'new bloom in the star garden': a glorious giveaway

"If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers. . ."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

To all my friends who proudly wear their hearts on their sleeves and take time to stop and smell the roses, I'm so pleased to be able to share this new piece with you.

'New Bloom in the Star Garden' is a tribute to my very favourite book in all the world, 'The Little Prince', by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. 'The Little Prince' is a novella about a little boy with golden hair and a heart big enough to fill the universe. He leaves his home, Asteroid B-612, to explore other planets, including Earth. His adventures are filled with an array of colourful characters, whose personalities are loosely based upon the tyranny of grown-up thinking, or the personification of human motives and emotions (eg. narrow-mindedness, greed, vanity, pride, diligence, humility, kindness).


The Little Prince soon discovers that not all grown-ups or important people make wise decisions, and he inevitably shares these lessons with us just as he learns of them. The Little Prince himself is the embodiment of child-like wonder and curiousity, and learns to open his heart completely to the possibility of, and the responsibilities that come with, love and friendship.

 

 

It is, quite simply, unspeakably beautiful. You can read, or re-read it here.

 

I was very pleased to see, on a trip to the Bologna Children's Book Fair last year, that 'The Little Prince' has now been extended into a sweet little animated series, following the Prince's adventures after his return to Asteroid B-612. So far as I can see, the spirit and integrity of the original text has been maintained with the continued story, (which is only right of course), and it's had me thinking ever since- how would I choose to continue the story, if I could? 

 

 

I imagine the Little Prince has returned from one of his adventures with a packet of poppy seeds, in the hope that they will grow on his little planet and keep his beloved Rose company while he is off on adventures. With his little yellow sprinkling-can, he carefully plants and waters these seeds, and after watching some 27 sunsets, falls into a peaceful, happy sleep.


And the next morning, 'exactly at sunrise', this is what he saw: a real little rose-girl, more beautiful than the poppies that blow in the breeze around her, on Asteroid B-612. Perhaps the Little Prince will take her with him on his next trip to Earth, so they can be together for always?

'New Bloom in the Star Garden' is now available in my Etsy Shop.

If you'd love a chance to win your own copy of 'New Bloom in the Star Garden', you can go to the Grumpy Star Studio Facebook page for all the details.

Don't have Facebook? That's alright, all you need to do is:

1. Sign yourself up to subscribe to or follow the blog;

2. Post a comment here, in as many or little words as you fancy, why you'd love to win them.

One lucky winner will be drawn on Wednesday, May 23rd. Two runners-up will also receive a Set of 20 Art Postcards as featured in my Etsy Shop.  

 

Good luck!

 

Mel x

dead-busy and knee-deep in coloured pencils

Hullo petalcakes,

Just thought I'd do a quick share with you of my progress with the commission piece featured in black-and-white in my last post. Any guesses yet about the story that might have inspired it?

Have an awesome rest-of-the-week peeps and squeaks!

Mel x

not dead, just dead busy!

 

Hullo peeps and squeeks!

Just a wee note to let you know I've not fallen from the face of the planet these few weeks past (obviously- I was in the paper last week!), with no public sharing of my work since 'brown-bread-and-buttered-flies'. As always, I am ever busy behind-the-scenes, and the prepatory drawing for my latest commission piece has taken quite a bit of time . . . more pictures very soon as I begin to colour it tomorrow!

Hope you're tremendous wherever your heart might wander this week.

Mel x

merry mindil market moments

Hullo liebchens!

Just thought I'd share this little snippet with you, as we're gearing up to open shop at the very first Mindil Beach Sunset Market of 2012 at 5pm tomorrow night!

A huge thanks to Dan for the gorgeous photos and to Kylie for inviting me to take part in the fun.

So looking forward to seeing you there!

Mel x

for the love of butter

We all have vices. Anyone who says they don't is either telling porky-pies of epic proportions or else dangerously deluded.

I've kicked my smoking habit more times than I care to remember, and a month ago for the last time. I have pretty much substituted this filthy habit with an addiction for gallons of tea, which isn't so bad except I drink way too much coffee as it is and am so immune to caffeine I can fall asleep half an hour after a cup of the stuff at midnight (I honestly do just love the taste and smell of it). Dave is an excellent cook and I've been known to polish off an entire cheesecake, unaided, in a weekend. This is basically my sole reason for a gym membership and running habit. It's a dirty vicious cycle.

