Painting By Numbers

Since Christmas I have been in the studio painting big birthday numbers  to go with the alphabets (published by Cherry Picked For You. ) Eighty, features roses and violets and thirty is of convolvulus.

We are excited to hear that the Chelsea Physic garden has taken an order for the botanical alphabet cards which are now also available in a smaller 3x3.5 inch format which makes them extra cute.

 For some reason these specimens look wonky but they are square in real life ! The 50 was inspired by sage leaves and winter jasmine.

 Seventy has a hydrangea theme.

 I couldn't finish a post before putting a fairy on it ... this water colour is called 'After the Party'. It's 25 x 21 cms and it's the first of a new set I'm painting for the May Festival.

Rounding UP - the 2nd Instalment

 And so I had to round up these reluctant creatures ... first Isabella flew on to a candle and tried camouflaging herself amongst the greenery and when that didn't work I later found her on the remains of the Christmas cake ( a golden  gingery one in this case as in our house the fairies prefer it to the dark and rich type. ) As you all know , fairies have a very sweet tooth so this was a temptation to fill up before the long hibernation ahead.

 Ruby was found trying to hide in a cyclamen and as you can see she is even worse at trying to merge in to her background.

 Eventually they were happy to snuggle in to the decoration box ...

 And then I put them in to a box of their own and this is their last goodbye for another year.

 In the meantime I have some teeny weeny fairies that are happy just to loll around  in the studio before being put in to their 2 inch boxes ... it can be exhausting keeping fairies - as they say ,' a fairy is for life and not just for Christmas! '

Christmas tree

 It's twelfth night and time to take down the tree ... the Queen of the tree has been looking for her tree fairies who are reluctant to be packed away for another year and we had to look  carefully to find out where they were hiding.

This one was found trying to fly away on a bird ...

After that it took a bit of hunting to find where the rest were hiding !

 Father Christmas wasn't giving anything away ...

 No one to be found round this side ... except a golden cherub, a frosted star and a tasseled pineapple .

 Aha ! Found a couple of fairies after the fondant creams hidden in the furthest depths ...

 And the another trying to get away with a candy cane ... find out how it all ended in the next instalment  !!
 And A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR  !
Love from Betty and the fairies xxx