Divert...

Greetings peoples,

Just to let everyone know if you have arrived here at this blog to find updates on Moonlight Gems Art I would like to divert you to -

www.moonlightgems.co.uk/blog

- you will find all updates at the above address from now on :)

Thanks! 

If you castrated a Glow Worm, would it be delighted?

Ah happy Saturday friends!

Snowing here again unfortunately! Had to go out in it this morning to buy a canvas, came back looking like a snowman! Still, happy and warm now.

I finished my latest portrait today, a bit of a surprise one really of the lovely Dawn French. I'm not particularly a huge fan of hers (not that I dislike her or anything) but I stumbled across a photo of her and she just looked so pretty that I figured I had to draw her!

Anyway, here she is...

"Instead you got a babe with a bob cut and a magnificent bosom"

I may be taking a brief break from my portraits right now to do a painting based on my favourite song by The Smiths (random I know but I got the urge!) but once that is complete I shall be returning to my good old people capturing again!

Do enjoy the rest of your weekend folks!

Gem xxx

It's a stud sir, and I don't mean the earring...

Hello hello, merry Tuesday all!

Well I was about to start doing a Jack Nicholson portrait last week but for some reason I couldn't force myself to get in to gear, so I kind of sat, and waited, and sat a bit more, and waited a bit more, but I just couldn't bring myself to start. BUT THEN! On Sunday night I suddenly felt the urge to start my James Buckley portrait (finally) and, having continuously put it off, I actually finished this portrait quicker than any other! So, here he is...

"A cow, it charged at me, so I had to knock it out. One punch."

Everyone probably knows James Buckley best as Jay Cartwright from The Inbetweeners, and who doesn't like The Inbetweeners right? Don't really know who to do next, was thinking about Morrissey since I seem to be listening to The Smiths a lot at the moment, but we'll see....

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday all!

Gem xxx

P.S. Happy Valentine's day for Thursday!

P.P.S. I'm off work til Friday, wooooooooooo!

Bring me sunshine....

Evening peoples! 
Hope everyone is having a happy Monday! The weather's awful here, people keep blowing away down the street!

Well I've done it again and not done the portrait I was going to do, but have in fact done another! Instead, I have done the lovely lovely lovely Morecambe and Wise, who are an absolute pleasure to look at while I drew them :)

Anyway, here they are - 

"Bring me fun, bring me sunshine, bring me love"

I don't think you can help but smile when you look at these two happy faces really can you? :) 

I'm not sure who I'm doing next so watch this space!

Enjoy the rest of your evening all! and if you live in the North East of England, don't go outside, the wind's lethal!

Gem xxx  

It's cold outside....

Happy Saturday all!

I know in my last blog I said my next  portrait was (probably) going to be James Buckley, but having asked people if they thought I should do a portrait of the ever lovely Chris Barrie the response was so enthusiastic I felt I had to do that one right away!

That kind of breaks an art rule of mine actually - never draw a person that you fancy. It's a rule I have always stuck to as I think it is far harder to be satisfied with your work if you are attracted to the subject matter! But since Red Dwarf X came out I noticed a sudden influx of Chris Barrie fandom resurfacing and floating around and thought I'd maybe give him go! (Oo er missus!) So after twenty odd years of fancying the man my rules went flying out the window!

Anyway here he is in all his beautiful glory-

"I'm dead, I'm composed entirely of light, and I'm alone in space with a man who'd lose a battle of wits with a stuffed iguana...Where's the brightside???" - Arnold J. Rimmer

Well now isn't he just gorgeous?! Anyway, next portrait, I'm pretty sure will be James Buckley so I shall see you all next time! 

Enjoy your weekend!

Gem xxx 

We have such sights to show you!

Morning all!

Hope everyone had a good New Year! Just a quick little blog today as I have finished my latest portrait of the gorgeous Clive Barker! I decided since everyone seems to do more present portraits of the lovely Mr Barker that I would do one of him in his younger days (and looking good I must say! ♥) Anyway, here he is.....

Human dreams...such fertile grounds for the seeds of torment

No time to waste, straight on to the next one, which I think will be The Inbetweeners' James Buckley...We shall see!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend all! 

Gem xxx

Our day will come...and we'll have everything!

Happy New Year's Eve one and all!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! Mine was nice and quiet with lots of food, just the way I like it!

