Its Started to Snow in Surrey.

Cool Cats by Mr Rob.

To see more Rob Ryan follow this link.

Breakfast?

9+1=10    But Shreddies, Why?

A Beauty in the Rocks in Devon

A friend of mine Kay, sent me these photos of some graffiti rock when on a break in Devon - 

On the coastal path to the south of Start Point lighthouse.

 I love them. Thank you they are great!!

The Start of a New Set of 4 Itchycoo Petites.

After the New Year I will be starting on a 1m x 2m semi abstract work, it will have a little Itchycoo landscaping in there and maybe a little of what I used to do. It feels like a while, a couple of months since I have had my paint brushes out, so until then I'm working on a new set of 4 Itchycoo Petites. So below you can see my 10 second sketches. I love that they are so awful, but strangely it is all I need as it is just about finding balance, space and composition. 

The mushrooms have overgrown like trees, some have eyes that wink at you, others are homes to  the inhabitants of Itchycoo.

 There is a fox there- very hard to tell, more of a quaver crisp, with Mimi. 

Here I'm thinking of The Little Red Hen with Foxy Loxy, except  my red hen is more of a white duck or maybe a goose.

I've used the tiger before, and he is one of my favourites, here the owl has grown and the tiger shrunk, to become great friends - The owl and the Pussy Cat.

My paintings usually have 4-5 layers. It's all a bit of a mess to start with.
Here is the beginning of the sky- it becomes a little easier to see whats going on. 
I do a double painted layer, followed by white outlines and black edges.
 Then the dots come in, sometimes alone sometimes as a double or triple layer.


What's fun about these pictures, at least I'm having fun trying to work it out, is that they all link together in a line. That is easy, what's not so easy is to change the order of the pictures and for them still to work in sequence. 

 I'm not to worried as the sketch above was the start of the painting below. 

Somewhere Beyond the Sweet Milk Mountain.

A Year to the Day - I Started this Blog!!

Hurray I've kept it going!!

I am happy because this time around I have succeeded to continue blogging. Although I had intended it only to be about my art, somehow everything else has started to creep in. It's become more of a scrap book of ideas, good and bad. Of course my pictures are predominately there but so are my friends, family and my every day. There are also other things by other people, art or otherwise that I love - that inspire me to be creative and in turn hopefully I may do the same for someone else.

(You can also visit my other blog, Itchycoo Somewhere, Sometimes...a Daydreaming Journey.

This is just about my thoughts and ideas on the large paintings within the Itchycoo story.) 568

Info stats on this blog.

3 most visited pages :

Itchycoo Story 124

Itchycoo Petites 103

Itchycoo Landscaping 92

My top 10 most popular posts:

Firecracker Jellies  92 

Lucid Moonlight Liquid Sun 78

Congratulations Jon and Beccy!! 69

Gustarv Vigeland and Polish Sculpture around 1900. 52

Velvet Morning 45

Back to School, Back to Work! 44

Catching up with Friends before back to School. 42

Beware of having lie in.  42

I Love You Inside Out Whoever You May Be  39

New British Artists at the Affordable Art Fair 2010 37

My top ten countries, most viewed by:

UK  2,539                     

USA  899

Norway  392

Australia 77

Canada 54

Poland 25

Japan 11

Finland 11

Belgium 10

Ecuador 10

The first person to look at my blog, 

other than me started in July, before then it was a big fat 0:

July  320

August 750

September 1,014

October 1,031

November - So far: 1,117

(And hopefully continuing to grow)

Back to wHere I started A year ago today.

THURSDAY, 26 NOVEMBER 2009

Lucid Moonlight, Liquid Sun 1m x 1m

This is my the first painting I did that made me realise that I had a direction to go somewhere with my painting.

Pink Sock Soda Pop 1m x 1m

This is the second, which was inspired by a Paul Smith Ad that has a pink sock on a rug that has stripes on the side. It also looks like Mickey Mouse is visiting although this is purely by accident.

Trailer Park Eden 1m x 1m

One of my favourites with a hint of a landscape behind

Falling Leaf Caresses 1m x 70cm

This one is inspired by - dare I say it an Ikea rug!

