Art&Ghosts Blog

Celene

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Celene  

(please check the Flickr version, which appears a bit truer to me)

My very first attempt at a darker skin tone, so please be gentle with me!^^

I have been working on this image for so long that I can hardly see the wood for the trees anymore. Attention to certain details may have distracted me from the overall image, so I have lots of little fears about whether this has worked out well enough.

She is a digital painting with collaged ribbons and bows, including photo texture layers of crackle and wood. I sampled the skin colours/tones form a photo, then had to blend big blobs of digital paint around in the hope of attaining some sort of visual coherence. Although this is how I often create digital portraits, the new tones are still somewhat unfamiliar to me (the selection of highlights and shadows in particular - how light 'works' with these particular tones, etc) and were pretty difficult to render. Anyhow, I am very pleased with her little nose, which is possibly my favourite nose so far. I actually cheated with the mouth by giving her an already painted one that belonged to Samantha (minus teeth)

I named her in homage to the moon, which is extremely huge here right now - and a sort of golden colour, as opposed to the usual silver.

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detail

She also developed a little bit of personality during the making: I see her as possessing a certain amount of foresight (ESP) which might scare her family silly - but she will be very popular at school because she can see all of the test results in advance;)

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xxx

Dream Wing

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Dream Wing detail

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Dream Wing 

Digital painting and photomontage. Part of my Specters and Dreams series.

'Wing' as in an area, section or space. Recharging psychic strength, or something of that description. An imaginary creature with a spine of nails. Puppet wings and floating glaciers.

All in a dream.

I saw all of this and couldn't really translate it very well, visually. I may work on the theme further, or in another media.

And a new-ish Imagined Portrait:

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Nightingale

I first painted this face back in 2008 (summer, I think, her name was Linnet), she now possesses Miss Lemon's nose and mouth. Inspired by doll imagery, layered over wood with collaged ribbons and lace.

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White Horse Dream

Acrylic and pencil on paper. 

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No title. So citrus-y it hurts;)

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Here we go

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Satellite

Fun with colours:)

♥

Divination

Acrylic and pencil on paper

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Secrets

These works were originally discarded drawings, around 4x7 inches. I think that I need to purchase smaller brushes:)

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Werewolf

This painting didn't really work out for me, but I do like the transforming creature at the bottom of the picture. It is an idea that I would like to take further at some point. I appear to have become attached to crimson diamonds and hooded figures. And wedgewood blue!

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Werewolf detail 

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Divination

This figure is also undergoing transformation: a mannequin in the process of becoming human. 

Reading a wonderful book by my eternal favourite Leonora Carrington, The Seventh Horse. A huge influence.

xxx

Winter Mornings...cont.

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My Lumi (background illustration my own)

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Please see post below for Imagined Portraits competition results

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And the winner is

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Hello there! 

As promised, the winner of the Imagined Portraits competition (which wasn't at all like a competition really, considering):

Is Jesseline!

I also decided to include a second and third prize, which will consist of a set of 3, random portraits from the collection at 5x7 inches.

So, the runners up are: 

Katherine, and JessieofOz.

Thankyou so very much for joining in, and for sharing your thoughts about the work. This has been invaluable to me, not to mention good fun!

Please contact me via email so that I can prepare the little parcels for you asap:)

Take care xxx

Silent Song...

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Silent Song

Inspired by an older portrait, Samantha

Digital painting, drawing, plus elements from older pieces. I love how her hair has fused with the foliage (I can't find a more fitting way to describe it!). 

The detail:

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Don't forget to take a peek at the Imagined Portraits print competition below! And thanks so much for all of your entries so far: I'm fascinated by which particular images appeal to you, and the reasons why. This also helps me to get a more finely tuned idea of what to include in new print sets for the future^^

♥

Forgotten children (and a little competition!)

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Dulcimer Portrait  

I wanted to create a closer portrait of an old favourite, Dulcimer.

Almost entirely remade, which was pretty madness inducing to tell the truth. The hair: never, ever again.

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 Forgotten (pink version)

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Detail

Digital painting/photo texture/collage and illustration.

I couldn't decide which version I preferred. They each have their very own relevance for me.

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Ok, so now for the competition. On the subject of Imagined Portraits, this little print set is up for grabs:

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A print sampler set of six 5x7 archival prints, as seen over at the Art&Ghosts shop.

