new mixed media artworks – including food!

Sharing my holiday happenings – mostly lazing, eating and drawing! Here’s a snap shot of the last week for me and what I’ve been making …

New artwork:

'New Year'. Watercolour, pen, texta, watercolour  pencil, crayon on pinstripe textured 270 GSM archival art paper. 21 x 29.5 cms. 2010.

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New artwork:

 

'Vessel of Conception'. Pen, watercolour, texta, acrylic & watercolour pencil on pinstripe textured 270gsm archival art paper. 21 x 29.5 cms. 2010.

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New artwork:

'Tranquility'. Watercolour pencil, acrylic, crayon, watercolour and texta on 216 gsm hammer textured art paper. 21 x 29 cms. 2010

These are now available as prints on my website here

 

Last but not least, this Christmas I made all the kids in my family a portrait cupcake – the ultimate mixed media artwork with food! Lolly snakes for hair … chocolate fudge for features … jelly powder for rosy cheeks …raspberries for their mouths. So much fun to make and do!

I hope you had a beautiful, love-filled, creative Christmas xox

some new drawings + musings

Ahhh … holidays! I began this post to quickly upload some new drawings I’ve completed this week. But when I saw them all together, it made me wonder if being in ‘holiday-mode’ is actually affecting my artworks in some ways. This new drawing below, called ‘Storms Bring Rainbows’, I drew right in the midst of being busy and finalising all of my workshops for the year. I think there’s a lot of *Bang* in this one – full of strong energy and moving forward. Lots of busyness!

'Storms Bring Rainbows'. Pen, watercolour, watercolour pencil, crayon and biro on 216 gsm archival art paper. 2010

Whereas this one below, created a coupe of days later on the eve of my final ‘official’ day of work, looks a lot – umm – slower, or something. It’s like it’s winding down in energy, letting go and ‘coming back home’ to itself.

 

'Be Gentle On Yourself'. Pen, texta, watercolour, watercolour pencil, markers, metallic pen and crayon on 216 gsm hammer textured art paper. 2010

Then finally, I finished this one yesterday; Let’s Make Dreams Together’, on the first day of my holidays. It’s so much lighter I think: Open to possibility. Free. It makes me want to welcome my dreams in, cause now I’ve finally got space for them.

'Let's Make Dreams Together'. Watercolour, pen, crayon, watercolour pencil and Japanese printed paper on 216 gsm hammer textured art paper. 2010

The titles of the artworks have changed direction a little for me lately, which I’m really enjoying. It’s almost like each artwork I finish comes ready-made with it’s own little ‘message’ attached, based on the feeling I get from it. I’ve mentioned before that I hardly ever paint a ‘something’ or  even know what I’m even going to draw/paint. It just unfolds piece by piece, step by step. Which is kinda nice actually, cause I get surprised by the end product too!

I’ve written a little bit more about my design processes and inspirations here in an interview by the lovely Amanda from Hungry Designs if you want to check it out. She makes me sounds pretty awesome! Tee hee!

Anyway, I’m off to relax now and get back to my holidays. I hope you have a beautiful festive weekend with your loved ones.

Merry Christmas to you. Love C  xoxox

interview with jewellery designer Kellie Christie

It’s been a while since I’ve featured a most-excellent designer and this one was worth the wait! The very cool and super talented Kellie Christie is an amazing jewellery designer using buttons as her main medium – and she happens to also be my super lovely friend.

So without further ado, here’s some words and awesome eye candy to boot.

 

Who is the person behind ‘Kellie Christie’?

I am a wife and mother of 2 young boys and I have a background in Graphic Design and Fine Art.

I have 3 big loves in my life... wine, coffee and chocolate! Which order? … depends on my mood! I have a fetish for jewellery, handbags and shoes and believe that you can never have enough! And I love anything that is colourful and bright and I like my jewellery to stand out. 

How would you sum up your work/style in a couple of sentences?

Bright, bold statement jewellery made with buttons.

How did your practice begin?

While I was still at uni I began making beaded jewellery and created my very first button necklace after finding a cute little bag of bright buttons in amongst my sewing supplies. I received such fantastic compliments every time I wore it that I knew that I was on to something great and began making more.

Have you faced any challenges in your work to date?

The biggest challenge so far has been getting the confidence to put myself out there and turn my hobby into a business. It took a lot of encouragement from my husband and friends but eventually I decided to just get out there and do it and I haven't looked back.

  Who have you learnt from?

