'PSYCHEDELIC BERRIES' PAINTING

'Psychedelic Berries'

Acrylic painting on canvas. I had a hard time doing the trees because after everything was done I decided to add in the shadows and since they were made in layers based on colour, it was just confusion amongst the twigs pretty much lol.

If you are interested in purchasing any of the 5 paintings I've talked about recently (featured in the Bird & Bear gallery art show) you can cash-and-carry in person at their store or buy it online here: http://bearandbird.mybisi.com/products/current-exhibition-ss4
Ends 8 Jan 2011. I am currently planning more paintings but in smaller sizes, just too much things to do at the moment with Christmas approaching!

'POOL HAT' PAINTING

'Pool Hat'

Acrylic on canvas, so instead of a pill box hat you have a pool hat! My original title was 'Pill Box Pool'... can't remember why I dropped that title for 'Pool Hat'. The sketch was done in Singapore a day before I flew so yes lugging my materials to California was not fun (smelly varnish leaked but under 3 layers of ziplock bags). The painting was completed there on-off in 2 weeks; the lighting in the room was dark and yellow so I'm glad that the actual colours came out the way it should be. 60s-style! The top of the hat has little checkered details if you look closely =)

'MELODY'S WORLD' RUBBER STAMPS RELEASE

Ooh ok I'm excited about this, I have a new range of rubber stamps at Crafts & Me online shop:
http://www.craftsandme.co.uk

Look for them under the new products page. The 'Melody's World' series are inspired by Sixties fashion, so far there are five designs ready for pre-order. Above is an example of how you can customise the stamp for greeting cards, this regal Christmas card is created by Vix; splendid job there, and a classy interpretation! The stamp used is 'Flapper Girl Melody', she is the only flapper style in the series, and versatile enough to be used for various occasions. She originally belonged to one of my ACEO illustrations created under a fashion era series. You can read more on Vix's crafting process at the Crafts and Me blog here.

Second is this beautiful creation by Amy using the 'Gift Melody' stamp, the greeting card also doubles as a gift-card holder which is a really clever idea! Melody is elegantly dressed for her 60s cocktail Christmas party. Read about how Amy created the card here!

Receive a 10% discount on the first week 23-30th Nov pre-order just by signing up for their newsletter on the website!

ANTIQUE MALL FINDS!

In my last post I was talking about yellow-blue colour combinations and here's an antique tea cup found in an antique mall in California! Love everything about it - the matte porcelain on the outside, gloss on the inside, the hand-painted trimmings, the GOLD and the art deco lines. In case you thought this was an impulse buy, I mulled over it for days even dreamt about it and bought it on my third visit to the shop. Thank you to the vendor who offered this for sale at a bargain (and all your other stuff). I love art deco.

Next is this vintage Incolay jewelry box for my mother. It's heavy, beautifully carved and grand-looking. Grecian-style lady with a cherubim on her shoulders. Price-wise is a no brainer, I didn't hesitate at all.

Last is this glass jewellery box, it has a handmade artisan feel, because it isn't plated or super fancy. Nice and plain the way I like it. It's now used to house a portion of my vintage jewellery collection; the main reason why I bought it is because glass and stone are the only things that last in this humidity. And since my collection are all chunky, the simple open interior is perfect.

'TOADSTOOL MARION' PAINTING

'Toadstool Marion'

Acrylic on canvas painting, she came about from an ACEO art card series called 'Toadstool Central'. Two of the ACEOs are still available in my Etsy shop! The yellow background is a pale mustard yellow, I love the combination of yellow and blue in that vintage sort of tone. On my recent USA trip I found an Art Deco era teacup in a similar colour combination and had to get it even though it would be a hassle to bring it back with me to Singapore. Will share about it on my next blog post.

The smaller mushrooms were a pain to paint, still not used to using finicky caked MALLEABLE wet bristles, not in tiny scale anyhow lol. The whole painting is only about 9.5 x 7" so the hard-to-reach parts were filled in using a toothpick. She is available in the Bear & Bird Gallery group art show too.

