn't have but it's best to be prepared.

Here are a few photos that P took while I was filling in the insurance details.

Northwich Library Exhibition November 2005

It was a very long, exhausting but exciting day yesterday. It took us ages to put the 22 paintings up, but finally we got there. The paintings will be up until Nov 30th.

I got to speak to lots of interesting people which was lovely. Especially one older lady who talked to me for about half an hour. She told me that art is her life passion and that her daughter is an artist who lives in Ireland. It was fascinating talking to her. I tried to get her to join the drawing group that I'm setting up and she took a business card with her.

And I've sold a painting already. A lovely lady phoned me last night to say that she wanted Spellbinding Light and maybe another one. I'm very happy!! It makes all the hard work worth it to know that people enjoy my work.

I don't think I've mentioned the drawing group on my blog before. The idea is that a group of people who are interested in drawing (whether beginners or experts) get out and about to different places in Cheshire with their sketchbooks and have a go! It would be a place to share and compare drawings, learn from each other and marvel at the different ways people see things.

If you live in the Cheshire area and are interested then let me know! The more the merrier.

Here's wishing you a great Hallowe'en and hoping I don't eat all the sweets before the trick or treaters get here tomorrow.

Autumn Field - Acrylic on board.

** The comments I made here about my interview at the paper were too depressing and as I'm feeling much better about it today I've deleted them!! The article will be good or not so good. If it's not so good then it's still not the end of the world. If it's good then it's great!

Autumn colours, acrylic on board.

When things go wrong...

It's all starting to slowly come together for my exhibition. There's still so much to do though!

I have to go to the Northwich Chronicle office this week to be 'interviewed'. I am terrified! My sister persuaded me do it. I know these things have to be done but I'm sure I'm going to make a complete ejit of myself.

P has been amazing over the last couple of weeks but we had a really bad day on Saturday. We spent all morning driving all over Cheshire picking up piles of mountboard, glass and more frames. We were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves for getting up at the crack of dawn and finishing it all only to find that the glass was 1mm too big for the frame, we'd picked up a frame in the wrong size and the mountboard was prone to snagging. Agh!

Why do these things happen in threes?!

I've just finished making this little box to hold my business cards. I love it when I get to use my design skills for my own purposes.

My lovely niece will be the grand old age of 17 tomorrow! That's old enough to drive in the UK.

A stack of postcards

Yippee! My postcards and business cards arrived and they're great! I'm really pleased with them. The turn around time was really fast too. I got them a week before they were supposed to arrive. Very quick and easy.

If anyone is interested in getting their own done I used vistaprint. I'm thinking of getting some Christmas cards printed for myself now.

**Edit** I've just noticed that I can 'refer my friends' so that you would get 25% off your order and I would get some kind of credit too if you use the above link!

Watercolour leaves

I've been sat out on the balcony this morning with my watercolours and a hot chocolate. It's yet another dark, drizzly day but we won't let that beat us!

I've been thinking how much I would like to see the autumn, sorry, fall colours in New England. Can anybody tell me the best places to go?

Autumn Colours

I've just been for a walk to the postbox and couldn't help but pick up some of the gorgeous autumn leaves and a couple of shiny conkers. The day is shrouded in low dark cloud and seeing these colours really lifted my mood. I especially like the pink of the leaf in the top left corner.

I've been roped into part of the production process for P's brother's wedding stationery. My part involves putting little gold dots of liquid pearls on the place cards, order of services, invites etc. They are everywhere!

Blind contour Friday again... Just recently we have been spending every free minute watching 24. P bought the boxset with all 4 series. So we've been working our way through them. How addictive are they!! I have been enjoying my Jack Bauer Power Hours so decided to have a go at a pic of Kiefer Sutherland. Poor man, he looks like he's been in the torture room too long. Kiefer I'm sorry!

Blind Contour Friday... Dettol spray. I ran out of paper at the bottom of this one.

Blind Contour Friday... tube of Cryla Titanium White... This was so much fun to do! It's learning to draw without looking at what your hand is doing. Have a look at all the other drawings at inkfinger and then try it yourself. It's addictive!

Finished

I'm sorry I've neglected my blog over the last week. I'm feeling a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights at the moment with the decisions I've got to make and the things I need to organise for the show in November.

I thought you might like to see how this painting turned out.

I have lots of unfinished work around me and it's freaking me out!! I often get to a natural break and then find it difficult to decide the best way to complete a piece of work. Now I have decisions to make such as should I get some postcards printed, or some leaflets? Which publications should I contact? How? I need to update my website too.

This is a work in progress... still more to do. I actually have a name for this one already! It's called 'Black & White House'.

I'm thinking about making the sky lighter but I want to emphasise the house so it's a bit of a dilema. I might just lighten the green grass in front of the house and add some different shades into each of the really flat areas.

I told P to take the internet connection cable to work with him the last few days because I'm too easily distracted and it worked. I've done heaps more work than I would have normally. I'm addicted to reading people's blogs!

A work in progress...

Last week, me and P were the recepients of a Random Act of Kindness.

