Back blogging!

I've not blogged for months. It's been a strange year personally, and once I got out of the habit of blogging (because there was a time when I didn't have the inclination to do so) it was difficult to start again. However, I want to start again - mainly because it's something I want to do - I enjoy writing and posting images into my virtual diary - it's nice to look back at some of the things I've done. So, this is my first post after such a long time, it's hard to know where to start. Perhaps I won't - there are so many things to talk about that I couldn't possibly mention them all in one post, and not that many are good things either, so probably best left unsaid.

I'm currently in the throes of a cold/sore throat and am feeling particularly drained and aching. I have still tried to do a bit of work each day, since I work from home anyway - but this has resulted in me making a stupid mistake on the piece I've been working on! I was so annoyed with myself earlier that I felt like swearing at the top of my voice (I didn't, it's not something I do frequently). I'm lucky, however, as the customer also happens to be someone I know personally, and once I explained the mistake she is happy for it to stay so - says it will be part of the charm of the hand-made personalised gift. I thought that was such a sweet thing to say and a lovely way of looking at it that it prompted me to write about it here. I don't want to name anyone as that may spoil the surprise, but I'm sure once the gift has been handed over, I will be able to share images of the finished piece and of the glaring error I made!

In the mean-time, here are a few photos of a memory box I created for some friends, who had a baby boy earlier this year. This box and the 3 canvases (made by my friend Eve Lomax of Crafty Beggars) were given as a surprise gift to them when we visited for the first time. The Robot and Space theme match his bedroom, and they were thrilled with it, I'm happy to say.

Top view of a memory box I made earlier this year for a friend's baby 

His name on the front of the box.

The box with matching wall art

The inside lid of the box

I have since painted three more memory boxes as gifts - one for my Mum as a 70th birthday present (which I filled with special messages from friends and family), and 2 as wedding gifts. I currently have 3 more orders to fulfil, and imagine these are going to soon be the best selling piece of work I've ever created - I love the fact that I can personalise them so much, and that they are also a practical gift, not just ornamental. Well, that's about it for now, my bed is calling me and this was going to be a short blog post just to say that I was back blogging again! More to follow from now on!

To keep or not to keep?

Sometimes I make something that I just don't want to let go of. I've got a painting on my living room wall that I painted years ago, which is on my website for sale but that I really think I would not be able to part with now! My "Spirit Of The Sahara" is a reminder of my time spent travelling across Africa when I was 19/20, and I just love to look at it daily! I may have to mark it as "NFS" before someone else decides they would like it, too!

"Spirit Of The Sahara".

I've recently also created a painted paper mache cat ornament. I bought the blank ornament online and decided to completely cover it with dots of acrylic paint. This took me such a long time that I found myself wanting to keep it the more I worked on it. I've had it on my stall once, at a reasonable price considering the amount of time spent on it, but I'm now thinking I may just add it to my collection of cat ornaments in the house, anyway! What would you do?

Mini cat paintings sold...

I've recently sold these two mini cat paintings, so I will be creating more along the same lines, as I think they are going to be a popular choice for Christmas gifts.

"Casper"

 

"Prudence"

Autumn painting....

I've just handed over my latest mini painting to a friend who wanted something with autumnal colours  - any design - what a great way to start a painting, I love it! My friend was happy with the result, so I can share the image with you now.

"Berry Fall"

I am happy to consider any requests for a mini painting like this - they make super little stocking fillers and are easy to co-ordinate with your own particular colour scheme if you so desire. You can contact me on here or via my Facebook Page, Arty Aitch, for more details.

New mini paintings - cartoon cats.

I've been inspired to paint some cartoon styled animals recently - it started with a cartoon dog, which I painted for a donation as a prize in an event at Driffield Showground on Bank Holiday Monday - I went on to paint 3 more of those dogs in a very similar, but not exact way. Then I started thinking about doing cats. I've always thought I couldn't really do cartoon paintings, but having positive feedback has encouraged me to try some cats. A fellow stall-holder at a craft fair (Lynda Mills of Wrapped In Style) suggested that I produced some cats on my mini canvases way back in March, but I wasn't sure at the time - I've now created two and have been sketching out several more in different poses. Here's the two I've now completed, as yet un-named. I will be asking my Facebook fans/likers to help me name them, as it's interesting to see what varied suggestions are thrown in!

Recent sales

One of my mini paintings on canvas and a painted notebook have both been sold recently - also, I had a commission from my friend for two painted photo frames, so these were completed and handed over on Friday.

