5 Craft Supplies I am Crushing On Right Now

Dick Blick  is my favourite art supply store of all time. They have a huge range of goodies that a lot of online Aussie Stores just don't stock. But the biggest killer for me is postage. 

So as this is a twice yearly purchase for me (because of the hefty price of postage from USA to Aus), I have a little ongoing wish list of yummy goodies that I intend to buy when that 6 month mark rolls around. 

Currently I am crushing on quite a few items, but here are my top 5 yummies:-

1. Liquitex Spray Paint

I currently have a few of the fluro colours, but I want them all!. They are so much fun to use,

not to mention the gorgeous colours that are available. 

2. Stabilo Pencils

These are water colour pastel pencils and again I just am so in love

with the colour range.

3. Simply Simmons

These are my favourite brushes of all time. I can honestly say that there are probably

better more expensive brushes out there (that I may one day discover and fall in

love with too), but for right now, these are well and truly my favs.

4. Artool BoneheadzTemplate

I know I know, these look a bit scary. But I really truly can't wait to use

my Liquitex spray paint on these stencils, to see what cool background affects

I can make.

5. Golden High Flow Acrylics

WANT SO BADLY!! especially the fluro colours. 

These paints would allow me to use them in (refillable) brushes and or marker pens,

or in water spray bottles without them clogging up!

So that's my crushes lately. 

Feel free to share any of yours

below.

As always thank you for taking the time to 

read my little blog.

and ps on a little side note, I do support

a lot of Aussie Online Stores, I just like to 

get a bulk order of supplies from one place

at one time, twice a year.

On Sisters .........

On setting yourself FREE

two different versions - I couldn't decide which one I liked best.

On Doing the Impossible

I saw this quote tonight on Pinterest and loved it so much..... that I had to use it.

So I fiddled around on pixlr with a close up of one of my paintings and put it on top of it.

Anyone also up for the challenge?

On Name Changes

I really do love the process of creating a painting from start to finish. 

It just makes my heart happy. :-)

Only recently though, have I started taking more photo's of each painting's progress.

The painting below, is one such painting, and it has gone through 

many many different stages, including a name change.

Originally I was going to title it "Thankful for my Sister" 

but after a friend suggested a name change (that I just happened to love!)

 it is now titled - "Wild Wood Twins".

So here it is from start to finish

Papers glued down

First layer of paint

Some hand writing with crayon

More layers of paint with 

drips, stamping, spray painting, flicks

And the final stage of the background

I already had an idea of what I was

going to paint, but wanted to draw

in chalk first, just in case I changed my

mind

Another girl added and then I started to 

add in some colour

more colour on the girls

and above is the finished product

I really do hope you enjoyed this visual journey of 

my painting Wild Wood Twins.

If you would like to purchase a print of this painting

you can visit my Fine Art America Shop 

or if you are after some other gift type options (ie mug, notebook)

you can visit my Zazzle Shop

As Always

Thank you for popping by.

On Remembering to Stop and Have a Good Laugh

Some inspirational photo's I found recently. I hope it brings a little bit of laughter and light to you all:-

photo courtesty of - https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net

courtesy of KartinaMayer.com

"Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself  to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing." - Frida Kahlo

as always thank you for stopping by.

On Grand Opening Celebration's

Further to my previous post I have opened up a little shop at Fine Art America. And in order to celebrate that opening, I have decided to run a little giveaway. 

Starting from now until midnight 31st March 2014 (Western Australian time), please leave a comment on any one of my photo's over at my Fine Art America profile page letting me know what it is about that particular painting that "speaks to you". 

Once you have done this, please pop over to my Facebook page and like my page (if you haven't already done so) and leave a comment to let me know you have done this.  I will put your name into the draw for a Stretched Canvas Print of your choice - size 15 inches x 24 inches - worth over $140. 

Here is just an example of one of my pieces

I will announce the winnner on 1st April (no jokes). 

Feel free to share the love with friends and family.

On the Feeling of Selling Out

A little bit of progression on a piece I am working on at the moment - 

started off looking like this -

and now is looking like this -

lots of work still to be done on these girls

Titled - Wild Wood Twins

So on another subject or should I say, relating back to the Title of my post...

recently I started a shop up on Fine Art America. 

I have been reluctant to do this in the past for two reasons. 

1) I didn't think my work was good enough to display to the whole world,

 let alone ask money for it.... I mean I have sold pretty 

much all of my previous work to either friends, or family 

(or friends of friends or friends of family) and a little at a local exhibition... 

but were they all just being nice in wanting to buy my artwork??

and 

2) I kind of felt like even if I did get to the stage where I felt my art was 'good enough',

 was I selling myself out, by wanting to make a little bit of money from my art??

Yes it's been a battle of the mind for sure.

But finally I came to the conclusion that

"If I don't give it a red hot crack, I'll just never ever know".

So that's how I arrived at finally taking the plunge

and starting up a shop.

So if you like my art, please feel free to drop by my shop

and also if you feel so inclined, please share my 

link with your friends.

And as always,

thank you for dropping by 

my blog xx

On being a total Techy Nube

The Urban Dictionary states Nube as being -

 Someone so pitiful and idiotic that they have not even the 

meagre skills to be titled a noob, they are now a nube, 

derived from the word nub, derived from stub.

