New beginnings

2018 was a very hard year for me for personal reasons so I am determined that 2019 is a year of new beginnings. One of the changes I am making this year is to finally set up a comprehensive webpage which also acts as a shop for my work. So sadly I will now be saying goodbye to my WordPress site which has introduced me to lots of new friends and followers.

If you have enjoyed my work, please come over to my new page and take a look. At the moment I am still adding work to it to ensure that everything I have created is listed and I will then be keeping it up-to-date with all my new work.

You can now find me at www.francesdaunt.com

Or of course you can join me on my Facebook page for a chat and daily view of what I have been up to.

Thank you so much for your support over the years, your comments and feedback have been very much appreciated ❤️

Frances x

New addition to family

Sorry that I haven’t posted for a while or updated (I have so much new work to list!). The reason that nothing has been done is because of a change of circumstances in our household. In the summer our Oscar-dog started getting poorly then at the end of July just a few days off his 17th birthday we had to say a sad goodbye to him.

This photo shows him at his prime!

Although we knew that we would get another dog we had intended to wait a while, but poor old Barney was not a happy dog without his companion, so in the end we gave in and got a puppy. This is Pebbles, a collie/whippet/Patterdale mix!

Yes she is very cute, but as you can imagine, she leaves me little time to do any artwork, let alone update my webpage!!

So please bear with me a little longer – I promise to do a ‘proper’ update as soon as I can!

And just so he doesn’t feel left out, here’s Barney to finish this blog 🙂

Update

I have been incredibly busy recently, hence my lack of postings on here! But I do have a spare few minutes so thought I would do a very brief update….

First of all, here are a few of my more recent pet portraits:

I am so lucky to have such beautiful animals to work on!

Then I have also been developing a bit of a new style – what do you think of these? They have Brusho background with the animal drawn in pastels.

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I have also spent a LONG time working on a big tiger picture. This is Cinta, the tiger, and I am so pleased with how this one turned out 🙂

Well, I will try to give a much better and more personal update in the next week or so.

Thank you for looking 🙂

Frances x

 

Awards!!

I am absolutely delighted to post that so far this year I have won two awards! The picture above is a felted one called ‘Dinner Time!’ and yesterday I went to Nature in Art to collect The Keith Shackleton Award for it! I couldn’t have been more pleased! At times I have struggled to gain any recognition for my felted work so this felt like a really big achievement 🙂

Although the award looks a bit like a jelly fish in this photo I can assure you that it is in fact a beautifully engraved glass award which I shall display with pride!

Then at the Association of Animal Artists annual exhibition my big pastel tiger picture ‘Chatoyant’ was voted the Children’s favourite, which is a lovely honour! Chatoyant is pictured below.

Upcoming Exhibitions

I will be exhibiting my work at quite a few places over the coming months so I thought I would take the time to tell you about some of them 🙂

From 31st March until 13th May I will have four pieces on display with the fabulous Association of Animal Artists at Castle Park Arts Centre in Frodsham, Cheshire. This exhibition is always full of fantastic animal art and well worth a visit. These are the four pieces that I will have on show.

Then over the first May bank holiday (6th and 7th)  I will be part of Belper Arts Trail. My work can be found at The Lion Hotel and I will be taking a really good selection of original work, prints plus giftware such as cushions, so lots to look at!

Then I am delighted to say that I had a piece of work accepted for exhibition for the Guild Artists Exhibition 2018 which will start off at Stratford Upon Avon before moving to London – how exciting is that! The piece that I had accepted was my leopard in mixed media, shown below.

So, lots going on at the moment!

If you can get along to any of my shows or exhibitions please do come and say hello 🙂

 

Catching Up

I know, it’s been a while since my last blog post. Sorry!

Since the start of the year I have been busy working out which exhibitions I would like to do this year, applying for them and then of course working like crazy to make sure that I have enough fresh work ready…

I really want to do Exhibition of Wildlife Art again and am desperately hoping that I am chosen. If I am, then by July I need to have fifteen felted pieces of work ready. Of course I have fifteen pieces of felted work, but here’s the catch – if they have been shown at EWA previously they can’t be exhibited again. This means that as at a few weeks ago I had three pieces ready. So I have set myself the target of producing a new piece of felted work every week. This in itself is fine – I love doing the felted pieces and I really enjoy having the structure of my self imposed challenge. But, each of these pieces needs to be framed, they need box frames and they aren’t standard sized. This means that I will have a minimum of twelve new felted pieces to frame, let’s say at an average of £50 each – well, you probably start to see where my problem is!!! Plus I am still doing my pastel and mixed media work too, most of which is big and all of which needs framing if it is to go to exhibition. This is why artists are poor LOL

Anyway, here are some of my new felted pieces with a bit of background. First of all, my favourite one, the baby giraffe. I had a felted giraffe picture which sold last year and I had always thought that I would do a new one. I really liked the idea of doing a baby with the background of the adult giraffe, so that’s what I did 🙂

As you probably know, I always tend to come back to the big cats, so decided to do a snow leopard. I wanted to stick to very neutral colours for this one, but was worried that the leopard wouldn’t stand out enough. I think it turned out okay though.