Sticky Sublime 1m x 70cm

 Helterskelter Hurricane 2m x 2m

Moving along the lines of noise

Emma Hill, Subtropical Storm Chaser 2.5m x1m

Chasing the sea into the eye of the storm

THURSDAY, 26 NOVEMBER 2009

 Firecracker Jellies: 12"x12"

Trying a new colour pallet

 Jelly Sunrise : 16"x16"

More space!
Emma Hill, Meadow fine, Meadow bright: 16"x16"

As you can see the final image has been toned down.

The start of Meadow fine, Meadow bright. As you can see all crammed in again!

2nd Doodle - learning to free some space

1st doodle, which looks over the top with everything crammed in.

An attempt to move away from the abstract moving towards the illustrative.

I started a blog a year ago in an magazine, and didn't get very far. I am hoping maybe this time I will keep up with it! Above are some examples of my previous works.

I only got as far as what is written below.

So 2 years ago: 

13th November 2008

I live in Surrey with my husband and two young daughters. Although I have an Art History degree, I consider my art education to be gained while being cabin crew for BA. The foundations of my art practice are based on eight years of direct searching and exploring art and culture globally. Five years on, with a couple of girls in between I’ve been exhibiting and selling my art with New British Artists. I taught Art at a local men’s prison, using art as a visual language for communication. What next? Make more art, move on and embrace the change.

Doodle dot doodle. Outside in, Inside out.

It’s about finding my way. Opening up and developing my art, to make some mistakes and to move on and embrace the change. How? The journey begins with little more than a doodle with a few dots here and there. Along the way outside influences are borrowed and taken in, then from inside my art comes out. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t.

******************

Hi, as you can guess I’m new to this, there is never a good time to start and I never quite feel ready so I might just as well get on with it.  Painting: I painted big pictures with lots of dots; although the formula has worked for me and the style is easily recognisable I feel the need to move on, to take my art somewhere else. Why, because I’m bored of it, I guess. Where and how I get there, I’m not sure, this is all part of the journey of getting me on my way.

 I'ts hard to explain my artwork so it's easier to take a look.

******************

Chocolate by the Old Bald Man!

Karen, a friend of mine has reciently moved to Sydney and went to a fab hot chocolate cafe, Max Brenner. This morning she sent me some images, thinking I may like them. I love them! It's almost uncanny to see / read the similarities between Max's chocolate catologue and my art  my work: 

Somewhere beyond the Sweet Milk/chocolate mountain/s

Mushrooms, jellyfish, daisies etc

In a far away land beyond the chocolate mountains and across the toffee seas.....

Excitement filled the air as the festival of the chocolate dragon got off to a riotous start...

"Play me a lullaby", bubbled the Angel fish, to her melody-making webbed footed lover...

"In this Garden"Said Mrs Cat, as she tripped along with candy coated umbrella held high,

"Imagination is the key to happiness!"

The lanterns burned brighter and brighter fuelled by pure chocolate energy.

"It's a magic case, explained the gnome, "all you need, will be found within"

"I believe!" shouted the little boy. " In the sweet magic of love"

Blue Jays in pinafores and wood pigeon dandies....

no expense was spared as they flocked to the king's ball.

.....And the parade was indeed something to behold!

"There is no such thing as too much chocolate," whispered the flowers to each other.

Liquorice tentacled jelly fish floated wispily through the ocean sugar clover....

Of course fish can fly! Can't you?

The road leading to the castle was paved with thick chocolate bricks.

Good Night, a Bed Made for Violet, Prince Charming and her 9 Worry Dolls ??

This is my favourite, an Amanita.

Also from the net.

23rd March 2011

To date this is my most popular post with 486 page views.

Today I am adding my Itchycoo Amanita's!

And if you would like to look at some more mushroom related posts follow the links below:

Magic Mushrooms Appearing In Bethnal Green

Boletus Mushrooms From The Net

A Friends Funky Mushrooms

Mushroom Illustration From The Net