Top Artists’ Directory

Wow!  Look what I found this morning when I switched on my computer!

‘Featured Artist of the Week’  Pat O’Neill

Also Kim has chosen one of my personal favourites, ‘Cascades of Water’

If you want to read about some extraordinary artists do visit the Top Artists’ Directory -  it makes for fascinating reading!

Interested in seeing more encaustics?  I have paintings in a wide variety of subject matter.  Although, my favourite is water in all its forms.  Paintings to suit all budgets are also available in my two main shops on Etsy and Artfire.

What an honour!

Not only was yesterday a special day for me (my birthday and what a brilliant day that turned out to be!) but someone I recently came across on the internet by the name of Mel Avila Alarilla who lives in the Philippines has posted an amazing recount of my work! http://literatti-aliteraryblog.blogspot.com/ is the link if you would care to visit.

His critique made me blush uncontrollably!   Not a pretty sight but I was so honoured to have someone look at my work and enthuse in the way he did.  I guess more than that it was an even bigger honour to be caste amongst so many hugely talented artists.  Very humbling.

Thank you Mel!

 

One of my alternative selling venues

Yes, I know!  I am extolling the virtues of selling my goodies in my different selling venues/shops but if I don't, who will?  I must admit it is one of my least favourite things to do and is so time consuming!  I would much rather just play with my waxes and have someone else do the marketing and listing etc.  However, that will not happen so you are stuck with me doing the dirty work.  Someone has to!

Today, I listed quite a few ACEOs and paintings on my Artfire.com shop.  Have you seen them recently?  They certainly vary in subject matter but do suit all sorts of budgets and I do try to make my art affordable for all pockets.

This is an ACEO entitled 'Looking out of the Cave'

 

If you have ever visited UK you may have travelled to Somerset and seen the Cheddar Gorge, a natural formation where many like to walk, climb or visit Wookey Hole which are awesome caves.  In this ACEO I have tried to convey the magnificence of the rock formation that could be found.

Cheddar Gorge, UK

 

 

In complete contrast here is a painting created using the inspiration I have of underground passages, water and caves.

A Journey Below

 

 

 

Like what you see?  Then why not visit my shop on Artfire or my Etsy shop where there are more examples of my encaustic art.  Thanks for looking!

BEES!

Perhaps nothing on our list of disappearing Europe and America is so dire; plummeting so enormously; and so necessary to the survival of our food supply as the honey bee. 'Colony Collapse Disorder,' or CCD, has spread throughout the Europe and the US over the past few years, wiping out 50% to 90% of the colonies of many beekeepers -and along with it, their livelihood."

FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY, A GROUP OF ARTISANS ON ETSY ARE DONATING 5% PROCEEDS (of participating items) TO BEE RESEARCH. Look for the red bee logo in my shop, and see our team web site for more details www.beeswaxteam.com

Since I am proud to be a part of the Beeswax Team on Etsy I have offered some of my paintings to be considered in this sale.  All you have to do is check out my Etsy shop to find which items have the above bee sale logo!

To give you a head start I will let you cheat and help you by listing the three paintings that are part of this sale.

 

Pastel Pansies - original encaustic painting

 

A Tori - an original encaustic

 

 

 

Icy Waters - encaustic painting

 

 

So, do check out all the paintings which are listed on the Beeswax Team's web site for further wonderful examples of what can be done with beeswax! alternatively check out the shops on Etsy that show the logo as their avatar.

A landscape entitled The Expanse

An image I have had in my mind for a while emerged today.  I wanted to convey a feeling of expanse albeit across dunes, fields with a sky to match.  Hence The Expanse was born!

You could really be anywhere but just imagine the stillness allowing you the luxury to put your thoughts into some semblance of order.  How often in these busy days do we find ourselves swept along with a hurry to go nowhere.

You will note I have finished off the sides with a brown wax thus allowing the viewer to hang this painting without a frame.

This painting can be seen in more detail in my shop on Etsy.com.

EEny, meeny, miny,mo.....

Having just finished creating my latest encaustic painting I now have a difficult decision to make.  To which shop do I post it?  Do I list it in Artfire.com?  What about Artgallery.co.uk?  In the end I decided to stick with Etsy for the time being and list this encaustic in my Etsy shop, On A Whimsey.

For those of you who are feeling the cold today including me I think this painting will give a warm feeling.  Hope so!!

Once I had completed it I had to put my thinking cap on to make another important decision!  What title to place on it.  Then like a bolt of lightening I thought of that wonderful group called Simply Red and realised that would be my title for this encaustic!

