Flights of Ravens... and a 100th post blog Giveaway!

Hi folks! I've finally got around to posting some more of my Raven series to show you! Time has been even shorter than ever so I'm amazed I managed to paint at all as the weeks whizz past far, far too fast!
Between the usual juggling act of running the business full time and being Mum, with Elswyth's 5th birthday skipping briskly along (an arty party to organise as we speak!) dummy book work and portrait commissions (one down to show you soon...) we are also preparing to move house after being well and truly settled for almost eight years. Its proving to be a bit of a wrench for me but anyway, more on that another day!
So, on to the Ravens...
These first two smaller ones I will be putting into a local Art Show in March which will be interesting - I've never exhibited work before, and I happen to know there's some really seriously good professionals entering work too... gulp! They'll be joined by two of the larger paintings in the series but I haven't decided which ones yet...

'Thought'

'Memory'

Here's some closer details of the two...


I am having my trusty fine art repro chap make me some Giclee prints of these two on lovely Somerset Velvet paper and will eventually choose two of the larger ones to do as Signed Limited Editions as well (when I finally paint some I like enough!)

So I have decided to celebrate reaching my 100th post by having a Giveaway to win your choice of a mounted print of either 'Thought' or 'Memory'.
All you need to do is to be a follower of my blog, and leave a comment on this post answering the question:

If you could take any winged form and travel anywhere in this world or another, where would the winds take you and to what purpose?

Answers can be as long or as short as you like. Just a bit of fun really! Though I put it to my daughter at bedtime because she couldn't sleep and all sorts of fantastical flights leapt to mind! I will run this until Sunday the 12th which is the day of Elswyth's birthday party, to give everyone plenty of time to dream of wingbeats on the tides of winds....!


So, if you haven't had enough of Ravens yet, I'll show you a couple more....
These next two are studies for the larger one coming up...


And here is the next large one, though its a bit blurry and hard to photograph... I guess this will be called 'Huginn & Muninn III' to follow the series so far...


Huginn & Muninn in case you haven't caught the previous posts, are the two birds of the Norse God Odin, who fly all across Middle Earth and Asgard bringing him news of all the going's on of Men, Beasts, Gods and Giants. He gave them the power of speech and they were seen to be birds of portent, wingbeats tracing feather trails of Omens across the storm-wracked skies...

Here's some details of 'III' complete with some rather self-indulgent shots of the wet-on-wet washes as they were drying. I wish they could stay like that sometimes with all the lovely rich liquid depths of colour, paint for paint's sake!








I hope you've enjoyed this rather long Raven post! I've nearly got it out of my system now, just one to be finished on the drawing board and the one still in my head which is still stubbornly refusing to manifest on the paper!
Can't wait to hear some of your ideas for the Giveaway... Bye for now!

Beautiful voices...

Hi folks! Just touching base, I'm still here and have some things I am itching to post very soon - I've been painting more Raven washes and have been really enjoying them! (Even though I should be getting on with commissions with looming deadlines instead!)
Also I have just realised that my last post was in fact my 100th! So a celebratory Giveaway will be coming up very soon on a Raveny theme! Watch this space!

For now I thought I'd share with you a couple of great lady singers I have strayed upon which are both just fantastic...



That lady can sure sing the blues! I love it!

And this is the other lady called Annie Humphrey, that I found whilst exploring a wonderful Native American blog I have just discovered here called - Anishinaabekwe
This is just stunning, both to watch and listen to...



Hope you enjoyed them... back soon with flights of Ravens!

Huginn & Muninn II ...

Hello folks, hope your New Year has started well, and thankyou all so much for visiting me here during 2011 and for all your kind words, encouragement and friendship along the way!
Lets hope 2012 will be a healthy and a happy one for everybody!

So here is the first painting of 2012 and the second in the series of Raven paintings I've been planning to do! For want of a better title it is for the moment called 'Huginn & Muninn II'
It is funny how its worked out - when I was working on the first Ravens painting there was a wild winter storm blowing and howling around the house, and again for this second painting the winds were furiously rattling the sash windows and stirring up the skies.
To add to the wild lament of the Stormsong outside, next doors dogs were howling mournful accompaniment, as if the wind's ghostly song were calling to some deep ancestral wild-wolfish memory! Very atmospheric!

(Closeup detail)

I painted this larger than the first which gave me more room for expression in the penwork on the Ravens which I like, but as yet I am undecided whether the sky is working or whether there's too much going on in this one. I want it to be dramatic and full of movement, but not too fussy either... one to sleep on maybe...
Although there are parts of the wet-on-wet and salt that I really like just for their own sake...




