Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish all of my followers a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 and a 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thank you all for following my blog.

I appreciate the fact that so many people are interested in what I have to say, even though my posts are few and far between!

Once again, this will be a very short post as nothing really has been happening in my studio. Everything is pretty much on hold at the moment because I had my back surgery last Wednesday.

So right now I'm pretty limited in what I can do and I think it will be a while before I can sit at my desk chair and draw.

So my Cape Cod Rocks drawing and my Christmas commission will unfortunately be collecting dust for a few weeks!

Luckily, my client is very understanding about my situation so I feel no pressure there.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

~Heather~

Two bits of news

This picture really has nothing to do with my news...I just thought I'd add a picture of our cat, Loki, for your viewing pleasure!

My first bit of news is that I have a new commission. Unfortunately, I can't tell you about it because it's a Christmas gift and I don't want to spill the beans! It's unlikely that the recipient will see this, but just to be safe, I'm not going to talk about it until it's done. This is actually my first commission since I started doing pet portraits again, so it's quite exciting! So my drawing of the Cape Cod Rocks will be put on hold until I get this done.

My other piece of news is that my back surgery will be on Dec. 9. It's quite a bit sooner than I was originally told, but I'm glad to be getting it overwith. I'll be off work for 6-8 weeks probably and I hope to be up and about after about a week or two. I'll be going to Moncton for Christmas, so hopefully I'll be ok by then. This could affect when I'm actually able to get my commission done, but the client is aware and very understanding.

While I'm off work, I hope to be well enough to sit at my desk so I can get lots of drawing done...so watch this space! I'll keep you posted on how things are going.

Cape Cod Rocks - Stage 2

I've managed to do a little more work on this drawing. It's going to take me quite a while to finish it because as it turns out, rocks are very time-consuming!

Cape Cod Rocks

Work in Progress

8x10

Coloured Pencil

Stuff

After a several month dry spell with virtually no inquiries, orders or sales of prints/cards, etc, I've had a pretty busy week. I've had two requests to donate items for silent auctions. One of the auctions is in Maryland, US for a Lab Rescue group and I donated a set of greeting cards and a print of my Chocolate Lab drawing, Ghira.

In addition to the prints and cards, I donated a $100 gift certificate to be used towards a custom pet portrait. The second auction will be held here in Fredericton for a group who is raising money to help a friend in need. I gave them a $100 gift certificate as well for their auction. So hopefully this will drum up some business for me and at the same time, help raise money for some great causes!

And while I was busy getting things ready to be sent out for these auctions, I received a large order request from the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club of Queensland, Australia. They are having a show in Dec. and placed an order for 25 prints and a few notecard sets of my Staffie drawing, George, to be used as prizes. So I'm in the process of getting that ready to be sent out this week. Quite exciting!

So things seem to be picking up a bit and hopefully will continue. It's gotten me motivated to get back into drawing again, now that my studio is set up in the new house. I've also been thinking about what theme I should choose for my drawings, that would be popular for prints and cards. At the moment, I'm just trying a bunch of different things, but perhaps I should be more focused. I'm toying with the idea of doing a series of dog breeds, because these are the ones that seem to sell the best from my collection. Or maybe I should do horses...or puppies and kittens...I can't decide! I would be interested to hear what my readers have to say, so I am open to comments. And for the artists, in your experience, what subjects are most popular?

All Moved In

It's been almost 3 weeks since we've been in our new house and we absolutely LOVE it!! It's exceeded our expectations and we're so happy here! Most of the place is set up and organized except for the exercise room, the garage and the studio so I haven't done any artwork yet. I thought I would post some pictures so you can see why I love it so much! The following is our house and property.

 

 

Rocks

I decided to try something different this time, which means I may have to change the title of my website yet again!! "Pet Portrait and Animal artist" doesn't cover rocks! And since I'm really enjoying drawing something other than fur, I may just do more of this type of drawing.

I still feel like I'm trying to find my niche in terms of my artwork. My forte is definitely pencil, but I still enjoy trying other materials and subjects. But for now I'm enjoying experimenting! For quite a while I've been wanting to draw a pile of something like rocks, pencils, marbles, whatever...! Monotony works for me when it comes to my artwork (to an extent)!