The majority of my skills are all self taught. I did study gold and silver smithing for a year at uni and found it fantastic but very time consuming. It is definitely something that I would love to get back in to some time in the near future.

What do you love most about being an artist?

My creative time is my 'me' time. It allows me to feel normal and for a few hours I can just be myself and enjoy creating. I find it very meditative and relaxing. I find that the more I make and create the more ideas and 'light bulb' moments I have. If I didn't have a creative outlet I think I would go crazy. For me being creative if fun, I definitely don't see it as a 'job'.

 

Do you have a ‘day job’ or is art your full time occupation?

I am a full time stay at home parent to two boys. Noah is nearly 3 and Liam has just turned 1. They keep me very busy through the day and once they have gone to bed at night I spend a few hours in the studio, enjoying the quiet and quietly creating.

Can you finish these sentences:

In another life I would love to ……. become a pastry chef, wine maker, travel the world, be a coffee roaster, be a lady of leisure, own my own boutique store, be a ROCK STAR!....... oh the possibilities......

If I had all the power in the world I would ……. be very rich in many ways

The first thing I do every morning is ……. wish I were still asleep.

My motto is ……. I don't think I have one but I do really like Liana Kabel's motto "If it looks like a lolly, I like it!"

You can find more delicious button goodness on:

Kellie’s blog

Kellie’s Etsy store

Kellie’s facebook page

new drawings

I’ve been working on a few more drawings over the last week and I haven’t had a chance to put them up until now. My heart fills with busting love when I sit down to draw these days – it’s like the feeling I used to get when I was a kid – I wasn’t trying to make a particular ‘something’, I was just enjoying myself. So, here they are.

 

This one is called ‘Baby Treeses in the Breezes.’ Strange name, I know, but it was such a fun and joyful piece to create, I thought the name quite fitting. There’s no special meaning behind this artwork – just fun.

Along the same vein, this new drawing is called ‘You Make Me Happy’. Literally, both when I was drawing it and when I looked at the finished piece, it brought me such a sense of lightness and joy. You might remember when I started this drawing last week, I’d picked some flowers on my afternoon walk to include in it, and I’m really happy with how they’ve turned out. It reminds me of wildflowers on a summers day.

As I’ve been going down the path of fabric designs as well, I thought this one might make a really interesting piece if I mirrored the image. Boy was I pleased when I saw how it came together as a pattern! I’d LOVE to see this on a fabric cushion (stay tuned next year for this!)

I find it SO interesting that people seem to find different things in my artworks that I never actually intended to do. After I posted this image on my facebook page, I got feedback from people who saw lots of different things in it, like a little girl with eyes and pigtail braids, another saw a heraldy shield, another saw a goddess sitting like a buddha …

Here’s me thinking I’m just drawing pretty organic nature stuff, and from that, come all these awesome interpretations of my work. I can’t say how much of a blessing it is to receive feedback like this, and to know even for a split moment, that my art has ignited people’s imaginations and hearts.

Finally, here’s another piece I’m working on to include in a pattern somehow. It’s not finished – I think I need to team it with something else to make it a bit more organic looking, but here’s a piccy of where I’ve come with it so far.

This one actually started as a vision in my minds eye – I just saw a beautiful leaf made from rainbows, so I started drawing it and here’s where it went.

I haven’t gotten around to putting these on my website yet but I’ll have them available as prints as of this Friday night for the BrisStyle Twilight Market in Burnett Lane in Brisbane City.

magazine article for upcoming twilight extravaganza

Yaysies! This Friday night I’ll be attending my very first BrisStyle Indie Twilight Market in the heart of the city – and the lovely Rachel from Darling Girl and I were selected to be the pin-up peeps to showcase the festivities in the MX magazine! Nothing like a bit of free advertising – I love being a member of BrisStyle. It’s all pretty exciting stuff – these markets go off like a frog in a sock!

Rachel makes beautiful, hand-sewn earrings, necklaces and clips using predominantly pre-loved fabrics (front and right) – isn’t the little bow-tie necklace she’s wearing just gorgeous? I scored one from her the last market we shared together. LOVE it.

I was extremely chuffed to get both my art + my jewellery in the shoot – plus showcase my new boofy haircut. Tee hee! Blonde and boofy. Not quite sure it was the look I was going for, but at least it’s cool for all this sticky humid heat we’ve been having here in Brisse the last couple of weeks.

So, if you’re free this Friday evening, we’d love to see you! Rachel and I will be sharing a stall in Burnett Lane alongside loads of other awesome indie designers. The markets also spread over to King George Square.