We were sat in the Forest View pub after having walked a couple of miles. We decided to stay there for dinner and were relaxing with a couple of drinks, preparing for the walk home in the dark, when the heavens opened. The thunder and lightening seemed to be directly overhead and water started to run through the light fittings, streaming down the wall. We were going to get drenched!

The barman started to tell everyone how we going to brave the storm and as we paid the bill an incredibly kind man offered to give us a lift home. He didn't know us from Adam.

He doesn't know yet but I'm going to post this little painting through his door to say thank you.

Yet another untitled painting, acrylic on board, 192 x152mm.

Another painting for my exhibition. Again no title yet. This is acrylic on board, 192 x152mm. This isn't the exact frame I've got for this painting but it's a fairly close match and gives an idea of how it might look.

I bought a Nielsen frame today and went onto their website. There's a great facility for trying before you buy. You can upload your picture and try on different frames and mounts. Brilliant!

Donate money to the American Red Cross

http://www.redcross.org/

Here's another one that is just about finished. It's 194mm x 153mm, acrylic on board. No title yet.

A work in progress...

Over the last week I've been experimenting with yet another new way of working. I'm still trying to find a style that best expresses how I want to convey things. I know I'll always be changing and evolving but just recently I've been going through a bit of a crisis and I feel as though I've lost my way a bit. I'm sure this is a good thing underneath the panic and that I'm working through it hopefully to come out at the other side with a stronger style. Fingers crossed.

Congratulations to my niece who has just passed all her GCSEs with flying colours.

Jewel of Nature 1. 153mm x 114mm. Acrylic on textured gesso. This is going to hopefully be one of a set of three, to go in a dark brown frame that I already have.

Bubbling Volcano - This is the mess I made on Monday while cooking tea for my friends. I'd just finished cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom 10 minutes before. I was not a happy bunny.

Three Little Hearts, 153mm x 75mm, Acrylic and textured gesso on board.

Close up for texture

Amaretto & Pistachio Cups - Haven't finished with the colours on this one yet... but I'm pleased with the texture.

Chocolates 3 (Must think of a better title). Acrylic & textured gesso on board, 228mm x 228mm.

Chocolates - detail

Chocolates 228mm x 75mm, Acrylic on board. Can't wait to turn those sketches into a painting.

Sketchbook Pages

Over the weekend I visited a lovely chocolate shop in Keswick. The different colours and shapes were devine. I rushed back to the car to make these sketches before I forgot what they looked like. These are definitely going to be developed into a painting.

Sketchbook drawing of my wish jar. If you've never visited keri smith's website go there now... I bought her book ages ago and there's a fun idea for creating abundance by making a wish jar. I don't know how but it seems to work too!

Another birthday

Birthday card for my sister who is plagued by rabbits eating all the plants in her back garden. Back to the chocolate paintings next week!

A watercolour favour for P.

Happy birthday to C! This didn't turn out exactly how I imagined it but I'm fairly pleased with it.

Yummm....

I have been having fun with something that's constantly on my mind! Chocolate! Creating textures by pressing objects in the gesso, using salt, metallic colours and staining colours. I had to do a lot of research for this painting!

I'm back!

Hello! I'm back. After 2 manic weeks at the design agency I needed to blow some steam, so we headed back up to the Lake District with all the camping gear. I love it!

We put the tent up near Ullswater. It couldn't have been more perfect because a huge craft fair was buzzing with life just down the road. There was loads of inventive stuff there. My favourite was a lady who recycled tin and glass and other things into pieces of art. P loved the food tent and I bought him some raspberry wine and a bottle of whisky based cranberry liqueur.

Later on, P was in his element cooking veggie bolognaise on the gas stove. We shared the liqueur with our next door neighbours who were camping virgins and a great time was had by all. The next day a couple of friends joined us and we hired some canoes so we could take our lunch and explore the islands and bays on Ullswater.

It really was the perfect weekend.

I've been inspired by all the great photoshop work I've been seeing recently on people's blogs (especially Michael Nobbs who writes the wonderful Beany) so I thought I'd experiment a bit. Not my usual style but I'm pleased with this. I was a bit squiffy on the booze when I drew it and didn't want to chance ruining it with the watercolours. So here's the result.

Harbin

I don't link to random websites very often but I had to share this one...



In one of the coldest cities on earth they don't just sit around inside feeling miserable, they have a major celebration of the cold instead. How amazing are these photos of ice and snow sculptures! Check out how the Great Wall is turned into an ice slide. How cool is that!

Sad times

Illustration Friday (a week late) - Hero

Just one last pic!

I did this for Illustration Friday's theme of Hero, then realised when I went back to post it that it was last Friday's theme and that the new one is Sport. Oh well. I'll have to see if I can do another one.

Freelancing

I've got a couple of weeks work at the ad agency I sometimes work for in Chester so my posts may be a little bit less frequent for a while. I'll probably take my sketchbook for lunchtime drawings so there may be a few coming this way. We'll see.



In the meantime, who can give me their 5 favourite inexpensive fun things to do?

Dancing Lesson

This is my niece with her guinea pig, Ruby.

Bird Restaurant

This is the apple tree I used to climb as a girl, now strewn with bird feeders holding peanuts, sunflower seeds, wild seed mix and water.

Close up of my watercolour snail with 3D crystal lacquer slime.