How soft can a person get...?

I hate spiders, that's a fact, but I think I must be going soft in my middle age cause I'm actually *allowing* a mummy spider to guard her nest full of spiderlings in my craft room!  She's only a small bodied/long legged thing and I keep a close eye on where she is, but I just can't bring myself to evict the poor thing - now how stupid is that?  I know full well if she came within a foot of me I'd be flinging my arms in the air and screaming like a madwoman but I can't help it, so there she is babysitting her incy wincy's in a nice warm corner of my craft room!

And that reminds me - I made this for halloween for my grandson but he hated it and won't go near it.  He's such a spoilsport sometimes.

Meet Bloo...

Isn't he gorgeous?  I know I'm biased but I do love him.  He even has a wrinkled brow but you can't see here, lol, and his collar has been needle felted seperately then attached to his neck so it's non-removable.  Bloo, is a more 'substanstial' bully to my last one and more like my painting style which is a good thing, I think?  More of these little fellas will follow shortly, in the mean time I'm considering making these to order.

Do grizzly bears play?

Well this one does.  In fact, he's so playful he won't stand up, just rolls around on the floor with his fish!  I'm sure I didn't mean for him to be this way, but he took on a life of his own after his head was attached and I lost the fight.  He's made with pure merino and even has tiny eyelids!

 

Another needle felted bullie...

This is seriously addictive!  I've donated the last lot to welfare either in full or part, so if you want any of them you must be a member of Bullie Rescue before you can bid!  The keyring will be on ebay tonight if you want to bid on that and if it sells all monies from that will go to welfare too.

Pinky, is my second full bodied bullie, solidly needle felted with merino wool and no armature!  I teamed her up with teddy bullie and teddy bunny because I think they look cute and make a lovely group.  Pinky, has two black ears, a lovely pink tongue and 6 nipples on her belly.  She also has a cute red cloth collar and twenty felted paw pads.  I love her.  She will be going up for adoption on ebay later tonight and I'm hoping that whoever buys her (if indeed she sells) they will treasure her forever.

Jewellery update...

First and foremost....these are RUBBISH photo's but at least I've got something to show you at long last.  I bought some inexpensive jewellery tools etc, and got stuck in with making these up into wearable items (that's if you're so inclined) and I must say, they turned out not- too-bad!  Of course, you'd have to be a bullie freak to wear them but there are such people around because I'm one of them, lol.

The keyring is my favourite because I added a tongue - and it's lovely and pink!  It's much better in the flesh though so ignore my poor photographic skills.  The head alone is approx 2.5 inches.

Then there was little madam who took absolutely ages to make, mainly because I had to redo bits here and there to get her in some kind of proportion - and at approx 6.5 inches, she's still not perfect.  Then again, whimsical isn't meant to be perfect, is it?  I even did a tiny donut bottom for her...awww, and I love her ickle pads and her baby pink belly which you can't see here.

 

Lastly, I made a whimsical bullie & bunny (bullie approx 3inch & bunny slightly smaller) which I may be using for my first giveaway - haven't decided yet?  Would anyone want them I wonder?

I have a new love in my life...

NEEDLE FELTING!  Yes, needle felting with a very sharp, barbed needle that hurts like hell when you jab a finger with it, and I do it often!  I discovered the craft by pure chance while I was blog hopping and it's facinated me ever since, so I thought it was about time to try my hand (and fingers) to see if I could do it.  I can, in a fashion.  This is my very first attempt so I thought I'd stick to something familiar...guess what...bullies!  Yep, four bullie heads that I intend to turn into jewellery when my kit arrives.  I swear, one of these days I'll earn a crust rather than waste it on hobbies!  Good job I enjoy it then...

Then there is this little lot of keyrings, handpainted on sycamore.  I intend to donate these to bullie welfare overseas when I've finished them (I have a few more to do!)  They're quite cute don't you think?

Great photographic print giveaway...!

I've admired Highton-Ridley's work for ages now so I'm pleased to let you all know that he's having another fab photo/print giveaway for October!  If you would like to participate (and you'd be mad not to) then pop over to his brill blog and sign up, pronto!  Good luck, and may the best man/woman win (preferably me, lol!)

A bullie keyring...

Finally!  I managed to get this little keyring finished and photographed for my blog.  It's just typical when you want to do something (like take a photo) and the batteries have dried up, it's Friday and your just on your way out for the weekend, grrr!

The key fob is sycamore and the paint is acrylic - totally handpainted, with a silver plated chain.  Available here.

A different breed...

