Hello kind readers, and the happiest of Easters to you all!
It’s the warmest day of the year so far today, and aren’t we glad to have the warmth of the sun back after what feels like an age! On my walk this morning I closed my eyes for just a second to take a deep breath, and the scent of green freshness, spring flowers and sunshine is well and truly in the air! (Just try it, even if you’re on your way to work at a job you don’t like much, I guarantee it will make you smile!) It’s amazing how much difference a little warmth can make to everyone’s mood: every single person I walked past today beamed at me and wished me a “Good Morning”- it’s days like this that we live for!
I thought I’d start this post with a little follow-up on the topics I covered in March’s blog: when I get excited about new projects that are starting I sometimes forget to tie up the ones that came before!
First, a quick, but very positive note about the Twitter Art Exhibit some of you might remember me mentioning a couple of times since Christmas. This is an exhibition of postcard-sized artwork, held in a different location each year, to raise money for different charities. This year it was held in Moss, Norway, to raise money for Home-Start Moss, a charity which offers support to the young families residing in Norway that need it most. The exhibition had lots of coverage all over, but particularly in Norway, where it even had a short five minute slot on the national news! The latest update I read stated that they had raised 35.050NOK (Norwegian Krone) , translating to a whopping $4368!!
As well as this obvious success for the exhibition itself, I celebrated a personal victory, as my postcard, titled “North Star”, sold! In fact, I included a screenshot of the original tweet below from the founder of the exhibition informing me that my card sold to a “lovely family in Moss with small children”. I actually had a little cry when I first read this. The first year after uni is always the toughest, I was warned, and while lots of good things have been happening since I graduated, I’ve always had that little niggle at the back of my mind saying the “What Ifs?” – the what if I sink as an illustrator? What if no-one actually will want my work? What if I can’t support myself by doing the thing I love (and not be able to prove everyone who said it’d be too hard, or not a viable career, wrong?)
It was a small step, but a huge thing for me to receive this message. It proved that I really do have a potential audience, and people really do want my work… and, most importantly, a piece of my artwork has brought happiness to a family, who now have a postcard-sized artwork of a little polar bear in their house somewhere. The main reason I wanted to become an illustrator was to bring a touch of magic and happiness to children and parents alike, and I’m doing it! Slowly, granted… but I can do it! 🙂
A quick update on Portishead’s North Somerset Arts exhibition, too:
I mentioned last time that the North Somerset Arts Week strives to highlight creatives in the region, a celebration of all their hard work and the beautiful things they make, and that our dates would be the 1st to the 10th of May.
I can happily confirm after our last meeting that the brochures for the event have now been printed!! The cover looks like this (particularly helpful if you’re local and were hoping to grab one and check out some of the things that are happening, this is what it looks like) :
(You can pick one up in most shops in the North Somerset area- just ask for a North Somerset Arts catalogue!)
We also have a page just for our Portishead group, “St. Peter’s” (named after the church we’re holding our exhibition in) – we’ll have a bit of everything in our show, as we all practice different mediums: everything from photography to ceramics, jewellery to painting and illustration, so it should be really interesting! (Avid readers might notice a certain Skogkatt three images along!)
This show is approaching fast, and we’re all getting really excited! We have a facebook page for our little group too: https://www.facebook.com/NSAWPortishead2015 – please take a little look, perhaps give us a like, and watch out for beautiful artistic updates! From me: here’s a little snippet of one of the new paintings I’m working on for this show, based on the character of Curlyshanks, a huge Newfoundland dog!
Previous readers might remember me mentioning a local gallery I’ve got some work in at the moment, called the Blue Room. I’ve been beavering away on some new things to take in there (mainly prints next time- I’ll update you next month on my progress with cutting window mounts, hopefully I’ll have mastered it!)
Here’s a little example of one of my greetings card artworks that are now stocked at the Blue Room, a little sparrow fellow:
They’re mostly all like this, a very small original painting, dried thoroughly then framed in the window of a card which folds three times. (The window is cut in the middle ‘panel’ of the card, and the panel on the left is folded in and stuck down to protect the painting inside, while the right panel is left swinging free, to let the buyer write their personalised message inside!)
Eagle-eyed spotters might have seen the new greetings card artwork portfolio link in the tab at the top- keep an eye on this, it’s filling up! I’m hoping to send some of these designs off to some companies in due course to see if there’s any interest from them too. Organising them for you readers first will put me in a much easier position when it comes to choosing which pieces to send them!
As for the next month, most of my time will be taken up by these three ventures. However, as I may have mentioned before in brief, I’ll be attending the book fair at Olympia next week, and will be taking an Erik-related portfolio along with me… Here’s hoping I can put myself one step closer to achieving one of my dreams, to illustrate children’s books!
Thankyou, as always, to everyone who reads and looks at my progress- I couldn’t do it without your support!! Keep your eyes peeled on the blog over the next few months, as in my “spare time” (haha!) I’m planning to open an online shop where you’ll be able to buy artwork, prints, cards, and other handmade delights: I’ll post up details as soon as it’s finalised!
– The AutumnHobbit
© Carina Roberts and AutumnHobbit. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Carina Roberts and AutumnHobbit with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.