I often feel inspired by the work of other artists, and lately I've really been admiring the work of April Jarocka, who's blog I follow. She does amazing paintings of beach rocks (among other things)...check out her blog! After watching many of her paintings unfold, I decided that I wanted to try my own rock drawing. I love all the colours that are found in beach rocks and I wanted to capture that in my own drawing.

So here is stage one of my drawing that I'm calling "Cape Cod Rocks" for now. I took the reference photo myself on a beach in Menauhant, Cape Cod this summer, while staying at a friend's cottage.

``Cape Cod Rocks``

8x10

Coloured Pencil

Work in Progress

On another note, I'm probably going to be away from my drawing desk for the next little while. We're in the process of moving to a house in Mactaquac, NB, which is on a beautiful piece of waterfront property. We've been waiting to move for over a month now but as of last week, we officially sold our current house and officially bought our new one! We move on October 13th and we're so excited!! It's a little further outside of Fredericton than we are now so it will take me 30 min to get to work (I know, that's nothing for you big city folk!). I don't have any good pictures of the new house yet, but here are a couple from our new front yard, taken from the deck.

And one last piece of news...I will be having back surgery sometime during the winter. If you've read some of my past posts, I mentioned that I've been having back problems due to a herniated disc. After meeting with my surgeon, we decided that surgery is the way to go so I can get my life back to normal. I don't know the date yet, but I'm hoping I'll be able to stay home during the really bad weather this year! I'll probably be off work for almost 2 months. So during that time, once I'm feeling better, I hope I'll be able to spend some time on my artwork. But I guess I'll have to see how I feel then.

I know moving won't be great for my back, but we've hired movers to lug all the boxes, I'll just have to help pack. Normal, day to day stuff isn't really that bad on my back. It's when I have to bend and move around a lot that I start to get sore. I'm trying hard to use my legs a lot instead of bending, but I know I'm still going to get sore while we move. I'll just have to be really careful!

Well I guess that's my news for now. I'll try and post something again soon, but I can't guarantee it!!

Wow, 2 posts in one weekend!

Amazingly I'm back again with another piece of artwork...my second one I finished this weekend! I've never used scratchboard before so I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I'm sure I could do better with practice but it was a good learning experience. This one didn't take me that long to complete - probably only a couple of hours. It's quite fun to work with so I'll be trying it again sometime.

"In the Shadows"
7.5 x 9
Scratchboard

*Available for sale*

Photo credit - Wetcanvas photo reference library
(user: annj)

Tully - Head Study

After another long wait, I have something else to show you. This is a quick-ish drawing I did of one of my cats. I actually started it over a year ago (maybe more), and just came across it again yesterday so I thought I would finish it.

I am open to critiques and alternate titles!

"Tully - Head Study"
6x7
Coloured Pencil

I am a pet portrait artist again!

Well after a bit of a break, I decided to start taking commissions for pet portraits again! I originally took a break because I felt swamped with commissions and wasn't enjoying the process anymore. I had hoped that once I stopped taking on new commissions I would have lots of time to work on my own artwork, but that never really seemed to happen! Without the pressure of commission work, it seems that I don't really have the motivation to create. I have done a little bit myself, but not as much as I expected.

So after much thought, I decided to jump back into the world of pet portraits. My prices have changed a bit in order to keep my waiting list at a minimum. So hopefully sometime soon, I'll have some WIP's to show you!

Checking in

Hi all,
Sorry I've been missing in action lately. I guess I needed a longer break from being an artist than I thought! I'm starting to get the urge again, so hopefully sometime soon I'll have something to show you! Plus, I've got a lot more free time to work with lately...

Part of the reason I've been missing for so long is the fact that I've been working on getting myself into better shape. That unfortunately takes up an aweful lot of time. Working a full-time job, then coming home and exercising for 1.5 hrs usually, then showering, then supper takes up most of my night, leaving me only about an hour to relax and watch TV. And since summer has started, so has my soccer season, with games usually 2-3 times a week. Phew!