So if you're anything like me and you’ve left your Christmas shopping until the last minute, you’ll find plenty of eye candy and ethical hand-made goodies here on Friday night! Head over to the BrisStyle blog for all the info and festivities happening on the night.

Love C xx

welcome inside my humble home

I find it truly exciting and insightful to see how my friends and arty-crafty people have decorated their homes and what lovely little trinkets or collective delights they harbour behind closed doors. Whenever I see the inside of people’s houses, I always feel like I know the person that little bit better, even if it’s a celebrity.

Over the last few months I’ve been following Cathy McMurray’s ‘Habit of Art’ blog – each time I visit I see an honest little snippet of her personality and her home in the post. To me, there’s something quite intimate and touching to be invited into someone’s home and seeing their personal space. In real life it’s also like a sign of taking the friendship to the next level. So, in the spirit of sharing, here’s a few snippets of happenings around my place – a little two bedroom townhouse on the north side of Brisbane.

 

I share my house with my hubby and our cat

as well as my trusty PFAFF sewing machine,

lots of fabric,

a miniature lounge,

A rattly old painted fan,

Loads of art and hand made trinkets on the walls …

on the benches … storage units …

 

on top of boxes … printers …. tables … door jams

painting recesses … blu tacked to the walls

  

… and even in our toilet.

It seems nothing is safe from decoration in our house! Of course, there’s plenty of mess I’ve carefully cropped out as well, especially in the kitchen. I’d like to say I’ve arranged the dirty dishes as an intricate ceramic sculpture, but really, the truth is I’m so busy doing things I actually enjoy doing, that I just try to avoid the task for as long as possible and hope husband will do them :)

Hopefully the next time I give you a grand tour of my home it’ll be from a house on a large block of land boasting chickens and veggie patches and a lovely big studio and murals and babies and children. Yeah – that sounds like a great place to live in. I think I’ll bring husband along too.

can you help me decide?

Can I have your opinion (pretty-please with sugar on top)?

I'm trying to work out what to do with my new fabrics. My ultimate BEES KNEES option is to have my fabrics on lounges, chairs and home wares - I just don't know where to start with that cause I have no idea how to do it myself (if you have any leads - please help!)

I have a few other options floating in my mind and I'd love your feedback on which ones you like best:

 1. A website where you can pick whichever artwork you like to be printed onto fabric, in various sizes for you to sew/create your own stuff with (there's a 3 week wait for them to be printed).

2. Large prints of my artworks/patterns on fabric to make wall hangings/canvasses.

3. Fabric cushions with my art on them.

4. Simple black skirts with a fabric panel of my art inserted

 Any feedback or other ideas would be great - I really want to find out what people want before I invest in myself!

I've uploaded a bunch of my fabric designs and all my regular artworks on my website if you'd like to check them out for ideas.

Thanks so much - I SO appreciate your help!

Chrissy xx 

inspiration and art-in-progress

The more I draw, the more I find inspiration from so many things around me. Yesterday when I was on my trusty afternoon walk, I came across these beautiful little flower clusters in shades of hot pink, yellow and white.  I picked a few and brought them home with me to use as inspiration for a new drawing. Here’s how it’s coming along so far.

The natural world is such an inspiration for me – I adore the feeling of a new leaf shoot or the textures and colours of moss growing on the concrete. And don’t even get me started on flowers!

I found a little square of Japanese printed paper (top middle of pic), so I plan to incorporate that into the artwork somewhere too. One of my greatest loves is finding random patterns and objects that can compliment and fit into my mish-mash of colours and shapes – it gives me a lovely fuzzy feeling inside!

What inspires you? I’d love to hear which parts of your world most influences you.

C xx

back on track and making new stuff

So after my little depressive episode early this week, I’m feeling heaps better and back on the happy track again. I think sometimes just being really honest with yourself and allowing time to really feel your emotions is the only way forward. God knows I’d been trying to find the bright-side for so long – it feel strangely comforting to keep it real.

{ And thanks so much to all the beautiful, kind-hearted and generous words of support and comments on Monday’s post – I’ve found the online blogging community to be such a god-send! You know who you are xox }

Anyhow, over the last few days I’ve been keeping myself busy with a few things. I’m pretty obsessed with my new eco-art papers and watercolours, and I’m loving introducing some more and more materials into the mix. I find myself drawing of a night time while I’m sitting on the couch watching TV with hubby ~ it’s so nice to make art when there’s someone else around. Comforting somehow.

