A magpie amongst other things.

I have quite an eventful weekend behind me. One of my husbands colleagues who used to work with him in Rizhao is here in China for business, and he stayed with us over the weekend. Dinner,  drinks, catching up, running around town a bit... You get the picture. 

In 2 weeks time we will fly home to Finland for our annual holiday, and I have quite a long list of things I want to get done before that in the studio. Today I was able to cross over a few things as 'done'. Happy feeling!

All the paintings from the exhibition is back in my home, and today I varnished the ones that hadn't dried enough before. I use a satin varnish, and it gives the darker colours a real lift. 

Magpie. 40x30cm, mixed media. I can finally call this one done. I have been working on it on and of for a few years now, never satisfied with the result. I started over 5 times I think, and now it is finally done! This was a commission, and after it has dried completely I will send it to its new home in the US. I do not know why it took me so long to figure this one out, it's pretty much what I have been painting for a long time now. Maybe because I was afraid that it wouldn't live up to expectations? Oh well. Now he/she is done!

After I varnish it the colours will shine evenly and with much more depth. 

Lovely blues and greens. 

I have also been making more postcards. These two ended up very simple. I used modelling paste through a stencil I made earlier this spring, and then just painted them with watercolours. I was suppose to add more to it, but I liked them so much like this that I decided they were done. The only thing I will add to them is a 'Thank you' or 'congratulation', depending on to what I decide to use them for.

Two totally different card from the previous ones, and maybe more in my usual style. I used gelliprints that I had as background and then painted an Owl for one of them. I had planned to add a focal point to the other card as well, but I decided it was strong enough in itself. I just added two quotes: "inspiration is everywhere" and "follow your passion".

And with that it is time for me to go to bed!