Wednesday

It was the AGM for our local Age Concern today, so I have been out most of the day and no time for painting. At least we had tea and cakes afterwards.
I have just read that this was the coldest summer for over 20 years.....feels like it as well !!!!!!!
Fish and chips for dinner tonight. Been too busy to cook.
I listed two paintings on Folksy today and another on etsy...
www.folksy.com/shops/teabreaks   and www.etsy.com/shop/teabreaks
I also have a website with access to my ebay listings

http://www.gweddusart.co.uk/

here is one of my cartoons..

Tuesday

Our Son arrived today for a visit. He comes to Wales because there are fantastic mountain bike centres here and he loves to ride on the trails.
So this is short and sweet today.

Here is another of my paintings

Monday

well, another nice lie in and then I had to set to, to tidy the spare bedroom and make the bed as our son is coming for a few days. I never realised how much paint, card, paper and bits and bobs I actually had. I found 12 paint boxes and lots of inks and pens and what must be dozens upon dozens of paint brushes.!!! I think they are multiplying all by themselves !! Nothing to do with me......
I found bags and bags of ready folded card for making greetings cards, so I had better use those up as well. THEN I needed to get something from another cupboard and found about 10 carrier bags full of crocheted items and yarns...sigh.....
I cannot crochet at the moment as it makes my hands and wrists ache...do I keep the crocheted items, give them away or what? I cannot just put them in the dustbin. Most of the items are baby clothes and I don't know of anyone with a baby. They were all listed on etsy and folksy and didn't sell...dilemma...
In the mean time, here is another waterfall painting...at least paintings are easy to store and take up relatively little space...I can fit hundreds of aceos into a shoe box....

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Sunday

well we are still having heavy bursts of rain, but nothing like Friday.
Sales are slow at the moment but I am sure they will pick up soon.
In the mean time, I have been sorting out some of my stashed away paintings....
Here is a cartoon style Halloween picture that I did a few years ago.....just to be a bit different

Saturday

Had my usual Saturday lie in today and then we went to the market...and on to visit some relatives. The floods of yesterday seem to have drained away, although we had a lot of rain this afternoon. Thank goodness we live high up....here is another of my paintings....

Friday

I was going to go to town this afternoon, but it started to rain...I decided to wait until it stopped...it didn't....I got in the car and only got half a mile when I saw that the road had erupted....water pouring out everywhere...managed to get round it.....next road...the centre of it was like the centre of a jacket potato when it is cut open....that road is now closed......I changed my mind and just popped to the local shop to get my lottery ticket....
weird....I filled in the slip and handed it to the shop owner....she asked me for £2.....I said...NO...only £1.....she showed me the ticket and there were two lines on it...my choice and another line....alien numbers that were nothing like mine....we checked the form that I had filled in and it CLEARLY only had ONE line marked on it....very strange....It can't have even been from a previous customer because my line was first.....
anyway...perhaps it is a good omen....I could have had it voided but decided to keep the line....watch this space....lol.....
Here is a link to the flooding in our village....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-14683964 

Thursday

A touch of colour today....I am following the lessons in an Abstract book. This one reminds me of the paintings that we did at school......it was fun to do....not my usual style, but in interesting exercise.

Wednesday

well ...another nice day here....we managed to only have one small, short cloudburst this morning.
I have just been doing an abstract painting which was fun. I still need to get some photos done.
Last night I met up with another local artist a very talented man by the name of Steve...his artwork is awesome. It was nice to interact with people who share my love of art. Steve is going to run some local art classes. I hope he gets lots of students book with him because I am sure he is a good teacher. He is good at all aspects of art and uses all mediums. I was drooling at all his paints and brushes.....

Here is another of my tiny artworks....

Tuesday

Today, despite the threats of heavy rain, has been a beautiful day with sunshine and blue skies.
Tonight I hope to go and meet another local artist who is running classes in town. I will not be booking in for the classes because the gentleman said that it is for absolute beginners, but he invited me along to say hello. He was fascinated when I emailed him and told him that I did aceos....I am not sure that he had ever heard of them before...so I shall hopefully take some along to show him. He also suggested that one evening, I might like to go along and do a demo in miniature work.

Here is another of my paintings that was done last week......I just hope that our mountain doesn't look like this during the winter !!!!

Monday

Well, what a beautiful day today...wall to wall sunshine...at last !!!
I managed to paint three aceos. One of them I don't particularly like and so might paint over it. The other two are ok and will go into the box ready for listing. I am not sure where yet !
I also did some card making....the amount of card, paper, embellishments that I have here is almost obscene...I really need to use some of it up. I won't even think about the number of rubber stamps that I possess....certaintly several hundred of them. A lot of them have been freebies from magazines and from swaps from card making groups. I doubt if half of them will ever see an ink pad !...aah that reminds me of the boxes and boxes of inks....and the pens and pencils and glitters of every colour imaginable....mmm...

