Paintings and published

I'm very excited to have had one of my pieces of plaster work published in Judy Wise and Stephanie Lee's new book Plaster Studio. They are also running a fabulous online workshop using some of the techniques in the book, hop on over to either of their blogs to check it out.

This is my piece, a plaster book cover showing my abstract pomegranates.

This is the fabulous book, it is so full of techniques and projects.

I've also been busy painting for our upcoming exhibition. This is a painting I started in Flora Bowley's workshop. I finally finished it, it just needs a top coat of varnish and hangers on the back.

This is an earlier shot of the painting.

This is the finished painting named 'sheep at the waterhole'.

This is another canvas I completed this week too.

Another canvas in progress.

and finally I wish I could draw like this. My darling little mermaid princess, spent her fifth birthday painting with Ro Ro. Don't you just love her cat. I'm contemplating using it to make a stuffed toy for her.

Art Heals

It's amazing how a day back in the studio can have such a healing process, I really would be lost without my art. We're slowly coming to terms about the loss of Dad, he's with Mum now which is a consolation.

I'd like to thank everyone for all of your kind words and comments, there just aren't enough hours in the day to get around to thanking you all personally, but I really do appreciate your kind thoughts.

I've been working on art for our upcoming exhibition 'Five Take Flight' at the end of June. If you're able to come we'd love to see you.

Following are just some of the pieces that I will have in the exhibition.

This is a small 5" x 5" box canvas that I've painted then applied stitching with my hand dyed threads.

This is another 5" x 5" boxed canvas with stitching.

I always like to continue the design around the sides of the canvas.

I'm also creating a series of collage and stitched owls on painted 5" x 5" canvases. This owl still has to be stitched to the canvas. It's only glued at this stage.

This is a felted and stitched piece that I created using my embellishing machine. This will be stitched onto a painted canvas backing. I still have lots more decorative stitching to add to the piece.

Sad, Sad day

It's amazing the difference a week makes. This time last week my sister took Dad to get a new pair of glasses. Wednesday he had a seizure and broke his wrist as he fell. He was rushed to hospital and put on all sorts of emergency equipment, his condition slowly deteriorated with him developing pneumonia. He passed away last night at 8.30pm. We were all by his side and hope now that he's peacefully resting beside Mum. He'd lived a good life and didn't suffer too long at the end, reaching the age of 89, I suppose that's all we can ask for, we'll still miss him dearly though.

Happy Days

I love the fact now that I can get up every morning and head down stairs to my studio and not have to face the constant stream of traffic to drive to work, as I have for the past twenty years, it's bliss. Every day brings a new excitement, working on commissions, getting ready for our exhibition and creating new ideas and projects for teaching. I love it. I also have regular visits from my little art critic who joins me in the studio, she's now decided she wants to be an artist like Ro Ro when she grows up.

These are two pages from the commissioned journal. I used my embellishing machine and some hand stitching.

This piece was all hand stitched using my dyed fabrics, it will be stitched on to a painted canvas.

I taught a necklace workshop at home last Saturday, see previous post, I had six lovely students who all went home with completed necklaces. I forgot to take photos but Sabine sent me a photo of hers, it's magnificent. Sabine makes wonderful polymer clay beads and she added clay discs to the chains.

We had breakfast in one of our favourite cafes over the Easter break. I can never resist sketching while we have our coffee. This is a small section of a magnificent iron grill that sits in one of the many feature cut outs in the walls.

This is the grill, I see a stamp coming on.

This is another view inside the cafe, they also sell flowers.

After breakfast we walked along one of our favourite beaches, the bathing boxes always add some sunshine to an overcast day.

Back to the studio for more experiments, thanks for dropping by, it's much appreciated.