Art for Everyone

Back at showcase London this month

2009-11-04T14:27:00.007Z

I would like to invite one and all to the East End on November 25th, 5.30pm-11.30pm.

Showcase-London.com

I am exhibiting new Christmas present sized paintings at a seriously discounted rate (my kids need more than just my art for their presents)for one night only.
Click on the link for more details, but in short it is Cafe 1001, Brick Lane, London - great bar, does food, usually music playing, all very chilled.

I've been quite obsessively drawing faces

2009-11-04T14:23:00.003Z

Now I know that's nothing new, but for a long time there I was all ab out the city scapes. It's nice to have both

Gosh...where did all the pictures go?

2009-11-04T08:29:00.003Z

Looks like I've had a technical hitch and all of my old photos have gone *poof* and disappeared. Don't worry. I'll give you some new ones.

Look who's back...

2009-11-04T08:09:00.003Z

I swear by all things arty to remember to blog at least once a week.

and somehow work out a way to sell more paintings, before I drown in a sea of canvas.

Hello lovely people. Miss me?

My website has
been relaunched, so please check it out and leave me a comment. If you all subscribe I'll even send newsletters and special offers.

plus I have launched a squidoo thingy. So take a peek there too and favourite me if you can.

Organic

2007-03-24T01:28:00.000Z

Still life is not my usual thing as you know, and I am certainly not a master at it, but my fruit bowl has been so bright this week I had to do something about it.

This is up for auction here

normal service will now resume.

I have been a poor blogger AGAIN

2007-03-16T11:52:00.000Z

And want to say a big sorry to all of my friends here.

Life is....well, the sun's out. That's good anyway.

I am ebaying art again: please please please take a look and maybe even bid!

Listings

And I am afraid, being particularly desparate right now, there will be more very soon!

I listed an ACEO on Tazbar!

2007-01-04T16:41:00.000Z

I feel almost a traitor after my long love-hate affair with eBay, but the buyers are scarce these days and time in the Swingewood household are lean!

So....

Be happy, an ink and watercolour ACEO is for sale at Tazbar a rival auction site! Please stop by and look at the listing and let me know what you think.

I got tagged! Okay, I admit it... I am a little odd...

2007-01-04T14:30:00.000Z

My good friend and frankly enormous inspiration Amy tagged me. Which means, apparently, I have to tell you five weird things about me. I don't know if these things are weird or just true.

1. I moved to the most beautiful place, the kind people dream of moving to, with a big house and a great view.... but I hated it and convinced my whole family to move back to a small house in need of a major overhaul on a poor inner city estate. I am much happier now. So is everyone else.

2. I prefer something with chilli and garlic for breakfast.

3. I can see 89 pieces of original art right now, from where I am sitting. Yes. I counted.

4. My son's real name is Spike. And no, we don't regret it.

5. The designer Vivenne Westwood once grabbed my boobs and shouted "Look at all of this lovely bust" to her son.

I opened an eBay store for Christmas

2006-12-14T22:45:00.000Z

I have been in a listing frenzy again. Amongst my latest obssessions is a crazy zine type ACEO sized stocking filler type Lazy Cook Book thing which comes with an original aceo for good measure.

Click here for the auction PLEASE look!

Do check out my shop while you are there.

work, work, work

2006-11-24T19:33:00.000Z

Well I paint and I paint and I paint.... and to be truthful there are moments of success - I sold this painting last week

through the wonderful

Skylark Gallery

But I am fed up with being a starving artist. I want to be a full-bellied, properly clothes artist. At least now and then.

Maybe

The Great Art Fair

at Alexandra Palace, North London will be the answer? Who knows.

I am a bad blogger

2006-09-28T12:59:00.000+01:00

Forgive me readers, for I have not blogged in some months.

Summer was a busy blur of art and sunshine, which can't be bad. And the big news is that I was accepted into a gallery on central London, which is extremely exciting!

Check out

Skylark Galleries

for more information – and do come and visit us! We are holding late night meet-the-artists events on the last Thursday of every month, from 6pm-8pm STARTING TODAY!

