Molly & Jasper finished - again....

I know this might seem a little bizarre, but I wasn't sure about the background on this pieces even whn I declared it finished.

Then I posted on Wet Canvas and a few of the guys suggested that the background could be darker.
so I fiddled and here's the result.

the image is not as good as it could be as the piece is now in a frame, so it was difficult to not capture the reflections as it's very sunny this morning.  Anyway I like the results - it's a bit different...

Molly & Jasper finished

Just thought I'd post a quick update while I eat my soup this lunchtime!

Molly & Jasper are finally finished, although I will probably keep looking at it and tweaking here and there as is my way.....and, I suspect, the way of most artists.

Now I can go and find that fisher paper and wake up those Siamese babies...

SOFA, so good!

Well someone had to say it...
I had a fab day today.  I took four pieces of work down to the Society of Feline Artists submission day for their annual exhibition.

I was very nervous as this is my first time exhibiting at this venue and it's the one to be at really as it's in London at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery in Waterloo.  One of my images has been used for the catalogue and all four submissions were accepted into the exhibition, so I'm excited to see the outcome.

Fellow artist Sue Clinker, who's blog Pencilpix you can visit from my blogroll, has also submitted work, so I have had my fingers crossed for her all day too. 
I'm told that all the work will shortly be on the gallery website so watch out for the pair of us!

The Society of Feline Artists run this exhibition every year and it is eagerly awaited and attended by cat lovers from around the world. 

You can read more about SOFA here.

A bit more laurel....

Well strangely I'm loving this...
I think it's the discipline of rendering life-like foliage.  I'm giving as much attention to the laurel as I am to the main subjects - which is no bad thing.  Time was when I would have dashed off a background and then not been happy with it - maybe I'm finally mellowing in my 'middle age'.

Anyway here's the latest shot of it with a little more laurel:

Now I'm thinking of a new direction for my work.  I won't say much right now, but I'm off to do lots of reseach on the Crown Jewels...!
John say's I should call this one "Keep quiet and act like a bush!"

Where is the year going....?

August already!  Soon the Easter eggs will be in the shops ;0)

Well I've had another crazy month with lots going on.  I got a 'debosser' last week! It stamps an impression into the mount board with my name in a roundel and the works 'original artwork'.  I'm really pleased with it because you can use it on gold foil wafers too.  These are great to use as authentication on limited editions.  I decided that I will start creating some OSWoA (Original Small Works of Art) pieces.  So I'll use this method to authenticate them.  You'll have to watch this space for that though.

So I went up to my studio all set to start on the Siamese....and then I saw Jasper and Molly!

If you follow the Pet Portrait Artist forum, you'll have seen the WIP that I started on there ages ago...Now I don't know about you, but there are times when I just have to finish something before I move on.

Sometimes I even have to do the washing up before I paint! (I know that's a bit extreme and I should seek therapy)

Anyway, since this is a college piece too I thought I'd better finish it, so those lovely Siamese are still in the pile waiting for me to get a move on.

BUT, here's an update on Molly and Jasper...
The brief is to create a piece that has two subjects from different reference material.  I decided to add in the foliage to link the two together.

We have lots of lovely foliage in the garden, so armed with my camera I went in search of soemthing interesting.  I photographed variagated Laurel and Photinia and settled on the laurel because I liked the berries.

It's oddly satisfying creating the laurel because as you put in the outline it looks really flat.  then as you start to add the darks and the shadows it really comes to life.

So, this has become my latest obsession and the Siamese will have to curl up and sleep until another day.

Tinkering and tidying up...

Well I'm lost without my little Bengal pals, they were such a part of my life for a few weeks now they've gone home! ;0)

I'm pleased to say that Tracey and Steve were delighted with their comission, so another happy customer...yeay!

So now what? Well there's lots to do.
This week I'm expecting reference images from several commissions that are on order so that they can be added to my schedule.

I need to create new work for my portfolio as four of my pieces will be going to the SOFA exhibition in Aug/Sept, so I'm excited about the exhibition and about creating new work!

I've just had a good tidy up in my studio - which always makes John (hubby) laugh.  I usually start by saying I'm off to tidy my studio and an hour later he comes up with a cup of tea to find me in the middle of the floor, surrounded by the 'stuff' I'm tidying having become distracted by a reference book or article in an art mag...Oh well I'm so predictable ;0)

Anyway, I did tidy up and I'm now ready to start on the little Siamese kittens.
Pat Sharp is a breeder of Siamese cats, you can check out her website here. 
She very kindly sent me this delightful shot which has now reached the top of my 'to do' list:

I love the way they all look like they are about to fall over, but I couldn't resist the one pushing the other out of his/her shot.

Not sure on the caption yet, but I'm liking "Move! You blockin' my close-up", at the moment - unless of course you can come up with anything better!  Now there's a challenge.

The other thing is that this will probably be submitted as part of my college work too, so I have an opportunity to try out some of the new papers that I ordered a few weeks back.  Possibly the fisher- definately pastels...

Right I'm off to find my fisher paper...

Speaky later

Jx

The Bengal 6 complete!

So here it is all done and dusted!

I will be delivering it to Tracey and Steve on Sunday,so I can't wait for them to see it.

It will be interesting to know what the subjects make of it.  My Brit Blue, Amber went around the back of it when I showed her, to see where the cats were...;0)  Bless.

So it's a short blog today - just wanted to show the finished article - I have a busy weekend of filming this weekend.

My husband, John, is a photographer and we are filming his new range of photography videos in the studio, so I'm off to create the autocue and shoot list now!

The things I do...

Have a great weekend all - next blog will see the start of the siamese kittens.  But don't despair if you're a Bengal lover as Spirit will be back in a couple of weeks in a painting all of his own ready for the Supreme Cat show at the NEC!

Take care

Jilly

x