So, ladies and gentlemen, may I present....... drum roll please.....

Simply Red

Painted on box canvas this painting needs no frame since the sides have also been painted.  Measuring roughly 11.5" square and 1" deep it would not look out of place in the home or office.

 

Here are a couple of pictures showing the side angle to demonstrate how the sides have continued with the main theme and colour.

Another new venture!

Another new venture... well, it is the new year and what better time to start out on another new one?

This time I was tipped the wink about an American site which is now also in UK called Zazzle.  Interesting name so I checked it out!

On this site you can upload your photographs of your paintings etc and they do all the work after which you take a percentage which you decide upon.  So, you can upload pictures that would be suitable to transposing to T shirts, aprons, mouse mats, mugs and the list goes on and on.  Even magnets, key rings and then they do greeting cards etc.

How could I resist?  Now you can see some of my paintings and photographs.  Some you will recognise, others may be new to you.  My Red Flower looks good on a T shirt, a mug or anything else you can imagine whereas some other images look good on a mouse mat.

This one was entitled 'Looking through the Coral'.  It was an ACEO, still is actually but I thought it could be fun as a mouse mat!

 

 

Here we have some of my fantasy mystery castles.  Sometimes when you have to do those boring old spreadsheets it can be rather nice to drift away into fantasy land whilst gazing at your mouse mat.

 

For a more restful scene I loaded this picture I took during the autumn whilst on a wander around Sheffield Park, a National Trust park, where we often visit.  Bet it doesn't look like this at the moment with temperatures  at 4 or 5 degrees below freezing!

If you are interested in seeing more why not pay a visit to http://zazzle.co.uk/onawhimsey where you will see quite a selection!

The Muse .... She has returned!

My long suffering friend has returned! My Muse. Oh, I have been truly lost without her and have just drifted along with no real ideas or aim regarding my encaustics. This is really unusual for me but now I hope to be all geared up again.

At least with all those Christmas preparations over and done with I now have more time to devote to creating again. What really helped was that I was given a hot air gun with variable heat settings as a Christmas present. This would make hot air work so much more easy to do rather than fight with my hair dryer all the time when the hot air and wax had lives of their own!

Anyway, my first creation for quite some time has now been completed and I have listed it on http://onawhimsey.artfire.com

It is entitled The Eyes Have It. I love flowers and I guess I often look right into their centres and imagine I can see into their souls through their eyes. Using several layers of colours I moved the hot air gun over the box canvas. To add detail I used another small iron attached to the hot stylus to create the flower aspect. The final detail of the eyes was added with the hot stylus. The grasses around the painting which were also taken around the sides were added with my encaustic iron. So, there you have it. A touch of fantasy with some thought thrown in for good measure!

Feeling in a tropical mood

I should have created a spot where I could hang my hammock; swing gently in the tropical breeze without falling out as I reach over for the pina colada!

A quiet cove somewhere in the tropics. It is warm but the palm tree provides some shade whilst I stand looking across at signs of civilisation. Just the gentle lapping of the water on the rocks below with the odd bird sounds disturb the sultry air.

This encaustic painting is just under 6" x 4" (15 cms x 10 cms).
It would look great in a simple frame or mounted on some board.

Palm Tree Cove - encaustic is for sale in my Etsy shop where you will see more pictures of this painting.

More sites I sell on!

Always looking for different Internet sites on which to list my paintings.  After all, the more exposure the better it is!

One site I sell on (you may have noticed the logo button at the side of this blog) is called Artfire.com.  Here you can list for free or you can become a verified seller and pay $7 per month for life for however many listings you want.  Once they have 5000 sellers signed up the fee will go up to $20 per month.  You also get a chance to show loads of pictures plus lots of other incentives which are well worth looking at.  It is easy to copy and paste from Etsy, in fact it is encouraged!!  The whole listing process takes place on one page thus making it a lot more user friendly.

The other site I have started to use is specifically for UK based artists but the buyer can come from all over the world!  This site is called Artgallery.co.uk  and offers original art from UK artists.  The exciting layout of this site is that you can 'test drive' your painting to see what it will look like.  Obviously, it works better if you have a large painting but this service is one of the first I have come across.  I must admit I have played with Photoshop to achieve a similar effect but here it does look that much more professional.

The decision is always hard to make.  Do you spread yourself around thinly or concentrate on one venue?  Only time will tell and, of course, a sale or two!!!