Fields WIP

Working title -" Fields" by Belinda lindhardt, oils on gallery wrapped canvas

Apologies for the bad photo again, thats one thing about doing large canvases i just cant get a good photo, my cp pieces i usually scan. :(

Anywho, here is a couple i have been working on .. i have done a much smaller version as well just on the one canvas. It will have something else on it .. i just have to see what that is .. i had an idea of a red ballon floating across both of them but i am not sure about that concept now...

anywho, for your perusing pleasure :)

Sketches 24_11_07

Here are just some little guys i was sketching yesterday. :) Not sure what they are but i think they are cute... :)

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Button Xchanges Free Graphics for My Artist Friends

Last night, while uncluttering my favourites i was revisiting this post - Living the creative Dream
This inspiring story is about a woman who decided she wanted to become an illustrator and it details her steps she took in order to reach her goal ( i have blogged about this before). In this article she talks about self promotion and some of the steps she took to trying to get work, one of the things which she talks highly about is link exchanges.

Recently I have been increasingly aware of just how people are getting to my blog and my website, and I am often curious enough to be logging into the stat counter just to see where all of my readers are coming from. I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that many of my new readers arrive here from many of the links that my generous fellow bloggers have on their blogs.

I have also become more aware that:
- other artists are also interested in having their own links on my site and this is a good thing as what goes around come around
- some people like to spruce up their blog a bit and have pretty graphics :)
- normal text links tend to get lost on pages where there are many many many links on a page
- i probably should be doing a bit more for self promotion for myself if i expect to sell any artwork

So i decided to:
1. Create my own button Xchange area which is purely for the purpose of xchanging links with other sites with the aim that other artists will put me on their page if they are on mine. :) You can see it on the on the right under "Button Xchange", i know i already have a links area but this tends to be more about artists i read regularly rather than an xchange type scenario
2. Create my own "button" for artists to add my button to their blog or site if they so wish, cause they look attractive and ppl will click on them :)
3. Seeing as i am a web designer creating buttons is pretty easy for me, but i totally understand that its not for everyone so i am going to offer:
FREE Button Graphics for my artist friends
(with a couple of conditions)

So, if you are one of my regular readers and you would like your own button to put on your own website for others to link for you i will make one for you with a couple of conditions.

Conditions:
1. You have to be either an artist or illustrator or designer
2. You must have a link to either my blog or website on your blog or website (doesn't have to be my button at a minimum has to be a text link)
3. You have to put your button on your own website or holding area like flickr i am not hosting it as well :)
4. So far i am doing two sizes 80X15 pixels and a 145 X 25 pixels graphics, i will consider doing a different size if a few people are after them but these two seem to be the default sizes i can find. Obviously these are only small so if you have a long name like mine be aware that its going to look squashed but i will do everything i can to make it as legible as possible.
5. I will look at your website / blog to tailor the colours or graphics to best suit your style if you have a particular colour or icon or graphic that you would like to use (that you own the copyright on) then i am happy to do it, BUT you have to tell me before i do it not after i don't like doing lots of piddly changes :)
6. I will do my utmost to do it ASAP for you but i have a small business, lots of cleaning, art and two small children to look after so please be patient with me :)
Thats it :)

So, if you are interested add my link to your site then email me with your url, your name, the text you want to have on the button, as well as any preference for colours or icons or graphics and i will email you a button back for you to do with as you wish. I will also give you the code to edit which you can put on your website for others to link to you. Sounds too easy doesn't it.

More on uncluttering

Some more on uncluttering, i am gradually making my way through things. See the first post here.

4. Sorting out my/the kids recorded shows

This kinda sound like a bit of a silly one but it costs me time!! We regularly record shows off the tv, in particular for the kids and whenever they want to watch a certain show i often spend a long time searching through a long list of shows trying to see where the one they want is (more often than not its at the bottom of the list) . I had been putting off sorting through this for ages, simply because i just couldnt work out how to use the functions of the remote. Last week i sat down figured it out (it really wasnt that hard), persisted with the kids pleas of "i wanna watch that one" and went through them all, deleted some and renamed others so it was easier to find .... now it takes half the amount of time to find the show they want i am so happy everytime they want to watch something now its easy :)

5. Sorting out the boy's toys.

My boys have lots and lots of toys, it results from having a father who is quite into toys himself but also grandparents who basically spoil them rotten. (we appreciate it tho grandma). We have actually kulled through alot of their toys already on a number of times, but we have been at the stage for a little while where my youngest was playing with baby toys and the elder the older toys. My youngest is now approaching 2 we have finished all of that, and this coupled with the fact that:
- there is too many they dont know what to play with
- they dont appreciate anything as they just have too much
- really just makes for one big mess.
- christmas and birthday are coming up just around the corner (which will no doubt bring more)

so I got ruthless and i have put a whole lot of toys into the shed.. where they will be saved for future children (not mine but i assume my younger brother will start spawning sometime in the 10-years) or sold in our garage sale or given away to charity :)

The good thing about all of this means that the house isnt so messy, the kids are able to pickup their own toys as its not such a big job, and its less work for me so mum is a bit happier and can concentrate on the more important things :) And the silly thing about it all is that i dont think they even miss them.

Bubbles WIP

Here is my latest one. its of my son Max quite some time ago, i loved the photo but on the photo the bubbles are just covering his face, so i wanted to create a version getting rid of those bubbles. I have to admit i have been a bit scared to attempt this one but now i think its time :)

I would like to enter this one in a portrait show i know is coming up if it all goes to plan :)

Anywho so here are a few pics so you can see how my process begins, its a large one A3 (11.7 X 16.5") so i think because i plan on not doing too much with the background and letting the paper do the work for me hopefully it wont take as long a normal piece at this size would.







Also, while i am here, i thought i would show off my latest purchase, its my new fancy light OTT-LITE. Well it doesn't look too fancy but its the globe that is the fancy bit. !! This light allows you to see your work at "true to life" colours that looks and is as close to daylight as you can get. I don't get much time for art during the day so during the night is where it is for me, i have struggled in the past with lighting as the next day my work just looks completely different from the night before, the colours are just completely off. I thought these were only available in the US but i inquired recently at my local scrapbooking store - The Craft Store and found out that they carried them i was so pleased. So if you struggle with lighting i can definitely recommend one of these lights :)

Untitled

Here is what i spent my art time on today.

I havent thought of a title and i dont think its finished. It had a face on it at one point and also a naked figure at the bottom but its just kinda evolved hopefully it will evolve again into something better :)

Its another big one tho 36 X 36"

i wanted to make it light colours but i have an urge to go dark, so that might be my addition tomorrow :) lol

lets see what it brings us, i am having fun tho :)

meanwhile apologies i haven't posted much of late i have a terrible terrible cold, on Friday i lost my voice and couldn't talk at all, and the past few days it hasn't been much better. I also have two little munchkins who have colds so its not fun at my house. I am starting to feel a little better i hope tomorrow i will be back up to 70% ok :) rather than 30%

Unclutter your life!

Recently i decided that i needed to unclutter my life !

It started with my recent "awakening" to life in general and how it feels like another year has slipped by, without much to show for it. In addition to this my eldest will be at school the year after next, they are growing up so fast i need to start taking action and it will start by taking away things that cost me time or are just basically in the way of what i really want to do as life is just too short and i need to enjoy it while i can.

In thinking about this I decided that the "uncluttering" was needing to take place in many areas of my life and many different ways. Each week i am going to try to do at least 1 uncluttering activity in an effort to improve my life. The "clutter" for me, can come in many forms, its typically a "task" that needs doing that i keep putting off, but is also sometimes an action or behavior that needs to be changed or looked at in order to avoid the "clutter" and messing things up.

This post has been coming for a while so here are some of the things i have started to do already:

1. Consolidate my tupperware / plastic container cupboard.

we have so many things in this cupboard that every time we open the cupboard everything falls out.. it was driving me NUTS! Taking the time in the middle of cooking dinner to sort it out is usually not on my agenda so it never gets done. My youngest is now well past the purred food, and bottles stage but these containers were taking up lots of room and i was hanging onto them because they might come in handy .. So i decided enough is enough and got to it, out all the baby stuff goes, anything which didn't have lids, closed properly ... or was cracked was also in the bin. Some i kept for a garage sale that i may have (eventually). i neatly stacked the rest of the containers i actually use and i can find things easily now and everything doesn't fall out !!! woot

2. sort out my favourites

I am actually still in the process of this one, but i have been doing a bit of a time. Like everyone over the years i have accumulated many links ... some of which i am glad i have kept, others no longer work, but most of them i wouldnt really know where to find what, they all got muddled when i switched over to firefox and i just havent had the time to go through them all ... so off i go ... i am sorting out all my links, i have created a "new" folder where i am keeping all of the links i want to keep, then once all the old ones are gone i will rename it so they are neatly organised :)

3. only worry about the big stuff

This is a big one for me, and falls under the category of a behavior that i need to change.... Ever since having kids i find this time of year particularly hard when there is all the pressure of Christmas and gift giving and food preparation and for me trying to organize myself and the kids with other friends and family for get togethers of where we are going on what day, distance makes it a problem and overall i tend to get worried about trying fit it all in and get good presents etc. In addition to this there is the usual everyday stuff, as well as money issue etc ... so for this and other things i have decided not to worry so much about fitting it all in, and just dealing with it as it comes and only worry about the big important things, if its not high on my list i am not going to worry about it. I am not going to worry about getting great gifts for people because its just too hard, and if anyone doesn't like it tough! ..

More to come on what i have been uncluttering in my life !! stay tuned :) p.s. i was going to illustrate cute little icons for these items but then i would just be making more work for myself :)

Mist Final

"Mist" By Belinda Lindhardt, Oils on Gallery wrapped canvas, 16X20", 40.6 X 50.8cm

As promised here is a better photo of "mist" :)

036 Star

This one is named "star" because my 18month old insistently kept pointing at it and saying "star" as 18month olds tend to do.. by about the 108th time i decided ok its called star!

I am finding it really hard to photo graph this one well, the colours in RL are quite subtle and while the room is quite light it looks dark on the photo. I tried taking a couple outside of my mist one, but all it did was look blue. So hmm have to experiment a bit more with taking the photos :)

Anyway, so i wont say where this one is coming from just yet, as i will leave it up to you, but one day if they continue coming i will tell you :)

I think i might have a few slight finishing touches once the paints dry a little, but i want you all to be standing behind me telling me when to stop cause i dont want to wreck it :)

"Star", by Belinda Lindhardt, oils on gallery wrapped canvas 36"X36", 91.4cm X 91.4cm

Oh and did i mention it was big ? Well it is, well big for me, i think this is about the largest one i have ever tackled :)

Working on the Wall?

Have you ever put one of your pictures on your wall and thought .. hmmm it looks different than i thought?
Thats exactly what has happened recently with quite a few of my artworks particularly when i was getting ready for the market as well as my recent "storm" and "morning mist" paintings.

Typically, whenever i research, begin and as well as when i finish an artwork i think about ... would i or someone want to have that on their wall ? As essentially that is the goal for these things isnt it? Whether that be my house, a friends house or a buyers house, is it as good on the wall as it is on my easel? More often than not i have felt that "no" has been the answer.

I had been "playing" with my "morning mist" (for lack of a better name) painting for a few days, i thought at one point that had I really something nice .. then i stood way back to take a photo thought... hang on a minute that looks all wrong. Thats waaaay to busy and just does look right. I did a few more alterations and it still wasnt working for me soooooo.

Yesterday, i decided that i would put some screws in the wall to hang my work on as i work this means its on a plain background and i can get quite a bit of distance to see how it hangs :)
It is also vertical as opposed to an incline which i think makes a difference also. I had been getting some distance previously but it appears on the easel its just not the same.

Retitled to: "Mist" by Belinda Lindhardt oils on gallery wrapped canvas

One of my recent conclusions has been that if i want to sell artwork i need to work larger! My "storm" painting on the wall just doesn't have much presence, i think it would have if it was larger. Having visited many artshows as well as just looking at my art on the wall i realise that unless someone is a collector of miniatures then they usually want an artwork to take up a space on their wall. Obviously this could mean using a larger frame or matt with some CP works as they take sooo long to do as well as coming up with other time saving techniques, but in essence what i am getting to here is all about how it looks on the wall.

So as my journey progresses off i go to finish up so old artworks and move onto some larger ones!!! :)

n.b. Apologies for the bad photo its been raining all week here, i will post a better one once i get some more light :)

Illustration Friday - Hats

"Hat for Willy" by Belinda Lindhardt, 5X7" watercolour

Here is my entry for illustration friday this week. I usually go with one of the first visions thats pops in my head when i hear the topic. The first thing i thought of was little kids trying on big floppy and oversized hats :) So i decided to take a pic of my 18mo with a hat on and draw him so here he is in dad's hat :)

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 :)