Do you believe in unicorns?

I have been splashing about with my watercolors. I do so love unicorns so I created this magical rainbow creature with plenty of drips and sploshes and yes of course I go it all over my clothes! I believe unicorns exist....and hope to meet one one day!

Unicorn Splash prints can be bought in my Etsy shop.

I also created this Father's Day card available here....I wonder if there are any little girls who actually love daddy more than unicorns? If so this is the card for them.

Whatever you do....keep believing in unicorns, they are the symbol of joy and have a magical ability we all have to transform our lives!

Linking up to Paint Party Friday, Sunday Sketches and Brilliant Blog Posts.

Splashing Hippo

Like many people I have been captivated by Fiona, a preemie hippo born at Cincinnati Zoo who is too adorable for words. I thought I'd do a painting of her splashing about. She is quite the diva.

You can buy prints of FIONA over at my Etsy Store..

Linking up to Paint Party Friday, Sunday Sketches and Brilliant Blog Posts.

Does Coffee Improve Memory?

Hello Peeps!

I have been busy painting this adorable little bunny which will be available printed on some products over at Bohemian Coffee Club in a few weeks.

A post shared by Pet portraits from your photos (@studiokaufmann) on Apr 18, 2017 at 4:10pm PDT

I met a woman at the gym today who I have known on and off for sixteen years. That was at 9.30. We talked a bit about how she was determined to lose 15 lb pounds and I wished her the best of luck. Then I went swimming. I went up and down for an hour and tried to remember what this woman was called.

It was on the tip of my tongue. I knew her name started with N or maybe M. Then there was a bit of drama I think a woman fainted or twisted her leg and was lying at the side of the pool. Then I trod water while I watched the paramedics come and take this woman to hospital in the ambulance.

Then I swam a bit more and tried to remember my friend's name. Nada. Nothing.

Then I went home and ate some friend mushrooms.

It is now 1.20 and I have just remembered this woman's name! It does start with N. Nicola. I think it was the grease in the friend mushrooms that kick started the old grey matter. I am 46. Honestly I didn't think my brain was going to pack up this early in the game. I am wondering what will exercise my brain?

I have heard coffee improves your memory. Is that true? I must say I do love the stuff and my memory is shot to pieces so who knows? I also did a coffee art piece called COFFEE SPLASH which describes my feelings about the invigorating power of Java.

You can buy prints of COFFEE SPLASH over at CURIOOS.

Linking up to Paint Party Friday, Sunday Sketches and Brilliant Blog Posts.

Gone to the dogs

Hi guys!

I've had a busy week of doing dawg portraits. Here's an adorable great dane I did.....first I messed around with masking fluid. Don't you just love pulling up masking fluid? It's so therapeutic!

A post shared by Pet portraits from your photos (@studiokaufmann) on Mar 21, 2017 at 2:19pm PDT

This is another spotted dane I did in watercolor and acrylic inks.

Linking up to Paint Party Friday, Sunday Sketches and Brilliant Blog Posts.

Giraffe Kiss

Giraffe Kiss, Acrylic inks

I have had a pretty uneventful week. Someone told me they had lost 25lb by not eating sugar and that it 'wasn't very difficult.' I am always looking for lazy ways to lose weight.....not that I ever really stick to any of these things but hey ho.

I did okay with no sugar on Monday.

I ate three chocolate biscuits and some leftover bread pudding on Tuesday.

Wednesday and Thursday were ok as I just had some sugar on some Weetabix which doesn't count :)

Friday I don't think I officially ate any sugar, just, you know the stuff they put into ketchup, pasta sauce etc.

Well, it's been a week of swings and roundabouts. Maybe just eating less sugar is good enough!!

Have you ever tried not eating sugar and was it hard?

Here's my latest acrylic inks painting: GIRAFFE KISS.


You can buy PRINTS, CUSHIONS, PHONE COVERS etc. of this design HERE.

Have a great weekend!

Linking up to Paint Party Friday and Brilliant Blog Posts.

Fox in the Snow

We have been flooded with snow for the last week. Heaps and heaps. Piles and piles. And then the aftermath was even worse. Either the ploughs didn't come or if they did come they would spray snow all over your sidewalk.

So while I was indoors, claustrophobic and climbling the walls I painted this little fella who is looking at the slow drift of snow flakes. It is available at Redbubble. He was painted in watercolor.

During the snowstorm we also lost one of our two guinea pigs. Yes little brown Peanut has gone to guinea pig heaven. She was such a sweet and gentle little thing. RIP Peanut.

Peanut in the doll's house

Linking up to Brilliant Blog Posts and Paint Party Friday

Chaneling King Kong

I'm not sure why this image popped into my head.....I suppose I thought of the beginning of a story... In a Post-Apocaylyptic World all the animals have escaped from the zoo......finish the story!!