Anyway...here is another painting that I did over the weekend...

Sunday

It is amazing how things turn out. This painting ended up looking quite nice (well I love purple and mauve) but it started life as a winter scene in green and white....it was horrid....so I painted over the whole thing with water and turned it into this....lol.....

Never throw anything away.....a painting can always be saved or changed......

Saturday

I had my usual lie in today and was treated to breakfast in bed. By the time I finally arrived downstairs, it was 12.30 pm !!!!!  I have also managed to paint 4 aceos today and will possibly do some more later......
Tonight I shall go and get fish and chips as I am having a lazy day.....

Here is another of my aceos......

Friday

Today I went to Swansea and Hubby treated me to a nice roast dinner....yummy.
We had a wander around Bookworks because they have quite a nice art section in there. I didn't buy any paints today as I have quite a lot already ....and loads of paintbrushes........
I haven't had time to do any painting either today...so I hope to do a double lot tomorrow. The weather stayed fine and I only needed a very thin cardi.
Tomorrow, I have a nice lie in and get treated to breakfast in bed...I love Saturdays !!

Here is one of the paintings that I did on Thursday

Thursday

Today I have done an abstract aceo.  I have been looking at my etsy shop  http://www.etsy.com/shop/teabreaks and I feel that it looks a bit dull. This in mind , I have decided to save the etsy website for more colourful work....ie encaustics and abstracts and leave the landscapes for ebay and Folksy. My ebay listings can be found through my website (sorry the link to ME no longer works) but the ebay one does  http://www.gweddusart.co.uk/  I also have lots of landscapes in my Folksy shop  http://www.folksy.com/shops/teabreaks 
Etsy is mainly US based and prices are listed in $'s...but I have made many fabulous friends through etsy and seen some wonderful artwork in the etsy shops. Folksy is UK only and is a lovely friendly shopping site where you can buy handmade gifts of every sort that you can imagine. I list at lower prices on ebay but you have to be prepared for a bidding war and might end up paying slightly more (or slightly less)...swings and roundabouts.
My venture into abstracts is fairly new to me but I am always willing to learn. Two years ago I had never really painted a landscape and now I love doing them. So I am hoping the same will happen with the abstracts....life is a learning curve.
I have noticed on tv that there is nearly always an abstract painting on walls in houses and offices....more reason to have a go !!

I hope you like this new abstract aceo, which is now available in my etsy shop...just $5 (which amounts to something like £3.13...give or take a penny or two...depending on the exchange rate )

Still Wednesday.

to all those who have been kind enough to leave comments on my blog...thank you. I have tried to reply in the comment's boxes but googlemail doesn't like me doing that...in fact it won't let me comment on anyone's blog...so if I follow you....I AM reading your blogs but am unable to comment. I can type a comment but google says that I am not set up to reply......mystery to me.....
Thank you for following me......I am touched that you are reading my journey with art.
I now have a new book on painting abstracts....watch this space.......

Wednesday

Today I had some ME time...I don't get it very often and so I decided to paint an acrylic 7x5. With acrylics, they dry so quickly that you have to really start and finish the work in one go. It took me longer to clean the palette and brushes than do the painting. I am quite happy with it. I am practicing , with a view to painting a large acrylic.......I have been watching lots of teaching dvd's and they are very helpful, especially as I have never had an art lesson....apart from in School...and that was 48 years ago......
Hope you like the picture...I am quite pleased with it.

Still Tuesday

LOL....apologies for the spelling mistakes today....I type very fast and sometimes miss the keys that I should be hitting !!....I also have very long nails and often catch the keys by mistake....that will teach me to check before I publish !!!....anyway....that is a good excuse to download another tiny painting !!

Tuesday

This morning, I managed to paint 5 aceos...perhaps some more later today....on a roll now.
I find it SO inspiring looking in the shops belonging to other artists and checking out the art on ebay....
It is by looking and seeing styles and colours that I am able to learn and hopefully improve my work.....
there are no art classes near me...well there is one but I understand it is for beginners and also expensive....neither of which is what I am looking form....so I have to rely on what I can find online.

