From this to that....oh and the glue.

Best studio product for the day...pva glue,dam I love this stuff,great for paper work,books,dolls, you name it I use it for it,I always buy it in a four litre bottle,I hate running out of it..also i love hot glue guns and sticks,very very handy things to have around....

Must have studio equipment...a good printer.you just must have one especially it you journal a lot,I couldn't be with out mine...


What a wacky few days,I didn't get as much accomplished as I had hoped,the dolls didn't happen as much as I would have liked but there was some progress.

I painted some cute little art works for my planned etsy store which I was going to put together this week but again I went from this to that all week,all my plans went completely out the window with a teenage crisis and oddly enough it wasn't one of mine,then I ended up doing tattoos which take so much time to do and my hands just ache after a couple of hours tattooing so that held things up a bit.

I did manage to get some cards uploaded at my card store,I also managed to photograph some of my doll making progress which is great since I am journaling my doll making trials ,I didn't get any work done on my book which is so frustrating,I really need to focus on that as I want to quit work or at least cut my hours right back,but it is hard when so much is going on around me and involving me,life outside the studio does happen.

Next weekend will be better,I will be more focused and only do one tattoo,sounds like a plan...

Martin Luther King, Jr.: Compassion Quotes
Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

Really helpful studio equipment....
I have light box tucked away in my studio that I use primarily for tattooing,but this awesome tool is great for many other creative en devours,I use it all time for transferring images from my sketch book onto watercolour paper,it is wonderful to be able to catch that very same drawing and reproduce it simply for a painting,you can also use it to place a variety of different images from many pages of your sketch book into the one large painting.
I also keep an overhead projector to transfer my sketch book images onto canvas into a larger format,I find that these two studio items are just wonderful and save so much time.

Favorite paint colour this week is Brown Madder by Jo Sonja,it is a deep beautiful nut brown that I have been using on shadow boxes and frames for the up and coming exhibition,I paint the frames first in brown madder,let it dry and them paint lightly over with black and then wipe away with a damp cloth so that the brown madder will show through,varnish with gloss and it looks like old mahogany,lovely.

Favorite craft for the week is decorating little juice bottles with stickers and skirts,so pretty,will upload photos tomorrow.

Photoshoot of the week was with dolls and my favey teddy........

Deepak Chopra: Compassion Quotes
Giving connects two people, the giver and the receiver, and this connection gives birth to a new sense of belonging.

Back to the grind tomorrow.

Well its been a wonderfully busy week in my studio,I have accomplished much but sadly its back to the real world of work and business,hopefully though I will soon be able to work full time as an artist all going well.

The works for the exhibition are now finished,I varnished the frames today and they look pretty smick,so thats a relief to have all that out of the way and so now I'm back to the dolls and the illustrating of the books in earnest,Im giving my self six months to finish them and send off to publishers,all going incredibly well I just may get published,fingers crossed,and legs too I guess.

Well I guess I will be back here in few days all goign well I should be back in the studio on Thursday and working like mad.....

Henry Burton: Compassion Quotes
Have you had a kindness shown? Pass it on; ‘Twas not given for thee alone, Pass it on; Let it travel down the years, Let it wipe another’s tears, Till in Heaven the deed appears, Pass it on.

It is a beautiful spring afternoon and Im sitting here blogging,go figure,I should be out and about with camera in hand, still blogging is a wonderful thing as well.

These past four days have been very creative,Ive finished up my exhibition works and they are ready to go,I focused on Mary as an icon ion Christian art,I had wanted to portray her uniting strength as a mother but instead came out with the iconic aspect of her as figured in art history,still I'm fairly happy about it.
Ian made the frames and I decorated them,I tried to achieve an old mahogany look and added the metal trim to give them the old world feel,I think it all blends quite well with the subject,though I don't know if I will be able to do this with the canvas Mary,we will see.

I finished Haunted,I decided to leave it pretty raw with the canvas showing through,I was going to sell this one but Ive hung it up and will keep it,she belongs with me, argghhh I hate to part with my work,I will never be a rich artist,though I don't mind selling off the big works for the sake of space.
Haunted is such a simple painting,I just wanted to get that look in her eyes showing a pain of memories past,I think she is close to my heart in that she has suffered yet triumphed as we all do in the journey of life and time,she is a keeper.

The dolls have been on hold this past week,well almost,Ive sewn some bodies for some little hanging dolls,they have a name but Ive forgotten it,dotee dolls?
I have also sewn up three more Tadmer dolls for the book,to show different ways to embellish and paint them,I will be working on them again soon.

