New art work, January 2012 In search of Awen

Happy new year to you all, I can't believe how fast 2011 went and we are now firmly in 2012.
Over the Christmas and New year period I got busy sketching and idea that came to me after I got a copy of Imagine Fx magazine which included an article on how to create art nouveau style art work. 
I have always been inspired by the art nouveau style, especially that of Alphonse Mucha and I decided to try my hand at recreating the style but in my own way.
The out line:

Line work is very important in this style of work and Mucha was famous for having his figures outlined by lines of varying thickness and shade.  
Finished artwork:

Ornamental frames are also a staple of this type of artwork which is something I had not done before.


Close ups:
The symbols in the ivy wreath is that of the Druid symbol for Awen. Awen is Welsh for "Inspiration" and is something I am always striving for.
The acorns and oak leaves are also very important in Druid lore and is part of the Ogham tree wisdom. The Oak was viewed as a doorway to the Otherworld.

 The stone circles was a after thought in the creation of this painting. At first I was going to paint a scene of running deer but the more I worked on this the more it didn't seem right. So I decided to scrap that idea completely and I started sketching out a ring of standing stones as to me they are been very inspirational (see my Mythic stones artwork) and a source of Awen for me.

It was good to have a change of style and to do a personal piece of artwork that speaks to me and is very much a theme of what I want 2012 to be: In Search of Awen.

I hope you like my new artwork!

To Learn more about Druidry and Awen then check of The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids website: http://www.druidry.org/

New art and painting problems

Well lately I have been having a very difficult time with my digital painting.
I had this image that I wanted to capture in my mind of three standing stones in the full moon light, surrounded by creatures such as an owl and hares.

First initial sketch of the standing stones picture

Having scanned in the sketch I transferred it to my iPad to see if I could complete the picture only using that, however I could not get the picture big enough to be able to make big high quality prints from it, so I scrapped that and I started to work on painting it using corel painter on my PC the old fashion way.

Halfway through the painting I became aware that at some point along the way the colours Looked very odd and  I was not happy with the way it looked. I had fears that it was my graphics card was playing up but I just think the image itself became corrupt.

So I decided to paint something else instead and the latest theme for the Enchanted visions project had been announced so I decided to crack on with that painting instead.
I present, Dia los de Muertos.

Find out more about the Enchanted visions project here: http://www.enchantedvisionsart.com/

After completing this very different type of art for me I decided to tackle the standing stones again but it was like hitting a brick wall and I had fallen out of love with the painting, I almost wish I had never started it but I had received such good feedback from people about it I knew I had to  get it finished. So I started it again, completely from scratch and I am so glad I did as it flowed so much easier this time around (my third time of starting the picture, almost represented by the three stones!)

So now the picture is finished!

So I am now running a competition! The person to come up with the best title for this piece will win a print and maybe a few other goodies. Go to my facebook fan page for more information! Fantasy and fauna facebook page

3 Wishes Faery festival 2011- Day 3

It was the last full day of the event already and I was stunned about how fast the time was going. Sunday was the best day overall for weather. We actually had breakfast outside on the picnic blanket!

Before going down to the main arena we decided to do a faerie walk down to the folly which was on the grounds of the Mount Edgcumbe estate. The view from the folly was stunning and was the prefect spot for some faerie photoshoots. I wonder what the passers by thought of us all!

What is through the round window?

It took us quite a while before we found our way back to the arena, making a detour up to the rather grand looking house.
This is when I went round doing some shopping as I had been saving it for the last day. I snatched the latest copies of FAE magazine and some wicked red horns made by a Talented lady all the way from Germany! Check out her facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crimson-Darkness/102247229823567

Not looking my best here but now have to come up with a costume to show off these bad boys for Halloween!

I brought this cute hare and leveret statue from Awen Alive and a lovely pair of curly earrings.

I also got a red leaf style waist coat which I wanted to get last year but ran out of money.

 There was so much lovely clothing and I could have spent much more money but I wanted to save some money for my next holiday to Scotland.

After dinner (again cooked by Martin) I got changed yet again to put my new horns on :) and I was ready to boogie the night way.. Or that was the plan only my hay fever was still playing havoc with my nose, but I was not the only one suffering. Esther had not felt very well all day and she went to lay down for a little while.
The evenings entertainment kicked off with Malachite and a great folk band called Pentorr. 

We headed back to the tent early as it started to rain yet again and we had a welcome cup of tea in Esther and Martin's tent before we settled down to bed to get ready to pack up and go home the following morning.
We were lucky that it was not raining in the morning and we got packed and ready to go home. :( I really wanted to have longer in Cornwall but we couldn't afford the time away.
We set off with Esther, Martin, Gordon, Laura, Jennie and David for a slap up breakfast at Morrisons before going our separate ways. Always a sad time.

