Jewel's Arty Blog

Art In The Gardens - Sheffield

2016-09-14T07:49:00.001-07:00

This is no. 2 in my "In the Rain" series - I also did Patchings several years ago.

Our art group at Barlborough is back on Saturdays again (we had a rest in August for people to get other commitments out of the way) and it was good to see many of the others again.

Afterwards, I visited Sheffield for the Art In The Park event at the Botanical Gardens.

One of my friends also went separately. We both had difficulty getting public transport or parking nearby, and there was also nowhere to sit for refreshments at the event - all much needed when someone (not me) was ill at the event. The city centre also felt unsafe.

Maybe the organisers could talk with the local police, public transport providers etc. to try and improve things. After all, artists are an asset to the city and can attract tourists.

A Wee Mousie

2016-08-21T12:41:00.001-07:00

As the six week school holidays continue in the UK, I have been doing various kid child-friendly projects with my young son, like this tiger/cat house from “Box Yourself” website. There are many good projects on this site - inexpensive and fun for parents or grandparents to do with kids.

I’ve also been getting ready for the miniatures group project that Barlborough art group are starting at the beginning of September, when the Saturday group reconvenes (we are not meeting in August). I’ve bought several mini canvasses with easel stands and have been deciding what to paint on them. Some will be Christmas themed because our November Christmas Tree display at the Methodist Church will obviously be a festive thing, but also plan to do individual subjects like a plant or animal. I have painted pale pastel base coats as above.

I have also been on holiday to the Scottish Highlands and visited a small gallery at the harbour in Gairloch, run by Les and Irene Lamb. Irene makes jewellery and Les paints colourful landscapes. I thought these necklaces and earrings would be good at Christmas (I have some Christmas baubles that are larger versions of the round ones). www.leslamb.com and www.jewellery-online.info. The cafe/shop next door sells homemade cake and my son was rather partial to their chocolate cake.

Also worth a visit is Gale Centre at Gairloch, which has a tourist information centre and an outlet for a variety of local businesses. This hand knitted “wee mousie” and thistle brooch were from a stall at their small indoor market held on Monday mornings (their cafe also sells cake – and reasonably priced soup and bread). Here's a link to their Face Book page: https://en-gb.facebook.com/Gairloch-and-Loch-Ewe-Action-Forum-GALE-209581059057657/

Eileen Donan Castle - we saw this en route to the Highlands where we stayed

Gairloch museum is across the road from the Gale Centre. It has one room set aside for art exhibitions (Rowena Dugdale’s micro-landscapes of Wester Ross were on display at the time). The museum often runs art workshops for all ages. It is a small place run by volunteers, and worth a visit in itself if you want to find out how life was for the people of that area http://www.gairlochheritagemuseum.org/

There’s another gallery in Gairloch - Solas, which I didn’t have chance to visit but its publicity leaflet looked promising www.solasgallery.co.uk. We did visit The Old Inn next door for a very tasty sea food meal (there were good kids' options too). There was a large painting on the wall of the road to Inverness (A832) which I have photographed on the way through as we travelled along it, and I may have a go at painting it - although not as huge as the one at the pub. Hope all readers are enjoying their holidays and staying safe from storms, which we've had over this weekend. Next update in September.

Well Dressings Start Here

2016-06-30T09:34:00.005-07:00

Well Dressings opposite the Elm Tree Pub, Elmton, Derbyshire

The well dressing season is now in full swing throughout Derbyshire, and parts of Yorkshire. Well dressings are decorated boards put up near wells and streams, made with natural materials. They are thought to have begun as a way to thank or ask the pagan gods for supplying water, before the tradition was adopted by the Christian church and also community groups. They often depict bible scenes, or local history, and are blessed in a special opening ceremony. The wooden frames are soaked in water and filled with wet clay, then the design is pricked out using a paper pattern and the board is filled with flower petals, bark, seeds, gravel etc. In the Cresswell and Elmton area, Elmton well dressing runs from 24th June until 9th July - there are three large boards and three small ones throughout the main road of the village. For details of other well dressings, open gardens and other related events throughout the summer until September see www.visitpeakdistrict.

There was no art group last weekend but we're back to normal on Sat 2nd July, for me fundraising knitting instead. This little doll is based on Jean Greenhough’s last minute dolls from her “Christmas Special” pattern book. Dolls like this about 3” high take me about 2-3 hours to make. Below is a Liquorice Allsorts noughts and crosses game, from Jean's Bazaar Knits pattern book - this took a week.

My mother has always liked cross-stitch - I wanted to share with you one of her beautiful abstract pieces (below).

Finally, a quick mention for “Little Things Textiles”, which is a small local business making commemorative bunting and other crafts to order. You can see photos of what they do on their Face Book page at: https://www.facebook.com/Little-Things-Textiles-358901154306188/photos.

Santorini Continued ....

2016-06-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

Today, I have continued to work on my small Santorini painting begun some weeks ago. I'm not planning to sell it when it's done - it's just a practice go at miniature painting.

There will be no art group on Saturday 11th June. The Methodist Chapel at New Road, Barlborough are holding an event to mark the Queen's 90th birthday, from 10.30 am. Tuesday group will go ahead as usual. The Methodist Chapel at North Road, Clowne are having a similar event on the Friday and Sunday either side.

In Memory of Edith

2016-05-25T06:42:00.001-07:00

Edith's "Friends"

This post is a tribute to Edith Daniels, one of our Tuesday group members who sadly passed away earlier this month. I met her when I used to go to the Tuesday group last year. A talented amateur artist, several of her paintings were on show at the group’s Easter exhibition. I remember her as a kind and pleasant woman, who liked animals and the outdoors, and was also a keen gardener. Married with one grown up son, Edith was a retired secretary, who was locally born, and lived in this area, but had lived in Australia for a time in the 1960s. She was a popular member of our group, who will be missed and my thoughts are with her family at this time.

