Taffetacat

Getting Grungy

2011-08-08T06:10:00.002+10:00

Something new.

Loving this site. Pose Space.

Melody.

2011-07-17T18:23:00.000+10:00

Angel

2011-07-17T18:21:00.000+10:00

Veronica

2011-06-28T17:43:00.003+10:00

Still on the semi-clad thing. Really happy with this one and she was sold within the day of putting her up for sale. I was so touched and delighted by that. :-)

What I need is a model. I need someone with a lovely womanly figure to pose for me so I can get the positions I want I to paint. I think If I find the right person I'll just have to be brave and ask. :-)

Modigliani Inspired

2011-04-27T15:59:00.004+10:00

After watching the Modigliani episode of Forger's Masterclass I got all inspired to do my own. I have been working so much in oils lately and am used to the long drying time. It has been so much fun to drag out the acrylics and do a whole painting in a day again.

One Tree Hill

2011-01-15T11:03:00.002+11:00

Another oil. A large one this time 24 x 30 inches.

Available - $220

Working with oils now.

2011-01-08T11:12:00.001+11:00

And I love them. I love love LOVE oils! :-)

Shen

2010-10-21T20:18:00.002+11:00

This is for Matthew, my partner, and is of a very loved cat who is with us no more.

Niamh - gorgeous Irish Lass

2010-10-14T07:00:00.002+11:00

Haven't got the most accurate photo of her yet, but here she is. I am very happy with how she turned out. :-)

Looking For Answers

2010-07-01T09:57:00.003+10:00

24 x 30 inches. A painting with very personal meaning for me. Searching for answers and red feathers. I know - obscure. :-)

New look website

2010-06-26T07:22:00.001+10:00

Using wix I have created a new website.

http://taffetacat.com/

Then linked to it from the old one.

I'm actually pretty happy with the look. :-)

Sapphire

2010-05-25T18:22:00.003+10:00

Another newy.

Finally got around to taking photos today - outside set up under cloudy sky with tripod, etc - and when it was all done I realised the camera had reset itself when the batteries died and was taking small photos instead of the super duper sized ones I usually take for making prints. Damn!

Good enough for the web though.

All available artwork here.

Thanks for stopping by. :-)

Catching Up

2010-05-22T08:27:00.005+10:00

I know it's been a long while. Just so busy. And I need to get good photos of the things I am painting and I just haven't had the time.

Oh well, here's a couple of my latest anyway.... :-)

(As you can see, they are not good photos. I am waiting for a good overcast day where I have some time to myself, to set up the outdoor easel and get some good shots. Hopefully in the next few days.)

No Fucking Walk In The Park

2010-02-20T13:13:00.002+11:00

I do love the creation of these pieces. I have an idea, a feeling, of what I want to do. And then I just work at it and work at it until it happens. It's a feeling of rightness as I add texture and colour.

(And sometimes the name just seems right as well. {g})

The New Year Series. Done.

2010-02-14T09:32:00.003+11:00

Done on New Years Day - this one is called "Happy New Year".

Greenhouse.

Heatwave.

Rain.

All are available from my website.

Happy New Year

2010-01-17T07:11:00.003+11:00

I know, it's been a long long time. Due to current circumstances, finding the space to paint is near impossible. However, in stolen moments I am working on these. Simple, but fun. And I like the bold colourful retro feel of them. :-)

An Ocean of Tears

2009-11-07T11:39:00.002+11:00

That might be a tacky heading, but it's how this painting feels to me. That lump in your throat where you feel your sadness is as big as the world, and that if you start to cry, you just might never stop.

I didn't set out to make this painting feel that way - but when that is what I began to feel as I looked at it, I knew it was time to stop.

Blues.

2009-10-23T08:40:00.003+11:00

Early stages of Bleed and Strength.

Strength finished.

It is just so hard to get a good representation of the colours - there is so much texture and depth with the gloss that the painting looks different from different angles even in real life.

Some of the close ups. :-)

Bleed

2009-10-16T06:36:00.002+11:00

Not a great pic - will take a better photo later.

Usually I don't really like my own art, but this one, for some reason, I love. :-)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN SALE

2009-10-15T07:43:00.004+11:00

Hi all,

I have decided to try to get some movement in my Etsy Store by having a print sale.

**** 2 for 1 ****

Simply purchase the print of your choice and then let me know in the comments which print you would like included for free.

Spread the word, and Happy Halloween! :-)

Yippee - I won something!

2009-10-13T15:34:00.003+11:00

Made me feel very special and lucky indeed.

Thanks so so much Val - it arrived yesterday. The bracelet is so pretty and sweet and I love the print you included too!

