SUPANOVA wrap up!

Our SUPANOVA weekend got off to a rocky start, on Thursday night when we went in to set up, Brisbane had a massive flash storm which brought hail stones, flooding and traffic chaos. We didn't make it in to the BrisStyle Etsy Pop Up Shop preview, because it was practically impossible for us to drive through the city. We eventually made it to the convention centre and set up, only to break down on the way home!!

Uh oh.

Thankfully my parents came to our rescue at 11pm and lent me their car for the weekend while ours was being fixed.

Anyway...SUPANOVA was heaps of fun!

My little booth in Artist Alley!

 
Not only did I get to meet lots of lovely customers, I also got to meet some favourite artists of mine that I've followed online for a while, but have never actually 'met' - including Mel Stringer, Ella Mobbs, and Lauren Carney. I also got to see lovely Amanda from Hungry Designs again! All such talented ladies!

Today I'm back at my desk catching up on print orders (yep - still FREE Worldwide SHIPPING at artbyjaz.com!) and unpacking stock that I took with me on the weekend.

Hope you all had a fun weekend!

Catch up.

It has been a busy few weeks. Let me tell you.

Let's start with Halloween. Which I LOVED. This year I went with a "Day of the Dead" themed costume, and Hubby went as Zombie Kurt Cobain: "Kurt Cobraaaains". Miss 6 was a Skeleton Princess and Baby A recycled his Jack-O-Lantern costume from last year.



Art work wise, art print orders are ramping up in the lead up to Christmas, and FREE SHIPPING is still running over at ArtByJaz.com. A couple of weeks ago I had a stall at Bounty Boulevard Twilight Market, which was great for meeting new people and talking about my art with lots of Mums and Dads. It was a HOT day, but we tried not to let the heat get to us.

Hubby & I at Bounty Boulevard Twilight Market

 Then, this week we MOVED HOUSE!

We said goodbye to our little townhouse, which was our first house of our very own, and we're looking forward to moving in to a bigger house that will accommodate our family of 4.

See under those stairs? That's where my little art studio was!!

Right now though, we are at my parents place between houses.

My art business will still be running as normal. Well, pretty normal! I'm still yet to properly set things up here. From this Thursday to Sunday, you will be able to view some of my original paintings and art prints at the BrisStyle Etsy Pop-Up Shop at Teneriffe, QLD!



I will try to get to the 'preview' on Thursday night, however before that I will be setting up for "Supanova, Brisbane!"

 I will have an artist's table at Supanova Brisbane from Friday to Sunday this weekend!

Where

Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC) in Brisbane, Merivale St, South Brisbane QLD 4101

When

• Friday November 28th, 1pm to 8pm, 2014
• Saturday November 29th, 10am to 6pm, 2014
• Sunday November 30th, 10am to 6pm, 2014

Tickets

On sale NOW from Moshtix and at the door.

Needless to say, we're pretty tired from the last couple of weeks, but I'm determined to have a refreshing week in preparation for the big weekend ahead!

"Fairy of the Crescent Moon"

We've had blue skies here all weekend, here in Brisbane, Australia. We've said goodbye to Winter and Summer is well on it's way with really warm weather today. We went to the farmer's markets this morning to grab some fruit and vegies, and Miss 5 picked up some water bombs, so we spent a few hours today running around the backyard throwing these at eachother! The kids think it's hilarious!!

God I love weekends.

Friday night I also listed a new 8x8" painting I've been working on. It started out like this:

As I worked more on the facial details I felt I wanted to make the background darker and layered over it in a darker teal wash. Her wings also transformed from "butterfly" to more of a "bat" style. 

I then decided I wanted to make the background even darker and she started leaning towards having a more gothic feel. 

I swear these girls have a mind of their own. A lot of the time I have a pre-conceived idea on what I want the painting to be and almost 100% of the time it doesn't work out the way I imagined. They seem to morph along with the creative process in to whatever 'they' want to be.

So she ended up as this:

"Fairy of the Crescent Moon"

I've popped the original up for auction here on eBay starting at $1.

 Quite a few original paintings have sold this week, however I've still got beautiful paper prints of them all up in my shop. The original paintings that have sold this week are:

"Taurus" (Fairy)

"Little Tree Nymph" (Fairy)

"A Splash of Colour" (Mermaid)

and

"Turtle Cove" (Mermaid)

My Halloween Sale has been popular also! It continues this week with 5 of my art prints at only $10 (A4 size) or $19 (A3 size) (with free Worldwide shipping!).

Tonight I'll be getting ready for the week ahead, and hopefully getting some more work done on some commissioned pieces and maybe even this mermaid painting I've started sketching out:

 

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I hope you had a beautiful weekend! 

