More faces

No 17 Ingrid

No 15 Kathy

No 14 Cool lady!

More faces

More faces, the first one is me! The rest are no 11, 12 and 13.
#onehundredfaces

#onehundredfaces

Ive set myself a challenge! Drastic measures had to be taken. I loss of confidence in my work and a lack of inspiration. So #onehundredfaces challenge has begun. A popular challenge over on Instagram and Facebook. 

Here are a few....one to five.

No 1

No 2

No 3

No 4

No 5

Fabric decoration

I needed a break from painting after re painting a small canvas nearly five times over the last couple of days! So with my up coming birthday in mind I decided to make a necklace today. I plan to wear this at my birthday get together. It's made from  scraps of sewn fabric discs with some discs that are illustrated. I'm rather pleased with it.

Texture

A morning spent loading images and information to the shop is a tad dull! So this afternoon I did the base on my next canvas.  I use molding acrylic paste, tissue paper and acrylic paint.  I plaster it on to create depth and texture....ooh lovely!  Once this coat is dry I will rub over diluted paint which will hopefully show the texture more.
A smaller one than the previous two.  This one measures 30 x 42 cm.

Illustrative paintings

My illustration style worked into larger paintings. Thank heavens for sharpie pens!!

All sorts

I few pics of recent work. I finished an art doll Enid which is up for sale in the store. Painted three small postcard sized artworks which are also up for sale! 

Currently I'm  working on a large canvas which is going very well. Sharpie pens have been used so I can draw in a more illustrative way on a bigger canvas. My head is spinning with new ideas for other paintings. So exciting!!!!

Mistakes are good

Mistakes are good, thats what I'm trying to convince myself.  Thursday was the day to make a new batch of papier mache clay.  This time I decided to follow a new recipe that I had sourced on the internet.  It did seem to have a lot of flour in the ingredients but I was willing to give it a go as I'm still in search of a perfect smooth finish.  A huge amount was made from a mixture of toilet paper, grout, pva glue, glycerine, liquid cornstarch, water and the above mentioned flour.  It looked good after much mixing (good arm workout) that I couldn't wait to start moulding. So I applied to to my newly made papier mache bird.  It went on smoothly but did rather resemble pastry. I put it in the oven which is a fan oven so the heated air dries the piece much quicker. After its half  hour oven blast I took it from the oven.  It had expanded resembling something close to an artisan designer bread! With wings looking decidedly chunky this bird if real wouldn't be able to take flight! Not what I had intended.

Im still hopeful this mixture can be used but I think the problem could have been my old nemesis of speeding ahead of myself.  The papier mached bird was still not dry when I applied the clay.  The applied clay was a bit thick in places.  The oven was too hot, previously I used a low heat but for a longer time.  I need to redo a dolls arms today so I will use the clay, giving it a second chance!  I will let you know how I get on.

Bird taking shape

A little break from the dolls so a bird is on its way!

bye bye Constance

Constance is off to a new home.  I'm ecstatic and sad at the same time.  She was my first large doll made using papier mache clay which was a bit of a revelation in the look of my dolls.   I had grown rather fond of her as I spent a lot of time working on her.  She will be loved by her new owners so this is a good thing and makes me happy.  I made a box for her last night to travel in but got a little carried away and ended up creating a rather nice display box.  I will leave it to the new owners to decide how they use it.

Simple beginnings!!!

This is the first blog post of laurabevan.com  I have been working, trading, blogging under the name of Lamb and Fox for a few years now but it was getting a bit messy.  Some people thought I was a pub (yes true!) and I was selling artworks under Laura Roberts Bevan as well as being know as Laura Bevan (my married name).....confusing.  So at the beginning of 2015 my new year mantra was, 'to keep it simple' which is what I'm starting to do here.  Everything is now under Laura Bevan. 

This blog will I hope be straight forward and simple too. A few pics of work and a few lines (maybe no lines somedays). Here we go.......