Saturday 21 February 2015

More Memories...

While searching for photos of Jasper through the dusty cobwebs at the back of my computer files, I came across a folder full of photos I thought had been lost when my last computer died.  It will take many days to trawl through them and see what is there, but it was good to find records of past commissions and paintings that are long gone.  Above, this was a 'treasure chest' painted with a portrait of a cat - it was also lined with silk, with a hole in the corner where a tiny painted mouse peeked out.
This is a painting of a saluki pup that I did for a calendar - I was determined to up the profile of salukis in print, there are not enough!  Unfortunately, shortly after I completed 24 paintings for two calendars, the company went into liquidation and I never got my paintings back - I believe they were being held hostage by some graphics designer until he got paid!  Luckily, I did get paid but there were other artists who lost out big time - if anyone out there knows the whereabouts of my work for these calendars (12 puppies, 12 kittens) I'd dearly love to get them back!
This was fun to paint - many years ago (before the builders moved in next door and made our garden a scary place for birds) we had a pear tree which blue-tits loved.  We used to get a nesting pair in our eaves every year and this is a painting of three young blue-tits who were so tame I could go out and if I stood quietly for a few minutes, I could get the perfect reference photos or check out their colours before trotting back to my easel.

On the needles this week - a very big sweater!
Also sewing bushes and plants as scenery for a new animation.

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