Art by JoJo

My massive Christmas cake!!

2011-11-22T12:58:00.002Z

Soooo.... It's that wonderful time of year again and the smell of Christmas is in the air... well it is in my house anyway coz I've just put my massive Christmas cake in the oven :0) as we don't have smellevision (yet) I shall describe to you what you would smell if you were sitting here with me now cup of coffee in hand and feet up on the sofa in my living room: so, you all know what mixed spice and nutmeg smell like yes? Well add to that some deliciously plump fruit and candied peel with plenty of soft brown sugar and almonds and lashings of White Rum and Whisky all warmed and mixed together and there you have it... a sweet smelling reminder that the fat guy in the red suit will soon be sweeping across the globe, reins in hand with mountains of toys and treats in tow. Ahhh what a joyous thought. We all still BELIEVE right?? Of course we do.

So here is my Christmas cake in the making:

Two of the main ingredients...No, not the mixed fruit and cherries... the Rum and the Whisky...hic!!

Now here I wondered how the heck am I going to get all that fruit into that bowl and mix it??...

.... it just about fits ;o) where there is a will there is a way!

This is a 10" tin that I double layered with baking parchment.

and probably the trickiest part of all was to wrap the whole tin with a protective layer of brown paper, trying to tie the string in a knot and keep the paper wrapped tightly WITHOUT dropping the whole thing was difficult, thank goodness I didn't drop it, I'd have cried all week!!!

So, this baby is in the oven for at least 5 hours. Over the next week or two I'll be adding the marzipan and royal icing. I'll be back with more pics soon as it's done :o)

Thanks for reading guys, I hope you're all well xx jo xx

I LOVE Owls xxx

2011-11-03T13:53:00.002Z

So, for ages and ages I've loved including owls in some of my paintings and right now I just can't stop!!

Here are a couple of paintings that I've been working on the past few days. The painting with the girl and the red hair is finished but the other one is not yet complete, I might paint the little owls wings red, what do you think? I don't usually think my colours through I just usually dab into the colour that I fancy at the time. The colour wheel has never played a part in any of my paintings, and doubt it ever will, I'd rather just go with the flow and if it turns out pretty then great :0) do you guys use colour wheels? Are they usually used more for room decors etc? Being a self taught artist I wouldn't really know (blush). When it comes to art, anything goes I guess.

I hope you like the paintings, I'm off up to the bomb site.. Oh I mean 'studio' to finish that painting.

Happy Thursday x x x

Happy Halloweeeeeeeen!!!

2011-10-30T16:28:00.007Z

A little early I realise but most of the celebrations near us are being held this evening with it being the weekend and all.
I hope you're all enjoying the scary sights that you may see on your travels, more so in the U.S. than here in the UK I guess as the majority of British people don't seem to participate in decorating their houses or go 'trick or treating'. But me, my hubby and our gorgeous girl have been very busy today carving some amazing jack o lanterns. We've not lit them yet but we shall do tonight after we get back from the amazing lantern parade in our local park :0)

Whilst searching the Internet for pumpkin face ideas I came across a picture of painted jack o lanterns and I couldn't resist in having a go myself. He is only partially carved and he is still whole so I can't light him up but I'm very proud of him and I especially enjoyed painting his teeth, cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!!! :o)

Now this little fella (or I should say lady as she has big eyelashes and 'rosy' cheeks) was created by my beautiful daughter Izzy, she's just turned 7 and this is her very first attempt at pumpkin carving and I think she has done a marvelous job... I especially love the eyelashes ;O)

A cheeky side view....."what cha lookin at eh"???? grrrrrrr

Now.... this one was made by my husband Col who insists that he has no interest in the likes of arts and craft (yeah right) you can tell by looking at this that he has put his heart and soul into it,... he even researched Jack the Pumpkin Kings face online so he could give it his best shot...(no interest in arts and crafts... who's he kidding??) Good effort I say :o)

The two of us, what a handsome couple we make aaaahhhhhhh.

I hope you like our Jacks and you have a wonderful and 'creepy' evening.

