Kirsten Bailey: Art

"Mother and Child" Acrylic on Board by Tracey Potter

Mother’s Day is nearly here again – doesn’t it always sneak up on you?  This week I’ve been lucky enough to be featured in two blog posts about Mother’s Day gift ideas.

Firstly, one of my favourite artists, Tracey Potter, has blogged about her Top 10 Gifts under $50 for Mother’s Day, featuring my “Pink Lemonade” pendant along with many other beautiful items including her gorgeous original painting “Mother and Child” (featured above).

Kylie from Tiges and Weince has been kind enough to feature my “Little Twilight Field” ACEO in her collection of pretty raspberry-coloured Mother’s Day items featuring Aussie designers.

What’s your favourite handmade item for Mother’s Day?

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This month I once again participated in the DUST team swap, and once again it was a wonderful experience.

I was paired up with Briony from Petaliferous, who makes handmade, one-of-a-kind, vintage, upcycled, fun and whimsical jewellery. I was spoilt rotten – here are the goodies I received:

A purple rose Cabochon Ring – handmade for me!  Not only does it look great to just wear, I’ve found it looks fabulous when I thread through the ends of a wrap top I bought at an Intimo party.  So versatile!

I just love this Hot Pink Rose Cabochon necklace – I’ve been looking for a nice bright pink necklace for ages, and this one is just perfect!

My favourite item by far is this gorgeous bracelet made with handmade sparkly blue, black and silver beads.  It is just my style and is *so* comfortable to wear (yes, I HAD to wear it as soon as it arrived in the mail – and I happened to be wearing blue that day too so it must have been fate).

My photos (taken late at night because I’m too impatient to wait until the weekend when I’ll have time to take daylight photos) really don’t do this beautiful jewellery justice, so please check out Briony’s store to see pieces like these and many other beautiful jewellery items.

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Me with my keepsake boxes, pendants and cards

Yesterday I spent my morning at The Handmade Expo, at the Ipswich Turf Club.

After a bit of a shaky start (I am prone to stressing out at the best of times, and a mix-up over where to set up had me freaking out just a bit) – I had a great day!

It was definitely a better venue to sell than the Suitcase Rummage was – people were expecting higher quality items.  I sold quite a lot of pendants, some cards and a couple of keepsake boxes.

Keepsake boxes, pendants and cards

The best thing about the Handmade Expo was all the lovely people I met.  I really enjoyed being able to meet the people buying my work and hearing their comments.  It also gave me a good idea of which styles were popular.  One lovely lady who purchased two of my paintings at The Coffee Club Springfield popped in to meet me, which was wonderful.  A huge thank you to all those who stopped by and said hello

Original Artwork

The Handmade Expo is held every month at the Ipswich Turf Club.  While I won’t be able to make the May market (I will be participating in Padua College’s Artscape Exhibition), I will be at the June Market on Saturday 26th June.  I’m hoping to make it a regular event!

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I’ve always been fascinated by the stars – I love looking up at the night sky, especially when I’m away from the city and the artificial light no longer dims the stars.  One of my favourite childhood memories is that of looking through a neighbour’s telescope.  So it’s not surprising that stars feature heavily in my artwork.  Nor is it a surprise that some of my favourite Etsy items are star-themed as well.  Here are a few of them:

From top to bottom, left to right:

1.  Starry Night Cobalt Glass and Silver Charm Bracelet by Trash and Trinkets.  This charm bracelet features the prettiest shade of blue, along with star and moon charms.

2.  Stellar Stream – Indigo/Gray Freeform Crochet Necklace by Irregular expressions.  I am in LOVE with this necklace!  I love the title ‘Stellar Stream’, and it really does bring up memories of seeing the milky way clearly emblazoned across the sky.  Best of all, it’s totally unique!

3.  Starry Night Serving / Pasta Dish by Spinster Sisters Pottery.  This dish is so pretty it almost seems a shame to put food on it!  Glazed in midnight blue with white crystal stars, it would make a wonderful centerpiece to the table.

4.  The Original Velvet Purple Candileria by Blue Room Pottery.  How cool are these?  I can just imagine how pretty a room would look lit by candlelight filtered through one of these beauties, stars playing against the walls.

5.  Starry Night Necklace Lapis Lazuli, Pyrite, Sterling Silver by Red Chair.  If you were to trap the night sky in a string of pearls, I think it would look something like this.  This stunning necklace features lapis lazuli beads, blue as the night sky, offset by the shine of Pyrite.

6.  Starry Night Embroidered Cloth Napkins by Monkey Beetle.  These simple, elegant and beautiful napkins would add a little starlight to any dinner table.  You can even get a glow-in-the-dark version!

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I recently wrote about participating in this month’s colour challenge at Two Happy Stampers, which involves creating something using the following colours:

I wanted to have another go at creating a painting using these colours, and this is what I came up with:

It reminds me of the shrubs they have around my school which drop white flowers in a carpet all over the ground.  The branch of the tree is actually painted in navy watercolour paint although it looks pretty close to black.

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Today I spent my time at King George Square for the Suitcase Rummage – basically, people were allowed to bring a suitcase full of whatever they wanted to sell, and it was all free!

I was there to sell some unframed paintings, my keepsake boxes, pendants and cards.

I wish I could say it was a really successful day, and I was busy the whole time, but it was not to be.  I was surrounded by people selling pre-loved clothing for 5o cents or $1 a piece, so I guess in contrast my stuff seemed expensive to people.

I did get lots of lovely comments though, and I’m hoping I’ll have more success at the Handmade Expo next Saturday.

If you live in the area, I’d love to see you there!

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This Sunday I will be selling some of my unframed art, wearable art pendants and keepsake boxes at the Suitcase Rummage in King George Square, Brisbane.

I’m looking forward to selling an an easy, casual atmosphere – it’s a good way to dip my toe into the water before the big Handmade Expo market next Saturday!

I hope to see you there

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I had so much fun participating in the colour challenge from Two Happy Stampers last month, so I jumped at the chance to have a go at another one this month.

These are the colours we needed to use:

It’s a beautiful combination, but I found it a lot harder this time for some reason.  Here’s what I came up with – I’ve called it “Coral Sky”:

I’m still not sure about it though – I’m going to have another go with these colours and see if I can improve on it.  What do you think?

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I love holidays!  I get so much painting done

Here’s what I’ve been working on:

“Sunset Joy”

I’m hoping to donate this painting to the Cerebal Palsy League’s ‘Art for Arts Sake‘ charity auction next month (it has to be accepted first so fingers crossed!)

“Evening Song”

This one is going to be sent to someone special

I’ve also been working on some new canvas works – I’ll post details here soon.  I hope everyone had a lovely Easter long weekend!

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Well, sort of.  You may remember I donated one of my paintings, a watercolour entitled “Reach” to the Young Variety Heart Art Show.  While I wasn’t able to attend on the night, I was pleased to be able to support the charity with my donation.

Yesterday, a friend of mine mentioned she had seen a painting that looked very much like one of mine in the free newspaper given out on trains, MX.  She gave me a copy, and Lo and Behold, it was my painting:

I’m not mentioned by name, but that is definitely my painting “Reach”.  Even though it’s only a free newspaper, I was thrilled to see my painting there!  I’m also really happy that my style is distinctive enough for someone to be able to tell it’s one of my paintings even though my name isn’t on it.

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