Donating for a good cause

Wow, it has been way too long since I blogged last. With the lead up to Christmas things have become hectic. The thought of Christmas shopping is eating away at me and I'm finding it really hard coming up with the perfect gifts for everyone.
But enough about Christmas, recently I was contacted by a friend to take part in a charity art auction for the Lighthouse Foundation. This meant donating one of my pieces to be auctioned off.
I am excited to be doing it, not only will I be helping a great charity but I have the chance to get my name out there as an emerging artist.

The event is being held at ACCA in Melbourne,
on Thursday 2nd December.
If anyone wants the chance to bid on some great artworks then come down, food and beverages are provided so it should be a good night.

You can find more details about the night here Lighthouse Foundation Charity Auction.

The piece I have donated is Daschund, 330x330mm

Roses from a cottage garden

These roses were picked from the cottage garden that surrounds my family's newly done up miners cottage. My mum has always kept a beautiful and established garden and I hope to one day have the same passion, but until then she will be a great gardening encyclopedia for me

Kaleidoscope

I have had this idea in the back of my mind for a while,
so I thought I'd whip something up while I was thinking of it.
I want to create a range of similar retro inspired patterns
that give a kaleidoscope effect.
This pattern is made up of only one shape,
but when repeated and layered becomes really effective.
I'm looking forward to playing around with this!!

and the winner is....

Sorry it took so long, I have finally drawn a winner

for my giveaway that ended on Friday. 

And the lucky winner is....

Jess is a graphic designer with a cute and creative blog called

Feast & Stitches. Take a look!

Thanks to everyone who entered, I really appreciate you 

taking an interest in my creative and artistic ventures :)

GIVE AWAY! Last Days!!

Hi guys, don't forget to comment on my give away post to have the chance to win one of my pieces. All of my followers are eligible to enter so get in before time runs out, I will be drawing the winner on Friday.
Thanks for all your lovely comments so far, I love hearing from everyone! Good Luck!

Kat Macleod

If you haven't already experienced the amazing work of Kat Macleod then you are missing out! Over the years I have admired her work through Michi Girl and her publications, 2 that I have are 'Like I give a Frock' and 'The Cocktail'. Both are full of her amazing illustrations. Her technique is unique to herself, often she uses sketchy pencil line work, water colour and collage of paper fabric and more.

You can find a detailed interview with her at The Design Files

and below is a video of her design process.
Hope this inspires you, it has certainly inspired ME!


Kat Macleod's Process from Jacky Winter on Vimeo.

Finders Keepers

What a beautiful weekend we just had here in Melbourne and what a great day it was for the first Melbourne Finders Keepers market. Held in a shed on South Warf in the Docklands, this market promotes and sells goods from a whole range of upcoming and well known artists, designers and creators.

Fineders Keepers market is held in both Sydney and Brisbane and you can find info for upcoming markets here http://www.thefinderskeepers.com/

Here are a couple of shots I took of the market and its surrounds.

I highly recommend getting to one of these markets if you can!

Maree

It has been a while since I have posted something brand new, so I did some doodle-ing tonight and turned them into this. The characters stem from some doodles I did a while back (you may need to check my older posts to see) and I drew a few other characters as well, so check up for future posts of my little doodle characters! I call her Maree after my mum. In the 80's and 90's she got a few crazy poodle perms that reminded me of this :)

GIVE AWAY! Celebrating 50 followers!

This week I reached a milestone of 50 followers. It has been really fun and inspiring being part of this huge blogging world. I love searching through the millions of blogs to find hidden gems.
So to thank everyone who have stopped by my blog and to show my appreciation I have decided to have a give away. You have the chance
to win a 15 x 15cm resin coated tile featuring one of the following designs Dauchshund, Maria do Carmo or Bird of paradise! The 3 designs have recently featured in an exhibition I have taken part in.
In order to take part you must be one of my followers (existing or new) and comment on this post letting me know which piece is your favorite.
I will be drawing the winner on Friday 15th October.
Good Luck to everyone :)

I'm Back

Well, it has been an exciting couple of weeks. Starting with our exhibition opening and now finding out which of my pieces have sold. Exhibition pack up is on thursday night and it will be sad to see it gone.
If you want to get down and have a look it's open until thursday.

You can find the info in my previous post. I will also be selling off the remaining pieces, so if anyone is interested feel free to contact me or I will put them in my etsy shop in the near future.

It's nearly here...

Sorry I haven't been around lately, I have been consumed with my artworks for an upcoming exhibition Paper, Paint & Pixels. Here is a sneak peak of some of my pieces. I have designed a series of collages and am displaying them on tiles coated in resin for a high gloss effect.
I hope you like them?!

The exhibition runs for 2 weeks (15th-30th Sep) at Hogan Gallery in Collingwood, Melbourne. Feel free to pop down to the opening and
take a look at some of the other great artwork from friends of mine Porntima, Jeesoo, Imogen, Belinda, Liz, Rachael and Lauren.
I'm really looking forward to showcasing my artworks.
Hope to see you there!

Squiggles

This is a card range I designed a while ago at work.
They are called Squiggles and were heaps of fun to create!

