fluid - a shark

They are graceful creatures. I tried to capture the fluidity of the movements and moods of sharks in this piece.
Hand painted with artist quality acrylics, hand dyed with procion fibre reactive dyes.

Amitabha buddha

back from exhibition and on auction @ Ozebaby.

I really loved this one with all the under painting, but then went and made him golden, which is nice and still looks good, but I loved the dark and moody Buddha he was. Better he is soft and glowing though, deep in meditation of the pure land.

grace - where the flamingoes swim

this shirt will go up for auction early next week.
I really love who the flamingos are reflected in the water. It was the first thing I saw once the original tie-dye was finished, and as always, the name came to me first - where the flamingos swim. Since then Grace has also been added as a name.
I think this is one of my favourites so far.

GDUNH prize

my sponsor prize for the GDUNH is in the mail
here it is nicely packaged

pride update

hopefully this will be finished sometime during Feb and will be auctioned on Ozebaby. If I can finish it to look the way it looks in my head, i'm sure it will be my best piece yet!
it still needs a few more sessions and is currently a work in progress

let them eat cake!

because I love kitsch, and love cake, and love everything a little 'upper crust'...
here is my new favourite fluff mail. It takes a place of pride on my desk! It's a knitted cup-cake from Jules and Me.

feisty update

when the customer asked for a frill neck I said that would be a challenge, and that he is proving to be. here is an update, haven't done much on him to date, but it is more than the outline

Feisty

this feisty little frill neck lizard is my 2nd January custom.
I do love painting Australian animals!

I'm glad to be able to paint today as I have wanted to for a week but haven't had time or space.

here is the original artist's impression

and here is the very start of the lizard, just the outline so far.
More pics to come.

"la-di-da-di-da"

one of my January customs - I call it "la-di-da-di-da".

The reason I say it takes 6 weeks as I only have two days a week without DS. There is no way I can paint with him here or awake and lately he is going to bed at 10pm so I am behind on painting.
My customs will be done in time, but the GDUNH will have less painted pieces.

It will be nice if they only took an hour to paint - but that isn't the case.
Oh well, painting is always a labor of love.

This is the mock design I sent the customer, more like an artistic interpretation of the general feel of the finished piece.

And here is the cute little frog coming to life.

paintings by Zac

'cause he's cute!

2007 -study vs. business

As some of you may know, I am currently studying a graduate diploma of education (middle years), although sometimes I wonder why LOL.

I will finish this year as I have one theory subject and two field experience (pracs) left. These practical placements will take great chunks out of my time so Tanya Smart the business will roll back in May and again in July to August.

I am not sure at this stage if i will even remain open at these times. This year will be slower for me anyway as I aim to concentrate on hand painting (ie - freestyle brush) as it is more challenging and fulfilling. I will try to make some in stocks for my store, but will mainly offer custom slots.

So, it looks like i will be finished with uni in September (jumps for joy). I then plan to travel a bit with Zac.

Here are some funny pics from when I graduated from my BA in early 2001. It shows the joy I had for my arts degree. Hopefully graduation photos for education won't be too dim LOL.
Gotta love the cornflour blue of Griffith uni.

gearing up for the GDUNH

I have been really busy preparing for the GDUNH.
Unfortunatley, I have had issues with my Zencart store which needed attention and this has taken up much of my time to make stock.

I also have two great customs from Jan release to paint which I am excited about and a few GDUNH tees to finish. I wanted to have some hand painted tees to list as buy nows, but this seems like it may not happen.
So throughout the GDUNH, I will load my detail hand painted pieces as auctions on Ozebaby. I have some boys and girls tee and unisex ones. I also think this is fair to give everyone a chance at buying the pieces if they like them.
I will create a quick link in the top navigation bar of my zencart store to my auctions.

I will be offering a 10% discount to all hunters on my zencart store and there will also be in store specials on zencart and ozebaby.

Good luck with the hunting... and I'm in it to win too, so watch out!

success with the diva

I am so happy with my Diva cup, it is amazing! I have only started using it today and I am in love. It is easy to insert and I have finally got the hang of removal, no leaks, no problems.
I'm glad I bought one and I'm sure I'll never turn back. I will use cloth for nights though and have been adding to my collection (pics coming soon).

library bags *coming soon*

I have been working on these bags for a month or so and nearly have a large collection to release.
They are 100% calico bags, hand dyed and stenciled.
I'm aiming to release them Wed 24th Jan on my Tanya Smart Online Store.

I have designed these specifically for youngin's going back to school to use as a library bag. So many library bags don't have handles, these will make the job of carrying around all those books much easier, but also adds individuality as you can guarantee no one else will have the same bag.

But they could also be a shopping bag for a funky mumma or dad.

nearly finished and oh so cute

not an aardvark, elephant, possum or anteater, but close LOL

my morning

After spending the whole of yesterday dyeing, I spent the morning rinsing and un-tying everything. All of a sudden there was a loud rustle through the plastic bags. Straight away I though snake and was all nervous. After trying to find someone to come and get it, at no avail, I asked my neighbor for a new. He came and helped out with a snake catching rod.
A few minutes later, it emerged. No not a snake, a blue tongue LOL.
I'm glad the snake catchers didn't come, it would have been funny.
I have been missing my pet Hari das from my old house. I feed that blue-tongue and cared for him for nearly three years.
I'm happy to have a even fatter lizard, just hope it finds somewhere more comfortable than my laundry.
Now, just to get a photo...

I love spring cleaning

I have the cleaning bug! I am simplifying my life as I have accumulated so much stuff from having DS. All his baby gear is going, as well as old clothes that I'll never fit again, heaps of toys, manchester, art supplies, nic nacs... everything.
I'm planning on having a garage sale in the next month to try to make some money back from all the baby stuff. DS is very happy with his new, clean, organised room. My room next.

sneak peek - pride

a bit cryptic

GDUNH

Tanya Smart online store is a proud sponsor of the GDUNH
I have donated Pacific, hand dyed and painted tee, as a prize

Zac joins in

Zac wants in on the action with making tees.
He keeps pointing at my shirts and saying "painting, painting" so I bought him so funky crayons and this is his first effort... I'm so proud.

He is currently working on a sheet for his cot (or daycare). As it is so big I might dye the background a pale yellow after he is finished drawing.

work in progress

Can you guess what this cute little critter will be?

The showing at the library runs for a month.
I haven't exhibited since I found out I was pregnant. I really miss it as hanging your stuff out there keeps one humble and makes you concentrate on the quality, meaning and presentation of a piece/pieces. I also feel it has provided a bit more of a focus as the WAHM stuff has been taking over.

Here is a pic of the showing

I am in a real painting mood lately which is great because I needed to make some stuff to hang in my local library. I asked a while ago about their hanging spaces, and January came around so fast.

The first hurdle, apart from the painting, was how to hand shirts on the library's painting hanging hooks....mmmm.
I came up wih a nice piece of dowelling wood with some chains. I bought some hard wood and my hardware was nice enough to cut into 6 bits for me.

Adding the cup hooks was funny. I drilled a pilot whole and twisted in the hook... snap! It broke! And then another! And then the drill bit!! LOL
I finally used another much larger drill bit and the hooks went in nicely.

Here is a pic of the hanging frame/rod.

where to next?

I'm not quite sure what to include in my blog, whether it be business or personal, so a mix of both is easiest. After all, I am my business or it is me, one or the other LOL.