do you mind if i knit

RCA Secret.

Hello! We've had ice, ice, ice everywhere recently, even ice on the beach, it's been bitterly cold. Thankfully we have a wood burning stove, the best expensive purchase we ever made, the heat percolates through the whole house.

Thank you so, so much for your tremendously positive and encouraging comments on my last blog post, you have been so very generous, thank you. The private view went well, (once we got into the building, there were queues to get in). And I sold the "Determined Cat" sculpture at the private view! Marvellous! Hopefully in the remaining month, the other two pieces will also sell. There was a lot of art work of a very high standard at the show, so it felt like a real honour to be included.

Just to change the subject, today I've been finishing off these 6" by 4" postcard sized pictures. I've painted them to help raise money for my Niece's school (my sister saying that Millie would be very proud if I put some art work in, is the thing that got me!).

Her school are following in the footsteps of The Royal College of Art's "Secret Art" concept, of which you can read the full explanation here.

Basically, artists of fame, or not so great fame, (but practising artists), are asked to donate a postcard size piece of art work. But they must not sign it on the front, they sign it on the back. So no one knows if they are buying a famous artists work, it's guess work, and all is revealed at the end, when the work has sold, and the cards are turned over.

I remember this "Secret Art" thing starting when I was a student at the Royal College of Art, but I couldn't afford the £5 at the time to buy a piece. Hugely successful artists work was mixed up with lesser known artists pieces, so there was a huge buzz of excitement.

It's such a brilliant way of raising money don't you think? I'm putting in more than one piece, I'm donating five little paintings, to help raise more money, but also to give a buyer the option of having a set of four characters from the "Mole and Friends" books I illustrate (written by Jonathan Emmett). I thought I'd have a theme going too, and have them all interacting with butterflies.

Millie's school is at the other end of the country to where I live, so I'm not worried about showing these pieces, and my sister never reads my blog.

When I last skyped my sister, Millie came into view, and said to me, "you're going to be in the exhibition". I said, "yes I am". Millie responded, "I might buy your work!" Millie is eight years old. Bless her little cotton socks.

Well, I hope she's proud of me, and I can say with great conviction, that I've "done my bit".

Cheerio!

Vanessa xxx

My prints...................

Oh fantastic, only an hour and a half to go before it's officially the weekend! For me, the weekend starts at 6 p.m, that's when I start to think about the words 'cosy, cup of tea, fire place, warm toes and knitting'.

Last night, as I was closing the shutters (we don't have curtains), I caught myself thinking about how cosy it felt, retreating into the house, the windows shuttered, the fire blazing, and I came to the conclusion that I'm starting to come to terms with our winter season, and I'm enjoying it, which surprised me, I mean, we're meant to hate these cold dark months aren't we?

Tonight I've been shutting out the world of snow outside, it's been falling in flakes that have gone from big fat movie type snow, to thin drizzle resembling rain, and here and there there's been hail.

I love that cotton wool movie snow, it's so pretty as it falls, don't you think?

Anyway, on to those suspicious looking balls of wool in my first photograph of this post.

If you read my Monday post, you have probably guessed what this means already.

Yep! I have done the deed. I've unravelled my knitting that was the skirt section of the dress I was knitting.

Skirt section as was, in the photo on the left above, and skirt section as it no longer is, in the photo on the right.

The cables didn't look their best on my hips. Not for showing them off as cables, nor for showing my hips off to their best advantage. So out came all that knitting, and I've started re-knitting the dress. I've cast on 384 stitches, (I imagine it will seem less as time goes on!), and am knitting cables all the way round. The idea of the cables going from large to small as they progress up the skirt is still going to apply yo these cable I'm now doing.

Anyway, enough knitting talk, lets move on to my prints.

I am officially open for business in my etsy shop, selling my prints! Feels like a long time ago I first mentioned doing them.

Would you like a quick look at a selection of some of them?

I have prints that reproduce my still life paintings. Some of the prints are laser reproductions, some are reproduced by the more expensive method of giclee printing.

To give you an idea of the cost of a print, as opposed to the cost of the original painting, take for example, the picture of the "Daffs in a Spotty Cup"(above) which is a small painting. To buy the original would cost  £75, to buy a print of this would be £17.55, both prices would be plus postage and packing.

Other original pieces will cost from £75 to £145 to £220, whereas all the prints are under £50. The prints make my work more accessible price wise.

All the prints come with mounts and backing board, ready to go in a frame, and also have certificates of authenticity, they show the number in the edition, and there's some info about my background, and they're in protective self sealing propylene bags.

I've also done some prints linked to my illustration work, there's a separate section (prints, illustration) in my etsy shop for those.

Here's a selection of them:

So there we go! Tra-la! Prints all nicely packaged, ready for giving as a gift perhaps? Or have you done all your christmas shopping...................... If you're interested in buying a print from my etsy shop, the link is here.  Actually, I have to admit, I'm about half way through mine, which feels very organised.

