A birthday indulgence.

Today is my birthday, so I thought I'd indulge myself and show you some of my  favourite paintings from my recent painting journey.
You won't find any one particular style, because I do experiment !
Neither are they in any particular order of rank.


Come sit with me, have a slice of cake and a cuppa and enjoy the views.

Thanks to all of you, for accompanying me on this journey. You're the best!

Memories on Ice

Remember the Memories of Auntie painting? The one with the steel colander and how I changed it to have some shadows?

Both Judy and Prabal suggested I could have some looser, more reflective shadows and my comment was that wouldn't suit the painting.
So then, I thought, lets paint those looser, reflective shadows  - and make a painting they will suit.

So, for Judy and Prabal, here are those reflections you wanted to see - hope you enjoy them!

Memories on Ice

Missy and the Pink Piggy

Its piggy time here !
Not only did we have Oscar who I painted, but we had a surprise gift in the mail of a little pink piggy for Missy.

It came with a card from the lovely Nicola and a photo of the diamond Roxy, who we met recently at Discover Dogs. See HERE

Missy was intrigued by the smells in the padded envelope

She was a good girl as I asked her to "Wait" after I placed the pig on the floor.
Oh but those eyes! She can certainly plead with them :)

Then I told her "go on then" and she got stuck straight in!

After ten minutes or so, she decided to it might be more relaxing to lie down and chew on piggy :)

and when she was done, what a self satisfied look!

Missy really enjoyed playing with Piggy  -she has so far taken the label off, but left the stuffing intact! Which is quite something for a russell. Piggy could be the new favourite :)  Thanks, Nic! xx

The Alphabet Paintings: O

After all the emotion  invested in V: The Other Side of the River, I decided to do a painting that made me laugh.
Also, having neglected the Alphabet paintings,  decided it was time to start again and not lose them.

What on earth could make me laugh in a painting that began with O?
I have just the thing at home.
He's a lovely little animal, all shades of green and he's always cheerful.
When I first saw him many years ago, it was love at first sight.

Here he is, in watercolour, hope he makes you smile too :)

Oscar, the Ornamental Pig

V: The Other Side of the River

Its the Year of Painting (YOP) time over at Painting Friends.
This time instead of showing you all the thought processes and thumbnails, I'm just going to show you the final painting.
You can make your own story up for it this way. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed painting it.

V: The Other Side of the River

Shadows!

Shadows - they make or break a painting.
After I posted yesterday's Auntie painting, my good friends over at Painting Friends suggested I increase the shadow from the small amount under the carrot I had, to a more "anchoring" shadow as some felt the colander was floating.

So I have and here's the updated version.Would love to know what you think .

Memories of Auntie

Sunday dinner at my much loved auntie's house.
Irish stew.
The marvels of cooking to a youngster. 
Warmth and comfort.
Such seemingly simple things.
Such wonderful memories.

Memories of Auntie

The Edge of Heaven.

Its painting time again...

recently I came up with a little challenge for my Painting Friends.. I gave them a title and they had to paint a picture to fit it.
The title was " Edge of Heaven"

Here is what I came up with, because you know, heaven would not be heaven to me, if there was no chocolate and raspberry ice cream, topped with sauce, nuts and a cherry!

The Edge of Heaven

A grand day out !

Yesterday I had a wonderful day, down at Earl's Court in London, for the Discover Dogs Show.

I had two friends in the Scruffts Crossbreed of the Year show.
They have heats all round the country and approx 1200 dogs entered overall.
My friends had one dog in the Prettiest Bitch category and one in the Golden Oldie category.

Roxy was in the Golden Oldie and she won that class !
She's a Pets as Therapy Dog also - and she's about 9 years old. What a girl!

Here she is, with her mum, Nicola :)

Gerri and her dog Tilly were in the Prettiest Bitch class, and Tilly came 2nd !
What a girl she is!

Tilly has such a gorgeous face ..

Well done to both girls.. they were complete superstars!

Talking of superstars,  those of you in England may recognise this little chappie "Harvey" from the TV advert, and the star of Midsomer Murders

and in the booth next to him was Ripley - the dog you've all been taking for a walk! Sadly just as I lined the camera up , they were called to go into a ring for showing, so no picture.

I also had the privilege of meeting Nicola's grandmother, who took a moment to tell me that the painting I did of Roxy  HERE made her cry when she saw it on the computer and then again in real life, once it was delivered. She said it was so much better than on the comp - and was SO Roxy, it took her breath away.  That was lovely for me to hear,  I'll treasure that always . 

Where was Missy in all this?  I wasn't allowed to take her, because she wasn't in a show, so she stayed at home, all nicely curled up, waiting for me to return.

and that look?.............. "Where's my treats, mummy?"

She knows me too well, here's her stash from my day out :)

Tea With Mollie

I can hardly believe its been almost a week since my last post!
Hope this painting makes up for it - my version of a Mollie Jones demo on Painting Friends ( you can see Mollie's version HERE)
Mollie is a wonderful artist and person, always ready to help. I've named this painting for her, as a homage.

Tea with Mollie

Paint and play, stretch and learn!

I showed my husband the jam tarts when he returned from work yesterday and he said, "hmm. ok. not up to your usual standard. Have you posted that?"

To which the answer was yes, as you know. This is a journey after all.
You will see a variation of works from me - I am no longer plugged in to the "must create a masterpiece each time"

That's a good thing that came out of my C&G Creative Watercolour course. The fact we learned to take paint and play with it and by doing so we stretched our imaginations and we learned.

Sometimes you learn things that you love and adopt, sometimes you learn that certain styles are to be admired, but they're not for you to paint.

So for me, every time I pick up a brush, learning is my main object. Masterpieces, when they happen, are a delightful outcome :)

Here's another I painted yesterday, dedicated to a friend Wyna, who is on this painting journey too - and happy to go her own way, as I am :)
Watercolour and aquapasto medium, Arches 140 Rough, 11" x 8"

Wild as Wyna

Breakfast with Friends

I was doing some baking - jam tarts to be precise and thought, what pretty colours - lets make a quick painted  sketch..  :)

and who better to share them with than all my friends.. but I had a bite from one -  to make the painting more interesting, you understand!

Breakfast with Friends