Magic Mosaic!

A mini mosaic of some of my Etsy items!

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!

Latest Paintings

Sunflowers

This started out as a quick 'Shirley Trevena' style practice painting. It went a bit wrong in the middle so I thought I'd try adding some collage bits to it. I tried to keep it simple by only using some sheet music strips, some blue Japanese patterned paper and the central sunflower which is a piece of paper I painted yellow and then used pen and watercolour to add detail.

I'm not sure if it's finished yet.


Water Lily

This is another attempt to get the lose and expressive 'Shirley Trevena' style. It was a very late entry for the Lotus watercolour challenge from Lorus Maver's great photo: Lotus Challenge Photo. There were so many beautiful paintings from this photo, by the talented Flickr group, that I had to give it a try. All of the versions can be seen in the group's pool here: Lotus Challenge entries

The 'Watercolourist, Painting with Light' group has been running challenges like this for a year now but this is the first one I've taken part in. Hopefully I can start catching up with the others from now on!

This painting is predominantly watercolour, but I've also used a bit of salt and some coloured pencil in places. And quite a bit of wax candle for the sparkly highlights on the water and lily pads.

Little blue jug

Again, I'm trying to work on still lives in a Trevena style. I bought this great little jug and bowl in a charity shop recently and I'll probably be using them in many more still lives to come. I've used water-soluble pencils in the background and for some of the details of the bottle. I used a wax candle for the pattern on the bowl - not ideal, but I've run out of masking fluid. I've also used a bit of the pencil sanding technique in places - i.e rubbing watersoluble pencils on sand paper over wet paint, it gives a great speckly texture.

Hantsweb Award Nominated!

Hurrah! My art gallery & shop website, http://www.francescawhetnall.co.uk/ has been nominated for a Hantsweb Award!

The Hantsweb Awards celebrate excellence in website design, accessibility and service, so it's a real honour to be nominated. So far 1000s of sites have been whittled down to a hundred or so and the next step will knock the list down to a shortlist of just 10 sites in each category. The judges will then nominate a winner and 2 runners up in each category.

I've been nominated in three categories:

• Small Business


• Special Interest


• Business Innovation

The Business Innovation category is new this year and has been added to recognise the effective ways companies have used the web to drive business during the recession.

Leader of Hampshire County Council, Councillor Ken Thornber, said: “Good quality design is vital to ensuring websites remain easily accessible and simple to navigate for everyone. The Hantsweb Awards are a great way of encouraging best practice examples and celebrating those websites that are leading the way in their field and delivering the goods."

It's really great to get such encouraging feedback from this nomination, and to know that the clear design of my website makes it both accessible as well as enjoyable to view!

Fingers crossed for the next stage! :-)

The female of the species is more deadly than the male

Sexual Cannibalism

Sexual cannibalism is where the female of the species attacks, kills and eats a male of the same species before, during or after mating. It's common in many families of spider, insect and amphipod (shrimp-like crustaceans). In most species in which it occurs, sexual cannibalism is related sexual dimorphism, where the female is much larger than the male.

There are competing theories on how the practice evolved. Some biologists suggest that sexual cannibalism is just the result of a voracious female appetite. But experiments have also suggested that females use it as a technique to select the best fathers for their offspring. Some sexual cannibalism might occur because the female regards her suitor as more acceptable as a meal than as a mate.

As an adaptive female strategy, sexual cannibalism is easy to understand. There are two clear advantages to sexual cannibalism:
Natural Selection - Any male who succumbs to the female's attempts to devour him before mating occurs fails to pass on his DNA.
Nutrition - Any male eaten by a female, whether he has mated with her or not, provides the female with nutritional benefits which should increase the quantity or quality of her offspring.

For males, sexual cannibalism seems a less than satisfactory strategy. For some it seems to have evolved as an extreme form of paternal investment. In other species, the males are less happy with the arrangement, and use diverse strategies to decrease their chances of being cannibalized. Some, particularly Nursery Web spiders, bring the female a diversionary meal.


The Black Widow Spider

The female Black Widow Spider is known for her distinctive black and red markings, which are designed to warn potential predators away. Only the female black widow bites humans, and she bites only when disturbed, especially while protecting her eggs.

Her bite is highly venomous, which is effective for disabling and killing her prey of insects and occasionally other spiders. The toxin affects the nervous system - muscle and chest pain or tightness are some of the most common reactions to the black widow bite. Fatalities in humans have occurred and are most commonly due to respiratory paralysis.

On occasion the female will eat the male after mating, generally the smaller the male is, the higher the likelihood that she will devour him. As a method of self preservation, male black widows often restrain females in silk prior to mating. And if the male survives copulation he will often fertilise multiple females.

Sources:

Is the female of the species more deadly than the male? - Scienceray

Sexual Cannibalism - Wikipedia

Black Widow Jewellery

Please visit my Etsy or Folksy stores for more deadly jewellery:

Esty Jewellery

Folksy Jewellery

Black, White and Red

Oo, this is fun, it's digital scrapbooking but with real clothes and accessories.
For my first attempt I had to go for spots and stripes and red and black:


Black, White and Red by ceccacat featuring DKNY accessories

I'm not too sure how great i'd look wearing the wellies, scarf, fantastic telephone bag and spotty helmet all at once!

Shop Redesign

I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking but I thought it would be fun to rearrange my Etsy shop's categories from sensible categories like 'prints', 'original art', 'jewellery' and 'cards' into interesting themes....

So, at the moment I have the following categories:

Autumn Harvest

English Country Garden

Coastal Creations

Rainbow Brights

Urban Jungle

Eastern Promise

I do quite like the groupings, it makes me feel like there is some method to my madness, and that I am drawn to particular themes.

I do love the sea and I always want to paint more beach huts, boats and coastal scenes. I love autumn colours and textures - leaves & berries, golden and warm. But the same goes for bright, strong colours, I don't generally like pale, washed out shades. I would really like to spend more time on the 'Eastern' style stuff, Morocco, India, Egypt - all hot and spicy colours and rich textures, but contrasted with some deep dark shades and intricate details, mmm!

Most of all I like categorising things!

But, I think it probably makes my shop pretty tricky to navigate. It wouldn't be quick to find all the prints, or earrings, without going to the trouble of searching for them. So I think I should go back to my original categories. But I'll leave it for a few days in case it grows on me..

What do you think? Terrible idea?

Any comments or suggestions you have would be great :-)

Golden October

It's great to be featured in an Etsy treasury, especially a beautiful Autumn one!
Thank you Pazzapazza!

Until it expires, see the Treasury here: Golden October

I've also been lucky enough to have my 'Golden Tree' print featured in Deelight's beautiful Autumn Themed 'Folksy Friday'

There are so many beautiful Autumn themed arts and crafts on Etsy and Folksy, it's very tempting and inspiring!

I particularly love the patchwork cushion cover by Midsummer Stitches on Folksy: