How To Grow a Rose Faerie

Okay so maybe not actually grow a Faerie...it's my artistic license coming out and waiving itself about, so bear with me...

I have been asked how I 'come up' with ideas 'where does the inspiration come from?'...so...
I will let you into a little secret...I never come up with any ideas and I do not have any inspiration at all...naaah, that isn't true...the opposite is.
I can never ever shut off my damn brain and ideas for subjects to create are everywhere, always pulling at my clothes and nattering in my ears...they are doing it right now, telling me to move away from this evil machine and go and create something!
So, before they pull me into their dark, mysterious lair, I will share how this little lady came about...

1. Find a willing model...this is quite easy as the Fae are naturally vain and love to be sketched, if you do it quickly! If you're too slow, then forget it!
This lovely lady was sketched out on a big sheet of A3 paper with lovely black charcoal which we both enjoyed smudging and then getting covered in it.
She later washed herself in the birdbath...:o)

I then completely forgot about the sketch and went and created something else...
(I think it was either a miniature hatbox or an Art Doll...see what I mean)

I found this sketch tucked away behind the cupboards where it was covered in cobwebs, that's how long she had been forgotten...that's why she looks a little accusingly at me :o)

2. Find a pretty flower...this should be easy, there are plenty around...but not in the hay fever season oh no, because of the nasty pollen...and winter is a little too harsh for many flowers to poke their noses up...mmm...so that leaves the spring and autumn...but this is Wales, it rains most of the time...spring is always soggy and everything is droopy with rain...okay, so spring is out, that leaves autumn...nope, by then I have forgotten about wanting to paint a flower and am painting pumpkins instead...sigh...and another sigh...
So, look through your photo's and see if you can find one which will do for inspiration instead! :o)
No, stop looking at all of those other pics, you're looking for a flower, maybe a nice rose, not pictures of your children when they were little and cute...so very cute...sigh.
So, after a while you may find something which might do, if you squint at it, or use a lot of imagination...

This is Gertrude, not the most beautifully named but she smells divine :o)

So, now we have a model and a flower...what shall we do with them?

No.3 Try to fit your subjects together into a pleasing composition
Okay, sorry, that sounded like 'art speak' and we don't allow that here...
Because my charcoal sketch is big and I want to paint a small A4 picture I am going to have to get the old sketchbook out and see if the Fae will come and sit on the rose.
Easier said than done...although as the rose is so sweet smelling she eventually consented and it didn't turn out too badly. (Who needs critics when you can do it yourself?)
The sketch is now A4 and done with pencil, so that the lines are clearer-ish, (I never can stay tidy), so we are about to reach the next stage...unless some little squirrel in very shiny Armour comes by, then we will be off somewhere else with the Fae and this will become yet another forgotten painting (I should know, those armoured squirrels have sucked me into their dark wormholes many times).

 No.4 Decide which media to use... 
Although I love painting in oils best, for this picture I thought watercolours would be nice so everything in the sketch was copied onto watercolour paper and tucked away in a file to keep it nice and clean and away from cobwebs...can you see there's a pattern here?...
Then I went outside to play with the squirrel knight...

No.5 Remember the painting you started ages ago...
So, you're looking for something to do and because you don't know what you want to start, you go around tidying up your workspace...
And guess what you find?
Not just this picture but loads of other UFOs (Un-finished objects), just lying there in a box, who would have guessed there would be so many lovely things all ready for you to paint?
So, you say cheerio to Sir Squirrel de Wormhole and make a cup of tea and try to choose which one you fancy painting...
Because there is a rather pouty-looking faerie glaring from a big rose, you decide you should maybe choose her... and so the painting begins...after you have found a cookie to go with your cup of tea...

Almost finished, just a little blushing of the cheeks to do ;o)

I use old rescued plates and dishes as palettes, hence the rather fancy gold-rimmed painting equipment! he he he :o)

So, there we are, she just needs a little more eye-liner and she's good to go...I think...maybe I should add a little more shading here and there?
Maybe a little more green on the leaves or more creases on the petals?
Can you have too much paint?
Or, maybe I should just be happy that this one is finished at last...and she isn't looking too grumpy, well, not for the Fae anyway...

Do you think she has forgiven me yet?

Now I really must get my squeaky Armour oiled up...Sir Squirrel awaits...
I may be some time...:o)

Invictus...or trying to keep your spirits up...

