I havent been doing much trading of late but I have joined a ‘Framable Art Swap’ at Illustratedatcs.com. Where I have to create three 5×7″ paintings under the theme ‘Fantasy’ specific for each member in my group.

With my new re-connection to watercolour paints I thought Id create a painting for one of the members in my group, Amerasu. I know that she collects Ice and Snow Queens. In this painting I wanted to create an interesting head piece for my Queen so I used a straw to blow around the paint to create an ice lace effect. Im pretty happy with how it turned out. Im hoping that she likes the painting.

After taking Eraserqueen’s Mermaid Workshop at www.arttradermag.com I got inspired to pull out the watercolour paints and try some of her techniques and have a play with creating some mermaids.

I had a heap of fun and have found a new found love for watercolour paints. LOL – its amazing how we get stuck on one type of media for a while and then swap to another and then get stuck on that!

For so long Ive been stuck on markers and pencil combo’s……well guess its time for a change..

Ive completed the artwork for the altered CD’s (Gothic Theme) for a swap I am hosting at illustratedatcs.com. Now that Ive done the artwork its on to adding all the fun ‘bling’!

Here we go!!!!!! Registration is now open for our HUGE MEGA Art get together in Rochester, NY.

Click on the image below to find out all the details you need to attend this fantastic event.

This is a painting I did for one of my secret santa partners (Dina). Its approx 30cm x 20cm and I used many different media. Acrylic, water soluable pastels, watercolour, ink, prismacolor markers and pencils on illustration board. I really enjoyed creating this painting.

Happy New Year!

Once again Ive been missing from my blog for a while, real life is my only excuse. LOL The silly season has come and gone and the new year rolled in. I havent been creating alot of art but I did do some for my secret santa partners this year, which I will upload in a minute.

Im looking forward to this new year and getting down to more artwork. After 11 1/2 years of having my darling kiddies around me 24/7 I finally send the youngest off to school full time! Its the funny things Im looking forward to – going to the toilet without an audience, having a showing without the company, having the house stay tidy for more than a nano second……and the quiet……. Im sure that it will take me a little while to get used to all these things and catch up on sleep, but once I do I plan to create more and perhaps paint on all those canvas that I plan to put up in the house. And get my etsy shop going again. While still going through the battery of tests to find out which auto-immune disease I actually have. ARGHHH…… (going for a muscle biopsy this month YUK!)

But enough of that icky stuff and more about art! This year  at www.arttradermag.com have a heap of new online workshops for those who want to learn something new – mixed media mermaids, altered dominos, goth ladies, journals……heaps and heaps! And if you missed out on the Whimsy Workshops 1 & 2, we will be running those again this year too!

Not to mention the big ART GET TOGETHER in Rochester, New York in June! A heap of members from www.atcsforall.com and www.illustratedatcs.com will be converging on the top end of New York for 4 days of creating, learning, laughing and just having a grand ole time. Im hoping to make it again this year……just got to get hold of a cheap flight from Aus to the US! (Im hoping to venture into Canada to see Niagara Falls!)

Anyways I hope everyone has a fantastic 2010! xxxxx

Ive just made my blog wider! (took another css learning curve) but I managed to get it all looking ok now! YAY……

If you have any probs viewing the new format, please let me know.

Just jumping into the middle of my US trip chronicles to briefly discuss facebook! Why? I hear you ask….well Im trying to decide if I want to follow the masses and join the facebook phenomenon.

For a very long time I have been anti facebook, quite easily resisting the fad, especially since I have my own blog. (even though it is mostly an art blog) But now I seem to be folding to the pressure from family and friends who are practicing facebookers. So do I break my previous pact with myself and join the fray? I just dont know….. maybe I need to think on it some more! LOL

I was sooo excited the night before I barely slept! I had to be at Perth Airport at around 6am (friday) and left for Sydney. Arriving safely in Sydney I had about 1 hour before my flight to L.A boarded. So I grabbed some US dollars, a quick ciggie and proceeded through to my gate. The trip from Sydney to L.A was around 13 hours long and I travelled on one of the new A380 planes. WOW they are huge, just from the outside they look like this ominous massive piece of metal….amazing that it actually gets off of the ground! Honestly, I thought we were never going to take off…..it took sooo long speeding down the runway!

The pic above is from my seat out the window and only a fraction of the wing….note the writing that says not to stand on that section of the wing! LOL  The plane was nice, new and had some groovy new features – namely the inflight entertainment in the seat in front. But I wouldnt say the trip was extremely comfortable….could have been my excitement, I guess! I didnt sleep a wink the whole way over! I arrived into L.A at around 1pm on Friday. (yep, kind of lived Friday twice!)

Made my way through immagration, customs etc, manouvered my way out of LAX (what a massive airport!!!!) and caught a taxi down the road to a hotel. I planned to sleep for a couple of hours before my flight to Indiana at 9.30pm that night. I sort of dozed, not slept. I guess I was too afraid to miss my flight! LOL

Next my time at my friend Adriayna (Dana’s) house in Indiana!

Its certainly been ages since I wrote last and its been a whirlwind couple of months. My trip to the USA is over (and what fun it was!) More of that in my next post. Im still not well and my art has suffered majorly. Im barely creating anything at all. Actually Im not getting much of anything done lately. My specialist appointment is on the 7th October, so hopefully it will see a resolution to my health issues. Finally get back to a normal life and start creating again.
As soon as I arganise all my pics from my US trip I will post about all the fun I had, so stay tuned!!!!!!
Hugs to you all.