WIP - Kay

I've decided to upload an image of this work in progress that I've been working on for so long now that the intended recipients have probably forgotten about it. It is at the stage now where I just need a big motivational push to complete it, as I was getting frustrated with it at one point and just put it to one side - never a good idea, really!

I need to do a lot more work on the face then do the shading on the tee-shirt, define the hair and tidy the whole thing up a bit, but I thought that if I posted it "to the world"  (or at least, to the 3 people who regularly read this blog) it may spur me onto finishing it at long last.

Kay is a friend who I've known since she was 8 or 9 years old - she's now 23 and her parents commissioned the painting a while ago now. I hope they still want it when it's finished!

Latest Painting - "In Plane View"

I've just finished another painting, one that has been in my mind for a while now. "In Plane View" is based on the view you sometimes get when in an Aeroplane and the clouds are below the sky view, which I think is such a beautiful sight. I remember on one flight we took to Lanzarote once, and in the seat behind us was a boy aged about 4. When he looked out of the window and saw nothing but clouds, he said to his mum with such amazement in his voice "Oh, look, there's heaven out there". So cute.

I was rather pleased with the way this turned out, as it is just as I remember the view we had on our recent flight back from a holiday, so I decided to also paint a similar one on one of my mini canvases too!

Here's the end result of the large painting. It's for sale on the Rogue Gene Gallery Website here.

Here's the mini painting I also completed this morning, not yet for sale on any of my web-sites, but will probably be coming along with me to my next Craft Fair.

WIP - Little Bit of Red

Here's an image of my latest Work-in-progress, a small canvas which will come complete with an easel, slightly larger than my "mini" paintings, but still not as large as the other paintings in this series that I've done ("A Bit of Orange/Blue/Purple/Brown"). The canvas itself measures 16cm x 12cm. Painted using varying hues of red acrylic paint, this is the second stage of the painting. I am currently trying to get back into painting the rest of it after having a bad week of suffering with two migraine attacks. My blog has been neglected for a while, but I plan to carry on as normal from now on, and hopefully post more frequently!

Once finished, you will be able to purchase this painting from my personal website at  www.helendavison.co.uk or on the Rogue Gene Gallery website.

Colour chart - artistic or anal retentiveness?

I know I can be quite anal in my behaviour at times - I have always liked making lists, keeping notebooks for various things etc. Some people would find it odd, I just think it's perfectly normal to make and keep lists of things. For instance, I have a comprehensive list of every birthday and Christmas present that anyone has ever bought me since I was about 16. So, if you ever wondered what it was - I'm sure I could dig it out for you! This seems to help my memory - I can, for example, remember that a friend (who was my boyfriend at the time) bought me a red covered A4 sketchbook for my 19th birthday. I can even remember some of the sketches I first did in there - of him (Paul Leonard, in case you're wondering), my brother Daniel, and one of Sherry, our German Shepherd dog at that time.

I therefore wonder if this colour chart I've made (along with others that I have but don't happen to have photographed for fear of over stretching your patience every so slightly) is a sign of my well-organised artistic mind or just another symptom of my anal retentiveness. I don't really care either way - just thought I'd share it in case anyone else can relate to it!

I've utilised a cut-off from a piece of mountboard to paint a sample of every brand and type of yellow and green paint that I have in my possession. The only trouble now, is that I need to update this list, as I've since bought more for my different craft works!  I think I shall probably need a larger piece of mount card. I've temporarily misplaced the blue swatch card that I created, but if I find it you may yet see it on here!

Handy reference card, without a doubt. Absolutely necessary for my work? Not really.

Last minute entries.....

Please tell me I'm not the only one who leaves it 'till the last minute to send in application forms/enter exhibitions or competitions etc! I'm not quite sure why I do it, as I consider myself to be fairly well organised and plan events well in advance usually. However, when it comes to getting things in on time for exhibitions, I tend to think "Oh, it doesn't need to be in until the 24th of July (or whatever)" so I wait until the few days prior to that before I even start to think about it. Why? I've no idea. There is no logical explanation for this behaviour, and I really am not good at working under pressure, so I do wonder why I act this way. Does it make me more focused, having to think hard about which items to include in a short space of time rather than deliberating for weeks on end? I like to think that's the sole reason - I am not good at making decisions and unless I make a quick one, I probably never will!