I am battling with myself at the moment, I don't want to get all heavy with details as I do not want to be known as the 'miserable blogger'...I don't want to be that guy. ;o)

As we all know misery loves company and I do not think it fair to share mine with you, so in that spirit I will try to be uplifting.
One night last week I was having fitful sleep and as I tossed and turned, lines from the poem Invictus rolled around my head.
Next morning I re-read the poem and began to smile...some part of me, or from outside of me, was trying to help.
I am feeling a little better now, I am in a good place and I am feeling stronger.
We all have those Dark Nights and can find ourselves in a place of sadness from time to time.
I thought I would share the poem with you in the hope that it may help, if you too visit that place of sorrow.

A strange thing happened shortly afterwards...
I was contacted by someone...you know, the type of person who has nothing to say to you for years and years and then sends messages of misery.
If this message had arrived at a dark time for me, I do not know what I would have done.
Thankfully, it arrived later.
And like the poem says...

'I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul...'

William Ernest Henley is still a fascinating character, his life was so full.
He was also the inspiration for 'Long John Silver', (seriously, how cool is it, that he was also a pirate?), Robert Louis Stevenson was his friend and wrote the character based on him, because of his inner strength (it helped that he also had a wooden leg) :o)
Henley's little daughter was also the inspiration for 'Wendy' in Barrie's play Peter Pan.
Margaret would call Barrie 'Fwendy'...sadly she did not live to see the play, but, like Peter Pan, little Margaret lives on...she has become immortal...
What more could we wish for? :o)

So, remember, you are the master of your fate.
You...are the captain of your soul...
And I shall return soon with some pretty pictures...:o)
Bye for now...

Dolls Houses and Chewed Fingers.

Okey dokey, I have taken off my poufy frock and finished some more teeny weenies...
It isn't that I don't finish things...it's just that I get side-tracked by shiny squirrels and start other more interesting (at the time) projects.
So here we are again...
Autumn, punkins and toadstools time.
I am painting in oils again, Fae and other tinies, they are a wee bit shy so are not allowing me to show you yet but maybe soon...maybe

I also make miniature things throughout the year but I seem to forget to invite them to my blog so here is a little peek at some of them...

Playing at sweet shops :o)

 These are from a few years ago but you get why I enjoy playing :o)

When I was a little girl my friend Susan had the most fantastic dolls house, it had little jars of real sweets!!!! (They would seem massive to me now).
Her dad had fixed it so that a light bulb (a pea bulb) would turn on when you flicked a (giant) switch.
Gawd it was fantastic, I loved it so much, I loved the fact that we could stick our big heads in there and it was lit.
Magic!
Naturally, Susan was an only child and 'got' everything she wanted, yet she was not spoilt at all, she was lovely, I would dearly have loved to hate her because of this fabulous dolls house, but you just couldn't hate Susan, she was too okay.

I found it astonishing that every year she would choose some of her toys and give them to the Children's Hospital, see what I mean, way too okay.
My little sis and I held tight to everything we had, hey don't judge us against Susan, we were dirt poor and our things were meagre!

One year we both had a doll, me a Sindy and her a Tiny Tears ...the smell still wafts over me when I remember opening her box, plastic and newness and probably lots of chemicals but who cared it was Sindy!!!
And she was mine, all mine.
My sis and I didn't have clothes for them but we had the dolls.
Later my mum made us some dolly clothes from a library book after I copied out the patterns.
My Nan and my mum were good seamstresses, I think most folks were good at needle work then through necessity.
I had a Tressy doll too which an auntie had given me but my youngest sister took her behind the sofa (her favourite hiding place for doll-destruction) and bit her fingers until they had stretched into a long flat paw about an inch long, eugh!
She was a doll hater, she loved soft toys instead, cute and fluffy and to me, boring, they couldn't dress up and wear heels, you couldn't brush their long tresses, they were just cuddly.

One day my Nan dragged a dolls house all the way to our house, many miles walk.
She had bought it from a junk shop because she thought us three girls would like it and knew that she would get the money back from my 'dad' (I say this loosely).
We were overjoyed, it was even better than Susan's.
It had furniture and all sorts of really cool stuff with it.
It was humongous too!
We jumped with joy (I could cartwheel then but the house was too small to roll around in otherwise, me, cartwheeling for the love of this doll paradise!)

Dear old 'dad' came home from work, took one look at it and ranted about the couple of pounds she expected to get from him, and told her to cart it away with her.

My nan was heartbroken but she took it home in her big wheelbarrow cart thingy.
Later we would all play with it at her house.
She disliked my 'father' before, but this just iced her cake of hatred.

Trick or Treats?

So, you see now why I make mini things, somewhere within me is this need to recreate the dolls house of my dreams, the one where everything is peachy and a big switch turns on a light bulb.
And Susan and me are sticking our big heads in to have a look at all those little jars of heaven.
Such delicious memories.

Calorie-free chocolates :o)

I often think of Susan and what became of her...
and her dolls house :o)