Sunday 13 November 2016

Portrait of Ruby

This is Ruby the Labradoodle.  I was commissioned to paint her porteait by one of my dog groomers.  I absolutely loved painying her.


This piece was completed using soft pastels on Hahnemoule Velour paper.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoy looking at my artwork.

Friday 11 November 2016

A selection of pastel portraits and other projects

You may have noticed that I have changed the name of my blog and that is because I wanted a name that reflects what I do.

For the past few weeks I have been working on a few pastel pet portraits to give as gift to their owners and a few other projects, here is a selection:




I also had a try at painting my youngest grandaughter's portrait, although I am quite pleased with my first attempt, I think I will stick to painting animals.


Other projects:

Pastel butterfly

Pen and Charcoal Cottage

Deer in Coloured Pencil 

Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope yoh like my artwork



Monday 24 October 2016

More commissioned pet portraits



Here is a selection of pastel pet portraits that I have been commissioned to do.



I wasn't pleased with how this Husky turned out so. .....


                            .............. I painted another one



Thank you for dropping in for a visit, I hope you like my artwork, if so, please leave a comment. Many thanks x

Tuesday 11 October 2016

Weekend pastel pet portraits

Hello everyone. I spent a very pleasant weekend painting these portraits in pastel.  

This is Sam, a female Labrador/Retriever who we used to look after when the owners went on holiday


These 2 cheeky monkeys are Basil and Peppa, they are our friends' dogs. I have painted this one as a gift for them.


Both paintings were created using a mixture of:
Sennelier soft pastels
Inscribe soft pastels
Derwent pastel pencils
On
Hanhemuhle Velour Pastel paper

Thank you for visiting

Friday 7 October 2016

2 more pastel pet portraits

Hello again. I thought I would share two more pastel pet portraits that I completed yesterday.  The first one is a commissioned Spaniel portrait and the second one is a painting of my beloved Border Collie,  Murphy, who passed away 6 years ago. I hope you like them:


Thursday 6 October 2016

A busy few days doing what I love

Hello everyone. Over the past few days I have been working on various pastel pet portraits, a challenge card (docrafts) and a challenge painting (pure watercolour) all things I really love doing.  So here they are:

This top pastel portrait is my stepson's puppy, Missy.  I have painted her as a gift for him 



 These two little cuties are for a commission


This is the card I made for a challenge over on Docrafts
https://www.docrafts.com/Projects/new-roald-dahl-challenge/4095796




This final piece is the painting for the challenge on the Pure Watercolour website  http://www.purewatercolour.com


Thank you for visiting and be sure to check out the links above for more inspirational projects

Sunday 2 October 2016

This little piggy is going to the groomer

The owner of the dog groomers where some of my paintings are displayed asked me to paint a portrait of her pot bellied pig, Winston,  who sadly passed away last year. Having never painted a pig before I found it quite challenging but hopefully it will pass.

So here's Winston

Thank you for visiting

Friday 30 September 2016

More pastel pets

Here are 3 more pastel paintings I gave completed this week
This one of the Red Setter is now on display at my local dog groomers along with 3 of my previous paintings. Well we all have to start somewhere lol


This one is of one of my own handsome boys, Sebastien


This one of a Jack Russell cross is a commissioned piece which the customer is going to give the dog's owner for Christmas

Thank you for visiting

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Monday's pastel painting

This is Foxy,  a little chihuahua cross and such a cute little lady. We used to look after her until her owner decided to give her away to someone else.
This was also a challenge set by my husband to test my skills at painting on A5 paper.  Think I rose to that one, don't you?

Thank you for visiting today, please visit again.

Sunday 25 September 2016

Today's makes

Commissioned card featuring cross stitching by my good friend. The order was for a tri colour Cavalier King Charles Spaniel so I decided to turn the card into a kennel.
I used:
 card from my stash
X Cut letter dies
Stamps from stash
Embroidery thread for bows

I painted this pretty girl in pastel this afternoon.  She was a challenge set by my husband. Breeze is another dog we occasionally look after and my husband wanted to see if I could rise to his challenge of capturing her beauty. Well what do you think? 

Thank you for visiting my blog and if you have any questions then I will be pleased to answer them.

Saturday 24 September 2016

Castro the Havanese

This is a little dog that we are looking after for the weekend. He is called Castro and he is a Havanese. He is such a sweet natured little fellow with a cheeky face. I took such a lovely photograph of him yesterday which inspired me to paint him in pastels. I hope you like it.
Thank you for visiting my blog.

Thursday 22 September 2016

2 more pet pastel portraits

There's no stopping me now tehe! Here are 2 more beautiful pets preserved in pastels.
This first one is my friend's cat who she sadly had to send over rainbow bridge ladt week. She had a favourite photograph of her, so I decided to paint a copy if it in pastel for her.  I haven't given it to her yet ad I want to frame it.

