Almost a loose woman for APR

Before you get all excited,

the loose woman bit

is artistically speaking,

not the other kind of loose.

You see I had a very inspirational day yesterday.

I went to visit Tracey Fletcher King

and she gave me plenty of tips

and some art supplies to try.

I decided to use some of those supplies and do a very quick

and loose painting.

Well the quick turned into an hour

and I almost lost my painting.

I put it out in the garden to dry while I made a coffee

and a cheeky Ibis thought it was his afternoon tea.

I had to run out and save it from the dirty blighter.

Most of my day was spent finishing off Terrie's pussy cat,

which I have finished and will send to you next week, Terrie.

 Just a snippet of the painting to give you an idea.

This left just a short time to enter this weeks APR,

who's theme is "In your own back yard".

I was in the family room giving Charlie (my parrot) a tickle

when I saw an urn out by the pool.

The sun was shining on it and it just stood out and 

I knew that's what I would paint.

The pot itself has all those gloopy blue bits

and is really quite pretty.

It's not an overly loose painting

but I have to say I quite like it.

That's what I saw in my backyard,

now why not go over to Jenn's Artist's Playroom

and see what's in everyone elses backyard.

Wins and laughter for WOYWW

I've had a wonderful week.

Today I went to my dear friend

Tracey Fletcher Kings house

for coffee and lots of laughter.

I'm feeling totally inspired,

especially after being in her super neat and tidy studio

but I'm sorry Trace, that doesn't mean I'm tidying mine up.

Tracey is a very special lady and she has taught me so much.

I wouldn't be half the painter I am without her help

and she showed me loads more things today and gave me some things to play with.

I can't wait to try them out.

I didn't get much done in the way of art this week,

I had planned to do more of my fish painting

but never quite got there.

I did finish the bunny portrait but that is a gift
for someone, so I will keep it under wraps
until I know that it has been received.

I made up some cards and that's all that's on my desk this week.

Another thing that happened was I had a win!!!

Yes little ole me won a competition.

You may have heard of a magazine called Featuring,

it's on art journaling and mixed media and

I thoroughly recommend it.  

I bought the first edition of the mag and entered an online survey 

and I won a free copy of the next  Featuring mag.

They are having a free giveaway in this issue and the winner gets 

to have an inchy published on the back cover.

If you're interested it's here.

The last wonderful thing to happen to me 

was three, yes three orders for Pet Portraits.

I put a little sign in the Collective Store and I have three orders.

I'm so thrilled. 

The fish painting might have to wait

just a little longer.

Well,  you've seen what really kinda isn't on my desk this week

so why not hop on over to Julia's

Stamping Ground and see

what everyone else has been doing 

on this What's On you Workdesk Wednesday.

Juicy for APR

This weeks APR theme is 

Juicy.

Now my  little mind went straight to 

juicy fruit and since I had tons of 

strawberries,

I decided to paint some of them.

Have you ever really looked at one of those suckers?

They are covered in little dots

and shadows and light bits and dark bits
and thus started my terrible art day.

You know the type,
no matter what you do
it is a mess, like some horrible little
gremlin has control of your hand
and moves it wherever you don't want it to go.

I didn't take a photo of the absolute mess I made,
thought I had but the camera must have felt sorry for me and it didn't take.

Here is where I gave up on watercolour and attacked it with
watercolour pencil.

 I had started doing lights and darks and then suddenly
my hand just went swoosh and the whole thing was red.
Try as I might, I couldn't get it to go darker.

Pencils in hand I started on the green bits
and then making the seedy bits with pencil.

 I'm using Albrecht Durer w/colour pencils and the white is
using my Inktense white pencil, it's nice and bright.

Starting to look better now.

 Here it is, done as far as I have time today,
might finish it some day.

You can see my white pen above the picture,
it came today, just in time to do the highlights.
It's super!

The painting looks better in real life.
I'm sure the camera is blonde as it takes terrible photos.

Can't be that I'm blonde, surely.

So there you have it,
juicy strawberries,
that were almost rotten strawberries!

I did get a beautiful and juicy coloured gift from my eldest daughter,

 just have a look at this.

 

It's huge and so bright, much brighter than the photo.

I could have a bath in it!

So there you have it,

my take on juicy.

Shame about the strawberries,

they are obviously for eating not painting!!

To see what other juicy things

have been created,

hop on over to Jenn's

Artist's Playroom.

It's jucilicious!!

If you would like to have your artwork 

shown around the world,

have a look at

Featuring Magazine.

Just by pre-ordering Issue 2 before 21 Sept,

you could win an inchy on the back cover.

Even if you don't win it's a great magazine

and you can get together with friends and do one big 

order for a huge discount off of the delivery price.

Have a look here for more details.

You can even submit your own work to the magazine

here.

 It can't hurt to look can it.

Quickie for WOYWW

My post for WOYWW

is short and sweet this week

(see Julia, I can do it!!)

mainly because I've been out all day and 

only have 10 minutes before

I have to pick up Little Miss.

So here's my desk today

I have been working on a pussycat 

and started some strawberries

for this weeks APR challenge.

Here are some step by steps of pussy.

It's still a long way from finished,

wish I knew how the real watercolourists do it.

I bet is it only one layer and done, I have to take baby steps.

I hope to get stuck into the strawberries

tomorrow and have it finished in time for APR on friday.

Fingers crossed.

I have to run, so why not hop on over to

Julia's Stamping Ground and

see all the other desks 

around the world.

Favourite Colour for APR & PPF

This weeks APR theme is

Your favourite colour.

Way back in 1969

Neil Armstrong made one giant step onto the moon

and in November of that same year

a little 8 year old girl had the same experience

(no not the moon but just as big a step).

We emigrated to Australia from England

and as soon as I got off of the boat,

I looked up and saw the bluest sky I had ever seen.

That colour has stayed with me through all of my art.

The sky is still that beautiful colour and now I am lucky enough

to live by the ocean as well.

My favourite colours to paint with are blue and yellow.

I didn't have time to do a special painting for this week,

so here are some of my favourite blues.

I did this painting in oils, it's 2' x 3' and took forever to do.

even my fun acrylic paintings have the blue in them.

I don't think I have many paintings without blue,

except of course my pet portraits

but someone might want me to paint a blue poodle,

you never know.

My favourite blue at the moment is my new mug

that my gorgeous girls just bought me.

 

Oh yeh, that's right, I'm a Dr Who fan,

been watching it since the 60's

don't like the new bloke though, give me David Tennant anyday.

The amazing thing is

the cup is much bigger on the inside

and it keeps moving and turning up 

in different places.

I'm linking up to Jenn's Artists Playroom

and Paint Party Friday,

so why not hop on over and 

visit.

I have a pussy cat to paint

and no it's not blue.

Dogs and Bunnies for WOYWW

Last week Julia showed her desk 

in all its messy glory

and so this week I decided 

to show the real pigsty

that is my art room,

well one corner at least.

This is just one corner of my mess, er room.

I have bits of stuff everywhere.

On the left of my desk (in the corner) is where I paint watercolours,

the left desk in the front is where I am painting my fish in acrylics

(the painting itself is hiding to the left of the photo).

There are two printers and my old computer in the corner and to the right of the desk

is all the bits and reminders for school, stuff that everyone dumps,

you know the I'll put it here and mum will put it away, place.

In the bottom right hand corner of the photo

you can just make out the handle of my guillotine and lots more bits and pieces

on my credenza.  My big shelving unit is behind me.

AND YOU WONDER WHY I CAN NEVER GET ANY WORK DONE!!!

I need a month just to tidy this mess up!

On my actual work desk, I have finished Max the dog and I am

about to start on Laura's (Beads, buttons and birds)

gorgeous bunny.

I have drawn it up, just need to sit down and paint.

Today I made up a stack of cards for the Collective Store

and for my Etsy shop, I'm really please with how they came out.

 I have about four or so portraits left to practise on

and then I might advertise Pet Portraits

on Etsy.  

Thanks to everyone for supplying me with photos 

and also with giving me ideas on how much.

I will start with $50 and see how they go.

I apologise if I didn't get to everyone last week,

with all that happened, I didn't have a lot of time.

I hope to visit more people this week.

If you would like to see more work desks around the world,

hop on over to Julia's Stamping Ground

and have a nice long visit around the desks.