Website!

I now have a website to call my very own - http://www.thepiedpainter.co.uk. Visit me! Cake to all visitors (warning, any promise of cake is what's technically known as a lie).

The Good Thing About Sunny Weather ...

I can go foraging! I'd probably go to Blackleach Country Park, but there's also a nice spot near me in the railway embankment (because it's away from the road and fairly quiet). Currently I only will pick what I'm certain I know, which is very little!

I'm sure I can get some common things, like dandelions and nettles, which are good to get now. I'm not yet sure some decent trees are, though I know there will be cherries in the Summer, in the subway. I've read that you can eat the buds of bramble, I might try that from the railway side.

Playing With Photoshop

Neglected my To Sell Items (although I bought some good sized scrap wood from the local hardware store - will enjoy painting on them!) but was up all night playing with old paintings I didn't like so much. I managed to improve this one a little bit ...

So I'm chuffed! I can add it to my website portfolio (when I've finished that), instead of leaving it to sit twiddling it's metaphorical thumbs.

Making a website

I'm floating! This (when it's finished) may or may not be the art for the website

Painting a box from a charity shop

Somebody had done fairly wobbly stenciling on the box so I sanded it, and then discovered that the box had darkened while the painted area was light still, so I couldn't quite get rid of the pattern without more intensive sanding. I left it and painted a teapot on it.

I'm a little teapot ...

Selling on Ebay and the Box Conundrum

I'm currently selling some paintings I did in the week on Ebay, a long with a few other bits and pieces.

Next I'm trying to decide what to paint on a big wooden jewellery box. I bought it from the Extra Care charity shop at Irlams O'th' Height (along with the wall hook already painted and up on Ebay!). It's a great little charity shop, though slightly hidden. It's inside the Co-op, so you go to donate some things and come out with a second hand box and some fairtrade bananas. I'm unsure whether it should be a decorative pattern or if I should make use of the flatness to do a nice illustration ... Hmm ...
 

This is Whitby Abbey. Great place. You should go. I painted it because I was thinking about going there again, and it was in the front of my mind, helped along by photos I took last year.

A hare and a bluetit. I didn't see these in Salford. Well, I might have seen the bluetit. They might not be biologically accurate because I was making them up a bit. I'm feeling in the mood for Spring!