I hope to add some photos from the Lantern Parade from this evening, check back soon :o)

Glow draw for fun

2011-10-23T07:15:00.001+01:00

So I'm laying in bed at 6am with a banging headache, can't get back to sleep so what do I do?? "Get up and go downstairs for some paracetamol" I hear you say... No, not me, I doodle on my phone instead.. No doubt making this headache of mine even worse but when the bug bites :0)

It's tricky to draw intricate details with chubby fingers and your flowers end up looking like spaghetti and meatballs but it's fun all the same. Here are my best efforts from this morning.. All in the name of fun.

My fave is 'towit towooo' of course :0)

Back soon xxx

Coffee and work in progress.

2011-10-22T23:50:00.001+01:00

I'm such a morning person and I guess I have to be coz more often than not I'm up with the larks or actually way before them, mostly because I'm such a light sleeper and if something wakes me in the early hours then there's no way I'm getting back to sleep unless I'm ultra lucky. When this happens I tend to make my way into the Art Room carefully dodging the creaky floor boards desperately trying not to wake my husband and little girl... But not before I've creeped downstairs and made myself a strong, sweet and creamy coffee, then I'm back up to the art room and ready to paint.

I've recently created this watercolour for a sweet friend of mine Sue. Sue and I are old college buddies and she's one of my biggest fans when it comes to my art works, which is wonderful as she's always full of compliments for me which of course makes me feel GREAT!!

Most of the times that Sue and I meet up we have coffee in either her house or mine and usually there's a cake or chocolate pile near by in which we will always over indulge... It would be rude not to, eh?

So, as I have a tendancy to paint girls with 'things' on their heads I figured that as this painting was for Sue a coffee cup would be an appropriate 'thing' for this girls head. And so there we have it, my painting for Sue and I'm pleased to say she loves it and as soon as I gave it to her she put it in a beautiful wooden frame and it looks great :0)

Hope you like to see the progress pictures as I love to see them on other blogs.

Back soon xxx

Freezing cold and more paintings

2011-10-19T22:52:00.001+01:00

It's freezing here in the UK today and as I type on my phone with my chilly fingers I'm watching the weather report on tv and it looks like we're in for a cold
night tonight and 'long johns' have been advised... Brrrrrrrr.

So, I have painted some more and slowly I'm building up enough paintings for me to relaunch my Etsy shop. Maybe a few more weeks and I'll have enough...well maybe :0)

This lot of 3 paintings are probably my favourite ones of late, especially the girl with the owl and the girl with the eyes in her hair. I work in mixed media quite often and sometimes I stick to mainly watercolour (the girl with the owl) or mainly acrylics (the girl with the eyes).

I work on many surfaces but mainly heavy weight watercolour paper or canvas boards, I love to paint on either but the boards take some prepping and therefore I have to wait before I can begin the actual painting. I have a few boards prepped and sketched and I'm eager to begin painting but for now... I'm off to bed, it's been a very long day zzzZzzzzzzzzzzzzz ttfn x

New paintings and phone blogging.

2011-10-16T08:32:00.001+01:00

As I said in my last post I've been wanting to paint & blog more often, at least weekly I think I said. Thankfully I've found some time to paint but alas no time to find my camera, take pics and download them and then blog ( ah deep breath) so I thought as I always have my phone with me wherever I am I should try to blog using that as and when I paint etc.

So this is my first blog entry using my phone and I'd like to show you a few of my latest paintings.

I always try to paint with muted and dull tones but I always seem to paint brightly coloured paintings and although I like them I didn't intend for them to be so bold, neat and colourful. I like messy art but usually struggle to make my brush bounce around the canvas and instead I paint the canvas as if I'm painting in a colouring book and have to stay in the lines. I have managed to paint in the early hours of this morning and I must say that it's rather messy painting (for me anyway) and dare I say it has a dark tone to it? Well it has and I love it. I shall take pics later and include them in my next blog.

These paintings will find themselves in my Etsy shop as soon as I have a bunch more to go with them. Thanks for visiting my blog xxxx

Long time no see!

2011-09-29T12:42:00.002+01:00

Golly Gosh!! It's been such a long time since I last blogged..., over a year and a half in fact, what's that all about??
I can't believe where the time has gone,... not much has changed over the last 18 months...except I have many more grey hairs and I seem to have no 'me time' at all lately, not even the time to cover those wirey, pesky, grey hairs that I just told you about...but, all that is gonna change!! From now on I plan on blogging, painting and listing my work in my Etsy shop weekly (at least)... but first, and more importantly is... I have to cover this grey!!! I'm beginning to look like a badger and fear that my own daughter won't recognise me soon.

