Louise Mead

Close-up of a newly finished commissioned piece. #art #painting

2015-07-28T07:34:00.001-07:00

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1fDzVmi

Work in progress. #art #painting

2015-07-21T09:09:00.001-07:00

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1eeo8d5

I'm back!

2015-02-02T12:59:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I have updated my blog and social media accounts, although I have been working on commissioned pieces, I took a bit of a break from actively promoting my work towards the end of what was a bit of a difficult year for various reasons. However, I'm pleased to say that after a restful Christmas and New Year, then a very positive January helping out with the Veganuary campaign, I'm back and ready to go full steam ahead!

So, to kick things off, I'm going to do my first giveaway in a little while. Rather than the usual A4 print, I'm going to offer a an A3 print, and include shipping anywhere in the world.

You can choose any design from my portfolio that you like, here's one of the most popular ones below. There are lots of different ways to enter, and you can do as many of them as you like to increase your chances. Scroll to the bottom of the page to get started!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Catching up

2014-06-22T05:04:00.000-07:00

Well it's been quite an eventful few months but I'm finally getting back on top of things. First of all I had a couple of big deadlines for my uni work, I was in a car accident, and then my cat had to have surgery and required quite a lot of care afterwards. Now finally uni is done for the summer - hooray! I didn't break anything in the car accident but it left me too sore to paint for a couple of months. My cat seems to be on the mend too so all's well that ends well!

I've spent the last couple of weeks preparing for the local Reading Art's Week exhibition. I was interviewed for the local paper to help promote the event which was nice. Here you can see one my works that's in the exhibition and the newspaper article.

Having some time out was good in a way, I've had some time to think about new and different ideas for works I'd like to do. Don't worry, I'll still be painting my most popular abstract styles but it is nice to mix things up a bit. For example, here's a mixed-media piece I'm currently working on called, 'Sad Robot'.

Right, so that's me up to date now, looking forward to sharing some new works with you! :)

A little January pick-me-up - win an A4 print!

2014-01-03T05:47:00.000-08:00

Seeing as January can leave you feeling a bit blue after the holidays, I'm doing another giveaway! You can win an A4 print - just enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

December Discount

2013-12-09T07:35:00.002-08:00

I'm participating in the Etsy UK December Discount giving 10% off of everything in my shop between 9th and 15th of December. Any orders placed before midday on 15th of December will be shipped 1st class or on a 2-day courier service to try and make sure they arrive in plenty of time for you to wrap up for Christmas!

Simply enter the code XMASETSYUK at the checkout.

Happy shopping!

Christmas order dates

2013-11-13T04:03:00.001-08:00

It may be a good 6 weeks or so away but I thought it would be useful to share with you the dates for ordering in time for Christmas.

For paintings in stock

Courier dates change but provisionally, I would say to order no later than the 18th of December if you need to receive the painting before Christmas.

For custom paintings

If you would like to order a custom painting in time for Christmas delivery, please aim to do so before 30 November. If for any reason you need to order after this date, please chat with me so we can figure out if there's anything I can do.

For prints, greeting cards etc

In the UK - no later than midday on Friday 20th of December

For overseas, midday UK time as follows:

Wednesday 4 December	Asia, Far East (including Japan), New Zealand
Thursday 5 December	Australia
Friday 6 December	Africa, Caribbean, Central & South America, Middle East
Monday 9 December	Cyprus, Eastern Europe
Tuesday 10 December	Canada, France, Greece, Poland
Friday 13 December	USA
Saturday 14 December	Western Europe (excluding France, Greece, Poland)

November Giveaway - Win an A4 giclee print!

2013-10-31T08:54:00.001-07:00

It's giveaway time again! Simply choose one or more of the options below to enter before midnight UK time on Thursday 7 November 2013.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Autumn treasury

2013-08-22T03:01:00.000-07:00

It feels like summer is slipping through our fingers rather quickly now but I don't mind too much, I do love autumn. A bit like spring, it brings a lot of expectation and preparation for what's to come - particularly with all the winter holiday fun!

So I thought I'd make a quick autumn treasury of items from UK & European Etsy sellers.

'Turning leaf' by louisemead

Green Wrap Bracelet Sari Si... Shalotte	Copper Leaves Earrings-Rusti... MarrenJewelry	Bright Grass Green Czech Gla... LaserBeads	Greek FOREST CROWN - ATHENA... ManniaTitta
Handcrafted Leaf Pendant, La... ErikaPrice	Lime Green and Spring Green ... Yanettine	Pressed Leaf- Strawberry lea... regularhome	Fall falling maple leaves Mi... SoYesterdaySoC...
felted leaf pin brooch GREEN... Patricija	Linen Leaf Clover Coin Purse... VasilinkaStore	Apple Hedgehog Glass Sculptu... flyingcheeseto...	Wall candlestick Vine Leaf,O... dimitarmanev
Nature collection - Acorn le... sunshineartdes...	Journal, Leather, Handmade, ... Kreativlink	Bath towels, Four leafs bath... Lemiecreazioni...	Forest Cone Violet Watercolo... BarbaraSzepesi...

