New Work!

Thought I'd do a quick post to show you all my two newest works! Slowly but surely getting a stock up for the exhibition in September. What do you think?

Following, Into The Unknown. Mixed Media on canvas, 30" across

Defiance. Mixed media on canvas, 36 x 48"

Enter your email to be the first to know about art sales and receive exclusive member only discounts! 

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Email Format

• html
• text

You might like to read:

Best Sellers List 2014: A Book You Must Read

Work In Progress!

Expect to see quite a few work in progress posts during this year, now that I have a major exhibition to work towards! I'll be doing lots of work, so will post updates of them for you all to see. 

I'm aiming for at least 25 artworks in my exhibition, and given I have 4 completed I think I'm going to be busy! So here is #3 in my Abstract Illustration, Animals series....the Moose. I've titled this one Defiance, in deference to the don't give a rats attitude that apparently Moose have. This one certainly seems to have that sort of stance. 

I love doing the backgrounds to these paintings. I start with a coloured ground, then mountains of gesso very liberally applied over the top. 

 I then use ink pouring it straight from the bottle, letting it run down the canvas. Some parts I rub in with my hands, some I leave alone. I keep repeating this process until I'm happy and then I begin with the oil pastel, adding highlights again until I'm happy with the overall composition and colours.

 

 Once I determine the right location compositionally speaking, for my animal of choice I let loose with the ink again. And this is the final result. I love my moose! Next up I think is an Emperor Penguin cradling an egg.....

Enter your email to be the first to know about art sales and receive exclusive member only discounts! 

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Email Format

• html
• text

You might like to read:

Best Sellers List 2014: A Book You Must Read

Online Workshops, Early Bird Registration Special: Half Price!

New Work In Progress: Wolves

For the last few days I've been working on my second piece in my Abstract Illustration Animals series, the Wolves. 

The four photos show the progression so far: I started with a blank canvas which I slathered extra gesso and a couple of texture mediums. I then poured ink over it, letting it run in some places and using my hands to rub it in in other places. 

For this piece I was aiming to have the colours be reminiscent of the Northern Lights because I knew I wanted to have wolves be the focus of the work. Once the ink was done, I used oil pastels to create the colours of the lights and also added some colour into the base of the image. 

When that was done, I was pretty happy with the top half but felt that the lower half needed something so I added some white paint, just a little bit here and there. After analysing it for a while I decided it needed more white, so I used more white ink and rubbed it in with my hands. Then I was much happier with it!

 

I played around with quite a few images of wolves until I found the ones I was happy with and collaged them on. Now all that's left is to draw them with ink to finish the picture. What do you think?

 

Enter your email to be the first to know about art sales and receive exclusive member only discounts! 

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Email Format

• html
• text

You might like to read:

Best Sellers List 2014: A Book You Must Read

Online Workshops, Early Bird Registration Special: Half Price!

New Work In Progress; Sneak Peak at a New Series!

Last night I finished (bar the edges) a new piece. I have to say I'm kind of in love with it. A friend and fellow artist said that it's a requirement to be in love with your own art. But sometimes you aren't. Sometimes you are just ok with it. And that in itself is ok I think if you are trying to make a living as an artist, because the object is to get art out there, right? You don't necessarily have to love each and every piece so long as you like them and are happy with them overall.

But this one, I love. And I've figured out what this year will be, art wise that is. I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to focus on in terms of creating art, only knowing that I want to create lots of it this year. I'm applying for my first artist residency next week and while thinking about what I want to say in the application it got me to thinking about the direction I want to go in.

I love my wax paintings, and I know I want to continue to do more of them. But I also love the idea of still creating landscapes because artfully speaking, they're my first love. I do love abstract work and have been playing with the idea of abstract work but up until last night had no clue as to how to keep it 'me.' So for this year, I am going to work on three series' of works. My wax based works, with collaged images over the top, then I will also be working on what I am calling abstract illustration works for the other two series. One will focus on landscapes, the other will be animals.

You know when you make a decision and you just know it's right? Doesn't happen too often for me, but this time I know this is what I want to focus on. I watched an amazing Youtube clip the other week that talked about being successful as an artist and the one thing above all else that was reiterated through the whole clip, was to find and stick to your own style. Work in series and commit to it. That's me for this year. As I said to another artist friend the other day, 2014 is going to be the year of awesomeness and I for one am excited to get started!

On to my current work though, the one that has inspired all this excitement within me. This is 40 x 40" mixed media consisting of gesso, ink, collage and oil pastel. There are actually several layers of built up texture and colour which I think contributes to the overall feel of the piece.

My current plan is to have quite a few in this series: next up are a wolf and lion in two separate paintings, and after that I'm still thinking. What do you think?
Remember that if you'd like to learn how to do paintings like this you can sign up for my online workshops starting in March, and be sure to put your email in below for my once a month newsletter full of awesomeness.

It's super duper hot here currently and I know it's super duper freezing in other parts of the world, so wherever you are today I hope you are keeping cool, or warm as the case may be and are having an awesome day!

Enter your email to be the first to know about art sales and receive exclusive member only discounts! 

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Email Format

• html
• text

You might like to read:

Best Sellers List 2014: A Book You Must Read

Online Workshops, Early Bird Registration Special: Half Price!

Finished Work, Saatchi Online and Prints Available

I finally finished this piece! The hold up was because my technique of using layers of ink and Liquetex had one little (well actually not so little) flaw; that being the removal of the ink when I applied the Liquetex!!

