sometimes...

Sometimes when I am dreaming my mind can wonder off in completely different directions, new ideas start to form and emerge into their own ideas and dreams...  I like this kind of brain activity.

What a busy weekend, I can't believe it is Sunday night already... On Saturday we had a wedding to go to, some underwear to buy, we went to see Fantastic Mr Fox at the movies (I haven't read the book but I really enjoyed the movie, it was quite quirky), visited some friends and had a good curry for tea.
Today (Sunday) has been my dads 85th birthday... we had a wee party for him and Ben decorated his cake (Ben's design skills are interesting and unique).  And now we are all relaxing... both Hannah and Ben are back at school and day care tomorrow so a quite evening is a good idea.

(Dad and Ben... the cake ribbon was too big for the cake so Dad decided to decorate himself with it)

I have a few more commissions to do and several new pieces for some galleries and then I have an idea for a series of works about a few things on my mind.

waiting...

I have been shopping, it is a kind of nesting thing I do before I get back into my creative groove... and I found such a bargain I had to share it.  These 'housekeeper boxes' were $10 each down from $65!!!  I couldn't believe it so I bought 4 of them.  They are so handy... I have filled two of them and am onto the third one, so much fun.

(waiting for good things to come)

I feel this is me at the moment... waiting for good things to come, the birds are like guardian angels who are waiting to catch the little bits of hope that together will turn into my dreams (like my last post).  Does that make sense, it makes sense in my head but sometimes I find it hard to collect my thoughts and put them into words.  I guess I am just waiting for my dreams to come true.

seagulls fly by...

(dreamer)

I have just seen 'James and the giant peach' on DVD... well James lassoes 100 seagulls to carry his giant peach out of the sea and off to New York City.  I have also seen 'Up' last week and it has a similar idea but he uses balloons, instead of seagulls and he is lifting up his house and not a giant peach and he goes to South America and not New York City.  Anyway the details are a little different but the idea is similar... and I like it.

I like the idea of a lot of small things making something big happen. Each and every one of those small things equals a little bit of hope and together they are like dreams coming true.  Sounds a little cheesy but I think it is a nice idea.

For a few minutes about 15 years ago after seeing the Royal New Zealand ballet I dreamed of being a ballerina.  But sometimes I think it is better to keep some of those dreams as dreams.  Me as a ballerina would be a comedy act... and I am ok with that dream being just a fleeting dream.  It is easy to be a dreamer the hard part is deciding which ones to attach seagulls to and which ones to let the seagulls fly by.

four thousand...

I had some good news this morning... the lady from Livewires rang and she is keen to give my girls a go and is going to do a run of 4,000 and see how they go!  So I am jolly excited about that, jolly excited!

(new beginnings)

I have had a bit of a block this last week... four failed attempts at doing something creative, but that is ok, these things happen sometimes.  It might be due to some weird sinus activity in my head at the moment, I am not sure?  But anyway today I did this one above and I think she is interesting... I love the colours, reminds me a bit of the beginning of spring, before all the flowers come out.

Yesterday we had a lovely visit to an alpaca farm... one of the dogs had 9 puppies! there were 4 left and they were 7 weeks old  They were so cute, I think they were the highlight of the day for me and the sheep were really scary.  Ben said he liked all the animals.

(Ben feeding the alpacas)

(I love you little pipi)

(Ben helping the puppies chew their owners jandels)

(Ben and the puppies having a tug of war with my camera case)

 (he was a heavy little guy)

something creative

(two of the new paintings)

I have been a little obsessed with sewing the last week and it has been a struggle to get on with painting.  I really enjoy the feeling of something creative like that taking over my whole mind, so much fun.  I have made a few more moopies and a few new ones as well, will post them soon.

I feel I am in a bit of a painting block at the moment... could be my creative side is being taken up by other things?  But anyway, I think it is good to start with what I know (like these above) and often new things will come from this.  I have had an idea in mind for a while to do some New Zealand themed girls... the idea is still evolving, but hopefully I will have it sorted soon.

I have heard from the Livewires company and they said they found my work very interesting and will get back to me next week as not all their staff are back at work after their holidays yet.  So that is promising I think?  Will keep you updated.

I have had a few people late last year interested in purchasing an original, if you were one of these people please email me katherinequinn@xtra.co.nz and I can send you some images of what is available... thanks.

Blossom and Moopie

(Blossom and Moopie)

After a friend discovered this cool book on how to make 'softies' we went shopping yesterday for fabric in second hand shops and local craft shops.  Then we spent today making these cute little guys (sorry but the photo is not very good)  it was nice to be creatively different for a change, but now I am totally exhausted!

(our moopies)

I have been feeling quite tired over the last few weeks, I think it is not doing much, not having the routine of going to work, having no structure to my days.  So I am actually looking forward to getting back to work and getting ready for the students... who start mid February.  I have finished 8 new paintings over the last few weeks so that is not too bad going I guess, will post pics next time.  

pea green necklace...

(girl with the pea green necklace)

I started this sometime last year and it just wasn't working so I filed it away for a while.  Well... I found it again a few days ago and had another try.   I am happier with it now, I think I was trying to add too much colour the first time.

I am so glad we are on our way into the New Year... I love Christmas (speaking of Christmas the present that still brings joy two weeks later seems to be the small tub of slime with fake eyeballs... every time it gets poured out there are squeals of eeewwww like it is a whole new experience and its grossness has never been seen before).  Anyway when Christmas is over I just want to get on with the New Year so I can use my new diary and start a new list book (I really really love stationery)!

I have always wanted to have some of my work on some stationery, cards, notepads, calendars etc... When I see the ones I make myself all lined up ready for an art market they just fill me with joy.  There is just something so satisfying in seeing the repetition of them for me.  But lately I have been thinking of approaching a real live stationery/card company to see what they think.   Soooooo... I yesterday I emailed a New Zealand card company to see if they would be interested in taking on some of my images to feature on their cards.  They don't get back from their summer holidays until 11 January so will let you know what they say (fingers crossed for me).

close to my heart...

(close to my heart)

I started four new works today and although over the Christmas, New Year break I have really enjoyed having the kitchen table free of paper, scissors, glue sticks, paints, cutting mats and pencils etc... it feels so good to be making a mess again.

I have decided I am going to concentrate on colour this year... I think to tell the truth I am actually a little afraid of colour.   I often choose brightly coloured papers for the backgrounds but once I start adding to  them they end up being almost white (I might as well have started out with a piece of photocopy paper)!

So anyway that is something I'm going to have a go at...  that's not to say that I wont be doing any softer coloured paintings, I have two of them on the go as well.

So the painting above is my first attempt, I am loving the energy the green and red have when put together, looks a little Christmasy I think?  And this is the first painting I have scanned on my new scanner... it comes out slightly different to the scanner I have been using in the past but having my own scanner at home makes it really nice to be able to share this on my blog at 9:40 on Sunday night.