More from my archive…

Train

My Mum turned up yesterday bearing gifts, and a lot of stuff she’s clearing out from the loft. One box contained collected items that are somewhat mice-nibbled, but are an archive of my childhood craft activities and school books. The above painting of ‘a train’ is perhaps one of my first forays into painting, aged 3½.

 

Collage CardThis is a Mother’s Day card – complete with insert reading ‘to mummy with love from Neil’. Not a bad first collage at the age of 5, March 1976.

 

SnowmanPerfectly apt for this time of year, this snowman was a wax on sugar paper masterpiece when I was living near Dubai in 1978, aged 7. About as far from snow as I could get at that point!

 

Guinea PigsWe’ve no idea whose guinea pigs these were as I think we were still living in Dubai at the time – I was 8. Notice the rosettes in the hair – I last had guinea pigs five years ago, and think I’d probably draw them similarly now 😉

 

Coconut IslandThis treasure island is undated, but probably from around the same time. It’s that time in drawing development when ‘sky’ meets ‘ground’ – although I wonder if it’s sea at the top with the sails of the ship appearing above the hill. May be a first foray into distance and perspective?

Workshop news…

For those that haven’t noticed yet, I’ve added some new dates for next year on the Workshops tab:

Come & Craft sessions on a Tuesday night continue to be popular – recent projects include  napkin decoupage, dry brushing techniques, image transfers and glittering on acetate.

The Come & Craft Christmas Party will be 11am-4pm on Saturday 4th January 2014 – perfect for boosting your creativity and do bring your crafty presents for show and tell 😉

And on Saturday 1st February 2014, 10am-4pm, sees an introduction to Zentangle Inspired Art including a book of my tangle patterns and tangling pens to take away.

For full details and to book, head on over to the Workshops page 🙂
And if you’d like any of the workshops on a weekday, this can often be arranged, just let me know 🙂

 

The Creative Expression Experience

Creative Expressions

 

I spent the day yesterday in the company of most of the new Creative Expressions Design Team, and what a day it was 🙂

Aside from the personal introductions, I also had a sound introduction to the product line – and I have been sooooo missing out on some of these goodies. Of course the credit card is now getting battered as I build up my stock of Creative Expressions/Cosmic Shimmer goodies ready for creating my design team projects, but play time ahead! I hope to be adding a quick product review to each of my posts as well as I learn the dos and don’ts of each medium. Watch this space for CEDT projects each Wednesday: I’m busy working on a top secret project for them as well, ready for a future TV airing – fingers crossed 🙂

 

You’ve done it! 250,000 hits reached

Well done to you all – at some time during the night (GMT+1) my little blog counter tipped over the 250,000 views mark. Next major giveaway will be at 500,000 views and if the current rate of views is maintained, that’ll be in around 6 months!

And the winner of the giveaway was…. Robin Pich – who pipped Meret to the post by just a couple of hours. Congratulations to my ‘newest follower’ and check your email inbox!

 

Look what I found cleaning out my study…

Noah

Possibly one of my earliest surviving artworks, from 1985 when I would have been 14… Later strips weren’t coloured and I used a typewriter to add the text. I seem to remember the inspiration stemmed from the fabulous Classical Studies classes led by Mr Boulting at school, where we were asked to do comic strips to illustrate the mythological stories of Ancient Greece and Rome.

It’s another giveaway…

I snuck in some ‘me’ crafting time at the end of last week, and spent 10 or so hours creating my next blog giveaway. As promised, I am going to celebrate 250,000 views on this ‘ere blog soon, and in honour of this will be giving away a piece of unique art. Here’s a sneak preview…

Just a sneak preview...All you have to do is leave a comment (constructive, spam won’t count!) somewhere on my blog – whenever I notice the views click over the 250,000 mark, whomsoever has made the most recent comment, gets the prize! It’ll help if you sign up for email updates as I shall be posting regularly between now and then…

College Course – Term 6 – Final Exhibition

Where has two years gone? Seems to have flown by! And so, I come to the close of my course, and here are the pictures of my final exhibition. I have studio pictures of the final pieces to post as well, and they’ll come in due course. I’ve used a bit of Photoshop jiggery-pokery to get some of the detail right in the exposures, but the light level on the day was more the dome pic than the globe pic (i.e. not as dark as I’d like, but hey ho!).

Keep an eye out for the individual pieces as they will be for sale, complete with free light! I don’t have enough room to store them or display them, so it’s only right they should find a new loving home 🙂