Kirsten Bailey: Art

This is my first time participating in the Monthly Painters Challenge, hosted on Facebook.  And it definitely was a challenge for me!

Each month, a different subject is chosen.  This month’s subject was breakfast, and the challenge for me was not the painting itself, but coming up with an idea for the topic.  I’m posting this a day late, and it wasn’t due to the time it took to paint, but the time it took for me to think of something!

In the end, this is what I came up with – an image of baby birds being fed a worm by the mummy bird.

Breakfast for Early Birds

The idea came about from the saying “the early bird gets the worm” – lucky mumma bird was early!

I created this painting using watercolours on watercolour paper.  Lots of people ask if the black in my paintings is ink, but it is actually black watercolour paint as well.

I’m happy to invite constructive criticism for this piece.  In particular, I was wondering about the addition of leaves – I nearly left the branches bare.  I’m also concerned that this looks more like sunset than sunrise, which I had intended.  Please let me know what you think!

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Last weekend, I finished this painting, which I’ve titled Hope Within.

It’s been sitting unfinished for a long time, and to be honest I wasn’t sure if I would ever finish it.

I started this painting last year when I found out I was pregnant.  When I later miscarried, I put the painting away because looking at it made me sad.  They say that time heals all wounds, and while maybe they never heal completely they do hurt less.  Last weekend I finally picked up the brush to finish this work.

After all that time (it’s been nearly a year), the meaning of the painting has evolved.  When I started it, it was a symbol of the life growing inside me.  Now I see it as a symbol of the fact that I haven’t given up hope.

Sorry for the sad (and maybe too personal) post.  I debated with myself about sharing this with you, but ultimately I think I needed to explain the meaning behind the painting.

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I recently ordered from Etsy a set of vintage book pages:

According to the seller they are from 1889 and 1899, so I was very excited to receive them in beautiful condition!

I finished my first artwork featuring one of these vintage pictures today.  The title “And Spring Arose” was inspired by the following poem:

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Sensitive Plant”

And Spring Arose

I really enjoyed working on this piece, and I look forward to seeing what I can come up with for the other pictures.

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I was delighted to discover that this week’s challenge over at Illustration Friday is “Star Gazing”.   I was recently requested to paint something similar to my “When it is Dark Enough” painting, and was part way through it when I found out about this topic.

Here’s the finished product – I’ve titled it “The Stargazers”:

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This week’s topic over at Illustration Friday is Satellite.

I’ve combined this idea with a request I had for some owl paintings, and come up with this:

Satellite and Sage

The satellite is of course our moon, and the sage is my wise old owl.

I’m going to have a few more tries at some owl paintings, so stay tuned!

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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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My latest work is an acrylic on canvas, the first I’ve done since completing a commission last year.  It’s taken me a few weeks to finish, because I just didn’t want to let it go – I kept adding more and more detail.  I finally put the finishing touches on it today.  I’ve titled it “A Winter Memory”.

In other news, my painting “Persistent Illusion” has been featured on the blog Pardalote Flits.  You may remember I was paired up with Michelle from Pardalote in our most recent DUST swap.  Her hand-beaded jewellery is gorgeous and I’m honoured to be featured on her blog!
I’d love to hear some feedback on my latest painting

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As promised (OK, a little later than promised, but still!) here’s my step-by-step for the creation of my latest painting, “Brave”.

Step 1 - OK I probably didn't need to show you this - the blank page. I've started using watercolour blocks instead of pads or loose sheets, and they're great! You dont' have to tape them down at all.

Step 2: Using masking fluid, I masked off the edge of the paper and created three separate panels.

Step 3 - Colour washes for the background. Here I've done the first two. I tried to give a feeling of the day passing - using the colours of sunrise, midday and twilight.

Step 4: As I wanted to convey the idea of the same tree and bird changing over time, I wanted my tree to look the same in each panel. I usually paint my trees freeform, without sketching them first. This time, I sketched a tree in pencil first, and transferred it to the 3 panels so each would be the same.

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It’s been a while since I’ve participated in Illustration Friday – I tend to wait until a topic really grabs me.

Last September I spent a lot of my holiday sitting outside in our patio, reading and drinking cups of tea.  It was so lovely and peaceful, that I often stopped reading and just sat and took in the scenery of my little garden.  In one of our trees, a baby bird was learning to fly.  It was amazing to just quietly sit and watch as he (or she?) spread his wings for the first time.

When I saw this week’s topic from Illustration Friday was “brave”, that little baby bird was the first thing I thought of, and was the inspiration for this painting:

I’ve posted a step-by-step about how I created this painting – check it out here.

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It’s been a productive weekend!

I’ve done lot’s of work on my lastest commission, a painting for a friend:

There is a lot of detail in this one, and it is HUGE (I can only fit one panel at a time on my easel), so it’s taking me a really long time to finish, but I hope the result will be worth it in the end.

I completed another painting this weekend, and thought I’d show you the stages it went through:

Step One: Painting taped down and ready to go. I've also used tape to separate the four panels (as opposed to wrecking another brush with masking fluid).

Step Two: Spring colours - I decided on pinks, greens and yellows to represent spring.

Step Three: Summer is orange, yellow and green. You can see the paint was still wet when I took this photo.

Step Four: Browns, oranges and reds for Autumn

Step Five: Blues and whites for Winter

At this point, I left the painting to dry before removing the tape.  I painted a tree branch going across the top of the painting.  Here’s the result:

I also made some more art pendants this week, but that’s a post for another day!

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