Pen and pencil people

Two of my imaginary characters (their portraits, sorry!) sold recently:














I like imagining people and some of their environment and then let viewers continuing the story in their minds.

Lady Nebula

One of my Hubble-inspired pictures has been sold. Its a fun idea, to see shapes in Nebulae, like some people do in clouds, so I'll try to do more of this in future.

Think, girl

A recently sold sketch:

New shop

I've joined CafePress today:
http://www.cafepress.com/linandara

I've also had an idea for Delta Quadra group on Last.FM:
http://www.last.fm/group/Delta+Quadra+-+Socionics




INTPs got their own group, so why not?




Anyway, I'm also working on a very strange painting (in digital sketching stage at the moment), incomporating my love for music and some socionic ideas. My husband already christened is Abbagonewrong... Sounds sort of Welsh... (my preliminary name is Shadow Walkers)




Also I've found some funny socionics-inspired art:

http://www.iztkanirukami.ru/cats/socion01.html

Etsy & Ebay update

Few more things in Etsy shop:
Spring in the West Park, Long Eaton

Three green apples - a retouched still life print

Folk Festival - framed acrylic painting

Little Lady - Rag Doll in Medieval Style

Monstresse 63 Unusual Rag Doll

A Set of 3 Dark Brown Canvas Bookmarks

Also it is now free to put items under one pound on Ebay.uk. Helps with spring cleaning...

Probably the last snow of this winter

Just on the hilltops.

Last Sunday some very kind people from Romania gave me a lift to the nearest Orthodox Church where I met some very nice and interesting people.

And I've found another INFJ blog:
http://harrietmwelch.com/
I still have problems with Google Reader, I guess I bookmarked too many blogs, so they keep disappearing or changing folders...

plus another find - the Beatles songs turned into Gregorian chants...

Sold and selling

A little miniature with a red apple has been sold on Etsy and two more artworks are listed for sale: a ginkgo alley in Alexandria, VA and Camomile and Tansy.

Outdoor season started

The spring is in the air. Yesterday I've managed to make an ACEO sketch of the Newtown bridge:

Moth drawing

Its was done with permanent ink pens and colour pencils quite a while ago. I love working in this media because I can achieve lots of details, texture, and its so easy to start and stop working when needed - no paints to squeeze out of tubes or brushes to wash afterwards.

Spurge-Hawk Moth on a piece of tree bark with some lichen

Arches

Yet another artwork in oil pastel:

Stefan Morrell - Dream Cities

Just a link to an artist site:

http://stefan-morrell.com/

Very moody dreamy cities. I wouldn't want to live here but certainly love to visit...

Strange doll

Unusual Handsewn Rag Doll

by Linandara

Spring Comes Early Every Year in acrylic

I've put another fantasy painting for sale on Ebay:

Trees with pink blossom, petals floating in the air, the sky above is golden yellow. Two women in unusual clothes are talking, one is sitting in the cart. The horse is waiting. Open to your interpretation.

Balley Dancer

An artwork sold recently.

Christmas Eve

Here is a mixed media artwork of mine I did (and sold) a couple of years ago filling opposed to commercialization and secularization of Christmas.

Latest sales

Two recently sold artworks:

St Michael church in Breaston, Derbyshire in pastel (gone to Switzerland)


and Approaching Storm in acrylic.

Star Wars ACEO

Four more images are ready for my ACEO commission.

About the drawing on the bottom right - "It is impossible!" was the first phrase I ever learned in English.

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!

Newtown Hills

And a new addition to the Ebay shop:

The September certainly was a very productive this year - thanks to the good weather.

I did this from my garden, but moved some of my neighbours' houses and turned the hills into the mountains.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280289498708

"Dawn" in pen & ink and pencil

The latest addition to my Etsy shop. I've got a friend who does stunts for movies in Russia and she kindly sent me a reference photo for this artwork some time ago.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17845046

By the way Etsy does looks so much nicer for an artist than Ebay, but there is a small problem: nothing seems to sell so far...

Zazzle

I've spent some time in Zazzle - don't know if this going work at all but I'm willing to try.

http://www.zazzle.com/utl/getpanel?tl=My+Zazzle+Panel&at=238747805719622924&cn=238747805719622924&st=date_created" FlashVars="feedId=0&path=http://www.zazzle.com/assets/swf/zp/skins" width="450" height="300" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash">
http://www.zazzle.com/">make custom gifts at http://www.zazzle.com/">Zazzle>

Skies no fire

We had an awesome sunset a couple of days ago:

I think there are some Mammatus (mammatocumulus) clouds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammatus_cloud

Farewell to two more pictures

That's it, time to pack them as they have been sold. Both are fantasy works in acrylic. The first one is Observation Point, the second is the Shinning World. It is always a bit sad to say farewell to artwork, but then I haven't got enough space to hung all my paintings anyway plus it would be really great if somebody else could enjoy them too. And I hope to buy a second hand violin for Christmas for my daughter with the money. I had a real barter recently when somebody from an organic shop bought a sketch of mine. So I exchanged it for a packet of tofu. Marvelous!


The idea for the first picture came from a photo of my friends and colleagues overlooking a submarine port in the Crimea. The second one was inspired by a photo of my great auntie (a ballet dancer) as a girl.

Wolf charmer or "Mike with Wolves"

Two more drawings. First one (my favorite) has been sold, the second one I've just put on sale on Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=280287416104&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=018

Two attempts to illustrate the first scene from my book "The Return" in Russian. I am working on this series of illustrations first creating 3D models of my characters, props and landscape, then drawing everything "traditional" way, by hand.