Here is another of my tiny paintings....this one is an encaust painting which is painting with melted was on the bottom of a warm travel iron. The results can be stunning.....the tiny mushroom like shapes are achieved by dabbing the point of the iron onto the card.....there are many interesting patterns that can be made in this way... If any of you fancy trying encaustic painting then goodle Wakes Waxes and look at some of the fabulous work on there....also Barry the owner supplies all the tools needed to create beautiful pictures.
I also have paintings for sale in my Folksy shop   http://www.folksy.com/shops/teabreaks

Monday

Monday morning saw some sun and I thought it was going to be a nice day. However, the rain is back and pouring down.
I managed to take a couple of photos so that you can see more of my home.
The first one is my SECOND lounge....we call this one "The Study" and contains the main computer and all our files and paperwork. We also use this room for meetings.
The second one is the view through my front room window, looking down the road and across the valley towards Swansea. You cannot actually SEE Swansea as it is hidden behind the houses on the left.

The third picture is a picture of the view from the same room but looking through my patio windows onto the balcony and out to sea. You can just about make out the sea horizon which is not clear because of the weather. You can also see the roofs of the houses down below down by the beach. You can see how high up we are by the size of the houses and the fact that the I am taking the picture from the same height as the treetops.

Sunday

today we have sunshine at last. After watching Hash on the tv yesterday, I decided to try a profile face. I am quite good at faces but this was a challenge to try to work in an impressionist way... The result was not very good. I will take a picture of it for tomorrow......I need to get out of thinking that every face has to be outlined in black ink !!! At least you will see that I make lots of bad paintings too !!
I went on to paint one of my usual landscapes and I was much happier with that. It is very difficult to step outside your comfort zone but at least I had a try at it and I daresay that I will try again !! Thank goodness these paintings are tiny and can be overpainted to make something else. The dilemma is...do I keep it and keep looking at it, so that I can view my mistakes or paint over it and forget that I did it?

Here is another of my paintings...this one is on ebay....

Saturday

well I was hoping for some sun today....silly me....
I had a nice lie in watching the art programme on Create and Craft. Hashim Akib gave two fantastic demos on there...he is such an inspiration....
Here is another of my paintings

Friday

well another miserable day....will we ever see summer.
Went to the Range today and bought a tube of white gouache and a tiny palette knife.  They have a fantastic range of art items in there. All I need now is more time to paint....and some ideas.
Tomorrow I shall watch the amazing Hashim Akib on Create and Craft. He does the most amazing art demos on the show....very inspiring and a very talented man. I would have loved to have spent my life painting and earning money from selling my work...and possibly teaching. When I left school, I wanted to go to Art School but you needed Maths O level to get in and for me that was not a possibility !!! Mum said I needed to get a sensible office job as Art was NOT a job....more of a hobby....so I never went. Sad really because I am sure life would have been more fulfilling. I AM lucky that I was able to vere off in later life and go into knitwear designing which I taught at Adult Education centres in London, so I suppose in some ways I ended up as a teacher of some sort of Art. Now life seems to have gone full circle and I am back painting again. It is a big learning curve for me as I have had no professional training and am just learning by watching demos and dvd's. ....there is always something new to learn...
Here is another of my tiny paintings....

Thursday

It was so cold this morning that after getting up at 6 and seeing my daughter off to work...I went back to bed....the only warm place to be...lol.....
Decided it was too miserable outside to do the weekly grocery shop , so I just popped down the road and got some bread and posted off my latest ebay sales.....

I need to paint more abstract aceos as I am getting some good feedback on them. It also makes a nice change from painting landscapes....here is a new one from me....HAS to include purple of course...
Our poor sickly little squirrel hasn't been seen for two days now, so I fear the worst. I just hope that it is no longer suffering. There were no squirrels outside today as it has been far to cold and wet. The badger is still coming up to get food at night but we also haven't seen the baby fox for a week or more.
Tomorrow we have to go and get a new sack of bird seed as supplies are getting low. We will probably do a trip to Lidl at the same time.
For anyone who hasn't seen it before...if you like art, then tune in to Create & Craft...freeview 36 at 10.am on Saturday morning when Hashim Akib will be doing an art demonstration. If you can't access a tv you can watch the programme online   http://www.createandcraft.tv/   click on watch live tv.....
Hashim is a very talented artist and produces fabulous works of art in a matter of minutes !

Wednesday

Today, I am encluding a link to my ebay listings.....got to self promote....lol

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/gweddus/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

I offer my paintings at rock bottom prices because I want everyone to have a change to own some original art without emptying their bank accounts. Maybe one day I will ask for higher prices, so here is your opportunity !!
It is cold outside AGAIN...so I shall stay home and paint.
My new Frank Clarke paintbrush arrived today, so now I can do some larger paintings. All my brushes are tiny as I have been painting aceos for years now. Aceos , for those of you who don't know are miniature paintings that measure just 2.5" x 3.5". People collect them and display them in photo albums. The movement was started in the US by people who loved collecting art but had limited wall space and funds.....