Then I thought that I hadn’t done a hare for a while, so decided to do a hare picture which represented how I usually see hares. I love to see them over the fields near where I live, and these fields are just a profusion of dandelions in the spring, so that’s where my felted hare ended up 🙂

As I said I have also been working on pastel and mixed media work too. I have had quite a few pet portraits to do, some of which are still under wraps, but this is one little dog that I fell in love with – Misty. It’s a memorial portrait and her mum was so pleased with it 🙂

Then I was sent some beautiful reference photos, including the picture that was the base for the picture below called Hold On Tight. This one is a big piece in mixed media. It has sold and looks absolutely brilliant in the frame chosen by my client. She asked me to frame it for her, so here I am looking as pleased as punch with it!

And using reference photos from the same lady I created this mixed media piece of a leopard. I think that there may be some exciting news connected with this one soon, but I just have to wait for confirmation before I can tell you! Anyway, this is possibly my favourite piece that I have done.

Well, that’s all for now. Hope you’ve enjoyed a quick catch-up of some of my work!

Frances Daunt Animal Artist

More wildlife

Well it’s getting late on a Sunday evening, so it seems a good time to sit down and update my blog….. I have been very busy since the start of the year, mainly with elephants and big cats!

I’ll start with the elephants. I was inspired to do this picture which I have called Vanishing Fast featuring two young elephants after thinking about the plight of so many wild animals, including elephants.

This is a mixed media piece – I painted with watercolour onto Pastelmat giving a very loose picture (a feeling of elephants if you like), then I added pastels to build up the picture and add detail. I decided to leave some of the elephants with the vague watercolour background to really add to the idea that they are vanishing fast.

Just as I completed this picture I was approached by Explorers Against Extinction to see if I would donate a piece to their project #SketchForSurvival. I donated a piece last year which sold for a decent amount of money which went directly to help protect endangered animals, so I was keen to donate again. I had really enjoyed painting these young elephants, so decided to do a new picture using just one of them, but trying to keep to the same sort of message. But of course, pictures have a way of going in their own direction and this is what I ended up with:

I called it storm brewing – hoping that it meant a storm of support for these beautiful creatures. Again it has been created using watercolour and pastels. I nearly abandoned it at one stage as I was finding it so hard to get the effect that I wanted, but I am so glad that I persevered. I love the feeling of light in this one. I hope that a generous bidder falls in love with it and donates a large sum on money to the project! Take a look at the Sketch for Survival webpage here for more information.

And now I am working on yet another elephant picture. This time it’s a big one based on a photo taken by Jackie Goddard and used with permission. It is still a work in progress, so you will have to wait until my next update to get a glimpse!

So as well as elephants it was all about the big cats (and they do crop up fairly often in my artwork!). First of all here’s a big picture called Heir to the Throne:

This picture took me ages and I am really pleased with how it turned out. I used a photo reference with permission by Nuri Beetz. I love the feeling that this one promotes!

I also did a picture of an Amur Leopard. These animals are critically endangered with only about 70 left in the wild. They are incredibly beautiful animals, with thick luxurious fur (sadly probably one of the reasons that they have come so close to extinction….)

This one is called The Stare and again is a mixed media piece, left fairly loose around the edges. I used one of my own photographs as reference for this one.

I also realised that I hadn’t done any felting for ages, so set myself the task of felting a picture of a tiger. I was really pleased with the result:

It was created using a combination of wet felting and needle felting with some machine embroidery added to the background.

Finally, an animal that is neither elephant nor big cat. An egret! I was very kindly sent some photos by Roger Harrison and used one of them as reference for this picture called Snow White. I am pleased at how the combination of watercolour and pastels has worked with this – it has created a lovely gentle picture.

Well, I have lots more to be getting on with, so there should be plenty more to show soon 🙂

 

Happy New Year!

 

First of all, welcome to 2018 – I think this will be a great year 🙂

Apologies for the lack of any word from me for ages, I really was run off my feet towards the end of last year, and then had a fabulous relaxing Christmas time with my lovely family. And now I am ready to hit 2018 with lots of new art!

So, it’s time to show some of the work that kept me so quiet last year. First up is one that is very different for me – what do you think? I know that some people love this, whereas some much prefer the more natural portraits….