One of my miniature paintings in progress "Santorini"

On a slightly happier note, I can announce that later this year, our group will be taking part in an event at Clowne Methodist Church - the Christmas Tree fair will be on 19th November this year, and we will have some miniature paintings on display.

"Benji"

I also wanted to mention the runner up in our Best In Show at Easter, which was Karen Wilkinson's painting "Benji". Karen often says she doesn't "do" backgrounds but I think this one looks great, don't you?

If you want to see more of her work, here's a link to her website. http://wilkinsonart.co.uk/all-artwork/

After The Exhibition (2016)

2016-04-01T07:22:00.002-07:00

Our art group's exhibition is now over for another year, and it was well attended too, as it has gradually become more established.

Joint "Best in Show" voted for by visitors was "Splashing About" (above) by Sue Colclough, sharing the honour with her "Burmese Mountain Dog" (below).

We had the right sort of weather - no snow (thankfully) and not too warm or sunny, so that people wouldn't head for the coast.

I didn't sell any of my paintings, but many of the best ones were still at Retford Museum after my exhibition there finished last week (my cakes sold well, though).

Setting up is hard work

As ever, all the members all did their bit in setting up, running and dismantling the exhibition. Thanks to the support of the local community, we have been able to raise enough to keep the groups going for another year. It was also good to catch up with some past members who came to see us - one of whom said she wanted to re-join - here's hoping she will.

It didn't take us quite so long this time - we're used to it

As usual, I was to be found in the kitchen, helping to keep everyone fed and watered. I occasionally had a rest, but I am one of the youngest members, so probably one of the more energetic ones.

Next week, I'll be updating progress on my Santorini painting.

Santorini and Sheffield

2016-03-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

They may both begin with a letter "S" and both be in Europe, but Santorini and Sheffield are of course very different places. I been working on my painting of Santorini that I began three weeks ago, mainly trying to get the sky looking smooth at the moment, which can be a challenge when you are using acrylic on canvas.

At Barlborough art group, we are firmly in "exhibition mode" in the run up to Easter, with about five weeks to go now.

My exhibition at the museum at Retford is still on until Saturday 19th March (inclusive).

Some of my "masterpieces" on show at Retford

Sheffield-wise, I visited the craft fair at the Millenium Galleries in Sheffield on Saturday (5th March) - in my last update I thought it was going to be the weekend before, sorry for any confusion. Anyway, the "Makers' Fair" was worth the visit, with around 30-40 stallholders. It was quite busy around lunchtime when I arrived, and I proceeded to visit every stall before finally finding my bookbinder friend Heather (with a different hairstyle to the last time I saw her).

In the foreground is a stall selling felt animals - I bought a tabby cat for my son

There was a wide and diverse range of crafts including costume jewellery, glass, designer clothes, felt animals, pill boxes, bookbinding and fine art prints. Once I'd found Heather, we went around again together, and of course some of the other stallholders knew her and wanted to stop and chat.

Antoinette design placemat and coaster by Katey and Josephine

One stall I liked was "Katey and Josephine" who were selling matching coasters and placemats. I could have had a lampshade or cushion to match too, if I'd wanted, but I settled for 4 each of coasters and placemats with a delicate print of white flowers on a lilac background -as seen above. If you're interested in their work, their website is at: Katey and Josephine

The fair was in an "L" shaped room - this is the other part of it

Nearly Mothers' Day

2016-02-25T06:26:00.001-08:00

Mother's Day is almost here, so here's some girly butterflies that I painted last year they're on display at Bassetlaw Museum until 19th March. My paintings are in the smaller room.

Tribute to the Dutch Flower Painters, also on display

If you prefer flowers, here's some too. In case you didn't know, there are two Barlborough art groups, one meets on Tuesdays, one on Saturdays. This year I was in the Tuesday group for a while, but I am now back with the "weekend waders", after a few months. It was good to see the old crowd again last weekend. The Saturday group tends to have younger people in it, whereas the Tuesday one is mainly retired people. If you want to know why I swapped, read on, otherwise skip to the paragraph below.
A new family have moved in next door and we expected our little boy to invite the kids to our house at weekends, but they don't seem to be allowed to, maybe the kids are a bit too young to go out unaccompanied, so although I went to the Tuesday group for about six months so I could be around on Saturdays to supervise what I expected to be anything up to five kids, my son has mostly only had me for company then. He wants me to speak to the mum and let her know that the kids can come round but I don't like disturbing them so I haven't, BUT if the mum or dad are reading this, ALL of you are welcome here and we will keep an eye on the little ones.

Jim Russell's Whitby painting

This week, I'm featuring Jim Russell, one of the Tuesday group members. This painting is of Whitby. He paints quickly and I do like his loose style of painting, he has a natural talent for it. He paints on board then frames the paintings. Jim will be exhibiting at our Easter Exhibition on Easter Saturday and Sunday (26-27 March), which is at the Old Schoolroom, behind the Methodist Chapel on New Road Barlborough. As well as paintings we will also have handmade cards and also crafts by local artists. I'll do a special feature on this in the next few weeks.

I am also giving a quick mention to my friend Heather Dewick, a bookbinder, who is exhibiting at a craft fair at the Millennium Galleries, Sheffield this weekend 26-27 February. I have featured her work before and also hope to update with some photos of the event after I've been. So many craft fairs only feature imported goods, but this one's an exception.

See you again soon.

Solo Exhibition at Retford

2016-01-27T04:54:00.002-08:00

This week I am blowing my own trumpet, as you might say, to announce my long-awaited solo exhibition at Retford Museum (Amcott House, Grove Street, Retford) will be running from 6th February - 19th March. I'll get my paintings back just in time for the art group's Easter exhibition at Barlborough soon after.

