Featured Artist!

Do you ever do anything on the spur of the moment?  Is there ever a time you’ve woken up and decided ‘yep, I’m going to do this today!’? 

Well, I did just that on Saturday.  I woke up and announced to my youngest that we were going on a train.  She didn’t react with the same kind of enthusiasm: ‘But, I’m busy!’ she groaned, not even bothering to ask where the train was heading. With a little … OK a lot of persuasion … we caught the train with five minutes to spare and she finally cheered up when we arrived at our destination two and a half hours later in Portsmouthnd I managed to squeeze a drawing in, using my 6″ x 6″ sketchbook on the return journey.

  
 We were met with glorious weather and a bear hug from her big sister.  She bounced out of the station and took you straight to a massive ice cream parlour.

   
 It’s been an exciting week.  Not only was I featured in an eco e-magazine sharing about my art and creativity using natural products for painting and my passion for recycling, upcycling and using items found around my home to create, but I am this week the featured artist over on an amazing Facebook group site called DoodleArt 😀

How did this happen?  Well, I posted one of my forty-five minute doodles of my OH and the cat, Nikon onto the page challenge: portraits.  It was selected as receiving being among the top three with the most ‘likes’.  The group runs a different challenge a month, so there’ll be a new challenge set on June 1st.

The irony of the icecream parlour visit and eating in a restaurant, aptly named Giraffe, was that my latest doodle depicted both icecreams and a giraffe all painted using naturally made inks from coffee, tea and strawberries!

  

A Boat? In the woods?

A boat in the woods?

Yeah!  

On the outskirts of a busy city lies an area of National Trust woodland.  Yesterday, it would appear that half the city had decided on visiting the woods.  Was it the burst of sunshine?  Was it the draw of an unusual, quirky art installation?  Was it because parents were at a loss of what to do with their children that didn’t involve spending money?  I saw one irate lady trying to stop her two children bickering in the back of her car while she awkwardly reattached the bicycle rack and her son’s push bike to the rear of her car after a day out!

The art installation was bang in the centre of the woodland and, despite wearing white plimsoles and it being muddy, I got away with keeping my footwear remarkable clean as I dodged the crowds to get photographs of the boats without people obstructing the view.  I tried my best!

    

  

  

  

  

  

  
      

Hare print from a Big Mistakes Eraser

I bought a ‘Big Mistakes’ eraser a while back and have been wondering for ages what to draw on it so that I could do some carving.  

I guess I’m going through a bit of a ‘hare and rabbit obsession’ lately, what with buying a baby dwarf rabbit and watching her binkie around the living room; watching her ears twitch and turn as she listens out for unfamiliar noises.  They sure are fascinating creatures.  

Yesterday, the family went to a wooded estate where deer were enjoying the sunshine and shade.  I could have decided on a deer for my print – maybe next time!

So out came the pencil and I sketched a hare, then taking the smallest cutting took from my lino cutters,  I carved away the layers of rubber to reveal my hare.  I have a rainbow ink pad and used this to take some first impression prints.  This was the third impression:

   
     

Doodling bunnies

Today, I glanced out of the window at work to a field that usually has three horses nibbling the grass.  By mid-afternoon, the horses had vanished and ten wild rabbits ‘binkied’, hopped and sniffed around.  Every one of them was a character that I could bring into a story.  However, having just got a baby bunny rabbit two weeks ago, I can’t stop drawing her!  She hops up and down from the sofa, scoots around my rainbow rug and loves having the run of the lounge!  

She is going to be a character in my children’s story I’m writing, so I guess, the more I sketch her, the better!  Can’t wait to do the proper illustrations, but first I’m jotting down the bones of the story.  Maybe I should start a new blog dedicated to the adventures of Willow.