snowflakes in february

I am designing a t-shirt at the moment for a site called Threadless. If you don’t know them check them out, fabulously cool t-shirts. Its an open submission site with scoring from other members and finally if your design is picked to be printed you get paid from them.

So, I got into action and have been painting for the last two days and working on the computer. Its interesting, I am only allowed use eight colours, (shades of a colour count as a colour) so its restricting but challenging at the same time. Reminded me of being in college when the tutors would give us an exercise and then a rule to go with it.

I will post the design when I am finished but there are snowflakes in it and I went searching on the web for inspiration. When I draw snowflakes they always end up looking like stars and I wanted very definite snowflake looking snowflakes. Unmistakably large soft quiet looking snowflakes.

After searching a while I ended up in a treasure trove of snowflake portraiture. (that reminds me, Paul told me the next morning he was dreaming of snowflakes but each one had a differant face!).

Wilson A. Bentley took his first photo of a snowflake in 1885, when photography was still a new developing science and he went on to take hundreds of photos of snowflakes. He was known in the local area in Vermont as the snowflake man. There is a library of some of the images at the Bentley Snow Crystal Collection

They are all beautiful and all different. Like people, maybe thats why Paul dream’t them with faces. They are like people, each one is unique..

the coolest short films ever!

they are honestly.. well ok, in the top five I have seen in my short time on this earth.

The first one I saw at an animation shorts festival a few years ago and have been wanting to see it again but didn’t know the name or the makers. Its the story of the world told through the eyes of two rocks sitting on a hill watching the times pass by. here is the link to the animation. You can make it into full screen.

Das Rad

The second one I discovered on a the telly one night and tells the story of the dog who didn’t want to be a dog and has the help of a gecko to realise his dream. This has minor cult status amongst my family and some friends. By irish film maker Rory Bresnihan.

Guy’s Dog

ok, go watch and enjoy.

water and colour

mmm.. the two go together so well.

I have been having fun recently doing a watercolour sketch a day. It has to relate to my mood or what ever is happening in that moment and watercolour is so perfect for the moment. Something quick that I don’t think about, just do. I was reminded about this from a blog called Creative every day. I think its easy to get stuck in wanting to do everything perfectly and I forget the simple fun of seeing what happens.

I have run out of good paper, have to go buy some more! It is a really good exercise to do for all us artists and indeed even if you don’t consider yourself an artist do something, anything, creative everyday, something simple to let free the inner muse and get it all flowing. It can be art or words or music or dancing or cooking, anything!

and also, check this little guy out! all new in the world. he is my nephew and the first grandchild for my parents so they are very excited!

a birth

…and the cock crew at midnight, witching hour, space between yesterday and tomorrow, a tiny space of now.

I slept and did not hear his clarion call to the world, that caused small animals to look up in wonder and large ones to feel the pull in their bellies. I felt it in my bones though, and dreamt of tidal waves and earthquakes and great winds sweeping the earth.

In the chicken coop an egg was beginning to hatch, the chick following blind instinct to hit out at the darkness surrounding it, to crack, to break, to push outwards. Imagine! all the world this chick has ever known is about to get as big as eternity.

But then, the world is the perfect size for each of us and we should not be afraid of the spaces between the stars.

x cliodhna,

to all us little chicks pushing out and breaking out of all the world we have ever known!

the day after…..

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay, my internet dissapeared today all day! and I was planning to post this this morning but alas now it is late now as i sit in a badly lit internet cafe, flickering bulbs, clunky keyboard, very slooooooow computer.

So anyway, I wrote all the numbers on a piece of paper and put them in a cup and drew out the first name and it was Naomi Michelle from the Belle Modiste blog, which I just checked and saw she has won two already, so heres another one for you! must be your month or something or maybe St Valentine is smiling sweetly at you.

Now I figured with all the people having entered I would draw another one for an embroidered card. And the winner isssss Susie…

I went to a thermal waters hotel yesterday for the day with Paul. Near Leon, we swam in heated mineral waters (strong in sulphur!), then we had a bath in a sunken bath with lots of bubbles and then after dinner I filled the jacuzzi and sat in that for a while. Poor Paul sacked out at this stage worn out from work, poor dear. Feeling very hydrated today. Its just wonderful what soaking in water can do for you!

ok, better go, meeting a freind back up at the house to watch a film and this keyboard is driving me crazy. Its like an old piano, you know when you have to hit the keys directly on top and quite hard to get them to write anything!

have a fun weekend!

