Half Time (.....of the mid year)

My name is Sandi and it has been 2 months since I have blogged!

On the flip side I have a (challenging) new job which I am learning to love and am even finding some time for persuing my art. Life is good! 

I'm enjoying the garden on weekends (having planted some winter vegies and annuals). I'm loving sitting by the fire in the evening and am teaching myself to relax! It really is ok to just chill sometimes!

I've dug out my sketchbooks and am enjoying the variety and numerous ideas I've sketched and planned over the years! Resurrecting some projects, the multitude of ideas are leading me down new paths. I will never get them all made or even started..... but it's wonderful to be looking forward.

 Older sketchbook ideas....

Latest sketchbook ideas.... getting excited about starting this one! Royal II

An old idea revisited...... in a much smaller scale!

The original.....

Off to start this one................. seriously! Tonight.

Sold!

I sold another of my paintings at work today! Yay! That will help pay for some of the framing I've recently had done!

This one is acrylic on stretched canvas and was painted a couple of years ago.

' Tree of Life - Fragment'

Sorry about the poor resolution photo. I lost the better ones when the computer had a glitch a year or so ago. Note to self - take some more photos of older works!

Hope you all have a fabulous and creative weekend.....

Something Old..... Something New!

I bought a pomegranate whilst doing groceries the other day... Not to eat (well not yet anyway!) but to paint! We had a pomegranate tree at home when I was growing up and I'm afraid I haven't even seen a fruit for years and years! These were imported from the US and I just knew one had to come home with me as inspitation! They have such a gorgeous voluptuous shape and beautiful colour  topped with a quirky crown!

Pomegranate on Saucer

 WIP

Collage

Still quite a lot to be done on this; highlights, shadows and I'm not so sure about the window frame colour.

Here's something else new, pretty faces painted onto onion skin dyed silk.

Pretty Faces

Painted Silk

WIP

Now for the something old! Here is this mosaic style stitching I was working on a few months ago. The stitching is finished but I haven't done anything with it yet!

'Mosaic Rose'

Rayon Thread on Inkjet Transfer on Cotton

This little cross-stitch was completed about 3 years ago. I designed it from a pastel painting I had done (with the aid of some Cross Stitch software)

'Posy for Klimt'

Cross Stitch on Linen

This Tree of Life is my own design too; from an acrylic painting. It's also about 3 or 4 years old.

'Tree of Life'

Needlepoint on Canvas

And the shape of the day is... SQUARE! All these pieces are square format; which is not usual for me as I'm a circle fiend! (Except for the last photo which is a bit off skew as it hasn't been blocked yet!)

Looking back, I have also noted that generally I am using more earthy colours than I have ever before... My work is becoming more muted, rusty, earthy... I think I like that.

I love colour and I have always used quite saturated colour; lots of colour contrast and solid colour with black and or off white. (This is true of my home too... ) Maybe it's an age thing?! Or maybe it's just a realisation that maximum volume loud colour isn't the only way to get noticed! Or maybe I just don't care about being noticed at all!

My alpacas are shorn and I have another couple of bags of beautiful wool to play around with! Really must get my act together and hunt down some carding combs! Think of all the fun I'm going to have! The girls really aren't happy with me and seem to be quite indignant about the whole process- and they do look rather hilarous without their thick coats!