Sea dogs and Box cats

A Sailor Stole my Heart, acrylic on canvas 08

At last I can now share the full series of my latest work, All at Sea with you! Here are a few examples of photos taken over the weekend of my paintings in their customised frames! To see the full set click on my website www.gemmaparker.co.uk HERE

To the Bitter End, watercolour on paper,
shells and charms on customised wood frame 09

The Devil to Pay, acrylic on artist board with hemp rope 09

Rainbow Watch

Some of you may remember that a while back I began a portrait of my friend's cat which I have been working on between other projects. Here is where Rainbow is up to now:

I've recently been working on her eyes which were very unique in shape but I think I've managed to capture them. Next I intend to add more definition to her nose mouth and markings. Rainbow was very fond of sitting in bags and boxes, an hobby of many a feline, including my own. However, no-one illustrates the cat-box relationship quite like Maru the cat, who I am a big fan of! Go Maru!

Learn the Ropes

Just a quickie this week! Here's a peek at the most recent painting for my nautical pin up series. I'm finding that as I work on it the theme is evolving, it isn't so much about traditional sailor tattoos anymore but heavily inspired by them. It is becoming a more fluid way of getting my ideas down. The theme is still nautical with each image taking it's cue from maritime sayings, but the outside influence is much looser now, I think the point when I was listening to Air in the studio while working and found myself going down a much more personal route really was the turning point.

With this image for instance I am definately getting a Kylie vibe through (probably as I keep listening to Boombox and Made of Glass) but also I have added my fascination with performance here and turned the mermaid into a kind of burlesque performer using japanese rope bondage as well as star pasties.

Other news:

The Chantilly Belles now have the video of our performance at Urbis for the Urbis Creatives launch night up online!

The night which took place earlier this year was to celebrate the launch of the Urbis Creatives website, a platform for the staff of Urbis who have creative projects outside of work. You can see the website HERE.

Urbis Creatives will have our own stall at this years Buy Art Fair to be held at Urbis from the 24th - 27th September. Along with other artists I will be showing and selling orignal artwork as part of one of the largest consumer art exhibitions in the country! More info to follow...