Have a look at her work people - she does some really gorgeous stuff. :-)

Chat Noir

2009-10-08T16:08:00.003+11:00

This is the original. It's a street sign for a cabaret called the Chat Noir that was open in the late 19th century in Montmartre. The sign now hangs in the Musee Carnavalet in Paris.

For fun, I have made a copy. Unintentionally very Halloween of me. :-)

Art Link - Karla Gerard

2009-09-29T06:52:00.002+10:00

I love the work of all the artists I follow, and every morning have a look through to see what wonderful new things they have created.

There is an artist at the moment who I am just crazy about. Her use of colour and form. (I have put a bid on one of her paintings but shipping is so expensive I am not sure how high I will be able to bid.)

Have a look though. You might like her work too. :-)

The Texture Series

2009-09-23T18:05:00.003+10:00

Very VERY hard to get a photo of them. They are in the kitchen with pretty poor light. Actually, I might try flash - which will probably look crap because of how glossy they are.

They are a dark series. Colour emerging from the deep dark depths. I am happy with them though. And feel I got them out of my system. :-)

Winner of my very first giveaway ...

2009-09-20T16:01:00.003+10:00

Congratulations Julie-ann. :-)

All you need to do now is choose a print from my etsy site and let me know where to send it.

That was fun. Thanks everyone for entering and for the others following my blog as well. :-)

Deeper

2009-09-19T07:35:00.004+10:00

I don't write here about my personal life as this is a public blog. However, the artwork I am immersed in at the moment needs, I feel, some explaining.

Someone very close to me has been affected by a mental illness and my life pretty much revolves around the care of that person.

As art is such therapy for me, I am finding some sanity in immersing myself in colour, texture, feel.

This piece is called Deeper. While it doesn't make me happy to look at, it touches a place in me and therefore is exactly what I set out to achieve.

I am working on several more in the "series" and find myself excited to be exploring something new, and to be just letting myself go into the emotion of the artwork.

It's only a small piece, 9 x 12 inches. It is hard to photograph due to the texture and gloss so I don't feel the image is a good representation. However, you get the idea. :-)

Hoorah - 20 followers giveaway. :-)

2009-09-18T06:27:00.003+10:00

I have a few names already, but don't forget to comment here or on my last post if you want to be included in the giveaway.

The winner gets to choose the print they like most from my etsy store.

Thanks for visiting. :-)

Pretty Print Giveaway - 19 followers now! :-)

2009-09-17T08:35:00.000+10:00

Joining in the giveaway fun. :-)

Hello there!

Well I am now up to 18 followers, which is pretty exciting to me. So I have decided that as soon as I have 20 followers, I will be giving away one of my prints.

The prints I have available are on my etsy site.

All you need to do is comment here, and once I have my 20 followers, I will do the old fashioned thing of drawing a name out of a hat. If you win, you can then choose your favourite print and I'll whip it straight into the mail for you.

Sounds good? Spread the word. And good luck. :-)

The Dark Tree

2009-09-03T16:54:00.002+10:00

Copy Cat From Ballarat (Zibbet)

2009-08-31T08:44:00.002+10:00

I made a zibbet store too.

(Thanks Val.)

:-)

Daffodils

2009-08-29T17:27:00.001+10:00

Wanted to find a sunny spot to take some macro photos of the new daffodils. Kind of liked the look of the flowers amidst the clutter. :-)

Lunar - My Little Helper

2009-08-17T08:47:00.004+10:00

One of her favourite places to be. As soon as she sees me painting, she's on my lap, curled in and purring, or trying to catch the brush in her mouth and generally being a nuisance. (AND getting paint all over herself.)

(And yes, very fancy glamorous me - in jammies and dressing gown, painting first thing in the morning.)

An Artist in a Day - Vincent van Gogh

2009-08-14T07:12:00.008+10:00

Much as I would love to be a part of the Painting a Day community, I simply don't have the time. A painting or two a month is probably more me.

However, when I do have a day off, and am feeling inspired, It's always fun to throw myself into it and see what I can do.

Yesterday, inspired by Shanti Marie's Tribute to Monet, I decided to do an artist tribute as well.

After a quick flick through one of my Van Gogh books, I found a painting I liked, Plain of La Crau.

Since it's just an exercise, I decided to use a canvas sheet rather than a stretched canvas. I also thought for the fun of it, I'd take pictures along the way. :-)

Also, as I was going to try to get this done in a day, I simplified his painting a lot, rearranging to make it a little easier on myself.

The finished result.