Catch you later.
Back soon x

Valentines Owl

2010-02-12T17:51:00.002Z

Yes it's that time of year again, LOVE IS IN THE AIR... don't they say?? Well with that in mind today I created the cute little owl that you see here... He is the design for my Husbands Valentine Card. I have a big thing for Owls, in an arts and crafts way, the real creatures are pretty fabulous too of course :o) I painted this Owl especially for my hubby but I'll soon be offering prints of him in my Etsy store.

This weekend we have a kids party to attend, it's in our local kids indoor play area and my little girl loves going there so that should be fun. And on Valentines Day itself... I fear a day in with the house work is on the cards, lol, unless my un-romantic husband desides to shock me and take me out some where... hee hee, that's the best joke of 2010 up to now!! ;O)

Either way, I hope you guys have a sweet Valentines Day xxx

Work in Progress

2010-02-01T21:03:00.011Z

This is the beginning of a painting of a Mother and her new baby. This painting was influenced by myself and my daughter Izzy, who is now 5 years old, it seems like just yesterday when she was born... time goes too fast!!

I recycled some extra heavy weight, white, card board that must have been part of packaging for something...maybe from one of the toys that Santa brought to Izzy at Christmas?

I began by adding layers of paint in various colours allowing each one to dry before applying the next..I love the effect of this.

Below you'll see a close up of the drawing and I've already begun to add skin tones.

Below: More skin tones are added, going from dark to light.

Below: Quite a big jump from the last image. By using a paint that is quite translucent, like a hue, you can still see those lovely layers of paint beneath the yellow dress.

I did love the babys blanket shown above but decided to go with white blanket and I love the way it turned out as you can still see some colour and texture beneath the white paint.

And now the finished painting....

I added stamped images to the background using my white stazon ink pad.

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New Paintings this year..

2010-01-29T17:05:00.010Z

It's been four months since my last post, I've pretty much neglected my 'online life' recently what with bouts of tonsilitis and chest infections etc... but I shan't bore you with that, .. onto brighter things such as my latest batch of paintings.

I follow many artists on Youtube and I can't help but be influenced by many of them. I watch video after video of wonderful people creating wonderful paintings then realise that I should be one of those wonderful people creating wonderful paintings too... lol. I have failed to create a new video for my Youtube channel for months and months although I do hope that will change soon. I'll keep you posted.

Another reason for the lack of painting was that my little art studio has been totally crammed with 'junk'. I've since had a bit of a tidy up and finally I've been quite happilly painting in the wee small hours of the day. My latest works are now available in my little Etsy shop.

Cathedral Art Market in Liverpool UK xTHANK YOUx

2009-09-21T11:14:00.003+01:00

My most recent painting, painted on my birthday on Saturday, entitled 'SING'

I am super thrilled today after my art market yesterday...oh my word, the place was heaving and I had so many people at my stall paying me compliment after compliment about my work, I am soooooooo happy to hear that people like my work and I'm sooooooooooo thrilled that people bought so much of it :o) wow!!! I'm still on such a high :o)

I gave tons of business cards out to people, some bought some of my goodies and some didn't and I want to say to ALL of you, THANKS SO MUCH for the kindness and support that you gave to me yesterday, I will never tire of hearing your compliments and you have all spured me on to create more and more art..

I plan to update my Etsy shop very soon, hopefully this week, I shall put on my remaining Original Paintings and soon upload new ones.

Prints are available for all paintings that you have seen on my stall, if they're not listed then let me know and I shall list them for you.

Again, a huge thank you to all of you who visited me yesterday, and a super huge thank you to all those who made a purchase either at my stall or via my Etsy shop.

Feel free to 'follow' my blogspot which will be updated with info. on any future events that I shall be attending and also there will be updates on any current work that I'm creating too.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU XXX

The Travelling Painting project

2009-08-23T00:04:00.009+01:00

I have finally finished my work on the travelling painting project. I have added my slide show to Youtube but here are a few piccies to show you the 'before and after' painting... The top photo shows how the painting looked when it arrived at my house. A number of artists had already worked on the canvas, and I began my work just to the left of the cute little kitty cat. I added a cute little house and some much needed PINK lol.

