watercolour drawings on paper

 

Over the course of the last week I found myself reaching for my paint and paper more than usual. I think the excessive writing and academia has taken up so much of my time that I haven't had the opportunity to relax and be creative. The illustrations that came out of this challenging period are very amusing. I find myself reaching back to my childhood for inspiration, and looking up old Hungarian folk tales and traditional designs. I can't wait to have some time in the summer once uni is all over!

5 Day Print Sale - Starts Tomorrow

I will launch my 5 day print sale tomorrow, offering customers the opportunity of buying 2 prints and receiving a third one (of the same size) free. This is valid for both A4 and A3 prints, though there is a much larger variety available in the A4 print size. The offer will commence tomorrow on the 19th of october and end on the 24th. I am very excited about this, as I have a bunch of brand new prints in store, like Bearded Lady Makes a Friend and Bubblegumpink Just Ain't My Colour.  I would love to hear from readers, and see which print is their favourite. And who knows, I may even give some away!

cathy mcmurray

A little while ago I discovered yet another amazing artist working out of Portland, Oregon. (where else?) It is the lovely Cathy McMurray, who creates these wonderful paintings, so dense in detail and colour. I love the versatility and pattern combination in each work. You can see more of her work in her super duper etsy shop.

Also check out her blog, where she shares her thoughts on art and life.

milk take two

Here is another hot little snippet from the exhibition preparations. The version that will circulate the city will of course got my name on it, this is just the draft. this painting is the newest, actually and somehow came to perfectly epitomise what I hope the show to be about. x

MILK!

I am very excited to share with you, news of my impending solo show! 'MILK.' opens in exactly three weeks and I am really psyched! I have worked endlessly for the last 4 months and I think it will definitely show! I have combined my painting practice with ceramics, so there will be something for everyone! The details have been top secret, but all will be revealed on the opening night! If you are an Adelaidean or will be in town on the night, be sure to RSVP. Hope to see you there! x

chloe and blue

Chloe - 2010, watercolour, ink and graphite on wood.


BLUE - 2010, watercolour and ink on wood.

I sold both of the above paintings today, which are on show at Phat Coffee right now, in Adelaide. And funnily enough it is to a private client, who hasn't been to see the show. It is a coincidence that she fell in love with them when I was showing her photos of my other works, and they also happen to be exhibited right now. So this little event certainly put a bounce in my step today, as I put up the last ever studio work for assessment. As I now only have art history units left of my degree which I will complete next year. Yay for me! I will share some photos of my cast glass project "Crystallise me" in my next post.

new skinnies

(photo of the three new moleskines. bottom solo shot of "Zorro ain't got nothin' on me" soon to be available in my little shop)

Yippiee! Mother Earth has finally obliged and warmed up our frosted continent Down Under! I am very excited by this and have been spending a lot of time outdoors, in the garden and climbing out bush. In a sudden rush of creativity I sketched up three new moleskines in one sitting and am contemplating names and colours for them now. I am not sure if I should keep the middle one, pictured above. She is a cute little milkmaid, but I am wondering if she's a little too big? What do you think?

work in progress

('pink' .. new work for Phat show in November)

Once again my week is off to a busy start. However, I no longer fear the freakishly growing mound of to-dos because I now have The Sexy Plan. Yes, you read it right! I have devised a giant calender in which I write all the things I have to do each day in order to avoid any last minute stressing and the forgetting of important things. I think this is really helping, as it allows me to put away some "play time" every day in which I can (try to) relax and do something fun. Like get in my Pjs and watch a silly Tv show for an hour or so. Or lie on the trampoline and read a book in the increasingly better weather. The image above is another sneak preview of my impending show at Phat coffee. Should be good! According to my friend the jewellery on this person reminds her of African culture and tribal accessories. That pleases immensely, as anything with the word "tribal" or "indigenous" has me at hello. What gets your heart racing?

s o l d

(Big Sister, Little Sister - watercolour and ink on woodpanel 2010)

This painting of mine sold at Urban Cow Studio after a really short time, which on the one hand is a pleasure and a tick in the "success" box, and on the other hand a little sad that I won't get to see it anymore. Usually seperating emotions from business isn't so hard, as I consciously create work to sell, and am well aware of the fact that we will part. This painting, however became one of my favourites and traveled around Europe with me. We had some good times.

On the other hand I will still have the Big Sister, Little Sister postcards and badges in store (in limited edition runs) and get to see them every day. I'm sure it is going to a happy, loving home which does make me feel very good!

In the meantime, I am looking forward to tomorrow night's walking tour of East Hindley Street, Adelaide showcasing the new exhibitions opening there. Will you be attending?

a week of brown and gold

The title of this entry stems from the colour scheme of the above three photographs I chose to sum up the past week's events. The first image shows my lovely friend Miriam receiving two of my paintings over a cup of tea. The one she holds in her hands, 'Message in a Bottle' was won through my 3 Day Studio Sale auction, and the other, smaller piece was one she had her heart set on for a long time. It was so wonderful to catch up with her again and listen to her endless, breathless chatter. She is such a funny little person. Truly, truly wonderful!

