Sunday, 18 September 2011

{Shell's Sunday Snippets}

Kangaroo Paws

Geraldton Wax

Wisteria

Grevillea

Wattle



Part of my painting for the Darlington Arts Festival...

Spring has sprung though it's more like winter for the past 24 hours, very windy and heavy rain which finally cleared enough for me to take some photos.  Went to a wedding yesterday and all I took were the backs of people's heads and blurry shots.  The native flowers are blooming - kangaroo paws, geraldton wax, grevillea, wattle, several unknown plants and a 25 year old wisteria plant which is just gorgeous.

Hope your weekend went well - if you took some pics then post your own {sunday snippets} and leave me a link so I can take a sticky beak. Here's a link to Cathy/tinniegirls {sunday snippets}.

Hope everyone has a great week.


Sox


Wednesday, 14 September 2011

Time and Unforeseen Occurrence

Life, hope, dreams.

Faith, fear, determination.

Anger, tears, frustration.

Sacrifice, heartache, rejection.

Survivors, past, present, future.

Paintings into prints.

Scanners, photos, photoshop.

Ups and downs, ins and outs, it's early days yet.

Knowing it can be done and yet being told it can't be done.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.


Butterfly Girl - work in progress - inspired by the Kelly Rae Robert's Taking Flight course that I've been taking.

I've just started my painting to enter into the Darlington's Art Festival today and will give you a sneak peek of a portion of it next week sometime.

Thursday, 8 September 2011

Dear Universe

I wish I had known this a month ago.

"In Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott writes about a Buddhist belief - the idea that when several things start going wrong all at once it is to protect something bigger and greater that is trying to get itself born - and that whatever it is that is trying to come into our world needs for us to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible."  Thanks Kelly Rae Roberts.



Yesterday I had a lightbulb moment whilst reading this quote. I have photographed all my paintings using my small Sony camera all in low resolution 72dpi. If I had sold all my paintings that weekend I would not have the opportunity now to re-photograph them with our Nikon SLR in high resolution 300dpi - suitable for printing and magazines/publishing.

Here are my 3 top tips for today that I want you to take away with you...

1.  Photograph your finished artwork/creation in low resolution for the internet - blogs/sites etc and then re-photograph in high resolution for publishing/printing.  (Your computer program may be able to do this from high to low resolution).

2. Tag your final photograph so it's easy to find such as 72art2011 and 300art2011.

3.  Bad things happen but then better things can happen - all part of a bigger picture which we do not know all the details of.

Another beautiful day in my part of the world....wish you were here....

Big love and bear hugs,

Shells.
On the last weekend in July I had 11 paintings for sale at an art show/sale. 20,000 people were meant to come to a food festival in our community and then hopefully come to the art show and buy some art. The weather was rainy and stormy and very few people turned up and no-one bought anything. I was very disappointed.

Tuesday, 6 September 2011

www and MMAG

I'm really proud to announce that my website is now online - so go take a look at it and if you have any feedback then let me know.  I honestly can't believe that little ol' me has a  website with my art on it - woowhoo!!! 

http://www.shellsinthebush.com/

Yesterday was also my Monday Morning Art Group and here is the painting I've been working on...

My butterfly girl has a face and background though there is still plenty of work to be done...



Hope your day is going well and that you have a great week.

Sunday, 4 September 2011

{Shell's Sunday Snippets}

The exciting news is that I've bought a domain and have decided to do the hosting and website building through weebly.com.  I've actually clicked on publish and have told godaddy about weebly and am waiting to see if I've done it all right.  The site needs tweaking and playing with and info added to it but I just wanted to get it up and running.  Will post the link when it's up and running.

My eldest son is quite sick with glandular fever - is having trouble eating and drinking due to his sore and swollen throat - just trying to get him to sleep and drink lots - poor thing.  :(

My golden girlie - Tessa.


Beautiful sunset....

I painted the windows and doors onto my mini wooden houses - still a bit more to go till they are ready to be displayed.


I'd love to see and hear about your weekend, so join in {Sunday Snippets} and leave me and {tinniegirl} a link. 

Friday, 2 September 2011

{Weekly Wind-Up}

Yay, my internet speed is back to normal, it has been slow for over a week which meant it was difficult to upload photos and download blogs.  I'm so far behind in reading blogs and getting my creative biz off the ground.

Last weekend....


Monday Morning Art Group - I was busy taking my son to his driving test - so I did some painting in the afternoon:

 

I also hung Ribbon Town on my lounge room wall - matches the curtains - very funny!!!!



On Tuesday I took my eldest son to the doctor's - he has tonsillitus - poor manchild - he feels like death warmed up.  My guess is that it's actually glandular fever and he's going to feel yuck for quite a while.

On Wednesday, I went to the hairdressers - good news - they would like to hang 2 of my paintings for sale in the front of their salon - which will mean some great exposure.  I need to get organised with this great opportunity.  Want to see me??



Thursday - yesterday - hmm what did I do???  Ironing, shopping, cleaning - popped into my 'studio' and I use that term very loosely and touched up my painting.  If I'm going to paint for a few hours I bring things out into the kitchen as you can see from the Monday's painting.


I took the above pic just now, sorry the lighting is soooo bad but it's a little dark outside with the rain clouds.

Hope everyone had a great week and will think about joining us on Sunday for {Sunday Snippets} - send me a link to your Sunday Snippets post so I can go read it.  Thanks, have a great weekend wherever you are in the world.