... on glass

Merry Christmas

... to all, from sunny Port Dickson ;)

Bookmarks for the season

I made a whole bunch of these for my the other students in my French class. Some of us have been together for three semesters, and some for two - and they are a wonderful, happy bunch. I hope they liked them.

Joyeux Noël - Merry Christmas
Bonne Santé - To your good health
Joyeuses Fêtes - Happy Celebration, probably equivalent to 'Season's greetings'
Bonne Année - Happy New Year
Meilleurs Voeux - Happy Holidays

And Merry Christmas to all :)

My girls

One day, I hope I'll be able to paint these two angels!

My bag

I thought I'd do simple daisies on my bag. But, as usual, nothing is simple with me... but no one wants the long story, so here are the pictures of the finished work instead.

Starting off with my girls having a good look-smell at the bag:

And then, views of the bag, taken from all the different bits I painted - even right at the bottom, where the wheels are ;)

A basket of flowers

Over a few days, I worked on this second slab of styrofoam - first, base-coating it, and then working on adding bits and pieces of the colours I planned for the painting into the background. Then, I worked on the basket, and that took a few 'takes'. Originally, this had a handle, but it looked too sad (I need to work on my 'weaving' technique for the handle), so I filled it up with flowers instead. To remind me that there indeed was a handle there somewhere, I left a bit hidden in there among the flowers.

... just finished - paint still wet

a close-up

... and to remind me that I actually painted 'over the edge' 

Two Christmas candles

I am plodding on with my gift-paintings, and so far, I have a good cache - so I'm feeling happy :)

Here're two more - of candles, which I love - and they will fit nicely in my Santa-helper's bag!

There are many pix here - some with the flash, to show off the gilding, and some without, because the flash destroys the colour and the depth! Sadness!

Yennyways, these two pieces are painted on stretched canvas, which I first gesso-ed, and then painted with a white background (with household wall-paint ;). Then, I painted my candles, the poinsettia, the holly and lovely holly-berries, and pine-leaves with metallic acrylic paint - for a real glitzy Christmas-y feel :)

Taken with flash - so it's flashy ;)

So you know you're not seeing double!

Again - being flashy!

Poinsettia and holly

This is planned as a gift - for someone who doesn't visit this blog ;)

Christmas gifts

Napkins, placemats, and two shawls - all gifts :)

A bottle and a votive

I don't feel 'ready' to start on my Christmas gifts yet, so I'm messing about with old things I find around the house. The first is a little bottle I take with me to French class. It was on the table, so it was 'captured' for painting! Hahahah!

One side...

... the other side...

... and its cover.

And the votive, above and below:

My poinsettia and holly

I love poinsettia, and nowadays they can be found in a myriad of colours: from the traditional red, to gold, and silver, and even pinks and blues!

Here I've tried my hand at the traditional red. But, something's happened to my green, so I'll need to see how to fix that :(

In the practice round, it was ok. And that is where I tried my hand at shading for the first time. That's why you can see the outer outlines of my shading strokes. A big no-no - but first timers will do nonsense, won't they?

When I'd finished the poinsettia and holly, I felt that the arrangement looked a bit bare - so I added in some conifer fronds. Yes, needs more work, that, eh?! ;) Hahahahah!!!

See what I mean about the 'shadows' on the practice-sheet?
Aiyo, and what's with the green lah?!

I'm quite happy with this one, actually :)

Practising for Christmas

I have gifts to paint for Christmas, and some of them are on fabric. Not easy. At least not for me. Most of the techniques I use for paper and glass don't work at all :(

But, there is nothing like trying - to find out what you can, and cannot do.

Here's what I did this morning. I couldn't find many colours for fabric, and so: DO NOT LOOK at the colours, or the colour combinations I have used here. Many times, when I'm in practice-mode, I use whatever colours I have on the palette, rather than squeeze out more of a different colour, just so that it would look right. I'm more interested in getting the shape and strokes right, than I am about colour. So that's why, many times, the colours you see all cosy-ing up togethersee are so scary! Hahahah! But on this day - All Hallow's Eve - surely I can be forgiven?

What possessed me to even look at the purple, let alone put it in my basket and then pay for it? I thought it would make a 'less drastic' shadow for the red, than black would. Plus, there was no black to be found :(

Yennyways, with the colours I have, I plan to do a few simple but pretty things. And you'll find them here before Christmas. Fingers crossed ;)

Here they are, altogether, because they don't merit a place all alone!

Missy's house

Missy was meant to join us in Port Dickson last weekend, but it was not meant to be. At 9, she was 'old' for an English bulldog, and she was too ill to come to us. She was laid to rest on Sunday, 24 October.

In his spare time, my DH, Chuan, put together this house for her - little knowing that she wouldn't be here to see it, or enjoy it.

So, since it was completed, I decided that I would go ahead and paint on the flowers that I'd planned to do. The only difference to the design being this heart, to remind us of the happy girl who spent some time with us:

Toffee, above - my long-haired one; and Jolie, below:

I just finished the painting today, so tomorrow, I'll spray on the sealant, and it'll be good :)

See you at the Rainbow Bridge, Missy!

Jam-filled!! :)

These don't need words, except that these are filled with blackcurrant jam - confiture de cassis - made with love, in Lyon, France, by my friend Pierre :)

If you want to see them empty, go here :)

Roses on a wood tile

I have a few laminated-wood-tile samplers, and here's what I painted on one of them.

This last one is me playing around with Picasa, and wondering what this would look like, tone-on-tone, which is my favourite colour scheme :)

Update: I gave this piece to my dear friend, Lita. And she tells me it's made it's way to her Singapore home. Nice. I'm going places, eh?!

Sunflowers

I've wanted to try my hand at sunflowers for the longest time, and this afternoon, I finally did.

I painted on a scrap piece of styrofoam (also known as polystyrene) that came with something we bought.

It's hard to paint on, but I didn't know that, did I?! Hahahah!!!

Anyways, this is the result.

The styrofoam makes this look antique-ish, which isn't altogether a bad thing, I think. I did the edges in the deep-brown of the sunflower-centres to add to the old-feel of the piece, and also to lend more depth to the flowers.

Two jam bottles

Yes, I do have a way with titles, don't I? NOT! Hahahaah!!!

But here's what I did yesterday: painted the four faces of two little bottles, that I plan to fill with homemade jam. Not in my home, but in Pierre's - my daughter's father-in-law, and a dear friend. Another person who's near and dear, whom I haven't yet met :)

Every year, we get lots of lovely jam from him, all made in France! Chuan and I can't finish it all, and so we share. This year, Nicole, Larnee's MIL also sent us delicious three citron marmalade. Two bottles were too much, so one is with my sister, Sandy.

And these bottles will be filled, and will go to two friends I'm meeting next week :)

I've yet to set the paint in the oven. I thought I'd wait till the end of the week, when I might have something else to add.

When I've filled them with the blueberry jam - which is blue-and-black and beautiful, I'll take more pix, and put them up :)

Emily's gifts :)

For the little purple round I did for her, Emily sent me so many gifts!

The first, is this black-and-white doily that graces my little table, where I read. A close-up of my reading nook is below it. If you look closely, you'll see Jolie's pillow, by the door, so she can keep guard; and a peep of Toffee's blue-pillow-in-a-basket. My dachshunds must always be right there with their mama :)

And the little dachshund on the left, with the stolen (I'm sure!) sausages, is from Emily as well. The other was something I just had to have when I saw it in Calgary!

Thank you for these, Em, and for Larnee's scarf, the bento boxes, the book-binder, and The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency. I'm think of a Christmas present for you now, of course!!!