Gift Sets for Mother's Day

Here are a couple of images of my most recent works, one of which is a complete set that I intend to sell as a gift set for Mother's Day - the other is nearly a full set, I'm just waiting for the third item to dry!

I've also painted a couple more A5 sized notebooks, all in preparation for a craft fair this Saturday at the Marist Hall, on Cottingham Road in Hull. There is an event on Facebook for it, which you can look at it in detail by clicking here. The event will open in a new window.

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.

"Blossom" - painted and parted with in one day!

Just thought I'd share my most up-to-date mini painting with you. I started this little creation on Friday, finished it Saturday morning and said goodbye to it Saturday afternoon. That's the shortest time I've ever owned one of my creations, I think! I didn't sell it, as I created it for a raffle prize in a coffee morning (or rather, afternoon) that was being held to raise funds for Hull Musical Society, of which I am a member.

I named it "Blossom" and was rather hoping it wouldn't be left on the table at the end - always embarrassing if nobody really wants something that you have invested time in! However, I needn't have worried, as Ros and Andy won it, both members of the Society, and they were genuinely pleased with it!

I also donated one of my hand painted trinket boxes, "Pretty In Pink" as a raffle prize, and that went to the organiser's grand-daughter, who seemed pleased also.

As for myself, well of course I had to win a prize on the raffle - I'm extremely disappointed if I don't win - and I selected some delicious-smelling tubs of body butter. Sounds odd, butter for your body, but they are very creamy and really do moisturise your skin well. I gave one of the tubs to my sister today, and I will see if anyone else I know in the family or amongst my friends would like any of the others - I certainly won't use them all, as there were 5 tubs in the pack. My favourite is the Brazil Nut scented one. My sister took the Almond scented one, and the remaining ones are Mango, Cocoa Butter and Bergamot.

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!

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.

Craft Fair Bore?

All I seem to be thinking about these days is craft fairs - having many lined up is great, but I am wondering if Christmas is getting too close for comfort all too quickly now!

I did a fair in the small town of Hedon at the weekend - it's got quite a lot of different shops on the main route through, and I expected it to be quite a busy day for me, especially with passing trade - the venue is situated on the main road so I really hoped we would see a high number of visitors. However, this was not to be, sadly. Despite the large hall and good variety of stalls, it seemed most shoppers were going elsewhere and we just chatted amongst ourselves a lot of the time - which was pleasant enough, I admit, but does your creative soul no good when you've spent a lot of time making new items!

However, I did at least make a few sales and the more my work is out there, then hopefully word will spread and more people will start looking for me at fairs (that's how I like to view it, anyway).

Here's the selection of items I sold:

I also sold a numbered birthday card from my range featured previously in this blog post: New Range of Cards - it was the number 10, which a young girl bought for her friend.

I'm busy preparing now for a full weekend at a venue which already has an established gift shop and art gallery, so hopefully there will be plenty of people visiting this time. I've just finished a commission for six tree decorations, and painted two more hardbacked notebooks, now I need to get some more tree ornaments decorated.

Sorry for sounding like a craft fair bore, but since that's mostly what I've been creating for recently, I'm afraid there's not a lot else to say!!!

"Mesmerised At Midnight" painting in Etsy Treasury

Many thanks to Chitchatdesignsllc on Etsy for featuring one of my mini paintings on her Treasury recently, entitled "In The Midnight Blue". She has skillfully selected 16 items created with the colour midnight blue and they look really striking as a group (even if my painting wasn't there!).

You can view the Treasury on Etsy and click on each item individually by visiting it here.