Draw Your Heart Out…

…is what I am attempting to do.

I love to draw and feel like really I am still finding my way with my art, hmm maybe it’s a life long journey? But anyway, I feel like I’m constantly evolving and wanting to stretch myself artistically. To be challenged, to not create art because it ‘might sell’ but to create from my heart, things that truly inspire me and things that truly matter to me.

My passion for gardening is increasing and you know I adore my Ellie dog and so I continue to draw what I love the most, I hope you enjoy it too.

New work coming soon…

Blessings

xxx

Yay for Spring!

Well it’s officially Spring hooray! The last couple of days have been gorgeous weather. Warm enough to sit out and enjoy. I love this time of year, it’s so inspiring for me with all the colour, the blue skies and planting of new flowers.

This year we are planting fruit and veggies, I will take some pics to show you later on. We now have raspberries planted and will have runner beans and salad leaves going in next month along with wildflowers and sweet peas. Very exciting! Monday I sowed lot’s of marigold and cosmos seeds that I had collected from last years plants so I can’t wait to see them come up.

With all this in mind I just had to come up with a Spring inspired collection of bookplates. These are my fav! So colourful, you can find them in the shop now: http://www.etsy.com/listing/95622701/spring-art-bookplates-set-pack-of-12

And in other news I will be at St Johns Church Hall, Cauldwell Hall road, Ipswich (UK) tomorrow night 22nd March from 7-9pm for a Ladies Pamper and Craft evening. There will be various stalls along with mine and the opportunity for some pampering. The evening is being hosted to raise money for Samaritan’s Purse, admission is £4 inc. glass of wine and nibbles, tickets are available from Kathy Dines: 07980705309

I hope you’ll come and join us if you are in the area!

Blessings

xxx

New Studio Revealed + Contest Winner!

Well I am finally ready to reveal my beautiful new studio! Wow what a difference this has made, I didn’t realise just how much I needed this change.

The layout is now so much more uncluttered, tranquil and functional. I really took a lot of time to think over what my needs were and am so glad I did!

Here is my new desk Now as I look out the window I can see the birds in the trees, so much more inspiring!

My desk is an old dining room table I got at the charity shop for £10 and I covered the top with some beautiful oil cloth from the local hardware store £13.

I wanted my room to serve my creating rather than computer work and so I intentionally reduced my computer area as much as possible so I only use it when I need to.

The laptop sits on a pedestal unit which I already had, it’s very functional so I wanted to keep it. The shelves are cut down from a previous shelving unit and are perfect for storing my giant printer and my little printer/scanner. I got the idea from something similar Marisa has in her studio.

I turned my memo board the other way around and simplified what was on there. I previously had two of these boards and reduced it down to one. I may use the other in another room in the house.

This is my secret cubby, where I store my books and bits n bobs. It has a light in there too!

This is the view from my door which still needs to be painted. And boxes that still need to be unpacked.

Now I have this big lovely wall to display my artwork on, I still need to decide what is going to go on there from my collection!

I moved this bookcase from the wall in pic above to the wall by the door. It looks much better and I substantially reduced the amount of clutter on there too.

The drawers beside it I already had and used to hide under my painting desk. They don’t fit under the new one (which worked out fine anyway) and so I stacked them here.

Bookcase close up and presenting my most fav area of the whole room…

My thinking chair!! An idea also gained from Marisa, I never had an area to sit and plan, think, pray and sketch whilst being in a comfy chair. I really needed an area like this to nurture this side of my creativity and so I set about to find the perfect chair.

I found this at my fav charity shop for £20!!! It was sitting inside the door waiting for me to buy it lol. It’s in perfect condition and so comfy. I’m just finishing off a granny square cushion for it which will set it off fab.

And so that is it! I am so delighted with it, it was well worth all the effort.

So now I bet your thinking ‘Come on get on with it, who won?’, well the colour is actually a pale grey blue called ‘Celestial Cloud #6’ by Dulux and so the winner is…..

Julia Badgley who guessed on facebook ‘ a pale blue’. Congratulations, I’ll be in contact soon.

Well that’s it for the tour, thank you all for entering my contest, I’m off to continuing working on some new goodies for the shop.

Blessings

xxx

Studio Make Over!

This is what my studio looked like before I decided I needed a change!

and now it looks like….

Not too pretty atm lol!

I’ve started de-cluttering although you totally cannot tell by these photos but believe me I have sorted and given away lot’s of craft supplies I just don’t use anymore which was good.

I’ve boxed up all my paintings and other bits n bobs I’m keeping. Now it’s phase two of de-clutter…

I need to find two smaller tables at the charity shop to make over and Hubby is making me a little drawer unit from an old teak sideboard.

I’ve been happily pinning away, finding ideas for what I like and you can follow me here.

Still struggling on the colour, I can see it in my mind but do you think I can match it to any Dulux or Crown paint hmm no! It wouldn’t be so hard if the colour charts were the actual colour of the paint but they aren’t and when you look online they aren’t the same either. How are you supposed to choose!!!

Anyway, this room doesn’t need much work thankfully as it was the first room we did when we moved in 4 years ago (of course ).

So this weekend we will be working on the ceiling and woodwork, then in a couple of weeks time I will be getting the paint for the walls. Hopefully by then I will have decided!

I’ll post update pics next week

In the meantime I have finished my first cardigan woohoo! So excited..

Still working on two others, it’s been so much fun I can’t wait to wear the other two when they are done.

