Works In Progress

 Currently on the drawing board is this portrait of a greyhound, recently departed.  It is going extremely well - sometimes these just seem to draw themselves.  This is in Derwent Drawing Pencils on pastel paper, with a little gouache to suggest the blanket he is lying on.

This knitting pattern has driven me to distraction for three days - I just could not get my head around it and kept going horribly wrong.  I have to knit a sample piece for someone who is taking a degree.  It was driving me crazy - I don't like to be beaten and I could not understand why this was not working out.  In the end I sat with a pen and paper and noted down every increase and decrease as I made them, as well as going through the pattern (again) meticulously and eventually disovered where I was going wrong.  It is so complicated...

719 & 503

The numbers are the bears' "names" - can't wait to see them on the Explore.org cams again this year. This was such fun to paint!  Watercolour on paper.

This Can't Be Work, It's Too Much Fun...

 I have two commissions at the moment, and this is a snippet from the first one.  I've painted a lot of bears over the past couple of months and they are still holding my interest.  The next commission is of a dog though, which will make a change in both subject and medium and probably do me a lot of good before (perish the thought!) bears get stale.  All being well, this one should be finished by the end of the day and ready to wing it's way to Canada.

Amongst other things, I've knitted a small fuzzy dog - seems an awfully long time since I made one of these.  My poor Etsy shop is very depleted in the little animal section, which is a shame as they are good sellers! Time to redress the situation...

Garden Stuff...

 We have a wren's nest in the ivy on the pergola.  We didn't know what it was when we discovered it and nearly pulled it apart while investigating - very glad we didn't.  The wren has been seen entering it, so hopefully it is being used and we haven't scared it off - I heard it singing loudly out there this morning.  The nest is about 6ft away from our back door so perhaps we will be able to see what happens if there are chicks.

 I've been planting flowers...

 ...the currants are already dashing ahead...

 ... the apple tree is covered in blossom, having recovered from it's severe pruning in the winter.

Of course, now that there are flowers, seedlings and bedding plants out there, the weather has taken a turn for the worst - the garden is now swathed in expanses of fleece until the cold snap is over.

Peekaboo!

I finished this yesterday afternoon, then sold it before the paint was even dry!  This is a watercolour of an Alaskan brown bear cub, peering around his mum in the hope of getting a little bit of that salmon.  It was great fun to paint and I am happy that the experiment of taking screenshots from a film in order to use them as painting reference worked - I'll be trying that again in the future.

Everything In The Garden's Lovely...

As the weather has been so wonderful over the past week, I have spent most of my time getting the garden back in order.  There was a fair bit of winter debris still to get rid of, seeds to sow, grass to cut, and compost to be spread.  Things are sprouting nicely and it all looks promising so far.  A few casualties - I sowed cucumber seeds too early (over enthusiastic) and they got leggy then keeled over.  So I have started again with them, but everything else seems to be doing OK, even the vegetable seedlings in my new tall planters - well guarded by slug tape!

So I haven't had the time or the inclination to pick up a paintbrush until this week.  It's another bear - I know, I'm sorry but this obession has yet to run it's course!  This is in watercolour, going well so far.

Currently on the needles: an oven...who knew it would need so much knitting?  Slowly losing the will to live...

Prints!

Website: carolinebletsis.com

 As the reaction to this painting was quite overwhelming, I have decided to offer it as prints on Society6 with half of any profits to be donated to the American Humane Society.  I chose this charity as they are prepared to fight in court against  the cruel law just signed by Trump that allows the gassing of bears & their cubs in their dens in Alaska, as well as baiting, snaring, and traps, with the same ruling applying to wolves and their cubs.  Prints can be bought here:
https://society6.com/product/bear-today-gone-tomorrow_print#s6-6842120p4a1v45
https://society6.com/product/bear-today-gone-tomorrow_stretched-canvas#s6-6842120p16a6v28
https://society6.com/product/bear-today-gone-tomorrow_cards#s6-6842120p22a16v71

I have also put this painting up as prints & phone case covers, profits of which just go to me - girl's gotta eat!
https://society6.com/product/blue-jellyfish-10_print#s6-6842087p4a1v45
https://society6.com/product/blue-jellyfish-10_iphone-case#s6-6842087p20a9v430a52v377