2006-07-05T19:51:00.000+01:00

COME ALL YE GROUNDLINGS!!!
August 3rd-August 6th, 2006
The Red Lion Pub Gallery
2nd Floor
2446 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

Exhibition:
Painting Shakespeare's Words
A Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of The Chicago Shakespeare's First Performance at the Red Lion Pub featuring fine art from well known international artists, Susan Barton, Amanda Cox, Elaine Jones, Laura Keeble, Michelle Izzard, Sally Swingewood, Terry John Waites and Colin Cordwell.

Artist reception on Saturday, August 5th, from 7pm-11-pm.

Busy working towards Chicago!

2006-07-05T18:30:00.000+01:00

The Shakespeare show is galloping towards us and I am painting like a demon.

It's kind of fun!

Here's a sneak preview of what will be on show at The Red Lion Gallery, Chicago, from August 3rd-6th. If you would like an invitation to the private view get in touch!

39x12 inch mixed media canvas - Neptune (from The Tempest)

30x24 inch mixed media canvas - The shore is but a gilded ornament to a dangerous sea (from The Merchant of Venice)

'Howl' - inspired by King Lear's unhappy walk over the heath - a postcard sized mixed media piece

From Romeo & Juliet - 'O happy dagger' - a postcard sized mixed media work

Studio clearance!

2006-06-15T13:50:00.000+01:00

I'm taking full advantage of eBay's UK 10p listing day with a bit of a clear out. Fancy a bit of original art for less than the price of a curry?

Adam and Eve before the fall

Click here to go to the auction.

England fans come in all colours

Come on England!

The student

The drinker

Make friends with the man now!

The naked ladies....

Click here/

Click here to bid now!

This auction is here.

and the crazy mixed up dude...

Bid here!

I think there are more but I'll quit while I'm ahead...

The whole lot are here.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Phew.

Lots of new art up for grabs

2006-05-13T09:50:00.000+01:00

Over in my eBay shop there are many things to see and buy. Hint hint.

Meditation: a collaboration between Studio33 artist Francesca Burras and myself.

Pop goes the geisha AKA Madam Butterfly by myself and Studio33 artist Blueyeduck.

Overseeing the birth by myself and Studio33 artist Amy Weber. Amy Weber and I also collaborated on this one, The Olive Branch.

And, all by myself...

Please take a look in my shop!

Meet Hoody

2006-05-07T11:31:00.000+01:00

I have a new friend who pops by now and then to recite a bit of Shakespeare and confound people.
Meet Hoody.

He is being represented by Urban Alice, just click here to take a look at all of her friends .

The first Independent Artists online exhibition

2006-04-29T00:28:00.001+01:00

So far as we know this will be the first art event on eBay.

The IA are a disparate bunch with art of all styles and sizes and media - but we are also committed to original work and god customer service. Please take a peek at the show, which starts at 6am BST on Monday 1st May.

You'll see this drawing of mine there.

The auction will be available here from May 1st-8th

Click here to see the rest of the exhibition.

Thanks for supporting original artists!

More threesomes...

2006-04-27T08:46:00.000+01:00

Three's company over on eBay, during this, the last week of my spring sale.

Buy it here!

Collaborations

2006-04-27T08:28:00.000+01:00

The Studio33 artists are embarking on a series of collaborations. This piece of mine will be finished by Amy Weber

& I shall be finishing this wonderful watercolour by Amy.

Fran Burras is going to work on this odd chap....

... while I get her gorgeous geisha!

I'll update this with the finished pieces when they are done!

The teeny tiny project

2006-04-25T11:09:00.000+01:00

I have drawn a sheet with 70 1"x1" squares... this is how it's going

Crazy tiny triptych

2006-04-25T11:02:00.000+01:00

Well not as tiny as those 1"x1"s I've been working on admitedly... this is 1.75"x3" each panel.

At a 99c start price it's a real one off bargain.... take a look!