And now for the reason I've got some more time on my hands....
I've always had back problems, but last summer I hurt my back pretty bad during a soccer game. Ever since then, my back has been giving me an aweful lot of grief. My most recent problem is low back and sciatic nerve pain, that makes me limp most of the time, and has been going on for about 2 months. I've been popping ibuprofen like candy (I know it's terrible on the stomach), and I've been seeing a chiropractor and physiotherapist.

Because of this, and on the advice of these practitioners, I've decided to completely stop exercising for 2 weeks and see how things go. I have a feeling that I may need to take a longer break and perhaps even miss the whole soccer season. It's killing me that I have to stop exercising because I was 2 weeks away from being done my P90X training program (which is a feat in itself), and I love soccer! And I was finally in really good shape and losing weight.

Anyway, that's what's been going on in this artist's world. I hope to get back into drawing again soon and I'll try not to take such a long break in the future.

My recent art project

Well I finally have something artsy that I can show you! I've been painting our exercise room and decided to make it a little fun by adding a design to the walls. Here are some photos.

The first picture is where I got my idea for the whole thing - a t-shirt I got from Old Navy several years ago.

And here is the room:

Now all I need to do is paint the navy blue entertainment centre and shelves. I'll probably paint them either black or chocolate brown? What do you think?

Just checking in

Hi everyone. Thanks for following my blog and sorry that it's been pretty dormant lately. Since finishing my last commission and doing a couple of ACEO's, I haven't really done too much of anything when it comes to my artwork! I guess I just needed a bit of a break to do other things.

So what have I been doing? I've been working on getting myself into shape, which unfortunately takes up a fair bit of my time! I painted my exercise room and plan on painting a design on the walls once we get a cloudy/rainy day. So I guess that counts as artwork. I'll take pictures once I'm finished.

So yep, that's about it! Hopefully soon the creative juices will start flowing again and then I'll having something to show. Until then, happy painting/drawing to the rest of you!

Friesian ACEO

Don't miss out! Only 1 1/2 days left to bid on my drawing. Click here to bid.

Drawing for sale...again!

So Ebay cancelled my last listing because I had a link to my website on it. I didn't realize that was a no-no...guess it's my own fault for not reading all the rules. I've relisted the item, sans link. Here's the new listing:

Friesian Horse ACEO for sale.

Oops!

I was just adding my new drawing to my cards and prints page on my website, and I noticed that none of the paypal buttons worked there. I'm not exactly sure how long they've been like that, but I'm a little embarassed that none of them worked. I usually check things over quite thoroughly when I'm editing my site, so I'm not sure what happened. Anyway, they're fixed now.

Friesian ACEO

This is my latest drawing of a Friesian horse. I'm discovering I have a thing for Friesians. They are absolutely beautiful animals and just take my breath away. For this reason, you may see more of them in my work!

This drawing is untitled so far because I can't seem to come up with interesting names. So far, naming my pet portraits has been easy: "George", "Nelly", "Simon", etc...pretty straight forward. Now, besides challenging myself to be more creative in my art, I also need to learn creativity in my naming! I am open to suggestions for naming this one.

Friesian

2.5" x 3.5" ACEO
Pencil on paper

For those of you who don't know what an ACEO is, it stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. They are miniature works of art about the same size as baseball cards and thin enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets. An offshoot of Artist Trading Cards are the "Art Cards, Editions, and Originals" (ACEO). ACEOs originated when some artists began to create cards to sell, in addition to trading among themselves.

This drawing is for sale on Ebay. Click here to bid!

Reminder

There are less than 2 days left to bid on my drawing, "Pink Lily" on Ebay. Don't miss out!

Click Here to Bid

Pink Lily ACEO up for auction

"Pink Lily"

2.5" x 3.5"

Coloured Pencil

My drawing, "Pink Lily" is up for auction on Ebay. Click here to bid!

ACEO stands for "Art Cards, Editions and Originals". These cards have one main rule - they are 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches - the size of a trading card.

ACEO's are small works of art that are more affordable than larger artworks. I hope to create many more ACEO's in the future!

Can anyone name the flower?

I just finished working on this coloured pencil drawing of a flower, but I don't know what kind it is! My sister, Kristi, took the photograph that I used as reference. If anyone could tell me, I would appreciate it! Thanks!

