Hair of the moon-dog!! ~ truly I am the worst blog-keeper in all christendom! ..... it is an appallingly long time since I've updated this .... but I am filled with fresh resolve to do better! ~ to that end, I begin a series of *today in the studio* type of entries .... since this is what most of my days consist of, I thought it best to share, what I really have to offer, so; snapshots of Stonemaiden HQ, glimpses of what I'm working on, and an earful of the sounds that help keep me going! ~ so welcome, delighted to have your company..... and here's what's happening today!
Cheery tulips, brought by my friend Carol, brightening the work table.
Some of the tomes I'm currently delving into for reference and inspiration/theiving!
Carel, the dragon, one of the many guardians of Stonemaiden HQ!
...currently guarding some tasty slabs of vinyl!
My VIP pass from FaerieWorlds festival, last Summer, in Oregon, where I met the wondrous Donovan, 'twas a dream come true!
Trusty Wharfdales, inherited from my dad.
Poppies, dried by the fair hand of my friend Lina, and sent from Yorkshire, miraculously intact!
Transferring a drawing to stretched paper, for a commission portrait I'm starting today.
What studio is complete without a skull or two?
Compilation tapes, an essential artistic resource!
Compilation tapes, an essential artistic resource!
Flyer for a cute local, hippy tea-house I want to have an exhibition in, if they'll have me!
A pair of princes, adorning my plasticky stereo!
Ancient and somewhat wobbly easel!
Pleasingly eclectic reading materials, or shocking, slovenly disorder .... 's all in the eye of the beholder!
Some further afternoon listening ~ fabulous comp, kindly made me for me by my brother, his tapes ROOL!!
Some further afternoon listening ~ fabulous comp, kindly made me for me by my brother, his tapes ROOL!!
Some further afternoon listening ~ fabulous comp, kindly made me for me by my brother, his tapes ROOL!!
Track-list
Track-list
Starting to get some paint on
mmmm.... love a bit of green-gold and prussian blue, together!
... and, the artist, more or less perpetually perplexed, to one degree or another! ... but striving on regardless....
Good evening my dears, Well, tonight, I thought I'd show you something else from a few years ago. This is a bit of a follow up to the previous post on Ashputtel, as this piece also came out of my lifelong fascination with fairy tales.... and also with hair!! I love hair, it's textures and colours.... and I really love long, rather wild hair.... so, when I've made models like this, the hair has always been really important. Mostly I've used synthetic stuff, ( Rapunzel's is a weird mixture of clay, and synthetic hair) but occasionally, kind friends have donated their own hair for artwork! ~ which is amazing, and really adds an extra dimension to a piece ~ although some people find it a bit creepy, I love it! The books in these photos, belonged to my dad, and I took the photos, not very long after he died, in 2005. My dad was a librarian, and a great collector of books, and his love of books was something he passed on to me, and my brothers. The copy of Peter Pan And Wendy that you can see, is a first edition, and very rare with the original dust jacket, like this .... but it's much more important to me because I vividy remember him reading it to me, as a wee girl, and I always loved the illustrations, by Mabel Lucie Atwell.
Sweet greetings, fair friends! ~ and welcome, to my first proper blog entry. So, I thought I'd start with something from the vaults, which I've never shown in full before. This is my picture book submission for Ashputtel. It's the original Grimm brothers version of the Cinderella story. It's also my first big illustration project, and very much a cross-over piece from my previous "fine-art" work .... which sort of means that I didn't really know what I was doing, it was all new, and I tried a bunch of crazy experiments!! ~ I'd never go about it the same way now, and I think, in retrospect, that my approach was a bit mental! but interesting, nonetheless... I did four finished double page spreads (the colour pieces) and the rest of the book, as roughs....Anyway, I now present, for the first time, the whole story, page by page. Are you sitting comfortably? ... then I'll begin.... (if the text is too wee to read, click on individual images for really big versions. x)
