new cards .....

 

..... some new card designs

 

originals for sale

back a few weeks ago ... here ...  i very excitedly waffled on about finally having originals for sale. 

 well there was a bit of a hiccup .... i couldn't part with them.

every weekend i found an excuse not to take them with me to my market stall.

there's a new dog in town in need of a name

i thought for a change, i'd start a series of  animal paintings ... and here's the first.  

anyone that knows me knows that i am a little obsessed with dogs.  so i figured it's the best place to start.

new cards

gosh ... i'm on a roll. two posts in one day.  wowee.

thought i'd just upload some cards i made yesterday that i'll have available for sale at my future markets. the backgrounds are cropped parts of some mixed media paintings that i've done.

  

inspiration please ...

well. here is the whimsical girl of the moment. what do you think?

i think she is related to Prudence as she has the same wild hair, and perhaps also to Milly as she very pretty violet eyes.  but what is her name?

i really need some help with suggestions for a name.  i'd love to send a print or a set of cards to whoever comes up with the most suitable name.  so if you are inspired by a name when you look at her please let me know.

leave any suggestions below in the comments section, or on my facebook page.

... and thanks for taking a look at the new girl, she'll be thrilled to know that you're interested in her.

i will have prints of her at the markets this weekend, and plan to have her in the shop in the next day.

 

p.s. :: almost forgot.  i should have another gorgeous girl finished for next week.  so far she has very short dark brown hair, luscious lips, emerald eyes, and is a tiny bit sophisticated. i've got a feeling she may be a hit as her background colours are really quite wonderful.

quick & quirky quote no. 6

inspired to paint ... true bloom is for you

no ... i didn't paint this (oh how I wish) - flora bowley did

back here i was mad for signing on to new art courses then found i didn't have time to do them as they overlapped and i was doing other stuff ... i'm sure you know what i mean.  well i am now about half way through the online fantastic-amazing-loving-it-more-than-i-thought flora bowley true bloom online course (fortunately for me the course is available online for six months after the class closes so you can catch up. phew).

even though i am only half way through, i so so so recommend this if you are interested in art in any form.  forget that you can't paint or have never ever tried ... her thing is teaching you to paint intuitively and at the end of the course i know you will say 'yay - i can paint' .  you might even say  'yay i can paint and i just found a new career'.  really.

  flora's intuitive approach is based on just going with the flow and discovering what emerges ... layering paint and laying some more paint.   so enlightening and encouraging and FUN.  i'm only half way through (is that the third time i said that?), but am transformed in my thinking and my approach to painting.

so what i am trying to say is that if you would like to learn to paint, don't know where to start, have never painted before, have been painting for years but love to do art courses, open to new experiences ...... then this is the girl and the course for you. and flora is soooo delightful.

if you check flora's blog you will see some examples of students work from the first ever online class (that i enrolled for but am just getting to).  the next course starts in the next week or so, so get to it if you're interested.

 ... and here is a photo of the the very talented flora in her studio.

artwork

had a great afternoon today just playing around with some new artwork.  

really love the colours in both of them.

date with donna

back here i was waffling on about all the art courses i was trying to get through, so i thought i'd report back on the donna downey course as that is the one i have managed to actually finished (nothing like having to physically turn up to something to get it completed).

if you have not yet encountered the lovely donna, she is this kooky (i love kooky) american mixed media artist.  she is totally mad for the colour teal - her own admission - and was wearing a teal cardie, her glasses were teal in the dame edna style (with diamantes of course) and the front of her hair was also that gorgeous teal colour (she said that she stands out dramatically in the vanilla town where she lives and receives both positive and negative comments about her hair).

the class was great, learnt lots about backgrounds, colours, techniques.  it was an art journalling class and we were all given these deee-vine hand made fabric covered journals to start work on.

my biggest stumbling block with starting an art journal has been messing up a perfectly good and usually beautiful journal with paint and glue and stuff that i may not really like when i'm finished.  so going to this class and having to immediately get stuck in and  into a apply paint to this totally glorious journal was very ... what's the word .... liberating!  i had no choice but to dive in and smear a heap of paint on a very white page in a beautiful journal.  i now realise that its ok to mess up something that is beautiful, well hopefully not messing up - more like enhance it's beauty.  yes, that is what i do isn't it? 

  you can find more info about donna here .

 so here are some photos of the day.

Donna in action

a couple of girls came over from NZ for the weekend course and one had this hilarious (and very NZ) apron which Donna found hugely amusing ... as we all did.

the kept us fortified with delicious food

my beautiful handmade journal

 

this is one of Donna's amazing art journals ....

.... and this is one of the pages from the journal.

courses and classes

i am crazy for doing courses at the moment. 

i've just finished the most amazing course for creative businesses called 'Hello Soul Hello Business' - how to have a business with soul.  loved it loved it loved it.  met some great women from all around the world, and  I seriously could not recommend this course more. it so exceeded my expectations ... i think it exceeded them by a thousand per cent if that is possible.  having said that there was a lot of content and a lot of homework, and it was really easy to get behind (which I and others did regularly so much so that they added an extra week long break in the middle of the course so everyone could catch up). they covered so much more than i expected and i learnt so much more than i thought i would ever need to know.  the course was created by two highly experienced women that I totally and utterly admire - kelly rae roberts and beth nicholls .  so worth considering this course if you run your own business. love love loved it.

typical me thought I would be able to manage and juggle far too much, and then drop half of it. when I registered for the HSHB course, i also thought i'd register for the Flora Bowley course True Bloom and do the two together.  clueless.  then again that's maybe being a little tough on myself .... i really didn't expect the HSHB course to be as in depth and time consuming as it was. so i did two classes only of true bloom and that's it.  fortunately you can access the classes for 6 months so that is my next little adventure.

there's more ..... this sunday i will be at a 5 hour art journalling course run by donna downie .  so excited i could ... well not sure what i could do but i'm sure you get the idea.  it's going to be great!!

recycled love

before my latest obsession for painting began, i had a mad obsession with painting old pieces of furniture (that was just around the time of my mosaicing obsession of which i still have boxes and boxes of plates and tiles under the house).  my main objective was to shabby chic them and make them look all old, worn and (hopefully) french looking and save myself a ton of money by having furniture i wanted without the huge cost.

why i am talking about this is that this week after years of ignoring my furniture painting obession,  i have started another project using vintage style papers to cover the draws of a chest of draws, (but more about that in another post) and i am surprised about how much i am enjoying it.  such a sense of fulfilment.

i thought i'd post the recycled love of previous years and upload a few photos of some furniture that i've painted.  there is a before and after photo of one piece, but i forgot to take a before shot of the large dresser type piece on legs .... it was painted white and had been sponged with a chocolate colour. just lovely. anyway .. here they are.  by the way, its VERY easy to do.

From this ......

... to this - and I have two of them

i just love this monster and doubt if I will ever part with it ...

so there are just a few of my blissful furniture painting adventures ... with more to come. 

introducing ....... WILLOW

for so long i have wanted to give my glorious girls names, but other more pressing items delayed that from happening.  finally i realised that i owe it to the gorgeous creatures to name them properly so i have asked my facebook friends for suggestions.  

so, without further ado i would like to introduce WILLOW .......

quick & quirky quote

don't know about you, but i love an inspiring quote.  preferably quick and quirky.  something punchy and to the point.  a little lift for the spirit.  something to change the way you think.  

so i thought i would do a weekly spot of inspiration on my blog.... and here's the first one :

isn't that great????  i just love it.  Masahide was a 17th century Buddhist, which makes me love it even more.

want to share your favourite quote?

The Divine Miss Emily

i have the most dee-vine wee niece ever made.  glorious she is.  anyway she recently turned one so i made her a personalised bunting painting. here it is. i quite like it.

its layer upon layer upon layer (remember those sara lea ads, or is it only me that is so old??) of vintage and new papers, and paint that has been painted on, rolled on, stamped on and dripped on. 

layer 'pon layer 'pon layer ....

i thought it turned out so well i'd put the design up in my Blissful Bunting shop in case someone else would like one for their wee one.  you can see it here.

Bliss.

woo hoo :: very very excited

i had a very very very exciting weekend, yes i did.

i sold my first print on-line.

woo-hoo.

it was a print of this gorgeous creature on made it.

totally chuffed with myself as i've only really just started selling on-line. i know it is a very small step, but lots of small steps will eventually turn into giant ones - won't they?  and you've got to start somewhere don't you now?  bliss

i also spent the weekend obsessing about leon russell, you know that sexy rock god from the late seventies (i know, i know i'm really old)?  he's touring australia next week for the byron bay blues festival and i have tickets to see him in sydney.  he no longer looks the rock god (believe me on that one), but i'm hoping he still sounds great.  he just released a cd with elton john called 'the union'.  love love love that album, think i played it about 20 times over the weekend and every listen it just got better. am even listening to it now.  obsessed.  my husband is a little over it.

