Token

I haven't blogged all year, so shame on me - but that's not because I haven't been working on things. In July, I moved to central London, 10 minutes north of Camden so I could concentrate more on preparing to sell my work.. well, this has happened sooner than I expected! It's only a very small sale and I'm not selling any original canvases at present, but it's a print of a painting I did at the beginning of this year - a brown Doberman puppy I looked after for the first few weeks of his life, called Token.

I am very pleased!

The print sold at the W3 Gallery in Acton last month & it was one of only three pieces that sold in the entire show. There will be further exhibitions in which I will be participating, one of which is the 'Affordable Art' exhibition in December.. so if you're in the area, please do go check it out and I hope to give more details to anyone interested nearer the time.

There are only 9 copies of this limited edition print available - should you be interested, please contact me for more details. 

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birdy x

Origami workshop 1: year of the horse & gift pouches

So I went to The Art House in Southampton last night for one of their events - an origami workshop where I met some lovely new people including a young gay couple and a lady called Claire, who incidentally lives in the town I grew up in, just houses away from where my mother lives now. Small world. She kindly dropped me home afterwards and offered me lifts for future events as she's pretty much a regular.

I'm totally in love with this cute little cafe - the atmosphere is just great - relaxed and super friendly, everyone chats, regardless of whether they know each other or not, dogs are allowed and you're surrounded by cute things to buy, paintings on the walls, colour, texture - it has a real hippie vibe so no wonder I felt at home! I think it will be my first port of call for an exhibition of my paintings, and as long as I get my first project finished and everything organised by August, I should be able to set up for 2015.

2014 is the year of the horse, so we learnt how to make origami horses - surprisingly easy when working as a group, but it's a tricky one - especially if you want said horse to stand on 3 legs while it's waving the other one in the air.
The rest of the time was spent drinking orange hot chocolate, eating coffee & walnut cake and making miniature gift pouches from 2 pieces of patterned square paper, which twist open and closed very much like a Moroccan purse. They look like flowers, are super pretty and you can put flat gifts in them like chocolates or earrings, or even CDs in larger ones. They could also be used as colourful pinwheels.
Got the hang of these very easily and they're therapeutic to fold, so I ended up with loads! I'm thinking 25 of these would be a great addition to an elaborate handmade advent calendar and you can cut old metallic wrapping paper into squares if you don't want to buy proper origami paper - it will fold just as well.

Tempted to go back Sunday afternoon for a life drawing session - other events tempting me right now are Songwriter's Circle Wednesday evening, Holistic Connections Thursday lunchtime, Busker's Cafe on Saturday followed by comedy night and there's an open mic night on the 24th, so I might take my guitar along for some action.

birdy x

9 weird and wonderful creations

Someone asked me if all I do is paint acrylic on canvas. Nooooooo. I make weird and wacky stuff all the time for all different needs and purposes.. some things for me, some as gifts for others and some to share. I bake and decorate cakes, arrange flowers, make sculptures, jewellery, cards, body art - I will have a go at anything.
I tried to go back and collect pictures of all the things I've created over the years but I just don't have the time to do that today, so here are today's 9 picked-at-random creations!

Talking of origami, I am going to an origami workshop tonight @ The Art House. It's something I really enjoy and the art of paper craft really is endless, so keep your eyes out for more 3D creations. The swan box was frustrating - I think it took about 3 attempts at the box part to get it to fit just inside the lid. It was a present for my ex for our first wedding anniversary (paper) and there were times I debated buying him a 12-pack of Andrex instead, it was so difficult!
Enjoy!

 

..an origami swan box | a fuck you keyring LOL | a bee cake..

  

..a dream catcher | a Christmas cake house | a fancy headdress..

  

..a pop-up card | a Goddess on my friend's back | a pair of shamrock nipple pasties..

birdy x

NEW CANVAS: Cleanse

The very first painting I'm sharing here with you is the start of a brand new project! Finished yesterday, it took three days to complete (acrylics on canvas, 20 x 20) with some tricky areas detailing the water refraction, motion and reflection.

Cleanse

Cleanse is one of many self-portraits, (my camera was wedged between the bath taps!) and will become part of quite a dark, but hopefully enlightening project I'm working on.

This is the original photo I was working from and then my Instagram version:

I was feeling pretty hopeless at the time of taking the photograph. I just wanted to lay down in the water and go to sleep forever. There was no anger or frustration, only hopelessness and a complete emptiness, devoid of all energy and any willingness to care for anything or anyone. The pastel colours are intended to add to the peacefulness of the scene, that despite the unreceptive nature of the girl, she's warm in the bath, weightless from the water and happy to drift in and out of consciousness, perhaps for hours to prevent any deeper thought.

