Otis...

I've been a bit quiet on here lately - as usual, the run up to Christmas has been very busy and also I have not had much to show.  However, here is the painting I have just finished for the winner of this year's Travel Guide summer competition in the USA.  The winner chose to have her favourite bear, Otis, as the subject of the painting and once I got the Christmas commissions out of the way I could devote my time to this.

It is painted with watercolour on paper, using a wonderful reference photo by Olatz Azcona Munarriz and a composite imagining of the background, 'the office'.    I thoroughly enjoyed painting this and am glad to report the recipient is very happy too!
 

Fishing On The Lip...

 I'm gradually working my way through the Christmas commissions - finished this one last week.  This is bear 503 and bear 812 (brothers from different litters) fishing on the lip at Brooks Falls.  Painted in watercolour on paper.

Next up, a dog portrait - that makes a change!

Holly's Little Fuzzy...

I made this the other day - I had found the perfect fabric on line for a reasonable price.  This is based on a bear cub seen this year on the Explore.org cams that kept us entertained for the whole summer.

She belongs to last year's Fat Bear winner, Holly 135, and was a force to be reckoned with - she fearlessly climbed high trees, she had an unfortunate encounter with a porcupine that left her limping for weeks, she played with the cubs from other bear families (very unusual) and grew fatter and fluffier day by day.

I may, however, have shot myself in the foot with this one - it found a home almost immediately and I have orders for five more...

Making Masks...

I'm still sewing masks whenever I get a few minutes spare.

As we are in this for a long time, there is no reason masks have to be boring - I love this cute animal print!

A raccoon in a sweater - what's not to love!

Also, let's have a festive mask - Christmas is certainly not cancelled in our house!

I love this autumnal fabric, absolutely beautiful.  

 

If you see something you like, do contact me as I am willing to take on mask commissions as well.

Christmas...

Here is the first commission this year for a Christmas present - bear 135 Holly, with her cub 719 and her adopted cub 503.  I thoroughly enjoyed painting this one - watercolour on paper. One down, three to go...

I'm still making masks when I have a minute or two spare.  I love the print on this autumn themed one.

I am also making some in Christmas themed fabric - if we have to wear masks this Christmas, we might

as well make them jolly!
 

Grazer & Peanut...

Just finished this wonderful commission for a friend of mine - the bears Grazer 128 and her daughter, Peanut 902.  Peanut is now a full grown bear, but was the tiniest and most frail looking little cub, the runt of the litter.  Looks can be deceiving though, she was feisty and strong and survived to adulthood with no problems.

This has been painted in watercolour on paper.

Next on the easel - bears, bears, bears!  I am now officially fully booked until January 2021.
 

Yes, I Knitted Salad...

...and sweetcorn...

...and burgers...

 

Still Sewing...

After a week away in the Isle of Wight for a much needed break, I am back to sewing again.  Masks are in demand, although I made this fun dancing skeleton one for my daughter as she just loves Halloween.

Bears are in production - two are prizes in an American competition, the rest will be on sale in my Etsy shop, hopefully in time for Christmas.

After my son pointed out that the masks I make can also be reversible, I am having fun combining fabrics.

These two have been commissioned.

On the easel - more bears...
 

Lovely Lefty...

Lefty is one of my favourite bears at Katmai National Park - after painting him, it's time to make him out of fabric!  He's a bit of extra work due to the amount of scarring he has, plus he only has one ear, the other being just a nub.

This one has a battery operated noise maker in his foot, so he kind of roars.  I have to find out if I can send it through the post internationally with this insert due to the battery - if not, then poor Lefty will have to have a bit of surgery!

 

Blues...

I've found the whole lockdown/pandemic has affected my creativity quite badly over the past few months.  I've managed to paint during the day, but the time I used to spend knitting/crocheting/sewing in the evenings has taken a bad hit.  For one thing, I just do not feel inspired.  For another, I tend to pass out in front of the tv by about 8.30 and spend the rest of the evening dozing - perhaps it is my body's way of escaping!

