Art Swap

You may recall that late last year New Zealand artist Karen Neal http://www.wild-impressions.co.nz/and myself entered into an art swap together, this was a new idea for me and a great way to aquire an original work of art without parting with cash :-)
I had had my eye on Karens Little Kingfisher painting and she kindly agreed to swap it for a "commissioned" painting based on some photographs of her recent holiday in Wales...looking through her photographs I had difficulty choosing between the hills and valleys and a lovely wild meadow near to where she had stayed, so I have completed pastel paintings of both and she now has the job of choosing which she wants to hang on her wall.

2011 already

Well that crept up on us....I'm still reeling from all the changes in my life at the end of 2010 ;-)

and here we are already knocking on the door to the second week of 2011....so far things have been very busy for me............ Kimba has been keeping me on my toes and amazingly in spite of the vast amount of junk I consumed over Christmas I seem to have lost some weight :-)

On the work front I have had a small flurry of new portrait enquiries and a tempting proposition for a series of commissions so that is a very promising start to the year.

I have finally completed two commissions from the end of 2010 both depict JRT's one young smooth coated and two elderly rough coated but all exceptionally cute!

Here are Tracker & Poppy a really lovely old "couple" who I had the total pleasure of painting in pastels, the painting is A3 size and has now been safely delivered to their proud owners.

And below is Toby, a young Jrt full of character who's owners wanted a more contemporary style for their painting to suit their home so I painted Toby in an unusual composition using acrylics on a square 30 x 30 cm gallery wrap canvas