« June 2009 | Main | August 2009 »
.
.
.
Valley of the Bears
Anja and the bear. I really like his love heart nose.
I continued to struggle with her lower half, so the painting grew upwards instead of down. A sort of coming of age thing, I think...
Digital painting with photo texture.
.
.
.
Detail
.
Detail above with warmer tones.
I am utilizing the (digital) paint and brushes rather more freely, a little less controlled than usual...so please forgive the flaws. A slightly new way of working for me.
.
xxx
.
The Midnight Folk (above)
.
Digital painting with photo texture.
The transparent dome began life as a white umbrella which irritated me. Through playing around with the transparency (and erasing some of the painted parts) I happened upon this nifty little fairy dome, underneath which our curious little party can conduct their midnight affairs in absolute peace - not to mention protection from the elements.
.
The Midnight Folk detail
.
.
.
.
Possibly inspired a little by Goya.....if he had met and collaborated with George Macdonald, perhaps, and possessed a weakness for ridiculously cute little bunnies that look like they have lost their mama. Ok, more likely inspired by the Victorian fairy painters, again, as is the very point of this new series in itself. The little dog was most definitely inspired by Goya, OK!:)
Once more, I am experiencing saturation issues here at Typepad. Why oh why oh why? The images dispay correctly at Flickr and my online portfolio, so if the colours are somewhat too vivid for you in the detail picture, please do let me know, for I had to boost the saturation to render the image even remotely acceptable (to myself) right here.
.
Carmilla
.
.
.
.
Oh did I struggle with this. And never once could I work out what the point of it all was, for she is something of a far cry from my usual, childlike theme. A more mature face, and interests, here. I do love the bugs though! There are actually a couple of them crawling on the transparent dome tent in the image above, but I am not so sure whether they are visible at this size and resolution.
I ought to dedicate this portrait to Maren (Marinkel), for it was she who planted Carmilla by Le Fanu into my mind, which very much likely inspired it.
.
♥
.
.
.
.
Little vintage (or antique) pup, possibly from the 1930's, now living on the mantle.
.
.
.
.
Long overdue for framing, my Amy Earles collection finally makes its debut!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Summertime, indoors...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Secret Moon cropped and framed (actual size 10x8 shown at 6x8 here)
Please click the images to view large.
.
.
.
.
.
.
♥
.
.
.
A brand new blog : Milk Tooth
.
For those of you who may still recall the Wonder Cabinet, this shall serve as its replacement; a collection of visual wonders, oddities and delights taken from my travels around the web. There are three main categories integral to Milk Tooth: The Weird, The Wonderful, and The Downright Strange. Do pop on over and take a look if you have the time! I shall be making quite regular posts, and have already about a week's backlog freshly published.
.
♥
.
.
.
.
.
Secret Moon (above)
. .
Girls and the moon. Lunar secrets, private worlds. They share imagination, nature's rhythm flows through them, they are eternally aware. When they grow they will not lose this. Instead it will grow with them. They are in cahoots with the twilight, the language of birds. Also on the precipice of womanhood. The red cap isn't a hinderance, instead it represents the onset of new, unfamiliar passions.
I was hugely influenced by a Daphne Du Maurier short story, The Pool. I loved the darkly poetic nature of this particular story, which illustrates the symbolic transition of a young girl towards physical (and emotional) maturity.....such beautifully haunting imagery. I suppose I was trying to capture something quite like that. Something mysterious, unsettling, magical.
.
.
Midnight Croquet
.
..
Adventuring alone through the forest of dreams...
.
I am experiencing problems viewing these image files here at my blog. They appear extremely blurred no matter what size I choose to upload them, which is not only puzzling but madly frustrating! Perhaps clicking them to view large may help? Alternatively, please try viewing them at my online gallery.
They are quite acceptable at Flickr, although the flesh tones appear somewhat washed out.....
If they are truly dreadful, please let me know and I shall try to figure something out.
xxx
.
New work for the Fairytales Gallery:
.
.
The Fairy Circle
.
.
.
.
Fairy Circle Imagined Bookplate
.
.
.
.
Fairy Circle (detail 2)
.
.
.
.