Art for sale!!

I have just joined a great website called red bubble. I upload my pictures/paintings and they sell them as wall art or greeting cards or T-shirts! they do the printing and the shipping and I get the commission what whatever I sell. They also make sure that everything is of the highest quality possible so now I can stop my seemingly fruitless search for a giclee printer and leave it all up to them!

I found out about it from Christina, a fellow Irish Arts Blogger and this is her page on Red Bubble.  Thanks christina!

I just need a higher resolution camera. The photos I took with my mums camera in Ireland are large enough for small/medium prints but the one here I am using in mexico just isn’t big enough. Soon! This is the one I think I want!

Tomorrow is final day for the one world one heart giveaway and then its draw the name time! I am actually quite excited to see if I win anything.

Ok, have a great wednesday ya’ll! hope all your dreams come true!

Oil painting #2

So, birds are messengers between ourselves and the other world. i am sending my wish to the universe and it flies outward to bring it to the heart of all, the source. The earth supports me in this, she looks on happily sending me inspiration so I can find the exact right words I need in order to frame my wish. She holds the sun within herself and the moon  in her hand through all its phases of waxing and waning.
I have finished these and are already planning the next two. Getting to grips once more with oil paints and I am having ideas I want to try out…. such fun!

Oil painting

I finished the two paintings I was working on. Time to tell the story. Paul kept asking me what they were about and I would just say ‘you know, freedom’ very articulate I know but sometimes I can’t say until they are finished and I am so much better at writing this than saying them. So here it is!

I had a dream about a wee brown bird. I took this brown bird away from where it was living because I wanted to protect it. The bird was angry with me for having done this and was going to fly back to where it came from. I was really worried about it because I figured it was too small to do this safely but then I looked and the brown bird had turned into a young man with a backpack on his back and I realised he could do it if he wanted.

The moral of the story? wee brown birds are perfectly capable of looking after themselves

The meaning of the dream? I am that part of me that I figure can’t look after myself. I mother the bird, trying to protect it and it gets angry with me for not letting it live its own life. The bird/young man is that part of me that is very able to take care for itself but just looks small and fragile right now. I have to stop trying to look after it and trying to keep it by me but let it fly and go where it wants to go. Let myself go where I want to go and do what I want to do and trust myself and my wishes and heart wants in life.

I will have the other finished painting and the story behind it in a day or two..

x

one world, one heart

this is a amazing give-away/meet new people happening that I discovered through Fanciful Twists blog. The closing date for comments is February 14th which is very soon but hey, better late than never. Go here and see a list of all the blogs who are participating, leave a comment and your blog site or email and explore. Its for getting to know other bloggers out there. I have seen a few of them, there are so many cool sites.

This is my give away, a shopping bag made from mexican oil cloth. Strong and durable and fun colours. I had them for sale at a recent craft fair in Ireland. There are so many wonderful colours here in Mexico..

Happy February y’all!

fairs, rollercoasters and paintings

I went to Leon yesterday (that is in Mexico not spain by the way) to the ‘Feria’. Sooooo many people. Just follow the crush around the stalls until we got wise, abandoned our friends who were looking for ceramics and got outside and headed straight for the ‘mechanical toys’. They are kind of old here, Paul reckons they are the rides that he used to go on when he was young, there are almost no safety harnesses (although as I pointed out its nice that mexicans assume you are not going to jump out of the ferris wheel car whereas everywhere else I have been they see a possibility and immediately fill it) and I reealllly didn’t trust the look of some of them. We skipped the old rollercoaster and went on the middle-aged one (twice), went on the haunted ride, took a spin on the spinner, ate churros, did the water-ride, ate cotton-candy, felt sick…. usual fun… I am like a child in these places, I never went to them when I was growing up. I make lists of all the rides we HAVE to go on and drag Paul around behind me!

Anyway, I bought these

which are the cutest things..a hobby horse an a hobby tiger.. they are from paper mache and I don’t know how long they would actually last in the hands of a child, I dented a tiny hole in the paint just taking a picture. But they are gorgeous!

and these

they are feng shui frogs and if I put them in the right place they will attract riches into our house. I will have to find a nice place for them to live.

Lastly.. to some art work I am progressing with the two oil paintings. I have got to the stage where I start to have some real fun. The backrounds and major details are done and dry and now I get to do stars and dots and spirals and flowers and suns rays and other wonderful things.. happy monday ya’ll… make a wish for the rest of the week!