The illustrations for the kids book is a slow process,I'm having trouble finding the style I want to go with and the way I want to present the characters,still it will be done,I just don't know when,I have done a lot of water colours to hash out the style I want,to go cartoon or to be literal to a degree,mmmmm scratching brain on that one..

I have been missing the feel of clay lately and think that I will soon be working once again is the studio downstairs with clay and hot hot kilns,sounds like a plan.
Next week is the week for the big studio to be cleaned out,repainted and be readied for the oncoming warmer months,Ive been working primarily in the smaller inside studio through winter but now I'm itching to get back to the quiet space of my out side studio,to fire up the kilns open up the big easels and get down and dirty with paint and clay,ooohhh sounds good.

Ok well I'm off to finish up a few things and go fiber hunting at the local craft store,yipeeeee.


Wassily Kandinsky: Quotes on Art
There is no must in art because art is free.

What a crazy weekend,Ive worked flat out on one of the books and made some fair progress,I'm very happy with it so far and cant believe how it is evolving,wow it is exciting seeing it change.

I had a bit of tattoo work to do and that took a good space of time,cant rush them thats for sure,it really takes it out of me when I'm tattooing,I feel drained totally,oh well I love doing it just the same,I have more to do next week,big burly boys moaning and groaning,they turn into girlie's, sweating and sooking,I just shake my head.

The camera was out as always this weekend,dam I love that thing,it is my baby,my second eye,my partner in the crime of voyeurism,I would be lost without it and of course that sweet place called photoshop, oooh its heaven there playing with light and colour,the things you can do with that program is just awesome.

I have to go to my normal job tomorrow,it will be an effort,I'm still not doing to well and the pain comes and goes, I actually cant wait to see the big cahoona doctor next week and get some relief.

The exhibition is creeping up and I have some nice fresh ideas for it,I have about seven works completed but still a few more to choose from will be good,nothing quite like have a choice ,I am working on the concept of Mary as a mother and her pain and grief over the loss of her son and how we all could relate to that no matter our faith,we all just adore our sons,I believe motherhood unites us all,it an spiritual thing to love that deeply,well I think so.

I mad lots of bunnies this week and I love them so much that I don't think I will be able to part with them,typical,I always do that,I'm being over run by little cuties,they are literally every where.

I have to add to another blog and get some rest so I will leave it here but I will be back next weekend.

Danny Kaye: Quotes: Art
Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.

A not so productive few days!

I didn't get to create as much as I planned but I did do a few things,I painted some pics,took some photos,worked on some dolls,made a few little booky things but nothing notable,I was too sore and sorry to do much of anything of substance,but hopefully next week will be better.

I tried out my new tripod tonight,its awesome,very professional and I love it,it has little levels and windey gadgets,so much fun and makes a photo shoot much easier.

I played around with two wooden dolls that I have,I set them up as a couple in love,you know in the early courtship stage and took photos of them,I know its kinda corny and you probably think I could be doing something much more sensible but it was fun and didn't take much work to do and anyway they looked cute,I then photo shopped it a bit and it came out nice and dreamy,I do love photo shop.

I have a group exhibition coming up soon so I guess Ill have to focus on some paintings for this years Uni exhibit,Ive really cut back my exhibition lately,mmm I must be shifting my focus more on the books I'm getting ready for submission to publishers,hope its worth it.

I have also almost finished a series of watercolors Ive been working on for a while and they look pretty good,lovely and bright,just how I like them,I plan to put them in a journal thingy so that will be interesting I guess.

I think I'm not in the best of moods tonight,My body is hurting and I'm fed up with it,I'm fed up with doctors and needles and tests and doctors surgeries and all the boring long hours that go with it,all that time that could be so much better spent but then it could be worse so I think I will stop venting and be grateful for all that I do have,silly woman that I am.

I think Ill call it a day,finish this post with a positive note,I will have more time to create and I will feel better soon,oh and I just remembered that my ink will be in this week so I will be tattooing next weekend all going well.

Pablo Picasso: Quotes: Art
The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.

I

Just finished work and Im pooped!

Well Ive just come in from a long shift,feeling drained and pooped but joy of joys I have three wonderful days to create,I'm so looking forward to it,so I will wake up early get all the nasty but necessary chores out of the way and settle in for some much needed time in the studio,oh bliss!
Well I will tell of my creative en devours tomorrow when I'm almost done for the day.

Scott Adams, The Dilbert Principle: Creativity Quotes
Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.