"Wicked Witch of the West"

As a kid, my favourite movie was "Wizard of Oz" - hands down. I borrowed that VHS tape about a million times from the video store, until one day my Grandad recorded it on to a tape for me, ads and all (our video player didn't have a 'record' function - oh dear). I LOVED that video. Pretty impressive for a movie that was made 45 years before I was born! Can you believe that movie was made 75 years ago!?

 

I still watch it today (I now have it on Blu-Ray! lol) and love it just as much. You know I'm a sucker for those cute Pop! Vinyl figures, and a while ago I got my hands on the "Wicked Witch of the West". Her pointed eyebrows, little hat, and broomstick are just TOO adorable.

 

Then recently for my birthday Hubby bought me the Peter Alexander "Ding Dong" minishorts with a matching red singlet and I just can't wait for the weather to warm up so that I can wear them! Look at those creepy witch hands and stripey "Wicked Witch of the East" legs!

 

 So I felt inspired to create a "Wicked Witch of the West" painting! 

I included her sister's stripey legs, her witchy fingers, her creepy hourglass and of course her faithful flying monkeys!

The original is in my store HERE.

There are also 8x10" and 12x16" prints available HERE.

I hope you're having a wicked week, my pretties!

Halloween Print Sale!

(I grabbed this cool counter from http://www.halloweencountdown.com/)

I'm beginning to see Halloween themed items in the shops! Eeek! My favourite!! 

As a kid, Halloween really wasn't celebrated at all in Australia. It was only something we saw on TV and movies. I always wished that I could dress up and go trick-or-treating and see all the spooky decorations like the kids in the movies. Fast forward 20 years and Australia has finally started to catch up. The shops are embracing Halloween merchandise and I even get to take my kids trick-or-treating now! Ok, to be honest, I'm vicariously living my Halloween dreams through them.

To get in the spirit of the Halloween season, I thought I would put 5 of my "Halloweeny" prints up for sale.

Click here for:

"Violet Vampiress"

"Nocturnal Moon"

"Halloween Magic"

"Halloween Dream"

and
"Pumpkinlings" (Limited to this month only)

 

 

Enjoy!

30!

Hubby and I are back from a quick whirlwind trip to Melbourne for my 30th birthday. We had the BEST time - eating like royalty, relaxing in our beautiful hotel (The Blackman) and exploring the streets of Melbourne and St Kilda.

Some highlights were:

• Birthday dinner at Movida, Hosier Lane.

•   Riding a bike along St. Kilda Pier, where my grandparents met over 60 years ago.

 

• Seeing "The Block"! We planned on having a sneaky look out the front and totally fluked it that it was "Open for Inspection" day! We couldn't believe our luck. We got to meet the lovely Shelley Craft, and The Block contestants, and walk through all of the apartments!

• Seeing Rama Nicholas' one woman musical comedy "After Ever After" at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

It was great to get home and see my babies! I miss them so much when I'm away from them. At the same time it was a much needed break. I'm feeling recharged, refreshed and re-inspired!

So far this week I've been busy getting orders up to date, and I finished the mermaid painting I was working on at Comic Con. Some of you may have already seen her! I've popped her up for auction on eBay HERE:

"A Splash of Colour"

Side View

I've also thrown up a few prints up for auction starting at 99c this week - just to spark some interest :) You can view them all HERE.

Well, it's back to reality for me now. There's nothing like school holidays to bring you back to reality after a short break away! :) Wish me luck.

Oz Comic Con Brisbane 2014

It's now Tuesday and I'm still feeling tired from Comic Con on the weekend! We had a blast. I met so many lovely people. I sold out of a couple of designs ("Sugar Skull Princess", "Snow White in the Enchanted Forest" and "Taurus" - must be lots of Taureans around!). Plus, lots of sign-ups to my email list.

I've never done an "Artist's Alley" at a convention before, so I had no idea what to expect. There were so many brilliant artists there, at first I wondered if I was out of my league! They all made me feel very welcome though.

My first day in Artists Alley!

My postcards proved to be popular too! The lovely @Jesso88 instagrammed this pic of her 5 framed postcards when she got home:

A cool way to display them!

The important question everyone's asking though...did I get to see Orlando Bloom? The answer is YES! but only a quick glimpse. I barely moved from behind my table for the whole weekend, but I did manage to do a quick run up to the back of the room to see him in the flesh. I was about 10m away? So yeah, let's just say Orlando and I worked together in the same room over the weekend, shall we?

