tree – Page 2 – Kirsten Bailey: Art

Posted on September 19, 2010 by Kirsten

And Spring Arose…

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.

Posted on August 15, 2010 by Kirsten — 8 Comments

Illustration Friday – Star Gazing

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”:

Posted on July 1, 2010February 27, 2012 by Kirsten — 6 Comments

Satellite and Sage

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 - Original watercolor painting by Kirsten Bailey — 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!

Posted on April 5, 2010April 5, 2010 by Kirsten — 3 Comments

Two new works

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!

Posted on March 28, 2010 by Kirsten

My Latest Work…

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 🙂

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Kirsten — 3 Comments

Creating “Brave”

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

Creating "Brave" - step 2 — Step 2: Using masking fluid, I masked off the edge of the paper and created three separate panels.

Creating "Brave" - step 3 — 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.

Creating "Brave" - Step 4 — 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.

Step 5 - 3rd background wash. I did this panel a little later as I was waiting for the masking fluid I used to create the stars to dry. Step 6 - The tree sketch transferred onto each panel of the painting. Step 7 - Trees and birdies painted in. Step 8 - Masking fluid rubbed off, painting completed!! Hope you liked learning about how I created this painting 🙂

Posted on March 7, 2010March 11, 2010 by Kirsten — 15 Comments

Illustration Friday – Brave

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.

Posted on February 1, 2010February 1, 2010 by Kirsten — 2 Comments

Works in Progress…

It’s been a productive weekend!

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

Paulas Garden work in progress

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: