August

Not posted since July, but I have been drawing and painting... Here's some of the things I've been doing...

Steetly

Class

So nice to paint/draw someone who is not only still but also knows you are looking!  I have been surreptitiously drawing people at work and its not ideal, but when I tell them they get all awkward... So I don't!  Really enjoyed this class, a nice bunch of folk :-)

New tiny sketchbook

This is the last of my sketches in my 1st tiny sketchbook, and the 2nd arrived today :-). It took me a month and a half to fill the last one, but I was slow to start and all but 8 pages were done between 19th June and 6th July (when I got my new pens- one of which has already run out!). So hopefully this will be quicker.  Now I have my studio back (a friend has been living in it for the last 8 weeks!) I am going to work a few ideas up into larger paintings... *excited*

Tiny sketchbook and pens

...is what I have been using most recently, really enjoying drawing things from life in any situation, it becomes really absorbing at times.  These are the latest...

Posted

Most of my goddesses have now flown the nest courtesy of Royal Mail. I did the majority of the mounting myself which was a new experience! But this one, the first one I did had to get special treatment from the framers due to its weird size... Really pleased with how it turned out, tempted to keep it!

New toy

Got a scanner, so hopefully these jpegs should be better than my crappy ipad pics.

Other things...

Well now my goddesses are done (ish, couple to re do still and someone's hair wants a sort out) I decided to do some drawing out and about 'en plain air!' 'twas a nice day so I went out for a big dog walk 2 1/2 h and picked a spot and did this sketch....it's not the best but I'm pleased to have sat outside and not felt uncomfortable drawing... So it's a start! Then I sat in the garden and drew the tulip and the dog. And had a bit of a sort out in my studio. What a lovely day :-)

Last 2

The goddess of kin and the goddess of comradery.

The goddess of responsibility.

Jackie used to be my old boss, and is the manager of a crazy busy assessment unit. She is a fab nurse and as a manager was never afraid to get out the office and get stuck in. Responsibility, for every nurse and every patient on the ward is inconceivable to me, but she does it. And still manages to remain approachable and kind. She has not let it go to her head, and that is something that is a rare quality.

The goddess of growth.

This is my cousin Lauren, and I've called her the goddess of growth because she is one of the only people I have known from being a tiny baby through to being an adult. She was the first baby I ever held or interacted with. I don't see much of her, family gatherings are not a frequent thing and she lives at the other end of the country, but she has grown in to a beautiful well balanced person and I'm glad I got to witness that growth.

Tha goddess of nature

This is Claire, an old school pal who I rarely see these days. She is the goddess of nature because she has a love and fascination for all things in nature, and it can be quite infectious! She is also a person that has become a very natural person, genuine, good fun, and I think these are her natural qualities, which during our teenage years appeared to come into conflict with how she was nurtured. So nature over nurture! Yay for nature!

The goddess of adventure and the goddess of strength.

Posting these together as I finished them almost on the same day. The goddess of adventure is a girl I used to live with at college many moons ago, Karen, she is now the best travelled person I know. Her life seems to be a continuing adventure, and I enjoy looking at her Facebook finding out what she's up to. I met Paula, the goddess of strength, at circuit training and she took the class for a bit as she is a fitness instructor. She is tall and muscular but has a really strong womanly body, really aspirational. Must get beck to the gym soon!

The goddess of friendship

Cath has more pals than anyone I know, and is one of the friendliest people I have met. The only awkward thing about her was the subject matter she offered for my goddess task, lizards and geometry!!

I persevered!

Persevere...

Struggling a bit at the moment, seem to have slipped in to working full time again which is not leaving me enough time to be getting on with these. Still got 7 to do and ideally 2 I would like to rework (dodgy arms!) but I'm getting a bit bored with it... I perhaps need to change the scale or medium or something so I can become enthused again.... Will persevere!

The goddess of perseverance

In progress...

The goddess of nurture

I do struggle to choose the goddess quality once I'm done with these pictures. And I suppose that is part of the point of me doing them... The initial idea was to portray women that I know in a positive way and to acknowledge the wonderful qualities they have to thank them for what I have learned/experienced from them. And in a way this is my response to all of the nonsense that was in the papers a while back when a journalist for the Daily Mail (Samantha Brick) sparked outrage for saying that she was beautiful. I think women (including me!) can be cruel to one another sometimes (more so than men in my experience, and I have worked in all female hospital wards where the majority of staff are female too). This is my little way of trying to address this for myself. And the fact that it is sometimes difficult to find the words to describe a persons positive qualities just shows that I don't acknowledge or praise people as I should.

So this is Cindy who I did my nursing degree alongside. And she is very nurturing! All of us in our little group of pals at uni had problems during the course and Cindy if the type of person that would be there for you and always knew what to say or do. Even though she is not much older than me she has a sort of comforting, mothering nature which is unusual in a friend I think, but most definitely a positive quality!

Goddess of perpetuity

Perpetuity is a funny word but I couldn't find a better one to describe aspects of my lovely sister. And i did have to get on the thesaurus! She is a constant, doesn't appear to have any flip outs, moods or irrational behaviour (like me), she's well balanced and consistent with her kids and everyone else, and our relationship as sisters has and will always be there. So it works, but it is a weird word! And this pic will need changing to one taken in daylight as it does the colours no favours at all.