Saturday, December 30, 2006

Back to writing

I had a break from painting this week and returned to writing completing a newsletter for the EDFNZ on Thursday which I spent all day (till 9.45pm) copying. Yesterday morning I began addressing envelopes at 7.30am and finished at 9am and spent the remainder of the day stapling newsletters and stuffing envelopes. The mailman found a large box full of letters sitting on the front fence late afternoon.

Also updated Nature of Animals with a couple of new articles including one on Toyah Willcox, a British actress who is now involved with rabbit welfare.

I emailed all previous Trademe buyers of my artwork Wednesday with a link to the pendants I have for sale there. The next morning the tiger one sold and there are bids on a couple of other items which I'm happy about. It's having to constantly push for sales which I find tough- I'm not a marketer.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Christmas Presents


Well Christmas is over for another year thank goodness. I spent a quiet day on my own and my brother and his wife called in late afternoon. Home made gifts this year- I usually give my brother money and decided to personalize this with an original card so drew this sketch of Tobermory my goat whom my brother absolutely loves. Unfortunately the scan doesn't show the drawing too well as I tend to be rather gentle when sketching.


My sister in law had admired the picture frame I did as part of my art course so I made a smaller version for her on a wooden photo frame. The base I painted with blue with a slight touch of yellow ochre before rag rolling gold paint over the top. Diane features blue in nearly every room in her house so hopefully it will fit in somewhere.

They also brought back the last of my stock from the Creative Hastings Christmas sale. This year was the best yet for me as I sold thirteen pendants and seven brooches, ten cards and one ladybird stone! Diane bought another three pendants for gifts since she has been unable to get out shopping since a bad car accident three weeks ago. I sold nearly 50% of what I sent in this year so it was definitely worth entering.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Last Items at Gallery Sale


Only six days of the Christmas sale left at Creative Hastings and today I will take in my last batch of items. I have been painting busily the past few days as I want to achieve my target of $1,000 worth of stock for sale in there. There has been a glitch as they rang me Saturday to say that they've lost the phone number of the lady who ordered all the wolf pendants. We're hoping that she will turn up on the off chance but it's frustrating as I had set aside other work to complete the pendants last week as I knew she wanted to give them as Christmas gifts.

I am enjoying painting fish so have decided to do a large canvas painting of goldfish sometime next year. In Feng Shui they're meant to bring wealth if situated in the money section of the house- I think I may need a large aquarium then!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Hippy Cat Sold


Monday I received an email from a tutor called Cat from The Learning Connexion to say that she had seen my small Hippy Cat painting at the end of year exhibition and had bought it! Really thrilled as I thought it would get lost amongst all the other works.

Over the past few days I finished the last of the wolf pendants for the gallery order (six wolves in a week and a half is a record for me). I took these in yesterday morning along with another small canvas painting and alpaca, tiger and monarch butterfly pendants. I was really happy to see that only four pendants were left hanging on the stand. The ginger cat face and Jack Russell Terrier ones had sold as well as two cat brooches. A few cards also sold but not as many as in previous years. There is immense competition with cards at the sale. I am very pleased at how my work has been displayed this year as they've kept everything together which will also make it easier to pick up on Christmas Eve.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Monarch Butterfly Pendant


Head down and finishing off the wolf pendant order at the moment. Two more still to complete before Wednesday. I've also finished a monarch butterfly one on paua to take to the gallery.

Today is the last day of the student's end of year exhibition at The Learning Connexion so fingers crossed my little painting sold. I've taken part in four exhibitions this year- the most ever- selling two paintings and with an order for a donkey painting so that isn't too bad a beginning.

Heard this week that my large pop art painting arrived safely in the US taking only seven days to get there. It cost NZ$47.08 to send airmail (only $7 more than economy) and I worked out that once I paid costs I came out of the experience with NZ $77.00 for 21.5 hours work!

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Wolves, donkeys and weird shaped cottages


I had a phone call from Creative Hastings on Friday to say that there was a lady wanting six Husky pendants painted as she liked the one displayed. The only dog painting I had sent in was a Jack Russell Terrier so I was at a loss to know what she was talking about until I realised she was discussing the wolf pendant I had there for sale. I agreed to do the six within a fortnight and ten minutes later Bev rang back to say that the lady had bought the wolf pendant already there and asking if I could paint two more by this week as the buyer is sending them away for gifts. She then told me this could be an ongoing source of work for me as the lady keeps huskies and has photos of her dogs she wants painted. Very good news! So I have two husky/wolves ready to take into the gallery this morning along with a donkey painted with a blue background to make it stand out a wee bit.

Over the years I have accumulated some weird shaped stones that I am saving up for a rainy day. I have this cottage shaped rock put aside for a while- it's the little witchy place I would like to live in (in an ideal world).



This is the view of the back of the house. If you look carefully you'll see my cat Peaches posing in the bottom window and also a red light burning in the bedroom window upstairs. This is an ongoing joke I have with my friend John who is always suggesting I set up in business if the starving artist thing doesn't work out.

This is a side view of the cottage with lacy curtains like the ones I actually have in my kitchen. The decorated window sills were originally going to be window boxes but I felt they would make the finished rock look too busy and cluttered. I would like to have a go at more cottages- just a matter of finding more weird rocks as all the ones I come across at the river and on the beach are smooth and round.

And an aside- an English teacher from Canterbury University contacted me asking if he could use one of my articles in his class. This is the one about the 1931 Napier Earthquake. He is teaching foreign students and encouraging them to write about natural disasters that may have occurred in their own country.