 This second pastel painting is a commissioned one. I was asked by a husband and wife who attend my local Slimming World group to paint their dog's portrait.  Yet again I havdn't given it to them yet, so I am hoping they will approve of my effort.

I used my usual Hahnemuhle pastel paper,  Sennelier soft pastels, Derwent pastel pencils and Inscribe soft pastels.

Thank you for visiting.

Monday 19 September 2016

A day of pastels

My 11 year old grandaughter was staying with us at the weekend and as the weather was a bit miserable we decided to paint in pastels together.  Freya chose to copy a photo of one of my dogs that I had painted previously and what a fantastic job she did too, especially as she hasn't really used this medium before.

Voila!


I chose to paint my friends' 2 Westies as a Christmas present for them


 And here is my painting




Thank you for visiting and I hope you like our paintings

Friday 16 September 2016

Lola

Pastel painting of another delightful house guest. This is Lola, a Bedlington Terrier, she is such a gentle natured little girl.
I used: Carrè hard pastels
              Sennelier soft pastels
               Inscribe soft pastels
              Derwent pastel pencils
       On Hanhemuhle Velour Pastel paper

Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoy looking at my pastel painting.

Sunday 11 September 2016

Weekend pastel painting

.
My husband asked me to paint our six dogs plus Pippa,  ( the white dog far right) who has been a long term visitor for the past 5 years until recently....She and her mummy have moved to Devon. Anyway, as he did not know what he wanted for his birthday in August, he then decided that this is what he wanted. So I have spent the weekend doing something I love.
I used an A2 sheet of Hahnemuhle velour pastel paper,  Sennelier soft pastels,  Inscribe soft pastels,  Derwent pastel pencils,  Daler Rowney pastel pencils. 
Fortunately, he loves it and is going to get it framed......result!

Thank you for visiting my blog and I will be happy to answer any questions regarding  my artwork

Friday 9 September 2016

Just for a change........ A few cards

I thought I would share a few cards today that I made recently just for a change from my pastel paintings.

These first 2 are just created using up left over craft  stash


These 2 were made at my local craft workshop using ink pads and a variety of stamps


The last 2.....yes sorry...more of my own artwork. The top one is a pen and wash and the second one was drawn and coloured with Sharpie pens an idea I hot from Lindsay Weirich,  the Frugal Crafter.

Thank you for visiting, hope you'll visit again x

Thursday 8 September 2016

Second of the commissioned pastel paintings

This is painting number 2  which I hope my friend approves of. This took about 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete.
I used *Sennelier soft pastels
             * Inscribe soft pastels
             * Daler Rowney pastel pencils
             * Hahnemuhle velour pastel paper

Thank you for visiting and do feel free to leave any comments,  they are appreciated x

Wednesday 7 September 2016

First of 2 commissioned pastel paintings

I have been commissioned to paint portraits of 2 cats,  this is the first one which took over 3 hours to complete.



I used * Sennelier soft pastels
            * Inscribe soft pastels
            * Derwent pastel pencils
            * Daler Rowney pastel pencils
            * Hahnemuhle velour pastel paper

This is the reference photograph I used.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you like my painting,  if you do, why not let me know by leaving a comment, it means so much to me. Please visit again x

Tuesday 30 August 2016

Pastel painting on Velour pastel paper

I painted this handsome little fellow as an anniversary present for my friends'. We often look after Buster who is very special to us as he used to be wary of people and other dogs until he started staying with us and our six pack lol. My friends were over the moon with their gift and as luck would have it already had a convenient space on their wall to hang it.
Thank you for visiting today.

Sunday 21 August 2016

Sunset flight

Today's pastel painting was inspired by a beautuful photograph taken by one of my talented photographer friends.
I used Inscribe pastels on Hanhemuhle Velour Pastel paper and am really pleased with the vibrancy of the colours. 

Inspiration taken from this photograph

Thank you for visiting and I hope you like my artwork.

Saturday 20 August 2016

Latest artwork

Kingfisher in Coloured Pencil.
I used Faber Castell Polychromos and Spectrum Noir Primaries on Windsor and Newton Bristol Board Ultra Smooth paper.

I am trying out different qualities and textures of paper at the moment and must say I love the smoothness of this one. The pencils just glide across it and blend beautifully. 

This Maine Coone was created using a magnificent photograph by Robert Sijka in Derwent and Daler Rowney pastel pencils on Hanhemuhle Velour Pastel paper, yet again it is a texture I was trying for the first time and I LOVE IT!

Here are the links to the reference photos I used 

Thank you for visiting today