I now have a website

I finally have a website!  https://www.sandraeterovic.com/ was made using a Squarespace template, manipulated to my wishes by the marvellous Nic McGuffog.  It showcases highlights of my illustration, art and craft work over the last eight years.  I feel proud when I look at it, which is helpful.

I do still love my blog, although I feel that there are far fewer people looking at it now.  Most of the noise is over at Instagram.  Instagram is great for instant gratification, but blogs are way better for telling a story.  (Websites too, come to think of it....!)

I will still post here from time to time.

Assorted goings on -- a lot to catch up on!

A bunch of very recent hand painted vintage bats (thanks to bat sleuth Ms Penny Durston of Cottage Industry store).  All sold except the Spam.  It is in my Etsy shop.

An excuse to paint salami.  SOLD.

My illustration in Kookie magazine!  Such a great publication for girls.

 A card for my favourite cat fan.

My other boyfriend, and the pillowcases I designed for Gorman.

Shout Out to the Girls!  I got to paint the wonderful Stella Young, while listening to her brilliant TED Talk.

A kind of circular cover for Penni Russon's lovely book, The Endsister.

A commissioned portrait of a very fine young lady and her beloved dog.  

A pretend band t-shirt for Frankie magazine.  My self indulgent take on The Triffids.

 It's true -- I really don't like to hear strangers singing.  I don't mean the famous sort, just those annoying people who walk around public places doing it.

True, too.  Sometimes.

Both of these little paintings are in my Etsy shop. They are part of a series.

A mural design for the offices of ANZ!  The biggest Photoshop file I have ever made -- by far.  Nearly broke my computer.

My plants look better en masse in the painters' sink.

The second volume of Nova Weetman's The Secrets We Share!

Random goings on lately

Above: Gardening Australia magazine, March.  Some blooms seem to spring out suddenly, like a Jack-in-the-box!

 Above: This ideas woman is in my Etsy shop, I decided to rephotograph her in a more minimalist(!) setting.

 Above: a detail from a painting which I will tell you more about soon.

 Above: my studio in Tatanja Ross's wonderful book Thank you for Having Me!  More details here.

Above: the Lonely Hipster cushion looking quite eerily like a real bloke on my bed the other day....
(He is the last one in that particular style, by the way.)

New things in my Etsy shop, and more besides

 Above: a little spot for reading.

 Above: my work is still available from Sager Braudis gallery in Missouri, or online here.

 Above: hooray!  My work in the latest issue of Frankie magazine - twice!  Here, in the home of the illustrious Mrs Emily Green (fear not, she doesn't have a giant wrinkled finger living in her kitchen, just the wooden hand clock).  More clocks here.  Mr Mortadellla here.

 Above: a little studio still life.  The patchwork O man is in my Etsy shop, should you be admiring him.

Above: please buy these cushions!  I won't be making them ever again, so you will be sorry if you miss out.  (The upside down heart has gone already).

 Above: Gardening Australia magazine, March.  The single gardener's nightmare: the date arrives bearing a plastic bouquet.

 Above: a birthday greeting for my favourite cat lover.

 Above: still one of my favourite all time phrases/ sentences.  SOLD.

 Above: two new clocks made to coincide with the Frankie feature!  They are also in my Etsy shop.  The two painted bats, below, are there too.

 Above: a detail from a very funny pet portrait commission.  A little cat asleep in a very large seashell.

 Above: bedroom scene including my Lady with Lizard painting.

 Above: these are in my Etsy shop, too.

Above: my Charles Darwin.  Probably wouldn't be that happy with the way the world has evolved.  Huh.

Botanical Bats

Here are a couple of vintage bats (or paddles?!) which I painted with a selection of fruit, flowers, a vegetable and a caterpillar.  I hadn't planned on the black one, but the first bat above was so much fun to paint (and it sold so quickly!) that I thought it might be fun to see how the composition would look on a completely different colour.  That one has sold now, too.

Thanks again to either Miss Pen or The Earwig for collecting me these beautiful vintage bats from Tasmania.

Good Bye 2016

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  2016.  Wasn't it something?  Ugh.  Who knows what we are in for now?!
I did slack off a bit last year with my blog posting: Instagram seems to be taking over the world and it seems so much simpler sometimes.  But I still like blogs.  I think that they tell a story in a way that Instagram just can't.  I present for you a summary of work that I did last year, but neglected to show on my blog for one reason or another.  Above: The World Would Be Great If....  This one was actually inspired by all of the post US election soul searching.  (SOLD.)

Above: my McGivern Prize finalist #readmymind is now available as a very special A3 print, printed especially by Lantern and signed and numbered by me.  There are only fifteen in total, and they are available from either my Etsy shop or Danielle Krysa's (AKA The Jealous Curator's) Fancy Schmancy Gallery.
Below: a selection of painted bats.  Thanks again to Miss Pen, Katie Blatt and The Earwig for finding these vintage beauties for me!!

 Above: Girl Wearing Persian Rug Sweater is one of my favourites, ever!  She is in my Etsy shop.

 Above: Hillary.  (SOLD).

 Above: a fortune wheel bat.  Currently in my Etsy shop.

 Above and below: these have both sold.

 Above: a pair of paintings from the current group exhibition at Boom Gallery in Geelong.

Above: Gardening Australia magazine, December.  Michael McCoy asks a child "What is your favourite vegetable?"  The reply: "Bacon!"

Above: All I Could Think of Were the Things We Didn't Have in Common, acrylic on wood.  When you find yourself in a relationship after a long spell of being alone, it's not all beer and skittles.

Above: experts in relations, and an all round fun project.  A fortieth birthday invitation and surprise wedding invite in one, for two lovely people.

Above: artwork for "The Book That Got Me" curated by Jess Rackyleft and featuring some of the most delightful and talented women illustrators I have ever had the pleasure to know.  At The Little Bookroom in North Carlton. 

Above: VIII Mediterranean Games Split 1979 was featured in the Mission To Seafarers Art Prize (along with hundreds of other maritime themed paintings).  I entered this prize both in the hope of visiting one of my favourite buildings in Melbourne, and to have a reason to work on this rather self indulgent painting.

The Mediterranean Games are much like the Commonwealth Games.  In 1979 they were held in the city of Split, a coastal city in the then Yugoslavia, where my family happened to be spending the entire summer.  I was a kid then, and prone to the grandeur of international sporting events, fireworks and the prospect of the odd souvenir.  I still have a tin mug which has "Split 1979" and the 'S' shaped seal mascot printed on it.  I coveted visors and t-shirts, but I especially wanted the striped blue beach towel.

I have been back to Split many times since.  In 2015, the Split 1979 beach towel was featured in an exhibition at the city's Ethnographic Museum, about fishing traditions in Dalmatia.  I was a few months late for that exhibition, but I got the souvenir catalogue.  It is extensively researched, lovingly written (though shoddily translated), and beautifully illustrated with various photographs, many from local archives.  I looked at the resigned expressions of women carrying giant boxes of fish on their backs, and pondered the rather prescribed culture of my forebears.  Even now, men got to fish and drink and get up to all sorts of things.  The women got to stay at home and cook and wash and clean.  I started thinking about these women, and getting a little angry.  Then I looked again at the Split 1979 towel and reconsidered the meaning of the word "Split".  1979 or not, I thought I'd give one woman a chance to escape.