Catch up

I haven't blogged in a while which is terrible of me! I would love to say I've been busy swanning off to exotic hot countries but as is the norm, I've been sat infront of my easel wishing the cold and windy weather would ease up for a while. I don't know about others but with all the depressing news about the economy at the moment and the terrible weather, it's been playing havoc with my moods. Are you sure that we humans aren't allowed to hybernate through winter? It would certainly solve a lot as I sure feel like sleeping all the time!

It's the time of year when Christmas commission enquiries are coming in. It's strange thinking about Christmas in September but when you do this job, you are constantly thinking and planning at least 3 months ahead of yourself. It also means I rarely know what the date is! :-D We're also trying to figure out if we can take a week off in January as it's good to have at least a week away from the easel, refresh your eyes and mind, and come back with a new vigour having rested. Sorry, I'm daydreaming about foreign shores!!

We're also very close to buying our first house which is extremely exciting. It's amazing how patient you have to be, our mortgage company are being really slow, you'd have thought that they'd be desperate for the work right now! We were hoping to sign contracts this Friday but it's now been put off for another week. I'm silently stamping my feet in frustration but I know we'll get there. We'd better as I no longer have the room in our spare room/studio to swing a mouse let alone one of our cats!

Well, back I go to my latest commission. I will hopefully be able to post a couple of commissions on here once I've taken decent photos of them so keep an eye out for them.

I'm a winner!

Makes a change from me normally being a loser! :-D I got an email today from the Society of All Artists to say I had won a set of the new Atelier Interactive Acrylics which is very exciting! Luckily the competition I entered wasn't dependant on my painting ability, instead I had to say in no more than 100 words why the new acrylics would benefit my art (I think that was it anyway, it seems like so long ago that I entered it!) and all I can think is that no one else entered the competition because I won one of the sets of paints! These new acrylics don't dry as quickly as old acrylics, allowing for more working on the canvas, better blending and reworking areas of the painting. I can't wait to get these paints and start to use them - I love working in acrylic, it's because of the medium that I am able to produce such detail but I do have certain issues with the immediacy of the drying time, I have to paint over certain areas that need changing instead of just reworking and blending can be tricky to master so I hope that these new acrylics will be the answer. This is the second time I've won some paints - the first time I was at school and entered a painting competition with Kellogs Cornflakes and won some paints. It's still as exciting winning today!!!

Latest Commissions

Here are my two latest commissions, Callan at the top and Bert below. I don't get many greys to paint so Callan was a challange with all the markings but very enjoyable. I'm also starting to try out different coloured backgrounds now I have worked out how to do so in my computer mock ups! I've put off experimenting before because playing around with different colours on the canvas is extremely tricky plus time consuming. If it hasn't turned out right, you have to wait for the paint to dry and start again so now I know how to decide on the correct colours on the computer, it will hopefully be a lot easier and quicker, hopefully!

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I'm also in the process of updating my website. I've noticed that people miss my prints in my shop so I'm going to make them more accessible on my front page. I'm also tidying up my website a little bit, I say I am, it will be done by hubby when he gets the time! Also with my prints, I'm going to start selling two different sizes of each print, giving people the option of buying small or large versions for different prices.

Exmoor Pony - Take Two

This is the other of the two Exmoor Pony paintings I produced. I completely forgot to take photos during the work in progress and it's taken until today to get a photo as it's been raining non stop for days now. I quickly ran outside whilst the sun appeared for five minutes. I didn't realise but there's a shadow at the top right hand side of the painting which I can only assume was one of our cats who followed me outside when they realised it was finally not raining and they wouldn't get wet! Izzy, our girl cat, is especially useless when it's raining and you know that as soon as it starts to drizzle, she'll be in through the cat flap within seconds.