Toadstool Central 1

Toadstool Central 2

Toadstool Central 3

'RAINY CLOUDS NEVER STAY' PAINTING

"Rainy Clouds Never Stay"

Acrylic on canvas, the title is borrowed from The Brilliant Green's song 'Rainy Days Never Stay'. There's quite a number of paint layers on this because it was line-background-line-background over and over till the lines appeared neat enough. This painting is also included in the Bear & Bird group art show 2 posts below.

GIRL + PET PAINTINGS

'Walking the Blue Dog'.

This is one of the acrylic paintings on canvas that will be featured in the art show I blogged about in my last post. It's pretty straightforward - walk your dog and bring a poopie bag.

'Suzy and Alistair', a smaller sized painting than 'Walking the Blue Dog'. There was a bit of a mishap while varnishing - there's some specks of dust sealed in so I didn't want to display or sell it. I got the kitty's face from Fuman:

Aka 'Big Boss'

GROUP ART SHOW AT BEAR & BIRD'S

Am participating in a group art show 'Small Stuff 4' which will open on Nov 21st. There's gonna be food, music and lots of beautiful small-sized original art by local & international artists on the launch day party. Best of all the artworks are priced to sell, because this show is held specially for the Christmas gift-giving season! Don't forget to drop by if you're close! The artworks can also be bought online from their website.

Address:

Bear and Bird Boutique Gallery

4566 North University Drive

Lauderhill, Florida

http://www.bearandbird.com/

Will share the 5 paintings I made specially for the show on my next blogpost perhaps.

WET DAY AT HUNTINGTON GARDENS

Huntington Library Gardens in early Oct. It rained unexpectedly so we stayed in the museums and looked at art instead of wandering outside.

Spiderweb in a tree.

****

Rainy and foggy. You can see some spiderwebs in the background.

****

Wet shamrock closeups.

****

French style rooms with nice chandeliers and ornate tapestry.

****

I uploaded these in larger resolutions for better viewing. Interesting biological drawings in the 1500s.

****

Unicorns and manimals!

****

I love this but forgot to take down the name of the artist.

****

Gestation #2 by Stanton MacDonald-Wright, 1963

Synchronism abstract art.

****

POTATO SALAD RECIPE

Oh wow it's been that long lol I meant to blog since last year and now I'm back deciding to post a simple little recipe and found 800 comments to be moderated (!) and in the first place I forgot moderation mode is turned on lol so now sifting through 95% of nonsense spam.

Anyhow since my last post complaining about not being able to see the Leonids meteor shower in Singapore, I finally managed to catch my first meteor shower - the Geminids - at end-2009. It was awesome!! A year late to blog about being excited, and whine that my toes became too painful to bear (ala almost frostbite mode).. SO, anyways we went up dark Mount Baldy in California at about 1-4am, drove right to where the car couldn't drive up anymore. Awesome. I wish I had a camera to capture the celestial event.

Here's a recipe I found online with a bit of my own tweaks.

Potato Salad - Japanese style

4 medium potatoes (I used brastagi)

½ cucumber (thinly sliced)

½ medium onion (diced, then soaked in water)

½ carrot (diced)

½ red capsicum (bell peppers) - optional

2 boiled eggs - optional

2 pcs picnic ham

2 tsp butter (or according to taste)

a sprinkle of black grounded pepper

½ tsp salt

lemon juice from ½ lemon

3-4 tbsp Kewpie mayonnaise (or according to taste)

After boiling & peeling the potatoes, add lemon juice, salt, and butter into the still hot potatoes and mash it. This style is all smashed with crunchy vege rather than the chunky wet style so you can scoop it with an ice-cream scoop. Let to cool a bit, drain the onions, add onions and the chopped vege & ham into the mix. Pepper it, then add the mayo, mix well. Keep in fridge to let it sit and serve after maybe 2 hours. In my photo I used a lettuce leaf as a base, with more yummy mayo as decoration since I added less than 3 tbsp of mayo in my mix. You can substitute butter for olive oil, and lemon juice for white vinegar. But the mayo has to be Kewpie if you want it to taste japanese. Or Ajinomoto if you can't find Kewpie. If you try this and it's nice please let me know. I find it alright but my mom didn't lol.