Last wednesday night I had dinner with two of my favourite ladyfriends from uni, Sonja and Nadia, who also happen to be two of the most beautiful people I know. We wined and dined at the spiffy Singapore House (here in Adelaide), which in addition to its already luxurious interior comes complete with a Butterfly Room. There live some hundreds of framed beauties to be admired and awed. Sonja and I are already planning our return to have an afternoon of sketching and chatting and to have another helping of the amazing black rice putting. It was simply amazing. I'm fairly certain I said nothing but "oh wow.. oh wow" for the first two minutes of serious sampling. STUNNING food!

Finally, having left (and lost?) my black winter coat in Europe I spontaneously purchased a new one. I am very excited as it fits me very well, has a nice little hood and really cute blue and white stripy lining. When I met a friend in town she said called me Little Black Ridinghood. I think thats pretty cute.

I am, right at this minute putting the finishing touches on a painting. I am very excited. I went off on a strange new tangent, and I think its a really good one! I will share some sneak peeks very soon! Its time to say goodnight and go to bed with "My Uncle Oswald", by the amazing Roald Dahl, possibly my favourite author of all time. x x

Christmas in July

(my new babies - illustrated Moleskines, Roz and Kelly having a laugh, the three of us together and finally a photo of the delicious Lovecake)

Speaking of being in the winter mood, I didn't even publish my post about the wonderful Christmas in July Markets we had here in Adelaide. It was held at our one and only zine store in the city, run by Format, and upon this amazing day grew an entire forest of plastic christmas trees! There was a choir, and eggnog, and stalls with baked goods, artsy-craftsy things and vintage finds. Definitely something for everyone!

I shared a stall with two of my favourite ladyfriends, Roz and Kelly, and together we baked up a storm, and produced a whole lot of delicious baked goods! The most successful product of the evening was actually my "Lovecake", funnily enough. I named it that just to hear people say "can I have a slice of your delicious Lovecake?"

The other half of our stall comprised of Kelly and my crafty things, like illustrated Moleskine journals, hand-cast porcelain bunnies, crocheted cacti and much much more! Our products are also stocked at Urban Cow Studio, where will we will also be exhibiting next year. Very exciting! I better go, in an hour my lunch guest Aaron will be hear and by then i will have had to prepare a delicious 4 course meal. best get cracking! x x

feh feh feh feature!

Instead of talking about Sam Weber, I decided to let him do the talking himself. I read an interview with him and discovered his art through a friend's blog and am absolutely in love with it. amazing amazing! And now i HAVE to go to NY, not that I didn't before but now I simply must. So here is an excerpt from an interview on Lost at E Minor.

There always seems to be a dark undercurrent to your work. The subjects never seem particularly happy but rather have expressions of either surprise or fear. Why is this is such a prominent feature of your illustration work?
‘People have said that before about my work. I think it has a little to do with the type of stories that interest me, and have always interested me. Fairy Tales, cautionary stories, things meant to scare children. I’ve grown to appreciate those stories even more as I’ve grown older. There is something in those stories, and the exaggerated misery and tragedy, that I respond to, or at least have recently. As far as a tool for convey my own ideas and interests, they serve as wonderful metaphors and jumping off points. There are so many horrible things going on in the world, it’s calming I think to garner a little surprise or sense of unease from a fictitious image. A lot of it could be chalked up to simple escapism I suppose’.

house of cards

Yesterday I caught up with my good friend Vera to do one of our sortof-routine "wednesday shoots", wherein we get together and explore and take photos of each other. its a pretty good deal, made sweeter by the fact that we get to explore our city together. That city being Adelaide. For now. Its pretty rad, loots of little nooks and crannies with unexpected street art popping up between windows and in doorways. Its pretty exciting.

You really never know what you find - it started to rain so we spontaneously hurried down an alley and was about to pass these two giant double wooden doors which were shoved open and left exposed. We went in and were amazed and very excited. It could've been a club or privately owned saloon of sorts. it came with pirate paintings, a small kitchenette, many lightglobes and fixtures, amazing old chairs, stunning green tiles all along the rool and those amazing "dessert" signs and things. we took the opportunity and ran with it, shooting away excitedly, guiding and telling each other what we wanted. it was pretty radical, and we have some shots to prove it!

I haven't yet gotten through the whole shoot as there are a few hundred photos, but I have to say this is definitely the best haul of top notch shots yet. The three I share above are all from yesterday's shoot.