My Youtube videos can be watched by searching under sweetisobella in the youtube search box.

If you're interested in taking part in the Travelling Painting Project then please check out my video as the info. is there, you just need to send in a I WANT IT video to Daligoddess2006 and then you will be in line to participate :o) ...go on... you know you want to :o)

New Paintings

2009-08-11T00:32:00.009+01:00

I've been painting on and off over the past couple of months, and also we've began to re-decorate the house...this is taking a lot of my spare time up, well, my Husband is doing most of the DIY but I'm the one who is 'trying' to organise the huge amount of hoarded treasure, or junk as my Husband calls it, lol. Our house looks more like a scrap yard than it does a home at the moment :o(

I have another art market coming up this weekend, and also I'm in the middle of a commission painting, photos will be added once it's finished.

The photos here are of some paintings for my next art market and Etsy store.

I've finished with the Travelling painting and I'll be sending it on to a guy in Ireland in the next week or so. More info. on the Travelling painting will be coming shortly, if you want to take part then give me a shout and I shall give you the link to add yourself to the list on youtube, you don't have to be an artist to participate by the way.

It's almost 1am here right now so time to hit the hay :o)

The Arts and Crafts Fair

2009-06-08T06:35:00.010+01:00

I held a stall at an arts & craft fair over the weekend, I took as much stuff as I could and as you can see from the photos my table and display area was jam packed. I love the way the stall looked and as it's only my second time for doing it I felt proud :o) lol I met lots of lovely people at the fair and quite a few took my new business card so I hope they call in and join us here, the more the merrier!!

Exciting news!!

2009-06-03T23:54:00.002+01:00

I am finally going to receive the Travelling Painting!!! I am so very, very excited...and NERVOUS!!!

Want to know what the heck I'm talking about?? Copy the info below and paste it into the search bar on YouTube and you should get a video by the wonderful artist 'daligoddess2006'

THE JOURNEY OF THE TRAVELING PAINTING RESUMES!

Custom Paintings coming soon

2009-05-29T07:30:00.005+01:00

3 posts in 1 day, my goodness!!

As a scrapbooker I love using photographs in my work, whether it be a page for my scrapbook or a little canvas with Izzys photo on it that's been altered and scrapped upon, I love to use photos. I love to create 'photo cards' for family members too, they're so much fun. I use photos a lot in my work and very soon I'll be offering to create family portraits to my customers on Etsy, by using the same process as I would when creating my own family portraits.

I also collect beautiful vintage photos & emphera, I've been drawn to anything old and tatty for a very long time, even when I was a kid I'd find beauty in old bits of metal and junk I'd see on the street whilst playing out with friends. I can remember picking up a really interesting piece one day... I placed it in my pocket, thrilled to have found another piece of 'treasure' to add to my collection, and later, as I put my hand in my pocket to take it out I felt a terrible sting in my finger...then the blood came,.. i had picked up an old razor blade, ouch. I was very young at the time and had no idea what a razor blade was, I just thought I had found 'treasure'!

I now stick to mainly 'paper treasure', less danger of severe blood loss that way lol.

I don't think either of the paintings above are finished, although I'm not sure what I will add to them yet. The 2nd picture of the two features me, and I'll be using this painting as a sample of my Custom Paintings at the fairs and on Etsy.

I have more samples to complete, to show variations in colours and styles.

work in progress

2009-05-29T07:08:00.003+01:00

I was half way through collaging the background of this HUGE canvas when I realised it was time to go and pick Izzy up from nursery. When we got back home Izzy was delighted to see my delicious scrapbook papers sprawled out all over the couch in the living room and she almost screetched with joy when I asked her if she wanted to help me finish it!! I'm quite precious with my supplies as they don't come cheap, and Izzy was thrilled to actually get her hands on 'Mummys expensive art things'. I let Izzy pick which paper she wanted and where it was to be placed and together we got stuck into the pot of mod podge.

I'm thrilled with Izzys paper choices, I think the whole thing looks like an antique quilt.

As you can see from the picture, I plan on adding two subjects to this canvas. I thought it would be quite fitting to have a 'mother and daughter' image here.

I have brown curly hair and Izzy has blonde curly hair, so I will try to incorporate a little bit of 'us' into the final painting. I plan on taking this piece to the fairs too, that's if I get it finished.