Teeny tiny

2006-04-24T00:05:00.000+01:00

I never thought I'd be able to work tiny, but here is the first in a series of 1 inch squared pieces. It was a bit of a challenge...

Click here to go to the auction for this little fellah!.

2006-04-23T14:18:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time artists, like other workers, belonged to guilds. The guilds had different criteria for entry and different types of artists - but every guild provided support for its members and a guarantee of quality to the people who commissioned artworks.

We live in a different age, and the internet provides new ways of forming modern guilds. I have recently been invited to join two.

Studio33 is a small group of juried artists which works together to provide the highest quality of art to the collector. To learn more about Studio33 visit our blog.

This is my first Studio33 piece, From the mosquito net available here.

To see more Studio33 pieces which are for sale please click here.

The Art Collective

The Art Collective is an international group of artists who sell together both online and in galleries. Our work is wide reaching both in style and subject.

In July 2006 we will be exhibiting in Chicago, with a Shakespeare themed show to coincide with the Chicago Skaespeare Theatre Company's 20th anniversary. This is one of my pieces in progress.

Soft, what light from yonder window

The art collective currently has a number of miniatures for sale at an introductory opening price, to look at them all please click here.

Free art -everywhere!

2006-04-04T21:42:00.000+01:00

I am smiling and smiling.

The new

A2A Free Art

site is up and running - with new artists signing up every day. HUGE thanks go to our web guru, Ben, who donated his services for free, for the love of art.
It's because of people like him that I first wanted to give art away....

Smile! It's a painted lady and my entry to the 2nd London Artists themed competition. If you would like to vote for me by bidding please do
by clicking here!

BUT WHAT IS A2A? I hear you cry… click the

A2A Free Art

link and find out! It's very very cool and you may just get some free art if you take a peep at the site :D

We love new artists too - whatever you create, whatever stage you are at, you are welcome to help transform the world into an art collecting colour-filled place!

Mean cats and a new shop

2006-03-21T14:08:00.000Z

I'm trying to attain balance in my life, so on the one hand I am doing SMILE paintings and on the other I am doing mean old cats...

If you would like to give this cantankerous old puss a good home do click

here

I have a new shop too - please please please check it out by clicking on this newly fixed (I hope!) link -

My ETSY shop - for unique art gifts

Thank-you friends.

Begging...

2006-03-21T14:00:00.000Z

Something tells me our house doesn't like us. It's one thing after another here... we have now got no hot water and no heating (oh happy first day of spring!) so I need to raise a few thousand pounds for a brand new system as this one isn't worth repairingg. SO.... what's the secret of selling work for it's true worth?

I have been painting and drawing for over 20 years. People say the like my work. I've even made it into a couple of galleries here and there. So why is raising a few thousand such a daunting prospect? I guess it always will be, for most of us.

Still, a few quid here and there helps pay off the credit cards, so if you like anything listed here please do click on the link. And I'll happily take on commissions of all sorts!!!!! Just leave me a message.

Kiss

Essence of Frida

Artist's Choice!

2006-03-12T08:42:00.000Z

I'm going to just take a moment to have a little boast. I have been shortlisted in the eBay Artists Choice Awards, in the Small Abstracts Category! I am so thrilled!!! I would just like to take a moment, Oscar style, to say thanks to anyone who nominated me - it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

So, to celebrate, here are a couple of small abstracts currently for sale on eBay....

Click here to go to the listing

and if you wouldn't mind adding it to your watch list I'd really appreciate it! I'm doin g a little experiment you see, to see if more watchers really does mean increased profile and more bidders. We'll see...

Click here to go to the auction

Lives Lived Show

2006-03-02T10:42:00.000Z

The last few weeks are amongst the craziest I've ever experienced. Yesterday my computer was stolen in a particularly nasty smash and grab at home - over £1000 damage as well as the missing laptop. And that came just a couple of days after getting out of hospital with my sick daughter.
On the upside my daughter is much better and we have insurance - plus my fantastic partner managed to get the Burton show up for me on time, while I sat by the hospital bed doing the nursey thing. A couple of the paintings didn't quite get finished but there we are…

A taste of the show is below.

