About Me

I'm a freelance artist, designer and demonstrator and have been involved in arts and craft my whole life in one way or another. I design stamps for top British company Personal Impressions, under the "Lindsay Mason Designs" brand, as well as papers, templates and other crafting products. I'm a certified Ranger Educator and my first book,"Stamping", was published in 2009. I also design regular projects for Crafts Beautiful magazine and have made guest appearances from time to time on QVC. I've recently joined You Tube under the name of LindsayMason1000 where I'm posting short technique videos and you can buy my paintings and hand crafted pieces from my Etsy shop. My work takes me all around the country demonstrating stamping, papercrafts and general inkiness! When I'm not working, I love gardening, church & community activities, nature watching, journalling, music and theatre and just relaxing at home. Email me at: ljm.design1@virginmedia.com

Friday 17 August 2012

And the cat got up & slowly walked away...

What a mixed up day for weather it has been here in Lancashire. Raining this morning which then turned into bright sunshine and a very warm atmosphere and then more rain this afternoon which very quickly became torrential. Does anyone know where I can buy Gopher wood from as I am seriously considering building an ark if it carries on like this! This was the view from the side of the house earlier...well, at least the lawn is looking lush now, but just look at all those puddles!Needless to say that Thomas and Tara have been inside all day, so, once I had packed my case ready for tomorrow's demonstration day in Kendal, I went into the conservatory with pencil and paper where Tara was lounging on one of the chairs. Of course, it's an unwritten cat law that if a human approaches with either a camera or drawing equipment you must lull them into a false sense of security by keeping very, very still....right until the last moment when you must then keep changing position, yawning, cleaning paws and so forth. For the ultimate feline superiority moment, give the human a withering look that says "How dare you imagine that you, a mere human, could capture my beauty...", then simply get up and walk away.
Of course, Tara is well versed in all these things, so she suddenly decided that being a fidget was what she wanted to be. She kept glancing at me, keeping still just long enough for me to start something and eventually she jumped down and sashayed through the door! Still, I got a few scribbles done and, unless you're drawing a cat from a photograph, that's about the best you can hope for. A few images then, with one that does capture her sweetest expression reasonably well.
I must thank Paul again for convincing me to do some sketches to share on here. Check Paul's latest creations where he's been drawing on tags. Great idea! Of course, I'm always drawing for work, but these "extra curricular" doodles are just for pleasure. David always liked to see me drawing, so I know he'd be pleased too
I've been cranking the Big Shot handle again this morning and here's another tag that I finished earlier. The photo doesn't show the colours very well, which are more teal and lilac in reality. The "Joy", trees and sript (on the deer) are from Andy Skinner's Christmas stamps and I used a snowflake border embossing die across the tag before blending Distress ink over it. I added white paint and glitter to the trees for an extra festive flourish.
I really like the Bigz die with the two deer - they remind me of the old Babycham character! By the way, the tag is on the heather again (just before the downpour) and I should point out that my sister Heather, was not lounging in the garden whilst I draped tags over her yesterday....as she pointed out, having put a capital "H" on the word did make it seem like a possibility!
Well, I can smell the aroma of a perfectly baked potato, so I had better sign off and fill it with tuna and celery before it gets a bit too burned. Hope to see some of you in Kendal tomorrow and hope it stays dry.

3 comments:

Joanne said...

I'm hoping to do 'catch up' tomorrow following THE most awful journey home. Enjoy Kendal, so tired...
hugs Joanne xx

Paul B said...

As always, your drawings leave my jaw dropped to the floor. Good to see you taking time to enjoy drawing (rather than, as you say, doing it professionally). I haven't tried to draw our cat yet but I understand completely about them being less than reasonable. Whenever ours is in a particularly cute pose, I grab the camera only for him to move/leave before I can take a snap lol and that doesn't take as much time as sketching lol. Pxx

Artyjen said...

tis true what they say, cats were once wworshiped & they have never forgotten this! lol
it has been hot, hot hot today here & no rain so far;)
loved the sketch
xoxo Sioux