Sponsored by send bulk email from excel.

Giveaway Time!

2013-08-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

It's that time again - you can win a signed A4 print in the design of your choice. Just choose one or more of the options below to enter. Entries close midnight Sunday 25 August 2013. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Customer Photo: Sam in Wiltshire

2013-07-03T05:41:00.000-07:00

Thank you very much to Sam in Wiltshire for sharing this photo with me! :)

Customer Photo - Nicole in Victoria, Australia

2013-06-26T02:48:00.001-07:00

Here's one of the latest customer photos from Nicole in Victoria, Austalia. Thanks for sharing Nicole. I love your decor scheme, cute pillows!

Reading Arts Week 2013

2013-06-23T12:34:00.004-07:00

Well what a great week it's been. Reading Arts Week kicked off on the back of Water Fest on Saturday 15 June with the Art Village in Forbury Gardens. Despite the rain it was really quite busy and there was a great lively atmosphere with some great music from some of the Reading College Music Tech students & bands.

Throughout the week there were some other events including a fashion show in Market Place. Then at the end of the week we saw the kick-off of the Reading Arts Week exhibition at Reading College. The event was combined with the Reading College end of year show with music and an art exhibition of the students' work. There really were some great pieces and some really thought-provoking installations. Here's one of my pieces hanging on display.

There were a lot of great paintings from other artists, here are a few I really liked...

Poproszę Bochenek Chleba by Carl Beazley

It's a Family a'Fur by Sally Gurney

Skull by Agata Duda

I have to say, as always the week was incredibly well-organised by the lovely Chris Brant. The idea behind Reading Arts Week is a great one, it's really inclusive and does a great job of bringing together artists in the area as well as providing a platform for new and developing artists to show their work. I'm already really looking forward to next year!

Giveaway time!

2013-06-18T15:17:00.001-07:00

Gosh what a busy couple of months I've had. I've had a raft of custom orders to complete, a few events & exhibitions to prepare for an exams. I've finally gotten around to doing another giveaway which you can enter below up until 30 June 2013. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

March Giveaway - Win a Signed Print

2013-03-25T08:22:00.001-07:00

It's giveaway time! This month I'm giving away a signed A4 print, the design of which you can choose for yourself from my collection. Lots of options for you to enter, and you can do every single one of them to increase your chances of winning if you like!

Don't worry if you've already liked my Facebook page before the giveaway - that still makes you eligible to enter!

To enter - use the widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

March Etsy Promotion - Free UK Shipping

2013-03-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

As you may well know, one of the main marketplaces I sell on is Etsy, which is a global handmade & vintage marketplace. Recently, Etsy UK has decided to do some promotional activity to grow its customer base and market in the UK. As a result, a lot of UK Etsy sellers are participating in the March promotion of giving free shipping to UK customers throughout the month of March. To find sellers who are participating, simply search Etsy using the term uketsypromo0313 or click here. I'm participating so feel free to browse my shop too!

To give you a taste of some of the items available, here is a quick collection I put together.

'Natural Spring' by louisemead

Glass Bottles 1930's wax... muntjacvintage £14	Womens Spring Scarf Greyed J... Shalotte £10	Taupe headband, womens knit ... missbelluk £10
Spring Bird Nest Bottle Neck... PeachesandPebb... £18	Green Floral Baby Monster Pl... GrumbleCaveMon... £30	Abstract Brown Hare Print LizzesBeautifu... £8.95
Geometric cushion cover in G... ThirtyfiveFlow... £20	Brown and teal peacock frame... PursePoppet £19.5	Green Oil Vinegar Bottle Pew... Loutul £16
Manilla Leaf Motif Notecard ... Inkdoodles £6	Tea Cosy hand knitted cable ... TheFeminineTou... £23.69	Emerald green 1980's dre... hurdyburdy £22
250 Small Brown Mottled Butt... TizzyButtons £4.22	Emerald heart bracelet turqu... damsontreepott... £24	Chocolate Penguin Post Earri... Thelittlecreat... £7.5
Honey Lip Salve Natural Lip ... SudsNSparkles £3

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

If you're a UK Etsy seller and are joining in with the promotion, feel free to comment and leave a link to your shop.

Customer Photo - Christine in Devon

2013-01-29T04:50:00.000-08:00

Here's a commissioned painting I completed for Christine in Devon. I'm quite pleased with the colour match in this one. Thanks for letting me share Christine!

New Paintings

2013-01-23T07:21:00.000-08:00

I'm almost on top of my custom orders now which has given me time to finish a number of new paintings. Here they are below.

Purple, red, teal, turquoise, & silver Abstract Silver Birch Painting/Aspen Tree Painting, 30" x 20" on canvas

Green, blue, teal, turquoise, red, orange, gold, white, and pink abstract tree painting, 30" x 20" on canvas

Purple, teal, turquoise, red, & copper abstract tree painting, 30" x 20" on canvas

Red, turquoise, gold, & copper abstract tree painting, 30" x 20" on canvas

It's Give Away Time!

2013-01-18T07:16:00.002-08:00

Win a signed A4 print in the design of your choice. Entry is simple, you can choose any or all of the options below. Just make sure you confirm your actions below to ensure your entry.

Entry is open to existing Facebook & Twitter friends as well as new ones.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Where does the time go?

2013-01-17T08:47:00.002-08:00

First thing's first, Happy New Year! I'm a little late, I know but it's been so busy. So much for things slowing down in the New Year. I'm certainly not complaining mind you!

So what news do I have to share? Well, first of all there's this lovely customer photo from Neil in Hampshire of his commissioned painting hanging in its new home. I love the wallpaper!

Next there's the winner of the last print give-away - Sandra from The Feminine Touch.

Third of all is to say that I'm working on some new pieces but they've had to take a little bit of a back seat whilst I get on with the queue of commissioned works that I currently have.

Christmas was good, we didn't get up to much but it was great just to have a few days of down-time.

Finally, I'm in the process of planning my first school workshop which I'm really looking forward to. I'm going to be visiting a primary school and working with a class to create a giant tree painting. I'm really excited about it.

Next post will be a new print give-away so watch this space!

Large Prints Are Finally Here!

2012-12-19T11:10:00.001-08:00

It's been such a busy December I managed to invest in a beautiful new A3 printer meaning that I can now offer prints up to A3+ in size. You can see a photo of the little beauty left!

As always, my prints will be on heavy archival fine art paper and I will continue to use Canon ChromaLife 100+ inks to ensure the prints have a long life on your wall.

So far I've optimised and added the most popular designs for sale - you can see them here but do get in touch if there's a design you can't see but would like me to print for you.

It's Give-Away Time!

2012-12-05T11:07:00.004-08:00

Seeing as the last one was so much fun, I'm doing another give-away! Seeing as Christmas is coming you can choose:

A free signed print of your choice
£15 off any original painting

You have a number of ways to enter & you can do all of them if you'd like to increase your chances of winning. You can:

Like my Facebook page
Follow me on Twitter
RT one of my tweets about the give-away
Post your own tweet to tell people about the give-away
Post a comment on my blog

It's open to people who already follow me on Twitter or who already like my Facebook page - simply click below to show you already do and confirm your entry!

Let me know if you have any questions!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Customer Photo - Natalie in Adelaide

2012-11-28T05:15:00.004-08:00

It's customer photo time again! This time a glimpse into the office of Natalie in Adelaide. I love the cute little floral paintings on the other wall - so sweet! Thanks Natalie for sharing! :)

Customer Photo - Emma from Tyne & Wear

2012-11-21T10:09:00.000-08:00

Another beautiful customer photo from Emma in Tyne & Wear! I love the wallpaper - it's such a delicious colour and the paisley is so pretty! The lovebirds painting was a commissioned piece to fit with the colours Emma had chosen for the room.

Using Google Images to see where your images are online

2012-11-02T05:19:00.000-07:00

I've spoken to a few artists and makers lately who've had their images taken and used without permission.

Sometimes it may be a relatively harmless occurrence, with perhaps a blogger or Facebook user posting a photo without realising they ought to ask for permission. Other times it's more serious and damaging to the artist where there have been Facebook pages and websites set up using images and offering to create replicas of handmade items or prints of original artworks cheaply.

Whilst there are a number of things people can do to try and prevent such theft - such as watermarking photographs, it's not 100% foolproof. After all, artists and makers need to make sure their images are presented nicely enough for people to want to buy their products and if somebody is determined enough and is able to use Photoshop, they can get round watermarks to a degree.

Quite a big part of the problem is that the owner of the images often doesn't even know their images are being used. This is where Google comes in. When I was discussing it, quite a few people seemed unaware of the function in Google Images whereby you could search for copies of your image that had been indexed by Google. What's more, you could even use it to try and track down the original artist of a piece photographed if you wanted to. It's really easy as you'll see from these instructions:

1. Go to Google Images, or go to Google and click on Images at the top of the screen. Then in the search bar click on the little camera icon (as pictured below).

2. Decide whether to paste the URL (web location address) of the image or to upload it from your computer or device, then click search.

3. Hey presto! Google returns a list of all the places it knows of that have your image.

That's about it! I know it won't help prevent people from taking your images but at least if you know about it, you can begin to do something about it. And perhaps if people know that they're more likely to get found out, they'll be less inclined to take images in the first place.