Watercolour Painting in the People's Park

 During the good weather my studio was like a sweat shop, it was impossible to work in, but leading up to the RDS show I didn't really have much choice but to literally sweat it out. Since the pressure to make a million bags has slackened off since the show I've been able to take my time making work. Last week I packed up my brushes, pencils, and paints and headed to the People's Park with my picnic blanket. It was obviously still sweltering, but at least it was nice to be out in the sunshine. I was really surprised with how much work I got done, and how pleasant it was. I'm definitely going to turn it into a regular habit, but sadly it's reliant on good weather.

I attracted a few people's attention, with one or two people coming over to look at what I was working on, one couple even took my details for a commission, but I think most were a little disappointed that I wasn't painting the park itself.

J.R.R.Tolkien

Germaine Greer

I went home that evening and finished off the pieces when it started to get dark. I'm waiting to order some transfer paper so I won't have that in my Etsy shop and at my stall for another couple of weeks, but I'll list the original paintings later in the week in my shop.

I have to say that I'm really loving doing my portrait work, if I could make all my money from it I would be pretty happy to work on them alone and take a break from sewing. I think I would need to make quite a few more online sales though before I make that step!

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Writer Portraits; Sky Arts Tv Portrait Expo

This is the project that I've been working on that I mentioned earlier in the week. I was approached by SkyArts Tv a few weeks ago asking if I wanted to sell my canvas bags at an expo that they are hosting on portraiture in the RDS. When I went to their website and saw the standard of stuff that will be on show I was bowled over, and more than a little chagrined/chuffed to be asked to be part of the show. I decided that I needed to add quite a few images to my range to expand them beyond the narrow field of Irish writers. 

I have loads of photos of writers printed out and piled up on my desk, over the past couple of weeks I've been whiling away the hours while sketching, painting, and colouring. As I mentioned I was finding it hard to get the creative juices flowing again so this has been a great gateway back to making things; to go back to my first love drawing. 

The event will be on in the RDS Dublin on the the 14th of July, from 10am-6pm, it's just a one day event, so if you are going to be in the area mark it in your diary. The event is part of a six part documentary series that Sky Arts are filming on portraiture as part of their national competition to find Britain's Portrait Artist of the Year. As well as my canvas bags I will be selling my original paintings and drawings, printed portrait greeting cards, and some badges and magnet sets. 

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I Have Returned!

I'd just like to reassure you all that I'm not dead, just newly resuscitated. It was quite a grueling Christmas for me, I think the busiest I've ever had, imagine fire juggling and plate spinning at the same time and you might come somewhere close. I very stupidly decided to run two market stalls and a a craft shop over Christmas, oh and don't forget making all that stock too; complete insanity. If I plan on having the same lapse in judgement next year I will need to start making my stock in June! So hence the fact that this blog was completely abandoned for the past two months. 

I would have come back sooner after the festive season except I got some really bad news. You know the shop that I spend nearly a year working on, yep that one that was only open for a mere seven weeks? Well it closed on Christmas Eve. Part of the deal that we got always had the risk of someone coming along and renting the space at full price, we just never expected it to happen so quickly. We had great sales for the time we were open, and there was an amazing response from the public; people were delighted to see that kind of shop open at last in Limerick. But sadly after a two day break at home we had to come back and pack up the shop in just a mere few days. To be honest I found the whole process quite heart breaking and wanted to run away from the world. I'm generally not a grumpy person, but I've been no fun to be around the past few weeks. But I've started looking around auctioneers again and we've come up with a couple of promising places to restart the shop again. Next time we will definitely be asking for a minimum contract, we have to safeguard ourselves against that happening again. chin up, onwards and upwards and all that other stuff....

To help myself get back to some level of sanity I started painting again, after the rush for Christmas I didn't have any inclination to make my own crafts, I'm a bit sick of looking at them at the moment. I wanted to make something just for me, that was about selling, or a profit margin, that wasn't commercial, just making something for the heck of it. I spent a couple of days in the studio just painting, with no particular goal in mind, and was really lovely. It gave me the head space to feel positive again, it allowed me the time to blank out the rest of the world. They are both at the early stage, and I'm not sure where I'm going with them, but I like that i don't really care. Here's to feeling sane again!

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Window Painting

So what have I been up to in the last month? Apart from not writing for my blog I've been trying to get things organised for the grand opening of Limerick Craft & Design. One of the many things I did was paint the window to drum up a bit of enthusiasm about the project. What had initially been quite a simple idea in my head became a little more complicated when I added polka dots into the equation; they take time to measurepaint and then paint around.

