Mandy Foot Sketchbook

14 November 2008

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EQUITANA!! I am very excited to let everyone know that both of my artwork pieces submitted to the Equitana Turf Monthly Equine Art Prize, have been selected for exhibition and will go on display next week in Melbourne at the biggest horse show in the southern hemisphere! I didn't get to finish the eventing horse I was working on but still will, so only entered the dressage horse 'Happy' and the painting of 'Vienna' and both made it through. So both of these pieces will go up for auction on the Saturday afternoon at Equitana. If anyone is interested I do have a couple of the limited edition prints of 'Happy' still available for purchase so simply email me for prices if you are interested. This is the second time my work has been selected for Equitana and there are some fabulous artists on display, so I am very honoured to be included amongst them!

14 November 2008
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It's been awhile I know! Sorry about that - I have just added some new images to the animated and black and white galleries so scroll back through there, and oh yes a couple of dog portraits. Check out the little terrier 'Studley' - he was drawn in chalk pastel for a good friend's 60th birthday and takes pride of place on their wall now. Been busy working on my next children's book for ERA Publications. This one was alot fun with lots of frogs to paint! Titled the Mouse and the Frogs, I'm not sure just when it will be out yet but I had some fun experimenting with different background treatments, using alot of purple to complement the green of the frogs. Here's a sneak peek of the characters above - the mouse gets quite grumpy when all the frogs take over her log!

20 August 2008
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Another painting - I know it's not a sketch but I wanted to write some blurb about it so I put it in here. This painting I've been thinking about for 3 months, a venture into landscapes which is very rare for me, and finally got to paint it on the weekend - nice loose brush strokes, alot of paint and alot of drying retarder - it actually took 2 days to dry! Probably could have done it in oils but I just got got this really nice batch of acrylic paints from Daniel Smith Art Materials with some amazing colours and seriously didn't think it would take that long to dry.

Anyhow, the interesting thing was, I had my reference photo that I had taken and started painting with it right alongside my easel. When I packed up my paints on the first night I was walking back to my easel from across the other side of the room and noticed how different the photo looked from a distance and how much more the blocks of colour stood out. So for my second painting I attached my reference photo to the opposite wall 10 ft away, and ths is the result!

28 July 2008
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Here is a piece I've just finished. Very much an experiment in technique and texture. The background is made up of a combination of acrylic paint, gesso, liquefying medium and teabags! The liquefying medium created that really nice patchy effect you can see in the top right corner with a wet teabag squeezed and dripped over the top. I love using teabags for that old vintage look and you can achieve different colours from different teas - green tea gives a fabulous colour as opposed to this one which was Roobos tea. The charcoal sketch over the top then actually comes from a drawing I did in Vienna 11 years ago and yes, I found it in my sketchbook! This picture has actually given me inspiration for another piece I'm about to start on, an eventing horse, which is bound for Equitana. I think English Breakfast tea might be required for that!

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		14 November 2008 ....................... EQUITANA!! I am very excited to let everyone know that both of my artwork pieces submitted to the Equitana Turf Monthly Equine Art Prize, have been selected for exhibition and will go on display next week in Melbourne at the biggest horse show in the southern hemisphere! I didn't get to finish the eventing horse I was working on but still will, so only entered the dressage horse 'Happy' and the painting of 'Vienna' and both made it through. So both of these pieces will go up for auction on the Saturday afternoon at Equitana. If anyone is interested I do have a couple of the limited edition prints of 'Happy' still available for purchase so simply email me for prices if you are interested. This is the second time my work has been selected for Equitana and there are some fabulous artists on display, so I am very honoured to be included amongst them! 14 November 2008 ....................... It's been awhile I know! Sorry about that - I have just added some new images to the animated and black and white galleries so scroll back through there, and oh yes a couple of dog portraits. Check out the little terrier 'Studley' - he was drawn in chalk pastel for a good friend's 60th birthday and takes pride of place on their wall now. Been busy working on my next children's book for ERA Publications. This one was alot fun with lots of frogs to paint! Titled the Mouse and the Frogs, I'm not sure just when it will be out yet but I had some fun experimenting with different background treatments, using alot of purple to complement the green of the frogs. Here's a sneak peek of the characters above - the mouse gets quite grumpy when all the frogs take over her log! 20 August 2008 ....................... Another painting - I know it's not a sketch but I wanted to write some blurb about it so I put it in here. This painting I've been thinking about for 3 months, a venture into landscapes which is very rare for me, and finally got to paint it on the weekend - nice loose brush strokes, alot of paint and alot of drying retarder - it actually took 2 days to dry! Probably could have done it in oils but I just got got this really nice batch of acrylic paints from Daniel Smith Art Materials with some amazing colours and seriously didn't think it would take that long to dry. Anyhow, the interesting thing was, I had my reference photo that I had taken and started painting with it right alongside my easel. When I packed up my paints on the first night I was walking back to my easel from across the other side of the room and noticed how different the photo looked from a distance and how much more the blocks of colour stood out. So for my second painting I attached my reference photo to the opposite wall 10 ft away, and ths is the result! 28 July 2008 ....................... Here is a piece I've just finished. Very much an experiment in technique and texture. The background is made up of a combination of acrylic paint, gesso, liquefying medium and teabags! The liquefying medium created that really nice patchy effect you can see in the top right corner with a wet teabag squeezed and dripped over the top. I love using teabags for that old vintage look and you can achieve different colours from different teas - green tea gives a fabulous colour as opposed to this one which was Roobos tea. The charcoal sketch over the top then actually comes from a drawing I did in Vienna 11 years ago and yes, I found it in my sketchbook! This picture has actually given me inspiration for another piece I'm about to start on, an eventing horse, which is bound for Equitana. I think English Breakfast tea might be required for that! 9 July 2008 ..................... This is the section where I get to have some fun, share with you what I am working at the moment, provide you with some extra interesting information about projects I have completed and show you some sketches from my sketchbook. I keep one religiously that I draw in, whether it be a project I'm working on or something I'm drawing just because I want too - at least I know where to find it! I've drawn images just for the fun of it and then years later have needed say a fox for a childrens book and remembered I drew one of those back in sketchbook no. 3! One sketchbook has 3 countries in it! Drawings I did when I was in Scotland, Vienna and New Zealand. Another was left on the front seat of the car with the sunroof open.. and it rained! Needless to say it's a little worse for wear :0( The latest series of drawings I've been doing is based on baby elephants inspired by a David Attenborough show I recently saw. I've painted one finished piece to date - this can be seen in the animated section of the gallery - it has the sunset in the background. I kinda like these initial raw sketches which is why I like to put them up here. Hope to get on to the next one soon! Enjoy - Mandy.