I am including this painting of the island of Sark, off Guernsey, Channel Islands, that I began after last year's summer holiday. Sark is nearer to the French coast than the English one. We decided to go at the same time as my husband's family so that it would be more fun for our son if his cousins were nearby. I'd half expected a bleak, windswept place with nothing to do, but it turned out to be a lively yet unspoilt island with plenty of attractions, and the sun shone for us too. It helps if you are able bodied and physically energetic enough to ride a bike everywhere and are prepared to climb steep clilffs to get to the beach. This view is from the war memorial at the highest point of the island, looking down towards the harbour. In the distance is Herm, a small neighbouring island, with its long sandy white beach ("Shell Beach") on the right. You have to catch a boat to get to Herm, if there's one running (the owner has to have enough passengers to make it worthwhile) but it's worth the effort -the views are spectacular, and it is full of wildlife with a nature reserve. We saw a sea lion and a slow worm, rare sights nowadays.

Not So Impossible

2015-10-06T04:12:00.003-07:00

I thought it was about time I updated my art blog again after about half a year. I have mostly spent my time at art group creating artwork to use in publicity materials for local non-profit organisations. The one above is for use on a poster, and the one below for a promotional coaster. I have recently begun a new painting, of a view from the memorial on the island of Sark (one of the Channel Islands). I've e-mailed the other art group members a copy of my photograph so they can use it if they like - some of them like to paint views of scenery like this.

The group are still thriving over a year after our move to Barlborough, although we had someone new turn up a few weeks ago who had gone to our old "home" at Clowne Cricket Club. Luckily, they redirected her to the new place. To add insult to injury, the bus driver overcharged her (£3.80, which as I found out by doing the journey myself at a later date, should have been £3.20 for a return ticket - the distance is only about a mile each way so you don't want to be paying over the odds).

How gorgeous is this view?

The newbie had gone to the wrong venue after finding an old website that a former member, Kevin, had created several years ago. I had asked him some time ago if he could take it off, but he didn't think it could be done (possibly something about not knowing the passwords to sign in). He then went on to tell me that another group he's a member of at the moment has the same problem as whoever created that website had since died(!) Much as this is a nice way to remember someone who has departed this life, sentiment aside, having someone turn up at the wrong venue was obviously not a good thing all round. So I set to and found the old website, which had been created on "Freewebs", who had since changed their name to "Webs". I e-mailed them, explaining the situation and asking for the website to be removed, and they responded that they were happy to do this as long as no one signs into it in the next 90 days. There you are - not so impossible then, Kevin.

Post Exhibition Report - 2015

2015-04-09T01:04:00.000-07:00

Putting the finishing touches to setting up on Good Friday

The Barlborough art groups have now had the Easter Exhibition . The Saturday was well attended, and refreshments were selling well - some people seem to go along just to buy homemade cakes.

Setting up - slotting in the boards after putting together the uprights

The Sunday was quieter, and many people would have either been at church or scoffing Easter eggs. Radio Sheffield came along and gave us a brief but favourable mention live on air - thank you - which seemed to help as we had a steady stream of visitors after that. The zentangles table was quite popular, especially with people who'd brought kids with them as it gave them something to do.

My paintings with the group's cakes in foreground

We packed up at 4 pm and I counted the "best in show" votes. I got 5 votes - my quartet of butterflies had proved popular. I was pleased with what I had on show, which for me was more important than selling anything (none of mine sold). Karen was the overall winner with 22 votes, 10 of which were for her "Blue Rose" painting, with Sue and Maggie joint second with 18 votes each.

Those cakes - with Zentangle table just seen in background

The group managed to raise enough funds from tombola and refreshments to pay for hiring the room for the weekend. I wanted to thank the church for supplying the venue and everyone who came along as we rely on the public's support to make it all possible. Perhaps we will even get some new members as a result, but even if not, it was an enjoyable way to spend a weekend, and it always feels special to take part in an event like this.

Setting Up The Exhibition

2015-04-03T01:31:00.000-07:00

Butterflies 2 - a set of 4 canvases I'm putting on show

It's almost here! The weeks and months of preparation are finally at an end and I am ready to travel over to Barlborough this afternoon to help set up our art group's exhibition. We will be moving any tables and chairs to the sides of the room, to use for the sales desk, refreshment area and craft displays, then bringing out and setting up the display boards to the members' agreed plan.

The exhibition runs from 10am-5pm Easter Saturday and Sunday at the Methodist Chapel School room on New Road, Barlborough (which by the way is on the 77 Chesterfield-Worksop bus route). As well as paintings, I am taking along 50 copies of the group's exhibition brochure/leaflet, printed off by another group member and put together and stapled by me, over 40 cup cakes, and a tombola prize of a glass jar full of mini eggs. The others are taking along cakes and tombola items too , to help cover the cost of the room hire. As usual, I'm looking forward to the event . I wonder who will win the "best in show" this year.

Since my last update, I've found out about a few more public libraries locally that I didn't know existed, and sent them the group's general publicity posters, exhibition posters, plus promotional bookmarks and drinks coasters.

I would be grateful if all my readers in the UK could give this update a "like" on Face Book, or a recommendation on Google +.

Here’s hoping for a successful exhibition and perhaps I’ll meet some of you this weekend.

Nearly There ....

2015-03-19T06:34:00.000-07:00

I have been kept busy over recent weeks with a quartet of butterfly paintings. The four small squareish canvases each depict a different type of butterfly: small tortoiseshell, orange tip, peacock and swallowtail. The first one is complete now, the middle two just need some finishing touches and the swallowtail is still in progress. I've already got a good collection of artwork to show at the art group's forthcoming Easter exhibition, including a tortoiseshell cat and a watercolour of Conwy Castle, and these should be the "cherry on top".