King Kong had asked for a double cappuccino no foam and was still waiting

Or maybe I am channeling King Kong, who while fabulous seemed to be a bit angry about something. Maybe he hadn't had his coffee that morning. I know not having my coffee makes me feel like I could rip out a building!!(that cartoon is NOT by me)

Still from Pixels the movie

I was also influenced by the amazing movie Pixels which has some fab neon glowing colors in it. A very cool movie, it is about extraterrestrials intercepting an ’80s-era NASA time capsule containing footage of old single-player classic video games like Pacman, and mistaking them for a declaration of war. Now they return the challenge by scheduling a series of skirmishes with Earth, each one taking on the interface of a different videogame; if we lose, it’s game over for the whole planet.

Anyway if you grew up in the eighties you will love it!!

Linking up to Paint Party Friday, Sunday Sketches and All About You.

Zoo in the City prints, cushions, duvet covers etc. available at Redbubble.

Giraffes and Poppies

 I first fell in love with a Slow Loris at the Berlin Zoo where they have a very interesting exhibit where nocturnal animals are kept in the dark with some sort of special lighting so you can see them and they walk around very slowly and softly. These animals are so adorable with their huge eyes, sadly for them, because many are taken from the wild and kept as pets.

Slow lorises are a group of several species of nocturnal strepsirrhine primates which make up the genus Nycticebus and are found in Southeast Asia. This painting in watercolor and oil pastel was added to the primates group for Week 35. Go to 52 Weeks - Nature Painting Challenge for more info.

My head was also in the clouds this week when I concocted my whimsical watercolor 'Giraffes in the Poppies.'

Hope everyone had a wonderful week!

Happy Paint Party Friday.. Do check out Sunday Sketches too ....


giraffe paintings for sale

Hooray! It's Caturday!

I just found a fun facebook and twitter group called the Colour Collective. Every week they pick a different colour and we all create an artwork or illustration incorporating that colour. This week it was tea rose. I started thinking about whether a cat and a canary can ever be friends and decided to create this little illustration called 'Cat and Canary'?

Do you have a cat and bird who live together who are friends?

Linking up with Caturday Art Blog Hop and Sunday Sketches.

Cat and Canary Print available from Redbubble.

Parrot Power!

 

I painted a cute colorful African pygmy hedgehog as a happy birthday present for a kid I know. Isn't he adorable? I had some yupo paper with alcoholic inks painted on them from which I cut out the balloons. The rest is done in Acrylic inks and watercolor.

You can buy this image as greeting card, print, mug, pillow etc. here in my Redbubble store.

Later on I painted a parrot  (actually a Vinaceous-breasted Amazon) in alcohol inks which turned out very ethereal and abstract. The bird felt very free so I decided to leave him as he was and not put in any more detail.

I have recently become an instagram fanatic so please follow me at HERE. I am also running a loop giveaway on Instagram where you can win one of 10 fabulous prizes including one of my pet portraits. Go HERE to enter and good luck!

Linking up to Paint Party Friday so come join the fun!
parrots art for sale

Jacutinga Birds

This week I found inspiration in the endangered Jacutinga or Black-fronted Piping Guan (Pipile jacutinga). Such a visually arresting bird with such colorful markings and expressive eyes. I couldn't wait to get started!

I started painting this with watercolor but then I felt it needed a little extra pizzazz so I dripped some ink onto the damp surface and loved the way the ink formed a criss-cross pattern like a batik.

Also I'm very excited because my friend Vicki who writes a fun, stylish blog called Honest Mum has featured my cushions on her blog. She and her sons are the perfect models against my colorful cushions that will make your room POP! Do go over and check out her feature and enter the competition to win the cushions here.

Linking up to Paint Party Friday!

Black Cats and Japanese Watercolors

I was a bit stumped when I thought of creating this portrait of my friend Claire's adorable cats Pumpkin and Pieface. It is difficult to make black fur look as lustrous and lovely as it is in real life.

But then inspiration hit! The time was right to take a virgin flight with my Sumi-E Japanese watercolors. I am always looking for bright, vivid watercolors and I was so excited to find these! What is Sumi-E? I found out that "Sumi" means "black ink" and "e" means both "path" and "painting."

I also used a Japanese watercolor paper that is specifically for Sumi–e painting. This very absorbent paper is ideal for "freestyle" brush painting, a simple yet highly aesthetic drawing made of powerful, mostly chasing and rapidly executed lines.


One day I may well try Japanese painting although you need special brushes. In the meantime I just used a regular brush and put a bright background where the highlights of the cats' fur was and then when it was dry overlaid it with opaque black. My friend was delighted with it!


Have you ever tried Japanese watercolors and how did you like them? I was very pleased with their intense colors.

Linking up with Pet Parade and Paint Party Friday

Stay warm and do check out my new Fine Art America store!!