I certainly don't think it's anything special, and I don't think my composition is the greatest, but it was fun, and I am looking forward to doing another. :-)

Playing Fetch

2009-08-09T05:50:00.003+10:00

Another painting that's pretty much my cat. Her name is Lunar Eclipse and she's a Devon Rex. Funniest sweetest little thing. We have dozens of these little toy mice all through the house and they usually end up stuck hidden under things. She'll let you know when she wants to play and you have to go poking about under furniture to find her a toy. Then it's on - endless games of fetch, with her eyes all big and round in hunter mode. Just love my girl. :-)

Here she is. :-)

Snowbunny

2009-07-29T13:40:00.002+10:00

What a fat faced little thing she turned out to be. :-)

Prints available on Etsy. Original also available.

Pumpkin - Finished

2009-07-14T18:31:00.003+10:00

Pumpkin is done. Now I just need to get a perfect photograph and I can make prints. I might put the actual painting on etsy this time too. For something different.

Pumpkin - In Progress

2009-07-11T14:21:00.004+10:00

Just a quicky. Pumpkin - painting I am working on at the moment.

Lots of texture and use of rice papers. Love those rice papers!

Oh, and Sandy bought the painting called Butterfly. Cherry Blossom will be on my website for sale soon.

Okay, off to work.

Cherry Blossom - Finished

2009-06-27T10:18:00.002+10:00

Now I just need to see which one S prefers. :-)

Butterfly - Finished

2009-06-23T06:54:00.006+10:00

She was fun to make, this one. So bright and pretty and all the textures and different papers I used make it an appealing piece. I think anyway. :-)

(Oh, and prints available on etsy.)

Cherry Blossom - Still in progress

2009-06-19T06:50:00.003+10:00

So this is my other painting for Sandy. Still working on it, but already I like her much much better. I like faces.

It will be up to Sandy to decide though which one she prefers. It's all very subjective really, isn't it.

Butterfly - A Work in Progress

2009-06-04T09:51:00.003+10:00

One of the two Chinese girls I am working on at the moment. I have been commissioned to do one, but couldn't decide how to do it, so I am doing two, and Sandy can choose the one she likes best.

This is the more stylised of the two - using lots of texture and collage. I shall post pics of the other one soon.

Art Crisis

2009-05-28T07:06:00.004+10:00

I go through this regularly, the comparing myself to other artists, and then getting so despondent about my own work.

Lately I have been loving Daily Painters. One artist in particular I find just incredible. In painting things like flowers, she seems to capture the essence so elegantly. No overworking, no getting stuck in detail. And her people! I have to admit I often find portraiture quite cringeful. Faces are hard hard hard to paint and it's easy to get it embarrassingly wrong. But this artist - oh the grace in her brush strokes, the beauty in her subject that she captures, and most of all, the expression. There is emotion there. I look at her portraits, and there is a whole story there. There is dreaminess, cheekiness, sadness - oh my god, any one of them I can get lost in.

So anyway, after days of watching Daily Painters, but not having the time or space to paint, I finally get a day to myself. I want to paint like them. I want to be able to capture a subject in simple elegance. My subject that day was a pelican - from a photograph taken by a friend of mine.

I sketch it out, and start on the water. How hard can it be? Ha! I try this I try that, I squint, I try to simplify... and I give up. I send a laughing text to my friend telling her about my experiment. Can NOT paint water.

So I paint over the whole miserable mess in white and retire to my bed in a flounce, "I want to be them, I want to paint like THEM!" Then of course my sensible voice emerges, "Maia, you can only paint like YOU paint. Go and paint the pelican the way YOU paint. And enjoy it!"

So I do. Funnily enough, the water, covered in white, has a lovely soft misty quality that I decide to stick with. And I do enjoy painting the pelican. And am reasonably happy with the result.

It has been a good reminder. It's okay to appreciate (and be in awe) of other artists' skill, but it is not productive to try to BE them.

Just be yourself, just be yourself.

And now I am working on a Chinese Girl (commissioned work) and trying all sorts of new things, including collage, and I am LOVING IT! And that has to be what it is about.

Autumn

2009-05-12T09:08:00.003+10:00

Not sure why I like her so much, but I do - the colours, her sweet face. Totally inspired by the autumn leaves currently littering my yard. I have no idea what sort of tree this leaf comes from, by the way. If anyone can enlighten me I would be truly grateful.

Ah ha! Found it. It's a Pin Oak. Cool. :-)

Lisa, another Dream Flying and Moonflowers

2009-05-01T09:49:00.005+10:00

I've been a bit of a slacker with the old blog, haven't I?

So what's new?

Well first up, the three new paintings I have finished...

