I’ve been painting trees in what I’m calling my ‘signature style’ for years now, in a variety of colours. I’ve done rainbow trees before in both small watercolours and large canvases, but in this series I’ve used different pride flags as my inspiration.
Author: Kirsten
Ipswich show fine art awards
This year I participated in the Ipswich Show for the first time ever! It made me wonder what took me so long to do it. I think a lot of it was fear that my work wouldn’t be “good enough”. Despite selling more than 85 paintings to people in Australia and around the world, and participating in a number of art exhibitions, I still struggle with imposter syndrome, and a part of my brain always tells me that I’m not a “real” artist, especially because this is not my full-time job.
I was really proud of myself for pushing past that fear and entering this year, and I’m so glad I did! I entered three paintings – Blue Reef Dreaming, Introspection, and Reef Dream 1.
I loved attending the awards evening, and looking around at all the amazing art by members of the Ipswich community.
I was surprised and thrilled to see my piece “Introspection” received a Highly Commended award.
I don’t think this will be my last time participating in the Ipswich Show – I’m already starting to think about what I should submit next year!
Sea Gardens
I’ve recently been working on a new series of intuitive abstract paintings called ‘sea gardens’. This is a series of 5 paintings (so far) which are all variations on a theme of underwater plants. I made so many because I found them so peaceful and calming to work on!
These original paintings are available for purchase in my Etsy store. Let me know if you’re interested in digital prints!
My New Obsession…
OK so I have a tendency to become obsessed with fictional worlds – be that TV, books, etc. My latest of these is a television series called Our Flag Means Death – I haven’t been this crazy about a television show since I was a teenager contributing to fan-zines about the X-Files. My friends and family will be well aware of this, because I haven’t shut up about it.
I’ve been loving seeing the art of other fans on Twitter and Tumblr. My favourite so far is Illustory art – I just love the way they draw the characters & had to get myself a “Lucius is not dead” T-Shirt from their Redbubble store. My new office at work is something of a cave and I want to decorate with lots of things that make me happy – so I’ve also ordered this print to go on the wall.
Anyway. As much as I would love to do art of the characters, drawing/painting people is not really my thing, so I decided to have a go at making some artwork centered around some of my favourite quotes for the show. I can see myself doing more of these, but this is what I’ve come up with so far:
I absolutely loved painting these and can see myself doing some more similar ones in the future. If you’re a fan like me, leave me a comment with your favourite quote you’d like to see in a wreath! If you haven’t seen the show, I highly recommend it!
In the firelight – colourful watercolour swirly trees against a sky of fire
This original watercolour painting is painted on high quality 9″ x 11″ watercolour paper, and is available for purchase in my Etsy store.
Prints, and products like the ones featured below, are available via Redbubble.
By The Bay – A set of three abstract watercolours inspired by our trip to the beach at Hervey Bay
Over the school summer holidays, we took a short trip up to Hervey Bay with the kids. I was inspired to create some abstract watercolour paintings based on the photographs we took while we were there. As you can tell, the idea was not to try to faithfully recreate the photos, but rather use them as a point of inspiration. I really enjoyed working on these, and want to try this painting style again.
Moonlit Tree – Original watercolour painting of a black swirly tree silhouette against a blue starry moonlit sky
This painting is available for purchase via my Etsy store. Prints and products are available via Redbubble.
Plumage – Intuitive abstract watercolour painting of feathers and leaves in purple and turquoise
“Plumage” – another in my series of intuitive paintings. I didn’t intend for this to look like feathers from the outset, but that’s what it ended up looking like to me! That’s one of the things I love about this painting style. I love just exploring the paint and seeing where it takes me. It’s especially fun in watercolours, because they really have a mind of their own sometimes.
This original painting is in A4 size, which makes it easy to purchase frames for. It is available for purchase from my Etsy store. Prints and products like the ones featured below are available from Redbubble.
Introspection – Intuitive abstract watercolour painting on paper in pink, coral, turquoise and gold
This painting is part of my intuitive art series. What is intuitive art? I’m sure it means different things to different people, but for me, it’s about letting go as I paint – using painting as a form of meditation. Seeing where the brush takes me without having a plan in mind at the beginning. It’s really relaxing and I think this is one of my favourite types of painting to create.
This one is hard to capture digitally – the gold paint has a lovely shimmer to it.
The original painting is A4 size, and is available for purchase in my Etsy store. Prints and products like the ones featured below are available via Redbubble.
Rainbow in soft light – watercolour painting of pastel rainbow trees by Kirsten Bailey
I love painting. Scanning my paintings and then uploading them to Etsy, Redbubble and my website, is not quite as fun. I have a bit of a backlog of paintings I need to scan and upload. I painted this one last year and I’m just getting around to posting it here. I love pastel colours although I don’t use them all that often. I like how this one turned out!
What are your thoughts. Do you prefer bright rainbows or pastel rainbows?
This painting is A4 size so it’s easy to frame without having to get a custom frame made. The original is available for purchase in my Etsy store. Prints and products like the ones featured below are available at Redbubble.
