weekly smudge 7-11-07

"uhoh"

As you can see this week's weekly smudge isnt quite art, in fact i am quite embarrassed about showing my torn lounge to the whole world (it usually has a cover over it but it was in the wash) but as you can see i just couldn't resist posting this image of our dog "uhoh".
Uhoh who has been appropriately named has been away on holidays for a few weeks, resulting from when we took our holiday and he decided to stay an extra couple of weeks with the Grandparents. We missed him when we got back and he actually has been pining for their two dogs so we have been considering of getting another dog to keep him company. (i am crazy i know) but i think uhoh would really like it. i really would like a Daschund as i had these growing up, but they arent that common and not sure if it will be too small for his pal, but i know if i see one i just wont be able to resist.

Anywho, my week has been used primarily on maintenance and enjoying a bit of down time. Even tho we have had holidays and wot not, i have also had a bunch of other work hanging over my head for the past few months (i am constantly saying to myself i gotta get to that) and any spare time i had was trying to get that done. Last week i finished it, and its a tremendous relief not to have that pressure and i get on with bits and pieces i have been meaning to do for ages. Things like tidying up my website and fixing up profiles and listings etc.

So my weekly smudge, well does my smudge on the lounge count from uhoh's muddy footprints?

Look at all my lovely greeting cards

Here are my lovely new greeting cards i just received :) Don't they look great?

I got a bunch of these done when i did my first market a couple of months ago, and my lovely MIL has continued doing the market for me in my absence and these have been selling both at the market and after. So here is a bunch more i decided to get printed. They are a great quality card quite thick :) and come with envelopes.

Redbubble print them for me and do a fantastic job, you can buy them directly from Redbubble . I sell them at the market for $4- each this month we are going to do a deal where you can buy 3 for $11-. If buy them directly from me, i can do a bit cheaper shipping if you are only buying 1 or 2 or if you are a friend and i see you in RL obviously i wont charge you for shipping :) So, if you are in the market for some cards let me know i have limited stocks so let me know what your interested in and i can order some in my next batch :)

These cards and my artworks will be at the Scone markets this weekend for those of you in that area. I will also have some postcards that are available for $3- each.

Just as a side note for other artists: I dont make much $ off any of these cards I basically just cover the cost, and i think if i charged more they wouldnt sell, but i think they are a fantastic way to get my art out there and i even suggest that customers can frame them allow them to have a cheap copy of artwork, if they so like. I know if i saw some at a market i would buy some some, so think about it for your artwork :)

034 Driving Tree

"034 Driving Tree" by Belinda Lindhardt, CP on pastelboard, 5X7"

This is called driving tree because the reference for this one was taken while we were driving, the reference is quite striking i don't feel that i captured the drama that was in the photo but its nice enough little pic, and i think i am knowing when to call ones like this done :)

This was my first piece on pastelboard. What is pastelboard? WELL, :) (lots of colouredpencil artists will know about it), its board which you can use your pencils on and then varnish to save the need for framing with glass. It's made by Ampersand and the link for buying (DickBlick) and more information is here > Nicole Caulfield uses it alot in here work, click here to check out some of her recent pastelbord works on her blog.

Unfortunately, it is unavailable here in australia, there are similar panels that you can buy but this is actual woodboard its not quite the same :) I purchased a few sheets and it with shipping and taxes it actually ended up costing a forutune (much more than i anticipated) which is why if i sell this i am going to be lucky to cover the materials, but sigh such is life atm.....

How did like it ? Well i did like it alot, to be honest i thought it might have been a little bit smoother than it was but thats not to say i didn't like it. It's definitely a different surface than paper to work on. It chews the pencils, but the style for this one didn't call for precise details so it worked in well. I think i almost used a whole white pencil though. I have another small one coming which i was working on at the same time. Will post that one soon.

Treez 01 Completed

"Treez 01" - by Belinda Lindhardt, Oils on gallery wrapped canvas, 10X8" 20X25.5cm

So looks like i have finished this one, i have been waiting for the black to dry so i could put the dress on the figure. This one was fun, i am not sure about the red hair but for some reason i really wanted to add that in :) I cant seem to get a good photo of this one but once dry i should be able to scan it in. So i will do that.

I think i might do more of these i think they would sell ? something different and fun to do :)

I have stared a couple of cp pieces on my ampersand pastelboard, this stuff is great, i wish they stocked it in australia i bought mine from overseas and cost a small fortune... will post pics soon :)

weekly smudge 1-11-07

Its been a while since my weekly smudge has come around, apologies for that, my simple excuse is .. i am a mum, a cleaner, a partner, a designer, a web developer, a family member, a gardener, a friend an artist and a self representing one at that so with all those roles sometimes things get pushed aside and this has been one of them.
So without further ado, one of the things that has been a highlight this week is this book:

Anatomy for the Artist by Jeno Barcsay - link here


I picked this one up a couple of weeks ago at Angus and Robertson for those australian readers for only $20-. Its one of those things that i thought if i dont buy this now i will regret it later.
I used it this week for the first time as i was working on a painting and it was fantastic!
I have recently been coming up with my own ideas and paintings out of my head rather than coping a reference so doing a few sketches of some of the figures in here really helped get proportions right etc.
The book contains sketches of skeletons and muscles of all sorts of things like hands feet etc. as well as the full figure. So i would recommend everyone have some type of reference book like this it was invaluable.

Momentum
This week i also wanted to highlight a couple of artists i met on the australian art forum
Daniel Sanger and Michelle Giacobello who have an exhibition opening tonight in melbourne. The two met on the aaforum and discovered that they only lived a couple of blocks from one another, so they decided to get together and have an exhibition. They are both very talented and have unique styles and i wish them the best of luck with the opening night tonight. Please visit their blogs and checkout their fabulous work.

Halloween
Halloween isn't really celebrated overly much over here, but in recent years i have noticed more and more items available this time of year so i think this will change as time moves on. I dont really know the story behind it but i figure its always great to have a bit of fun, so when i saw whole pumpkin at the shops i had to give it a go.

We bought a pumpkin, carved it up and last night put it outside the front door. The house accross the street had graveyards and a large skeleton out the front which was good fun and attracted all the goulies.
We didnt actually go trickatreating but Max did dress up in a dressup to talk to all the witches, aliens and monsters that came to the door. We surprisingly actually ended up getting quite a few. So next year the boys will be older and will be able to tolerate a few more sweets so we will definitely give it a go.

Here is a pic of max with our first pumpkin, Will was just fascinated with the face and wanted to sit in front of it and stare. Max was actually a bit worried about the whole thing and i think was a bit scared of the badies... so i told him that the pumpkin was to scare the monsters away when they try to come to the door. LOL that seemed to make it fun :)