For me, the exhibitions have always been about showing off paintings that I am proud of (not so much trying to sell them) and also fundraising and publicity for the group, to keep it going. After all, without the group, I would probably not do much painting. If I wanted to satisfy any urges to sell, my homemade cakes always seem to go well and raise money for the group. I sometimes wonder if people turn up to the exhibition for the cakes as much as the art - who knows?

Two of my Zentangle squares

Anyway, if people need any extra incentive to go along this year (beyond art and cakes), we are having a Zentangle table. A Zentangle is one step up from doodling and anyone of any age can do it - you don't have the usual worries about doing things "right" - perspective, colour, technique - that you have when learning to paint or draw. You are not necessarily trying to produce something that is correct, it is more akin to meditation. I keep a few "zentangling squares" in my handbag for times when I am at a loose end, like waiting for an appointment.

I've produced a simple guide to creating your first Zentangle , and I'll display it for people to follow. We are providing pens and paper - squares and shapes - free of charge. Once the exhibition starts, although I will mainly be in the kitchen, serving refreshments, I also plan to nip out to the Zentangle table, when possible, to encourage people to have a go and help them get started. I am planning to get some of my completed zentangles framed and on display nearby- I've done four 3 inch (approx 8 cm) squares now and they should fit into a square mount or frame. I've only tried "basic" Zentangles (ie small square ones), but other group members have progressed and done some impressive looking work of different sizes and shapes.

With the help of another group member, I have designed and made some drinks coasters promoting the group (above), which we will put out for exhibition visitors to take free of charge. They are made in a similar way to the bookmarks I have mentioned before (laminated paper) but are more complicated as they are double sided. Each one features a piece of artwork by a member of the group on one side, with details of the group on the other.

If you are part of a community hobby group like ours and want to make similar ones to promote your group, here's how. I used simple computer programmes, "Word" for the wording, and Irfan View and Windows Picture Manager for the artwork. To avoid copyright issues, I used my own and the group's own designs. If your group does not have anyone artistic to help, you can find many "toll free/copyright free" images on the web. I began by opening and saving Word document and inserting a table, each cell of which had to be 3" (about 8 cm) wide and deep. I was able to get 6 squares into the table on an A4 sheet. I then typed the wording on. You can't see this on the photo but it simply says, "Barlborough Art Group", our address and meeting days and times, and I've centered this horizontally and vertically so it looks neat. After this first page, I copied and pasted the table onto the second page, got rid of the wording and put the photos of our artwork on. I made sure the artist's name and the title of the painting was shown on each of these.

Once I'd filled the second page, I then printed the document off and used a paper cutter to cut the squares out neatly. As they are double sided, I glued them together, then placed 6 spaced out a little in a lamination sheet and laminated them and cut and trimmed them afterwards. This way, they have a see through edge around them to make them waterproof (ones made by me are on the right of the photo). On the left are coasters made by an easier way, this was done by one of the other group members who printed some off and then laminated them straight away without gluing the sheets together. It still gives an acceptable result but these are smaller and won't last as long as there is nothing to stop water getting in at the edges. Also some of these fell apart when I tried to cut them using a paper cutting knife and metal ruler - you really do need a paper cutter if you make them this way.

And finally ... I've sorted out a bit of background music on CD and this year have made sure I've written on the cover that it is for use as such, in the hope that it won't get put on the tombola and disappear (like last time - oops). Almost the only thing left to do now is to decide what paintings I will be displaying and getting them ready for hanging, then writing out a label for each on with price and my initials and a number in case anyone wants to either buy one or vote for it as "best in show" (well you never know). The group will be setting up the room with boards, tables etc, on Good Friday, then I can go home, relax and look forward to the event.

Barlborough Art Group's Exhibition Preparations February Update

2015-02-28T06:54:00.001-08:00

With only another four weeks left to go to the art group's Easter exhibition now, our group have been busy getting ready. Karen printed off some publicity posters and brought them along to the group's session this week. We all took a few to put in local libraries, community centres, the front windows of our houses and anywhere else that people might see them, as long as it's legal (no fly posting). The new publicity posters I designed have been spreading themselves far and wide too, along with the promotional bookmarks (which are mainly for libraries), as I have combined out of town appointments with visits to libraries and other places where people might congregate.

I have been busy working on a small tortioseshell butterfly with a blue background and - by an amazing coincidence, one appeared in the window of the old church hall where our group meets. It's a bit early and too cold for it to come out at the moment, and sadly it may not survive for long. I am still adding members to the exhibition catalogue, which should be completed soon.

We had a welcome visit from one of our long-time members who has been ill and is still having treatment. He will be making sure some of his paintings go into the exhibition, but isn't well enough to be there in person. We will display them for him and take them down at the end.

I myself have been offered a solo exhibition at Retford museum next February. I did get offered one last year, but it clashed with the art group's one, so I chose that instead.

Whether The Weather ...

2015-02-03T06:56:00.003-08:00

This little festive cutie decorated the family round robin

I have been taking a break from blogging over the past few months, but have still continued with my art, so here’s an update.

For Christmas, my brother wanted a portrait of one of his cats. I was too busy in the run up to Christmas but I got it done in time for his birthday, not long after. Out of several photographs of his three cats, the only one with good enough definition was this one of “Dilly”, a tabby cat. I enlarged its head and neck to about 14 inches in diameter and printed it off on A4 sheets, in black and white then taped the sections together. This meant you could see every hair and whisker, and when I painted from the photo, I tried to get lots of detail into it. Tabby cat markings often have “ticking”, which is where each strand of fur changes colour halfway along it. Some of Dilly’s whiskers also had this effect on them. She doesn’t look very spectacular on the A4 colour photo, but close up, enlarged and in black and white, seemed much more beautiful and painting her felt like a privilege at times.

The words "Kizzie Cat" are on there because I used this photo on my cat blog too.

