Day Off

I had such a great week last week, I managed to sell quite a lot of my own art work, five pieces to be exact as well as a lot of my handmade brooches, both textile and painted. It feels so good when that happens. When other people who aren't family and friends look at your work and like it as much as you do, enough to pay money for it, it feels amazing. What's more overwhelming are the comments i get from people saying how beautiful and unusual my art is, i love being able to tell my customers, when they ask, about how it's created and what materials are used etc, this is what is so nice about having my own shop/gallery and what makes all the obstacles that we had to work around to get it worthwhile.

This is currently on my work table, with a few other bits and pieces. Last year i did a series of mixed media collage paintings called "Happy Thoughts Angels" about 12 pieces on recycled cat food boxes. The "Happy Thoughts" theme came from a damaged vintage book i found of the same name. It contained all sorts of happy thoughts quotes and i used them in the collages. I sold a few of these before the shop opened, as i put them in the window and people knocked the door and asked if they could buy them, I have a few left so i've decided to collage them onto the wood panels to hang in the shop. This one (below) i'm re-creating from scratch onto a wood panel, it won't be exactly the same, but it's already sold.

(This is the original one placed onto the wood panel - not finished yet)

I created this for my new blog banner (I may even do a new blog) i've had the old banner for a while and I need change in my life every so often...

"There seems to be some sort of a pretty wilderness out there...."
Detail...

Detail...

Now... I have to show you this it's really exciting. I did a Bird Swap arranged by Lisa on http://www.noodlebubble.blogspot.com/ . My swap partner was Emily Burt http://www.handmadebyemily.blogspot.com/ in Brighton and i got this gorgeous owl, it's so beautiful i love it, thank you so much Emily and also thanks to Lisa for arranging it all, it was good fun.

www.folksy.com/shops/handmadebyemilyshop

"A wise old owl sat on an oak;

The more he saw the less he spoke;

The less he spoke the more he heard;

Why aren't we like that wise old bird?"

One of the things I have to get used to about living in a rural area is that it's difficult to find art suppliers of any consequence. I know i can buy on the internet but when it comes to brushes i have to touch and feel them before i know what will work for me. I have some old favourites but ended up using some of them for painting the intricate parts of furniture for the shop fittings (i.e. around glass on the cabinets) and now i can't find them. I got quite depressed at not having decent tools to work with and i ended up getting some cheap ones form a DIY store to try and make do, but they were impossible to work with, so i ended up going to wrexham yesterday (we were going anyway for something else) in search of an art store, not an easy task, we couldn't find one, and in desperation i ended up in Llangollen where i found a very small shop with a limited range of supplies, but at least i managed to get a decent selection of brushes. They were resonably priced and now i can start painting again.....yaaaaaay!!!!!!

nice...nice...nice...

.....so i prepared some of my smaller wood panels as these have already sold really well.

OK, i'm off to my work room now for a bit of creative therapy and then a nice hot relaxing bath.