Showing posts with label oil pastels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oil pastels. Show all posts
Friday, 8 August 2014
Thursday, 22 May 2014
6 Good Reasons to Love the Humble Wallflower
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| A posy of wallflowers and forget-me-nots from my garden |
I think the wallflower is often under-appreciated, mainly because the dark red version, which seems to be the most common, can seem a bit dreary.
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| Wall in Swan Meadow, Abergavenny |
But I am always pleased to see my first wallflowers in bud, knowing that by the time the flowers open, winter will finally be well and truly behind us.
Here are a few of the reasons why I’m so fond of wallflowers –
1. The colours of wallflowers can range from palest yellow through gold and fiery red to deep, dark, burgundy velvet. And the ‘Persian Jewels’ variety adds a whole range of pinks and purples to the mix. Glorious to paint, both in watercolours and in oil pastels!
2. I love the fragrance of a bed of massed wallflowers, even though it was one of the first fragrances to bring on my allergy symptoms!
3. Wallflowers bloom for a long period of time so their colour well and truly bridges the gap between the spring bulbs and the summer flowers. I think of them as mainly a May flower but in fact mine were beginning to show buds in March this year.
They are so reliable that it’s hardly surprising that the wallflower stands for ‘intense fidelity in the throes of adversity.’
4. The wallflower represents great value both in terms of time and money spent. It is, strictly speaking, a biennial and I usually buy the plants in bundles from the greengrocer, in September, to plant out for flowering the following spring. But I find they are often bigger and bushier in the second or even the third year. Over the years I’ve come to realise that the time to get rid of a wallflower plant and replace it with a new one, is when the plant no longer resists a gentle tug.
5. The wallflower is also a favourite with bees and as far as I’m concerned, that is a Very Good Thing.
6. There is also a true perennial wallflower and the Bowles Mauve does very well in my garden, though I’ve had less luck with the other colours. My Bowles Mauve flowers all year round, apart from taking a short break in February!
Ever since 1820, ‘wallflower’ has been the term used to describe a girl or woman who seems to be unable to find a partner and therefore, at a dance, she remains seated at the edge of the room, with her back to the wall.
As such, it’s not a very flattering term. But in all other respects, I have great admiration and affection for wallflowers; so if I had to choose a to be a flower, a wallflower would be a strong contender!
4. The wallflower represents great value both in terms of time and money spent. It is, strictly speaking, a biennial and I usually buy the plants in bundles from the greengrocer, in September, to plant out for flowering the following spring. But I find they are often bigger and bushier in the second or even the third year. Over the years I’ve come to realise that the time to get rid of a wallflower plant and replace it with a new one, is when the plant no longer resists a gentle tug.
5. The wallflower is also a favourite with bees and as far as I’m concerned, that is a Very Good Thing.
6. There is also a true perennial wallflower and the Bowles Mauve does very well in my garden, though I’ve had less luck with the other colours. My Bowles Mauve flowers all year round, apart from taking a short break in February!
Ever since 1820, ‘wallflower’ has been the term used to describe a girl or woman who seems to be unable to find a partner and therefore, at a dance, she remains seated at the edge of the room, with her back to the wall.
As such, it’s not a very flattering term. But in all other respects, I have great admiration and affection for wallflowers; so if I had to choose a to be a flower, a wallflower would be a strong contender!
If you had to be a flower, which one would you like to be?
Click
to see some of my
WALLFLOWER PAINTINGS
on Gifts and Greeting Cards
(some of them suitable for Mother's Day!)
Thursday, 10 April 2014
Easter Parade -
There’s a saying, ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’.
And when I look at the Easter Cards I’ve designed for my online stores, I wonder whether maybe that could apply to me!
I’ve used no fewer than nine different mediums – though when trying to define my ‘signature style’, people told me that no matter what medium I used, they would always recognize my work - though nobody told me what it was that they recognized and maybe I'd rather not know!
I wonder whether that’s true of this hotchpotch of Easter Greeting Cards that I’ve made into a kind of ‘Easter Parade’ – or whether it really matters?
The trouble is, I get bored sticking to one medium and when there are so many to choose from, it seems such a waste not to try them all!
I don't think very many Easter Cards are sent in the UK - at least, I don't know anyone who sends them. But if you are looking for Easter cards to send, there's a good chance you'll find something you like in my Easter Parade of different styles!
And when I look at the Easter Cards I’ve designed for my online stores, I wonder whether maybe that could apply to me!
