The Australian Art Show 2013 - watch the video at the end!

Sorry for the delay between writeups Mangofrooters but I've been a bit busy with the day job...

So for this year's Australian Art Show in Sydney I went all out and got some wallpaper put up by him indoors

He did it with minimum fuss and swearing even though I had a major 'freak' moment of thinking I left a suitcase with everything I needed for the show, outside our house - soon to be no more.  I found it in the car later.

But this year I won an award for the best small stand at the show.
And the very wonderful Vin Van Lam of Artshine fame produced this video of us talking about my work and the new products - including the new, REMOVABLE wall paper!

The Australian Art Show: Friday 25 - Sunday 27 Oct

I am on stand C6 this year.

Gabby Malpas designs in New York!

These photos are of a wedding dress made from Gabby Malpas fabric designs ordered from spoonflower.com. The wedding was in New York.

Ava got in touch regarding these designs and kindly sent me the photos for use. Ava is Professor Ava Chin of the 'Urban forager' blog fame from the NY Times. Here is a link to her site.

She wanted to fuse modern NY with her heritage and this is the beautiful end result. What a gorgeous bride!

Congratulations Ava!

The dress was designed and made by Kimera Design in Brooklyn, NY.

Plant Lover's Fair: Kariong NSW

This time next week I will be showing my wares at the Plant lover's Fair at Kariong.

I am looking forward to a big weekend of chat and some serious plant buying. Seed and card gift packs, cards, placemat/coaster sets, trays, printed canvas and fabric items will be on offer

Sat 28 - Sun 29th Sept: Kariong Mountains High School. 9 -4pm daily.
More details on the website here.

Gabby Malpas: Printed Canvases

A selection of canvas prints of my artwork.

Details on my website

Sydney Etsy Market: 7th September

Yay!
I am so exited to be at this market in a couple of weeks time!
There is a fab lineup of makers and I will be offering printed canvases, placemat and coaster sets, cards, scarves and trays: the trays and printed canvases are not available through my etsy store so if you want one - please come and pay us a visit!

And the finished work....

Title: Roy and Emma's Garden at Ridware Hall
Watercolour, collage and pencil on Arches paper
Each Panel: 55cm x 143cm

Commission - work in progress pictures

 Forgive the irregular posts.  For the last couple of weeks I have been working on my largest commission to date for clients in the UK.

This one was to incorporate English cottage/woodland flowers, pet cats, a pet parrot, a peacock, some blue and white ceramics, mauve rhododendrons and various other bits and pieces that have some meaning in the couple's lives.

Here is a picture diary of progress to date following a rough sketch for approval in June:

 

 

Pattern repeats - the results

And here they are

Aren't they gorgeous?!!

Little sketches

I have to keep working at the mojo.  One of the ways I do this is to work on little sketches of my own imagination, without having something in front of me.

I tend to draw on favourite illustrations, designers and childhood books at times like these.
I am currently liking Marimekko and a host of beautiful work on Spoonflower but have also drawn  inspiration from Tove Jansson's books about Moomintrolls and summers in the northern hemisphere.

Blog hopping and the power of the interweb!

Yesterday I posted an A4 print of my gumleaves image to someone in NSW as the prize for a competition.

The competition ran on the 'homely one' blog in May 2013. Thanks to the power of the interweb, my art is being seen by people all over.  Amanda first bought a print from my etsy store a while back.  She liked it so much she decided to purchase another one as a prize.

Thanks Amanda!

Here's a link to her lovely blog

and more pattern repeat designs...

I am really channeling the blue and white theme here.  I am intending for the birds, butterflies and other items to be 'woven' into the design.

And here are some images of flowers and berries specifically for these designs - just as scanned.  You can see I ran out of paper for the 2nd camellia so had to glue another strip on: