Fox on a Boat

I recently spent a weekend in Barcelona. It unfortunately rained most of the time, but that didn't stop me from gallivanting around town, sniffing out culture like a young poet, fresh off a night bus from Toulouse... Anyway, more on Barcelona will be coming soon in another post, but for now, it's blog-gallery time! By the harbour In the metro In the metro By the harbour

It's been a while since I last updated.. I spent the holidays with some good friends and of course wanted to make every moment count, so no blogging.. Since then, it seems the days are going quite quickly, even if they don't pass as quickly as the holidays.. I'm already looking forward to my next holidays, where I'll be landing in Morocco - so will definitely write about that! I've not been writing much save for December's poem, but I've been drawing a lot more, and painting digitally. Here are some of the pieces I created in the last few weeks. And some sketches..

In the past two weeks, I've gone back to painting in acrylics, and produced these three new paintings of lighthouses. The first one I am quite happy with, though of course it could always be improved. For the other two, I had set myself a small challenge. I only used a palette knife to paint, and I only used two blues, black, and white. I'm not entirely happy with them but I was glad to have worked on a new technique. -- To read specifically about my year abroad, please visit my side blog here.

...Sorry about the title, but I couldn't resist. After all, "en mai, fais ce qu'il te plaît". Now here's the problem, right now, right here. I can't do what pleases me, because I'm out of ideas. I'm a little sick of poetry (gasp! Did I just say that?) - yes, and let me explain, in the best way I can. I did not mean for this blog to turn into a poetry blog, but, slowly, it seems to have become so. Of course, a month of poetry did not help take this blog away from that path. I love poetry, I really do, but there's also so much pressure involved when everything suddenly involves poetry - am I reading enough? Should I keep writing? Submitting? Am I talking about poems well enough? I basically need a break from all that, all the pressure and 'not good enough' feelings. I may still write poetry for myself, of course, if I get ideas, but I need to get away from the entire publishing idea, and be less involved, at least for a while. This bl...

As you may know, today is/was World Poetry Day . Around these parts, it's coming to a close, but it's not quite over yet! I've been trying to post to FB and tweet  quite regularly all day, so this post will be like a round up of poetic goodness. You may also know that I am very interested in languages and translation, so I've tried to share as many translated poems as I share English ones. (You may also know that I am attempting to self teach a few languages, but I'll talk about that in more detail a little later). I tried to make today into a little project, and though I didn't do as much as I would've liked, I'm quite happy with what I did. My idea was to bring art and poetry together with loose illustrations based on the poems I'd share. I was going to paint abstract paintings but it didn't quite work out that way. Well, enough talk! I present to you now the three poems I used as artistic inspiration: #1 - "The Wandering Guitar ...

Recently I've been painting a lot more, which I'm quite happy about, as I often end up neglecting one or more of my hobbies/ creative outlets and get caught up in Life (with a dramatic capital L). I hope to transition to inks soon - I've tried them already and enjoy using them, but haven't quite mastered the technique yet. After buying a pack of inks on sale last year, and then being gifted another pack, I feel I really should start using them!  The advantage of watercolours is that they are 'erasable' to a certain degree, so mistakes are not always the end of the world. Not so with inks! I am hoping that my extra watercolour practice will help me when I start painting with the inks again.  I have quite a few project ideas, so will definitely be updating the blog with some new paintings soon. You can check the gallery , which I try to update fairly regularly, to see all the paintings I've posted so far.

"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls." -Pablo Picasso Postcards now available for purchase.

Good day to all! (It's actually nearly 1 am here, but oh well.) I was doodling a lot yesterday, trying to get the perfect drawing (still haven't found it!) and finally felt comfortable enough to use my watercolours. This is an otter!  And it represents me! Isn't that just adorable? Unless you hate otters, in which case.. Sorry? I'm not really an otter, if that helps? (Do you like tigers?) Uh, but Kerridwen!! I hear you exclaim. Your blog is called The Tiger's Sterne! Explain please? Yes, yes I shall. You see, I have quite an unusual name. This name has a rather long meaning behind it,  it's all Welsh legends and stories - often with the name being spelt 'Ceridwen'. Well, in pretty much all version of the stories,  Ceridwen gets a bit annoyed with someone and chases him, at one point turning herself into an otter. Voila. Here's the wiki entry on Ceridwen  if you want a better explanation.

I hope to update the blog in the upcoming week. In the meantime, here's a horse, playing what I hope looks like a banjo. Enjoy!

A few days ago I bought myself a nice new watercolour box - I do prefer that to the tubes, plus it's portable! I'm sort of getting back into watercolour - haven't really used it in a long time as I was using acrylics during college - so I've only painted a few easy scenes to try out some techniques. The trees were painted following a youtube video tutorial. Blue Cat Trees in a Poppy Field  Summer Tree All images  ©  Kerridwen. Do not use without permission

“Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke I feel as if I'm finally making headway towards certain goals. Yesterday evening I was informed of a new art showcasing website. I am already part of such a website, and quite like being there. It is a nice community, I've become familiar with a few people and receive feedback on my work. However it has grown enormously, so I thought it might help to be also part of a new, smaller website where I could get more views on my art. The new website is, at the moment, invite only. Luckily, I received an invite, and am now a member! I have not uploaded much as of yet, and need to sort a few things out, but soon enough I shall be sharing the link to my page. I'm quite happy about some responses I've been getting over here . I'm not always sure if my...