Nail Art

Today I wanted to share some old nail art. And by art I mean it was done during my Fine Art rotation during my art foundation year at college. That's art!

These were inspired by my then recent holiday to Australia and New Zealand back in 2008. There's a palm tree, a beach, the Sydney harbour bridge and the Sydney Opera house.
They were all done using nail varnish on fake nails (they were blu-taced to my sister's fingers for these photos!)

I did a series of animals I saw at the Sydney zoo! There was also a koala and an emu I think.

After the single nail pictures I tried painting an image across all four fingers (sorry thumb nails, you miss out).

This above nail set was based on this photo of Manley Beach in Sydney. 

This one is of mountains in Queenstown, New Zealand. I like how the use of metalic nail varnishes made the lake shimmer.

To present this work for assessment I made some little wooden frames.

I'm still pretty proud if these. What do you think? 

Paua to the people

At Easter my parents went to New Zealand for a few weeks and bought me back a little bag of these Paua shells.

When my parents came back from their holiday they told me they'd bought me a present and that it was poisonous.

And I was like, 'err...what?!'

What they really meant was the lady in the shop had told them to be careful when drilling into the shells as the dust isn't very good for you.

But that's like you shouldn't breath in the dust when cutting wood.   

So when I drilled the holes for these two necklaces I wore a mask just to be on the safe side.

I made one for me and one for my friend Natalie whose Mum lives in New Zealand and she got a Paua ring the last time she went to visit her.

I guess they're kinda friendship necklaces, since we both have one.

Natalie has been [unsuccessfully] trying to convince me that a friendship Rolex is a thing.

No, I won't be buying her a Rolex. This necklace will have to do.

Hand painted baubles

This set of 3 hand painted baubles was a commission for a friend of my Mum's.

They depict three different views of Lake Tekapo in New Zealand.

3 for £10. Not bad at all. 

Painting: New Zeland

This is my newest painting. It's oil on canvas again and is painted from a photo I took in New Zealand. For a change I decide to keep the two people in the composition, as usually I edit out the figures in my landscape images. 

Gustave Courbet
Low tide, the beach at Trouville
 1865
oil on canvas

One of my tutors made a comparison between this painting and the work of Gustave Courbet, a French realist painter in the 19th Century. The obvious similarity is that he often painted quite sparse landscapes with big skies and minimal signs of life. 

Peter Doig
Blotter
1993
Oil on canvas

The figures in my painting are quite Peter Doig-esque, an artist I looked at last year in relation to my

painting on photos. They aren't painted with much detail, for example you can't make out the face, but they are engaged in doing something.