Spring Beasties

Well at times it does appear that spring has indeed sprung. My mum has just gotten back from a trip overseas where she spent some time catching up with my Uncle and Auntie who live in Surrey. Hearing about my Uncle's latest gardening escapes reminded me of my first encounter with foxes and other Beatrix Potteresque animals. This inspired my latest series of animal paintings / prints which are based on the idea of 'In my Uncle's garden'. It appears that 'free-range' gardening runs in the family, there is nothing quite like finding 'susprises' that self-seed in among the weeds. That is when they finally get cleared themselves.

My ummmm, 'vege-patch'

When I was nine, I was lucky to be taken on an amazing trip over to England and Europe by my mum. Part of the reason for this was to meet my Uncle and Auntie for the first time. We stayed with them in their gorgeous three storied terraced house, but I was astounded by the wildness of their back garden. The lawns were about knee height which was in stark contrast to my own experience of the gardens of my mum and grand parents. We asked about why the garden was so unkempt and was told that my Uncle was worried about squashing the toads that lived there. He also liked the fact that other animals felt free to live there and the frequent visitors from Richmond Park which was very near by. Those visitors included a fox with her wee cubs, I was woken one morning quite early to be told to peer out of the window. Sure enough there was the vixen with her offspring sneaking through under the fence, hunting for toads.

Nearly thirty years later the garden now boasts a whole lot of free-ranging trees. The latest resident within the suburban wilderness is now a badger. This was the starting point for this collection, they will be available for purchase soon.

Seasons Fleetings

card marquettes

At the moment we are trying to get sorted for Christmas . . . I know! It is a little scary to think that it is just around the corner. In preparation for the festive season, I have been creating some plans for cross-stitched Christmas cards.

a delightful accident

Basically I have been coming up with the templates and testing them using white silk embroidery thread. White on white is a fabulous way to test out something that has sculptural or textural elements as it shows the form more clearly. I had popped up one on the window sill to see what it looked like from a distance and was thrilled with the effect of light coming through the needle holes.

my working space is not normally this tidy!

As well as festive colours, I think I will have to continue to produce some in white too. I will have a collection ready for both Crafternoon Tea on the 15th October and The Devonport Craft Market on the 16th October.

Spring is in the Air

Nice! Our wee dear made it into a spring selection on Felt Spring is in the Air. Do check out the other lovely treasures that people are listing :)

Ma Beasties

I wanted to produce another little group of animals based on more of a Wintry theme. The idea of Arctic Beasties came about, then I came across 'Ma', which is white in te reo. Ma also has so many other subtle meanings that could be played with, especially in the context of peoples' relationship to animals.

Because so many people have enjoyed the Autumnal Beasties, I had intended to produce a range of prints based from these watercolours. Do you think I could get a reproduction I was happy with? No way, these works are just too subtle, and no matter what I do with the adjustments, I couldn't get a print where the outcome was satisfactory.

Here is a peek at the Arctic Wolf.

I am so stoked with how the layers subtly worked up the soft tones and textures.

Last but not least, an Arctic Hare. I love how wild and crazy they look with their big ears and soft, little faces.

Well they may not be able to be reproduced successfully, but the person who takes these guys home in their original archival water-colour form will be wrapped to have such unique beasties.

Greeting Cards

Greetings!

Ooooo it has been a wee while since I posted on here, I must get better at maintaining this blog. I just completed some more hand-made artCards today so I thought I would share some of my favourites. 

This one was meant to be more gender neutral, but according to my flatmate (who ought to know) if it has embroidery on it, it is girly.

OK more embroidery here too . . .

This one is too sweet, I love the contrast of the colours within the embroidered speech bubble. This one was meant to be more feminine.

Lots of lovely different papers have been reused within this tui card. Some vintage wallpaper and handmade paper I bought back from India a few years ago.

I love the idea of being able to have a character say what you want it too. Who knows what this rabbit will eventually end up saying.

They are available for purchase on Felt 

Mr and Mrs Z Huia

Mr and Mrs Z Huia 2011

This work was so neat to paint, I had gorgeous vintage photographs to work from for the human elements of the paintings. It was sad however working from images of stuffed birds for the huia.

I so love checking out old photographs, the expressions, what people wore and the attention to detailing in the workmanship.

I did this work in response to hearing that the last known breeding pair of huia, who were meant to make it to an offshore Island in the hope of saving the species, ended up in some English gent's managerie back in the Mother Land. Victorian's and their collections! The 'Z' in the title of the work refers to 'Zachariah' which was taken from the title of a very bleak book I read when in my teens.

If you are interested in seeing more images you can find this work on Felt

Flourishing Manu

For the market I produced some lovely little illustrations that were based on the aesthetic of old engravings. For fun I had them perching on a vintage copperplate flourish based on some images I had on old letraset. I love playing with language and the way you can add meaning through devices like puns etc;

Piwakawaka and tui are both species that have adapted and are still prevalent throughout the country. Here you can find out how to participate in the landcare survey recording the diversity of the bird-life in your area Birdwatching in your Backyard with Forest and Bird This is definately a worthwhile activity to participate in . . . like they say in the article, a good excuse to get outside.

Seeing as pihipihi / silvereyes were documented as being the most prevalent native species last year, I am definately going to have to do an illustration of one of those cuties to add to the little linen whanau.

Currently you can see the little works on the front page of Felt