We have been up early in the studio today, we have had hail and rain through the night and woke us up early so we have both been working in the studio for quite a while. Nick has been working on Ginny’s portrait and I have been doing some admin and client mock-ups. I hope to have a final scan of Ginny, possibly even later today!

Ginny's portrait in progress

A very quick post today to show the next stages of Ginys portrait, I hope you like it so far! Nick has been working on it today and he is a little ahead of this stage, so I will post some more up to date photos tomorrow and hopefully a final scan later this week.

Ginny's next stages

Ginny's next stages

The first good news is that Lockhearts photo has arrived from the cleint in the US yesterday and so Nick can get started painting asap! The photo was much clearer than the scan / email so we now have a large print to work from and I know the painting is going to be utterly fantstic. Im really looking forward to seeing it underway and i will of course take plenty of photos.

The second good news is that Ginny’s portrait is looking wonderful so far here in the studio and will be a lovely one for our cat portraits website. I have taken photos of the stages, Nick is a little further ahead than this, he did some work on it yesterday but these are fridays stages. Nick will complete Ginny before starting Lockheart and I will have a final scan along with more stages next week.

We are now going out into the garden as its a lovely day here – I know shock, horror the sun is actually shining! This is the first time the sun has really showed an appearance for a number of weeks and so we are going to take this opportunity to paint the outside of the packing shed. We have bought an understated green colour and I ll be sure to take photos! Have a good Sunday where ever you are!

Ginnys First stages - 12 x 10 portrait in oils on canvas

Ginnys First stages - 12 x 10 portrait in oils on canvas

Ginnys First stages - 12 x 10 portrait in oils on canvas

Its been a very busy day here in the studio..and out of the studio too! We took a portrait to Jane the framers and then trundled off to the post office to post some portraits to the US. Its always the way that we end up visiting the post office with a collection of things to post but our postlady doesn’t mind, she is so lovely : )  She is called Polly and is superb at her job, shes never flustered, very calm and relaxed…even when we hold the queue up and it gets longer…and longer!

So if you can imagine the scenario, a lovely rural post office and me taking over the entire place with lots of portraits to post. One particular portrait was too large for the counter scales, so Polly has a large weiging scales that we can use on a desk to the side of the counter. Of course typically the parcel was to large to balance on the scales on the desk so heres me lifting the scales onto the floor and balancing a large parcel in the middle of the post office floor..getting on my hands and knees trying to read the readout. Very elegant! At least it entertained the post office queue while they were waiting : )  All of the portraits went off safely and should be in the US within 3 to 4 days.

I decided, and have actually been thinking about it for a while, that we need our own digital scales. Not your every day kitchen scales – postal scales! I ordered one on the net with a detachable front so I don’t have to clamber on the floor to read it and it should be here tomorrow. It goes up to 35kg so this way I can weight the parcels before I go which will be helpful when we have the courier to the studio to collect..and when we take the portrait to the post office, perhaps I wont have to hold the queue up so much!

As you can see below my cat portrait is now complete. its a tinted montage and im really pleased with the way it has turned out. I will hopefully be adding it to the website tomorrow into the cat gallery.

Tinted Cat Portrait by Melanie Phillips

Nick has now completed the pastel portraits for our two previous clients and I am just about to scan them in and email them to our clients. I have also collected the portraits from Jane the framer of Millie and Digit. They look absolutly fabulous and im not just saying that, they really do look amazing here in the studio. I have taken some photos today, the weather outside is pretty dull so I have used the photography lights for lighting so I hope the photos do them justice.

First here is Millie and we have used a new moulding and I have not only added these photos to Millies gallery page but I have also added the new moulding to our framing page. We asked Jane to use this mouding when we re-framed our lovely Flaming June print by Lord Leighton earlier this year which hangs in our hallway (I really enjoy the preraphaelites).  The moudling is really beautiful and I think will work well with our clients Victorian style  home.

Millie on our mini easel

Framed Pet Portraits

Next here is Digits portrait framed and photographed. This is the gold dots frame which is really popular at the moment and its accompanied by an inner linen slip. I have added Digits portrait framed to the gallery and framing section too : )  What a busy day! Its now nearly 6pm and i havent scanned the pastels yet so it looks like they will be done tomorrow now. More posts to follow soon!

Digit Framed in the Gold Dot moulding

Digit Framed in the Gold Dot moulding

Digit Framed in the Gold Dot moulding