I did enjoy these two fellows though, and think they're better drawn than the first pair. There is something rather magnificent about a Raven... I wonder which should be Huginn - or Thought, and which one Muninn - Memory?


Here are the two so far together, I think I prefer the sky in the first and the Ravens in the second! Oh well, tonight I think I might stretch some more paper ready for a third, slightly different this time... (Sorry about the slightly murky photo in the second one!) Hope you like them! Bye for now...

Happy New Year! And a silly party song too...

This is for all of you out there like me who aren't going out to parties tonight! A bit of New Year fun!
My two love 'Horrible Histories' and so do we... they're a silly bunch but its a great way for kids to learn a bit of history, and very funny!
I couldn't resist this one too...



Happy New Year everyone! Take care wherever you are, see you in 2012...

The Old or the New...?

Hi all! Hope you have all been having a happy and healthy Yuletide!
Just a quick spur of the moment post here to run this by you.... I'm toying with the idea of updating my blog header, so I am trying this one out of the Ravens I painted recently... What do you think?
It changes the feel of things quite a lot and the blog's identity I think, so the question is to those of you who know me and my blog quite well by now... does the old header portray me and my work better? Should I leave well alone or is it time for a change?
I'd love to know what you think!
Here's the old one...

See you soon...

Holly-King Oak-King, a Solstice Hearth and two little elves...!

A slightly belated Happy Solstice to you all, and I hope the turning of the year brings you good health and happiness!
Our Green Man watching over our hearth is wearing a holly crown in his Holly King guise... perhaps I should hang some pressed oak leaves or acorns there now as traditionally we pass back into the light half of the year and the reign of the Oak King.
I really like this myth in its various forms and have often thought I'd like to re-tell it as a picture book for children... definately a future project I think!


I strayed upon this image below a couple of years ago by an artist called Raven Willowhawk which I really, really like. I haven't been able to track her down to link back to her, but I hope she doesn't mind me sharing it in the spirit of appreciation of such an evocative image and her considerable talent. I just think its a really nice depiction of this myth and it struck a note with me.

By Raven Willowhawk

This also makes me think of the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which I must find a good translation of to read again. The copy I have is all in Olde English and very hard to decipher! But I love the story and the language full of rich description and symbolisms...


So, I'll leave you now with a couple of very funny videos we did with our little elfin ones which really help to get into the festive spirit!
Hope it puts a smile on your face - it did for us! Take it away Elora and Elswyth...! Hope you enjoy them!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/AwzsnqeCYJ2jGweYGI5e

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/veW3FXdtWhxGqXIpLjoD

Huginn and Muninn... on the wings of the storm

please respect my copyright of these images

This wild sky with its wind hurled messengers seems a very appropriate painting to show you tonight as I sit writing next to the window that is rattling with the night's savage temper of storm.
The wind and rain outside are ferocious, seething around the house, flinging icy spats of rain against the glass... that hollow boom, powerful, elemental, ominous...
I'm glad to be inside, wrapped in layers against the drafts!

This is a painting I have made for my sister in law on her fortieth birthday which was today! We framed it for her in the workshop in dramatic black and gave it to her as the storm began to gather its furies in the twilight...
It is of 'Huginn' and 'Muninn' - 'Thought' and 'Memory', the two Ravens that accompany Odin and bring him knowledge of the world. They are birds of portent, and it is said that Odin gave them the power of speech, and their presence in turn gives him another of his many names - 'Raven God'.


Here are some more closeup details...

I love the unpredictability of using watercolour washes like this, I have an idea of what I want - the colours, the dynamics... but the joy of it for me is watching the paint move to its own purpose, not quite knowing where it will rest, the beautiful living quality of the paint... I love it...


I used my Artists Rotring ink pen over the wash rather than under it to get a deep crisp black...

I intend to do a series of these on a larger scale, a project that's been burning in my mind for a long time now... but as ever just waiting for that precious elusive spare time! I can hear the Raven croaks, the wingbeats invisible in the back of my mind, the ravelling winds rushing... they are crying to be painted!
I am pleased with the result of this first attempt, and its the first painting I've managed to produce for what seems like ages. Our business devours all our time, especially at this time of year, so it is a small victory for me to get it out there! Hooray!

Ooh, the wind is really howling now, lamenting like a wild bereft thing out in the wide dark, crying for the lost and forlorn with a throat of night and emptiness.
I'm off to make some cocoa with extra chocolate and full cream milk! Hope you liked the painting :)