All that you have to do is tell me which Imagined Portrait is your personal favourite, and why. It doesn't have to be a lengthy answer, short and sweet will do nicely:) Winner will be announced a week from today.

Enjoy!

♥

Russian Tales

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Maroosia

Watercolour, pen, paper, digital.

Inspired by the most wonderful little book: Old Peter's Russian Tales by Arthur Ransome. 

"To frame the tales and to explain the world in which they happened, he used Old Peter, a woodcutter who lives in a log cabin deep in the forest with his two orphaned grandchildren Vanya and Maroosia. Every day after supper Peter tells them stories to amuse them but also to teach them such useful things as how to talk to magic animals..." Introduction to Old Peter's Russian Tales.  

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xxx

My first love had branches for hands

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 Firstlove

Watercolour on paper.

Please view here for more clarity.

Still going back to my arboreal roots: My very first love was a tree. A very handsome sycamore. Or perhaps he was a tall oak, a dark pine or even a lightning tree. I began, myself, as a tiny little sycamore, only to grow into a person around the age of seven years. I have never quite recovered from this ;-)

This painting began as a scrap page then went on to seduce me into taking it a little bit more seriously. It takes me back to primary school painting days, those hedonistic, rainy afternoons of biscuits and milk, the liberating mess-making, and singing along to Bye Bye Blackbird at the piano. 

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The following are what I like to call paint doodles. Not exactly pieces of work, just details taken from larger pieces of paper on which I like to mix colours, play with shapes, test out ideas and so on. Sometimes I like the details for some unknown reason, so here are a couple to share:

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Picnic

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.Kite

Somewhat liberating after so much detailed drawing work of late. Play is good!

I would also like to share some recent snaps inspired by the arrival of a perfectly sweet parcel from Mathyld:

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.Love heart. 

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.Penny decides that Mathyld's creations are "quite, quite comfortable thank you very much". (Fern Animal by Ashley Anna Brown)  

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The Encore Petite headband. No pompom connoisseur could resist. 

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 .And finally, a fresh stock update at the shop, including several new pieces and a brand new Limited Edition:

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Lookout print

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.Harlequin print

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.Hedgerow print

And a new lease of life for a much older work: the repainted face of Cecelia!

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Take care   ♥

Braids

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Some recent pencil drawings:

Braids 1

Pencil on paper. 

The focus was on hairstyles and pattern. Many of these works often go on to feature in my mixed media compositions - later combined with watercolour and ink, digitally 'collaged' into larger, more detailed pieces. Very much the idea behind the Singing Tree series.

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Braids 2

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Braids 3

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Field Trip

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Hair Suit

Apologies for the uneven scans. 

xxx

A little bit of sweetness for the weekend

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Cookie

A little bit of sweetness for the weekend:)

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Cookie close-up

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The Cookie Trio

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Honeycomb

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My little Hyggelig polar bear arrived! Thank you so very much.     

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Lumi, the princess and the pea.

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Mr Robin Robinson.  Another favourite Xmas present from my sister.

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Vintage kitty gift box. 

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Camilla's book. 
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And the snow. The deepest on record here since 1981. I have been dreaming and wishing and hoping ever since. And here it is, at last.

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Take care:)     

 ♥

 

The Lookout

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The Lookout

Looking after nature. Closer and closer to my heart.

Digital, drawing, watercolour, acrylic.

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Detail 

Please check out the Flickr version for it displays quite a bit sharper over there. I so wish that there was a safe way in which to show you a much larger version. 

Apologies for such a quick-dash post. There are so many things that I have to attend to this morning - I shall return very soon.

Oh! And some brand new print samplers arrived at the shop late last night. Hooray!

xxx

Little Nurses Mend

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Harlequin

Pen, pencil, watercolour and digital. 

Part of the Singing Tree series. 

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Harlequin detail  

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Mend

Digital drawing. Based upon a dream I once had where small children tended to wounded trees and plants. I had wanted to create this using felt tip pens, but it appears I need to replenish my collection.

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Mend detail

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The night is bright with snow. I am a night owl, as you know:)

Thank you so much for your lovely New Year well wishes, and a huge thank you also to Hyggelig Happy for announcing me the (proud!) winner of the winter polar bear competition! 

Take care x

Softly

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Hedgerow

Another little nature song to lull you to sleep. 

 ♥