It involved lots of fag breaks for Orla who was there with me shampooing the carpet, so I took photos during these painting pit stops. Here they are.... 

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Gift Boxes

I bought lots of plain boxes like the one above here with the intention of doing something lovely with them. Paper collage and distressed colours came to mind. I started working on them with no real end goal in sight, I wasn't sure if I was going to sell them, keep them, or sell them with something else inside. I used my Cuttlebug to cut out the heart and circle shapes from lovely paper that I got in Cork Art Supplies. I firstly painted the boxes using a bright and varied palette of red,pink,blue,yellow, and white, painting all the surfaces different colours.

I then matched up the papers to the lids and boxes, gluing and varnishing as I went. I started looking around for nice papers with little interesting details that I could put on the inside, after all everyone loves to see what's inside a box! The next stage involved a leap of faith; distressing my lovely painted boxes with ink, then followed more varnish. It took me a few hours to figure out what was missing, then it occurred to me that some buttons would tie all the colours together and bring back some brightness after the dark inks.Surprise, surprise, that it was buttons came to the rescue!

Then came the really difficult bit, figuring out what to sell them as??? A friend suggested that they could be proposal boxes, something I had never heard of before. Basically it's a posh little box that an engagement ring is put into. Also they could be party or wedding favours, I know I would be thoroughly impressed if I got one of these at an alternative wedding!(I'd do a discount for orders of 10 boxes or more). In the end I had to make a decision about the price, when I looked at how long they had taken to make I decided to charge €10. Which at first seemed expensive for a small box, but it's not feasible to sell them for less considering the effort. I've made the decision not to sell them at the market as I can see people being shocked (and sometimes rude) about the price. I understand that it's a recession but sometimes I feel that all of this talk in the media telling people to challenge prices has less them to being rude. Sometimes I just can't listen to it. So to save my sanity these boxes are on sale exclusively in my etsy shop. I will be also adding oval and square boxes in a little while.

The Paint Brush Has Come Out Again

People often call my stall the Christmas gift stall because I sell loads of bits and bobs that are a affordable that would be great for Christmas presents. The problem with this is that most things are priced under a tenner, which means I've to sell an awful lot of stuff to make it worth my while. Lately I've been working on some higher priced items, like my ABC set and some Christmas stockings. They still won't break the bank at €20 but it's easier for me to earn more money at the stall with a wider price range.

So with this in mind I wanted to put some of my artwork on the stall, but I don't have a huge amount of space, which means having small pieces in the €15-€35-€80 price range. I bought some small clothes drying racks to use as display units, and I'll let you know how that pans out for me tomorrow when I try them out. As for the art itself, I went digging through the studio to root out some of my older work to see what I could do with it. I found these plain monoprints in square gold frames which I did years ago. I thought they looked a bit bland, so I took them out and pepped them up with some water colours. I'll see how they go these weekend, if they turn out to be a success I might just put aside a painting a drawing day to make some more.

Any suggestions on prices for these?

PS: Sorry for the poor picture quality these were taken last night on my phone

Paintings:Work in Progress

Yesterday I had to cancel my market due to really horrible cramps, it was a shame not to be there on the last day, but I would have scared the customers away with my pained expression. I tried to just chill out here instead but I got really restless, so after taking lots of very strong painkillers, and strapping a hot water bottle to myself I went into the studio.

It's been ages since I did any painting, and I really love it, I don't claim to be any expert since I did very little of it when I was in college. It was mostly after I graduated that I started tinkering around with small canvases and my flat mates paints. But when Nice Day Designs took off it meant I didn't have any time for it anymore. It was really lovely just to be painting with no real goal in mind. I revisited a project that I worked on in college, childrens illustration style. I just wanted the relaxation of doing something and not that pressure of what to put on a blank canvas.

I worked on the 4 of them at one, swapping over as the layers were drying. They are all still very much works in progress but I thought I would show you some half way point pictures anyhow. The square pieces are just 6" x 6" and the longer one is about 15" x 6".

New Painting, and Busy Season

I'm already starting to freak out that there isn't enough time between now and Christmas. Lots of new things have popped up and I came to the conclusion yesterday that I'm going to have to sprout 16 extra pairs of hands and never sleep, of get about 3 volunteers to help. The money isn't exactly rolling in yet so I can't afford to pay anyone.Over the past few years I've already pul;led in all the favours I could with friends and I think that gravey train has run out. On the up side my work is in demand which is something I feel very lucky to be able to say in todays climate.

In some other news myself and John have become the proud owners of a new beautiful painting by Limerick artist Emmet Kierns. His work has been exhibited throughout Europe, and America so I feel really honoured to have one of his pieces in my house.