New arrivals- back garden chickens

The girls have arrived! We have three twelve week old chicks- 2 buff orpingtons and 1 white Sussex. They are extremely fascinating and the kids love them. They won't be laying until the spring and as the kids are not in the garden much at the moment we will fence them off when the weather dries. As for now I am getting used to the daily routine and enjoying our new pets! :-)

Christmas card experiments

Happy Christmas Bloggers! I hope you are enjoying the festivities!
Still developing my hand printed range and experimenting with colours, time to go to the studio. Think I prefer reds and golds with the writing in black...

Keeping chickens

Never thought I would get so excited about keeping a few chickens in the back garden! But here I am like a child the night before Christmas waiting for my chicken coop to be delivered. Decided on the breed Lowman Browns as read they are friendly and good egg layers. May get some ex bats when I have learned more about looking after my flock! ;) Then the lovely task of collecting the feathery friends will happen once hubby has the pleasure of putting up the coop. Of course it has crossed my mind that I will have live subjects to draw which will be just up my street!
The only cockerel these ladies will see;

Pheasant framed

Found a bargain frame in the Range which comes with its own mount. This is the first piece of my own art work that I've put on my wall, is it really vain of me? ;)

Capercaillie

First prints of this gorgeous bird completed this morning. Took a while to get the pressure right on the press but was worth doing in black.

The studio

John Howard's studio in Penryn where I complete my prints. A great space to work :)

I am not a Peacock!

I find that my creativity is all or nothing, when I start drawing and want to create I can not think of anything else and much of my other interests disappear. I must find balance and learn to stop and have a break, although I am loving this as i needed to find some inspiration, seems like, Birds it is!

Christmas card ideas:

My true love gave to me...

More pictures of pheasant print:

New prints...Pheasant

I stayed up until 1am to finish carving the Lino but I'm glad I did as managed to go to the studio (John Howard's in Penryn) and print my first few prints. I chose a very deep red as I think the bird looks very proud, with elements of warrior symbolism-can you tell I watched the All Blacks at the weekend? I'm pleased with how the detail of the smaller feathers printed as they took ages to carve. Which bird or animal shall I do next? Any suggestions?

I eat meat...

I don't eat loads of it but i am a meat eater non the less. This weekend my sister had a gathering of fellow farmers, she married one years ago so I know the other side of supermarket shelves! They have what they like to call "shoot" weekends, imagine what you will from the title!
I doubt I would ever become a vegetarian but it got me thinking about how I struggle like most to see the brutal side of our diets. Even my husband on a fishing trip couldn't kill the mackerel we caught as it flapped around on the rocks gasping for air. Both of us dancing around saying "you do it", until we let it go.
(he was gutted as he loves fresh fish).
Looks like we are happy to let others do the jobs we don't like! Although I must stress I am strongly against killing for sport, I have to ask, if I had to for hunger, would I...?
So as a dedication to the beautiful birds that lost their lives this weekend I have drawn a pheasant in prep for a Lino to hang on my sisters wall so we can remember...

October sunshine

Back from Spain and have missed creating. Great light over there and feeling very inspired, more on that to come but saw these lovely flowers the other day and just had to print them!

Harbour Boat Lino Print- work in progress

Beautiful Newquay and the Harbour:

Living in beautiful Cornwall you can not ignore the influence of the fishing community and what the sea brings to our shores. I see the harbour nearly everyday in my town of Newquay, I often take my two boys down to the harbour to mainly chase the seagulls (they are huge here, the size of cats!!!) and admire the left over crabs that have been discarded from the 'catch of the day'.   

My drawing-Boat study; (Of course,  I didn't have time to do it when I was with the kids!!!):



Inspiration for Harbour Boat Lino Print



Lino print

Hand printed on Japanese rice paper.

It was a sunny day... I hope you like it :) Needs something...maybe some orange what do you think?

Multi-colour Lino print with simple registration!

THE MAKING OF CORNISH HEDGEROW:

Once i had cut the image i then decided on the parts of the image i wanted to be different colours. If you use the reduction technique then you can't reprint the image once you have cut and printed your final colour so for this Lino print i cut it in half as the foreground and the background were easy to separate. Firstly i used an uncut Lino to print a block background colour and then inked up one half of the Lino:

This is a simple method of creating multi-coloured prints without the need for complex registration techniques.  A great way to start when learning how to do a three colour lino print.

TA DAAA...

Art Car Boot Success!

Thank you to all the lovely people at the Car Boot on Sunday in Truro, hopefully there will be more events like this nearer Christmas. Sold my original Poppy painting and various prints, I am pleased that they will be going to such nice homes!

Hooray- My new press has arrived!!:)

 Can't wait to use it, thanks to Terry I now have my very own press to print my work-YAY!!

 Time to get to work...

First Craft Fair

I sold one print which was very successful considering there were only 3 people in the whole place, need to talk to some people in the know and find some good venues.  Thank goodness my friend Tash was there otherwise the tumble weed and josh sticks may have tipped me over the edge- funny :)) strange, not, ha ha!! Craft fairs- to do, or not to do, that is the question???

Craft fair Saturday 14th of May 2pm

Hey if you're reading this you have found me!!
1st craft fair this Saturday lets hope it's busy!
Hopefully see you there
Dawn :) This is what i will be selling: www.folksy.com/shops/sheridanart