For Lisa - a commissioned piece. Lisa, in purple dress, with pretty necklace and her two cats, Marty and Bickie.

Dream Flying 2. Funny how I wasn't happy with the first Dream Flying I did, and I am not really thrilled with this one either. I think part of it is that I don't like painting *little* people. I am happy enough with the houses, it's the girl I am a bit iffy about.

And Moonflowers. This one I do like. It was fun to paint and the result I am happy with.

In other news, I have made a few sales recently which has been really quite amazing, with Snow White and Rose Red making the journey, as I type, all the way to California. How special is that!

I have been experimenting with prints too, and discovering what works and what doesn't. The prints I am happy with are currently for sale on my etsy site.

So that's pretty much it for now. More updates soon.

See ya.

Peacocks, Penguins and Pretty Girls

2009-02-13T11:13:00.004+11:00

Just some of my latest paintings. The peacock was one down at The Gorge, in Launceston.

The penguin was for my son, who always laments not having any of my work in his room. Quick and easy this one, but looks okay.

And this was for my brother in law. He loved another painting in my house, one that I copied from the gorgeous Lindy when I was learning to paint. I said he couldn't have that one, but that I would do him one of his own.

Greek Isles

2009-01-12T18:37:00.004+11:00

In looking for a new calender for 2009, I found one full of the most wonderful photographs of the Greek Isles. Thought I'd have a go painting one of them.

The photograph...

And my painting.

It has been fun working on something completely different.

Little Nurse

2008-12-01T19:38:00.007+11:00

Haven't been especially creative lately. So many ideas, so little oomph. And, yet again, feeling blah about my abilities. Finished little nursey though. She was another commission. A friend of mine who is a nurse-turned-ambo sent me a couple of images of things she liked, and asked for me to make her something.

From looking at her images, it was obvious what I was going to paint, and I had Little Nurse pretty much done in a week. Then Matthew pulled a face about her. And that was that. I was stuck for weeks.

Finally finished her and am actually happy with the result. So was K and that was the most important thing. :-)

Pick up a brush, Maia, pick up a brush.

Chinese Girl. Finished.

2008-10-13T16:14:00.001+11:00

I think I am happy with her. I think I am. :-)

More work in progress...

2008-09-26T08:30:00.001+10:00

Working slowly on my girl. Not totally happy with my cherry blossoms yet, but am happy with the overall look...

Chinese Girl. Work in Progress.

2008-09-22T20:23:00.005+10:00

It started with the silk embroidered girl at the market.

I have been feeling so artistically blah of late, and wondering if I will ever bother to pick up a brush again. Then we saw the girl. Oh my lord. This is just a phone pic, so you only get a vague idea. It was a large work of art. Fully silk embroidered. And she GLOWED. The detail in it, the shading, the endless variety of stitches. I just can't describe. Truly mindblowing. She was $525 which is why she's not hanging on my wall.

Nevertheless, I gazed and gazed and gazed at her, drinking her in. And over the past day the idea for a painting grew. So in my usual style, I browsed the internet for the rest of the stuff I need. (Now I KNOW this is not what real artists do, but it's how I work and so I just have to accept it.) I found the form I wanted and a gorgeous fan....

And suddenly I am painting again. Feels so good. :-)

Bliss - Owls in Tree

2008-08-30T16:44:00.005+10:00

This is a large painting - 1mt x 1mt - that was a request from my partner. He has a large bare wall in his loungeroom (yes, we each have our own loungerooms - how luxurious) and he said he wanted me to fill it.

One morning last week, when only the white and beige background was done, we were discussing our day, and he said, "Tonight I will hang your painting on the wall."

Well there was a challenge! I mostly finished it that day too, other than a few details, like the edges and varnish and stuff.

(I have called the painting Bliss because of the CD I was listening to at the time, a compilation of my favourite Mozart concertos which I have named "Bliss".)

The thing I like about this painting is that it is exactly as I wanted it. The tree, the leaves, the flowers... The owls, of course, are me and him. :-)

Monkeys For Bec

2008-08-26T12:50:00.005+10:00

In return for some work that Bec did for me (logo and graphics for my website) I said I would paint her a picture.

After much deliberation, she decided upon this one, an old fave of hers - "Apes in the Orangegrove" by Henri Rousseau.

She said she wanted the Maia version.

And the Maia version she got. I really should have taken photos along the way - it is one of the messiest and most complicated things I have painted. First I drew it all in in pencil, then went over it in wishy washy burnt umber (the paint I always seem to use for outlines) then slowly tried to pick each group of leaves in different greens.

I am happy with the result though, as is (more importantly), Bec.