Well, Hugo is cooking beef at the moment, and the smoke alarm keeps on going off, so I need to stand to attention to "waft" the smoke alarm when it trills. Ellie and Douglas hate the smoke alarm going off, they run and hide.

Ellie has just come in from outside, (to escape the noise of the alarm), and is standing shivering, covered in snowflakes, and looking at me very indignantly!

I'll be off now. Ten past six, and time for a glass of wine methinks. Have a good weekend, cheerio! Love Vanessa xxx

The days glide by.

  Hello, I'm just popping by, thought I'd show my face so-to-speak.

A few weeks has passed since our holiday in Turkey, and I still think about it occasionally, but it is slowly disappearing into that 'holiday that happened haze', you know the one?

The truth is, things have been busy around here recently. Last week was spent juggling work, and preparing for an exhibition I'm in, that opened last Saturday.

It's in a gallery called The Gymnasium, which is owned by English Heritage, who don't have a website for the gallery, otherwise I'd give you a link.

The main part of the exhibition is the Hockney Fairytale prints, which you can see in the distance in the above picture. And then you have the Berwick Illustrators section, which occupies the brightly painted section in the above photo.

My section of the exhibition is largely concerned with showing something of the process of illustrating a book, rather than presenting beautifully framed finished pieces. There are rough drawings, snippets of pages, and work ready for the printers, with the editors notes on acetate sheets covering the finished art work. Pieces of work aren't for sale, it's purely an exhibition of work.

The curator, Matthew put all the pictures in the frames, and the displays together, and I understand it was all done on a tiny budget, so I think that what he has done is fantastic.

I understand that there have been hundreds of people viewing the exhibition in the three days since its opening, which is marvellous to hear. And just a quick observation, my photos don't really do justice to the exhibition, it looks much more impressive in real life.

What else do I have to report then?! Well, you know the dress I've been knitting? Well, that's undergone quite a transformation, quite a dramatic one. I won't show you now, because I'm going off to my knitting group, but I will show you on Friday, and I think you might find it quite interesting! Cheerio my lovelies! Love Vanessa xxx

Bunny Business

Hello! Hands up to those of you who, like me, love buying clothes for children!

Was that a whoosh as many hands shot up in the air? Or was there a groan because I've just voiced a little weakness you'd rather not make public?!

I find dresses for babies and small girls (untill they reach that age when they understand the word 'cool'), are one of the most adorable things in the whole wide world. Especially dresses with smocking and pretty patterns on the fabric.

A friend of mine gave birth to a beautiful teeny weeny girl, named Nancy Pearl, this week. I've already been to visit and cuddle little Nancy, but this evening Hugo and I are going to visit together. Gifts have been presented, and I know Barbara (Bob for short) would not expect more gifts, but you know how it is.............. I don't want to go empty handed.

So I made a trip into town to get some flowers, and bought a couple of bunches of Sweet William. Walking in the direction of home, I happened to pass a shop where I've bought baby outfits for gifts before, and was drawn in through no fault of my own, a magnetic force drew me in.

The dress in the photo above had to be bought. It just had to be bought, you do understand don't you?

It's the tiny polka dots, the turquoise colour, the pleats, the delicate flowers, and 'The Smocking'. Irrestistable.

Gosh it's going to be difficult to wrap this up and hand it over to Bob. I would love to have it hanging on a pretty hanger in my studio, like a delicious piece of art work.

Perhaps I could do something a little eccentric, and buy another of this beautiful dress, and hang that one in my studio? Then Bob would be happy, and I won't have that nagging feeling about having it on my wall!

I shall mull it over, to see 'just how much' I really want this little dress.

While I ponder the dilemma of buying a second baby girl dress to hang on my studio wall, I should mention the Bunny Business that is the title of this post.

As part of my whole 'print endeavor', I have started making prints of drawings I've done. Some are the characters from the children's books I've illustrated, I've taken the preparatory character sketches, and worked them into small paintings, which I'm making limited edition prints of. Other prints are of character studies, animals and people I've drawn, which is something I love to do. The bunny watercolours you see in this post fall into the 'my own creations' category.

I've also done some prints in which the bunny has a more boyish feel, but I'll show you those another time.

As part of Bob's first set of gifts, on the arrival of baby Nancy, I placed the three prints above in a mount with three apertures, and put them in a lime wash frame. At the bottom of each print, along with the number and my signature, I wrote a little something. On the first print, it was Nancy's date and time of birth, on the second was her full name, and on the third was her weight.

My little plan is to put these prints into my etsy shop, and offer to personalise these prints with babies details, as I mention above. I'll also sell them as individual prints, and have the option of having a three aperture mount.

Bunny Business over, I must now hop over to the kettle and make a cuppa, and maybe do a little foraging for something tasty, my whiskers are twitching in anticipation. With a flash of my tail and a hop-skip-and-a-jump, I shall wish you a lovely weekend, wave my paw goodbye, and look forward to seeing you on Monday. Love Vanessa xxx