Mythology and folklore

I've always been fascinated by fairytales and myths; from pixies at the bottom of the garden to sleeping kings waiting under a hill til they are called to return. This set of three canvases feature stories from Scottish folklore, although they make an appearance in the folklore of numerous other cultures. The Selkie live as seals when they are at sea but shed their skins to walk as humans on land. Often the story tells that the selkies skin is stolen and so it must remain on land, unable to return to the sea until it finds its skin. The Kelpie is a shape-shifting water spirit that haunts the rivers and lakes of Scotland. It often appears as a horse or  beautiful young woman and lures the unwary to a watery grave. The White stag symbolises the existence of the Otherworld, often described as fairy cattle that are herded by benevolent fairy women.

These canvases have been created using polymer clay to sculpt the figures and background plaques and decorated with acrylic paints, sprays and various mixed media components.

New year, new....

I don't tend to make New Year resolutions but I do like to have a phrase or motto to live by for the coming months. It feels like there are going to be a lot of changes this year, both worldwide and personally so my mantra for 2017 is "Change is inevitable. Embrace it. You are stronger than you know.". I created this art journal entry using lots of gears, 13arts berries, flowers, grit and chipboard, and paints and inks for colour.

Astronomical devices

This was a customised order of my horoscope pendant for my very first international etsy sale:

 Currently in the shop are this orrery device for planetary determination-ining (not a word I know but it sounds like it should be, at least in my head!) and a walrus, because why not!

Butterfly book

I've had papers from the gorgeous His & Hers collection by 13arts sitting on my desk for a little while, waiting for the chance to use them. When I picked up some old books from the charity shop, inspiration struck!

I started by gluing the inside pages together, then cut different layers to create a space for depth and texture. Then a bit of gesso and dry brushing some brown paint to give a vintage/ aged look.

For the cover, I added some old clay frames and chipboard then covered everything with a coat of black gesso to see how it looked. I used glass beads and grit from 13arts to create areas of texture and covered everything in black gesso again.

I then added some wine red shiny powder to water and painted over the cover to give a nice shimmer to everything and highlighted some details with turquoise Inka gold wax.

For the inside, I cut out a lot of butterflies from the papers along with some other designs and layered these up over some sisal. I used the turquoise wax and wine powder to add some colour and tie in with the front colour, and it was done.

Altered lantern

One of my favourite things after Christmas is to buy cheap decorations and give them a new lease of life. I picked up some rather tacky lanterns that were in desperate need of a makeover and started with a coat of white gesso.

I then added crackle medium and fine grit to create some texture and gave it another coat of gesso.  I painted everything with a cream base paint and then used peach and turquoise mists for colour. I added some stamped areas and misted some flowers to co-ordinate with the lantern. A ribbon around the handle finished it off. All media and embellishments were from 13arts.