I had great fun yet again with the lovely people who make up the faerie community. It was a shame that the weather just was not on our side this time round!

Photographs again by LJS Digital photography

3 Wishes Faery festival 2011- Day 2

Day two.
Sleeping on a slope is not fun. I kept rolling into Leon who had to push me back up the air bed so he wasn't being pushed out the zipped up door. Coupled with the camping neighbours from hell I did not have a very good nights sleep. Oh yes and it rained heavy during the night too.
That morning we went back into Esther and Martins tent for some porridge and a welcome cup of tea and I decided to wear my skull and cross bone dress seeing as I had brought it all the way with me and I was determined to wear it come rain or shine!

Before going down to the main arena Leon and I took a trip back in to human civilisation to get a few more provisions from Sainsbury's as well as picking up Imelda May's first album for £3. Bargain!
The rest of the day was mingling down at the main arena and watching the faerie fashion show which I wanted to be in but completely forgot about! Oh well I was too full of hay fever to really have done any of the beautiful clothing justice!

I don't know what these two were up too, perhaps trying to locate the beer tent!

This lovely goggled lady was Ziazan La Diva with her barrel organ. A touch of steampunk to the event. Her voice is like stepping back in time.

By now the rain had started again and we headed back to camp where Martin did an amazing job of cooking for about 16 of us. I tip my hat to you sir even though the mead/cider/rum was in full flow by then!
After being well fed it was time to get our pirate gear on for the pirate and mermaid ball! Luckily the rain had ceased by this point and it was great to see so many people make a great effort with their costumes. Leon didn't take any photos down in the arena as he was too drunk to operate the camera. :(
Tonight was time for the Dolmen to take centre stage and they were worth the wait. By now I was feeling very ill with sniffles and sneezing. I was beginning to think my hay fever was in fact a cold but I stood my ground and was so glad I did because I loved dancing to The Dolmen. The sound was a bit off compared to other times I have seen them but they are still a great band to stomp your feet to and was one of my festival highlights.
I crawled into bed that night just praying to the Gods I would pass out and not wake until morning.

Stay tuned for day 3.

Photos by  LJS digital photography

3 Wishes Faery festival 2011- Day 1

And so my second 3 wishes festival has come and gone like a floating bubble on the wind. Unfortunately this years was damped a bit by the weather and me sneezing every few minutes.
It was great to meet up with everyone again and make new friends too.

Day one.
Turned up at the new venue after getting confused as where to go after signs for the festival were not prominent enough and we drove past the camping entrance!
We found our friends, Jennie and David Cooper, Esther Remmington and Martin Winkles and the lovely Bruce and Bryone Whistlecraft who had pitched their tent on the flattest ground they could find.
Esther and Martin were wrestling with a gazebo and set to work helping them tame the wild beast before getting on with pitching our own tent.
The field it's self must have had sheep grazing on it a few hours before because there was dung everywhere! Good job we stopped off at a supermarket before we arrived as we had plastic bags to use as a poop and scoop!
The tent was pitched when the first spots of rain fell and continued to fall for a good couple of hours. We clambered into Esther and Martins amazingly roomy bell tent and listened to the rain fall and drank tea and caught up on the latest news.
There was no sign of the rain letting up so we got out waterproofs on and head out to see what was happening in the main arena.
A quick walk down the woodland passage and we were soon seeing the faces of our friends who either were trading or had just come too be a part of the festival like us.
The new venue was indeed very beautiful, with two stunning cedar trees in the centre and a lovely shell grotto seat that served as a setting for a photo shoot opportunity later on.
The rain had made the area seem very quiet and after saying our hellos and faerie hugs to friends we went back to camp for a cook out.
By the evening the rain eased off and were were finally able to shed our human personas and get faeried up!

Me,Esther, Martin and the lovely Linda Ravenscroft

The Cedar trees were lit up at night.

The entertainment for the evening was varied but stand out for me was 3 Daft Monkeys. Good sound and slightly steampunk to boot.
We crawled into our sleeping bag quiet late that night but was not late for some as a few of our fellow campers decided to stay up till 5am having a laugh and getting louder and louder. I was in two minds to go and tell them to shut up but it was so cold I just piled on the fleeces and hoped I would pass out.

Stay tuned for Day 2!

Photos by LJS Digital photography.