I’ve used no fewer than nine different mediums – though when trying to define my ‘signature style’, people told me that no matter what medium I used, they would always recognize my work - though nobody told me what it was that they recognized and maybe I'd rather not know!
I wonder whether that’s true of this hotchpotch of Easter Greeting Cards that I’ve made into a kind of ‘Easter Parade’ – or whether it really matters?
(of course there's also some digital input in the borders and lettering on all of these Easter Greeting Cards)
Watercolour
Gouache
Watercolour Pencils
Pen and Wash
(Ink and Watercolour)
Soft Pastels
Oil Pastels
Hand-painted Paper Collage
A mixture of Hand-painted and Digital
and finally - a Photograph
The trouble is, I get bored sticking to one medium and when there are so many to choose from, it seems such a waste not to try them all!
I don't think very many Easter Cards are sent in the UK - at least, I don't know anyone who sends them. But if you are looking for Easter cards to send, there's a good chance you'll find something you like in my Easter Parade of different styles!
Click
for more
EASTER CARDS
and
Easter Bunny Mugs
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
The Traffic Wardens of Style
I've suddenly had a little cluster of sales through GCU in the week or so since my age-specific birthday cards were approved, not enough to make me rich, by a long way, but encouraging all the same. Some of the sales have been age-specific, including yet another one of those 'dancing man' cards.
But the one that has pleased me most is the 'New Baby Girl' card, which was one of the first greeting card designs I submitted to a publisher, along with a batch of somewhat 'quilt-like' designs I had painstakingly painted in gouache.
When I painted this one, it was some years since I had used a paintbrush as I normally work in soft pastels - and it took some getting used to! When I paint landscapes and so on, I work fast. A pastel painting usually takes me about the length of time a CD takes to play; if it takes me longer, I can be pretty sure that I've ruined it. I can do this because there's no stopping to mix colours or rinse the paintbrush. Working so directly with pastels gives the painting a chance to flow without interruption.
Also I normally work quite large. One of my pastel life drawings took up most of a sheet of plasterboard, far too large and heavy for an easel and I ended up working on the floor! So restricting myself to a 5" x 7" space and having to mix the gouache was quite a trial for me to begin with.
But I gradually adjusted and sent a collection of Christmas card designs like this one to various publishers listed on the Greeting Card Association website.
Gradually the emails came back - 'We enjoyed looking at your work but unfortunately, it is not our style.'
By the time I'd spent nearly a year of submitting my designs to publishers, with just the one 'near miss' to show for it, I was beginning to think of publishers in very much the same way as I think of some gallery owners, as persons of immense POWER, power that, at times, I doubt is warranted.
As artists/designers we depend on them and I've met a few who seemed pleased to make sure that we are aware if it. Sometimes it can seem as if the balance of power is all wrong, when you think of the talent they reject, whilst possibly having no artistic talent themselves. Rather like the saying, 'If you can't DO it, teach it!', or, in this case, 'If you can't paint, run a gallery!' Or a publishing company...and yet maybe that's just the sting of rejection speaking. To be a successful gallery owner or publisher requires talent, just a different talent, the talent for business which many artists lack and have no interest in acquiring. Both publishers and gallery owners know exactly what they are - and are not! - looking for; and let's not forget that they have a living to make too!
Even so, I must confess to feeling a certain satisfaction when, through Greeting Card Universe, total strangers on the other side of the world began buying cards I had designed that had been rejected by publishers. As well as the 'not our style' emails, I'd received some with 'we already have cards in your style'. How confusing is that!
They say that there are two things you need to succeed in greeting card design; you need to be prolific and you need to be able to take a lot of rejection. But it can be frustrating when that rejection consists simply of 'not our style', with no constructive feedback. Probably most of us would like to know where we are going wrong so that we can perhaps do something about it. It took me a long time to realise that my 'style' wasn't actually the issue: it was just a polite way of saying, 'Thanks, but no thanks'. What I did, naively, before the penny dropped and I realised my 'style' had nothing to do with it, was I changed my style. With each batch of 'rejection' emails, I dug deeper and found a new 'style'.
First I returned to the pen and wash style I'd used as a teenager -
- then oil pastels - until the summer heat in my attic studio melted them!
At which point I switched to exploring wet-in-wet watercolours -
Then I turned to collage, more as a solution to an illustration problem than as a greeting card design 'style'. Because by then I'd had enough of the 'rejection' emails and had begun to work on illustrating one of the decodable reading books I'd written for my struggling literacy pupils.