Haven't done a great deal since Christmas, just chilled, eaten and enjoyed being off work! Although I have today just finished my latest portrait which is of the late great Ms Amy Winehouse. I've wanted to do a portrait of Amy Winehouse for years as she had the most fascinating face (from an artistic point of view) but I never got round to doing it, and I didn't want to do one round the time she passed away as I didn't want to give the impression that that was the reason that I was doing it, because she had died.

Anyway, here she is....

"You don't owe nothing to me, but to walk away, I have no capacity"

She really was a stunning looking woman before her unfortunate lifestyle took hold (no disrespect meant, I still think se was beautiful right up til the end, but obviously there's only so much a body can take).

I'm really looking forward to doing my next portrait of the immense Mr Clive Barker! So watch this space!

Well now, everyone have a good New Year's Eve and stay safe!

Gem xxx

P.S. Happy New Year all! And I hope 2013 brings happiness to everyone! 

Merry Blogness Everyone!

Hello and happy Christmas Eve all!

Just a brief message today to wish everyone a Happy Christmas! Hope you all enjoy your day tomorrow and get everything you want! And of course enjoy the rest of your Christmas Eve....I'm just sitting watching Home Alone 2 with the husband, waiting for the Chinese Takeaway to open! 25 minutes and counting!

Merry Christmas All!
Love Gem xxx

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Merry Tuesday evening all!

We put our Christmas tree up on Saturday woohoo! So our house is looking very festive. It's a new tree with new decorations so we weren't sure how it would look buuuuut It actually looks pretty good!

Let the untangling commence!

All ready for Santa now! Christmas work night out on Saturday (80's night, fancy dress), then one more week at work and then I'm off for a week! :o) Bring it on!

Night all!

Gem xxx

A dog's not just for Christmas....

Evening all, and happy December!

Sitting here in my PJs and dressing gown with a hot water bottle and a pint of tea, just trying to stay warm! Definitely hit winter here in the small town of Durham. We've had snow, sleet, ice and rain in the past week so everyone's sliding about all over the place trying to keep upright!

Must admit though, as annoying as all the snow and ice is it does look pretty nice! (Pic below is of the town centre)

Pretty scenic right?

You may recall in an earlier blog I mentioned that I was doing a painting for my parents of their dog. Well after a loooong haaaaard journey I have finally finished! And It looks OK if I do say so myself! Poor little dog just had an operation on Wednesday to have a tumour removed, and he was castrated at the same time so he's a bit under the weather at the moment, but he'll be OK. Anyway here's my masterpiece....

Obviously it will look better when it'd actually been hung up on the wall as opposed to sitting on my bathroom radiator! Still, he's a gorgeous little dude isn't he? :)

I'm off now as me and the husband are putting our Christmas tree up in a bit, so I shall report back later on with some festive snaps of our living room!

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday!

Gem xxx

P.S. Cold! *shivers*

Been Baubling!

Morning folks!

I'm freezing! Just throwing that out there... It's getting cold round here now!

Anyway, between sitting curled up like a little ice cube I have in fact made a couple of sets of baubles (new designs...ooooooh!). The first set being a set of 8 robins:-

And the second set being 8 Christmas Puddings:-

Pretty happy with how they've turned out, particularly the xmas puddings. They're on ebay now so we shall see how they are received before I do any more.

I have also done another couple of different sets (more new designs...double oooooh!) but they aren't quite finished and won't be until Friday as the tools I need to complete them wont be in my possession til then. But hey, watch this space!

Not bad going I think considering I had a mad stomach bug at the beginning of the week, still, all's well now though!

Well since I have actually gone numb with the cold now I will sign off! Enjoy the rest of your weekend all!

Gem xxx

P.S. My husband brought us some Krispy Kreme donuts in yesterday.....awesome!

(his photography leaves something to be desired, but you get the gist....DONUTS!)

"Plum Island Animal Disease Research Centre"... Sounds charming

Evening all!

Been a while but here I am again! Been a busy few weeks! Anyway this is just a quick update, will do a proper blog tomorrow.

Having decided a while back to start doing portraits again I have just finished my third, which I personally really like. Anyway, here he is, the ever wonderful Sir Anthony Hopkins...

"I'm giving very serious thought...to eating your wife."

Not sure who I'm doing next, I've got a list but don't know who to pick....so watch this space!

Happy friday night all!

Gem xxx

Dry land is not a myth!

