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Heart Felt at :the mezzanine: @ Entangle – Living Art

The Heart Felt exhibition at :the mezzanine:, Entangle – Living Art, is happening in just under a week and I’m starting to get nervous excited!

Heart Felt Exhibition at the mezzanine, Entangle - Living Art, Dayboro

This is the first time I’ve been involved in an exhibition since before my daughter was born, and I think the theme fits perfectly with my painting style.  Many of my paintings, especially my ‘family tree portraits’, feature hearts and convey feelings of belonging, love and connectedness.  

Hope Within - Original watercolour painting by Kirsten Bailey
“Hope Within”

I really enjoy being involved in exhibitions.  Not only do they give me an opportunity to showcase my work, but they also allow me to see the work of others.  My husband is staying home with the kids on Friday night for the opening, so this exhibition will also an opportunity for a kid-free night out!

If you enjoy my work, I really hope you’ll take this opportunity to come and see it in person.  I do my best to scan or photograph artwork carefully, but seeing it in person really brings it to life.  There are also 6 other artists showcasing their work, and from what I’ve seen of their work so far, I’m extremely honoured (and maybe a little intimidated!) to be showing my work alongside theirs.

“Heart Felt” opens at 6pm on Friday 4th August at :the mezzanine: @ Entangle – Living Art, 38 Williams St, Dayboro.  The exhibition runs through until August 27.  

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Work in Progress…

I recently started work on a new canvas piece.  I was hoping it would be ready for last week’s Handmade Expo, but the details are taking a while to do!

Here’s what it looks like so far:

KL Bailey Art - Canvas work in progress

Eventually it will be a painting of three of my swirly trees in Autumn colours.  Usually I do this style of painting on a small scale in watercolours, but this one is a larger canvas painting (20″ x 24″).

You can see I’ve started the swirls on the left hand side tree – eventually all the trees will be covered in swirls.  I’m also using a textured gold glass paint on this painting.  I will add the trunks and branches of the trees last.

I haven’t thought of a title for this painting yet – any ideas?

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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”.

A Winter Memory - Original acrylic on canvas by Kirsten Bailey

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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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:

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 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 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 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 Four: Browns, oranges and reds for Autumn
Step Five:  Blues and whites for Winter
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:

Four Seasons in One Day - Original Watercolour Painting by Kirsten Bailey

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

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How I’ve Been Keeping Busy…

I’m lucky enough to be on holidays – so what have I been doing with my time?

I finished off a commissioned painting, and delivered it to my happy customer:

Now that one’s done, I’ve started working on another commission, this one for a friend:

This is just one panel of a triptych.  I’m looking forward to seeing the finished painting on her wall!  Also a big thank you to my wonderful husband for the new easel it’s sitting on, which I got for Christmas.

Finally, I’ve also been working on some new pendants – these ones are squares and rectangles:

I’m offering a discount to my facebook fans this week – buy a keepsake box and a pendant in your choice of design for $50.  Become a fan of KL Bailey Art on facebook for more details!

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Inspire Me Thursday: Moon & Springfield Lakes Art Group

This week’s topic over at Inspire Me Thursday is Moon.  I immediately knew what I was going to paint (although the finished product varied slightly from what I had in my head, as is often the case).

I have titled this work “Tipped with Silver”.  It doesn’t show up too well in this picture, but the edges of the tree branches have been given a very thin silver outline.

Tipped With Silver - Acrylic Painting by Kirsten Bailey
Tipped With Silver - Acrylic Painting by Kirsten Bailey

This Sunday was my first visit to the Springfield Lakes Art Group, and I had a great time!  This week Sally Harrison came along to teach us all some techniques, and our focus was colour mixing.  We were given a strip of paper from a famous painting, and our task was to try to make the strip “disappear” by matching the colours.  I found it very challenging!  My strip of paper was from a painting by Camille Pissarro, although I’m not sure which painting it was.  This is what I came up with:

Reflections on Pissarro - Acrylic Painting by Kirsten Bailey
Reflections on Pissarro - Acrylic Painting by Kirsten Bailey

I had a lovely time and learned a thing or two.  Many thanks to everyone at the Springfield Lakes Art Group, and especially to Sally Harrison – you can check out her beautiful artwork here.

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Inspire Me Thursday – Fuse

This week’s topic over at Inspire Me Thursday is “Fuse”.

I deviated totally from what I was originally planning to do for this topic, but I guess that’s how it goes sometimes with art.  Here’s what I came up with – “Cold Fusion”:

"Cold Fusion" - Acrylic painting by Kirsten Bailey
"Cold Fusion" - Acrylic on canvas - 16" x 20" - $150
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Welcome!

Thank you for visiting. It’s been a while coming, but for my site is finally up and running. It’s not quite the finished product yet – there’ll be lots of little changes and updates to polish things off – but all the important stuff is here.

I’m also working on getting my gallery of work ready, and it should be available soon. In the meantime, please visit my deviantART site to view lots of examples of my work.