I’m also still working on some new characters to show you soon, so watch this space.

xxx

Time for Change…

Here I am in my studio, wearing my new money belt I made out of a vintage pillowcase. It was so much fun, pity you can’t see the lovely vintage buttons I sewed on the side. Pink, olive green and cream ones.

So many changes happening right now for me and all good ones where my art business is concerned. I feel like my focus is getting clearer and my inspiration is being refined and increasing which is so much fun!

I’ve been loving making these new ink illustrated cards and have some new ones for you to check out…

 

Along with new creations, I’ve been thinking a lot about where I see my business going and how I can refine things to reflect where I want to take things.

Communication has been something I’ve been wrestling with for a long time. I’ve always been focused on connecting with my customers in a meaningful and inspiring way. Being in business for yourself is by no means easy and it’s been very easy to fall into the trap of following the crowd when it comes to social media. I’ve had my Facebook account for a long time but had been considering leaving for many months. With such a sea of information coming at you everyday it’s just brain numbing at times to be honest. I needed to find a better way for me.

So today I deleted my Facebook account. It’s time for me to get back to communicating with you in other ways, including being more active here. I’m still on Twitter but I mostly want to share things with you via this blog and my email list where you can share with me too in the comments and I think it’ll be so much better.

Please don’t think I’m judging people who do use Facebook, it’s just not for me anymore and I hope you will still stop by and enjoy chatting with me here, or email etc.

I’m excited to proceed and also to have far more time to create things for you!!

Many Blessings,

xxx

Feeding Pony

xxx

Sunday Morning

Back in the swing of things creating daily paintings for you to enjoy

‘Sunday Morning’ now available on Ebay.

xxx

Blossom Kisses Re-visited

Remember this painting I did last year? {original is sold}

It was inspired by this beautiful tree I had seen whilst walking Ellie near the park. It was so full of pink blossom it looked amazing. I forgot to take a photo of it at the time but the other day I saw it again in full bloom and just had to take a pic to show you. It’s fun to see where inspiration comes from, so I thought you’d enjoy this.

The tree is huge!! I’ve never seen so many blossoms on one tree. I hope ours gets like this some day. We only planted it last year so this years show was pretty poor. Hoping for a better one next year.

‘Blossom kisses’ is available in the shop as a print.

xxx

Back from holiday..

We’ve just got back from a lovely week away in East Sussex. If you follow me on Facebook you will probably have seen all my pics, I didn’t take many but the ones I did take came out great.

We stayed at a holiday park pine lodge in a walled garden with the most fantastic view. The shot above was taken as the sun was setting one evening and you can see the rays coming through the clouds, spectacular! I’m fascinated with sky incase you didn’t know ;)

We had some days at the beach…

Bexhill–on-Sea

Went to Rye one day and went into this interesting open studio where we talked for ages with the artist who had a parrot that ate chips and a cute King Charles Spaniel who was very friendly. The smell of paints filled the air and his desk was covered in paint tubes and mess – love it, took me back to memories of art college. So inspiring to talk with him and gain some insight from a fellow artist. I would highly recommend walking into strange looking open studios that look like they are closed from the outside and bazaar on the inside, you may just find it interesting!

We also played Pooh Sticks at Pooh Corner in Hartfield, where A.A Milne was inspired to write all his fantastic Pooh Bear stories.

Me and my brother Simon.

Saw more fantastic sunsets…

and generally had a fantastic time! So nice to come home relaxed and refreshed, now I feel ready to dive into art again and life!

I got two beautiful new sketchbooks in Rye that I’ve already started using and I actually found some Fabriano paper so I can make Teesha Moore’s journal tutorial, I was so excited to find this paper I nearly started jumping up and down in the shop lol, I didn’t though but I did come out the shop with a huge grin on my face and a little spring in my step, yay!

Happy Creating..

xxx

What is Your Heart Saying?

 

Learn more about this exciting new class here!

This class is going to be amazing, I can’t wait to share it with you.

xxx

Announcing my latest class – Style & Inspiration!

Thanks for your thoughts on routines, if you haven’t read my post from yesterday check it out and let me know your views, I’d love to hear them.

When I started out with these new online classes my intention has always been to share them in a way that will truly benefit your growth as an artist and help you to learn as much as I can possibly share to get you on your way.

Now that Mixed Media Basics is drawing to the end I am now ready to release my next class – Style & Inspiration.

In Mixed Media Basics we learnt literally all the basics with some teaching on painting too. I am so passionate about encouraging you to nurture your own abilities for drawing and painting and so Style & Inspiration is all about doing just that.

I want you to find out what makes you squeal in delight, what makes you want to run to your studio and sketch out that idea and start laying down paint. What makes you so excited you just have to do something about it.

When you are hurting and need comfort, what you respond to most in terms of creation.

And, finally teaching you how to see like an artist!

In this fun class we are going to take ourselves on a journey of discovery. We will be delving into the depths of our hearts and seeing the world (Well, ok Suffolk lol) we will be loving and kind to ourselves and really nurture what’s inside just waiting to come out into our own expressions.

Will you join me on this exciting adventure?

Class starts 16th August and pre-booking is now open. Mixed Media Basics students are eligible for $5 off the class price, just email me.

I really hope you join me, this is going to be life changing!

xxx

Here For You

This weekend was fantastic! We enjoyed a lovely meal and a powerful talk at our church Harvest evening and then on Sunday I did my presentation for Compassion and it went really well! You can listen to it here if you would like.

‘Here For You’ is a comforting reminder that there is always someone there for you when you need someone to lean on, to give you a hug, to let you know everything is going to be ok, more than ok!

I hope you will enjoy this new painting and look out for more to come this week.



xxx

{Buy Original Here}