Craft Coffee Cupcakes - Christmas Fairs!

Craft Coffee and Cupcakes are an exciting new art & craft venture that are coming to Bournemouth this November! They will be at the Pavilion Dance in Bournemouth Gardens on Sunday 11^th and 18^th of November, and the best in local art, craft and design will be on offer.

The jewellery, clothing, accessories, tasty food, beautiful cards, art and more will be accompanied by a lazy Sunday afternoon feel. The events are being sponsored by local hero’s Jimmy’s Iced Coffee and Lulubelle’s Cakes, who will be providing the 'Coffee and Cupcakes' of the title.

I'll be there on the 18th with a stall full of all my latest original prints and cards, check out my page on the Craft Coffee & Cupcakes website http://craftcoffeecupcakes.co.uk/francesca-whetnall/.

My latest reduction linocut

And I can't wait to have a browse through all of the other fantastic looking stalls! Some of my favourite local artists and crafters will be there too ~

Lisa Berkshire of Cheery Deary - http://craftcoffeecupcakes.co.uk/cheery-deary/

Beautiful mixed media mirror by Lisa Berkshire

Jill & Martin from Jilly Bird - http://craftcoffeecupcakes.co.uk/jilly-bird/

Fab Christmas mug from Jilly Bird

Karen from Print & Repeat - http://craftcoffeecupcakes.co.uk/print-and-repeat/

One of Karen's beautiful prints

Elanor McBay - http://www.elanormcbay.co.uk/hand-made-cards.html

Some of Elanor's crochetted and knitted creations

Craft Coffee and Cupcakes is the baby of Neil and Sarah Leonard. The couple, who together have a wide wealth of experience of craft and design incorporating everything from textiles and print to web and film, are now concentrating on event organising, creating collaborations across the creative sector.

Christmas Art and Craft Market

Between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th December 2011 the Arlington Arts Cafe, Bournemouth will be hosting a fantastic Christmas Art and Craft market!
It's free to get in, and there will be teas, coffee's, mulled wine and home-made mince pies as well as some fab festive music! A selection of local artists and makers will be giving demos of their creative process and showing their beautiful creations. 

On offer will be artwork, cards, Christmas decorations, jewellery, and many more hand-crafted gifts - all the work of talented local artists and crafters. It will be a lovely and relaxing way to shop for that extra special Christmas gift!

I'll be bringing a selection of framed and mounted paintings, some of my hand made jewellery, some prints (original and digital) and cards and some of my latest project - some upcycled art/note books! I'll also be doing a demo of some sort... perhaps a portrait? It should be a really great weekend of art and craft and I can't wait!

The Arlington Arts Cafe is in a glorious location, nestled in the middle of Bournemouth lower gardens, with a view of the gardens from the terrace - it's the perfect place to get away from the hustle and bustle of town and relax in a beautifully Christmassy environment full of art and craft goodness!

Why not come along for a look, and perhaps come away with some fabulous, unique, hand-made cards and gifts?


Here's a preview of some of the artwork I'll be bringing:

Gold Hill - original watercolour

Westbourne Arcade - Fine Art print

Trainer - Fine Art print

Sunflowers - original mixed media painting

You can see lots more in my online shop and even more on Flickr. Please let me know if there is anything in particular you'd like me to bring along to the Art market to have a closer look at!
And leave me a comment if you've got a preference on what sort of demo you'd like me to give :-)

Christmas Angel

Original watercolour and ink painting of a Christmas Angel.
I tried out a few techniques for this painting -

1. I started with the sky, painting a mixture of pinks and purples in a wash of watercolour over the whole sky, leaving a curved shape at the bottom white, for the snowy hill. Into the sky I sprinkled salt, to give the snowy effect - as the paint dries the salt absorbs the paint wherever it's sprinkled, leaving an interesting speckled texture.

2. Using a very thinned down wash of lilac/purple I added some shadowy textures to the snowy hill.

3. I painted in the trunk and branches of the trees using some white acrylic. I used this quite thickly, so that the sky didn't show through.

4. Using a selection of coloured fine line pens I drew the angel across the sky. I used blues to outline her dress and yellow and oranges for her hair, halo, wings and trumpet.

5. I used more white acrylic to highlight areas of the angel, and make her stand out from the background. You can still see some of the original pink speckly sky in areas of her dress. I also added touches of yellow watercolour to the trumpet and parts of her wings.

6. The final step brought the whole painting to life - before this the sky was speckled pink all over and the angel and trees weren't standing out enough. I mixed up a large quantity of dilute midnight blue watercolour and painted a wash over the whole sky, being careful to paint round the edges of the angel, and to leave space round the branches of the trees.

I've ordered some Christmas cards using this design, can't wait to see how they turn out!



This original painting is available in my Etsy and Folksy shops:
Dick and Franny at Etsy
Dick and Franny at Folksy

Christmas Watercolour - Help!!?

I've recently been aiming for a loose, expressive style along the lines of Shirley Trevena's work. In this painting I was trying to do a Christmas themed still life, playing with pattern, paint and perspective a bit. But I didn't plan the composition very well! I'm pretty happy with the teddy bear, but I added the teacup quite late on and now it looks as though it's sprouting from the bear's foot. The kettle's spout isn't placed very well either....

Overall I'm quite pleased with the bear and kettle, but the foreground composition has really made a mess of the whole thing. I'd be very interested to hear any feedback or comments you have? I've posted the painting on Flickr and added it to a number of critique groups, and I've already been getting some really helpful feedback!

My current thoughts are that I could cut the elements out of the painting (bear, kettle, angel, cup) and start again as a collage. I could also bring in some Christmas ephemera and other bits and pieces that might add something to the composition and textures...

If anyone has any suggestions on what I could do to fix or improve this painting I would be very grateful to hear them!

Snow!

Oo, I was so excited at the snow - more snow than the country's had for the last 18 years! But it amounted to just a sprinkling here in Bournemouth. I spent a morning running around trying to take some good photos before it all melted away and was then very jealous to see the beautiful coverage that the rest of the country had received!

Happily, we still managed to find a bit of snow at the weekend and had great fun creating this 7ft beauty :-)