New blog starting

http://themanwhocalmedthestorm.blogspot.com/
Dear all,
I felt the time had come to start a newer blog, not just art, a more of everything blog, but art still the main focus. Please follow the above link for newer pastures!

Fuzzies

Also since January my two little friends have died. Maeze (top) the furriest dwarf russian i ever saw was rehomed by us after being left in a box on the doorstep of a local pet shop in March 2010. Sadly, due to likely previous life she was not very well, a bad case of diabetes, and was terrified of human skin. Cuddles were only permitted with long sleeves or gloves. Jemima the orange syrian was also rehomed by us, October 2009, and she settled in quickly and became very very friendly. Her death was rather traumatic, a sudden infection which had no symptoms until it was very advanced, and for her last week she struggled to move around. I love the colour orange after helping her in her life. H has one little hamster left as Bailey (Belly as more commonly known) died a few weeks ago. Her sister Whisky (or Witty due to the cheeky hissing giggle sound she used to make) is the last hamster, and seems on her way out after a very long and healthy life. She looks a bit manky at the moment, so no picture of her.... It's weird how your life can be affected by animals so much, I think a lot of therapy came out of the cuddles from these two!

Hummingbird

Finished today (and only started yesterday), a very quick creative burst. since the arrival of the lovebirds a couple years ago, I have started to get real keen on little birds. And also have a new found love of the Hummingbird Bakery *dribbles*. Planning to do a series of paintings on birds. Unfortunately I have not ever seen a hummingbird, so this inspiration came from many bird books and the photos others have taken. However, I added a lot more colour to the bird than was supposed to be, most hummingbirds are quite dark in colour. Mixed media, but mainly acrylics (again, for me, wow) and indian ink detail on the top layer. The canvas background is not shown properly here, but since the death of my camera, a phone will have to do... the background is a beige-peach, with an underlayer of terracotta, which shows through in a few spots. The next bird canvases will hopefully be some more lovebirds, and some swallows (which I think are incredible) as we've seen similar around the area lately.

Artwork of late

A while ago actually I started this piece which; when complete; will show my brothers two adorable lovebirds. Here is the first nearly complete bird, Baldrick. I love him so much. Painted with acrylics only (for me this is a mean feat!) and copied from a photograph H took of him late last year, I hope Balders will be happy with the final look! In the past a lot of my work is more monotone, so this was really a very difficult project, as I am not used ot working with colour, and it has been pointed out to me in my past work, I'm not great at colour matching. This, however, has surprised me, and I am almost terrified of doing anymore incase I hate the changes. This cute birdy is complete, and Percy will be started very soon! I was originally doing this as a birthday present for lil bro, but Chris is desperate for us to have it in our house (when we get one) as he is fascinated by these two.

WOW! Long time no blog.... Had a lot of issues with a lost creativity and lack of desire to create whatsoever. Sad times. But as of this week I have started painting again :)

So what news? Well, since Christmas a bit has happened.... I am engaged and planning the wedding is taking up a lot of my free time, perhaps another excuse not to have time to post. Here is the church I will be getting married in next year. Maybe you recognise it from Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, The Holiday, The Wedding Date etc. Very fairytale-like and I am SO excited! Having fun creatively designing the big day, and the invites, decoration, flowers and so on. This is the church my parents were married in, and also where I was baptised. So glad to be able to use it. More wedding updates in the near future I expect.

Christmas card 2

<----Second design out of three. I have been working with a couple of Chinese ladies and they are trying so hard to teach me Mandarin(verbally- we're not into the characters yet!). That is how this idea was borne. Out of frustration and also interest. Very simple but rather fun. I truly love doing card design, and now Christmas is over it must be Thank You cards that we design for all the elderly relatives who forget what they sent us.
I am interested in the way the languages look together on one page, a sense of unity which is perfect at Christmas time. Especially after the snow when people in the streets actually spoke to one another rather than walking by as if nobody else existed in the world.
So, how is the mandarin coming along?
Màn màn de!

Woops, too long to wait.

So, heres a snippet of the Christmas card designs we sent out this year. It has been a busy year. In September while I was having a mad clear out of my room, I found a whole book of manuscript paper from when I was prepping for grade 5 music theory a few years ago. It still had some of the old notations in it, and I really needed a quick idea for a birthday card for Dad. I started scribbling all the music notations I could remember down onto the staves, in the form of words. After many lines being used up and half and eraser in mini pieces all over the page and my lap, I managed to put enough together to form 'Happy Birthday'. Dad was so excited by it, he suggested that it be the starting theme for one of 2010's Christmas card designs. So, again, much drawing and then rubbing out, and I fonally came up with the above piece. Quite frustrating that some of the notations have to be set above the staves, as it makes it more difficult to read. But really i had a lot of fun with the designs this year!