Pink

Time to paint in the shirt of my man.
I decided on a pale shade of pink - a shade that reminds me of sugared almonds and wedding favours :)

He's doing well, my man .... he seems to have taken on an ethereal look to him. At this point, the idea which I had originally started with has gone out of the window.. this chap wants to be painted a different way.
The mosaic idea I had will have to wait for another day...

Swish!

Swish! And the background washes go in..

Of course, before you can go "swish" you do need to prep the washes.
I had two large washes ready in my palette for this chap, one a yellow base and one an orange..

Somehow the colours have made him feel Oriental..

Drawing a man

I'm getting daring - drawing a man all by myself, not as part of a workshop project!

But if we don't dare, we don't learn.
Whether this chap works as a painting or not, I will have learned something from the endeavour.
And I'll have some fun, too :)

The drawing:

Adoption Day Celebration

Sunshine, running, playing.

Such simple pleasures - what better way to spend the 4th anniversary of your adoption day?

Such joy that spills from her life to ours.
Four years of blessings.

Thank you, Lord - and thank you, Battersea.
xx

Guess what starts tomorrow?

A wonderful new exhibition by one of my favourite artists!

Peter Williams of Mighty Fine Art is having and exhibition of his work in Leiston, Suffolk.

Peter draws the most beautiful, detailed pencil drawings.

You can see a sample on his website, Mighty Fine Art - though I am sure if you make the trip to Suffolk, you'll really enjoy seeing the drawings in the flesh, so to speak :)
You might even come away with one of his masterpieces!

The exhibition starts tomorrow and runs until the 25th March.
You can even meet Peter - he'll be there daily between 9am to 4pm
Enjoy!

Nellie

Straight after I painted the picture of Letting in the Jungle, I drew and painted a very quick sketch of an elephant kicking up a storm .
Sometimes its very liberating as an artist to draw and paint something in half an hour or so. You have no room to do detailed work - and you have to get a sense of "feeling" into the thing.

I know the elephant in Kipling's story was called Hathi - but my girl is a Nellie, another childhood favourite. She was the subject of a song, and I bet people of a certain age are singing now :
Nellie the elephant packed her trunk
and said goodbye to the circus...

Nellie

Letting in the Jungle

One of my favourite books when I was growing up was Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle book and other stories.
There was a story where the elephants and other animals destroyed the village and a poem, entitled Letting in the Jungle.

Out in my garden - also a bit of a jungle until I have it tamed - there is an ornament of a Lady's face. She was lying on her back on the patio until the wall where she was to be placed was re-rendered. ( The joy of a project of a house)
Up through the patio and over my Lady ornament this green weed began to grow and flourish. It reminded me of Letting in the Jungle - and how frail we are compared to Nature, who could claim us back at any time.

So I drew the Lady ornament and the weed . Then I made this small painting. It has given me an idea for a much larger work, which I will undertake when I have a few days free. In the meantime..

Letting in The Jungle