Limited Edition

I have officially issued two new prints!  They will be on show at Salon91 in Cape Town from Saturday 3rd December until 14th January as part of a wonderful group exhibition called 'If You Let Yourself Love a Wild Thing'.  If you live in Cape Town, or just happen to be there over this period, head up to 91 Kloof Street and have a look.  The grand opening is on from 11:30 this Saturday.  Check the details on FaceBook.

I have re-worked 'The Hazards of Love', so that the fawn has a lush habitat to reside in, and have also created a brand new print called 'I Dreamt There Was a Songbird Singing at my Window'.  Both are available through my Etsy Shop right now.  

The Hazards of Love

As 'The Hazards...' was inspired by a Decemberists song (/album) I thought I would give a donation for each print bought to Breast Cancer Care as a celebration of Jenny Conlee's remission.

'The Hazards of Love' can be bought as an A3 Limited Edition of 20.  Click here for Etsy listing.

...and also as an A2 Limited Edition of 20.  Click here for Etsy listing.

  

I Dreamt There Was A Songbird Singing At My Window

'I Dreamt There Was a Songbird...' is an A4 Limited Edition of 20.  Click here for Etsy listing.

My Brightest Diamond

Maybe a poster is totally redundant once the gig has passed, but I was way too busy before the show to even start on this.  I went to see My Brightest Diamond last Thursday and wanted to memorialise the show in poster format.  

Shara Worden gave such an excellent performance along with her full suite of musicians and a little help from Stateless frontman Chris James.  They performed the new album 'All Things Will Unwind' top to tale in a marvellously grand church.  The pews were a little hard on the behind, but acoustics and the view were good.

All Things Will Unwind album cover

Shara sang her unbelievable version of Feeling Good during the encore.  A video doesn't quite do it justice, but this one's pretty good and you will get the idea.

A to B: African Grey

Yesterday I finished my largest painting thus far.  As we all know I love drawing birds; so I was very lucky to be commissioned to paint this beautiful African Grey parrot.  I had such fun and it's a completely different experience using a step ladder to paint a picture!

I thought I'd go through a step-by-step of the process in case anyone is curious.

Quality reading material and scented candles being used as paperweights

First thing (after tracking down the largest paper possible) was to flatten the paper off the roll.  It's a total bitch to handle until it's been flattened out.  This is 300gsm Saunders Waterford Rough Watercolour paper bought from John Purcell Paper in Brixton.  (Amazing place for those of you requiring paper; you can get big quantities of the best without crippling your finances and they have the best sketchbooks I've ever touched.)

I taped up on to a wall and gridded the paper, along with a sketch I had done so I could scale the picture up correctly.

I painted with Dr Ph Marten's Hydrus liquid watercolours and work from light to dark, building from practically water to black.  I mixed every shade of grey myself from colours and never touched the 'carbon black'.  

First wash

Second wash outside the outline

Second wash on the parrot

A touch of red and the begining of the third wash

Third wash done and some added depth to the red on the tail

Black done and red reddened

Et voila!  I have ordered a mammoth poster tube and this painting will shortly be winging its way to its new owner.  Happy days.