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)

Think, girl!

A fragment from a sketch I did a couple of years ago

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=280287379969&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=018

Sketching

I've managed to do a bit of sketching today (apart from shopping, bread- and yogurt-making and other cooking, taking kids to school and back). I was trying to capture what's left of golden leaves on silver birches, oaks and hazelnut trees.



Also I'm packing and sending away an acrylic painting I've sold recently. It features Thai houses and was based on a photo I took from a taxi window on Phuket Island many years ago.
(Sometime if I don't write down what I actually did today, I feel like time slipped through my fingers).

Current project (commision)

ACEO cards with movie themes. 4 done or almost done, nine to go.

Zazzle

I've found a new outlet for my art:
http://www.zazzle.com/linandara/gifts

Its a bit like Lulu but more fun: you can order a lots of items with custom pictures on them. Unfortunately I think they only ship in the USA.

BP PORTRAIT AWARD 2008 in Wolverhampton

I've seen this exhibition recently
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART56726.html
http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/wolves/exhibitions/003715.html
http://www.npg.org.uk/live/bp2008index.asp

Lots of good art - painterly, skill full and thought-full portraits. For example, Lliana by Krasimir Kolev, Amanda Smith at Vincent Avenue by Simon Davis, Kristy, 3rd Attempt by Geert Schless, Natalie by Jason Walker, Her Name Is Rio by Lucie Cookson, Blue Pool (Datuk Vinod Sekhar Family) by Paul Benney (kids favorite - swimming pool), Melanie by Jackie Anderson (my favorite - a lady in fog).

But two tendencies a bit upset me. First, quite a number of works looked just like good resolution professional photos blown up on canvas. (E.g. Untitled by Peiyuan Jiang - Young Artist Award; Metamorphosis by José Luis Corella Garcia (I actually like the picture), Meralby Joanna Yates). Whats a point of painting then? The eye sees differently to the camera lens anyway. The only case (in my opinion) when photorealistic style really works its when there is no way that you can actually take picture of the subject (if its from the past or from fantasy)

Secondly, there is that hint of admiration of ugliness, illness and injury in some works (like in Sunny Jim by Sue Burns, Hannah O'Brien by Robert O'Brien). I don't mean at all that only classically beautiful people should be painted. But I always thought that the good portrait artist should try to find inner beauty and kindness in any subject. Unless the artist wants to offend or humiliate somebody (including themselves).

Meeting

I've stumbled upon an interesting photo from 2 or 3 years ago in my archive. Its from a medieval Robin Hood Pageant in Nottingham where different times and cultures meet. Not at all that I am advocating for this but I think people often forget that there was a tradition in Europe for women to cover their heads with scarfs and hats.

It was a nice day. I've sold a picture I did in my garden September (moving few hills and houses around). And yesterday I had a call from a repair shop saying my broken PDA has been fixed!

So, another trip to the city is imminent. Last week when we went here I was astonished how city life is strange to me now. And I spent most of my life in cities. Crowds, bad air, rubbish & graffiti... But the choice of things in shops is so much better. Just as well we can't carry much without a car! Anyway, I'm happy I can see so much sky and green hills from my porch now.

Autumn in Newtown

Here's another picture from my Newtown, Powys, Wales. I did it sitting by the river Hafren (Severn), in this September. The colours of fall are more muted in Britain than in Virginia, Vladivostok or Moscow, but it is still the most beautiful time of the year - in my opinion. The combination of golden brown leaves and emerald green grass is stunning.

The painting is available from Etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17268017

Reference photos

All my photos in this blog, my Russian blog, Picasa or Flikr are OK to use as an artist reference (for paintings, sketches, drawings). I'm not greedy (well not too greedy, I hope). I would love to see what you do with them but of course it's not mandatory. I normally take only low resolution pictures because they are good enough as reference for my artwork and I can take really a lot of them.

There is a good reference library at
http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/
but you have to be a member (its free) to save images.

I can't remember where I took this. Must be in a castle in England.

Goblet / Chalice fantasy art work

Here's one of my first oil pastels - few years old by now. I haven't got a place for it at home, so selling for a symbolical price at Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17136882

I even thought of destroying it, but I just can't. I still like the picture even though I moved forward a lot since that. I did it dreaming of a light pastel & silver colored dining room in something like Cloud City's from Star Wars style. I don't know if we ever will have a room like this...

Recent art & lots of trouble

I made yet another beach sketch in Mundesley, Norfolk (I love the place!) when we were on holidays. But that's about it. I haven't had a chance to work much on my commissions or in fact any other serious job partly because of school holidays, partly because a strip of bad luck. First, my smartphone broke down and I lost quite a lot of data (look here if you want to avoid my mistake in Windows Outlook: http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.outlook.contacts&mid=b4b0cc4a-e9ca-437c-a816-55e8a036f5f9 ). Second, my son got ill with a cold or something else. Third we had a pipe leak in the middle of kitchen celling. Plus a gloomy weather & economic situation. Plus my husband radio interview got cancelled. There probably was something else, I can't remember right now.


Anyway, we had some fun on Firework night:

More Newtown ACEOs

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

Some of my Newtown, Powys plein air ACEO card/miniatures.

Textile art with the TV.

Here is one of the examples:
I watch TV just 1 -1.5 hours a day, in the evening. Even so, I feel its a waste of time if I don't do anything else in parallel. So I'm recycling fabric and make something (usually improvising). Most toys end up in kids rooms but few go for sale. This one is called Cheburaha and is available from Etsy.

There was just a few minutes of sunlight today to take the picture. The afternoon was incredibly gloomy...

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16873264