Yesterday I planned to rest and unpack, but the Universe had other plans. I had to take Baby A to the Dr because he has conjunctivitis, then there was grocery shopping, school pick ups...the house looks like a bomb has hit it. So today I'm trying to play catch up. 

For any art orders made over the weekend, I promise they will be sent this afternoon or tomorrow morning at the latest. 

Wishing you all a fabulous week!

"Peachy Fae"

A little "Peachy Fae" to brighten up your Sunday evening (or morning, depending on which side of the globe you're on).

"Peachy Fae" 8x8" original painting

Side view

 I've popped it up for auction starting at $1, so it's completely up to you how much you think it's worth. :)

 I hope you've had an awesome weekend.

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Free Shipping on all art prints at ArtByJaz.com

I love selling through Etsy and eBay, but I really want my customers to buy directly through my website, so I've been thinking of a way that I can direct them there, and I thought that offering FREE SHIPPING (Worldwide!) in my online store only would be the best way to do it. Everyone hates paying for shipping don't they? I do. My eyes seriously light up when my favourite sites offer free shipping. So there you go. 

Free shipping on EVERYTHING in my store except original paintings. 

The shipping on my originals can cost anywhere from $15 - $550 depending on where I'm sending them, so it wouldn't work out to offer free shipping on those. Everything else though - postcard sets, signed art prints, ACEO cards etc - will all be shipped anywhere FREE.

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It's raining here today, so our open home was a bit of a flop this morning.  :(

But...it's perfect weather for painting. So I'm going to be getting some print orders together this afternoon and then hopefully getting the brushes out!

Enjoy your weekend!

Winning.

The supplier I've been printing my new prints on has discontinued their paper. But...when one door closes, another opens, right? Over the past few days I've trialled some new papers again, and I've found another beautiful gloss paper that is actually cheaper, but still amazing quality! This means I can pass the savings on to you too! So my A4 size art prints will now be $14.99 and A3 prints $24.99. It's a win-win.

Speaking of winning, Orlando Bloom has been announced for Comic Con Brisbane! Woo hoo! I wonder if I can sneak him a painting? lol.

That's all the news from me - I'm off to make dinner and organise a "book week" costume for Miss 5 for tomorrow!

So excite.

I'm excited to announce that I will have a table in Artist's Alley at Comic Con Brisbane this year! I've never been to Comic Con before, so I'm really excited (and a bit nervous!).

 Comic Con Brisbane

Sept 6th and 7th

Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Southbank.

Last night I posted a new original painting up on eBay starting at just $1 - click HERE to see "Midnight Mermaid".

 "Midnight Mermaid" original painting
 

Side View

I have to say this is the first mermaid I've painted with blue lipstick...but I think it really suits her!

 I've got some commissioned sketches to work on tonight, and I'm hoping to get some other smaller fairy paintings done this week...

Goodnight!

Inspecting Castles & a Sugar Skull Princess.

As you know we are currently selling our house and looking for a new place to buy. That's how we came across "Castle Rumble" on realestate.com.au. It's nowhere near where we are looking to live, and it's probably completely out of our price range, but we had nothing better to do on Saturday so we decided to go check it out. I'm so glad we did! It was magical.

Eccentric for sure. But I really admire the way some people refuse to live inside the parameters of what's socially acceptable, for the sake of bringing more magic into the World. I do hope that whoever buys it keeps it as it is and doesn't demolish it for redevelopment.

Speaking of gothic elegance...I've been drawn to sugar skulls lately and I was sipping out of my new favourite travel mug when I decided I should paint a girl with sugar skulls around her.   

A bit of history... 

Sugar skulls are historically used to celebrate Mexico's "Day of the Dead" (Dia de los Muertos) in November each year. They believe that on Halloween Eve the gates of heaven are unlocked and the spirits of their loved ones return to them once more.

I find this concept fascinating and I love the idea that sugar skulls are colourful and bright, and while they symbolise death, they also symbolise the celebration of life.                  

                 

Just starting to paint in some details...

I wanted the painting to have a Mexican 'folk art' feel to it, so I knew I wanted to use lots of bright colours and little details like flowers, diamonds, pearls, hearts etc. I made the girl look like she had her face painted like a sugar skull rather than actually just having a skull head. I wanted her to look like she was just a normal girl who was decorated as a "Sugar Skull Princess" for the day!

Work in progress...

The finished painting! "Sugar Skull Princess"

The painting is now finished and up in my shop HERE.

There are also two print sizes available HERE.

I'm off to bath two babies and make some dinner now. We're having gourmet nachos for dinner (how appropriate!). By gourmet I mean, you know, added taco mince, sour cream...the works. Hope you enjoy the new art! Adios amigos!

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