Inspired by Victorian fairy painting. Also quite strongly influenced by the books of Katharine Briggs, the Grimm's tales and English folklore. Almost entirely digitally painted, excepting the tiny skeletons and the lace pattern on the frocks.
I am drawn to the darker, more frightening side of fairy lore, although a subtle flight of fancy cannot hurt on occasion....Speaking of which, one of my most cherished, most favourite collections of fairytales belong to a book entitled Granny's Wonderful Chair, which I located by chance whilst browsing through an antique shop many years ago. It is still possible to purchase this darling little book, thankfully - my own copy is very old and some of the pages are beginning to come loose. The Katharine Briggs books are more academic, concerning the traditions of fairies in literature, art and folklore.
.
.
.
.
Visually, I adore the rich, detailed beauty of victorian fairy painting, which obsesses me in a similar way to Pre-Raphaelite painting: the lush, natural scenery, detailed flora and fauna, and the slightly distant, ethereal characters....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
And then there's the weird and wonderful. The phantasmagorical. The terrifying. This, alongside the surreal, is perhaps where I am most at home.
.
.
.
(Above, Gustave Dore)
.
.
At present, I am attempting to fight off a cold. Maybe it will turn into flu, but I don't want to think about that. I have enjoyed lying around reading most of all, these past few days, browsing the works mentioned above, and playing around with dreamy-style photographs taken around my home:
.
.
Lars and Me
.
.
.
.
He didn't creep upstairs after midnight to terrorize me after all! Just imagine, the creak and clack of his wooden limbs as he pulls himself upwards, stair by stair.....made all the more alarming when you consider his lack of elbow and knee joints. I think that he looks Swiss, for some reason, although my friend here insists that he resembles a French postman.
.
.
Sage
.
.
.
.
A gift from a friend.
.
.
Lavender
.
.
.
.
Garden dreams.
.
.
BrighterDay
.
.
.
.
Bracelets by Accessorize, ring by BrighterDay.
.
.
To complete the mood, I am thoroughly enjoying this beautiful album by The Joker's Daughter:
.
.
.
.
Also worth checking out, the accompanying video Worms Head:
.
.
.
.
Oh, and................
.
.
.
.
I don't suppose I will manage to maintain it very well (if at all), but there, I made the effort!
.
.
Be Seeing You.....soon! xxx
.
.
I began something truly strange. Inspired mostly by my recent interest in museums, natural history and classification imagery.
Hair.
Thinking of hair in abstract. The texture, colour, light. So I decided to create my very own little tribute to hair, by way of a series of polaroid style layouts, each of them titled in their own, mysterious way (you may have to click on them to view large if you wish to read the titles).
.
.
Hair 1
.
.
.
.
Hair 2
.
.
.
.
Hair 3
.
.
.
Many of these samples contain my own hair. My hair is pretty versatile to say the least, curling naturally, or falling in waves, it can also be straightened very easily without too much effort. In this sense, as much as it may frustrate me on a daily basis, my hair can lend itself quite niftily to art.
Some of the samples are taken from photographs of family and friends. The titles are inspired by a combination of association with the time and place that the image was taken, and a little bit of good old fashioned make-believe. This is how it goes.
.
.
.
.
.
.
No new illustrative works just yet. This past week has been a chaos of things to do, including some long overdue catching up with old friends. A very pleasant week, although there hasn't been a great deal of time left over for me to lock myself away with my coveted specters and dreams. I am just about suffering withdrawal, so expect something to materialize quite soon:)
.
I would also love to share some recent work by a close friend of mine, who shall soon be opening her own online store. She very kindly gifted me the surreal rabbit pyjama case, and a beautiful print of a sketch in progress, Red Riding Hood:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
As for Master Lars......I located this startlingly curious object this very afternoon, nestled amongst less terrifying ornaments on the shelf of a local charity shop..
.
.
I'm really not so sure about Master Lars. He kind of scares people. It's the mouth, I suppose, which opens and closes quite greedily via a wooden lever in his back....snap snap snap! I would dearly love to know who made him, and how old he is, but I doubt that I ever shall. If anyone can shed some light upon this creepy little article I would be most grateful......(I have since been told that he may very well be a 'nutcracker'. Must google this right now!)
.
.
.
More soon!
xxx
.