The little bits and pieces post
I’m now fully embracing the start of the festive season, so while I busy myself away with snowflakes, christmas trees and holly, here are some unrelated bits and pieces that have flowed from my paintbrush.
I decided I wanted to update my attempted self-portrait for my about page and Facebook, but every attempt looked the same… and none of them looked like me!Before you worry I’ve gone a little bit crazy, this obviously isn’t a self-portrait, in fact, in my head, she’s called Rosie, I think it suits her. But I did want to try drawing in a slightly different style, and this was my first attempt at a more caricaturised approach and it really helped me to be more adventurous and create the new self-portrait you can now see on those pages! (Confession - I’ve given self-portrait me much more fabulous hair than real-life me)
Admittedly, I painted this a few years ago, and it’s one I was planning on redoing before sharing, but after the recent events in Paris I wanted to share it to show my support.Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have been an isolated incident, with further threats since and the bomb attacks the day earlier in Beirut, but in the face of this, it’s great to see so much unity shown across social media by so many.
Social media sometimes seems flooded with feel good sayings and quotes, and amongst this sea of inspirational buzz words this is the one that’s really stuck out for me.I meant for it to be the start of a collection of nursery illustrations, but once it was finished, I couldn’t quite bring myself to give it away! My mum has always told me you can be anything you want to be, so it felt destined to stay with me as a little reminder.
This was meant to be a quick sketch based on a photo of my Gran, but I couldn’t help but add some colour to bring it to life. However, my Gran is far more fashionable than I have ever been, so I doubt that the dress and jacket were actually a rosy pink!There are endless, beautiful photos of my Gran in her late teens/early twenties in glamourous poses with her hair perfectly styled, a beautiful smile on her face and gorgeous fifties clothing. My Grandad was an avid photographer and it’s obvious my Gran loved having her photo taken, so I feel incredibly lucky to have so many photos of her.
This was inspired by the Alphonse Mucha art nouveau paintings, but as I started painting, it seemed to take on a life of it’s own, so it’s only really the halo that shows the original inspiration.Despite not at all matching my expectations, the more I look at it, I think this might actually be one of my favourite paintings! I hope you like her too.