It has been a while since I had the chance to get involved in any form of painting since our move back to South Africa and coming to grips with a new business. Phil shoulders the greater responsibility and the bulk of the work with regard to our business, but I also needed to learn…
Author: artbyeileen
Portraits – A brother and sister
I love drawing portraits, and these two beautiful children were such fun to draw. I got their Mom to take the two of them to the beach where Phil took some magnificent photos of them running, and playing along the shore in the shallows. The result was I had plenty of bright animated faces to…
Botanicals, botanicals and more botanicals….
I love drawing flowers and especially botanical drawings. What I have recently been trying out is water soluble pencil crayons. Watercolour or water-soluble pencils crayons are a unique cross-over between drawing and painting. You draw with them as you would with any pencil or crayon, but then you run a wet brush over your drawing. This…
More Botanical’s…
Since arriving back in South Africa I have been busy with creating botanical interpretations of flowers that inspire me. The latest is a series of orchids along with a cactus, poppy, and alpine flowers.
Cutie Pie
Loved sketching this animated little face with the bow tie. I experimented with some new water soluble pencils I was given for my birthday. They work much like the aqua pencils in that you draw or colour with the pencil and then wash it with a wet brush. I love using my brush with a…
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc, a peasant girl living in medieval France, believed that God had chosen her to lead France to victory in its long-running war with England. With no military training, Joan convinced the embattled crown prince Charles of Valois to allow her to lead a French army to the besieged city of Orléans, where…
St Brigid of Ireland
Saint Brigid was born Brigit, and shares a name with a Celtic goddess. There is much discussion over her birthparents, yet it is generally believed her mom was Brocca, a Christian baptised by Saint Patrick, and her dad was Dubthach, a Leinster chieftain. When Dubthach’s wife discovered Brocca was pregnant, she was sold to a Druid landowner. It is…
St Scholastica
Scholastica (born in Italy c. 480 – 10 February 542) is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The most commonly told story about her is that she would, once a year, go and visit her brother at a place near his abbey, and they would spend the day worshiping…
Purple & White Tulips
Some more fun with flowers, this time purple and white tulips.
Golden Hibiscus
I have been so busy painting and sketching other things, I forget how much I love painting flowers. This Golden Hibiscus was for a commission. I used 2 really fat brushes to paint this, which is a change for me considering I usually work with very small brushes and lots of layering and glazes. This…
Icons
I have tried to summarise the historical development of the Icon because I find the history of these beautiful art works fascinating. Its a long blog, but considering the history behind the icon it’s a brief summary! Not quite the venerated monastery for painting icons, but it’s my creative space and I love it, especially…
Random Commissions
Sometimes I get rather unusual commissions from people where they want something very specific. They come to me with examples of other works, or a technique they want me to emulate of very specific subject matter they want to display on their walls. Usually in the case of these types of commissions it is more often…