More Wee Beasties

I so enjoyed painting the first lot of Timorous Beasties that I decided to paint some more.

Standing Fawn

Standing Fawn had the cutest pose so I just had to paint him. I think that I might have to have paint some more deer as their coats layer up so nicely with watery washes then textured brush marks layered up over the top.

Little Lop

Little Lop, well lop bunnies are pretty delightful but this guy took the cake.

Sparrow

Sparrows are one of my favourite introduced birds. This guy looked so sweet all fluffed up into his feathers. Should you be interested in purchasing any of these cuties, you can find them on our ellaCute store on etsy. Ooo there is a sale happening there also!

Hila

The source of inspiration for the Aquatic Arctic Beasties

Old newspapers are quite useful when you are an artist. To be honest it is not very often that I read them, unless something of interest leaps out at me. I had spread out some old paper on my working surface and this is the article I discovered that piqued my interest.

Some words and phrases in Inuktun

Languages are something that I am fascinated by, especially how poetic ones other than English can be. The notion that 'consciousness' has the the same word as that used for weather is one that appeals to me.

Beluga Whale (its actually a dolphin)

I had the aquatic arctic beasties completed for a couple of weeks when I was thrilled to see them on Frozen Planet , the latest series to be presented by Sir David Attenborough. It is a must see is you have an interest in animals, dramatic landscapes and the environment. 

Narwhal

When I first heard of narwhals, I honestly thought they were a creature of myth, rather like the unicorn. As you can see they are as real as you and I. Trying to find images of them to paint was actually quite tricky, but I was stoked when I discovered this one.

Both have fascinated zoologists for many years and here is a gorgeous old illustration that I came across that I loved. Unfortunately I am not so great at documenting where I source images (my bad), but this one was too good not to share.

If you would like to see the completed water-colour illustrations they can be viewed on ellaQuaint on Felt

or ellaCute on etsy

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.