I've painted so many bullies now that I can almost do it with my eyes shut.  So when I went looking for a Patterdale, I was surprised to see how many different 'types' there are!  Black and tan, very light tan, black and all those in between - unless of course I've been looking at the wrong breed?  So I settled for this one.  He's kinda cute and looks more like my sisters heinz57 than an actual thoroughbred, which makes him even cuter.  But then I know nothing about patterdales, only bullies.  The photo is terrible - taken on my moby in late afternoon light, tut tut!  Will I ever learn....

A weight on your shoulders...

Now I'm not trying to depress you or anything, but I've just re-discovered this 'rough diamond' I did a looong time ago, and wondered if you might like to see it?

We've all had those times when everything gets on top of us, haven't we?  Bills, housework, life in general....and this little picture was my reaction to one of those ugly times, when I felt weighted down with it all.  It's just an old digital painting I did and hopefully, it doesn't bear any resemblance to me in person - God forbid!  I do however, look at it occasionally just to remind myself that you can't stay angry forever, and it's best to just pick yourself up off the ground and get on with it, warts and all!  I'm off to inspect my reflection now.......just in case....oooerr!

Teeny tiny baby steps to selling....

Ok, so I'm a coward.  I admit I chickened out of going the whole nine yards and having a 'proper' sales website, but you have to understand I hate wasting my money and it costs mega amounts to have one made for me, and..... well I just haven't got the time (read that as knowledge) to make my own!  So I pinched someone else's idea and used blogger as my selling platform - for now.  It works pretty well.  I can even integrate paypal if I want to and I probably will later on, if it all goes well.  And those that know me or have already bought from me will know I'm good for business, returns, refunds etc, if anything goes awol in the post.  I have a very good reputation on ebay and I'd like to keep it!  There's not much on it right now but that will all change as soon as I can get my act together and finish the stuff I'm working on, hopefully within the next week or so.  If you want to have a quick peek, here's the address - it's also in my sidebar for reference.

My new sales website...

I'm so fed up with paying extortionate ebay fees that I'm in the process of designing another website from which I can sell my art direct to the customer.  It won't be anything fancy, just a straight forward click and buy thingummybob that doesn't leave you guessing whether you've done it correctly or not - I'm so thick when it comes to computers!  Payments will be through paypal so it's secure and most of my customers use it anyway, except those that pay by personal cheque, which are few and far between.  Of course, I'll still be selling on ebay but at least customers will have the option of buying straight from me if they wish!  I have lots of new bullie items lined up for the winter season, so if you're the teeniest bit interested...watch this space :-)

The holiday that never was...

Well here I am, stuck at home again.  We got a call late Sunday evening to say my dad had a bad fall and was in hospital, so on Monday we packed and rushed back home again.  Turns out he'd cut his head and dislocated his already painful arm and possibly cracked a small bone in it too.  He's back home now recovering but our holiday is over!  Oh well....

At least I can get on with the things I should've done before we left and start things I wanted to do when I came back, like the plaques and the keyrings and other stuff I've had in my head for ages now.  And I really need to get cracking on some Christmas goodies, oooh...it's almost here again - time flies!

Postponed....!

Just wanted to say that my giveaway will not be happening until I come back from my hols, which will be 6th September - or sooner if I get bored. I've kinda decided what I will be giving away but it's a secret for the time being because I'm prone to changing my mind (more likely I'll forget and then have to choose something else!) I've painted up quite a few funky keyrings, but haven't made up my mind whether I should concentrate on just the one breed of dog (guess which one) or go for a mixture, or, paint something totally different? And if you're looking in Jan, I know....a Border Terrier, lol!

Cup of tea and a slice of cake...

Since I decided to take a short break from ebay I can't seem to get anything done. It seems the more time I have on my hands the less I can manage it - why is that? Maybe I run on adrenalin and the many cups of tea I drink while I'm painting, but whatever it is I seem to be very low on this essential 'fuel' just now, sooo....I've been digging around amonst my piles of older stuff to see if I can find something other than a bullie to impress you with (some hope) and I came up with this plaque I did eons ago - the title speaks for itself. I loved it so much that I gave it my daughter to stop me selling it on ebay (I have issues like that unfortunately!) and now wish I'd kept it for myself. I'd probably describe the style as a kind of 'Urban Pop Art' and love the simplicity of it. I've done similar designs but with my wacom rather than paint, and I kinda didn't like them as much - dunno why? I do plan to do some more real soon so any comments or crits would be very welcome & interesting to read!

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...!

I'm taking a short break from ebay to take a holiday and also to catch up on some arty farty stuff that's needs to be done. I want to get some new plaques made up and key fobs and of course, more paintings and...wait for it....my first blog giveaway! Now I know not everyone that reads my blog is as nuts about bull terriers as I am, so I have to think outside the box and come up with something I think everyone will be drawn to - not an easy task I'm sure - so if anyone out there has any ideas please share them with me!

