Gouache, sketch and collage

A week or so ago I showed the first in a series of three paintings I have been working on, here is the second painting, I'm pretty sure its finished. Again this painting is to do with balance in the body and feelings about this balance being disrupted- think the reproductive system. I'm not going to describe every bit of the painting and what things mean, its my outlet for expressing myself without needing to do that. This is painted in gouache with collage so its perhaps not as expressive as if I had worked with oil, maybe more of an illustration.


The third painting in the set is not going well, it could take some time to finish, I just do a little and put it away (have done for all of them). I scribbled over part of it in pen too so now I have this to sort out.

I bought a new sketch book yesterday and think I'll do a few sketches here to lead up to creating a new painting/paintings.


Ive been really enjoying painting and drawing lately, Ive not been using the sewing machine much at all. I do jump about a fair bit. I think my folksy shop has been looking a bit jumbled lately as it reflects what I'm working on. Some people are so clear in their 'brand' and seem to know exactly where they are going- I hope I'll get there, but it might take some time. I'm trying not to think too much about selling and more about what I'm enjoying at the minute. I've started to send a couple of images of artwork to a zine or two so we'll see how that goes. I'm happy to be busy creating.

One of the three...and three more

I thought I would share the first painting from a set of three I started working on a couple of years ago (I know, very slow- been getting them out, doing a little, putting them away and on it goes). This one is complete and I think the second one is 99% done- number three still has a way to go.

I've never kept a diary but I think painting is a sort of outlet for emotions for me. The three paintings in this collection are all to do with balance in the body and what can happen when that balance is upset. This is painted in gouache with collage and pencil.



Ive been doing quite a bit of drawing the last couple of nights and thought you might like to see a couple of the sketches Ive done. They are based around the cuddle cats and zebra pants owls I like to make. I drew Mr Zebra Pants minus his pants first (ooh er) and had him staring inquisitively at a little passing bird. I quite liked the tree I drew beside him which led on to the second drawing.


This time I thought I would draw a few more trees and I put them round a few houses in the woods. These drawings are just pencil on card. I think the next step might be do a few more, say 20, (Ive done about 10 so far) and then start to introduce colour- maybe collage with paper and fabric, some stitched lines and gouache and ink.

The third drawing shows a cat quite like my cuddle cats in the face but I decided to give him legs this time and make him look less like a cuddle and more like a cat. I'll post some more sketches soon and show you how they progress into colour.

Blonde, brunette and redhead

I'm having a bit of a frustrating time working on this blog at the moment. You will see it changing about lots while I try and sort out a new header and get a better page layout. I cant decide between a header which is busy or fairly plain? Also If anyone knows how to put pictures on please let me know-I want to create a gallery down the side and it wont accept any urls I paste, grr!

Anyhow, back to the title, I thought I would show a pic of the designs I have been working on for some new cushions. Ive done three variations each with a slightly different theme and hair colour. I think they would look cute in a little girls bedroom. They have been painted out in gouache and the final design will be done in machine embroidery (hopefully).


I am also working on more cuddle cushions at the moment and I have just made my first cat. I have a few more ready to sew, so when I have them made I will post the pics on here.