News round up- festivals

I can't believe how quickly the months are flying by! in a few days it will be June and I will be off on my holidays to lovely Cornwall to take part in the 3 wishes faerie festival! I won't be a vendor at this event but instead relaxing and having fun with all my fellow faerie friends.

I went to this event last year and I had such fun that I was already planning on taking the time off work for the festival as I work at weekends.

In April I had a stall at the Magical Faerie festival in Canterbury. I am so blessed to have such a brilliant event so close to my home. The Friday night consisted of a faerie ball which I always have great fun at and this time was no exception! 

I even got steampunked up for this event, so technically I was not a faerie. Music included the amazing Toyah, she even signed my old Beta Max video tape :)

Me with Toyah, Linda Ravenscroft and Esther Remmington, three very inspirational women who I love.

Also playing was the Gypsy Nomans or Frenchy and the Punk as they now wish to be known as were amazing, they even dedicated the song House of cards to me because of my Steampunk attire ;)

I was not the only Steampunk at the ball, my friend John Webster of  http://www.thesorcererslibrary.com/

came along with the lovely Sarah and he had put together a great outfit of top hat, goggles and an impressive set of wings.

More photos from the night can bee seen here https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150567870635436&set=a.10150567846560436.678128.632390435&type=1&theater

Photos taken by  LJS digital photography 

The next three days were brilliant but over all too quickly. I got to meet many new artists and other vendors and catch up with friends I had made last year too.

I was really pleased with how my table looked this year as well thanks to my awesome new banner and shelves I had painting to display by top hats which sold very well. I made eight and sold nearly all of them!

The toadstool houses didn't do as well this year :( even my friends amazing toadstool doorstop did not get snapped up. check out her lovely things at http://thewoodlandrealmcrafts.co.uk/

On the Sunday we went for a wonderful meal out with artists from the UK and America. It was a good job I knew of good places to eat in Canterbury as we were all able to get a long line of tables and have a proper banquet. This was the highlight of this years festival for me.

In other news I have purchased a iPad 2. It was expensive but I love it! I can not wait to see what direction this will mean for my art work. The idea of being able to draw directly on to the screen has always appealed to me when I first had a try of a Wacom Cintiq but those are thousand of pounds and I could only dream.

Now with my iPad it means I can do digital sketches while I am out and about! No need to scan in drawings as I can directly e-mail them to my main art PC and touch them up in corel painter. At the moment I am having diffiluctly getting use to the touch screen using my finger tips. Wacom have produced a style specially for the iPad and I hope to get one of these as I am much more comfortable using a pen tool.

Also my art work is now available as fabric blocks for Crafters and Quilters

http://www.fantasyfabricblocks.com

Also the Summer issue of The Faeries and Angels Magazine is out now featuring my article about The faerie kings and Queens. Available from http://www.thefaeriesandangelsmagazine.com/

Phew Ok I think that is everything up to date now!

Phew! I think that is everything for 

New blog!

Greetings reader to my new blog about my artwork, inspirations and general musings. Don't worry LJ users I will still update there too!

Last month I completed two images. One was a picture entitled Steam Dragons Wars.
This painting proved a challenge to paint and is one of my most detailed yet!
I wanted to paint another dragon as I have not done so in such a long time but I also wanted to do another Steampunk inspired piece so I mixed the two together and created a steam-powered mechanical dragon!
This piece started to develop in to a story line all of it's own. Why did such mechanical beasts exist? For what purpose? A War? Against another air borne machine.. a airship (got to love airships)
And so the story unfolded that two warring faction- The Lactions are Aristocratic and wealthy. Their air ships are grand in design and built with a team of engineers with the best scientists available working on new and advanced technology. This includes cannons, machine guns, Tesla coil powered Harpoon which can be interchanged with a net gun.

The Dragonar's Steam-powered dragons are a old technology but are still masters of the sky. "breathing fire and setting ablaze anything in their path. hydraulic jaws enable then to crush armoured machines effortlessly. Powerful wings propel their bulk with ease. Their shadow on the ground causes fear and panic.

The majority of this work was experimental for me, I wanted to practice my composition, lighting, mood and just try new techniques too.
Any way with out further a do I am pleased to present: Steam Dragon Wars

The next image I finished was very different again and to add to my popular line of bird portraits (the feathered variety!) I like to do my wildlife paintings to bring me back down to earth and marvel at the beauty of nature.The British Kingfisher is one on my favourite birds and I always hope to see one when I go down to the river bank. They are like living jewels in such rich iridescent colours that I hope I captured in my painting.

I am not doing any digital art at the moment as I am busy making beautiful things for my stall at the Faerie Festival in Canterbury over the Easter holiday.