The canvas measures 16 x 20” (about 40cm x 52cm). I restricted the colour scheme to shades of brown although had planned to add a bit of colour at the end, but my husband arrived home from work and saw the painting after the first 7 hours and said, “it’s finished” (the painting, not our marriage), I just spent about one more hour completing a few details like whiskers and tufts of hair on her ears.

Some of the exhibition leaflets and bookmarks I've designed and produced
The wonders of home publishing!

Easter falls early this year, in the first week of April so our art group are already busy in the run up to it. Before Christmas, I designed and produced some promotional bookmarks and coasters for use at the event, but in fact ended up taking them along to festive fundraisers at local churches and schools, so we’ll produce another lot for Easter. As illness and lack of income threatens some of the group members, we need to keep the publicity going and get that word out to the local community that we exist, and yes, new folk are welcome to come along.

Here's hoping this poster helps bring us new members
to help our groups survive

I’ve redesigned the group’s general publicity poster, simplifying the wording and adding a small copyright-free image to brighten it up a bit.

I am also updating our exhibition brochure (which you can see at the back of the photo behind the bookmarks) - this contains photos and details of each artist and their work. Copies of it will be free for visitors to pick up. I update this every year, but this year’s leaflet is meant last several years, with details of all our artists in it whether they are exhibiting this time or not. The Saturday Clowne art group moved to the Methodist Church schoolroom at Barlborough last year, and the Tuesday Barlborough group continues to meet there too, so the two groups are exhibiting together and nowadays the brochure includes members of both groups. With so many people on the go, I need to keep things as simple as possible. Other members are in charge of letting local newspapers and free papers know about the event, and I will be announcing it on this blog too, which is linked from Face Book. I’ve made a few cakes and put them in the freezer and sorted out tombola prizes, and I know other members will be contributing too.

We have had a bit of snow in the UK. We don’t get it every year, but in our area there was some on Boxing Day and at the end of January. I made a snow cat in the garden, complete with whiskers made from twigs. My son wasn’t interested – he wanted to stay warm indoors and play on the X-box. I did manage to persuade him that an indoor Lego snow scene with igloo might be a good idea.

He also liked my “Mittens” cat model, based on the Minecraft cat featured in videos by “Stampylongnose”, the English Vlogger, who regularly puts videos of different computer games on You Tube. We enjoyed watching “Mittens’ Wish”, where Stampy is on Minecraft and throws a gold bar into a wishing well and asks Mittens, who is standing next to him to make a wish. Mittens immediately grows into a large cat/human-like figure that walks on its back legs. The Lego Mittens took me about 4 hours to make and stands about 5 inches high. I had to save all my black and white bricks, and began by building a central core of various coloured bricks, then building up and down. I made the head separately and put that on at the end. Unfortunately, it fell off when played with, but the good thing about Lego is that you can always mend things again.

We’re still getting a bit of snow in England, so before I end, can I just send out a request on behalf of people who walk a lot (as I do) that drivers consider those on foot, and when clearing their driveways not to create any mini-mountains on the pavement, as these soon turn to slippery, bumpy ice and make life difficult for pedestrians. Sometimes pedestrians can be forced into the road, with obvious dangers. Also can I appeal to drivers generally to slow down a bit when they see a pedestrian try to cross an icy road as it is dangerous to run on snow/slush/ice - risk of slipping over (aren’t drivers meant to slow down anyway if there’s risk of black ice)? Finally, dog owners, could you do your best to find and clear up every last bit of poo that your dog might somehow manage to hide under the snow - to help avoid unpleasant surprises for pedestrians a few days later. I know these are all "little" things, but that bit of consideration towards others can go a long way. And hopefully there will be a thaw soon.

I’m hoping to find time for at least one further update before Easter, so until then take care – whatever the weather.

Kids' Play Ship Part 2 - and Christmas Card

2014-07-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to week 2 of instruction for a play ship. Once again, if you want to see my latest artwork, please scroll down to the end.

1. Once your basic boat structure is completed, you can either leave it as it is or paint it, draw wood grain effect on it with felt tips, or paint it. You can then start adding the finishing touches. The mast and sail for it were made using a cardboard tube from the inside of an aluminium foil roll, ideally turkey size foil. I used two tubes glued together at the ends for a taller mast, then using string, bound another tube across the top one, to hang the sail from (I think this is called a “spar” in sailing terminology). I used an old pillowcase to make the sail, this one was a bit torn, so I made it as though the sail was tied up and not in use, by wrapping a piece of string evenly all the way along the spar. You could of course make your sail hang down from the spar rather than tying it up. I stuck a small box that had contained a lightbulb on the centre back of the boat, and put the mast into it. Ideally, I think another one below it would have been best, but I only had one.

2. The ship’s wheel was from an image I found on the web, printed off and stuck to card then cut out. I made a steering column for it by bending some cardboard round and sticking it down to the base, although I could of course have used a cardboard box turned inside out. I attached the wheel to the column by using a split pin through the middle so that it could be turned to “steer” the ship.

3. A blow-up parrot was another accessory that helped make it complete, as was a toy ship’s cat, some cushions and a blanket, all of which helped create a comfy play area in a handy spot for watching TV. You could add a pirate flag if you wanted a pirate ship, nautical themed bunting or an anchor made from cardboard covered with foil. The inside of a kitchen paper roll could become a telescope. If you have enough cardboard you could make a dungeon for your ship – the possibilities are almost endless.

Enjoy!

Here's a cute patootie. In the middle of the summer heatwave, I have begun this year's Christmas card (as you do). He or she will eventually have a Christmas tree in the background, which I'll make a start on next week.

Finally, I am just giving a plug to Worksop Society of Artists who are having an exhibition soon. It takes place from Saturday 2nd - Sunday 17th August, from 10 am-4pm. There's also a preview on Friday 1st August at 7pm-9pm. It is quite a large group, with many active members. There will be new work on display by all members who have produced any.

After four years of blogging now,I have decided to have a rest from it for a year or so and pquite ossibly give up permanently. Jewel’s Arty blog was originally started in 2010 to help publicise an art selling website I ran for our local art group. At the beginning, I did lots of research, with the aim of making my blog be as good as it could possibly be. I didn’t have any advertising on the blog for the first year, as I wanted people to go straight from the blog to the website, and not be diverted into spending money elsewhere. I worked hard at publicising the blog and website around the web, and went on courses for new business start-ups and joined a couple of support organisation for local businesses. It cost about £100 to for three years’ web hosting, and about £70 for software to build the website with, and I also had to learn how to build a website. I had to pay to join the support organisations or travel to their meetings, and I also had to pay out for childcare for my son so that I could go on courses and was required by law to register as self-employed with the Inland Revenue, completing an online self- assessment form once a year. I exhibited at trade fairs and worked hard at publicising both the website and blog, advertising in local and national magazines. In spite of all this, the first year came and went with no sales, and I decided it would be best to have advertising on the art blog as well as a link through to the website itself.

The advertising on the art blog only paid me anything when people clicked on the adverts and because it was through Google, I wasn’t allowed to say anything on the blog to encourage them to do so. To begin with, I could reckon on getting £1 for every 1,000 page views, but within a few months,this had fallen to a penny per thousand page views, until about 2013 when things perked up a bit and I was earning about £1 per month from about 3,000 page views. Most of my readers are in the US, which has had a recession and austerity measures, making people reluctant to spend and so unwilling to click on any adverts. Most of the online forums where I used to communicate with other bloggers seemed to have disappeared by now and I am having to try to find new ones, or new ways of finding new readers. For a time, a local newspaper had a link to my art blog, and blogs of other local people, from its website, and this did boost readership. At the time I write this, I have accrued about £28 from Adsense advertising, but the payment threshold is £66, and at the present rate it would take at least two years to reach this threshold. In the meantime, I would still have to go though the hassle of completing a self-assessment form annually, and keep records of income and outgoings. I had hoped the income from advertising would gradually have increased over the years, but at the moment, even if I was paid what I’m owed at the moment, it probably wouldn’t even cover the cost of electricity to run the desktop computer.

I’ve also had a cat blog for the past 3 ½ years, from when we got our new kitten, and although that has also proved popular with over 120,000 readers over that time, and over 80,000 on the art blog, again the advertising income has been too low for me to be paid anything.

This week, with it being July, I completed a tax self assessment form and asked that I be excused from doing this in future as I was just not earning anything from blogging. I then had to take off any adverts, and will also have to remove both blogs from Amazon Kindle – readers can subscribe to them on there, and again, although both blogs have been popular, and had good reviews, I am nowhere near Amazon’s £60 payment threshold either.

Given the amount of work I’ve put in over these past few years, it seems a shame to give up, but I don’t feel I can justify all this when I am not earning anything from it. Although I know I must be doing something right because of the number of readers the blogs attract, financially this isn’t getting anywhere and if I have to manage with out any income, then why flog myself into the ground, when I could do nothing and be in the same position? I would also add that, although I’ve spent so many hours, producing content for blogs and trying to find and retain readers, because I have a family and home that demand my time and energy, so I can’t just spend every possible hour on the internet as other bloggers sometimes do – I’ve heard of single bloggers putting in 18 hour days, but that’s not an option for me. Even if I had been able to do this, I wonder if I would have been much better off anyway, given how sensitive the advertising revenue is to the state of the world economy.

I wouldn’t completely rule out starting the blogs up again if there was an improvement in America’s economic outlook and consumer spending. If only I could have earned a bit from what I was doing, I would most likely have stuck at it, because it fitted so well around family commitments. I was able to update my blogs or visit other blogs at any hour of the day that suited me. I think the likes of Google and Amazon should pay bloggers once a year whatever they are owed, not make them wait until they’ve accrued a certain amount, which may never happen. To anyone who wants to start up a blog, I would say, go ahead, but be realistic in what you expect from it and how much time and effort you are prepared to put in.

To conclude, I would like to thank all my readers over the past few years, and perhaps one day we will meet again.

Kids' Play Ship Instructions Pt 1 - And Conwy

2014-07-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

With the school holidays nearly upon us here in England, I thought I would share with you an idea for a little play ship I made for my son recently. Regular readers who want to see my finished painting of Conwy Castle, please scroll down to the end.

It’s something you can make with the kids, or perhaps without them, which might be easier. It just so happened that a neighbour had bought himself some new garden furniture at the time, and had left the packaging outside for the recycling collectors to take. This week shows you how to make the basic structure, and next week, some finishing touches.

The basic materials cost nothing, apart from an optional inflatable parrot added at the end.

I used :

Large cardboard box, about a metre wide (39 inches). This gave me just enough cardboard.

Strong glue (PVA or clear contact adhesive)

String, scissors and craft knife, plus a cutting mat. Clothes pegs and suitable household items to use as weights for holding parts in place when gluing.

Tubes from the inside of aluminium foil for the mast. Longer cardboard tubes would be better, such as the ones inside rolls of carpet (if you can get hold of any). I had a spare wooden broom handle at the time, but didn’t use it in case it fell over and hurt someone.

Piece of spare fabric – an old pillow case will do, for the sail.

Box or strong cardboard to mount the ship’s wheel on

Printer, plus paper or card (to print off an image of a ship’s wheel).

Split pin/brass paper fastener, so the wheel can turn around on the steering column.

Optional - paint.

What to do

Click to enlarge

Open your box out flat to see what cardboard you’ve got to use. You need one oblongish piece of cardboard for the base, and two longer thinner bits for the sides, and one piece for the back. If you haven’t got enough cardboard, you could make your boat without the base.

1. Sides: Begin by drawing a line for one side of the boat, remembering one end needs to be higher as it goes up at the back. Remember to allow an extra 2-3 inches at the bottom for tabs to glue to the base. Unless you are confident enough to use a felt tip pen, use pencil and draw faintly so you can rub it out again until you get a shape you like. Once you are happy with the line, carefully use the craft knife with cutting mat underneath to cut along it, and then turn it over and use it as a template to draw the other side.

Make cuts for the gluing tabs at about ¾ inch intervals along the bottom of both pieces.

2. Base: draw a boat-shaped base, by this I mean something like the outline below. To get it symmetrical, you might want to draw one side on a large piece of paper first cut it out then fold it in half. I had enough cardboard to make a double thickness base and glued both layers together for extra strength. Once I’d glued them together, I secured them with clothes pegs and left them overnight to dry. Cut a piece of card for the back of the ship, remembering to leave a gluing tab on either side to attach it to the sides, and one at the bottom to attach to the base.

3. Assembly: Attach the sides to the base: spread glue on the tabs and position the sides onto the base. Add weights and then leave overnight. Next day, check everything is stuck fast, re-glue any tabs that haven’t stuck properly, then glue the back in position and leave the whole thing for several hours or overnight.

Next week: the mast, wheel and other accessories.

Regular readers will remember that I have been working on a painting of Conwy Castle. Here it is at last, finished:

Can you see what I've altered from last week? In front of the far right turret, a tree was growing and now I've slimmed I down.

Conwy Castle 5

2014-07-09T10:51:00.002-07:00

I’ve almost completed Conwy Castle now, it just needs a bit of tidying up. I’ll put one final photo of it on next week’s update so you can see it finished. One of the art group members suggested darkening under the bridge, which I've done. I haven't added the boats that were in the photo on the right hand side, as this way it seemed to look cleaner without them.

Meanwhile, I have been deciding what to paint next. In the middle of a summer heat wave, what better subject than – this year’s Christmas card. In fact, I am not planning on sending cards this year. I decided last year that it would be better for the environment and less time and effort if I just stuck to sending the usual family round robin, but with a Christmas card-type picture prominently placed on the front of it.

And this year, it will be something a little bit different. Watch this space.

Conwy Castle 4

2014-07-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the castle painting, I have begun to paint the castle itself and the background, which is Snowdonia National Park, and have now progressed to the bridge at the front. As usual, I am building the colours up in layers, so there will be more to the castle than you see at the moment.

Conwy Castle 3

2014-06-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

I’ve been working on a new version of Conwy Castle for the past couple of weeks. The previous drawings seemed a bit flat, and I thought the castle would stand out more if there was more contrast and brightness. As well as this, the road bridge leading to the castle is made of concrete and does not fit in very well with the old stone of the castle, but this is less apparent in a sunset/dusk painting.

Conwy Castle - And A Surprise At Art Group

2014-06-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

After visiting Conwy in Wales recently and seeing Conwy Castle, I decided to make a sketch of it once I was back home. I will remember Conwy as being rather showery but I suppose this is why the grasss in that area is so green. We tried to explore the walls of the town, but the stone walkways were too slippery due to the rain and we gave up. Anyway, here’s my sketch.

Whilst at art group, I made my usual visit to the corner shop for a newspaper and found someone walking down the driveway and across the small garden at the front of the chapel. I thought he was probably a member of the chapel who was doing some cleaning or maintenance (he didn’t look as if he was up to no good, so I didn’t interfere). To my surprise, on returning to the schoolroom, there he was and he introduced himself as Charles - a new member. He was busy illustrating some poetry he’d written. Although he’d had no previous experience of art, he was enthusiastic and looking forward to a forthcoming holiday in Venice, where he and his partner wanted to write and illustrate some poetry together.

Donna Lowe-Fowler - Artist in Profile

2014-06-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

The lady herself, Donna Lowe-Fowler

This week, I’m featuring the work of one of one of the Barlborough art group members, Donna Lowe-Fowler.

She is a member of the Tuesday group, whilst I’m in the Saturday group, so I only really bump into her when there’s an exhibition, when she usually helps out by serving refreshments (and indeed some very tasty mint soup last time). Her work is very striking as you can see - brightly coloured flowers and subjects from nature, as well as mopeds and glamorous night-time cityscapes - and I thought it was about time I gave her a mention.

Donna works as a hairdresser and has her own artist’s studio at home, where she has painted for about 10-12 years, her favourite media being acrylics and oils. Her interest began when her now grown-up son was at secondary school, and she was able to join an art class there. She eventually joined the Barlborough art group and has been painting and exhibiting ever since. She has entered Art in the Gardens at the Botanical Gardens, Sheffield, and her work is for sale on the website Affordable British Art http://affordablebritishart.co.uk/gallery.php?artist=Simon%20Knott&aid=1308

Welsh Weekend - Conwy Castle and Jean Roberts

2014-06-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Conwy Castle
Is it just me or does anyone else think it's a shame that someone had to stick a road,
pedestrian island and some traffic lights in front of it?

Last weekend, I was in Wales on a short break with the family, rather than at art group. We visited Conwy, and nearby on Castle Street was a gallery/shop run by a local artist, Jean Roberts. Although we were there on a bank holiday Sunday evening to look at the castle walls, and Jean’s shop wasn’t open at the time, there were some interesting paintings on display in the window.

This was not just local scenery either. There was a particularly striking pencil drawing of the characters from Dad’s Army. I thought it might be worth giving a link to her website for anyone interested. http://www.jeanmorganroberts.co.uk/ There is also information on arts in that area on Conwy Arts: http://historypoints.org/index.php?page=conwy-arts

The castle is a majestic landmark, and a possible subject for a painting. So watch this space!

