My friends at the Pavilion where I go to paint on a Thursday had the idea that we should all put a subject to develop, on a piece of paper then draw one out of a hat, we would all then produce a response to that topic, we drew out "Blood". The following day a few of the group went along to an exhibition of Aubery Beardsley and some other illustrators at "The Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery" at Leeds University. The image below is my response influenced by the exhibition and the topic of "Blood"

Blood and Beardsley

Watercolour

Met up with some of my artist friends on Thursday, well two of them, the others were snowed in. I went along with a blank mind and a quarter sheet of watercolour paper and ended up with this painting of a dog, working direct from a photo on my lap top taken on one of my many lakeland trips.

Artist Trading Cards

Artist Trading Cards (ATC) are small works of art about the size of a standard playing card -in the UK - 2 1/2" x 3 1/2". They can be produced in many materials from collage, marker pen, watercolours, acrylics, almost any thing. The idea is that they are traded (not sold) between artist or indeed anyone. The idea was conceived by Swiss artist M. Vanci Stirnemann, back in 1966 and in 1967 he had a show of 1200 cards he produced. Today there are group meetings where people trade cards. Some galleries are offering ATC events. Below are some examples of my first attempt at making some.

Artists Trading Card

Helen Beatrix Potter

Artits Trading Card

Vincent Van Gogh

Artists Trading Card

Mary Cassatt

Artists Trading Card

John Lennon