Here’s my latest pieces.

This one is called ‘On Wings of Paradise’~ It’s inspired by a David Attenborough documentary I watched on TV the other night on Birds of Paradise.

 

The colours, textures and beauty of the dancing birds documentary captivated me entirely, and I just had to draw!
Created in pen, watercolour, metallic pen and crayon on eco archival paper on recycled pine boards.

 

The next new artwork below is called ‘Fern’s Unfolding Fronds’. My hubby recently got the Special Edition Avatar on DVD, and the art in that movie is SO inspiring!! Oh my goodness, if only the world looked like that – the colours are spectacular!

I’ve cut out sections inside the leaves using a scalpel, and filled them in with some beautiful printed papers from my huge paper stash. The bottom right hand background is inspired by the crystals next to my bed. God only know what else is in there – a lot of the time even I don’t see things until other people point them out! I found out too that in New Zealand, the unfolding fronds symbolise new beginnings, growth, and balance. Nice!

 

Then on Wednesday night I finished another artwork, called ‘Allow’. This one celebrates my increasing commitment to making my truest, deepest desires a reality. For too long I’ve spent my time doing what I think I ‘should’ do instead of really fulfilling my heart’s desires. And ever since, things seem to be moving forward a lot more easily for me (minus Monday’s little episode!).

When I’ve been walking of an afternoon I’ve been seeing those beautiful lightweight white fluffy weeds (flowers? seeds?), and they remind me always to let go, trust and allow – can you see them in the artwork?

The next morning I showed this artwork to hubby (as I always do – he’s got a great eye for composition and what’s ‘missing’ & what’s ‘working well’ visually) and he sat silent for a good 30 seconds. I was thinking, ‘Erm – umm … guess I’ve got some more work to do on this one?!’, when he finally said he LVOED it and it was his favourite artwork I’ve ever made. What the?!

It’s really so strange – I really don’t seem to have a concept of which artworks ‘stand-out’ for people. I guess everyone has a different aesthetic. Perhaps also everyone taps into something different when they view an artwork. Perhaps the meaning and feeling behind my work can somehow shine through and resonate with people. I don’t know. It’s a great mystery, and that’s what I love about making art!

All of these new artworks will be available as prints and originals at the Special Christmas Little Market At Avid tonight. Tonight’s event coincides with a handmade book launch, and people from the book will also be having stalls and going demos of their work. Should be a great night.

Find more about it here.

I hope you have a great weekend ahead! Chrissy xx

i’m having a shit day

Time for a heart to heart.

I know we’re meant to stay positive and optimistic, and looking for all the good things in our lives but I’m finding it hard and feeling a bit beaten up by the waves at the moment. Maybe it’s just the time of year to feel icky and exhausted, I don’t know.

It’s not just one thing, it seems to be lots of little things. I’m tired of trying to stay strong and positive about my life as an artist when it seems like no matter what I do or successes I have along the way, I’m always just scraping by.

I’m tired that my hubby has been sick for so many months and I’m trying to hold it all together for him.

I’m tired of seeing so many of my friends falling pregnant or having beautiful little babies while two years on, I’ve had no luck.

Most of all, I’m tired of keeping all this inside and trying to find the silver lining in it all. I’m exhausted, upset and just for a few days even, I want to wallow in my self pity without trying to fix myself or keep up appearances.

This is my life at this time, and I need to stop denying that there’s times for sunshine and times for rain.

I created this artwork about how I’ve been feeling, with particular emphasis on the baby thing. It’s called ‘Waiting For You’.

‘Waiting For You’. Pen, ink, watercolour and crayon on paper. 21 x 29. 2010

It actually felt good to step into my feelings with this one. To allow shades of darkness in for a change. To let my true feelings be shown. To let myself be vulnerable. To let my cracks appear without trying to render them over so that no one else sees them. To let myself be human.

i bought myself some watercolours today …

… and here’s what I made with them!

It’s called ‘The Meaning of Freedom’. Pen, ink, crayon and watercolour on paper. 21 x 29 cms. 2010

Holy shamozey, I am just LOVING the vibrancy and fluidity of watercolour! I think I’ve got a new obsession :)

Original and prints available on my website.

my new fabric pattern designs

‘Playtime in Vegas’ (below)

 

‘Flourishing Fiscally 1’

 

‘Life in the Stream’

 

‘Flourishing Fiscally 2’

© Chrissy Foreman C. 2010