I was contacted to see if I would do this portrait. I explained that it was a style I hadn’t attempted before, but was happy to give it a go. The cats are called Tormund and Bella (see the initials on their pockets). Bella started off with a tiara and a very pretty dress, but then I found out that Bella was actually a male cat, so it was back to the drawing board. As this was a mixed media portrait and I had used acrylic paints I was unable to correct it, so I had to restart. I really enjoyed this one though, it was good to do something so different.

Another portrait that I did sat much more within my comfort zone, although the fur on this one was certainly a challenge!

So this is Woody, another mixed media portrait. I have met Woody and he is as gorgeous as he looks! I did most of my Christmas commissions as mixed media, rather than straightforward pastels. Here are a few others:

The photo above shows the beautiful Barkley looking very happy with her portrait 🙂

This cheerful little dog is Roxy.

This beautiful boy is Barney.

And these two are Freddy and Ceran.

Towards the end of last year I also branched out slightly by having some products made using material with my artwork on. A few examples can be seen below. I haven’t got around to listing most of these products yet, so if you are interested in finding out more please just message me.

The owl cushion was probably my best seller in the run up to Christmas. Here is the original, which isn’t yet framed.

This is mixed media piece called Family Tree, but affectionately known within the family as Owl Babies after the children’s book of the same name 🙂 Once this one is framed I think that it will probably be one for exhibition.

I have had quite a few sell recently too – here’s a small selection of those pictures which have found new homes:

And many more 🙂 Which makes me think, I had better get busy otherwise I will have nothing left to take to exhibitions later in the year LOL

Anyway, may 2018 bring you peace, health and happiness. And art 😉

xx

 

Sales!

 

I thought that I would just do a short piece to let everyone know that I have a 30% off sale on my Artfinder page – if you add the fact that this weekend Artfinder are offering free postage it does mean that there are some bargains to be had 🙂

Here are a few of the pieces in my sale – prices range from £28 to just over £1000 so there is something for everybody!!

 

Thank you for looking – there will be a more chatty blog post coming up soon!

Frances x

The end of summer

Hello again.

I’ve been busy doing shows and exhibitions over the summer. Most of them have been very successful, allowing me to sell my work as well as meet lots of lovely people who are interested in what I do. I have explained how I make my felted pictures soooo many times – the people on the stalls next to mine must get fed up with me!

I have a few exhibitions left still this year. At the moment I have these four pieces in the TWASI exhibition at Hanbury Hall in Droitwich. I am hoping to get there before it closes on 16th September as I think it will be a fab exhibition. The theme is British wildlife in the landscape.

Then on Friday I will be travelling up to Richmond in Yorkshire to deliver four pieces of work for the AAA exhibition at The Station (DL10 4LD). My pieces for that exhibition include my Amur Leopard entitled On The Edge – see below.

In October (22nd-29th) I am taking part in Animal Earth Exhibition at Vicars Cross Golf Club, Chester CH3 7HN. I will be taking all of my felted work there (note to self, better get busy replacing the pieces that have sold recently!!).

In November I will again be involved with the fundraiser Derbyshire Unites for Nepal and also will spend a day at Open Studios with Kate Beinder Art. Then I will finish November with a trip to Sparkle (Teddington London) where I will again be exhibiting felted work, especially the CozyPads (see …felt with the heart section).

Anyway, enough about what’s coming up!

I have had a quiet August in respect of the fact that I completely lost my voice for a while!! I am still suffering a bit with a cough that I can’t seem to shift – all very unusual for me as I rarely get poorly (thankfully!).

As I am writing this one of my chickens has brazenly walked into the house and was standing in the middle of the living room looking at me whilst the two dogs just watched!!

Things are changing a lot in my house at the moment. Within the next two weeks my final two children will leave the nest leaving us with no one to introduce us to new music, chat about young people stuff with, make us laugh. I think I might be getting a LOT more work done then LOL It will be strange though.

Anyway, art stuff. In August Steve and I did one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks and we met a beautiful Swaledale sheep on the way. I have been felting and drawing him – here are the results. This is the pastel version, on pastelmat board. And below is the felted version, which isn’t quite done yet, but very close to being there.The end of summer has also seen me finally finish the horse that I started in April! This one is pastels on velour. I think that it was a mistake using the velour for this piece – if I was starting again I would stick with pastelmat. The bridle was particularly hard to do on velour. Anyway, the picture is called Miss Liberty 🙂  At the moment I have a kitten to finish, a lion cub which is about half way done plus lots of felting to start. So I should have lots of new work to show next time 🙂

I think that autumn has arrived, so it’s safe to say, have a lovely autumn.

Be happy! x