Pennies from heaven

For those of you who know the saga of Royal mail and the damaged painting of Tess, I am happy to report that Royal mail have stood by their guarantee and have compensated me for all the costs incurred in repairing the damage.....................so those of you who also use "Special delivery" for sending out paintings can carry on safe in the knowledge that its still a good service to use :-)
Royal mail delivered another surprise this week in the shape of a parcel from Derwent containing samples of their new pastel and pastel pencil ranges, I had been feeling a bit uninspired so some new product to trial was just the thing to get me back into the swing of things.
Next up on the portrait front is a charity donation from last year which is to be a handsome red Alaskan Malamute, I will be working on "Gunner" and trialling the new pastels after I complete a couple of Setter portraits from my "need to finish" file.

Challenging times

It has been a very slow start to 2010 for me and commissions have once again dried up, so............... not being one to be defeated I am working on a complete overhaul of my website and pricing structure (no easy feat for me)

This week I am fully occupied designing my new web pages and updating the work I have on display in the hope that a more info rich content with fewer portraits to confuse folks will generate some interest.

Don't get me wrong I don't envisage having the changes ready to publish for some weeks yet but I thought I'd better make a start now while the ideas are entering my thick head.

I have begun with some new examples and needed a graphite cat ............................. luckily I have the perfect model with our "Maggie" still here and unclaimed by her owner :-)