Sketch book drawings....

Thought I'd share a couple of pencil sketches I did whilst on holiday in Lanzarote a year or so ago. I love palm trees and would like to paint a detailed close-up of one at some point.

Colours to Cheer

Without wishing to sound like a moaning old woman, I've been feeling a bit crap lately. I try to stay positive as much as possible and generally do achieve this, but this lead up to winter and the prospect of cold, dark days and even colder, darker nights for months on end really do depress me. On top of that, I've been feeling pretty fed up of the cold I developed last week, which is making me ache and has given me a sore throat which in turn prevented me from going out to sing last night as usual.  Not really something to complain about, I know, but I thought I'd cheer myself up a bit in a creative way and spread some of that cheer to others by curating a Treasury on Etsy. Entitled "Seasonal "Cheer", I included items that I liked the colour of and that appealed to me for various reasons. I simply had to have a cat in there, for instance, and some knitted/crocheted items - that is something that I don't think I will ever be able to do with any success so I always admire those that can!

You can view the Treasury in detail by clicking on the link to it here.

Please feel free to click on the individual items in the Treasury and check out the rest of each member's shop - also, you can share this treasury on your web-site if you wish, or on your FB page, twitter etc - just use the link I've provided above!

Rob Kirbyson's Blog

I'm pleased to report that another of my Rogue Gene Collective colleagues, Rob Kirbyson, has started to write a blog. Rob's talent for writing is equal to that of his artwork and I'm sure if you  take a look at his posts, you will find yourself literally "LOL" ing on numerous occasions!

My favourite to date is his latest post about fish, and seafood in general. As ever, Rob has managed to accompany his post with some of his own works of art -  I particularly like "Hostile Organism"  - it is so well rendered and has a beauty about it, yet at the same time it gives me the shivers. That's what Rob's work often does to me, however, and is one of the reasons I am such a fan.

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

New Items On Etsy

I have recently listed two more of my magnetic note-pads on Etsy, which you can purchase there by clicking on the title link of this post. I am taking all of these to the next RGC exhibition on May 16th in Cookham and still have a couple left to decorate before then.

They make great birthday gifts at only £6.75 each (on Etsy everything is priced in US dollars) and they are practical as well as arty!

On the left is "Palest Sprite" and  on the right is "Tartanic".

Latest Creations in Etsy

I have recently listed my latest mini art and trinket box creations on Etsy, which you can view either from the link at the right of this page, or by clicking on the title of this post.

Struggling to find a suitable title for these two items, I decided to do a bit of "cheating" and just entered the two main colours, yellow and red, into an online anagram solver. The result actually astounded me by providing over 4,500 solutions!! I went with "Lowlander Dye" because it just seemed to suit it, somehow, although I have to admit there were a few ridiculous ones in there that I was tempted to select!

Here are the two items as a set, although I am selling them separately:

First Notepad created

Well, here it is - the first of a series of new craft creations I am doing. I thought I'd start with something that would fit in with the decor of our kitchen and may even end up using it myself rather than sell it, but as it's just the first, I can always create another one if this does sell soon!


The notepad itself measures 5 x 3 inches (12 x 7cm) and sits on the mdf board which measures 8 x 3.5inches (20 x9cm). I have called this one "Inner Circles" for fairly obvious reasons! The background blue, which has been painted all over the board, is one from the Duncan range of acrylic craft paints. It is called True Blue and is from the Liquid Pearl range, which I tend to call metallic, as that is the overall appearance when dry.

I have then painted in some Cerulean blue and white acrylic circular swirls over the main background colour, and on top of that I created another layer of the True Blue, followed by several layers of Liquitex Blue and White inks, dropped straight from the bottles and either left to dry or applied whilst still wet to create a mixture of different circle styles.



Instead of the pale cream ribbon which came with the blank notepad, I have attached a metallic cord in a lovely shade of blue.



As you can see from the images, these notepads can be put on your fridge, with the use of the magnetic pads I have attached to the back, or hung on the wall with the use of the hanging bar already screwed on. Personally, I would prefer to use the magnetic strips, but it depends on how much room you have on your fridge door I guess!!


I have taken a close-up shot of the note-pad area after I'd used it - the list is a reminder of props etc that we need to take to the theatre with us every night this week for the play I'm in!