But my first attempt, 'Snowballing', was immediately so popular with Greeting Card Universe customers that I began to wonder whether the publishers had really been as omniscient as they had seemed!
So how do I feel about all those 'not our style' emails now? Frustrated? Jaded? Embittered?
Well, actually, no, not at all! I'm thrilled that I spent the best part of last year going down roads that I'd never have thought of exploring if my first attempts had met with success! 2009 was a year of experimenting, learning, acquiring confidence in a broad range of styles, having fun! Yes, at times it was disappointing and yet it was also exciting, stimulating. I've found I can do things I had no idea I could do!
Or maybe it's my pencil that can do things - I certainly don't accept any responsibility for what it sometimes gets up to, particularly when it produces irreverent little doodles like this one!
Recently I was asked whether I have a recognisable style? On the face of it the answer has to be 'no, I have a lot of different styles'. But then I read on a blog, which I've unfortunately lost track of, that we all have our own unique 'style', whether we can see it or not. I certainly can't 'see' my style but maybe I'm confusing 'style' with 'medium'? I'd be really interested to know whether others can see a defining style in my work - and even more intersted in knowing what it is!
But the one that has pleased me most is the 'New Baby Girl' card, which was one of the first greeting card designs I submitted to a publisher, along with a batch of somewhat 'quilt-like' designs I had painstakingly painted in gouache.
Also I normally work quite large. One of my pastel life drawings took up most of a sheet of plasterboard, far too large and heavy for an easel and I ended up working on the floor! So restricting myself to a 5" x 7" space and having to mix the gouache was quite a trial for me to begin with.
But I gradually adjusted and sent a collection of Christmas card designs like this one to various publishers listed on the Greeting Card Association website.
By the time I'd spent nearly a year of submitting my designs to publishers, with just the one 'near miss' to show for it, I was beginning to think of publishers in very much the same way as I think of some gallery owners, as persons of immense POWER, power that, at times, I doubt is warranted.
As artists/designers we depend on them and I've met a few who seemed pleased to make sure that we are aware if it. Sometimes it can seem as if the balance of power is all wrong, when you think of the talent they reject, whilst possibly having no artistic talent themselves. Rather like the saying, 'If you can't DO it, teach it!', or, in this case, 'If you can't paint, run a gallery!' Or a publishing company...and yet maybe that's just the sting of rejection speaking. To be a successful gallery owner or publisher requires talent, just a different talent, the talent for business which many artists lack and have no interest in acquiring. Both publishers and gallery owners know exactly what they are - and are not! - looking for; and let's not forget that they have a living to make too!
Even so, I must confess to feeling a certain satisfaction when, through Greeting Card Universe, total strangers on the other side of the world began buying cards I had designed that had been rejected by publishers. As well as the 'not our style' emails, I'd received some with 'we already have cards in your style'. How confusing is that!
They say that there are two things you need to succeed in greeting card design; you need to be prolific and you need to be able to take a lot of rejection. But it can be frustrating when that rejection consists simply of 'not our style', with no constructive feedback. Probably most of us would like to know where we are going wrong so that we can perhaps do something about it. It took me a long time to realise that my 'style' wasn't actually the issue: it was just a polite way of saying, 'Thanks, but no thanks'. What I did, naively, before the penny dropped and I realised my 'style' had nothing to do with it, was I changed my style. With each batch of 'rejection' emails, I dug deeper and found a new 'style'.
First I returned to the pen and wash style I'd used as a teenager -
- then oil pastels - until the summer heat in my attic studio melted them!
At which point I switched to exploring wet-in-wet watercolours -
But my first attempt, 'Snowballing', was immediately so popular with Greeting Card Universe customers that I began to wonder whether the publishers had really been as omniscient as they had seemed!
So how do I feel about all those 'not our style' emails now? Frustrated? Jaded? Embittered?
Well, actually, no, not at all! I'm thrilled that I spent the best part of last year going down roads that I'd never have thought of exploring if my first attempts had met with success! 2009 was a year of experimenting, learning, acquiring confidence in a broad range of styles, having fun! Yes, at times it was disappointing and yet it was also exciting, stimulating. I've found I can do things I had no idea I could do!
Or maybe it's my pencil that can do things - I certainly don't accept any responsibility for what it sometimes gets up to, particularly when it produces irreverent little doodles like this one!