The Lives Lived exhibition poster, showing "Head Enforcer"
"Head Enforcer" was inspired by the number of people who have knocked on the door of our new house to demand money off the previous owner. It includes copies of bailiffs notices sent for the previous owner too, as well as local newspaper clippings, emails and personal letters. The original piece is A4 sized, comprising of an original ink drawing plus photocopies and matt medium.

Vogue
Acrylics, inks, matt medium, Vogue magazine 36"x12" loxeley box canvas

"Vogue" is based on those women for whom a label is everything and who would never leave the house without full make up. The background pattern is created from a Dolce Gabbana advert as it appeared in British Vogue November 2005, while shadows on the face and hands are created from articles within the magazine.

Daisy's Wedding Night
Ink, photocopies, matt medium on paper. A3 sized. Framed.
Daisy is a woman who finds life problematic. This piece reflects her confused state, being built from excerpts from her childhood Bible (Genesis), the chapter on "What happens on the wedding night" from the 1935 edition of Everybody's Family Doctorand various parts of The Encyclopaedia of Prophecy – all tools she needs to just get her through the day. The daisies on her frock reflect her continual questioning (he loves me, he loves me not, petal by petal).

Andromeda
Ink on paper, framed
Andromeda is young and not yet marked by disappointment or fears. She hold on to her dreams and waits for life to begin.

Portrait of the artist as a young journalist
ink, photocopies, newsprint, matt medium
This piece is a self-portrait of the woman I was immediately before I had kids. It is built up of articles I wrote for Time Out Amsterdam magazine, my business card, love letters from my partner and other things that then seemed so important. Including now given up cigarettes....

Eddie
Ink, acrylics, newsprint, matt medium, photocopies on paper. A4 sized. Framed.
Eddie has certainly lived his life and is now bowed down by it. This piece includes many of those bailiffs notices previously mentioned… it is this man who is being hounded!

Iago
Acrylic, ink, photocopies on loxeley canvas.
Iago is my take on the Shakespearean character, a contemporary version of the scheming, power-hungry villain of the play Othello. The shadows and background are made up of Iago's speeches, the figure on his chin is an actor playing the part of the Moor back in the 1940s.

Lives Lived

2006-02-21T21:47:00.000Z

I have a house full of sick kids, a badly leaking toilet, no money and less than 48 hours til I pack my art into the car and whizz it up the motorway for my first solo show.

You know, I had a specific idea of what my first solo show would be like - fab opening, work I was proud of, loads of mates by my side.... instead it's going to be thrown together, half-finished art, me on my own chucking it at a wall and then shooting back down the motorway. What a weird life it can be.... perhaps I shouldn't have called it Lives Lived, perhaps that was just too much of an invitiation for the gods...

aah the relief...

2006-02-13T23:37:00.000Z

of having finished the Dulwich show! Of course most of the aceos are still up, but officially it is over. The Burton work is going better, fortunately and I have a number of works in progress to share.

This is a larger canvas.

This an A4 paper work. I will add the later versions soon.

Show and tell....

2006-02-09T17:48:00.000Z

So the Chicago show was and is a hit - hooray!
The Dulwich show is a sloooooow burner - ie no sales but people are curious.
The Burton show is... imminent and a NIGHTMARE! I have lost the knack, lost the plot, lost my muse. These are as far as I have got (and these were a breakthrough, so be kind...)

I'm so excited...

2006-02-04T15:29:00.000Z

...and I just can't hide it.... (as DJ Duck would undoubtedly continue)

I have sold my first proper painting in a proper gallery for a proper price....

I always knew Chicago would appreciate me more than London, lol

Exhibition fever takes its toll...

2006-02-02T12:40:00.000Z

I used to look young and beautiful, now I look like this....

Click on the picture to go to the auction.

2006-01-30T23:57:00.000Z

Do come to the show - if you're in London or Chicago!

