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.

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.

The pleasure of hand-made

I've been sorting through photographs that I've loaded onto my PC today, and amongst the many since before Christmas, I remembered one I took of a felt brooch that I treated myself to from fellow artist and craft-maker, Andrea Farmer.

This particular little gem called to me first of all in April last year, when I received a box full of goodies from Andrea to sell at a craft fair I organised. It didn't sell at the craft fair, but I took it and other items with me to the craft fairs I've taken part in since, sometimes having the space and/or permission to sell the items on my table, at other times they have just come along for the ride! It wasn't until all my fairs were over that I finally picked out a couple of other items to give as stocking fillers for my two grand-daughters - for Matheea I bought a red, black and cerise coloured button badge (her current favourite colours are red and black, so she thought this was "Cool" when she opened it). For her sister, Evie, I bought a white and pink button badge, with little pink owl buttons along all the petals - she was also chuffed, and as she was wearing a pink outfit the day I saw them, she put it on straight away. Both girls have developed a love of "Make and do", so they have learnt to appreciate hand-made gifts from a young age, which I encourage as much as possible. I also made them a wardrobe styled trinket box each for my sister to give to them as gifts for Christmas - and as a place for them to keep all their badges and other small trinkets.

The brooch I bought for myself was a perfect match for a cerise coloured cardigan that I'd recently bought, and it is a firm favourite of mine at the moment.

I've taken photos of the three items I bought from Andrea, apologies for the poor quality, I had to take the photos in a rush before I wrapped the badges up for Christmas and in between other jobs!

Andrea sells a large proportion of her craft based items in her Etsy shop online, but if you live in the Chelmsford area you can visit "Make, Do and Mend" at 94 Byron Road, Chelmsford CM2 6HJ. They stock many hand-made gifts by local people and also run various workshops - more details on their web-site here.

The beautiful felt brooch made by Andrea, which is now MINE!!!!!

Matheea's button badge

Evie's pink and white owl badge

For the gifts my sister commissioned to give to Matheea and Evie, I opted for their favourite colours again and as I like to name my creations, I used their names also, and personalised them a little further by painting their initial on the top of the box.

Evie's mini wardrobe trinket box.

Matheea's mini wardrobe trinket box.

I think hand-made items are so much more than just a gift - you are giving a part of your personality away as well, and I only hope that whenever someone is given a gift made by me, they feel the same as I do whenever I receive something hand-made.  I smile at my felt brooch when I wear it, and always imagine the work that's gone into making it, and somehow that makes me take more care over it.

My mini wardrobes have mainly been created for commissions, although I am hoping to build up enough stock to sell them at local venues as well as in my Etsy shop online.

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.

Latest Craft Creation

I've just uploaded some photographs of my latest matching wooden trinket box and mini canvas painting. They are sold separately, but I'm always willing to give a discount if anyone would like to buy the set. Please contact me for prices. More to be created soon!

Both the easel and the mini canvas are painted with acrylic paints. The trinket box has been painted on the outside and inside with acrylic paints, and I've created a funky foam base and lining for the trinket box in complementary colours. I've named these PC Plum, and will be uploading more shots of them to my FB page and my Etsy Shop too. If these don't sell before-hand, I will be taking them along to the Christmas Craft Fair in Bilton on 5th November so you can check them out there if you are in the area!

SOLD - Textured Heart Trinket Box

I'm pleased to announce that another one of my little wooden trinket boxes has recently been sold and in the morning will be posted to its new owner. This time, the sale was through the Affordable British Art website, where I've been selling work for approximately 4 years now.

Textured Heart

I may have to get my skates on to make sure I have enough stock now for the Craft Fair!

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.

Octavia - latest painting

I have just uploaded my latest creation, entitled "Octavia", to my personal website at www.helendavison.co.uk and on my Facebook page and onto my gallery at Affordable British Art.

I painted the background in cadmium red acrylic and an acrylic interference medium in red, followed by an ultramarine section at the base of the two canvases. This was then decorated with 4 semi-abstract flower designs on each canvas, using some black electrical cable for the stems of each flower. The petals of the two larger flowers were individually cut from funky foam, shaped to fit around a couple of vintage buttons as the centre of the flower, and embellished with some metallic acrylic dots. The smaller of the flowers on each canvas was created using a small red button at the heart of each flower head, and the petals were painted using blue metallic acrylic paint. Each of these petals was then filled in with some 3D acrylic paint in red.

Measuring just 5x7 inches each canvas, they make a lovely Christmas gift! They would have been for sale at the Christmas Craft Fair, if it hadn't been cancelled!

Latest Sale

I have just returned from a week or so away to find out that I have made a sale through the Affordable British Art website. Nice news after many days of miserable weather, I might add! The painting is a watercolour I created a few years ago - I only recently added it to the site, along with a few others in a similar style, this is the 3rd one to have sold. I may have to paint some more in different colours now. I will be uploading some holiday pics once I've sorted through them all - at the moment I'm still sorting through all the dirty laundry etc!!!

Cerise Abscape is pictured here:

Paintings sold within 24 hours of uploading

I have sold two of my most recently uploaded watercolour paintings within 24 hours of listing them on the Affordable British Art website. By now they should be with their new owner as I posted them off yesterday morning. "Blue Abscape 1" and "Blue Abscape 2" were the smaller of the four watercolour landscape paintings I produced.

New Watercolour paintings

I have recently uploaded 4 watercolour paintings which I completed a few years ago but have never had for sale online - I discovered them again last week when I was sorting out which paintings to take to the exhibition in Cookham! You can see all four of them on the Affordable British Art website

Peter Williams - Mighty Fine Art

Unexpected Delivery

One day last week I received a rather large, flat parcel through the post. I wasn't expecting anything so it came as a bit of a surprise to me, even when I saw the label on the back of the parcel with Peter Williams' details on the return address. A few weeks ago I'd emailed him a photograph of myself for possible use in one of his Western Art portraits. I'd thought no more about it and said he didn't have to use it if he didn't think it suitable. Therefore I really was taken aback when I opened the parcel to see this little (well, actually rather large) beauty greeting me. When I say beauty, I'm of course referring to the skill of the artist, not the subject matter!  Peter had very kindly mounted the pencil portrait he'd done and carefully wrapped it in cellophane then sent it to me. I was really chuffed to have received it. I have already said to Peter that I don't think I will be displaying it in my house, as I think it's a bit much to look at yourself that size on a daily basis - but nevertheless I am still very happy to own the piece of work. Peter just regarded it as a practice piece of work - I still marvel at his skills with a pencil, so I wanted to share this with others! He has recently been shortlisted for the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation Wildlife Artist Of The Year competition 2010. I have a feeling he will go far in that and I wish him every success. A talented artist and a true gentleman, too. I am privileged to know him. You can read more about Peter on his website, by clicking on the title of this post, or you can read his blog here.

Latest painting

 Aitch At Sea

Today I have finally decided to upload my most recent painting to my web-site. The idea behind this painting is that I have the letter "H" (my alias is the spelling for the letter "H" - Aitch) embedded within the painting. I plan to create a small series of these paintings with my initial letter hidden in one way or another, either in a subtle way or an obvious one. I have been in two minds about this one for ages, but as it's been hanging on my hall wall for over a week now, I have grown to like it more and more. I used some lovely acrylic inks in the sea part of the painting, which catch the light beautifully every now and then. The painting is 8 x 10 inches (that's 20 x 25cm for metrically minded folk!). It will be available for sale on my personal website and on the Affordable British Art website  should you wish to have a look at it in more detail and maybe think about purchasing!