Date For Festival Confirmed

Suffering from a headcold this week- winter's last little gift before it ends later this week. Haven't felt like doing much else but reading in the sun.

Last week the date for my day at The Craftsman was confirmed. I will be painting there on the 24th September 2006 between 11am and 2.00pm which is the last day of the Hawkes Bay Spring Festival. For further information Bob and Maureen can be contacted at 169 Gloucester Street, Taradale, Napier Ph.06-844-7514.

I took some of my small paintings into The Flying Pig Gallery in Napier to see if the owner could give me a better idea about pricing them. She suggested selling them in sets may be a better option, the tiger head one in particular she felt would be good in an endangered species series. Anyway I have repriced all my recent paintings and they're for sale on Passion For Paint.

Mask

One exercise for my course was face casting with plaster bandages before making a plaster of paris positive and then a papier mache mask from this. Here is my mask: it is as I envisaged it although I'm not sure if I like it or not.

Bummed Out

Heard Thursday that not one of my paintings sold at The Affordable Art Show last weekend. What's worse is that no one said they saw my work there at all. Very disappointed.

Paint Effects

Still no word as to whether I sold any of my three paintings at The Affordable Art Show in Wellington last week but by all reports (including an article in The Dominion) it was a record breaker with 9,000 people attending.

I have been making cat brooches for the Otane venture plus I've finally uploaded images of some paint effects I have undertaken as part of my course. My favourite was ragrolling where I basecoated an old manilla folder with several layers of deep purple before rolling gold paint over the top.



The second was marbling or a faux marble paint effect. This was achieved by basecoating in white then laying in pale grey streaks with acrylic gloss medium several times. The last layer I added some darker veins in Payne's Grey before blending with a fan brush. I know you're meant to use a feather but my cats have eaten my feather collection and short of denuding my chickens' rear ends I will have to remain featherless until the big moult late next summer.



The third effect was Lapis Lazuli where I used two different shades of blue then a little white before flicking gold over the picture. Not sure how accurate it is but it looks pretty!

New Projects

Finally finished a jewellery order for someone in the US and this should be sent out next week. Also have been contacted by someone I met at the Creative Fibre Festival in Taradale this year who is opening up a shop in Otane, Central Hawkes Bay in early August and she has asked me to supply her with anything I have so I need to get painting. Unfortunately my thumb is still pretty raw where my house rabbit Muggles bit it on Sunday so I'm not able to do much.

Also The Affordable Art Show begins tomorrow (3 August 2006) and I just found a page with all the exhibiting artists. I'm number 811.