I will also add that I LOVE being in the bath; I feel like I can almost wash away all my troubles - cleanse my mind. Almost.

For those interested in the creation of this work, below are the main stages of completion. Despite using the same colour palette each time, I had to wash and rinse my paint bowl four times! On the plus side though, I love how you can peel acrylic paint off ceramic under hot running water like stretchy plastic - it's almost as satisfying as picking dried PVA glue off your fingers LOL.

birdy x

New facebook group to promote your work: Exposure - ART

New group on Facebook to promote artists, digital artists, graphic designers, etc. and for them to share their work with other like-minded individuals within the community. Only 12 members at the moment - membership is completely free and by approval only.
Go check it out, and join:

Exposure - ART on Facebook

birdy x

A little birdy told me...

Hi, I'm birdy -
Welcome to my blog of ramblings, spirituality, news and artwork - and anything else that interests me and takes my fancy enough to share.
I've been painting almost since I was in nappies - quite honestly, I remember drawing butterflies and rabbits, (albeit green ones with pink spots, but hey that's the 80s for you) and houses and trees and everything in between since nursery school and at home with my father, who used to sit and watch me create stuff for hours - I loved drawing, painting, cutting, sticking.. making anything that came to my tiny imagination.
My mother was artistic - a shame she never pursued it. Every Friday when I attended nursery school, a book had to be signed out from the library, read, and a review written in a special notebook so the teacher could see regular reading progress. Every alternate page was blank for a drawing if desired, but no-one drew pictures at the age of 2 - except me - although mostly, my mother drew pictures for me to colour in. Green with pink spots eventually became detailed shading of hues with coloured pencils and I regularly won drawing / colouring / design competitions between the ages of 5 and 10, both locally around town and at school before achieving an A* for art at GCSE level.
Regretfully, I didn't take an A-Level in any form of art & design because music was my chosen career path back then and I feared it would be too time consuming on that, alongside my other subjects, maths, English literature and German.
Not a tremendous amount happened artistically after that - I diverted off into music - teaching piano, playing for concerts & events, then modelling, then photo manipulation. I got married, divorced, diagnosed with manic depression - which I suppose inadvertently threw me back into creating stuff. It took my mind off things whilst coming out of a depression. I'd draw and paint, do origami and make things for friends as gifts, for birthdays, Christmas and just because I felt like it at the time. Art is and always has been a very personal thing to me and I don't want that to ever change.
I suppose I take after my late grandfather in music and art; he was a church organist and an artist, detailing many fine and pen & ink drawings, oil paintings and works in watercolour in his 80-odd years, also creating sculptures of ships, measuring details to the last 1/4 of a millimetre. His work was always incredibly well prepared and extraordinarily intricate - I wondered how he had the patience to be so precise and pay attention to detail so fine, that you would struggle to see with the naked eye, but whilst our styles are very different, he and I are similar 'perfectionists' in many ways.

As for 2014 birdy, I'm a naughty unconventional 'lil hippie, a chocoholic - I love nature, the spiritual world, the Sixties, photography, music, art, massages & aromatherapy, partying, festivals, lingerie, men and women. I absolutely revel in the arts and live up to my Aquarius (creator) / Pisces (dreamer) qualities.
I have a beautiful 9 year old German Shepherd dog, Jimski & do various work now relating to design & photo manipulation, spending my days either modelling for various photographers & artists, or creating art myself, usually on canvas with the intent to exhibit my work in the near future. I've had previous experience in retail, piano teaching, classical music in general, (providing piano recitals, concerts, accompanying work & background music for events as well as playing the organ for church / carol services) working with & looking after children in school holiday clubs, and being an au pair to irresistible, Kennel Club bred Doberman pups.
I'm hugely temperamental, but then I'm a creative manic depressive, what the fuck do you expect ;)
Love those who can think outside the box, love to create, coordinate, decorate, lavish affection on anything that grabs my attention, write songs, poetry and have a drink and a dance.
Astrology, spirituality, sexuality, the supernatural, psychology and the effects of positive thinking on the mind are just a few other things in my little life that fascinate me and make me wonder.

I sincerely hope you enjoy being here, and following my interests and creations.

birdy x

___________________________

"Art has always been a passion of mine. I love standing in front of a great painting, trying to feel the emotion, trying to analyse the colours, textures. I love creating art of my own with paints and pastels in the same way I love being part of it. To stand as the subject and throw shapes, convey endless emotion in a mere few seconds and feel that great achievement upon receiving the finished piece; I have come to appreciate all my work as art."