Recently I was asked whether I have a recognisable style? On the face of it the answer has to be 'no, I have a lot of different styles'. But then I read on a blog, which I've unfortunately lost track of, that we all have our own unique 'style', whether we can see it or not. I certainly can't 'see' my style but maybe I'm confusing 'style' with 'medium'? I'd be really interested to know whether others can see a defining style in my work - and even more intersted in knowing what it is!
Friday, 26 February 2010
The Spring is Sprung....
The idea of producing greeting cards for men (to be bought mostly by women, I expect) has provided me with a bit of a challenge and I hope this one may be suitable for men and women alike.
I can't think why I'm so enthusiastic about make collage designs - I certainly don't find it relaxing! All the precise cutting and fiddling with tiny, sticky pieces of paper doesn't allow me to get into 'flow' as I normally do with my painting. It still takes me much longer than any other medium I use and I generally end up with stiff shoulders and an aching back. But there's something about the finished result that keeps me going back to it over and over again.
I was surprised how long it took me to scan it and resize it for Greeting Card Universe and Zazzle, as well as for my 'private' webpages that I send out with the survey questionnaire, for my 'dead tree-ware' catalogue and for this blog - and then to upload it to the various online stores, not to mention going through all the processes it takes to make it into cards that I can print myself. I suspect all that took me even longer than making the collage itself! (Of course, it doesn't help that I do some things on my laptop and others on my main computer upstairs and it all has to be transferred from one to the other at some point.) I'll just have to hope that GCU will approve of the categories I've put it in - one never knows for sure! Different reviewers seem to have different criteria!
The past couple of weeks have been really quiet on the sales front so I've been reading the forums and there are frequent complaints about the Mysteries of the Categories! But I was pleased to hear today that an awful lot of my my dragons have found new homes - 'I've sold two in the past hour,' the shop assistant told me in a very surprised tone of voice. So, thanks to a prompt from another artist, I've put the rest of the emails on hold and spent this morning organising and printing out samples of my Mothers' Day and St Patrick's Day cards, in case the newsagent, having got out an extra stand for my dragons, would be prepared to refill it with some of my other 'Spring Season' designs, once St David's Day has been and gone.
And yes, he has agreed that I should take in a couple of each of my dozen or so 'Spring Season' designs and see how they go - what a pity I didn't think of this before Valentine's Day!
He thought that my Pen and Wash ones -
- would be more popular than my oil pastels. But my survey results, so far, have illustrated just how diverse people's tastes in cards are. It probably has a lot to do with age and gender and I expect that applies to where people go to buy greeting cards as well. I think our local newsagents could be a good place to reach all ages and types of people and in terms of 'footfall', it's a real hotspot throughout the year. I don't tend to buy newspapers - not that I don't enjoy reading them. On a cross-channel ferry I will devour every inch of every column but each time I've tried buying a newspaper regularly, I ended up with a pile of unread ones. However, I do pop into the newsagents from time to time - their treasury tags, which I use in great numbers for my teaching workbooks, are by far the cheapest in town! Which is how I came to notice the stand of beautiful photographic cards that encouraged me to try my luck with my dragons.
I'll be a bit disappointed if nobody buys my oil pastel flowers - they are just the sort of thing that I would be very happy to receive - but if they aren't popular, at least I'll know what to offer for Easter. And there's always the posh coffee shop to try....
Saturday, 20 February 2010
A whole bunch of flowers!
For some reason that I can't explain, I seem to be almost addicted to the weather forecast! I think my fascination may have sprung from learning about the British Climate, and its main characteristic, 'variability', in A-level geography - I don't know, but even if I'm too busy to watch The News, I always make sure to catch the weather forecast! And I have three weather website icons on my desktop, which I check regularly! I was particularly keen to know what today's weather would be because I'd had a slight problem with my drains yesterday and a neighbour had kindly agreed to come round and 'rod' them for me this morning!
'Wintry showers', sleet, hail and snow were all forecast - but in fact I wasn't too worried. For once, I didn't believe the forecasts. It's the nearest Saturday to my eldest daughter's birthday and, beginning on the day after she was born, we always had lovely spring-like weather for her birthday party that enabled us to let the little 'guests' out into the garden to let off some steam. Year after year the same thing happens, Spring seems to arrive suddenly on the Saturday nearest 17th February and today was no exception. It was probably the first time I'd really looked at my back garden for a while - and there were several little clumps of crocuses 'smiling at me'!