I wish this rain would stop falling...

It's very dull today. Rain, rain and more rain! At least it's still warm - a bit too warm IMO, verging on the humid and making me feel all yukky and hot like there's no air. I can't be bothered to do much so here I am stuck at the computer sketching, in between surfing for interesting sites that I haven't yet discovered. Boy, there are loads!


I wanted to share with you a poor quality photo (due to the light) of a sketch I did just now so you can see how I develop my paintings from scratch. I just basically start with a doodle and build on it from there, not using an eraser but scribbling until I get the form I want. I haven't used a reference photo for this and have injected a whimsical feel to it (hopefully) to avoid becoming too overly detailed. I prefer to make whimsical art because it's more creative for me and requires little or no planning apart from what's in my minds eye. I kind of like this sketch so I will develop it further, hopefully producing a neat painting by the end of it - watch this space!

Collage for a change...

I do love to fiddle about with paper and stuff, and as this painting wasn't going the way I wanted, I decided to do some crafty collage to brighten it up a bit. On the whole I'm quite pleased with the result and reckon it would look nice in a modern setting, what do you think? The paper I used was first printed with archival inks before being glued to the canvas, and then I just used markers and watercolour pencils for the rest - the canvas had been painted beforehand. A lot of people like this style so I shall be doing more!

We had a lovely time at the coast this past weekend. It was boiling hot in spite of us having to drive down there in torrential rain! We went into skeggy for a change and bumped into Joanne (mum of Daisy & George - two gorgeous bullies!) Joanne apparently recognised me because I was pushing my own bullie in her pram, lol, and we had a lovely little chat. It was great to meet you Jo! Practically the whole family came down to see us too so we had a fab time in the pub at night and I also met an old friend I hadn't seen for years, so that was good too.

Over The Rainbow....

A while ago, one of my customers told me that her favourite flowers were poppies, and I promised I would paint some at some time but didn't know when. I tried a few different formats and settled on this one with a beautiful brindle bullie as the focus. Most of the photo's I use are of my own bullie - I just use my artistic licence to add the colour as she is white! Brindle is never easy to do and never looks exactly as it is in the photo (if you are using one) but I do love the outcome because it's always so different. I have listed this on ebay tonight if you want to peek :-)

My Latest Bull Terrier...

I bet you all are getting sick of my bullie paintings by now, lol! So to make it worse, here's my latest one that will be going on ebay tonight. I really do want to paint a different dog, cat, cow, piggy....but I always end up painting a bullie - I don't know why? Maybe I just love them too much.

I feel like a murderer...

Why? Because I've just run a rabbit over and killed it! And there was me thinking how stupid two pigeons were to be fighting in the middle of a busy road during the rush hour, and then this happens. I couldn't avoid it, it just ran under the car. And in that millisecond I had to choose whether to swerve and risk my grandsons life and mine or run over the rabbit, the rabbit lost. So now I can feel one of 'those' days looming ahead.

On a brighter note, I finished another small painting yesterday and will be posting it here later if you want to have a gander. Hope you all have a nice day....better than mine anyway.

Nanna, Why Do We Have Trees...?

That was the burning question my 3 year old grandson asked me at 8-45 am when I was still half asleep and trying to navigate my way through the rush hour traffic! "Because they make oxygen!" I said, thinking unwisely (or rather, hopefully) that that would be the end of it. How wrong can you be. "What's oxygen"? came the reply. Change of direction needed. A quick scramble through my foggy morning brain and I managed to come up with, "Well....we need trees because we have lots of birds, and birds have to build their nests in them, have babies and then teach them how to fly!" Anticipating the next question I carried on, "And birds have wings so that they don't fall out of the trees and hurt themselves like we would!" Silence. Then, "Tom doesn't have wings because he lives in the floor." Tom? Who's Tom, I wondered, thinnking he's been watching too much tv? Then, "And Jerry Can't reach him when he's in his house." I breathed a sigh of relief at that, then turned on the radio and enjoyed the rest of the ride with a stupid 'nanna' smirk on my face! I so love my grandson.

My Poorly Pooch is Recovering...

I got up early this morning just so I could scramble some eggs for my ailing pooch, and by the way she wolfed them down I'd say she was well on the way to recovery! She's since scoffed a dish of baby food and is now waiting on her tea and supper. Trouble is, I have to force feed her the foul tasting medicine 3 times a day and it's not easy dodging those jaws, I can tell you. Then there's the pills. One & a half twice a day cleverly diguised in a bread ball - NOT! The last one took several efforts to conceal before I managed to trick her into swallowing it, but she did, finally. I'm not looking forward to the next dose.

