Good on Paper

I've been testing different papers to see what yields the nicest result for printing watercolour paintings and concluded that Hahnemuhle 'Matte Museum Etching 350 gsm, 100% cotton' is the one. It has a silky finish and a texture a bit like watercolour paper.

So - job done - I'll be able to send prints of the fairy-tale tree to all who pre-ordered one.. or you can find a new shop I've just opened here.

I'm also starting a new painting this weekend and will share it here on my blog soon. My aim is to create a lot of new artwork for 'The Hidden World' over the coming months;)

In other news...

Things I love about LA? Aside from accessibility to the film industry, creative people, climate and Mexican food? It's the fact that people host spectacular balls from time to time. I attend the 'Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball' each year (previous post here), but this month I discovered the Edwardian Ball...

Bought a brilliant silk ballgown (which was strictly speaking more Victorian than Edwardian, but the best I could do at short notice) and felt like Deborah Kerr in 'The King and I'. The stage performances were fantastic, the 1920s venue (Fonda Theatre) is a favourite of mine and the DJs were pretty good too. They even had a cocktail which may as well have been tailored for me - something called 'Tea Thyme', which was tea vodka shaken over ice with honey syrup and muddled with sprigs of thyme. Everyone made a huge effort with costumes - much as they do for 'Labyrinth of Jareth' and we all had a ball.

Find out about it at their website and scroll past my print images to see photos from the event. I took some, but the superior ones with copyright notice were taken by a brilliantly talented photographer - Marco Sanchez, who kindly gave me permission to share.