I have found that crocheting throws using varigated yarn cakes has helped though - they are mindless, keep the hands busy, and at the end of it you have something pretty and useful with not a whole lot of effort.  This is the latest one in shades of blue.  Once it has been washed, it will be for sale in my Etsy shop - winter is on it's way and there is nothing more comforting than being wrapped up in a woolly blanket!
 

Handsome 503...

I completed this watercolour painting of  Bear 503 a couple of days ago  - very pleased with how it has turned out.  I'm now dithering as I have a buyer for it already but was also thinking to enter it into a watercolour competition...

Dear 503...

 When lockdown began, I thought I would have so much extra time for painting - how wrong I was!  I forgot that with the rest of the family home, my time would be very much in demand elsewhere.  Even now, with restrictions easing up, I still struggle to find the time to sit at the easel.

At the moment I am waiting for photos for the next dog portrait - unfortunately, people forget that being an artist is also a job that brings in an income and that being told you have a commission and actually getting the reference photo at the same time would be nice.  So while I wait, I am painting a picture that I have wanted to do for months - yes, it's another bear and yes, it is my favourite Mr.503.  The water was quite time consuming but had to be done right - I don;t mind, I enjoy painting water.  It's not quite finished but I need to complete the bear before putting the final touches on the water.  Watercoloour on paper.

The other crafts are not doing so well - I just do not feel inspired to make anything new and find myself very weary by the time the evening comes around.  Part of the current world situation I think.  Instead I have been sewing masks - they are easy to do, I can vary the fabric to keep it interesting and I feel I am making a small contribution to help in the fight against Covid19.  Who would have thought a year ago that this would be where we are at...

Dotty...

 I finally completed this this week - 'Dotty', Derwent Drawing and Coloursoft pencils on smooth watercolour paper.  It was a bit of a tricky one as the client wanted it done on a white paper - a white dog on white paper, involves a fair bit of jiggery-pokery! Thankfully there was a lovely watery green scene behind in the reference photo that I was able to utilise.

It's been tough getting time to paint during lockdown - everyone is home, they all need to have a piece of me apparently, and everything such as shopping takes twice as long what with the queueing, the washing, etc.  It's a shame, as painting is my way of escaping the daily trials and tribulations and what keeps me sane....

Chunky Chunk...

I got a commission to make another Chunk - he's a big bear, with a very large behind.  Took quite a bit of stuffing!  This one is off to California to surprise someone.

Coo...

There's not been much to show on here the past couple of weeks - masks, masks and more masks.  I have been painting though, but that's not finished yet, and I have made this tiny pigeon out of felt.  He's to be used in a future animation. 

More Masks...

I did a bit of sewing over the weekend...all but one of these are sold already.

Righting A Wrong...

I am usually very meticulous about removing a painting from my Etsy shop if I have sold it elsewhere.  Last week for the first time ever, I had the absolute nightmare of selling a painting on Etsy and then discovering it was nowhere to be found in my portfolios.  I turned the house upside down three times, and could not find it anywhere.  I could not recall having sold it either.  So I had to go to the buyer with hands held up and admit to having fallen down miserably.  I offered either a refund or to repaint the picture.  The buyer chose a re-paint.  Thankfully the original painting was done a couple of years ago, so painting the subject again was not dull - I purposely did not look at photos of the first one during painting as I wanted the second one to be fresh.  The photo above is the new version.

This is the old version - I think the newer one has come out better and much to my relief, so does the buyer! Lesson learned - keep better records!

Still Sewing...

I'm happy to keep sewing these - just wish more people would wear them!

Chunk & Max...

 This week I experimented with making a different bear using some darker fur I ordered before lockdown & promptly forgot about!  This is bear 32 Chunk,another character living at Brooks Falls, Katma National Park, Alaska.  He has quite a distinctive body shape, a very rounded behind like a light bulb, which is what I wanted to re-create with my toy.