When I entered the Ferens Open Exhibition last week, it was within an hour of the closing time that I finally managed to take my paintings in. Granted, I'd only found out about it two days earlier, which was unusual, and I had been unwell and was busy performing in a play that week. However, I have just completed my application form for possible selling of my craft related items in a local gallery - Artlink, in Hull.  I received the email request for artists several weeks ago, stored the cut-off date (and time) in my head and knew I would wait until one day this week before I completed the form. Sure enough, I've emailed it just now with 3 hours to spare. I think I've written a decent artist's statement, I've made sure I've included all the relevant information in all the right places, and remembered to attach the document to the email. Now I just wait to hear from them.

Anyway, that job done, I'm going to spend the rest of the day helping to write a play for our Junior Section at Bilton Amateur Dramatic Society. Having trawled the internet, as well as looking through our own vast selection of plays, we (my husband, Keith and I) thought we'd have a go at writing our own, based on the children we currently have in the group. I will let you know how it goes, but I'm sure it will be a long process and there will no doubt be many arguments on the way!

Here's a selection of the 10 items I have included in my application for possible selling at Artlink, Hull.

Ferens Open Exhibition

I managed to enter the Ferens Open Exhibition today - on the last day of entry submissions! This is partly because I did not receive notification as usual (in previous years I'm sure I've had email notifications to tell me about this) and therefore only found out on Sunday when I popped in to see the last day of the Children's Exhibition! Also, I've not been at all well since Sunday - both Keith and I have suffered with a sickness/gastric bug that seems to be doing the rounds. For the first time ever, we had to miss the final dress rehearsal for our play, which opened last night. Fortunately, we managed to perform and hope to stay well enough for the rest of the week.

Anyhow, this year I've opted for hand-bag sized paintings and took along 3 of my smaller paintings which I did actually transport in my handbag. I'm hoping for success this year, but you never know what the curators will like so it's pot luck really.

I've entered the following paintings:

"Grand Canyon Impression"

"Life's Little Ups & Downs"

"Undersea Adventure"

If any of my paintings get selected, you can view or purchase them from the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, between 11th February and 15th April. The Preview evening is Friday 10th February.

Christmas Commission, anyone?

I've just been sorting through my photo files on the PC, in an attempt to unearth some images that I was going to use for another blog post - and I discovered a couple of images that I took of a commission last year for a Christmas present. I'd taken a hurried photograph before it was delivered then completely forgot about it!

However, if you are thinking of buying a unique gift as a stocking filler or as a gift for your child's teacher, perhaps, then I'm sure one of these magnetic notepads for the fridge wouldn't go amiss. This particular one was created on the basis of someone wanting a floral design to give to a friend. I called it "Anniversary Flowers" because it is very similar to my large canvas painting of the same name.  Painted in acrylic with two coats of satin varnish, I only hope the recipient was happy as I never did ask!

I will be selling these and other smaller items at the forthcoming craft fairs I plan to take part in during the run-up to Christmas in the East Yorkshire area. If you would like to see before you buy, please follow me on facebook (Arty Aitch) or check out my website for details of these within the next few weeks.

New small acrylic painting

I have recently painted a couple of small acrylic and ink paintings - one on canvas board and this one on a canvas sized 7 x 5 inches.

The idea came about when I was looking through some old photographs I'd taken of flowers, gardens, walks etc. I really liked the shape of the sunflowers that are past their best - I took a photo at Burton Agnes Hall a few years ago, always intending to create a painting or sketch of some description based on my image. Here is the end result - I will probably do a few more with different numbers of flower heads on and on different supports/in different media.

Burton Agnes Sunflower

You can purchase this directly from my website at www.helendavison.co.uk.

Latest painting

Finished a while ago, but only just uploaded online, this small ink and acrylic abstract painting is available to buy from my website at www.helendavison.co.uk

Named "Undersea Adventure", it was inspired by an improvised group mime done by members of the Youth Section of B.A.D.S. several years ago at a festival. The title of the mime was "Undersea Adventure" and I will never forget it.

First of the new batch..

Here's a quick preview of the first in the new batch of mini paintings I'm working on. I will be uploading it to my Etsy shop soon, with the rest following over the next few days, hopefully. I've also recently been working on another magnetic notepad and a hard-backed notebook.

This one is a slightly different size to my other mini paintings as it is rectangular in shape instead of being square. The easel is the same size, however.

This one is named "Berylline". She can be placed on the easel in any position, I just happen to like it this way up for now.

