Tag Archives: christchurch Artist

Birds For Sale at Cafe’ Mint

Piwauwau - Rock Wren*Piwauwau* (Rock Wren)

Acrylic

100mm x 100mm

For Sale

$55.00

This Artwork can be viewed and purchased from

Cafe Mint

2 Beckford Road, St Martins

Christchurch

Just a little info on these truly beautiful birds!!

These Tiny rock wrens or Piwauwau are approx 10 centimetres long, from its bill to the end of its very distinct short tail. These we birds are found above the treeline, between 900 and 2,500 metres altitude. They live under large boulders at the foot of screes and rock falls. In summer rock wrens hop and buzz about on short rounded wings, feeding on insects or collecting materials to build their nests.  Once winter snows arrive, they survive in pockets of space in their rock or scrub shelter.  Rock wrens fly close to the ground, their flights rarely exceeding 30 metres.  They move astonishingly quickly, diving in and out of crevices. On the ground they bob energetically up and down, flicking their wings.

"Kea"

“Kea”

Acrylic

100mm x 100mm

For Sale

$55.00

Here is a little info on this cheeky wee bird!

The call of ke-aa ringing through the air is deeply evocative of New Zealands Southern Alps. Kea are parrots that have adapted to life in the mountains. Kea are either loved for their elaborate antics or disliked for the damage they can do. Their intelligent curiosity equips them well for the harsh conditions in which they live. Kea investigate anything and everything with their immensely strong beaks, tongues, and hand-like claws. They work out how to open all sorts of containers, particularly rubbish bins, in search of titbits. In mountain huts and villages it is a challenge to devise a kea-proof container. Residents who leave doors open may return to find upholstery and mats shredded

Cafe’ Mint

2 Beckford Road

St Martins

Kowhai Charms

Acrylic

Beautiful NZ Tui.

For Sale $140.00

These Artworks can be viewed and purchased from

Cafe’ Mint

Wairakei Road

Burnside

Masked…

Just finished this Acrylic on Paper …. I am so loving painting fun portraits so have combined my new-found love of portraits and my old love of Butterflies …

 Butterflies from Top to Bottom are as follows… Small Thyridia, Blue Admiral, Monarch, Blue Pansy, Eurasian Comma and the last one a Brown-Veined White butterfly :)

“Masked”

Portraits …Sketches

Inspired by Tam www.willowing.org

fascinate me… so I have started to spend some time looking at creating different types of faces with different mediums… this is my first Sketch of a Basic Face with Graphite ( which is simply a Pencil!) ….

Pencil sketch

Pencil Sketch

Strung Along – Abstract mixed media on Paper

“Strung Along” Mixed Media on Paper

300mm x 420mm

This Artwork was created on Acid Free Paper.  This artwork will need to be framed.

Another Quick Art Tip for the Week- Painting with Contrast Colours …

Art Tip of the Week- Painting with Contrast Values

Value = the Lightness or Darkness of a colour.

To Brighten a colour paint its complementary colour beside it.

Complementary Colour – Combining a shade, tint or tone of one colour and the colour opposite on the colour wheel.

When two tones far apart from each other on the value scale are selected for example dark brown and cream,  and these tones are painted right beside each other, sharing a common edge, then that pair of tones are said to be in HIGH CONTRAST.

High- Contrast  pairs of colours appear to come forward, while Low-Contrast pairs of colours appear to recede

In this photo below …

1) I have mixed a blue background, and painted the korus with Van Dyke Brown and Titan Buff.

2) When paint is dry I have made up the background colour and mixed this with a glazing liquid and painted over the Korus that I wanted to appear to recede into the background.

Contrast colours with values …

Check out my new Weekly – Art tip of the Week! Tip 1.

Donna’s Art Tip of the Week – Titanium Vs Zinc White ?

My Art Tip of the Week - Sunday 8th January 2012

Tip 1. Titanium Vs Zinc White ?

Make sure when mixing White to a colour you use the right one for what you are wanting!

Titanium White is more opaque and when added to a colour changes that colour giving it more of a Pastel Tone.

Zinc White is more Translucent and when added to a colour just slightly tones down that original colour rather than changing the overall tone of it.

See Below

Titanium Vs Zinc White!

Taylors Mistake – Mixed Media 4 Sale

 Below is some close up photos of the rocks and houses in original artwork above.