Oh yes... and the mermaid is up for grabs now too -

Take a look here

The show is GO

2006-01-30T23:48:00.000Z

What a relief! It's up! It's up!

My lovely 3 year-old son did his level best to sabotage the hanging (and we had well over 100 aceos, each with their own tiny title/artist label to hang) by absconding every 3 seconds in a bid to get to the swings. The owner looked slightly faint when she realised how many I was putting up - "Erm, you know how busy we get.... erm.... I'm not sure we can be responsible if someone knocks one down and we don't see... erm…"

Poor thing. She doesn't know there's still more to come!

Anyway, now that's more or less done I may have time to do a wee bit of painting again. You never know.

Treasure hunts

2006-01-27T17:47:00.000Z

Okay, so today was the day I was delivering fliers and posters to the park... of course I didn't... on the upside ACEOs are flooding in thick and fast and we WILL have a show come Monday.

I did, however, manage to walk round the park planning our art treasure hunt. Map to follow, lol.

I think I may list this mermaid on eBay tonight... she's better than she looks (more detail) and 12"x14" I believe on a box canvas.

Why oh why oh why

2006-01-26T18:48:00.000Z

Do my children always develop sleep-depriving voluminous vomiting illnesses whenever I have a million things to do to a deadline?

The Dulwich show is slowly coming together, though I still wait for a fair number of works, the posters which I must deliver tomorrow are not yet designed let alone printed and the fliers are more fiction than fact. Ho hum.

Less than a week til the Dulwich ACEO show

2006-01-23T23:50:00.000Z

... did someone say "What's an ACEO?"

I'm sure they did... WELL....

ACEO = Art Cards, Editions & Originals.
But don't be fooled, ACEOs aren't cards like you buy for birthdays and bereavements... these are wonderfully varied miniature works of art.
Measuring just 3.5"x2.5" this is art for your pocket, your wallet, your intimate spaces - you can curate your own 19th Century-style French Salon in the smallest of rooms at a budget which even artists can afford (well sometimes...).

There is a second generation of these art cards which sometimes break out of the strict size format and grow as big as 6" - these are known as ATC2s and give you the chance for a bit of variety in that amazing red roomed annual show you are planning.

CLick on some of the artists whose links are over on the right there - they do these miniatures too and I guarantee you'll be impressed.

I'm branching out, with some ACEO/ATC2 style sculptures too. Tiny one-off wild creatures to nestle in unexpected places. I don't know yet where I'm going with these. I fancy pure wire forms, and maybe some papier mache too...

This stern faced chappy is 2 inches tall (and - almost - laughing on the other side of his face).

The worst day of the year

2006-01-23T15:07:00.000Z

Today is officially the worst day of the year. Apparently everything is grim today and from tomorrow everything gets better! It has been the greyest January in London for over 20 years with so few hours of sunshine we've all forgotten what colour is.

So I thought I'd splash a bit around here... to help you through the day!

This little lady is being left in a toilet at BBC Television Centre this afternoon as part of last week's (!) a2a2006.com drop. Let's hope she makes a BBC bod smile...

Art for nothing... (well, less than a quid)

2006-01-21T13:03:00.000Z

I have entered the legendary eBay Nibblefest Art Contest this month. Please take a look as I'm very proud of myself for getting it together! This is selling for a grand 76p (that's less than $2 folks) right now. You know that thing about starving artists? This is why...

Original art for less than a quid...

(Last time I looked anyway!)

Apologies for the width of this painting - I haven't quite got the hang of this html lark - if you know what I need to do to make these horses behave please leave me a comment!

Thanks.

Distraction by drawing

2006-01-20T10:29:00.000Z

I have a confession to make: I prefer to make art than administer web sites or write press releases for upcoming exhibtions.

This is still in progress but far more fun than doing what I should be doing. Obviously.

2006-01-20T08:07:00.000Z

I already spend far far too much time on the computer but here I am again, giving myself another place to avoid the big wide world...