OnceIt

If you have not been introduced to the fantastic sales that appear on Onceit, you might like to join up as some cute and quaint things are about to emerge on there.

They specialize in designer brands and fabulous artisans whose wares include jewellery, fashion, accessories, home wares and more

I only have a limited number of invites so . . .

Invitation to Onceit

 . . . and I hear there might be some manu on there too.

New Manu

Well, my trusty printer threw a wobbly and refused to print on the 270gms watercolour paper that I so loved. Actually I am amazed that I got away with it for so long as I would have to run the dehumidifier for at least a day before printing to get it to go through the machine. On the bright side, it encouraged me to take the step of getting some works professionally printed and I am thrilled with the results.

Ruru 2011

They are prints based on original watercolour illustrations that I did. They are then printed using archival pigmented inks upon Hahnemuhle William Turner paper, which is 310gms in weight and designed specifically  for creating archivally sound digital reproductions.

Huia 2011

 Another wonderful thing about this paper is that it is matt and has a similar texture to watercolour paper. It also has a lovely velvety effect within the dark tones of the images, which reinforces the depth that I try to achieve in the layering up of different hues.

Piwakawaka 2011

I am also stoked not to have to be stressing about sourcing the crazy paper and battling with my printer anymore. The number of times it nearly got thrown through the window!

Should you be interested in checking out these new additions to the ellaQuaint aviary, further images are available for viewing on link to 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

Huia and Tui

I had been thinking about experimenting with combining old Victorian photographs with our native manu for quite sometime. As usual, I over-researched and then got farrrr to many ideas and images so it took a while longer to get started than I had hoped.

This was the image that I used for Huia and Tui; a diptych that I recently completed. I am stoked with how well it turned out. Subtly layering up the washes to render the fabric of the blouse. I tried to show the fragility of the huia through having it more transparent, symbolising its eventual disappearance.



Huia and Tui 2011

 This work continues on with my Wikitoriana series that I started earlier this year. It is available for purchase from Felt