©Artwrap

fun at work

This is a card range I have designed at work, Artwrap.
Hope you like it :)

© Artwrap

New Branding Heat Pillows

It's been a while since I have posted about what VixenLily is really about, my favorite heat pillows.
I have finally got my branding up and running which includes my generic VixenLily tags, Heat pillow instruction tags and satin ribbon tags to sew into the side of products.
Although I am really happy with the fabrics I am using at the moment,
my next step is to design and have my own fabrics printed, I can't wait!
Now that everything is coming together I will try to set up an Etsy shop, soon....

new acquisitions

I couldn't resist buying these. The flowers are out of the garden, my mum has planted only Australian natives. I love them, the flowers are so unusual and pretty :)

life Instyle #2 my design!

I am really inspired after seeing all of the amazing products today at the life instyle fair. I was also lucky enough to have some of the products I have designed displayed. This pepperpot range is called 'Provincial' and consists of a large photo album, travel journal, luggage tag and passport holder. I hope you like it?!

© Artwrap

Life Instyle

This week I am really lucky to be going to the Melbourne Life Instyle trade show with work. After going for the first time last year I am really looking forward to seeing all of the new and amazing products and design out there. All of the stall holders are shown on the Life Instyle website. A few stall holders that caught my eye are pippijoe, made590 and homeandhumanfashion. I didn't have a chance to go through all of the stall holders online so take a look for yourself, there is going to be some fantastic stuff there. I can't wait!!

My Weekend

There were a couple of things that excited me over the weekend that I thought I would share with you.
First was these beautiful cushions that I have been eyeing off for a while. They are from Ishka and made in India. I just made it in on the last day of their sale. They are soft and velvety and come in a variety of colours.

The other thing that my stomach was very happy with was this yummy breaky I made on Saturday. Mmmm, Makes me hungry looking at it :)

Getting Creative, It's a Hoot!

There are a million other things I should be doing right now, but I just had an itch to be creative. These are some owls I drew the other night during one of my midnight doodle sessions.
I am exploring the idea of getting fabrics printed and even tea towels, but one step at at time :)

La Couture

Working full time for a fantastic greeting card company, Artwrap, I get the opportunity to design and illustrate artwork for some great projects. This is a card range I have designed called 'La Couture'.

If you would like to view some of Artwrap's other great ranges you can visit their website here. 

Icon attack

These are some icons I created for a brochure promoting the

The Bellarine Peninsula and Great Ocean Road in Victoria. You may recognise some as Loch Ard Gorge, The 12 Apostles and Portland Cable tram. There are some great places to visit here, you can find info here.

from the past

My mum has given me some old magazines found at my nanna's house dating back to the 60's. There is some fun stuff to read and plenty of great images to look at. Here's a snapshot, I love looking at this old stuff and seeing how trends have evolved. And wouldn't it be great if magazines still cost 45c...

Paper, Paint & Pixels!

Slowly I have been working towards a group exhibition I am participating in during September. It will be my first showing so I am very excited, but nervous at the same time. Things are starting to come together but I still have a long way to go. Here is a bit of a peek at what direction I am taking. I am creating colourful collages that I am then transferring onto tiles and glazing. I am happy with the outcome so far but time is running out so head down, bum up!

A spike in time

This is a new/old treasure of mine. I acquired this timepiece from my Nanna after she sadly passed away last month.

This clock hung in my grandparents house ever since the 60's and I have always admired it. This retro sunburst clock will now happily hang in my house. Let's hope I can get it working.

Masterpiece

As a tribute to my boyfriend Scott I have decided to show off his one and only masterpiece for his birthday coming up on saturday. He surprised me with his attention to detail and willingness to learn. 

He's a good little painter isn't he :)

Little birdies

When searching for some bird images the other day I came across these cute little water colours. My fave is the 'Blue Tit' as Matt explains, the cute yellow/green bellied one. Matt Sewell is the illustrator, you can view his website/blog here. He also had some other nice art you might like to check out.

more Doodles

I have been keeping up with my nightly doodles. Some of the characters I have expanded to a larger scale and played with colour in photoshop. Hope you like :)

midnight doodles

These days I never get around to plain old drawing. I've taken it upon myself to allocate some time to just doodle. The time I have found falls around midnight, when I am tucked up in bed. Maybe it's my dreams coming out before I sleep, spooky!

My Mess

Welcome to my studio! It's a big mess at the moment, well who am I kidding, always... Those who know me would know this is pretty normal for me. Anyway, just wanted to give you a bit of an insight into my working space.

I love life drawing!

Life drawing is a passion of mine and last year I indulged in a term of classes. I was nervous as I hadn't done it since back in my uni days, but I was pleased with some of my pieces and enjoyed it just as much as I used to. My plan is to try something new every year. The previous year I took a course in pottery on the wheel, which I also loved. Vixen Lily now takes up a lot of my personal artistic time along with designing for an exhibition coming up in September. Soon I will post a sneak peak of the direction I am taking for it, but there is still alot of work to be done for it. I think I will have to leave it at that for my artistic endeavours for 2010.

Heat Pillows Batch #2 (Inspire)

I have finally made my new batch of heat pillows.

Choosing these different fabrics to previous. The fresh colours and funky patterns really set them off. I am really happy with the outcome and how my new tags have come up. I am selling them for $15 each. They measure approx. 35cm x 15cm.

A couple more things..

These are the hammered tin boxes i got in Bali.

I love the intricate detail, I got 2 sets of these.

Below these is just a little glass plate i got from

Target to hold a candle.