VISIT US

Starting today you can pay our FROZEN CHARLOTTE Pop Up store a visit at the iKHAYA stand in the Homegrown Fair at the HOUSE & GARDEN SHOW. You will find a stash of my hand printed A5 illustrations, repurposed vintaglia, sea ceramic necklaces and our NEW clipboards - (most of our pieces are limited editions). Not to mention awesome furniture from clever Rhenda & Nev and GENEVIEVE MOTLEY jewellery. Our story is polar bears and icebergs. I will be in the thick of things tomorrow, it would be lovely to see you all. Woohoo!
P.S Don't forget today is the very last day of my FULL GIVEAWAY, please send your photos!!!

DEAR DALA

Have been wanting to make a Dala horse for ages, the wee Swedish primitive horse carvings that originated as a winter pastime, children's toy and then became useful barter during times of hardship. It is wonderful how the forms fashioned by hand either out of clay or wood from many different cultures have a universal sensibility. My Dear Dala is a single colour print, carved from a block of SPEEDY CARVE same as OWLY and PIXIE. Also done in the same colour way - red, blue, teal and yellow. Plus it has my secret detail overlay. These little guys would look lovely in a child's room as well as with a collection of prints in your kitchen or living room. He will be available at the HOUSE & GARDEN Show from this Friday as well as iKHAYA. If you would like one and live somewhere other than Durban, I can pop one in the post for you easy peasy!

CHRIS LOVE

When Scott and I lived in London, the Mambo Surf and Streetwear store used to be in Neal's Yard, Covent Garden. It was a huge source of inspiration to me, planting the seeds of illustration as a career that could be combined with my love of fashion. REG MOMBASSA the alter ego of Chris O'Doherty, a New Zealand born artist and musician, produced many irreverent designs for the brand. I had no idea at the time that he also painted these incredibly beautiful landscapes. It is very interesting what appealed to me as a fledgling artist versus my more mature (cough cough) taste. The light that he captures in his work is crazy pants! And I love the banality of the subject matter.

  

OWLY WINNER

OLIVIA VILLET, hip hip hooray! You are the winner of my FRIDAY GIVEAWAY. Mail me your address asap so that I can post your Owl swiftly. Don't forget the deadline for the A2 biggie this Friday!

OWLY FRIDAY GIVEAWAY

So the mid-century owl won over the second pixie. Am having such fun with the carving and print making, so decided to do a more detailed single colour print. Because some of my lovelies do not own a piece of my work yet and I managed to hide the original entry explanation in a whole lot of waffle - I am extending the deadline - for the FULL Giveaway and creating a second giveaway to help with the first. Eeegh sounds complicated! Leave a message on this post or drop me a mail at kim@thepaintedblackbird.com TODAY and you could win one of these sweet little owls in red (A5). Take a pic. of him in your home and voila! you can enter for the A2 WolfPandaSquirrel Giveaway. Don't forget to send me a photo of my work in your home by next Friday (last chance) to win the biggie. Thank you to the lovelies who have entered already! * To be fair you may enter the OWLY Giveaway irrespective of if you already own a piece of my work or not.

Please excuse dodgy photos, it is so dark and dingy today.

PIXIE LOVE

I was a busy bunny yesterday, it was a wonderful day of making and happiness. Finally got to use my SPEEDY CARVE to make some Pixie prints. Was so happy with the result (pardon, even if I say so myself). The inspiration was a trio of little vintage china pixies that I found at ECLECTIC 155 Gordon Rd. Had a red one in my box of chinaments growing up. Love the damaged glaze and their gold booties. They have sweet faraway expressions and hoodies with ears.
Limited Edition. Hand Printed on 200gsm Ashrad. Edition of 10.

The prints are misregistered on purpose and are all slightly different which I love. I carved out small lino style stamp blocks for the bigger areas of colour, then added colour detail with my Pantone markers. The line work is a top secret technique that I use shhhhhhh. The gold is waterbased enamel which gives a really lovely antique burnish to the booties.

There are 3 pixies in the series but I got carried away looking at ceramic owls last night, so I may have to do an owl today rather than the next pixie. I'll show you what won tomorrow in the battle of the kitsch ceramics!

SKERMUNKIL BIG LOVE II

Marietjie made this and as usual I want it. My lust have for today is this geo awesome pendant from SKERMUNKIL. I am going to be lucky punks!

SKETCH BOK LOVE

The very clever Wendy and Ryan of iLOVEBOKKIE make beautiful objects for grown-ups too. I am coveting their SKETCH BOK pieces which I think are South African design icons in the making. Contemporary, referencing South African design history and tradition with a strong eco and local sustainability ethos. Attention to detail and craftmanship which make my heart sing.

MARKET LOVE II

Thank you to the lovely CAROSPARRO for posting pics of the last IHEART Market. Some more angles of our FROZEN CHARLOTTE table. Rhenda and I are busy setting up our FROZEN CHARLOTTE mini shop within a shop at iKHAYA. We are also creating all kinds of fresh stuff for the HOUSE & GARDEN Show. Chasing rainbows all the way!!!

CHEER FULL

This funny little fuzzy guy is the third in my FULL series, a trio with WONDER FULL and PLAY FULL. He is a red squirrel, natch! He likes to curl up with his tail over his head, stuff his cheeks with nuts and nip the hand that feeds him.

Limited Edition archival print on Fujirag. An edition of 10.

It's FRIDAY GIVEAWAY!!! If you would like to win either a Panda, Wolf or Squirrel print from my FULL series (A2 unframed), all you have to do is send a photo (by next Friday) to kim@thepaintedblackbird.com of a piece of my work in your home, I am a terrible snoop and would love to do a post on the walls(or desks or cabinets or treehouses) my pictures live on. 

WINDOWSEAT LOVE

It's rainy, it's dark, I'm working - I would much rather be curled up cosy on a window seat with a view and a fat book and maybe something to nibble on like a squirrel. So visiony post for today is window seats. I would like mine high up looking out over trees or even better an expanse of water. I would like to recline thank you. It would be best paired with many shelves full of books, but that is another post altogether. Wishing you all a duvet day. Let's dream together.

CHAIR LOVE

Look at the purdy chair I spied in HOMES & ANTIQUES. It is the 'Antelope' by RACE FURNITURE. the original beauty was released in 1951, now how's that for a piece of design that is as relevant today as it was then. Finger snaps!!! The curves and those feet, I WANT stamp stamp!

DURBAN IS MINE

The lovely peoples at DURBAN IS YOURS interviewed me, check out my words here. Make sure you take some time to read about the wonderful artists who live and work in Durban as well as some of our clever exports! Especially Ross, Richard, Hylton, Christian, Dustin, Trevor, Wes, Elizabeth-Anne, Colwyn, Matt, Skullboy and Tokyo-Go-Go!

STUDIO LOVE

We function in a very small space in what is our 'clean' studio, you seen lots of pics of the 'messy' studio which is our paintin' sprayin' cuttin' rootin' tootin' area. 'Clean' studio underwent a mini face lift this weekend, still a bit to do but here is a peek at my new shelving. I am so excited, kept creeping in to have a look at it. I can find my stuff!!! It's normally at least one strata down in a very tall pile of all kinds of crap. Y'all may recognise a few bits and bobs from my lovelies.