Birthdays, goblins, and W.I.Ps...

I've committed myself to doing a new, large painting for an art award/exhibition coming up in a couple weeks.  It's at least a year since I last did something big, and it's a scary prospect, so I decided the best way to get myself to stop procrastinating was to provide a deadline.  So now I have one, Friday week!  I've decided to do something using the same technique I used for the 'Green Jack', a pencil sketch on canvas overlaid with acrylic colours.  The 'Green Jack' was the first piece I've done using that method, and it was only 20cm x 20cm...this one is going to be 91cm x 91cms.  So I'm a little apprehensive about how I'm going to go about it, but I know without a deadline I'd never give it a go at all.

So I've entered a painting that doesn't exist yet, called "Beauty Remembers".  If the title sounds familiar,  you might remember the poem I wrote last year.  I've had an image in my mind for a while now, so it's as good a time as any to get cracking on it.  I want to incorporate the text of the poem into the painting, and I've been scribbling some ideas.  So here's a peak at my sketch/ideas/general ranting/notebook.

And as my smallest munchkin had her birthday during the school holidays, we delayed her party so her school friends could come along.  Several faeries and a couple of pirates turned up, and it seemed like a good time was had by all.

A Faery feast.

No, my munchkin isn't levitating, unless those wings are genuine.  A robust game of Musical Statues got everyone up on the dance floor (er, carpet)!

It was bucketing down for most of the morning, but luckily the rain held off in the afternoon long enough for little people to head outside and go Goblin hunting, with prizes for the most goblins rounded up (because as I explained, my garden was over-run with goblins and they're a terrible pest, scaring the birds away and teasing poor Flynn by pulling her tail and biting her nose).  The goblins were simply pictures purloined from the web (late the previous night...it was a last minute brainwave!), printed in black and white, cut out (very roughly) and stuck onto pop-sticks and pegs, then stuck in the ground or clipped to trees and bushes.  Beloved hid them all in the garden and I gave him strict instructions to remember to think like a 4 foot tall and rather over excited 7 year old (sometimes he forgets everyone else isn't as tall as he is)...and they found them all within 5 minutes!

So...here's a goblin for you (this is one of mine)!  I think though, that he really isn't ugly enough.  An extreme makeUNDER required perhaps!?