Fine China Illustrations for Rude-Chintz

A start-up company named Rude-Chintz hired me to create three designs for fine china tea sets. All with a traditional look on first glance but if viewed closely revealing a "rude" aspect to them. Due to the nature of the work, I can only show one of the designs with an area deliberately out of focus!

Delft inspired Farm Scene for the center of a plate.

Book Cover for Telling Stories in the Dark

My grandfather has written a wonderful book on how to tell "head stories", as my family has always called them, to your children titled Pete Seeger's Storytelling Book. It is out of publication now, and he wants to do a second publication with the new title of Telling Stories in the Dark (the name he originally wanted for it.)
He asked me to illustrate a new book cover for it. I recently completed a version of it. I'm not sure that this will be what goes to print. I put some text in to indicate where I intended it to go. No doubt when an art director is involved, there will be changes requested.

Moody Moments from My Visual Diary

Here's some of the more personal images over the past couple of months from My Visual Diary project. Self-portraits of various kinds, dealing with some of my darker moments. The assignment: no more than 30 minutes, with no photo reference, only my memory of the day as my guide.

August 17, 2013 Walking on Eggshells

August 20, 2013 Job Interview

September 3, 2013 Strung Out

September 30, 2013 Falling

October 9, 2013 Drawing

Images of Summer from My Visual Diary Project

July 15, 2013 Moths

Well, the Summer has slipped away and I thought I would share some of my favorite pieces from My Visual Diary project that I began on July 1st of this year. The assignment: no more than 30 minutes, with no photo reference, only my memory of the day as my guide.

July 17, 2013 Fireflies

July 19, 2013 Hornets, Wasps, and Bees Everywhere

July 20, 2013 Ashes

July 25, 2013 Hugging Mom

August 5, 2013 First Time Underwater!

August 11, 2013 Our Sandcastle

August 14, 2013 Blackberries Everywhere

August 15, 2013 My Little Friend

Greeting Card Collections

I've been building collections of greeting cards with six different paintings in each. I've been selling them both individually and in sets at my various shows and am thinking about adding them for sale on my Etsy site.

This is the first collection of fruits and vegetables.

I've also done a collection of butterflies and dragonflies as part of my "Little Gem" series with one hummingbird thrown in, but I plan to do another whole series of birds.

My most recent series that I'm still building is my Dancing Dandelions collection. I've got one more to do to have a set of 6 different cards.

 And new on the scene, as of this past week, I started doing abstracted floral watercolors that I showed in my last blog, but I'll add them in again because I'm excited about doing more of these!

Competition entry & Visual Diary for September 15th

This is the piece I entered for the competition.

I've been busy working on my Visual Diary every day since I started on July 1st. It's been an eye opening experience. My computer's memory is tapped out, and until it's resolved and I can again scan every painting in, I'll have to post only the especially meaningful ones. Stay in touch for a post coming soon showing the last two months' worth of highlights!

Abstract Floral 2   My Visual Diary September 15, 2013

Meanwhile, I've been on the job hunt and decided to enter a competition for a website banner for a wedding floral company on Freelancer.com. Here is my entry and it got me inspired to make one similar for my daily diary. They want something dotted and abstract/ geometric. I tried to adapt to that but still keep in mind that is was for a florist. Though now it looks like they really wanted something much more geometric than I thought they did! Oh well, at least it was fun to paint and has me thinking of pursuing this to see where it leads. A range of greeting cards perhaps?

My Visual Diary Days 3-12

July 3, 2013   Stars

Well I've managed to get through the first week and a half doing my visual diary. Already it has been really enlightening for me. I've set myself the task of no more than 30 minutes on a piece. I've been able to stay within an hour which is much better than past attempts at this!

July 4, 2013 Roald Dahl Museum

By far the most challenging aspect has been the self-imposed rule of using no photo reference for this project. The images are memories of the day, and therefore I must use only my memory as a guide. This has led to some interesting things! People only vaguely resemble who they are meant to be. This was most especially a struggle for me when I was remembering my grandmother who passed away this week. I wanted to capture her when she was younger, with long hair. I loved her hair. Even the magpies, which at the time I studied closely, were difficult to remember which parts of them were black and which were white.

I realize how far I am from being truly observant of my day.

July 5, 2013  Seagulls in Bath

July 6, 2013  Strawberry Picking

July 7, 2013  Bayswater Road Market?

July 8, 2013  Planting Lavender

July 9, 2013  A Working Printer!

July 10, 2013  Goodbye Grandma

July 11, 2013  Plum Wine

July 12, 2013  Five Magpies Sitting in a Row

My Visual Diary - Day 1 & 2

So I have set before me a new goal: My Visual Diary. 

One piece of art a day chronicling an element of my day for a year. I will spend no more than 30 minutes on it. (I've already cheated on this, but at least it is a format for me to strive for!) This will be very hard to do for me, as my life is so chaotic at present. But here goes...

July 1, 2013: The Purple Dress

July 2, 2013: Chocolate Chip Cookies