Busy busy busy

I didn't manage to blog last week, because between looking after the children during the Easter Holidays and trying to get everything ready for the exhibition, I just haven't had time! I'm fairly well organized now, which is just as well, as I'm face painting tomorrow at the Bath Cats and Dogs home (at least it's just in the morning, they only need me from 10 - 11am). I'm really looking forward to setting up on Monday!

Crow and Doll

Continuing the the theme of crows (which I use a lot in my artwork) this picture 'Crow and Doll' is a small piece, very simple and speaks for itself really.

I feel a bit sorry for the doll; she's been abandoned in the middle of nowhere and then attacked by a scrawny old crow!
There is a deeper meaning behind the imagery of course . . . but I think that's up to the viewer to decide.
It's mixed media, oil pastel and lino ink, scratched away and then refined. I like the idea of letting a 'painting' get completely out of control (well, it looks that way at least) and then pulling it back together again into tight detail. I usually describe my work as paintings, but I'm not sure if they are; half painting, half oil pastel!

The story of the Crow and the Moon

This is the story in the picture 'The Crow and the Moon'

The Crow and The Moon

THIS is the beginning of the cautionary tale of how the crow flew too close to the moon and lost his urge to return. He was a handsome fellow, all BLUE BLACK raven-coated, with cherry-BLACK eyes and feathers of precious gem-stones. He would spend his days BOASTING and preening his beautiful self. Consequently nobody took any notice of him. He was ridiculed and bullied by every bird he met. As with most creatures who have themselves at the centre of their own universe, our crow did not even notice and continued in exactly the same way as usual. UNTIL one day when he met the most beautiful crow in the WORLD. She was the personification of beauty and our crow fell MADLY in love with her. He wanted her to notice him – but while she couldn’t fail to see how handsome he was, she was repulsed by his VULGAR self-infatuation. She refused his attentions – ignoring him pointedly – until he was quite DESPERATE. He begged, he IMPLORED her to tell him how he could make her take him seriously. But all she would tell him was to leave her alone and fly to the moon. Well, our crow was so obsessed by her that he determined to fly to the moon, just to prove his seriousness. So one night he said goodbye to the earthly world he lived in and began his long journey to the heaven above. Up and up and UP he flew, ever looking forwards to the silvery moon. The closer he got the heavier his body began to feel and he realised that he would not be able to reach his shining goal unless he lightened his load somehow. And so he loosened his beak and threw it down as a TOKEN of his love to her. This helped a great deal and he resumed his journey, feeling re-energised and lightened. But as the hours passed by he began to feel more tired and the weight of his body began to slow him down again. He decided to take off his clawed feet – the talons were weighing him down. He dropped these down to his would-be lover as a TOKEN of his devotion to her. By this time the moon was getting much closer and the crow felt a surge of energy as he approached his goal. The MOON winked at him shyly and smile a happy greeting. So close now – but still not there and once again the crow began to tire. He felt heavier and heavier with each flap of the wing. So he decided to loosen his WINGS and send them back to his darling crow. DOWN they fluttered towards the earth. But what now – how could he go any further without wings? The moon decided to exert herself and pulled him towards her with her gravity. What a beautiful crow, she said – and they were happy. THE END

part 2

Well, that worked (though not quite in the right order!).
This is called 'The Crow and the Moon' and was the first illustration that I attempted after the birth of my youngest child. Hence it's quite small (fits on A4). It is mixed media, oil pastel with a layer of lino ink, then scratched into. You probably can't read the words, and I suppose you're not really meant to - it's more about the effect. I love writing into my artwork, it seems to give it a kind of power, and is really great to do. In this case the writing is automatic; I knew I wanted to write a story about a crow flying up to the moon, but apart from that I just made it up as I wrote. It actually makes quite a nice story - and I was amazed when I got to the end (enforced by lack of space) and it made sense.
I use this image in most of my promotional stuff - it's on the frontpage of my website (http://vikkiyeates.daportfolio.com/) and I use a lino print of it for my business cards.
I love crows and ravens, they are so evocative; and so they feature in a lot of my work.

My first blog

I'm not sure what I'm doing here - but as noone will probably read this anyway I guess it doesn't really matter!
Someone told me that writing a blog is a good way of promoting my artwork; I'll try anything to help in that department - and have recently joined loads of online sites in order to help me on my way to success!
I'm preparing to be self-employed by the end of May and it would be nice to make some money.

First, I should try to put on some artwork, so you can see what I'm talking about: