Kirsten Bailey: Art

Here’s my submission for this week’s Illustration Friday topic, ‘Atmosphere’.  For once I’ve taken the topic very literally, and I’ve painted a picture of the Earth’s atmosphere:

The weekend just past was super-busy for me.  I had a stall at The Handmade Expo, which was great fun as always.  We had a great turn out this month with people out and about voting.  A big thank you to all those who stopped by my little stall!  After the Expo we visited family and then the next day attended a birthday party.

With a weekend like that, I was very pleased to be able to get a few evenings to myself to get some painting done!  Of course, sleep is overrated

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I recently had a request for a painting featuring owls – I’d never painted an owl before until a bit over a week ago when I painted Satellite and Sage.  Now I could be a little addicted!

Here’s my latest creation – I’ve titled it “Midnight Meeting”:

Midnight Meeting

I’m looking forward to this Saturday’s Handmade Expo, where I will have my original art, keepsake boxes, jewellery and cards for sale, including some owl-inspired pieces.  Brand new to the market will be my wearable art rings, featuring prints of some of my most popular paintings.

I’ve still got a week to make new pendants and rings – are there any designs you’d just love to see on one of my jewellery pieces?  Let me know and I’ll make sure I have them there.

Hope to see you there – stop by and say hello!

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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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Tonight I’ll be hanging a selection of my paintings at the Coffee Club, Springfield.  So if you’re in the area, why not pop in for a great coffee, some delicious food, and take a look at some of my paintings in person?

Sorry the picture isn’t great – my camera has a habit of running out of batteries at inconvenient times.  You’ll just have to visit the Coffee Club and check out the paintings in person!

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Yes, I have even more trees!

This painting was inspired by one of my favourite quotes:

“In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.”
~Albert Camus~

In other news, I have posted my first fan special on my KL Bailey Art Facebook Fan Page.  If you’re not already a Fan, become one today – I will be posting weekly specials on paintings!!

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This week’s inpsiration topic over at Inspire Me Thursday is “Tree”.  Well, I love trees too much to just stop at one!

I’ve actually done several tree paintings this weekend but I thought I’d space them out a bit.

This one is called “Silver White Winter”.  I did the silver detailing with glass paint.  It keeps its shine and gives the painting a textured feel.

It’s a weird painting to do at this time of year, as it was stinking hot here today, but I am listing it in my Etsy shop and hoping that it’ll be picked for a winter feature, as it is winter in the northern hemisphere where most Etsy buyers are from!

More trees to come, so stay tuned!!

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Could there be an Inspire Me Thursday subject more suited to my work than “Tree”?
I have always loved trees, ever since I was a child & spent most of my free time climbing the huge tree we had in our backyard. Trees feature heavily in my artwork.

I don’t really need an extra excuse to paint trees, and was planning to paint some trees this weekend anyway. I think I’ll be contributing more than one painting to this weeks theme!

My first painting:

What I wanted to do with this painting is to represent the fact that beauty does not mean looking like everyone else.  Being an individual and being yourself is more beautiful than becoming a carbon-copy of the ideals projected by the media.

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This weekend I’ve been working hard on a new venture – wearable art.

I’ve made a few pendants already.  Each one features an individually painted work of art.

If you’d like to purchase any of these pendants, they are available at my etsy store.

I’ll be making more of this type of pendant, so stay tuned!

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This week’s prompt on Inspire Me Thursday is “Spain”.  Having never had the opportunity to visit Spain, this was a tricky one for me – I was forced to resort to Google.

I typed “Spain scenery” into Google, and this is the first image that I really loved:

Scenery Near Arro, Ainsa, Spain

This photograph was taken by Graham Pritchard.  You can see some of his other photographs here.

I used this photograph as inspiration to paint a watercolour of this beautiful scenery.

Scenery Near Arro

As you can see, the painting is not exactly the same as the photograph – I used the photo as a jumping-off point, and let the painting develop in whatever directions felt right to me.

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I’m excited to tell you that I’ve been interviewed by Courtney at Green and Pretty as the Artist of the Week!

Head on over to her blog to check it out – she also writes about fashion and home decor, so the blog is well worth a visit.

Don’t forget I also have 2010 calendars for sale, and to become a fan on my brand new Facebook fan page.

I might have some other exciting news in a few days too… I’ll keep you posted!

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