More photos of my work in progress will follow shortly. You will see a dramatic change no doubt, as most of the background papers will be painted over, and you will just see sneaky peeks of the patterns underneath...we will see what becomes of it...I know just as much as you at this point, I never know what the finished piece will look like, and that's part of the fun of it.

Come back soon xxxx

collage ladies

2009-05-29T06:32:00.006+01:00

I've tried something different lately, different techniques, ...different for me anyway. I bought a fabulous book recently called 'taking flight' by Kelly Rae Roberts (I love her work). Kellys book is full of 'inspiration & techniques' and it gave me a push to try something a little different. I have 'hundreds & hundreds' of pieces scrapbook paper, ALL totally gorgeous, and I'm finally able to put them to good use. I'm usually 'terrified' to cut into a brand new 12 x 12, I never want to use it as I'd 'spoil' it but you know what?.. I just went for it and it felt great, lol. I have plenty of scraps of paper too as I never throw 'anything' away, nothing is wasted, so my supplies for my latest projects are never ending, I could collage every day for a year and I'd still be left with tons of my beautiful scrapbook papers, ah what joy xxx

I'm holding a stall at a couple of school fairs in the coming weeks and I plan on taking these paintings with me, and whatever does'nt sell, I will add to my Etsy shop.

The little fingers that you see holding the paintings belong to my sweet little girl Isobella. We have started a collage together which will become my 'work in progress' for my next blog entry.

New Paintings

2009-05-17T07:23:00.005+01:00

I've been working on some new paintings to offer as prints in my Etsy shop. I plan on keeping some of my originals for Izzy for when she's older, she's 4 now.

She loves, loves, loves arts and crafts, she's so gorgeous, and I'd love for her to continue with her wonderful creations as she grows up. I really must show you what she has created recently (that's another post all on it's own) :o)

My prints are on gorgeous glossy Epson photo paper, and the images are so rich and vibrant, and some even look better than the original lol xxx

Art Prints now available

2009-05-12T23:52:00.008+01:00

I am sooooo thrilled to finally be able to offer my artworks as prints. I've been researching printers for months and I was blown away by how many there are available, this made the choice of buying one very difficult..there were too many to choose from!

I finally decided on a Epson Photo printer which prints off beautiful quality images which will last for generations. The inks and paper work together wonderfully. The prints are bright and vivid, and just what I wanted.

Prints available to buy now in my Etsy shop. http://artbyjojo.etsy.com

Marzipan Fruits

2009-05-11T09:30:00.002+01:00

Here is my latest selection of hand made marzipan fruits (petite fours). I've been making these little gems for about 5 years, mainly at Christmas time.

I have a customer who now orders 2 boxes from me each month so I thought that I would share a small selection of them with you... in cyber space at least lol.

When it comes to packing them it almost always ends up being something like... "one for you... two for me... one for you... two for me... "

They are way to tasty to have around the house when you're on a diet, that's for sure!!

My art has been featured

2009-05-07T07:38:00.002+01:00

I just woke up to a lovely email from Emily at luvhandmade.com

My work has been featured on their wonderful website, you can find it here http://http://www.luvhandmade.com/Discoveries.html

It's a lovely morning here, cool and crisp and ever so bright and sunny.
It's a 'house work' day today, then again, aren't we always doing house work?? seems that way some times lol x

My Etsy Shop

2009-05-07T00:41:00.005+01:00

My most recent art project was to create 25 paintings on the pages of a vintage book that I bought from a charity shop.

I managed to complete 23 of them and have just added 12 of them to my Etsy shop http://www.artbyjojo.etsy.com/ I'm far too tired to add the others tonight, my bed is calling me. The subjects that I painted range from tea cups and tea pots which are a firm favourite with me when it comes to painting, and also, I painted some girls and birds...Wedding Cakes...Owls....

My favourite of all of them is the girl you see here with the red hair.

Well, it's way past my bed time zzzzzZZZZZZZZZ night night xxx

First Post on my First Ever Blog...YIKES

2009-05-06T11:14:00.003+01:00

So, I have finally set up my very first blog, a place to hang out and chat with fellow artists and art lovers, yay!

Here I will inform you about any new paintings and other projects that I might be in the middle of.

I hope you have fun here, stop by and say hello won't you?