Fooled and Foolow

Hello blog friends, New and Old.
My photo of the 'bulbs' posted recently, fooled me! They were not my Snakeshead Fritillary after all. They are still pretty though,(top photo). I shall have to hope that they may yet emerge somewhere? The snowdrops look sweet now too and there are lots of spring bulbs pushing through in my tubs, promising more pretty things.

I escaped to the hills for an afternoon recently, that's all the time off I managed. I have been very busy with work. We went to Eyam in the Peak District and walked to a village called Foolow. It was quite cold and windy, but nice to be out and about. Foolow looked nice, with a village green and duckpond, the sign on the roadside made me laugh. No ducks on the frozen duckpond that day though! We walked back on an old lane, with lovely moss covered walls.  See you again soon.

From Painted to Printed

I just thought I would share with you today some of my artwork and the resulting printed cards. The top photo is my artwork, you get a sneaky peak at my studio mess here, the table is full of my art materials, I need to tidy up! ! I am working on Mother's Day for next year right now, but I did this artwork last year for the same theme, and happily received several samples of my work from the Card company. They have been wonderful to work for and this little fairy proved a popular hit. I am working on a new version for this year. These cards should be out in the shops right now, so I shall make a point of looking out for them next time I'm in town. Then I can do that big swollen head thing again :) Hopefully?
 I did some other designs too, the letters and bears is an older design. There is even a tiny version of the image on the back, which is quite cute! The cards are quite an excellent representation of the artwork, they did a good colour match. Quite often the finished printed piece can be disappointing, but these turned out well.  Sometimes when people buy cards, I don't think they realise that someone has painted the original image and it's gone through a process of printing to become a card. Hope you like them anyway? Mother's Day is coming round fast, we are nearly at March. It feels like spring is just around the corner, little bulbs are sprouting and I'm hoping that these little shoots,(up on the right) are going to be my Snakeshead fritillary that I planted late last year. I shall update you on this one.....I'm sure that's where I put them?? It's quite exciting anticipating these little blooms, simple pleasures, so rewarding  sigh...... :)

Roses are Red.....Pink, White and Blue?

Hello there. Wishing you all a Happy Valentines Day. I was taking my portfolio on a BIG outing today. So while I was organising it all in readyness, I took a few photos of the Roses that I've painted in the past. They are not always an easy subject to paint, especially in a lovely free loose style. I've cheated a bit with this technique, by doing simpler roses, of the 'wild' or old fashioned variety. The Blue ones are actually Christmas roses, but lovely colours. So I'm sending you roses, for Valentines Day. Hope you enjoy?
The portfolio had a lovely outing and came back happy :)

Barking up the wrong tree?

Hello there blog friends. We had a little snow at the weekend, it's all just about gone now. I had my camera ready, as warnings of the snow were plenty. I took a few photos in the morning, then we had lots more snow, and I forgot to take the camera the next time, so missed lots of beautiful woods photos, with the deer running in the trees, the sunset sky, the big clear moon, my snow angel impression, where I got covered in snow! Do not lay down in the snow when your big daft son and husband are about, you will get covered in the stuff, they didn't realise I was making a snow angel, and had fun covering me in snow!! So sorry, no Beautiful photos, just little snapshots.

As well as the snow, I've become very aware of the bark on trees lately, it is so beautiful and each one quite different. I have some amazing photos somewhere of really twisted tree trunks, must find them out. But in the meantime here are a couple, the second one, yellowy coloured with patches, looks wonderful in the sun, I've no idea what this tree is?? I have a feeling this bark thing may become an obsession, I never really noticed all the differences before, amazing what you see, when you open your eyes and look. :)

Christmas Present Arty Joy

I received this lovely book as a Christmas present from a lovely arty friend of mine and so far I've enjoyed 'looking at the pictures'. It documents bookcovers from an old series of books. I have still to read up on how each cover was created, but they are just splendid. I love their simplicity, the graphic interpretations of wonderful subjects. As I read into them, I will show one or two more of these lovely pages. Hope you like them? My favourite bird the Gannet is illustrated on one of them, these birds look like someone has carefully painted their faces, airbrushing the lovely soft colour of the yellow, so beautiful.
I am working away on the 'Book', I now have all the spreads to sketch up, that's 10 double page spreads, and it will be 20 artworks to do in as many days......aaaagggghhhh! Hope I can do it? I have other work to do too, so I may be missing from here for a bit? I have one favour to ask, if anyone knows of an A3 scanner that doesn't cost a fortune, and that scans well, can you leave me a comment?? I have been searching, but I'm not sure about the ones I have seen. Thanks in advance if anyone can help.