paintings prints and stuff

Happy Birthday Sam! One year old :>) - it doesn't seem a year since my daughter was rushed into hospital for an emergency caesarian .... but it is. And Sam is now a delightful active .... errrm very active one year old :>) Sorry about the lack of recent posts but we are going through a really bad time at the moment and I'll get back on track as soon as possible.

banner avatar I'm thinking of setting up an Etsy shop - I did have one for prints ages ago but closed it down - now I'm thinking of putting small works on, with the odd larger one. What do you think? And what do you think of this for a banner and avatar? I thought I'd do 3 pages : Works on Paper - various sizes of sketches and more 'finished' pieces Small Canvasses Larger Canvasses ACEO's (thanks to Chrissy's suggestion) Feather . Vivien Blackburn, pencil sketch I'd put small paintings on as well as sketches like the feather above - what do you think? Feedback welcome :>)

Mawgan Porth, Sunny, Wild Day. Watercolour, watercolour pencils and coloured pencils. approx 9 ins square. Vivien Blackburn I decided to have a play with paint and pencils this morning before I have to get ready for the next hospital visit. This is done in watercolour with touches of watercolour pencil and glazes of polychromos coloured pencil to enhance colours, like the pink glow of the wet sand. I really like to use coloured pencil, just a little, over watercolour like this. This is a favourite place for me - the beach that was only a couple of miles from where I lived as a child. It was done from a combination of sketches done plein air and photos I'd taken last year. The day I wanted to capture was sunny and the sea was wild, the horizon a heaving mass of swells and line after line of huge breakers pounding in and crashing against the cliffs in clouds of spray. The clouds were fine., white and hazy. Mawgan Porth , Dusk. Watercolour pencils. 6x7 ins approx. Vivien Blackburn At ...

On the Beach at Teignmouth, oil painting on board, Vivien Blackburn As I'm not able to do any new oil paintings at the moment I thought I'd show some old work, done in my first year of the degree. The one above was painted with brushes and knife on primed hardboard (?masonite in the US) - a surface we used a lot in the early classes at uni as it was cheap and didn't take much room to store. I don't use it now, preferring deep canvas with no frame. This one was framed very cheaply in waxed pine before I learnt more about framing. It would work better with an insert to separate it but it hangs in the bathroom and I've never bothered to reframe it. The frame was chosen at the time for a driftwood, bleached feel to compliment the subject. It's of my daughter when she was young, curled forward in a deck chair at the beach, with the curve of the concrete promenade behind her. I moved it well away from a photorealist image as that isn't what interests me, what I re...

monoprint and coloured pencil. in Casey's book for the FPP exchange, by Vivien http://flyingpictures.wordpress.com/ - link to the exchange website These are my additions to Casey's book - theme: Local Colour. It's safely arrived in France so I can post them here now :>) The monoprints were done by painting onto acetate with turpsy oil paints and then using that to print onto paper. I then worked on them when dry with coloured pencil in some areas. My husband and my father are both seriously ill - I won't go into detail but it is having a huge impact on the family so bear with me if postings are a bit erratic while we all come to terms with things. .

sorry for the absence but we've had a couple of major family crises with major serious illnesses - hoping to get into a routine of dealing with and still keeping up with artwork and blogging.

Bees. Photograph. Copyright Caroline Blackburn I've not got anything new to show at the moment so thought I'd share these great photos of bees that my daughter just emailed - look at its little legs hanging on to the spikes on the teasel! I think she's a really talented photographer :>) and love the way she's cropped them. ,