Um Ok.. pretty harsh maybe, but definitely how I am feeling 

when it comes to designing my own website. I purchased a package off the net

thinking that this would be the easiest and most simplest way to get a website up 

and running for a 'non techy' brain like mine. 

But ***cough*** after stumbling at the first hurdle 

and not being able to get past the templates page without thinking that

"I could quite possibly be the dumbest person on the planet",

 I have had to hold up the white flag and admit defeat

(well for now anyway) and get back to spending any spare time 

that I have,  doing what I love the most 

- painting and creating art.

So late Sunday afternoon the weather had cooled and I decided to drag a  

canvas outside to work on. Here are just a few pictures of 

a work in progress (WIP) of my latest painting titled -

Thankful for My Sister

Photo above is the canvas (size is 36 inches x 48 inches)

with text glued down and a light coat of white gesso

adding first layer of paint

had to move undercover as it started to rain and here I am above

writing the words love, truth, believe, hope

A few extra layers of paint and some dripping of red paint

now splattering some red paint

(note my trusty companion... 

who ended up with a red tail and drips all over her)

Same background, it's just been covered

over in black paint (the underneath colour

will reveal itself later down the track) and a girl

sketched in with chalk.

added some definitition with pencil and some gesso

and now her twin sister has been added.

Lots more work to do on this painting and I can't wait 

to see how the twins develop.

So on an end note, 

this blog will be sticking around for now,

but over the next coming weeks or so,

 I'll try and add bits and pieces to it, to get it to look 

more professional and 'website' like. 

As always 

thanks for taking 

the time to read 

my blog

On taking the next step

Image courtesy of bubblews

So I am biting the bullet and have not only bought my own Domain Name

 (Sqqqqqqqqqqquuuuuuuuuueeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal)

but am also in the process of starting my own website.

So please bare with me, while I spend the time away from creating

art, to creating a new website.

On Being So Lucky

Ok sing it with me (I should be so lucky, lucky lucky lucky - in your bestest Kylie Minogue voice now).

No seriously though, I have had a rough couple of weeks at work. Very tired, emotional and being an all round cow to my family and most especially my hubby. I don't deal well with things when I'm tired (and because I've been stressed, I haven't been sleeping well and then because I was tired, I was even more stressed and the cycle continued like this for a few weeks). 

As things have slowed down again to a somewhat normal pace for a few weeks at work, I had the chance to paint again on the weekend (see the post - here about the background making process) and as soon as I started working on it, I knew I wanted to say thank you to my husband for - well - basically in a nutshell, being him. Patient, kind, thoughtful, picking up the slack in the old household chores area, cooking meals, grocery shopping and just generally putting up with me grumping at him, or bursting into tears at random times and then consoling myself afterwards with a bucket load of chocolate. It was not a pretty sight, let me tell you. Even I couldn't stand being around me!!

so just a re-cap of what the background 

looked like when finished

And then most of it got covered over LOL

Titled - So Lucky

24 x 36 inches

Dedicated to my main squeeze.

Some of the yummy texture

and from another angle

As always thank you

for taking the time to 

read my blog 

xx

On an Evolution of a Background

I try and mix up my method of working on a background with every painting that I do,

 but sometimes I must admit I do get a little obsessed if I discover something new 

<--------------->

So this is visual diary of my latest obsession

 Picture above, taken after all of the different papers have been glued down

and a thin coat of white Gesso brushed over the top to give it some (teeth) 

and to also give the paper a little more of a seal.

*****Apologies for the shocking photo (it's 40 degrees C outside and the sun was a little

 bit bright on the canvas which I did not discover 

until I went to post this photo, but thought I'd share it anyway)*****

Next layer is cool colours (blues, greens etc) applied with acrylics and stamps

also some spray paint and stencils

The state of my back yard!

The next layer is applied of warm colours (reds, oranges, yellows)

again using stamps and spray paint and sometimes spritzed with water to make them 

bleed out a little.

and even more warm colours added.

and here I've added some drops and flicks and a little more

spray paint in cool colours. Over the top of that I've then added

some black spray painted lettering

and also some flicks of white paint and let it drip.

So I had to share this photo. Firstly it's a little toot toot to my 

daughter who made this stamp herself for me in school. 

It is one of my favourite tools to use.

Close up of some of the texture 

YUMMY

And so now I then proceed to cover most of it up!

haha I can hear you all saying, but why go to all that trouble

only to cover half of it up again..

Well for me it's all about texture baby

and all these layers of paper and paint, create

the most yummiest of texture.

As always

thank you for taking

the time to read my blog

On being only a little bit cray cray

So once I have a happy accident (and I'm referring here to painting haha), I do get a little bit crazy and obsessive about it and want to do it again and again until I get it out of my system.

So I tried a new technique on this girl below with her dress

Wednesday's Child

and fell head over heals in love with the way it turned out.

So being a little bit obsessive compulsive decided to  

try it again... only this time to make it the whole background.

and this is the end result

Song Birds

24 x 36 inches

and so I'm a little bit fond of this one too

and so yes my next painting will also have a similar background!!

it's not quite out of my system yet...

watch this space.