Art Bunny Blog - The Art Bunny

Last Christmas . . .

13/1/2017

Well Happy New Year everyone! It's been a while since I updated this blog so I thought I best get back to it! I created some new favourite things over the Christmas period, but the one I'm most proud of is the painting below of my sister's pony Rosie. Isn't she beautiful! I painted it as a Christmas present, and although the finished painting looks almost nothing like the original idea I started with I still love it to bits.
Rosie looks like a real life My Little Pony so I decided to do a mix of realism and fantasy to try and capture that. Her mane is full of different colours and it was lots of fun to paint. The background is somewhat of a fantasy forest scape, with wind and sunbeams, although it could also be a beach or a country lane at sunset. It's whatever your mind can see!

Rosie - A2 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS

I also did another horse portrait for Christmas that went all the way to Texas. This one was in coloured pencil and was actually quite challenging. I always find that with short haired animals, where it's more about shine than texture, you have to be a lot more accurate with shading and highlights. This piece was also a challenge because my dark brown pencil is now less than an inch long and rather tricky to colour with! I do love this portrait though, particularly the hints of chestnut that show through.

American Horse - A3 colored pencil portrait

I also did some customary cat and dog portraits for Christmas. Below are Loulou, Jessie, Sam and Frankie. All are coloured pencil portraits and I'm very proud of each of them.

Say hello to my Winter Ladies!

4/10/2016

My favourite new addition to my Christmas craft collection are my Winter Ladies. Five pairs of adorable
Christmas tree decorations, each one with a name, a unique personality and a special talent. I didn't start out making smart and accomplished miniature women but that's what they became. So say hello to my Winter Ladies!

Amy is a florist who specialises in creating beautiful arrangements out of varieties of heather, many of which she grows herself. Matilda tends a small herd of goats and makes her own goat's milk cheese. She has won awards for her cranberry variety. They have been best friends since girlhood and enjoy meeting over cake and tea.

Eleanor is an avid knitter and crochet extraordinaire. She enjoys knitting tiny waistcoats for the neighbourhood cats. Phoebe is a daydreamer and writes children's books set in magical faraway lands about fairies and dragons and giants. They both met through their mutual love of nature and regularly take woodland walks together.

Esther makes award winning jams and marmalades from fruit she grows in her garden. She also makes very good scones to go with them. Daphne is an accomplished violinist and most enjoys playing traditional folk music. She sometimes plays with a small group called The Forest Folk. These two have been friends their whole lives and regularly find themselves in uncontrollable fits of giggles.

Florence is a gifted tennis player with an indefensible backhand, and although she never went pro she has tangled with the best of them. Katy is a sculptor who is inspired by the ocean and seaside landscape near her home. She works primarily in clay but also incorporates found items such as shells and driftwood. They met at a salsa dancing class and became firm friends.

Myrtle is a landscape painter who works mostly in water colours. She particularly enjoys painting rainy days and dramatic landscapes. Ava makes kites out of paper and bamboo and takes them to festivals the world over. Her favourite one is shaped like a windmill complete with rotating blades. These two have been friends since they were little girls and enjoy many happy evenings playing board games and cards.

They are all for sale on my Etsy page whilst stocks last!

Art Bunny Christmas 2015

21/1/2016

Phew! This past Christmas was certainly a busy one! I had lots of portrait orders, several of which were for overseas, which is always exciting. Also there was my annual Christmas baking bonanza, which as always was yummy!

Pet Portraits

Here is a selection of some of my favourite portraits that I created over Christmas 2015. My most popular medium was definitely colour pencil this year, and it was fun to do my first pug!

My absolute favourite portrait from Christmas, and now one of my all time favourites, is this black and white acrylic on canvas of Tilly the Westie. I've never done a portrait in black and white before and it was a lot of fun. I also enjoyed the challenge of trying to capture the blurred background as was in the original photo. I think I did a pretty good job. Definitely love this painting!

Tilly - A3 acrylic on canvas

You can see the other portraits I did on my Pets/Animals page.

Cake

As always I made two Christmas cakes to make sure there is plenty to go around. As I was a bit pushed for time this year I decided to go for some simpler designs. I made two snowmen; one had the traditional coal eyes and carrot nose, the other was an arts and craft snowman with a cotton reel for a nose and stitches and buttons and ribbons.

I also made this Michael Kors handbag cake for a relative's birthday. It had silver balls and edible glitter, and though I was pretty much making it up as I went I think it turned out looking rather good.

(I think there were more of those silver balls on my kitchen floor than on the cake by the time I'd finished)

You can see more photos of my cakes on my
Cakes page.

Baubles

I did really well in the bauble department this Christmas. My music baubles proved really popular, and my Star Wars baubles sold out in a few days! Plus, of course, my annual shipment of doggy baubles made it's way to Christmas trees around the country. Here are a selection of some of my favourites.