I'm taking part in Saturday Snapshots, a linky at http://westmetromommy.blogspot.co.uk as well as "Artists' Playroom # 109 at "Just Add Water Silly" (an art blog) http://www.justaddwatersilly.com/ Have been taking part in several events on both this art blog and my cat blog (Kizzie Cat). From past experience, this sort of event helps bring my blogs to a wider audience.

Golden Egg Fundraising Game Instructions

2014-05-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

On the left, you can see the little chick mentioned at the end.
Behind it is a fundraising recipe leaflet I also produced

It’s coming up to the time of year for church fetes and other summer fundraisers, and this week I thought I would share with you an old favourite that you don’t often see nowadays – the Golden Egg game. I made this game for a school Easter fair, but it would be suitable for any time of year. It was very popular and easy to run. One of the shells is painted gold inside, and that is the winning one. I had plenty of small consolation prizes too, as there are over 30 half shells and it was unlikely that anyone would choose the correct one.

I used real egg shells, which I washed out as soon as I’d made use of the contents, then sterilised in a large pan of boiling water for 10 minutes a few at a time. I then dried them out in an oven on a low heat for a further 10 minutes. I happened to be making a rather large cake at the time, so had plenty to spare. You could use the plastic shells (for egg hunts) if you prefer. Real shells are fragile, but cost nothing, and are also easy to paint gold on the inside, whereas the plastic ones might resist it and need some primer applying first.

I started with a medium size cardboard box, measuring about 18 inches (41 cm) by 12 inches (31 cm) and about 6 inches (15 cm) deep. I cut off but kept the flaps that formed the lid, using one strip of the cardboard I’d cut off to make a template for the fence. I found a copyright free image of a rustic-looking picket fence on the web, and took a screenshot, printed it off onto A4 paper, cut it out and drew round it with a pen onto the cardboard, before cutting it out. I drew the fence all four sides of the box and then cut it out.

Next, I sprayed the outside of the box on those four sides only with spray primer – but first I lined the inside of the fence and the base with the left over cardboard cut from the lid, so as to keep the inside of the box clean. I left it overnight to dry and then sprayed with blue enamel paint. This covered well, and I again let it dry before using a thick black permanent marker to draw some wood-like markings on each upright of the “fence”, and outlining them.

Careful with those scissors when cutting out

The eggs are best displayed on either sand or shredded tissue paper. This covers the bottom edges of the eggs so that nobody can see underneath them and cheat. To keep this in the box, I lined it with cellophane – I had a large roll of this, which I use to wrap unsold paintings for my “bargain box” at art exhibitions. Once this was in place, I shredded some left over tissue paper and stood the eggs on it.

Just before spraying, I put card behind the "fence" to keep the inside of the game clean
You can spray the whole thing if you prefer

For the egg sign, I found and printed an egg template about 7 inches across, and then typed the Golden Egg wording using an eye-catching font on Word and printed it off. Using strong-ish glue (PVA or craft glue), I stuck a piece of card on the back at the top only, so that the sign could be fitted over the top of the fence, when in use, but taken off and laid flat for storage in the box at the end.

What you can't see is the amusing cartoon chicken above the egg, and again this is stuck onto cardboard. As it wasn’t my own drawing, I thought it was best not to show it her in case of copyright issues.

I have also added some cut out grass tufts and flowers cut from card

A finishing touch (shown on the photo at the top) was a small wind up fluffy chick, from last year, which no longer worked, but looked good next to the eggs in the box.

The completed game without sand or tissue paper.
I used left over tissue paper - yellow, green and orange that I put through a shredder to make "straw".

Et voila! One lovely golden egg game, all ready to use. We charged 50p a go, and the "losing" prizes were foil wrapped chocolate mini eggs. We had a few "winning" prizes - packs of crayons. The game, made about £35 in two hours, at an infant school of about 400 pupils. I used leftover paint and hadn't had to buy anything to make the game, the only expense was the prizes.

P.S. I try to make sure my son doesn’t feel neglected when I am helping at these sort of events, and this time, I ended up making him an extra own golden egg game him to play with, with his friends. For this, I used a small wooden crate, and just cut out the fence from wood grain effect wallpaper then stuck it on, without cutting anything out of the wood.

Real Life Drawing

2014-05-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Rose and Crown Pub, Barlborough

Don’t be too misled by the title of this post. I’m afraid there were no scantily clad human models, and the subjects were all buildings.

The art group is meeting in Barlborough now and there are some attractive historic buildings in the old part of the village. As the weather was fine this time, I left the rest of the group in the chapel hall and set out to find some suitable subjects to sketch. These are only meant to be rough practice goes to try and improve my drawing of buildings, nothing that I will be making look nice enough to try to sell. I am a bit short of storage space at the moment. Photos (especially digital ones) seem to flatten subjects down, so I was hoping that drawing things live rather than from photos would help me get the perspective right. More experienced group members told me it would also improve my shadows.

If you want to know more about this garden, please see my post from early spring this year
when the group first moved to Barlborough

I began by sitting in Doreen’s Garden, as it was a tranquil spot where I could work undisturbed. I tried looking at the garden from different angles, and ended up sitting on a bench looking towards the little school. It was a little too low down, and I could only see the top half of the building.

I therefore moved out onto the main road opposite the post office, sat down on a bench and began sketching the view looking towards the pub in the distance. There were cars parked in front of the buildings on the left. I tried to miss them off but was unsure where the bottom of the buildings should be. After a time, other people wanted to sit on that seat, which seemed a good moment for me to pop back to the art group for a quick refreshment break.

I then set off towards the Rose & Crown, wishing I had a sketching stool with me. I had to draw the buildings standing up, but the advantage of this was that I was at the correct height. Although the road is quiet pedestrian-wise, I had to move once to one side to let an elderly gentleman past. He wanted to see what I’d drawn, so I showed him and he seemed to like it. That pub does look rather inviting. I hope I'll visit it one day.

By now, there wasn’t long left, and I went back to join the group and showed them what I’d done.