Jenny Mendes

Eszter Schall is a wonderful Hungarian Illustrator.   Here is her blog!

See more!

Oops forgot the top fin, I'll have to fix that today.   Sometimes I get a request that isn't exactly in my repertoire.  I knew next to nothing about the three above animals. In that way it was fun to try and paint something resembling the real thing.  In painting the giraffes, and never having scrutinized a giraffe that carefully, I thought somehow they must be related to camels, based on the shape of their heads.  So, I looked it up.  Here's an interesting fact that I found out.  The Giraffe and Camel are the only known animals that walk on the tips of their toes like cats, but no, they are not related. Next onto the seahorse.  They are so complex and  incredible looking, and apparently are experts at camouflage.  I can see great surface inspiration there, which I really didn't have time to get into, but perhaps later on........ A few facts: Male seahorses give birth, and mate for life.  They are very bad swimme...

You can see the vine coming out of my compost bin.... Not a lot of pumpkins, but the plant is amazing.... Thought these were going to be sweet....wrong! These seeds were from my friend in Macedonia, I'm not sure if the peppers will be hot or sweet. From some seeds I saved when I was a resident at Penland School.  I love this color. A wonderful Zinnia, long lasting, lots of flowers.  A favorite!! Lots of flowers but not many pumpkins.  This was after a big rain...... Almost 10 months old....

I painted this last week on the day that my friend was getting a new heart valve.  She's doing great now.  I wish it were always this easy to mend a heart....

Well, maybe not exactly a cat, but really cute anyway!!

I met Edita Rydhag last summer at a ceramic symposium in Slovenia.  Great Textures!  She works in Sweden and has a lovely website where you can learn more about her work here.

Yoshitomo Nara

Why did I draw this?  I have no idea, but it is kind of fun.  You never know where a bone dry tile and a needle tool are going to end up.  I made this a few years ago when I was a resident artist at Penland School, now I sell it as a print on Etsy !

This was a commission for a woman who lost her cat.  The cat looks just like mine, so it was easy to imagine.  Our cat was a found cat, probably someone else's loss as she arrived at the house in a mysterious way.  But she landed at the right house!  I guess this is the best we can wish for animals who stray...... I'm not much for commissions, as I tend to procrastinate when someone asks me for something, but an opportunity to play with variations on a theme that wasn't initially my idea, is something that I welcome.  I like to get outside of my own head as much as possible!

http://www.iande.art.br/loja/jequitinhonha/jqtcalciranda2368.htm

The best thing happening in my garden at the moment are the tomatoes .... somehow I don't have as much color as I'd like this year, but the tomatoes look great.  The cucumbers however have been a disaster.  Out of 10 or more plants most have died.  And I had been dreaming of pickling, might just have to pickle the tomatoes instead.