Pink Lily

2.5" x 3.5"

Coloured Pencil

Photo Contest

So I've decided I'm going to hold a photo contest. I got the idea from Karie-Ann Cooper who is holding a wildlife photo contest. Basically I'll hold the contest for a couple of months and I'll ask that people send me any photos that they may have of a certain subject. I'm thinking that I'd like to do a horse, but I'll let you know for sure at a later date. I have limited access to animal pictures so I'm hoping my readers have some good shots.

At the end of the contest, I'll pick my favourite photo and I'll draw or paint it. The winner will receive a signed print of the winning artwork. I'll get into the rules when I actually start the contest, but the main rules will be that you own the copyright to the photo(s) that you send me, and I will own the copyright to the artwork.

So don't start sending me photos yet, but soon!

Still Around

Hi all,
I just wanted to write a quick note to say I'm still here! Since finishing my last commission, I felt I needed a bit of a break from drawing. I don't plan on taking a long break, but I just need to figure out what I'm going to do next. I'm kind of thinking that I'll draw a horse next, but I'm not sure what medium I'll be working in. I also have half an oil painting of a lion done that I started during my oil painting class over a year ago. I'll get back into it soon, but for now I'm enjoying the lack of commission pressures!

Another thing keeping me busy is that I've started an exercise program called P90X. I won't really get into it here because you may not be interested. If you are interested, I've started a new blog, sort of as a diary to document my progress through the program. I figure that I'll HAVE to finish the program if I tell lots of people I'm doing it! So feel free to follow along if you like!

Another award!

I big thank you to April Jarocka for my second blog award! Please check out her blog. I especially love her rock paintings!

Simon is finished!

I've finally finished Simon's portrait! I just need the ok from the client and it's ready to go!

"Simon"
8 x 10 Coloured Pencil

Simon's name is actually printed in his collar, very lightly. Unfortunately you can't see it in the scan, but it is visable on the original.

This was the last of my commissions, so I'm quite excited to be done! I think I'll probably take a short break and then hopefully I'll have some new stuff to show you all. Thanks for looking!

Simon - Stage 5

"Simon"
8 x 10 Coloured Pencil
Work in Progress

Blog award

Thanks to Lene Daugaard for giving me a blog award! Please have a look at her wonderful blog.

I am to list 7 things that I love and then pass this award on to 7 of my favourite art blogs. In no particular order:

1. My family
2. My friends
3. My "kids" (my cats!)
4. Drawing/Painting
5. Soccer
6. Nature and being outdoors
7. Travel

I am passing this award on to the following wonderful art blogs:

1. Rebecca Latham
2. Lesley Harrison
3. Melanie Phillips
4. Toni James
5. Ranjini Venkatachari
6. Jacqueline Gnott
7. Nicholas Beall

Featured in Teresa Mallen's Art Newsletter

A fellow artist, Teresa Mallen, from Ottawa, has been kind enough to feature me in her February newsletter. You can view the newsletter here. Teresa is a wonderful CP artist and she has been writing monthly newsletters for almost a year now. They contain lots of interesting and useful information and you can sign up to receive them for free! Have a look at her website and her blog by clicking on these links.
Thanks so much Teresa!!

25 Random things about me....

So if you're on Facebook, you may have seen this circulating around. It's meant to tell people a little bit about yourself...things that people probably don't know about you. I thought it might be a good idea to put my 25 things here on my blog. You may not be interested, and if not, feel free to skip it. If you are interested, read on:

1. I don't have a lot of patience and get bored easily. On the flip side, give me a tedious activity and I get lost in it. Go figure!

2. I hate my natural hair colour. It's a mousy dark blonde. Thankfully I can get highlights every couple of months.

3. I LOVE animals! I would have a house full of them if I could. As it stands now, I have 3 cats.

4. I really want to quit my job and become a full time artist...but only if I can make lots of money off of each piece, so that I don't have to work that often!

5. I really want to move somewhere warm, but I don't want to be too far away from my family.

6. I love to travel. I have been to 16 countries on 5 continents. I want to see as much of the world as I can in my lifetime.

7. I used to work in a meat packing plant as a quality control technician, and I have never hated a job so much. But two really good things came from my working there: I quit to travel for a year (see #8) and it gave me the incentive to go back to school (see #9).