I'm currently working on a new painting for a Canadian friend of mine who pretty much likes my sense of humour and my art. It's a caricature type painting (my fave) and it's for her birthday so I can't display it here, much as I'd like to or she'll probably see it but I will show it at some point in the near future. I love caricature art. It's what I started out doing really and I've always wanted to go back to it. My favourite artist is the late Beryl Cook, who painted from memory all the things she came across in everyday life and lived into her 80's. I admire her work constantly but most of all I admire who she was, just an ordinary person with a sense of humour - just like me.

Roll On Tomorrow...

Having diarrhea is no fun. It's even less fun if your dog has it and sleeps on your bed. Last night was the pits. When I wasn't gasping for fresh air I was carrying my ailing pooch up and down the stairs to the garden, standing under the stars hoping and praying this would be the last one. This morning was the last straw when I literally saw 'red' and called the emergency vet! Turns out she has a temperature and an inflamed bowel or colitis, and is now on meds and a special diet to help sort it out. Have you ever tried to explain to a hungry dog that your starving them for their own good? If you have, you'll know all about that 'look' they give you every time you bypass the food cupboard and that pathetic, heart tugging whimper just as you've convinced yourself your doing the right thing. I feel like a torturer of animals today. Roll on tomorrow when I can resume routine and start feeding her again!

Different Strokes...

I get bored working in only one style, so I tried something a bit different this week. The purple one has been done in a very fluid style with hardly any brush strokes - I suppose you could say watercolour style? And the golden one is similar but I've given it a hard edge similar to pop art. I actually am not a fan of pop art, but I think the dark line suits the painting very well in this case and makes it stand out. These are only small ones, 10"x 8" each, but I need to crack on a get some more done if I have any hope of opening an online store! Both of these will be going on ebay one tonight, the other tomorrow night.

The weather has been fairly grotty all week, so I'm hoping for some sun tomorrow. Nothing like a blast of sunshine to make a body feel better, and boy....do I need it!

Another Artist To Follow...

I just had to share her with you because her work just shines for me! Her name is Karla Gerard and her art is amazing. Paintings full of life, colour and optimism, I never get tired of looking at them and only wish I could own one! Karla's blog is fairly new, but if you hop on over there I promise you won't be disappointed.

Hmmmm.....

...Not sure about this one? I quite like the colours but the 'smile' isn't wide enough maybe? Oh well, I've listed it on ebay now so we'll have to wait and see if anyone shares my thoughts - or not!

Going off for a break again this week, but I might just be taking my brushes with me this time because I seem to be getting very little done of late! That's because I can't bear to be indoors when the sun's shining. Much better to be under the parasol sipping iced juice and watching the sheets blowing on the breeze. When it's not raining, that is....

New Work...

Before it slips my mind again, I just have to have a brag about the 'snake' I picked up at Skeggy. We were sitting in a wind shelter when we spotted it slithering across the path towards the sand. At first I daren't go near it, small as it was, in case it whipped it's fangs out and bit me, but then visions of it getting squashed under a pram wheel got the better of me, so I actually picked the thing up and rescued it back to the grass. Okay, so it was only a grass snake, but a snake is a snake, and I hate them!

Now, back to my newest paintings. I struggled for titles with these two, finally coming up with two rubbish ones. I kinda feel like I've not finished if I don't name them but it's not easy! The caped bullie is on 12"x 16" canvas and the other one is a 10"x 8" canvas. Both pictures will be listed on ebay tonight for 7 days.

I think I'm going to try painting on some good art paper next, mainly so I can use my cp's as well. I haven't used cp's for ages because of my painful wrist so I'm quite looking forward to the challenge.

I'm Back...

...from the Costa-Del-Skegness, and what a week we've had! Blazing hot weather is not exactly the norm for the UK, least of all on the east coast, but I can happily tell you that the the sun shone all week....well....except when it was overcast, but it was still very hot! Now some people would rather lose a limb than admit to holidaying in good old Skegg, but it was one of the best holidays we've had, and it really doesn't matter where you are if the sun is shining, does it? It may not be the poshest place on earth, or even in the UK for that matter, but it certainly ticks all the boxes if you like variety. I reckon the secret lies in it's location on the map which largely dictates where the most visitors come from, and that's from the north down to the midlands and everywhere in between.

Now I've had a bit of a rest I'm ready to pick up my paint brushes again, so I will be posting my latest one very soon! Watch this space...