Greg x

This is one that I did of Greg - again, I've been hoping to paint this view of him for a few years because I love it so much. He's such a pirate and even when he's sittting down he looks like he's in action. A close friend of ours said that it has captured the 'essence of Greg'. I love that he thought that. 

Fi

This is a painting that I did of my sister, Fiona. The pic was taken nearly 4 years ago now in the South of France. I love the light and the colours of holiday snaps and I've wanted to paint this one for a while...Fi said she prefers her painted portrait to herself! (she's silly) x

Brighton After the Storm II

I've been ill for a couple  of days and just tried painting for the first time since last week - it wasn't very good but I'm trying to keep the flow going anyway, so here it is:

Brighton After the Storm

Hey folks...
So on saturday morning, Greg and I got to the Southbank for about 6.30 to catch some nice shots of the river. It's funny how you have a memory of a certain scene and when you get there it's nothing like what you had in mind! I just couldn't find my shot. So we snapped a few anyway and came back with a couple of paintable ones of the Houses of Parliament.

Anyhow, in the meantime, I was dying to paint a post-storm scene on Brighton seafront from March 2010. I took loads of photos at the time because the light was incredible. We had been sitting in a cafe on the front staying out of the crazy rain and afterwards everyone got their phones and/or cameras out to try and capture the mysteriously contrasting sky. It's like I get high in storm energy I just love them. I feel at home with nature in general and didn't realise that not everyone feels like this until last year, when I was doing the Foundation course at csm, Jackie and I were walking through Clerkenwell and she turned to me, and said "I feel totally at home surrounded by buildings like this, it's my environment" and then she carried on walking, at peace, through the busy streets of Clerkenwell. I remember thinking how nice that was and yet to me how unatural those streets felt. I guess that is what makes us all human and all different. My home environment is in the country (which is why I guess after 10 erratic years, I long to leave London for the country side).

Anyway, below is my Brighton After the Storm interpretation. 

Holly

Over the last 2 days I've been painting Holly Madison, former girlfriend of Hugh Hefner and star of Peep Show. The theatre set background was lovely to paint because of the browns and golds of the tassles, so rich in colour. And I also loved painting the sparkly shoe! Anyway, on to some Brighton landscapes next...

I'll try and replace this photo soon as it's really dark compared to the painting but I haven't managed to get a proper photo x

Boat Trip to Saint Tropez

I used a photo that my dad took for this painting. It was a real challenge to paint all the buildings from a slightly blurred photo. I have finished for now but may come back to it later....It's funny how different paintings give you different feelings as you paint. This one felt as challenging as the sea is rough in the photo. Anyway, here it is.

Landscapes and Whitby Magic

I got back to London on Monday having spent last week in Yorkshire with my mum, sisters and nieces. We had a great time - it was slightly overshadowed by some problems I'm having in my life right now but home can only ever help things. So while I was back, we went to Whitby and visited the old campsite we used to stay at as kids. When we were walking back through the town we popped into some of the galleries and along the way I discovered a local artist called Chris Geall. His landscapes and seascapes are phenomenal. 

So I've come back wanting to have a go at painting some images I captured in Egypt in 2009. Below is my first attempt.

 Mum and I on the cliff near the old campsite

Looking across Whitby - such a magical seaside town...

Suze and Robs (my sister and niece) having fun on Fi's trampoline xx

Some recent paintings

Here are some of the paintings I have done in occasional spare moments over the last few months...

"Dad" was a painting I had promised I would do for my Grandma about 2 1/2  years ago when I told her I was finally going to commit to art properly and started the foundation course at saint martins. Having now completed the course I thought it was about time I kept my word and got on with it. Grandma and Grandad told me they liked it very much when I gave it to them for Christmas. 

"Kim" was just a treat to myself as I love painting hot women. I know proper art people would frown at this but I've never been proper so it's ok.

"Suzie" was a painting of a photo I took of my youngest sister by the pool in the South of France in 2007. Friends have told me that she looks devilish in the picture - it was slightly intentional as she can be a little devil when she walks on the dark side (I used to live in the dark side so I know what it's like). 

What happened to CARiLOVES?...

I haven't written since last september...just wanted to write some notes on what happened to CARiLOVES...

So basically, the market stall at spitalfields became too expensive for me to trade at. There were literally a handful of people walking past the stall each day and for anything up to £80 a day for my pitch I simply ran out of funds. My other avenues of business were my website and retail outlets. In the midst of the recession, store owners were reluctant to take on any new stock and i had to give items as sale or return. Being a small business, I simply didn't have enough stock to do that for every shop. Also, SEO (search engine optimisation) is a tricky business and again, if you have pots of cash to throw at it you can get help, if not you end up just being another website that may not even exist as far as any potential customers are concerned (even worse if you built a flash website before you realised that wasn't gonna help matters).

My customers were amazing and I met some truly wonderful people whilst running CARiLOVES both online through twitter, facebook, my website and the market stalls I ran at Spitalfields and Brick Lane. 

However in October 2010 I had to find a new job - and became a bedroom designer for a large uk based firm as I had to pay my bills. I had less and less time to spend on marketing and having boxes of stock in my flat became increasingly difficult to negotiate around whilst trying to work and run a household. So, in the beginning of December I had to make a decision. I wanted the whole meaning of CARiLOVES to remain until the end and so Greg and I packed up all the stock, apart from a few items reserved for family and friends and I took it along to Oxfam in Muswell Hill. I just wanted them to have some good use. Hopefully some folks will have found brand new positive statement tees and hoodies brightening up their stockings for Christmas 2010. 

And I still get people asking about new designs and products which slightly breaks my heart but I know that as difficult a decision as it was to make, the answer is simple. Can I support my family and run this business? Not right now.

So for now, the CARiLOVES chapter closes but I am grateful that I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to do it full time and have so much freedom and fun last Summer. 

My blog does not close however and I will continue to write on my creative pursuits for as long as it feels right. 

I can still paint and I can still write.

Cari x