Turkish Cats

I've recently got back from a 12 day holiday touring round Turkey. I had an amazing time and ended up with over 1250 photos! I can't wait to start working on my photos and making some really atmospheric prints soon but while I was sorting through my photos I discovered I'd taken a huge amount of cat photos most of them asleep on some ancient monument!

Ephesus Cat

ACEO Snoozy Cat

 I couldn't resist painting a few ACEOs of these cats. ACEOs are very collectable tiny artworks - Art Cards Editions or Originals and are 2.5 x 3.5" in size. They are a great size for painting all the photos that I normally would never use in my larger artwork but just need to be painted somewhere!

ACEO Serene Cat

ACEO Cat Sleep

ACEO Listening Cat

ACEO Cat Doze

Wherever I go I usually pick up a cat or two, heres me making friends at Troy!

 

Also just had to paint the nesting storks that were nesting all the over the columns!

ACEO Nesting Stork

Clare xx

Purple Animals!

I'm getting obsessed again! There seems to be purple animals everywhere I look!

It all started with a purple hippo collagraph print that I printed to sell in the Little Hippo Shop last year. I love purple and when it came time for me to proof print the hippo the only colour that came to mind was purple!

Purple Hippo

Next came an elephant, I did originally print him in black but he just didn't look right so he had to be purple too!

Purple Elephant

Then I had a trip to the zoo with my friend and we spent a lot of time at the penguin enclosure so a purple penguin it had to be!

Purple Penguin

Another trip to the zoo and a purple pig was the result!

Purple Pig

A purple tiger and rhino soon followed.

Purple Tiger

Purple Rhino

 Then I just had to print a purple cat, it took a lot of bribery to get this pose!

Purple Cat

Well it seems I'm not the only one that likes purple animals as I've sold out of the purple hippo print not long after Christmas and the others are proving very popular too. Most of them seem to have gone to Canada, I'm not sure what this says! 

I've even done a couple of animals in pink too just because I needed to see a pink elephant!

I've just been working on a brand new big eyed purple cat design and here he is printed on a bag on display at the new We LoVe crafts shop in Wolverhampton.

I really must stock up on some more purple ink for my next series of purple animal prints!

Clare xx

Elephants!

 
 I've just been looking round my studio (or spare room as its normally known!) and realised I'm getting a bit obsessed with elephants at the moment!

This is just a few of the many elephants taking over the bed!

Elephant

 It probably started with this acrylic painting from last year, I had such fun painting all the textures and colours and it sold in an open exhibition.The cards I have produced featuring him have been very popular!

After a recent visit to the local zoo to get more elephant photos - I then painted a few watercolour ACEOs featuring elephants.

Elephant ACEOs

 This led to a few larger watercolours!

Elephant Watercolours

 And then I started on the prints!
I love making the elephant collagraph prints as it is the perfect medium for getting all those lovely wrinkles and textured skin. I couldn't resist doing a purple elephant too after almost selling out of my purple hippo collagraph prints!

Purple Elephant

Elephant Stroll

I've also been experimenting with my new Gocco printer so of course I had to try an elephant print!

Elephant Stand

 This is my latest large acrylic painting, only just finished and being entered into a local competition.

I've still got lots more photos to work from and I don't think my elephant obsession is quite finished yet so I may need a bigger room to house all my elephants!

Clare xx

How to print an elephant!

I've become a bit obsessed with producing elephant themed artwork at the moment. I've been doing lots of paintings but I thought the perfect medium for an elephant is a collagraph print as it would be great for achieving the textures and lines of an elephants skin.

I'm always getting asked how I produce my prints so I thought I would photograph each step as I went along (and I'm amazed I didn't get my camera covered in ink!)

Animal Art

I'm getting slightly obsessed with painting animals at the moment!

Sadly we lost my gran a few months ago and while going through all the many letters, photos etc we found lots of the drawings I had given her over the years, many in little frames where she had displayed them throughout her bungalow. Every one of them was of an animal so I think my obsession must have started at a very early age!

Most of my early drawings and paintings have disappeared so it is nice to have a few to look back on. Luckily even then I signed and dated everything so I now have a unique record of my work.

This little horse I drew when I was aged 12.

Another horse from when I was 12.

Little doggie from when I was 13.

My dog Kasia from when I was 18 (she did have a lump on the side of her face, its not just a wonky drawing!)

 I'm still painting dogs and horses, although cats do feature quite heavily now! 

 

"Nervous Kitten"

 

"Black and White Cat Sit"

 

"Pony Pose"

And my painting style is a bit more dramatic!

"Sleepy"

 

"Ginger Cat"

"Elephant Calm"

 But I don't think my style has changed too much over the years and I'm still obsessing over animals!

Clare xx

Cats

My boyfriend calls me the mad cat woman!

Nearly a year ago my 20 year old cat died and I was completely devastated. I'd had her from the age of 3 so was lost without her. Over time, knowing the coast was now clear, all the neighbourhood cats started creeping into the garden and having some cat food left I didn't want to waste it so started feeding them (and encouraging them in!)

Zack

My favourite is Zack, he is a huge black and white cat that I have seen around the street for years but only recently discovered his history. He belongs to the fencing yard a few doors down and was found as a tiny kitten in a bag of sand that was delivered there and they have kept him ever since! He looks a big bruiser but is a little softy although he loves swiping at any hands left dangling! He has a rip in his ear and only one canine tooth left but loves being tickled under his chin!

Just don't tickle his tummy or you will have no hands left!

He goes from house to house looking cute and asking for food when the yard isn't open and has a regular appointment with the house opposite for his Sunday lunch leftovers!  

He used to love sitting on our bin in the sun and flirting with my cat through the window but she hated him and would hiss and then hide under the bed! He now comes in and has lots of food and fuss and can often be found on the sofa having his Sunday afternoon snooze! I love painting animals so thought I would do a watercolour of him and it was so popular that I just can't stop! I now have so many paintings of him (you can see where the mad part comes in!) and have now started printing him everywhere! He even has his own range of lavender scented bags but don't tell him as it would ruin his street cred!

His favourite toy a piece of string!

Pet Portraits

My Commission!

I love painting animals and have painted pet portraits for friends and family and always really enjoyed it but last week I had my first proper commission from the general public!! 

It was for a very cute border terrier for a birthday present. I had a decent photo to work from so I thought no problem this will be fun. I printed off the photo to start work and then found myelf getting distracted by something else. I sat down to start again and then something else distracted me! This went on for a while until I realised I was actually scared of starting the painting and kept putting it off! I think because it was a proper commission and a present at that it was scaring me from even putting brush to paper and its always daunting seeing that white piece of paper looking back at you! Normally I will just dive in there and see what happens and if it all goes wrong well it doesn't really matter. But this one had to look like the dog and I had to please someone other than myself!

 

Luckily once I started painting it all went well and I really enjoyed painting her and hopefully next time won't seem quite so scary and I'm actually looking forward to seeing what my next commission will be! I've put on my advert for the pet portraits any animal accepted so I'm half expecting a spider or lizard one day which could be quite interesting!

Clare xx