So it was a very productive Christmas for me this time, and though I was very glad to be busy, I was sure grateful for the rest after it was over! Bring on Christmas 2016!

These are the baubles you're looking for . . .

24/11/2015

Seeing as how the new Star Wars film is coming out this Christmas, and because Star Wars is AWESOME, I decided to make some Star Wars baubles. I started off with Chewbacca because I have a mountain of furry material at my disposal. Then I added Obi Wan because Jedi's are central to Star Wars, and finally Darth Vader to help bring balance to force. I only made three sets of three as I've got a lot of commissions on the go this Christmas but if these sell well I will definitely be making more next year!

A little Christmas Angel

24/11/2015

This year there is going to be an angel trail around Wrexham town centre. Handmade angels will be placed in shop and cafe windows for people to find.

There will be 20 angels in all and I decided to help by making one too! I'm told a group of children will be naming the angels and I will let you know what they name mine. If it were up to me I would name her Hope.

When the trail starts on 1st December I will go and take a photo of her in her spot.

Here is my angel; isn't she beautiful!

If music be the food of love . . . then these baubles must be yummy!

5/11/2015

Remember that bag of mysterious balls? Well this is what they became!

Every Christmas I end up with a pile of spare baubles because the matt baubles I buy to do doggy portraits on always come in sets with shiny baubles that don't take to being to painted. So this year I decided to do something with them and this is what I came up with!

I don't know about you but I think they're rather pretty!

You can buy these baubles in boxes of six on the Art Bunny Etsy shop page here.

What's in the bag?

2/11/2015

A bag of mystery balls is materialising in my art room! Stay tuned to find out what will become of them.

(I'll give you a clue; they'll be a festive addition to my craft fair table)

Christmas Baking Bonanza!

29/1/2015

Over the Christmas period, as well as being busy with portraits and baubles and fairs, I was also busy baking up a storm! Some of them were for presents and some were just for a good ol' festive treat.

I made my super awesome brownies (because they're just awesome!) but for a festive twist I added Terry's chocolate Orange and cinnamon to the mix. They tasted - for lack of a better word - awesome!

I also made several batches of my super scrummy naughty spiced ginger biscuits, which have fast become a new favourite in my baking repertoire.

I made lots of new things this Christmas, like these brandy truffles. I didn't have any myself as I don't drink but I hear they're yummy. They were lots of fun to make though!

Another new thing was this chocolate fruit and nut loaf cake, which wasn't one of my favourites but was still pretty scrummy.

My favourite new recipe this Christmas has to be these - my chocolate hazelnut splat biscuits! They are addictively good and will definitely be made on a regular basis!

My most challenging bake this Christmas was definitely this - what I call my Epic Dessert (or chestnut and hazelnut macaroon). I had no idea what it would taste like but it was AMAZING! More of this please!

Then of course there were my two Christmas cakes (I have to make two because there are a lot of cake fiends in my family). One I decorate quite simply as that is the initial sharing cake, and the other I like to do a Christmas scene on. Here they are!

Fun in the snow cake

Sewing box cake

So as you can see I had a very yummy Christmas!

Art Bunny Christmas!

28/1/2015

Wow! Christmas was certainly a busy one this year! I did portraits, baubles, craft fairs - and had a christmas baking bonanza (blog post on that to follow soon!).

I painted this painting of my sister's tortoise Pickles as a Christmas present. It's one of my favourite portraits I did this Christmas. I did it extra big (about A2 size) because I like it when small pets get big portraits!

Klasi - coloured pencil

By fair my most challenging portrait from the Christmas period was this coloured pencil portrait of Eric. As I didn't have a pencil the colour of Eric's fur I had to colour over every bit three times with three seperate colours. I'll admit it did start to get to me after a bit, but I'm glad I suck with it because I'm very proud of this portrait.

Pickles - acrylic on canvas

This coloured pencil portrait of Klasi is also one of my favourites from Christmas. It was quite a challenge as there is so much white, and it's hard to colour in something white on a white background! I'm really pleased with how it turned out though.

Eric - coloured pencil

You can see all my new portraits and baubles on there respective pages. Thank you to everyone who ordered a piece of art from me over the Christmas period. Now for a new year that is hopefully just as successful!

Boathouse Christmas Fair.

14/12/2014

All set up.

The fair was at The Boathouse in Chirk. It was clear from the empty tables dotted here and there that a couple of stall holders hadn't turned up, but the ones that were there made a good showing. There was a stall next to mine selling freshly popped pop corn from a pop corn cart making the room smell lovely!

Prime spot right next to the fire.

Well this evening was my last Christmas fair of the year, and although it wasn't quite as successful as the others I've been to it was still a good event.

Later on in the evening there was music provided by a singer who is usually an Elvis impersonator but tonight was just singing as himself, albeit in a very Elvis-y voice. He certainly added to the festivities anyway!

So that's me done for the year as far as craft fairs go, and I almost managed to sell out of all my Christmas stock. Not a bad season I'd say!