Most of the time I'm engaged with commissions for people, which means I do very little art of myself sometimes!! And as much as I love doing them, sometimes I just want them to finish too!!
Here is a commission I did last year before Christmas ( I still have my massive fairy painting to be going on with, and as I'm getting a brand new shiny camara soon, I will post some pics! )
I absolutely love Art Nouveau, so this work was really a labour of love. One of my favourite artists is Alphonse Mucha, and his works are now out of copywrite. (Which is probably why we see so much of them in Past Times and things nowdays! ) He was a Czech artist born in 1860, and is widely known for his distinctive illustrations of stylised women. Sadly, like many artists, Mucha has achieved far more fame now than during his lifetime. I copied four of his paintings 'The Times of Day' - They were drawn freehand and handpainted too, I used gouche as this is my favourite medium for achieving a vibrant colour. .
The originals are about 1 metre high! Anyway I have some very limited edition prints of these now, in both A4 and A3 formats. They are printed on the best quality fadeproof inks, on watercolour paper so they look remarkably like the originals. Once I get them mounted and packaged up they will be winging their way over to my long neglected Folksy and Etsy shops!
I do love Art Nouveau though, my other favourites of the period being Charles Rene Mackintosh and Antoni Gaudi. ( I have a thing for architecture too! ) This is a room in the Mackintosh Willow Tearooms...
And a nave from Gaudi's labour of love, the Sagrada Familia catherdral in Barcelona... if you ever make it over there, Gaudi's naturalistic architecture is wonderful and hard to miss...
I promise to blog again soon , possibly about my new buisness cards which sound exciting and should be arriving any day now !!
