In my studio this morning

As it's such a glorious day here in Brissie, I thought I might take you on a little tour of my studio. It's where I spend a good part of each day, and it's where I blog, paint, relax, and sometimes escape to. Come on in!

 
I've got a little sitting area in here, where I can arrange works in progress on the wall, play around with colour schemes and textures, and arrange vignettes to my heart's content. It's also a nice, sunny space to relax with a magazine or two, and my family often come for a chat while I paint. Btw, I've shared some rather tragic before pics here if you're interested in all the gory details!

See that little snippet of pretty white overmantle mirror? I blogged about it here, and as you can see, I couldn't part with it! It will be going on the wall eventually, I just need to decide where.

In the opposite corner, are my large canvases. I have lots of works in progress, completed paintings, fresh canvases, my experiments (of which there are many!) and lots of different bits and pieces. There's also a newly-commissioned painting similar to this one, in its inital stages.
 
 

Whe I first started Driftwood Interiors, my gorgeous friend Suzi gave me this. Isn't it stunning? I absolutely love it, and it takes pride of place in this room, as a reminder of great friends and the wonderful support they've given me.
 

These are a few of my tools of trade, and at the moment, I'm loving this Windsor and Newton travel set, which I've been using to paint some of my watercolours. And as you can see, my trusty water tub has been well-used over the years!

Under the pretty white cover in the previous photo, is this. When I'm painting, I like to cover my tabletop with heavy cotton duck, and use it as a drop sheet/doodle pad/colour sampler etc. A friend of mine suggested cutting it and framing it as well, as an abstract!

I've popped a couple of my Sea Fan paintings in simple white frames, and hung them on the wall. I'm also using some different frames and styles, and will post pics as soon as they're finished. It helps me to look at the big picture (pardon the pun!) and how they'll appear in situ.

My rattan settee, which I gave a fresh coat of white paint (you can see the before here) is still with me too! My client went with an old silky oak day bed instead, so I happily kept it here. It's still not finished, as I haven't recovered the seat cushion, but for now it's covered in some summery Ralph Lauren loveliness.

Well that's about it - I hope you enjoyed the tour of my studio. As it's getting a little bit of a makeover shortly, with new storage and a few little extras, I'll keep you up to date with the progress as it evolves.

I must apologise for being a little awol on the blog scene lately. It's been so crazy around here at the moment, with so many painting orders to fill (thanks so much everyone, your support has been amazing!) and the ongoing design projects I'm already working on, that I've been so slack with commenting on all of your wonderful blogs. I have been visiting you all, but haven't had the time to comment, but I'll make sure I do better, I promise. Don't want to be the recipient of the 'Bad Blogger Award' now, do I?

Breaking news...

Now that I've got your attention, I thought I'd let you know that I've just listed the first of my brand-spankin' new art prints on my brand-spankin' new Etsy shop! The first pieces on offer are my sea fan prints, and I'll add other styles and colours over the coming weeks.

 these are in a lovely washed-denim blue (for want of a better description!)

As this whole Etsy caper is very new to me, I'd like to thank everyone for their support and encouragement - without you all, this would have remained a work in progress for far too long! In particular, the lovely Janette from My Sweet Prints was invaluable with her help and advice, and she's a shining example of all that's wonderful about this blogging community we have here. But that comes as no surprise to me, because (and this is just between you and me) I think I have the best blog readers - and friends - around. No contest.

Some weekend painting time

Morning all. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, in spite of this ridiculous weather! Freezing winds, snow in some areas, but then today.....an absolutely beautiful Spring day. Crazy. Anyway, I had a great day yesterday, and managed to finish a couple of paintings. I've added another to my chinoiserie series..

 'chinoisere in green II'

...and I also finished a commission for a lovely blog friend, whose favourite colour just happens to be hot pink! After a little research, I found many species of pink sea fans, but I think I might name this one myself:

'Euthora Magenta Martinus'

Wonder if you can figure out who this piece belongs to?

Btw, you can see more of my artwork on my Facebook page; here's the link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Original-art-by-Kerri-Shipp

Have a great week everyone,

all artwork copyright Kerri Shipp 2010 

Blue, white...and a couple of hippies

I've just finished another watercolour in the blue and white series I started a few days ago. My mum has been a collector of blue and white china since I was a child, so I guess it stands to reason I'm quite partial to it myself. Here's painting #2:

      I painted one without the background

   ...and one with

and here's painting #1

Oh, and aren't these hippeastrums lovely? A friend gave me some bulbs last year, and after all the rain we've had, they've burst into bloom. I think they'll make an appearance in one of my paintings very soon!

        oh, and there's a peek at the background of my next painting

It's taken me ages to load these photos - yet again, blogger is being very uncooperative. The joys of technology!

New artwork...a prototype

I've just finished a prototype to add to my range of artwork, and would love to know what you think? I'm adding some more colourful and detailed works to the range, which I hope will appeal to a wider audience, not to mention letting me play around a little!

 original watercolour and pattern galore

Btw, I will be adding some without the background detail too.

Thoughts? Suggestions? All welcome!

Sea fan watercolours

I've been planning on doing some watercolours of sea fans for some time now, and yesterday I managed to finish two. I've always loved artwork featuring pressed seaweed specimens and coral, and with these paintings I've tried to capture the look and feel of vintage botanicals, collected and framed.

 slightly skewed photo, but you get the idea

I'm thinking I might add these to my new range of artwork, and here's a preview of some other colour options I'm considering:

charcoal

red

aqua

green

So, what do you think? How about the colours - maybe you have some other suggestions? I'd love to know your thoughts. You guys are always so helpful, so any comments would be gratefully received!

Now that I've started these, I have lots of other ideas - just not enough hours in the day. I'm sure I'm not alone there!

A quick update...

Thought you might like to see what I did with the watercolour painting I posted about here. I decided to split the painting into two smaller works, and frame them in simple white box frames. Take a look at the first one:

...and the original

I've since decided to do another larger painting, and hang all three together. As it's rainy and overcast here today, I thought it make the most of it and tie up a few loose ends. One down, about a thousand to go!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone,

Now for something completely different....

I thought I'd share this little painting study I did over the weekend. I haven't painted with watercolours for years, as most of my art is quite a bit larger in scale, and I tend to use acrylics and oils. But while I was at the art shop last week, buying some printing supplies (more on that later!) I picked up a little watercolour travel set. I'd forgotten how much fun it was to sketch up a scene and put brush to paper. Not sure whether I'm finished with this one yet (I know, the perfectionist in me is hard to ignore) but here it is so far:

I may add just a little more shading, but for now I think I'll just live with it for a bit. I'm also thinking of separating it into two or three smaller works, then framing them in simple white box frames, with white mats. Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed the process, so a few watercolour studies may soon be for sale as well as my usual works. The kids had a rare weekend off from sport, so I was able to get a lovely, uninterrupted  stretch of painting in ...bliss! 

Hope you all had a great weekend too, and over the next few days I'll share some new projects I've been working on. See you soon,