Random thoughts and activities

The past couple of days I have been progressing with some more of my recent mini canvas and easel paintings, which I am also matching with some of my painted/decorated trinket boxes. Hopefully by the end of today I will be able to upload 3 more images of these.

They will be on sale via my Etsy store as soon as I have completed all three:ArtyAitch

One of my Christmas gifts was a set of paint tube squeezing keys - you can buy them in the UK from "The Works" in a pack of 10 for only 99pence: Tube Squeezers

I have been going through my box(es) of paints to utilise these keys, and in doing so decided to paint a sample of each particular colour I have in my store! I have so far done yellow, green and blue. This will help me enormously when I am trying to decide which particular brand of paint I used for an area of colour on a painting if I leave it for a while and come back to it (which tends to happen regularly as I rotate my paintings constantly).

Changing topic completely now, I went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie last weekend with my brother and husband. It was thoroughly entertaining, well acted and cleverly directed. Robert Downey Jr. was an amusing yet charming Sherlock Holmes and he worked extremely well alongside Jude Law's Dr Watson. I really, really enjoyed it - there were, to be fair, an abundance of fight scenes which i really didn't expect from Sherlock Holmes (and which I normally am averse to)but they were all executed with great panache. I particularly loved the way in which Sherlock's thought process of how to deliver the blows each time was shown to us prior to the actual delivery. Even if you are not interested in Sherlock Holmes, this film is worth watching purely for the relationship on screen between Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr.

More painting is now on the agenda.....

SAA PA News article

Today I received a copy of the SAA (Society for All Artists) PA News, which ran an article on the collaboration project that myself and other members of the Rogue Gene Collective have participated in since we formed.

Fellow RGC member and friend, Andrea Farmer, initially contacted the SAA in order to promote interest in the project.

The article was originally intended to be featured in the SAA "Paint" magazine, which goes out to all members of the SAA. However, it is a well- written article which I can at least share on here thanks to my artist friend, Jane Duke who kindly sent me her copy!

Painting and crosswords

I have spent another day indoors due to this awful weather. I don't really care whether or not it looks pretty out there any more - I am quite fed up of it now. Snow is nice to look at but not so nice to get about in - I tend to walk like an old woman when I have to go out in snow or in icy conditions - each step takes forever and I walk along walls which I hold on to in case I slip!

Driving is out of the question. I am in a permanent state of anxiety about skidding and therefore feel a danger not only to myself, but any other drivers out there, too. From what I've heard over the past 24hours, every journey in a car is taking approximately 5 to 6 times longer than normal due to black ice on the roads and everyone having to drive so slowly! I am thankful that I do not have to go out to work. We have cancelled our usual rehearsals with the Junior and Youth sections at Bilton Amateur Dramatic Society this coming week - only hope the weather improves and we can start again before too long!

Anyway, I have spent the day working on a painting that is, at present, a bit of a secret project. I am doing my best to make it a perfect painting as it will be judged not only on its merit but on the content when it is finished. It may sound mysterious, but all will be revealed in a week or so. I have spent several hours on it during the past couple of days, and will continue to do so until I am completely happy with it. I can tell you that it is an acrylic painting on box canvas, but no more than that for fear of spoiling the secret!

I have been giving my brain a bit of a work-out today, too, with the crossword in "The Week" magazine. This is the only newspaper we get, and it is ideal as it is in the form of a magazine on a weekly basis, covering the main news and events from all the other daily newspapers combined but in a condensed format. The crossword is a cryptic one. Usually Keith (my husband) and I do the crossword together, taking it in turns to solve the clues until one of us gets stuck or bored. I was up earlier than him today so I had the first shot at it.

I read a great article on a fellow artist's blog today, too. It had some great advice about promoting yourself as an artist. If I can find out how to link to it, I will do so, then you can share the advice if you're interested. Oh, I think if you click on this, it will work: peter-williams-art.blogspot.com/2010/01/selling-your-art.html?spref=fb

Well, it's nearly time to do my daily (almost, I've only missed one this week) exercises on my Wii Fit Plus - the good thing about this regime is that it's fun to do as well as keeping me fit. I try to do at least half an hour each day, sometimes up to an hour.

I may write more on here later - I can see me using this as a diary of sorts, but I may get fed up of that, so we'll see!