I did this by adding an inch to the back end of the pattern.  It took a fair bit of stuffing too!  He turned out very cute - so cute that he sold within half an hour of me posting him on Etsy!  Think I had better make some more...

This is Max, the first dog portrait I have done for a very long time.  This was a commission and it felt odd to be working in pencil again after so long.  He turned out pretty well and Max's owner is very happy - so happy she has commissioned another dog portrait!

Durr....

For a very long time I thought my blog was sinking into oblivion as I received no comment notifications via email.  Oh well, perhaps the rise of other social media forms meant blogs were going out of fashion.  Then yesterday a friend of mine said she had posted a comment, had I seen it...well, after doing a bit of investigation I found a button to press that shows all comments....and there were so many that I hadn't seen or published!  So if you have commented and wondered why I was being rude and not acknowledging you or even publishing your comment, that is why.  I am sorry - I shall make a point of checking this on a regular basis!  Wonder why Blogger stopped sending email notifications though....

Eleven Little Geishas...

I have finally finished this set of amigurumi geishas.  They have only taken me most of lockdown!  I admit I was not working on them all the time, other projects are in the pipeline.

They were as lot of fun to do, choosing different colour combinations and decorations.  The pattern called for a lot more embellishments on the dresses, but I felt they looked better kept fairly simple - they are only about 4 inches tall so really didn't need a lot of fripperies.

Crocheted in cotton yarn.

Lefty - Complete...

Just finished this painting - such fun to do!  Now I am waiting to see the real Lefty show up at Brooks Falls on the Explore.org cams!

Watercolour on paper - will be in my Etsy shop tomorrow.

Lefty - A Most Battered Bear...

This is a painting I have wanted to get on with since the beginning of lockdown but have had neither the time or the motivation until now.  It is of bear 775 Lefty on Brooks Falls, Katmai, Alaska.  I really like this bear - he is battered, covered in scars, missing most of one ear (hence the name) and used to thrash about in the water trying to catch fish, crazed with hunger.  Over the past few years he has learned to be patient and fish from the top of the falls and has become highly proficient at it - I cannot keep up with counting the number of fish he catches and eats in one session!

Interestingly, whilst I knew he has many battle scars, with the close studying of my reference photos I am discovering more and more doinks and dents in his skin - he's led a hard life.

With the Explore.org cams due to be switched on any day now, I can't wait to see this old bear's return!

Here We Are Again...

Looks like I'm back to sewing bears...

Masks & Geishas...

 I'm still sewing face masks - I had a bit of a run on them last week from friends and neighbours and made quite a lot.  I've completed any orders now and am back to making them from fabrics that I choose!

 Here are geishas 9 and 10 - I have 11 to make but have run out of the flesh coloured yarn so have to wait for a delivery.  They were fun but I've had enough now.

Three masks that I made yesterday - top two for someone we know that keeps owls and hawks, the bottom one for our local post office clerk.  After he showed me what he had been issued with last week, a nasty little mask made of stretchy t-shirt material that looked like a miniature jockstrap and probably entirely useless, I offered to make him a decent one.

I am painting - got one on the drawing board and a pet portrait to do.  Work is slowly returning to normal,thank goodness.

Something Completely Different...

Back in my teenage years - it was the '70's - I drew a lot of fantasy pictures, dragons, unicorns, pensive looking ladies in long flowing dresses.  But over the years I lost interest in producing this kind of artwork, preferring more natural subjects with a realistic rendition.

But this Spring I was asked to come up with a drawing of a phoenix entwined with a dragon for a friend of mine.  I agreed to it but spent weeks procrastinating and agonising over how I would be able to achieve what she wanted.  I finally had to bite the bullet - it's for a birthday present and the date is very close now - and get on with it.  Once I had a few pencil markings on the paper, I began to get into it and it made a nice change to come up with something from my imagination.  I was starting to get tired of it before the end though and now can't wait to get back to some watercolour!

Lockdown Lovelies...

All for sale in my Etsy shop today!