Blog

New 2021 Handcrafted Hanging Calendars for sale

If you are one of those lovely people who still likes to write important dates and events down in a printed calendar, please follow this link to my Shop at Tina’s Fine Art to view and purchase. Only £7.50 each plus £3 postage and packing. (Two designs, same pictures and poems.)

Book 5 Started: Figure 1 The Almighty Reed and Reedlings

Lovely to start on book 5 in the River Friend series: REED: ON THE EDGE. Here is a blog post about beginning the first figure in the book… VIEW BLOG POST

PRELIMINARY SKETCH. Follow the link to see more progress pictures and information.

1604: Tea & Cake & off to a new home

This little painting, which received a Highly Commended award in the latest Patchings Festival (online) exhibition (The Artist, and Leisure Painter) has now gone to its new home. The buyers visited the studio and we had tea and cakes on the patio (all socially distanced of course!). A lovely farewell to a little water colour painting which, on and off, took four years to complete. PICTURE PROFILE

And a little blog of history about the painting.

Artist Code: 1604. Completed 9th March 2020. “Three New Blades” of grass (Fieldfares and Redwing) SOLD April 2020 to private buyer. Water colour on Aquarelle Arches 100% hot pressed cotton rag. Unframed size 12″ x 9″.

Barn Owls Blunder

I have just left off painting because I was not happy with progress. I do hope I have not mucked it up (have not done that for a while). But after all the hard work and effort, it is so annoying when it starts to go wrong. My heart is on my sleeve, so I need a bit of time to reflect on the progress and whether I should tear it up or put it away for a few days and go back to it with a fresh eye. Not sure!

This has probably happened because I should now really be doing the illustrations for the next book in the River Friend Series, Book 5: “REED—ON THE EDGE”, and is obviously at the back of my unconscious mind and affecting my painting hand!!!

Should I tear it up, tidy it up, or wait for another day for a fresh look?

Ingram Spark have sold some Book 4s; and the TALP 2020 Open

It is wonderful to sell some books. Thank you so much to the buyers. I am hoping our fourth little book in the series—“INTERPRET: What do Plants Tell us?” will be successful.

Also, if you would like to see my “Highly Commended” painting (and love general art exhibitions), please visit my blog at tinasfineart.uk for a link to the results of the Painters Online TALP 2020 Virtual Open Exhibition.

Book 4 in the River Friend Series just published today!

A new book in the River Friend Series: INTERPRET: What do Plants tell us? has just been published today.

Cover of Book 4, just published. There are 130 pen and ink and colour illustrations accompanying the text. http://riverfriend.tinasfineart.uk/product/interpret-river-friend-series-book-4-isbn-978-1-9162096-5-7/
Berula erecta, a really fascinating plant. Colour plate from Book 4
Nuphar lutea. One of the Pen and Ink illustrations

There are now four published titles for River Lovers available to purchase from the River Friend Website, or from retail outlets such as Amazon. Trade can apply through the Ingram Spark Catalogue and Wholesale outlets.

Rivers are vital. They bring freshwater to the land, on which all its life depends. They are beautiful and fascinating, making up both the typical British countryside and many of its most spectacular views. If they vanished, what hardship and outrage there would be! Yet, slowly, slowly, they are vanishing, the larger stream becomes smaller, the tiny brook becomes a ditch and dries, and is filled in—the small ditches get polluted and dug out, become dull, and vanish from sight and consciousness. How can we save our rivers and riverscapes? How can we raise awareness on this slow, almost invisible loss?

This Series of handy, small books, is suitable for readers from late-teenage upwards and is intended help to raise awareness. Individually, each book tells a story on a particular riverine and riparian environment. Collectively, the series informs, in a simple and effective manner, the invaluable worth of freshwater and its plants.

New Title Available – “A Prologue to the Series”

We have just published “A Prologue to the Series“, the introductory book which ties all the little books in the series together. It is 60 pages of information to do with terminology, a picture guide with over 100 illustrations of about 60 UK species of water plants, and a bibliography for further reading and reference.

Available from outlets such as Amazon Books £7.50 each. Trade can acquire the titles from Ingram Spark distributors

The Prologue complements the two books already published:

Book 1 (Drying Up) and Book 2 (Stream Story: The River Brue, Somerset).

These are lovely little Paperback books each with a snippet of information about Riverine/Riparian matters.

Co-authored by Sylvia M. Haslam and Tina Bone, with illustrations by Tina Bone.