8. At age 23, I backpacked around Australia and New Zealand for a year...by myself. It was the best thing that I have ever done.

9. I graduated from university in 1997 with a BSc in Biology, then went back to school 4 years later to study Nuclear Medicine, graduating when I was 28. I have been working as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist for 5 years.

10. I used to be a neat freak up until university, but now I just can't seem to tackle the smallest pile of clothes lying on the floor.

11. I used to be extremely shy, but travelling for a year by myself cured me of that.

12. All through grade school I had the same wonderful group of friends, but I felt I relied on them too much because I was so shy. So I decided to go to a university where I knew no one so I could make new friends on my own.

13. I went to the University of Prince Edward Island because of the above reason, and also because I had wanted to be a vet my whole life. But I changed my mind after my first year, probably because of the prospect of going to school for 8 straight years, or maybe because I didn't think I had it in me. To this day, I regret not trying and as it turns out, I ended up going to school for 6 years.

14. I love soccer and play on a women's team in Fredericton.

15. I really want to be able to speak French better, but I am shy about speaking it with French people.

16. I took organ lessons for 7 years and still like to play every once in a while when I visit home. I also played the flute for 3 years in school. I've always wanted to play the violin, but don't want to put the time in to learn.

17. I always have to be doing something with my hands. It is impossible for me to keep them still, try as I might.

18. If a baby and puppy where put in front of me, I'd go to the puppy every time.

19. I sneeze once when I eat Excel Polar Ice gum, fudgy chocolate or strong cough syrup.

20. I am always really keen to try a new hobby, but I very quickly get bored, leaving things half done. Drawing has been the only hobby that has held my interest.

21. I was stung on my ankle by a stinging tree in Australia. [Description: Contact with the leaves causes the hollow silica-tipped hairs to penetrate the skin and deliver a potent toxin. The sting causes a painful stinging sensation which can last for days or even months and the injured area becomes covered with small red spots joining together to form a red, swollen mass. The sting is known to have killed one human, and it can also kill dogs and horses]....I was ok, but the pain and tingling stayed with me for about 6 months.

22. I almost stepped on a (wild) python once.

23. I lived in a house with no outside walls for a week in the rainforest. Every morning I would wake up with bat poo on my book, and a part of me would be swollen. There were ants in the peanut butter, I showered in a tool shed, peed on the ground just outside of my room at night (maybe a bit too much info there!?) and bats would fly over our heads as we ate at the dinner table. It was amazing!

24. I kind of want to own sheep instead of a lawn mower.

25. I've been inside a pyramid, the Cistine Chapel, the Louvre, the Roman Colosseum and up the Eiffel Tower; I walked around Ayers Rock, snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef, climbed a glacier and swam with dolphins in New Zealand, rode in a gondola in Venice and walked the Great Wall of China.

So if you're still reading, now you know a little bit more about me!

Shocking Artwork!

I am a member of GreenNexxus, which is an environmental, social networking site. I received one of their newsletters today and one of the articles really shocked me. Below is the write-up from the newsletter. Click on "Read More" to see the artwork.

Oscar the Grouch Art: Not everything is as it Seems
Rarely do we come across pictures that make us go "Wow". Even more rarely do we come across information that prompts us to change the way we live our lives. We came across this PowerPoint presentation a few days ago and the message it brings concerning garbage hits home. Look closely at the images, once you discover the origins of the materials it leaves you with your mouth open silently miming the word "Wow". Read More. (you will be taken to the GreenNexxus site. Click on "Power Point" to see the artwork).

Unbelievable!!

Simon - Stage 4

"Simon"

8 x 10 Coloured Pencil

Work in Progress

Yet another update of Simon's portrait. I'm really enjoying this one. Last night I kind of lost myself in it and the time flew by! Before I knew it, it was bedtime! I'm still liking the new technique too. Stay tuned for more!

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow or subscribe to my blog.

Simon - Stage 3

New website design for 2009

I've launched my newly designed website! It's at the same address, it just has a different look so please check it out! I'm still fixing problems here and there, but hopefully I'll have the kinks ironed out soon. If you see anything that doesn't look right, links that go to the wrong place, or anything else out of the ordinary, please let me know. Thanks for looking!