Here is a new one from me for today..not sure why it uploaded twice but I also don't know how to remove one of the images...lol... This painting has been created using melted wax on the bottom of a tiny travel iron...the results of encaustic art can be amazing and beautiful

Still Tuesday

A dear fellow artist has suggested that I post my ebay links for any of you that would like to see some of the art I have for sale...so here it is..

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/gweddus/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

I also have two online shops.

http://www.folksy.com/shops/teabreaks

and
http://www.etsy.com/shop/teabreaks

All three are subject to change and new listings each week....enjoy...

Tuesday

well there is actually some blue sky outside...I live in hope. ...are we ever going to get some summer?. September is fast approaching and that to me means the start of Autumn !!
Last night I managed to get two paintings done and I hope to do some more today....I try to average out at about two a day. Some days I don't paint and other days I do 5 or 6.
I am still waiting for the paintbrush to arrive. I ordered it nearly 3 weeks ago and was told that it was posted to me last Thursday. The post office is not good lately !!!  YET...if I post a letter SECOND class, it gets there the next day ! Doesn't make any sense to me. Last year we an sent item recorded delivery and did a track and trace.....it never arrived....even though it was supposed to be signed for. When I enquired at the post office, I was told that recorded delivery didn't mean that they guaranteed it would be delivered !!!!!

Here is another painting from me...this one, is one of my waterfall series.....they have proven to be very popular....

Monday

As this is a fairly new blog....I thought I would introduce you to MY SPACE....here is a picture of the view from where I sit painting. Looking out of the patio doors onto the balcony looks out to sea. Picture 2 is my view to the left....looking towards the dining area and the conservatory.

Picture 3 is my crafting space (my mess)...loads of paint brushes, pens and the obligatory cup of tea. Picture 4 is my dining table and my collection of fairies. In the middle is a picture of hubby and I and on the right ...in the middle of the sideboard is a picture of my son shaking hands with Princess Diana....

Sunday

It was pouring with rain earlier but now the sun has come out and it is warming up. I wonder if we will ever get a proper summer?
Thinking of that, here is another winter scene from me....just to cheer everyone up....

Saturday

Saturday is my day for a lie in. I get up early all week and at weekends I enjoy the extra hours in bed. I also get treated to breakfast in bed and I sit and watch tv and art dvd's. It is nice to be pampered !! It was raining earlier but it has now cleared and I can clearly see Devon across the bay. The garden is very muddy and the grass is very,very long. We cannot manage to cut the grass ourselves any more....it is a very steep garden and hard to stand up, let alone push a mower !!! Next door has a gardener who we pay to cut the grass for us...but that is just not possible while the ground is so wet and muddy. A few years ago, we had the front garden covered in tarmac so at least from the front the house looks tidy....this is a picture of the back garden in the Spring when the grass had just been cut....the garden slopes down away from the house....

Friday

today I have been painting. Sometimes it is difficult to know what to paint...to find something different which is also commercial. I love to paint but I also need to sell to help with my miniscule pension. A year ago, all I had painted were cartoons and faces. Then I was given some dvd's by Frank Clarke and I was hooked on painting landscapes. He is SOOOO easy to understand and claims that ANYONE can paint. I love his easy going approach. I also love the Bob Ross dvd's...he paints in oils but they are easily translated into acrylics.

Here is one of my latest aceos paintings...

Thursday

Today it is miserable and pouring with rain...a good day to stay home and paint...I have decided to change the way I work. I paint watercolour landscapes, acrylic Alpine style scenes, paint cartoons and do encaustic paintings too. All three of my shops are very similar and it must be boring for people to keep looking at the same sort of paintings in each shop. So from now on, I have decided to list encaustics and cartoon style work in my etsy shop and keep ebay and Folksy for the more traditional landscapes. I hope this works. Here is one of the encaustic paintings that I have just listed in my etsy shop.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/teabreaks

Wednesday

At last we have had some sunshine although it has turned colder again this evening.....I managed to do a lot of painting today so here is another one from me....

Wednesday

Well today is day three of my new blog and at last the sun is shining. I am hopeful that it stays shining. Yesterday I painted four new aceos and will be listing them either on ebay or in my Folksy online shop. I also primed a small canvas board ready to do some acrylic painting. I have been watching Frank Clarke and Bob Ross dvd's and they have taught me a lot. My ebay sales have been brilliant lately and I am hoping that this continues.
Here is one of the paintings that I did yesterday.

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Tuesday

Today I am showing one of my woodland scenes. This has been done in watercolours in autumnal colours.....well we haven't had much of a summer and today it is damp outside so it seems like Autumn. I hope my new paint brush arrives today. I have ordered it from Frank Clarke whose dvd's I have been watching.

Monday

here is my offering for today...a woodland scene in browns and golds. Painted in watercolour paints. this is an aceo which measures 2.5" x 3.5".