I'm not sure what causes it, but I'm thinking it's because when I apply the ink onto the canvas that has already had Liquetex gloss applied to it, it can't soak in to the canvas. So when I then go to apply another layer of gloss, the ink comes right off. This was causing me lots of frustration, until I had a light bulb moment (which probably should have been obvious but for some reason just wasn't!) to use spray gloss varnish first, then apply the Liquetex to achieve the finish I wanted. (Because it seems to be less the actual gloss and more the motion of applying with a brush that removes the ink). Duh!!!

Worked perfectly and I've found myself a new way to complete the layers in my paintings without having to worry about the previous layer being effectively washed away when I apply gloss!

So I finished this one and titled it 'Winter's Approach'. I really love it and my brain is overflowing at the moment with ideas for more paintings.

Winter's Approach, 15 x 30" Mixed Media on Canvas

It's now available for sale through Saatchi Online and will be up on the ARTFULY site shortly as well. Yep that's right, I'm now selling my art to the international (and Australian) market through the massive world wide gallery site! I have prints available of this work (and others) through them, and also through my Etsy store. 

My next post in a couple of days is going to be a little sneak peak of the lessons I have in store for my lovely students in just under a months' time so be sure to come back for a look at that one!

Enter your email to be the first to know about art sales and receive exclusive member only discounts! 

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Email Format

• html
• text

You might like to read:

Best Sellers List 2014: A Book You Must Read

Mixed Media Tutorial

I've had quite a few requests to learn about my technique when creating my mixed media pieces, so I thought I'd do a little tutorial for you all with the piece I'm currently working on. It is a wax based piece with collage, ink and oil pastel layered over the top of the wax.

 Your first step is to melt your wax onto the canvas. Now wax comes in many forms including basic crayons. The advantage of crayons is the range of colour you can get. I would suggest though that when using crayons you should use only pure wax crayons; some may have other ingredients in the crayon which may produce unexpected results when melting onto your canvas.

 When melting them it's useful to use hot glue to secure the lump of wax to the canvas, or use a fork or other metal implement to hold the wax in place until it melts sufficiently to not roll away anymore. Hot partially melted wax makes a big mess when it is pushed across the table or floor by the airflow from your heatgun or hairdryer! Which is how you melt it: it's so much fun to watch it melt, and you can kind of control the direction of the flow by the angle you hold your heat gun on. Varying the airflow strength will also allow you to play with different types of splatters and flow within the wax.

 Once I had covered the canvas in wax (which took a good few hours), I then used cut and torn book pages to create the shape of the tree trunk and branches. I collaged these pieces straight over the wax with Liquetex Gloss medium, which you can obviously also use as a collage glue. Once that was dry I used black and white oil pastels and drew in the shape I wanted over the collage. I used them also to shade a little to give the tree some depth.

I then used more Liquetex to seal the oil pastel, and once that was dry I used white and black ink to redraw the shape again and to add in more shading and colour on the trunk. 

 I started to add in smaller branches at this point as well.

The process basically consists at this point of alternating layers of ink, then Liquetex, then oil pastel until I'm happy with the tonal qualities of the tree.

 Once I am happy with that, I then use more oil pastels to create more colour over the wax. I'm not aiming to cover the wax, rather use the pastels to make the colour in the wax pop a bit more.

And here is the end result. Finished bar collaging the edges and a final varnish. It's a reasonably simple however quite time consuming process. But the end result is definitely worth the time put in.


I won't have any more posts up now until after Christmas and New Year. I'd like to wish all my readers and their families a happy and safe festive season, and say thank you very much for your support!

Merry Christmas To You All!

Enter your email to be the first to know about art sales and receive exclusive member only discounts! 

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Email Format

• html
• text

You might like to read:

Best Sellers List 2014: A Book You Must Read

New Work; Playing with Ink and Wax

While it's been pretty hectic here getting ready for Christmas, posting out orders from Etsy, shopping and wrapping presents, I have managed to find a little bit of time to work on some new mixed media pieces.

I've got two pieces on the go and ordinarily I would have them done by now but I guess even when you're WonderWoman you get tired and run out of time sometimes!
Anyway, I figured I'd share what I have done with you, with a little bit of an insight as to where I'm going with these pieces. Maybe I'd get some feedback as well.

 This piece is a wax based piece with collaged vintage book papers over the top. I have just begun using oil pastels to add colour to the papers as you can see in the above pic. My plan is to build up layers of tonal variations in the grey oil pastels, then Liquetex over the top to seal it. After that I will apply India Ink in black and white to create the illustration effect that I have pictured in my head. (Unfortunately I can't show you what that looks like because a camera that takes pictures of what you are thinking has yet to be invented....). If you look at some of my recent work you'll probably get the idea though.

 Melting the wax onto the canvas is so much fun, but so time consuming! And it tends to roll once you put the hairdryer or heat gun on it, so it can be a little frustrating to say the least! I love how it looks though; it reminds me of lava the way it liquefies and moves across the surface of the canvas. I also love the way it instantly stops when you take the heat away!

This next piece is smaller - the canvas squares are only 8" x 8" each. I have since added more vintage papers, kind of like eyelashes which I think works really well. My next step with this piece is to add more ink, some oil pastel and gloss, and to figure out which way up I want it to be!! What do you think?

So hopefully I'll have these pieces finished before Christmas; with the kids on school holidays it's still undecided whether that will help or hamper my efforts to get more art done!

Enter your email to be the first to know about art sales and receive exclusive member only discounts! 

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Email Format

• html
• text

You might like to read:

Art In The Digital Age