I'm no great photographer, though I do take a lot of photos. I'm not in the least bit worried about definition - I'll leave that to the real photographers - because I mainly take photos for references for paintings, a kind of modern-day sketchbook. In fact I sometimes think that a slightly out of focus photo enables me to really see what I want to paint...that's my excuse, anyway!
Last time I wrote I suggested that floral designs are generally acceptable for most occasions for most women and throughout the spring and summer, I pop out to my tiny garden with my camera whenever something catches my eye and paintings often follow. I've tried painting the real thing instead of using photos but it gets very hot in my attic and the flowers tend to wilt even sooner than I do, even though I paint very fast.
The greeting card publishers, Phoenix Trading, in their Advice for Artists, rank 'flowers' fourth in their list of popular subject matter for greeting cards, behind Fairies, Football and Animals (mostly cats and dogs). I know I am always pleased to receive floral greeting cards, particularly in the winter months when there are fewer flowers in the garden to enjoy. Most of my friends have similar tastes - and yet, so far, I have sold very few flower cards online, in spite of there being plenty to choose from.
On offer in my Greeting Card Universe 'store' are flowers in soft pastel -
- I am rather attached to this one and have refused to sell the original, partly because it was one of the better things to come out of a very disapppointing family holiday on the Burgundy Canal. But also, it was one of two of my pastel paintings that were accepted by the Bath Society of Artists for their Summer Exhibition a few years ago, as a non-member entry.
That was quite a big event for me! When the anxiously awaited postcard dropped through my letter-box, informing me whether or not my paintings had been accepted, I was totally mystified because it just had 'RESERVED' stamped across it. Having no idea whether this meant that my work had been accepted or whether it was on some sort of 'reserve' list, I phoned a friend in the Bath area to see whether he had any idea what it meant. Like me, he thought it might possibly mean that it had been accepted but didn't want me to 'count my chickens...' so I plucked up my courage and phoned the gallery, who confirmed that my paintings had indeed both been accepted. So, that is a painting I have hanging where I frequently walk past it to restore my confidence in the inevitable moments of self-doubt. However, as a greeting card, or a print, I am more than willing to part with it and it can be bought through Red Bubble.
I have also painted flowers from my garden in oil pastels and made them into greeting cards -
and in watercolours -
This is my latest floral design -
I didn't have any hyacinths for reference so I painted it this week from memory as I'm very fond of them and grow them in pots for indoors, in spite of the fact that I seem to be sensitive to them - my favourites, the white ones, actually give me a headache and make my glands swell!
On Zazzle, my flowers have graced mugs, aprons, mousepads, bags and more! Compliments keep appearing on my store wall and products featuring my flower paintings seem to be popular amongst other artists. As I mentioned, my screenprinted Sweet Pea bookmark won a Today's Best Award. But so far not one of my floral designs has been sold. I'm beginning to think that the reason may not be so much to do with my 'products' as with the fact that I am getting relatively few visits to my 'store'. A few days ago I discovered how to make my store statistics visible and learned that my daily total of visits is generally in single figures, whereas other stores clock up double and treble figures daily. Judging by the number of comments and messages on my store walls, I would imagine that most of the visits I do get are from other artists or store owners, rather than from potential customers.
I'm at a loss to know what to do about this! I blog, I update my facebook fanpage regularly and I've made a webpage of all the addresses of my online stores, complete with 'flash panels', to email to friends and other contacts. I also check the Zazzle forums daily so as not to miss any opportunity to have my products promoted on Squidoo Lenses and so on. I'm not sure what more I could do.
Maybe it's a question of being patient and giving it time?
On the other hand, I have just printed out 50 assorted St David's Day dragons for sale in my local newsagents.
(This is the painted-paper collage version).
I approached the newsagent because he seems like a particularly patriotic Welshman and his shop is one of the few places to buy bi-lingual Christmas Cards here in Abergavenny. He seems keen on art, as long as he can see what it's meant to be - he has nothing but derision for most of what's on display in our local art gallery, selling for thousands of pounds! When I was exhibiting my soft pastel paintings a while back, he was very willing to display posters for my exhibitions and he once embarrassed me dreadfully by introducing me to a shop full of customers as 'Mrs Monet' - but that was a while back and I don't think he recognised me. But even if he does remember, I think it's a small price to pay for getting some of my cards sold here in the UK. It will be interesting to see how they go - whatever happens, the newsagent is happy. The warehouse he gets his cards from had plenty of St Patrick's Day cards but none for St David's Day. So me turning up out of the blue with my samples made his day!
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