Don't forget, you can also see more of my mini paintings in my Etsy Shop at Arty Aitch.

Two tulips for sale!

Having now completed the second painting of a tulip head, they are both on sale on my personal website and at Affordable British Art, also online.

If you haven't time to look at my web-site,  this is the latest offering, entitled "Tulip on Black" - not a very imaginative title, but as apposite as I could muster!

To see more of my work, visit any of the following web-sites: helendavison.co.uk , Rogue Gene Gallery or my page on the Affordable British Art web-site.

If you would like to see the decorative crafts that I currently have for sale on Etsy, don't forget to check out my shop at Arty Aitch.

Latest painting slideshow

I have done something I promised myself i would do ages ago - take photos of a painting as I progressed. Finally, I've done it and created a slide-show with accompanying music to show you how the painting emerged. I plan to do more of these in the future if I remember before I start painting! This one is done in acrylic and acrylic inks on a canvas board measuring 9 x 6inches.

New painting completed

I've finished a painting in the past couple of days or so which is another of the collaborations that we like to do as members of the Rogue Gene Collective.  This is the one that Amanda Hunt sent me on Wednesday. Sorry Amanda, I think I may have beaten you to it this time!!!

The painting is on a canvas measuring 16x12 inches. I have decided to call it Nocturne and I have used mainly acrylic inks for the foreground layer of painting here. I started off with a glaze of yellow ink over the whole of the brown area at the bottom of the painting, then I added the "starburst" styled shapes with a metallic teal coloured ink in the night sky, as I see it - using a dropper, which often made the ink spots merge into one another. I added some transparent umber ink to certain areas of the brown/yellow section and added some yellow 3d dots along the horizon line. Then I added some metallic blue acrylic dots within the teal ink spots, and finished those off with tiny dots of white in the middle of each one. I added tiny white dots to all the yellow 3D dots (I must be going a bit dotty now!) and created lots more teal coloured ink spots and white tiny dots in the sky area. Each teal spot was painted with a line of highlight and shadow to create a 3D shape, then I used the same teal shadow colour as a final ink wash over the brown/yellow landscape. I remember playing a piece of music called Nocturne when I was learning the piano as a child, and it was a very sad piece of music, but I have such happy memories of playing it, as I really liked the tune.

You can buy the painting from the Rogue Gene Gallery or my personal website, www.helendavison.co.uk

Collaborative Paintings

This morning I received a canvas which had a background painted on it in preparation for a collaboration between myself and fellow Rogue Gene Collective artist, Amanda Hunt. There's something quite exciting about doing a collaborative piece, since you never know what to expect either way - whether you are painting the background or the foreground. In some cases, as with the latest one uploaded to the Rogue Gene Gallery (Mildred Pearce) the collaboration was between 3 artists!  I painted a textured background using some 3D acrylic paints and a mixture of interference medium in shimmering red with the 3d paint in crimson. This created a sort of terracotta shade overall - although apparently the colours will shine through as different hues depending on the direction of light. I also added touches of gold acrylic to the various raised areas of the 3D paint.

So, this is the original background that I sent to Kos Marton:

Having struggled to come up with a suitable foreground (the ideas don't always appear immediately with collaborations), Kos did a seascape but wasn't entirely happy with it. Therefore, Rob Kirbyson added a third layer and it became the painting "Mildred Pearce" - which is a 3-way collaboration and I think a very successful one. It wouldn't have existed without everyone's input, and even though you can now only really see the textured marks from the original background painting, it's obviously a collaboration.

Now that I have received a background from Amanda, I am just as excited at creating something that I would not normally do. The possibilities with collaborations are much greater, I think, than with painting or creating alone.

Here is the background I sent Amanda previously, which she is going to create the foreground for:

This morning, I received this background from Amanda:

The artist who completes the foreground decides on the name of the painting, which is fairly logical really since it cannot be named in advance unless all collaborators know exactly what they are going to be painting. I suppose that would be another way of collaborating, but it's not the way we are currently working and I think I prefer it this way!

I will post the completed paintings when they are both finished - I think Amanda and I are racing to see who does it first, but if my track record is anything to go by, she will win!

You can see Amanda's work on Rogue Gene Gallery here or by visiting her personal website at http://www.amandahuntgallery.com/

Rob's work can be seen on Rogue Gene Gallery here or on his personal website at http://www.acrylicsandoils.com

Kosana's other works are on the Rogue Gene Gallery here.