ACEO Tiny Paintings!

I have been painting teeny tiny paintings called ACEO's for quite a few years now. ACEO stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. Basically a tiny painting/drawing/print/etc which must be 3.5 x 2.5 inches, about the size of a playing card, and as I have discovered people love collecting them!

A 50p piece to show the scale!

I hadn't painted any new ones for quite a while but after my recent visit to the local zoo, and taking a few hundred photos whilst there, I decided to paint a few more. Two of these tigers have sold already!

I find them a very good way of seeing if a larger painting will work as if an image really stands out when tiny it should work on a larger scale. For example the tiny painting of a tiger that I recently did I liked so much I made it into a big acrylic painting.

I think it has also made me paint a lot freer as its very difficult to get a lot of detail onto a tiny piece of paper and I feel it has really improved my watercolour painting. Also because I'm quite an impatient painter and hate waiting for paint to dry, I find that when I'm doing a large watercolour painting I try and work on about 10 ACEO's at the same time. By the time I have put a layer of paint on every painting the first one will have dried and I can start all over again!

So far I have sold 401 of these mini paintings with tigers and cats proving the most popular and the majority going to the USA! 

A few examples of my tiger ACEO's, I'm rapidly running out of titles for these!

Most of my ACEO's I sell on Ebay or Etsy and its a really good feeling when people come back for more and have a little collection of my mini artworks!

Clare xx 

Exhibition Time

This week I attended the private view of the Prize Exhibition at the RBSA Gallery in Birmingham where I have had a print selected to be exhibited! There was lots of networking with other artists and it was great to see lots of familiar faces from my local art society Dudley Society of Artists who had got their artwork accepted too! The exhibition is at the RBSA (Royal Birmingham Society of Artists), 4 Brook Street, Birmingham, UK until the 13th June so plenty of time to go and have a look at the very high standard of work there.

This is my print that was accepted for the exhibition - Culture Vulture a limited edition collagraph print.

Culture Vulture Collagraph Print

It all started from when I visited Warwick Castle just after Christmas last year. We spotted the birds of prey on show there and I just loved the look of the vulture and must have got about 20 photos of it!

I decided to do a quick watercolour painting of him when I got home!

Vulture Watercolour

When it came to making a new collagraph printing plate I couldn't resist using my vulture images and he looked like he was just made to wear a top hat and I couldn't resist adding a bow tie to his ruffled feathers on his neck to make him look very cultured! 

I don't like using pure black ink when printing as it can come out a little dull so I usually mix another colour in with the black. When I came to print him he was supposed to be black with a touch of purple mixed in to get a hint of purple but I added too much purple to the black by mistake but in the end I actually really like him in this regal purple colour! 

Here he is hot off my printing press!

Mounted and framed and ready to be taken to the art gallery!

Me standing very proud next to my print!

I will be going back to the gallery next week with my mum and dad to take them to see the exhibition and to also have a proper look at the artwork as there was so much to look at, can't wait to see it again!

Clare xx

Painting the Colosseum!

Colosseum Purple Watercolour Painting

We went to Rome a few years ago and ever since then I have been obsessed with painting the Colosseum. I still remember it taking my breath away when we came out from the station and saw it looming right in front of me! I love painting arches, windows, ruins and strong shadows so this was perfect for me!

I've painted it quite a few times in watercolour but I've been experimenting a bit with oil painting recently so thought I'd try to paint it in oils! Heres a few photos of behind the scenes of my painting (some of the photos were taken at night so not the best quality):

The very first sketch onto the canvas with a rough wash of acrylic paint just to get an idea of the structure.

First layer of oil paint to establish some tones and colours. I always paint everything at the same time and lots of layers.

 Lots more tones and a funny greeny colour has appeared!

Brightened up the Italian sky and added a few purple dark tones.

Starting to come together. I can't resist the purple and blues in the shadows!

Pretty much finished, I just like to live with a painting for a while to see if I can spot anything thats not quite right!

Colossuem Oil Painting

The finished oil painting! 

I'm off to Sicily soon so can't wait to be inspired by lots more Italian architecture!

Clare xx

New Photos!

"Hormakhet" Collagraph Print

I've been doing a bit of experimenting with updating some of my artwork selling photos. Normally I take the photos outside with lots of good natural light so I get the best colour matches to the artwork but this does have its downsides! Such as trying to find a neutral background in the garden that isn't going to detract from the artwork and look too busy, I normally prop them on our brick barbecue as that has a neutral wall behind it. The weather can be fun too, you can almost have the perfect shot and then the wind blows your artwork over! Also I have the added problem of a very nosey cat who likes to come and see everything that I am doing! 

Morpheus the cat supervising a photoshoot!

I decided last week to try something a bit different and to make the most of the bright Winter sun and try a few photos inside. I choose to take them on our marble fireplace as its cream with a neutral wall behind and the window is to the side to give lots of natural light.

I thought I'd start with some of my Egypt collagraph prints and whenever we go anywhere on holiday we always bring back little models/figures so I've got lots of props to go into the photos! I thought the Egypt prints looked great with the tiny little pyramids and Sphinx figure that we got from when we visited the pyramids a few years ago.

"Sphinx Head" Collagraph Print

I tried photographing my Stonehenge collagraph prints with a little model of Stonehenge itself but the model was very hard to make out and made the photo look a little fussy. I then remembered all my pebbles that I have collected from various beaches which I thought they would go really well with Stonehenge (it did cross my mind to make a mini Stonehenge with the pebbles but I thought that might be going a bit too far!)

"Stonehenge" Collagraph Print

I then got thinking about some of my Steampunk inspired artworks and thought why not just take a photo of the artwork with the actual hat and goggles that are in the artwork itself! This is my partners top hat and goggles which look great on him, the top hat is sadly too big for me else I would borrow it occasionally!

"Steampunk Penguin" Collagraph Print

Heres a watercolour painting of Morpheus the cat in my purple bowler hat and goggles and the very hat and goggles in the photo!

"Happy Cat" Watercolour Painting

I'm really pleased with how these have come out, now to get creative on all my other artwork photographs!

Clare xx

Witley Court - Exhibition May 2014

Over the years I must have visited Witley Court in Worcestershire almost 20 times! Witley Court is a spectacular mansion house and gardens which had a disastrous fire in 1937 leaving the site abandoned to become a ruin. 

I visited for the first time on a university day trip probably around 1994. This was well before the new visitor centre and the site had just closed for the day as we got there so of course we climbed the fence and had a wander like students do! We came back properly a few weeks later and had a great day there sketching and exploring. 

 The ruined mansion itself has inspired my artwork ever since and I still love wandering the site with its archways, ornate windows, balconies and grand sweeping staircases!

Over the years I have built up a large body of artwork based on the site and really wanted to bring it all together into an exhibition. I decided to talk to Gill from the Garden Tearooms which is a tradition English Tearoom right next to the site. She offered me the use of the tearooms for May to exhibit my work and I got framing!

I put the exhibition up yesterday and am really pleased with how it looks all my artwork together so close to Witley Court itself!

East Wing Collagraph Print

Ruined Forecourt Collagraph Print

One of my favourite watercolours of the Orangery steps, it wasn't until I framed this one I realised I had painted it in 2002!

The exhibition is on until the end of May so plently of time to have a look and there is a lovely selection of homemade cakes to treat yourself to while there!

Clare xx