Most vices answer to a kind of need I think, and some of us (me) just have addictive personalities. But there are some that fly their own little freak flag; dorky vices, not really malignant but that raise their weird little heads in public situations (or, as the case may be, on a blog) to make us blush and raise the eyebrows of those who love us best.

So I'll just come out with it: I love butter. I smother the most disgusting amount of the stuff on anything more solid than butter. I eat butter with crumpets on the side. Plonk a bucket of it on a mountain of pumpkin mash and I'm yours. It's an absolutely necessary ingredient for shortbread, which is incidentally, the perfect accompaniment to my tenth daily cup of tea. It smells amazing when it gets warm and melty. When my metabolism slows down and I need the help of two fat blokes and a winch to get me out of my chair, it will be for the love of butter!

Lewis Carroll very famously used the irony of the word 'butterfly' to brilliant effect in 'Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There', creating insects made from slabs of buttered toast, who live on weak tea with cream. This sort of butterfly would be wonderful I think, but I'd have to snatch a fair few of them to slake my butter-thirst! I wanted my own to be bigger and nice and drippy; kind of like a flying breakfast.

'brown-bread-and-buttered-flies' is available now in my Etsy Shop for you to gaze on while you munch thoughtfully on your breakfast. And, unlike real butter, this picture is calorie-free.

Blessed be those who love butter!

Mel x

♥ sweetheart sale! ♥

Good morning petal cakes!

I hope you're having a beautiful Easter holiday wherever your hearts might roam, and hope that they are warm and full of love and chocolate.

Speaking of hearts, I thought I'd celebrate the last day of Easter by popping my Sewn-Up Sweethearts on sale. These little beauties were $70, now down to a bargain price of $50 each!

Each art doll features a completely hand-drawn face, patchworked head (very neatly machine-embroidered by me), and a wild assortment of found trinkets and charms and handmade beads. They look gorgeous hanging on a bedroom wall or door, and there's a secure hook sewn onto the back of each for just this purpose.

They are very much original works of art in doll form, and I had a lot of fun making these three (their sister, Pomegranita, in a pink colour scheme was the first to go some time ago, so there's only four presently in the world).

I am, I confess, prototyping other wonderful dolls as we speak, and with only so many hours in my days, I'm not sure I'll be making any more of these. Don't wait until it's too late to decide you have to have one! 

All nice things my friends,

Mel x

their hearts ran away with the circus

Meet Gabrielle and Rosalina, the star act at the Patchwork Circus!

At the precise moment I captured them here, Gabrielle and Rosalina have just performed their famous Glitter Jitterbug dance. Their little cheeks are flushed with happiness as they curtsey and are showered with roses, heart confetti and wild applause. Wherever the circus may go, everyone who sees it cannot help but fall in love with the sweet dancing sisters and their rosebud smiles.

It was a lot of fun as I drew them and got to know them to imagine how they live, and their hopes and dreams. They've been a part of the circus for as long as they can remember. Though they're orphans, they have hardly wanted for anything at all in their young lives: they love the circus and are utterly adored by their patchwork family. Gabrielle is about 15, and Rosalina 13. They looked much more alike when they were younger, and perhaps they don't share the same two parents, wherever they might be, but in each other's eyes and hearts they will always be sisters and the very best of friends.

They have always shared everything in life, including Gabrielle's Roberts Revival radio she got for her 8th birthday. When Rosalina reached double figures at the age of ten, her circus family presented her with a tiny little bundle of blue-grey fur with a heart-shaped splotch over one eye. Louie got his name later on that evening, when the famous Toots and the Maytals song, 'Louie Louie' came over the radio and the sisters discovered their new little kitten loved to dance! Every night he sleeps exactly between Gabrielle and Rosalina, at the foot of their huge feather bed, where they dream of singing and dancing and running away with the circus.



I'd love to hear your thoughts! And, if you love it, you can snap a print of 'A Patchwork Circus' for yourself for $50 on my Etsy Shop; just click on the link marked 'shop' at the top right of this post.

Have a wonderful day my little dancing liebchens,

Mel x