Still Raining...

I am having fun with this curious duck - I am trying to get the irridescence on his chest right at the moment.  Luckily, using Inktense seems to work very well as it is possible to layer bright colours without them going muddy on the paper.  I have an idea to make this little painting a bit different and hopefully one that will raise a smile.

Happy Valentine's Day - having been an awkward teenager who never once received a card let alone a bunch of flowers, I am a little cynical about a celebration that is guaranteed to make a lot of people feel worse about their relationship status than they already do!  However, I cannot deny it is nice to be given a bouquet and some sweeties....Enjoy your day wherever you are and I guarantee that someone somewhere loves you!

Weather for Ducks!

After Monday's doldrums, I have started this little number - seems fitting with the weather we are having!
I'm using Derwent Inktense pencils and blocks.

Ennui....

It happens every year, the portrait commissions dry up after Christmas for a few weeks while everyone tries to recover from the amount of money they spent on the festivities.

So it's always a bit disheartening as an artist to wonder if business will pick up again.

I'm sure it will, it always does, and in the meantime I have time to get on with personal paintings.  The trouble is, with the bleak conditions outside and the long winter nights, I always feel very uninspired to paint anything at all if I don't have to.

These are a few of my past commissions - I am available should you want one of your own.  For goodness' sake, give me some work and save me from actually doing the ironing and cleaning the house before my brain turns to sludge!!

Bunnies, Babies & Lots of Water....

 I was inspired this weekend to crochet a little pink rabbit.  I like this pattern - it's from a Japanese book I have, so I cannot credit the designer as all I am able to decipher are the diagrams!  It crochets up quickly and is always cute.  I added wooden buttons for the eyes and a ready-made pom-pom for the tail, thus making it far to risky to give to the little girl that gave me the yen to make it.

This is my great-niece Valentini - couldn't you just eat her up with a spoon??

Took the dog for a walk around our newest park yesterday.  It lies next to a massive housing estate that has recently been built on what used to be essentially marshland.  Let us hope it doesn't go the way of certain villages in Somerset this year. However, this is Clovis on the path...

...here is a bench from which you can play King Canute.

These are not planned lakes...

...neither are these.

Pretty, but actually supposed to be a picnic area.  We look forward to seeing what happens to all those lovely new houses they are still building here in the future...

With 12 Hours to Spare...

Finished and entered into the Wildlife Artist of the Year competition - I could probably messed around with this for another day or so, but perhaps it is better I had to call a halt to it when I did.  This is watercolour with a touch of white gouache and pencil for detail.

Now it's a matter of waiting - something we artists seem to do a lot of.  If it doesn't get into this exhibition, there are a couple of others coming up that it could go into.

In the meantime, my knitted bread was so successful someone here thought it was a plate of buns for eating...

...just as well he didn't try!

24 Hours & Counting...

Despite my misgivings, I did get some good painting time yesterday - surveyor was early, ironing got done, family fed.  I have planned for today to be similar - dinner is bubbling in the slow cooker since 6 a.m., washing done, no visitors expected, so once I have done the morning at the day job, I should have a clear afternoon.

However, the best laid plans of mice and men......

I know what needs to be done to finish this off now and it is just a matter of concentrating on the detail plus adding a vague background.  Wish me luck!

Racing to the Finish Line...

Two days left before the deadline for Wildlife Artist of the Year - can I complete this in time?  Who knows, it's anyone's guess, but I'm going to give it my all.  Annoying that not only do I have some lackey coming round this afternoon to discuss the demolition of our garden wall and the subsequent building of 2 houses smack bang next to us (I'm VERY upset by this), but my family also seem to need food and clean clothes...
Perhaps I will just put on the earphones with some loud music and hope they all go away....

Also been knitting a lot of bread....