Leon Live album.  www.leonrussellrecords.com

to market .... to market

very very very excited.  i have booked into the Bella Vista Artisans Market!  yay to me!!!  i know it's not that big a deal, its just that I have been thinking, talking, dwelling on it for so long I can't believe that I have actually gotten off my fat behind and done something about it.

so now, apart from panicking, i am madly painting away.  have decided to sell some canvas paintings that I am surprisingly loving in every way.  i am loving making them. i am loving the end result.  really loving. and they are so different from anything i have ever done before as they are not my usual girls of varying descriptions.  i think it is the colour i enjoy the most.  as well as the two in the colour scheme below, i have also done a couple of pink-ish ones, but the canvas is larger and they won't fit on my home scanner so can't upload them.

as i am not working at the moment and want some extra money, i wanted to produce some paintings that i believe will sell that are aimed at the target market of the market, which i think would be women with small children.  i have come to that conclusion as that is the prominent demographic in the area where the market is.  hope i am right as i think these paintings would look great in a kids room .... gee i really hope i'm right! think i need to test them with some friends with small children ... great idea Jenn.

i decided on bunting as a theme as when i was researching how to make bunting in a non-laborius way (as i wanted to make about ten metres of it to string up around my market stall) I thought - hey, what about painting some as well.  and i quite like the result. and they are relatively quick to make unlike my girls that seem to take days to get their eyes and skin right.

wish me luck ..... bliss

leap and the net will appear .....

... it is one of my most favourite sayings and I have decided to finally take it's advice.

i have wanted for so long to try and sell my art somehow other than online - not that i have been online for that long.  so i have decided to try a couple of art and craft markets.  i have visited two in the past two weekends - the first not so great as it was full of hand made children's clothes.  then i visited one today that was wonderful - Bella Vista Artisans Market.

today was only the second time it has operated and there were alot of stalls, although several sellers told me that it was very quite day.  i remember reading an article years ago about establishing a market, and it said that it takes about 12 months for a market to be well know and establish, so there is alot of promise for this one as it is in a beautiful setting.

i did speak with a very talented stallholder there called genevieve who is an artist and sells online through redbubble.com.  her artwork was wonderful and i really enjoyed talking to her.  she was selling prints of her work in varying sizes as I want to do.  she seems dedicated to the market and has been there for the first two and plans to be there next month.  

so i am busy investigating the most cost effective and professional outcome for printing, designing the look of my stall (the fun part), getting insurance, oh and I must remember to book in to the market.  Bliss

Hippy Hippy Shake

what was that song from the 60s about wearing flowers in your hair?  all I can remember is "are you going to San-Fran-sisco ......."  anyway I have a new girl and she has flowers in her hair.  I quite like her I do! 

the scan is not so great though, it didn't totally fit on the glass so is a little blurred unfortunately.  will have to go get it professionally done in the next day or so. but you get the picture (pun intended) hee hee.

the newest girl in my life

thought i'd try and bring a bit of art into my art blog for a change.

so got my act together last night and finished the painting i was working on.  well i think i have finished it. my original plan was to put a heap of bright flowers on her gorgeous green hat, but now i think her melancholiness wouldn't match a bright flowery hat.  or would it?

man, it took me forever to get her eyes right.  i changed them about four times.  kept layering the gesso over the top and starting again. drove me crazy.

Bliss. xx

lift your game Jenn ... seriously

talk about absolute and thorough bliss ..... i just received my first issue of Artful Blogging in the mail today.  how divine is that mag?   deeee-vine!!

there are blogs in there less than a year old that are absolute masterpieces.  I am alternating between depression and delight every time i think about that magazine.   

lift your game Jenn.  lift your game.  seriously.

but how? how? how?  

i think i need a more interesting life to write about.  perhaps as this blog is supposed to be mainly about art, i should concentrate a little more on that and less on dogs, magazines and other distractions.  yes that is it.  must now go and finish my current painting so i can put it up here. also, must remember that i have an aRT blog.