Artfire is going Ebay way

Few days ago all my artwork in my Artfire shop disappeared. Apparently, they stopped their free service which they advertise so much when I have joined few years ago. Few other artists didn't get any warning too. So to keep the shop I will have to pay monthly fee in future which I most like never make with my sales - like it happened on Ebay few years ago. That's life... This could be even worse - if Zazzle do the same.

A break

My main computer has broken down, so, temporary silent... Finished a pen drawing of a red cat and started another "Hansel and Gretel" picture.

Gypsy Mermaid

Sorry I haven't been writing too much here as I've got very involved with my Russian blog.

Apart from few new drawings I was experimenting with a bit of shell, textile & sea glass jewellery which I'm starting putting in my Artfire and Etsy shops.

The name Gypsy Mermaid is partly related to how this looks like, and partly to a song by M. Scherbakov.

White Horse

This painting (size A4) is on the way to Germany now.

I'm working on a Martian landscape in acrylic and multiple ACEO commission at the moment. The work is progressing slowly as I'm more interested in few writing projects. I seems to oscillate between various creative activities and hardly can make myself do something which my heart doesn't want at the moment. I am often angry at myself for that but haven't find the cure yet.

Non-creative activities like cleaning & washing are always at the bottom of my list. I am a horrible housewife!

Two still life photos with a story

I've found a couple of photos from few years ago. There were some trouble in Russia and I felt very upset, particularly because the media here in UK, instead of being just a little bit compassionate, was using this for anti-Russian political propaganda. And then a kind elderly lady next door just brought me the carnation flowers. She died soon after that. (Just mapping my life)

Website updates

I've started working on the new website:

http://sites.google.com/site/linandara/Home

and moving my artwork to (hopefully) one place:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Linandara


Still Life Artworks(1)

Pen and Ink Fantasy(1)

Oil & Acrylic Fantasy(2)

http://picasaweb.google.com/Linandara/OilPastelFantasyLandscape#

Shy artist dream...

I wish somebody could give me spy sunglasses with a camera. There are so many interesting faces and expressions around me - I wish to paint them so much. But the people wouldn't like me to play paparazzi... Pda is too obvious. I just have to wait for technology to catch up with the dream...

Thanks goodness, people haven't copywrited their faces yet...

Random Images 1

Sometimes I'm lucky to see real beauty right from my window. That's how the American winter landscape on the left has been made.

I do take hundreds of photos every time I go out in hope that one day I can use them for my artwork. They constantly appear in random order on my desktop.

My wild imagination and dreams often bring me vivid pictures worth painting.

I like using 3D modelling for creating landscapes and/or people to paint later.

I also feel its fine to be inspired by random photos in books, newspapers, on the web, in movies. After all, I'm not copying them photorealistically, merely interpreting. Artist Pablo Picasso said "Good artists borrow, great artists steal." And, of course, all artists & photographers steal from God a bit... Poor Van Gogh copied his favorite artists when couldn't afford live models.

Last, I sometimes do copies of historic art from all over the World to learn about old masters approach.

Random Images

I love finding inexpected inspirations for paintings all around me. If I have a chance, I'm going wandering with my sketch kit outside. Here are two examples out of a series of ACEO miniatures I did during this spring in Newtown, Powys.