clare art

Advent: Parcels day 8

2009-12-08T13:25:00.001-08:00

I love tying red bows on presents! Today I have also been tweaking photos in my etsy shop, with some help from from lovely friends Red Flannel Elephant and Treacle Toffee .

Also found time to check out Moo's advent calendar .

Advent: Parcels day 7

2009-12-07T12:40:00.001-08:00

Something hand-made for a sister! The Christmas tree has come indoors ready for decorating, too.

Advent: Parcels day 6

2009-12-06T09:05:00.001-08:00

Making a parcel of a favourite : )

Advent: Parcels day 5

2009-12-05T05:39:00.001-08:00

Another oddly shaped package: maybe all will be revealed on December 25th!

Advent: Parcels day 4

2009-12-05T05:38:00.001-08:00

Whoops! Yesterday's parcel got painted but not posted..

Advent: Parcels day 3

2009-12-03T04:32:00.001-08:00

Advent: Parcels day 2

2009-12-02T12:19:00.001-08:00

Another unusual package shape!

Fifteen knitting kit

2009-12-02T01:59:00.001-08:00

This painting is of the fab Fifteen knitting kit that I was delighted to win in a competition run by Stitch and Bitch London! It is a limited edition kit, containing lovely pink and grey wool from the sheep that supply lamb to Fifteen's restaurant. Naturally, I had to start knitting straight away, then paused to set up the kit as a still life to paint. The kit is very well thought out: as well as the three balls of yarn, there is a pair of gorgeous wooden knitting needles, and a choice of five knitting patterns for items that the wool could be used to make. I'm making the lacey scarf, and very much enjoying the knitting of it, so can recommend the kit as a fab special present for someone who loves knitting, or wants to learn.

Advent: Parcels day 1

2009-12-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

The first day of advent and I am painting my advent calendar again this year! This year I am making a lot of presents for people, which is resulting in some unusual parcel shapes and which I think will be fun to paint : ) There is a clue on a previous blog post about the contents of this package!

Percy The Pigeon

2009-11-30T03:31:00.000-08:00

Another little creature: I have had fun making Percy the Pigeon from a knitting pattern I found on the anti-bullying campaign's website www.bullying.co.uk. The delightful knitted Percy was designed by Alan Dart, and is based on an illustration by my lovely friend Sarah Miskelly for Anita Hunt's book "Matty-boy and The Secret Pigeon Racket" . A very worthy cause: bullying wherever it takes place makes life so miserable.

Black Cat

2009-11-28T11:47:00.000-08:00

Crochet is not something I do often, and then I came across an amigurumi pattern on Lion Brand's website for this little black cat, and could not resist!

Twelve days of Christmas 1

2009-11-23T03:41:00.000-08:00

This year's Christmas card design will be based on the traditional rhyme of The Twelve Days of Christmas, in part because I keep receiving requests to print the entire set up for sale! I've been working on the series for a few years, and this is the only colour version of designs I have drawn originally in black and white pen and ink. So far, the designs have been very classic and not connected with any particular period in history because the ones I have completed have been birds and the five gold rings. This year I fancy tackling some of the people, so will need to choose what historical setting to use!

First studio

2009-11-18T02:59:00.000-08:00

Second thing in the morning, after I have done my "morning pages" (from Julia Cameron's excellent The Artist's Way) I do some random drawing. This is me, aged about four, I guess: I used to sit between the sofa and upright piano with all the pencils I could find, and draw for hours! The lovely striped cardigan was knitted for me by my granny: there is a family tradition of crafts, which I have followed.

Thinking about Christmas already

2009-11-06T03:42:00.000-08:00

This year I am excited to have two Christmas cards for sale for the first time. You can buy them from my etsy shop - see shiny new button on the right!

Bonfire night

2009-11-05T00:55:00.001-08:00

Happy Guy Fawkes night! This drawing is the result of twenty minutes scribbling first thing starting out with no particular idea in mind, other than that today is November 5th. Simple and rough, and I think evocative. (It is brilliant having the scanner easily accessible again)

Don't forget to keep animals indoors, and turn up the tv/music to drown out the loud bangs that frighten them.

Pumpkin Advenutre

2009-11-04T06:10:00.000-08:00

This halloween was my first time ever making a pumpkin lantern, and pumpkin soup! It was great fun - doing the research for recipes, then finding out how to carve out the pumpkin; and then realising I could toast the pumpkin seeds, too, to make a yummy snack.

Naturally, all of this activity found it's way into my sketchbook!

Ravatar

2009-10-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

It has been a while! Restoring my home and studio to a useable state post-builders is taking far longer than I had anticipated because I am using the enforced movement of my possessions to reconsider where to put them. This is probably a good thing.

Today, I made the scanner accessible again, so can show you the water colour "ravatar" I painted to use on Ravelry*: a dragonfly shape cunningly fashioned out of a circular knitting needle and yarn!

* Ravelry.com - an on-line community of knitters, crocheters, etc

A Hooray and a peacock

2009-09-21T07:57:00.001-07:00

Hooray and hurrah! The scaffolding shroud cutting out the day light from my flat has been removed after seven gloomy weeks. So now I am in the midst of finding everything I need to get on with painting/life, having put it all "in a safe place" for the duration of the building works.

I was not entirely idle, though: I drew this knitting peacock for Creature magazine's special "End of The Road Festival" edition - the brief was perfect for me, so I had lots of fun doing the drawing : )

Gardening August 2009

2009-08-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

My flat is in a state of chaos (hence the lack of paintings!) due to the cyclical decoration of the outside of the building: the scaffolding all has to be taken through my flat! Plus takes up a lot of the side area where the pots shown here usually live. So this August is a lost cause for gardening in itself, but I do like the colours and textures in this photo of the disarray : )

Innocent smoothie hats 2009

2009-08-15T01:48:00.001-07:00

I've knitted little hats for Innocent's big knit for the last few years, and had company making this years first three in the form of my knit pals in Stitch and Bitch London and Innocent's own staff. We all had a fabulous evening of knitting, cake and smoothies at Fruit Towers for the launch of this year's campaign : )

More Womad

2009-08-11T02:52:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pen and ink sketches from Womad:

Womad and builders

2009-08-10T00:57:00.000-07:00

Hello again : ) Painting is somewhat difficult at the moment due to omni-present builders and scaffolding making everywhere gloomy and with dark shadows across painting desk. The good news is that they have almost finished their work, and it will look great when complete!

In the meantime, here is a watercolour sketch I made at Womad this year:

dragonfly sky

2009-07-16T03:55:00.000-07:00

My blog has been languishing neglected recently while I focussed on learning how to use etsy's software to set up my new etsy shop , for which this painting is the banner! So much to learn, and very exciting.

Organising Knitting day 3

2009-06-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

This is a cute cropped cardigan, using some fabulous Noro wool yarn. So far I have knitted the back, and cast on the left front side. 'Not bad progress, since the yarn was only given to me about ten days ago! Oh yes, and I am knitting this project on a circular needle - less possibility of dropping stitches making it this way.

gardening project 2009 day 8

2009-06-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

I bought these lush-looking petunia plants at the farmers market : ) It will be a surpise when they flower, because I do not know their colour! They are destined to be added to the window box alongside the pink and red perlagoniums.