my folk lover

sticks and stones...

After lots of changed ideas and many sketches, I finally have some little characters finished. These are the first four in a series of eight I have called 'Sticks and Stones'. I quite like who they have become! Each one is drawn on heavyweight archival watercolour paper and I ended up using pen and ink, watercolour, oil pastel and coloured pencil...

After spending so long doing all the intricate details in the hair and watercolour patterns it was kind of exciting to quickly add all the coloured bits in... hehehe cheap thrills! Anyway, these four are sitting quietly over in the shop if you would like to take a look.

p.s. Was anyone watching the red moon last night... so lovely.

oh my...

This afternoon I arrived home to find this package under the front door.

I knew what was inside...

I held my breath and quickly flicked through all the pages until I found this...

and this...

and then I pulled out a poster made from this little character...

I then had to sit down for a while and take a few deep breaths.

These photos don't do Frankie any justice, it was starting to get dark and I just couldn't wait... it is all much prettier in real life!

Ahh... I'm kind of a bit too excited... I don't know what else to say.

Oh... i'll try and get a bigger scan of the interview later in the week...

butterflies...

rainy day games...

While working out my new series of drawings I have been playing around trying to create a contrast between fine little ink details and some crazy style oil pastel colours. These two drawings turned out kind of how I wanted them to. Even though they aren't part of the final series, I thought I'd show them off...

They are up for adoption over here if you'd like to keep one... or both!

quilts and mess...

I was planning to have a series of eight new artworks finished by now, it's not really happening so fast. This is partly due to the fact that I went to the library yesterday and borrowed some lovely picture books that sent my mind racing off in all different directions. So changes need to be made, and even though I'm thinking in eights, each little piece does need its own definite character and can not be rushed. So instead, do you want to see a picture of my messy studio? Here it is...

I'm still working on getting my studio perfecto, and trying to sort through lots of piles of stuff... which are all over the floor at the moment. Actually, I always have piles of stuff all over the floor... and desk and chairs and shelves. The fact that you can actually see the surface of my desk is quite special.

Anyway, while I was at the library yesterday I was also looking at some lovely fabric, needlepoint and quilting books. Do you know what I realised... 1. Kaffe Fassett is actually not that bad looking and 2. I want to make a hand sewn quilt. I can't resist old quilting books from the 1970's.

If you would like to look at some more quilting pictures, take a look at the lovely blog of Ramona West... we had a like minded moment!

Also, thankyou to the lovely Christine for posting about my work with some very nice words on her blog Paper and Cloth xx

eights and sixteen...

I'm thinking in eights at the moment. Tomorrow I will hopefully have eight new pictures to show you... maybe sixteen, but more likely eight. I have been very inspired by this image...

and want to make another little print set, similar but different to these...

... almost finished.

Also I had an idea, a while ago I posted about wanting to do a drawing everyday and then on the last day of each month upload all the months drawings in one post. Well, I just realised that over here on typepad you can have lots of blogs in addition to your main one, so I have decided to create a little side-kick blog for my one-a-day sketches. It doesn't exist yet but it is in the making.

sun...

a stampede of horses...

Blogland is full of the most wonderful and generous people. Today I want to tell you about a lovely lady named Meighan, who owns a blog called 'My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses'. She has written a post about my work with lots of images so I just wanted to say thankyou, you can go and take a look by clicking the image below...

Edit: Some more lovelies I just wanted to say thankyou thankyou to... Aussiepatches and 315thomas for putting my work in their winning Etsy posters (congratulations to them for winning!), and Eshu for linking to my 'Spooked' print, thankyou xxx

in the garden...

Today was a lovely sunny day and I can almost believe that wonderful Spring is on its way. Spring is my most favourite time of the year... planning vegetable gardens and planting seeds, I love being outdoors in the sun (as do most, I'm sure!). Today I started to turn up some soil for my future vegetable patch, I must say it looks fertile and promising. This year I plan to have a vegetable patch 'in the round', by that I mean I'm going to plant in a big square around the plum tree. I figured all the other growing vegetables might encourage the plum tree to give us a few plums this year. So here is a very early progress shot...

Also, while I was out enjoying the sunshine I noticed that one of my rabbits has some very interesting patterns in his fur. Every year as he gains and loses his winter coat his patterns change and at the moment he has a love heart right in the middle of his face. Good one Captain Mushroom...

i scream icecream...

Some new flavours are available... the last of the icecream moments are a-waiting over in my shop...

'Searching for Romantic Icecream Moments (Pistachio)'

'Searching for Romantic Icecream Moments (Strawberry)'

'Searching for Romantic Icecream Moments (Caramel)'

and... 'Searching for Romantic Icecream Moments (Licorice)'

These are all available right here.

one a day...

One of my favourite artists, Martha Rich, has a website called Freedom Wig where she uploads a new painting every day. I like the idea of making an image everyday and then recording it, it must be annoying some days but it also must be interesting to look back on all your images and see your own little visual diary appear. Well then, I have decided to do something similar. My plan is to make a little drawing each day and then on the last day of each month I will upload all of them here on my blog. I think I will then pick the goodies and add them to my shop as affordable little originals. Oh I hope I can stay committed... I guess now that I have told you dear blog, I am under pressure! Here is some one-a-day work by Martha Rich...

p.s. Thankyou for all the icecream love! I have still got four more flavours to show you, hopefully tomorrow.