Life is good. Busy, but very good. I have many illustration and painting commissions, payed shifts at the gallery and a $500 printing voucher which came with a fancy award I won last week for a painting. So its quite good in that regard. Having said that I am setting off on my epic eurotrip in about 10 weeks and I have very minimal funds. we'll see how we go though ..
cheer up sailor, there are seas to be charted and waves to be sliced..

arty update, finished bits and works in progress

finished bits currently on show @ Electric Light Hotel, Adelaide





some works in progress



AndI have two commissions I should be working on right now, a piece I need to frame for tuesday to go to the Royal Adelaide Show AND i have an interview tomorrow in front of my works to talk about myself as an artist and whatnot! And then I have to take down that show aswell. Busy busy busy but there ain't no other way to beee.

ILLUSTRATION MANIA!!

Shaun Tan would have to be one of my most favourite artists/illustrators of all time, fitting right in with the likes of Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Audrey Kawasaki, Stella im Hultberg and Frieda Kahlo. His imagination never ceases to astound and amaze me, as I find myself holding my breath to see what the next page will hold. Unlike most other books, I find myself relishing going back and re-reading his books because I discover new things, clues and arrows all the time, leading to the home of the Lost Thing or similar. Whether its the great buffalo pointing the way to an unknown surprise, or the mysterious appearance of a dugong-like creature on one's front lawn, Shaun's work can always make me smile, laugh out loud or be on the brink of tears due simply to his astounding connection to the viewer and his understanding and manipulation of each and every brush stroke, and word.

I'm currently working on my own website (for my art/artistic profile) which has been a lot of fun. I'm thinking of doing a "journal/sketches" section, where I will scan in a bunch of doodles and spontaneous scribbles from the past few years and my Eurotrip journal of 07/08 aswell. There was a lot of good times to be had as I spent a bit of time on trains and planes and in classes in countries where I didn't really understand the language, therefore retreated to my lovely little journal to the amusement of the students sitting near me.

This old habit is kicking back again of course with the start of a new semester, as I have almost equal amounts of sketching to match the writing. Take this snippet here for example:


In other news, I picked up a pencil for the first time in (no kidding) 2 years, mostly due to necessity not pleasure when I just could NOT fall asleep last night and felt the need to just get out the pent up energy in a creative rush, where I switched the lights back on, rubbed my eyes, grabbed the first thing that had a plain and empty surface, sketched then painted. WITH A PENCIL! I don't think I can explain how surreal the whole experience was. And how different it is to work with graphite. Insane. Anyhow, this is the first illustration besides a badge I made to illustrate a little story I've been working on called "The Tenant" which tells the tale of a shy girl who one day discovers a lonely little bird nesting in her big buffy hair. This little bird is very reluctant to leave and the little girl is also reluctant to send it away, so a strange bond evolves between the two of them, as the little girl finds herself growing stronger and more self assured in her whimsical weirdness as she begins to accept herself, and the little bird finds its first home and feeling of security and love. Thats basically it. Here is the 20 minute 3 am sketch/painting which is very different to the original prototype and created on unprimed weird wood which I am fairly certain is not made, and certainly not ideal for painting.


I think that is all for tonight, and stay tuned because next time I will be introducing you to my new beloved eco-friendly fair trade independent Indian artist made bag in all its glory!
Goodnight and goodluck.

an illustrated life

Just a quick update from within the paint-splattered realm of mind!
Its been paint ! paint! Paint! lately, which, believe me I have no complaints about, however it does leave my desk in a rather unruly state.
Besides that I have made good money out of my art in recent weeks and I am quite pleased about that. I also 'unleashed' a new range of mini illustration cards/works. Lookey below!

This is

Suzie in the Snow;

This is Suzie doing what she loves best - watching the first snow of the year through her bedroom window. She knows the time has come before the first snowflake even drifts into view. Suzie's heart beats wildly every time she watches the fluffy flakes drift and dance into view, finally touching the ground, waiting to be moulded into something beautiful.

And these are

Pippy and Steve - A Love Story;

This is a portrait of Pippy and Steve, who symbolize all the lucky people that have love in their lives. Steve loves Pippy even though she burns his breakfast toast every morning and sings in the shower very loudly, and Pippy loves Steve back even though he snores like nothing else and never eats the breakfast she prepares for him. They float in their happy white love-bubble and dream of a big house and a puppy.

And finally (for now) its;

James in a Haunted Forest with Arnold the Owl

This is James, and above him, perched on a twindly branch is Arnold the Owl. He finds something really peaceful about the quiet of a Haunted Forest. The way the leaves rustle with an occasional gust of wind, the way a murder of crows sometimes circle over him, as though deciding his fate. Most of all he likes his companion Arnold, who is mostly silent besides the occasional hoot.

This one is probably my favourite so far, but don't tell the others! :) And they look ever so cute in a set on my Paris print.

These babies and more can be viewed at my etsy store here:
www.peachpatrol.etsy.com

Splendid.