Kinver Hearts

I've just listed my first printed greetings card - Kinver Hearts. I've been wanting to get this image printed for a while, and it finally exists in the form of a card.



The card has come out a little different to the original in colour, but I prefer it. The greys in the sky that you can see above have turned out more purple, which is great. Visit the listing here.

Just over a year ago, I blogged a little about the series of artworks that inspired this piece - visit the post here. It all started with this photograph, taken at Kinver Edge in the Midlands:



Shortly afterwards, I painted this piece. I opened up the negative space a little, allowing for a colourful sunset to be seen behind the plants:



Using that canvas as inspiration, I painted a similar scene in my art journal in watercolours and acrylics:



I experimented with that a little, adding an extra layer in acetate:





I also edited the photograph of the original, stretching it out:



Then playing with the contrast and adding hearts:



The original painting was originally to be for sale but we (that is, my boyfriend and I) liked it so much that we kept it.



I still wanted it to be for sale in some form though, hence these greetings cards (yes, there will be more!). I'm looking into getting prints of many of my paintings made too, of which Kinver will be one. There will also be a Kinver Hearts print - watch this space.

New Year, New Art

So what have I been up to since I last blogged? Working very hard for Acme Jewellery, mostly. But all work and no play makes Jen a dull girl, so I've had a few decent nights out too, including seeing Madness on the 12th Dec and Aladdin (a panto starring John Barrowman) on 20th Dec. Yayness! With them, plus Bill Bailey and Alice Cooper, I've had a busy winter :D

I started a new project in the Christmas holidays too. The actual paintings have nothing to do with this, but me starting to paint again was inspired by reading Anthony Keidis's autobiography. He described how he and the rest of the Chilis lived in a house while writing Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and that John would be painting in his room there. Just the word 'painting' made me want to paint stuff, so the next day I started off a new sketchbook of paintings, little ideas for future canvases.

The first page of the sketchbook is a version of this canvas (click the image for a little more about this piece):



Using that canvas as inspiration, I painted a similar scene in watercolours and acrylics:



I traced the outline of the tree onto a piece of acetate with a marker, then added to this using copper-coloured glass outliner. I cut a hole in the top of the plastic, then attached it to the rings of my sketchbook with black ribbon.







The next page. Painted in watercolours:



When I was in college, a few years ago, one of the things the tutors had us doing was drawing the negative space around a figure, rather than the figure itself. I've come back to this idea, painting the sky around the tree rather than the tree itself.

I'll have more of these soon, plus some canvases and Valentines cards based on them.