Month: April 2015

Commissioned Book Cover- Perfecting the Dance (now published!)

Posted in art, Artist, book, commission, cover, nesha, painting, sleeve, tateTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Well this is exciting!!
I was commissioned by the amazing Dr Nesha Jenkins-Tate to paint her a cover for her book. Perfecting the Dance.
(Published by Balboa, a subsidary of Hay House.)
A wonderful journey, from her telling me her thoughts and ideas, to me (with her input) coming up with this concept.
It flowed right from the start, most enjoyable and easy. Even the ‘figures’, that I thought i might struggle with, just ethereally placed themselves there and asked for no feet (LOL!!!) im serious…feet were NOT on the agenda.
Nesha knew exactly the colours she wanted, and i got that spot on first time round too. Thank you Nesha for this wonderful opportunity, im totally honoured to have been able to do this for you. 🙂 All the very best, its a fantastic book!

Book Cover

Excerpt from the back cover:

“Perfecting the Dance offers the intimate counsel and refreshingly candid voice of a good friend as it shares practical and inspirational life-lessons.Gain new insights about yourself and your relationships while exploring various topics, such as people-pleasing, parenting, friendships, partnering, love-lessons, forgiveness, and how to discover and pursue your life’s purpose.But this isn’t a book about perfection—it is a book about perfecting. It is about constantly discovering something new about yourself while uncovering new ways to approach life’s twists and turns.And it isn’t a book about perfecting the dancer. It is a book about perfecting the metaphoric dance— navigating your way through life’s changes and challenges and learning how to transcend them through greater love, faith, and courage.Be enriched by these lessons about life and love that are essentially dance-lessons—powerful, practical reminders about how we can keep on dancing with life as it comes our way.“

book cover 2

Silver Fern & Tui

Posted in abstract, art, Artist, Kiwi, kiwiana, kiwiart, maoriart, new, newzealand, painting, silver fern, tui, zealandTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

New Zealand has many native flora and fauna.
We are blessed with some of the most stunning native bush in the world.
We live between native bush and the sea, so I get to go bush walking when ever I want to.
I could load up 100 pics 🙂 of my walks if i wanted to, but i wont , (collective sigh of relief lol)…
here are 3 to show you where i get my inspiration from………

Mamaku 2

Mamaku 1

Mamaku 3

….to then paint things like this:
Silver Fern 1000 with sig

©Reina Cottier Art.  (Sold)

and, right outside my bedroom window in spring, are gorgous wee chaps like this Tui bird,
(another native of New Zealand),
talking away, clicking and singing with what sounds alot like a bell bird at times.
The stunning ‘metallic’ colours on this bird are mesmerising to me, these pics dont really show the deep gun metal grey, emerald greens and deep turquoises…the subtle nuances of them are what fascinate me, not a blaring vibrant “look at me” type thing, but more, an elegance, (esp with that ‘cloak’ of feathers around its nape), and a slight arrogance in a way. They are quite naturally tame, you can get within a metre or so when they are feeding and they dont mind at all.

Tui Collage

so here are 2 of my Tui paintings:

Tui 1 1000 with sig

©Reina Cottier Art (sold)

Tui 2 1000 with sig

©Reina Cottier Art (sold)

As always, I am active on FB if you want to chat there 🙂
(my FB link to the right of this post)

or email me: reinacottier@gmail.com

xxx

latest work in progress…

Posted in abstract, art, arty, circles, colorful, geometric, geometry, media, mixed, painting, rainbowTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

April 10

©Reina Cottier Art 2015

this is a bit of something different from me.
mixed media for a start, decided to use some stuff i havent touched for a while so dragged out my old stencils, some spray enamel paints and some pastels.
Ive been reasonably ‘disciplined’ the last few months with the Mercury Bay Art Escape studio tour,
but now that that is over,
I  let myself just do what ever i wanted with no plan or thought, no agenda, nothing.
First of all a bright coloured background with all my favourite tones and shades,,,
and incredible urge, probably carrying on from my scared geometry pieces, to draw some circles, random placing, didnt matter as long as it felt ‘right’ when i looked at it….. then some stencils with spray paint….

Ive been working on it on and off for a few weeks now, and ONLY picking it up when i feel like i really want to do something on it, not because i need to, have to or because there is nothing else.
SO its had a dedicated purpose, its been unfocussed focus.

Sometimes i spend 2 hours on it, sometimes 5 mins and Ive had enough.
Its big, about 40″ x 36″, and i know, i do my best work on ‘big’. (not REALLY big tho…yikes, i had a commission the size of a dining room table once, it was like a workout everytime i worked on it, phew! lol!)

anyway… i dont know how close to ‘finished’ i am, might be tomorrow, might be in 6 months… will keep you posted. 🙂

find me on FB, im there and happy to chat…..
http://www.facebook.com/reinacottierart
or email:

reinacottier@gmail.com

XXXX