Afternoon all!
Haven't blogged for a while coz I've been busy busy busy! But I've got a bit of time to chill now so here we go!

A couple of weeks ago it started to rain. And it rained. And it rained. And it rained! And when I got to work at 7am-ish on Tuesday 25th of September I found that it had flooded! In fact there was a fair amount of flooding around Durham!

That on the left there is the river Wear and that on the right is supposed to be the road next the the river Wear.... And as you can see some poor sod left their car parked there. That car became pretty famous actually, it was on the news and everything! Unfortunately after work that day I had to walk home (due to the buses being delayed coz of road closures). So that was nice, a two mile hike up a steep hill in the pouring rain unable to use my umbrella coz of the 10 force gale that decided to pick up. Nice. Suffice to say I took the following day off work as a days holiday....


I did use my days holiday wisely though as I completed a rather random order of baubles for someone...

Westie Bauble!

Cow Bauble!

Fish Bauble!

Dog (white&tan) Bauble!

Tabby Cat Bauble!

Dog (grey) Bauble!

All packed and ready to go!

I also decided a few weeks ago that I should start doing more portraits again. I haven't really done any for a long time and quite frankly it's something that I'm good at doing so just seems like a waste that it's not getting done! So once I'd finished Helen's baubles I started work on my first portrait (of many) which is a portrait of Bane, played by Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises. Very interesting to do, but my word that mask took a while! Anyhoo just finished it today....

It's A3, done in graphite and ink. Hope you all like it!

That's me done for today, gonna chill with a cup of tea!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend all!
Gem xxx


P.S. Went out for a meal last friday with my work mates as two of our team were leaving, and had a lasagne with mashed potato in. Mashed potato??? In a lasagne??? What's all that about???

P.P.S. First episode of Red Dwarf X was awesome, and Chris Barrie/Rimmer can still make me come over all unnecessary....STILL.....after 20 odd years!

Lil Gem Pie Hands!

Happy monday all!

Just a quick update really since it's been all quiet on the Western Front (or North-Eastern Front rather)...

Got looooaaaads of art on the go at the minute, which is pretty unusual for me as I like to stick with one piece or collection at a time, but things just seem to keep appearing! Anyhoo this is what I'm doing at the moment....

* I'm doing a seven piece collection involving Disney Princesses, two pieces are finished, the rest are waiting for detail to be added 

* I'm doing a collection of small (A5 to be precise) mounted cartoon-esque animal pictures

* Although I haven't started yet I will be doing a portrait of Robert Downey Jr for someone I work with (I requested a pie as payment - true story)

* I am slowly doing a painting of my parents dog for them for Christmas (mentioned in my previous blog) I'm a bit further on now though...

Look! He's nearly got a face now! The Westie With The Face!

* And of course with it coming up to Christmas I have had a few requests (5 I think) for sets of my custom made baubles. Glad these requests have been made so early, last year I had people asking me for them the week before Christmas! Here's a few examples anyway....

Marv and Princess Violet - done from a photo

Set of Hedgehog baubles

Santa Cow bauble

Set of Cat baubles

Jack Russell bauble

Set of multi coloured Cow baubles

Sooooooo, busy busy times coming up, lots of art, lots of baubles....then lots of chilling! (I hope!)

Enjoy what's left of your monday all!

Gem xxx

Immortalised fuzz!

Happy Saturday all!

Mega cold has been defeated (just about) so I'm back and fighting!

Decided to put my latest collection on hold as my mother recently commented that I should do her and my dad a picture of their dog for the house....soooooo, I have decided that they can have a proper painting as a christmas present. 

So, bought the canvas board (which is a tad bigger than I was expecting, but hey, just means more dog to love!) and have done the basic outline. Figured I'd get it done as soon as I can really as it gives me plenty of time to start again if need be!

Here's what I've got so far.....

I'll start painting it tomorrow (since it's saturday night and I can't be bothered to do it now) and we'll see how it goes!

Just as a side note - I just watched the film Precious (2009) for the first time and thought it was awesome! Mo'nique was amazing! I would thoroughly recommend it (to a certain type of film fan, certainly not a film for everyone)...Just thought I'd share that!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend all!

Gem xxx

Gremlins and Westies and Germs...Oh my!!!

Morning all! 

Not really got all the much to say actually! My latest art collection WAS going well but has been put on hold while I try to battle THE COLD FROM HELL! I'm more germ than human at the moment and it doesn't appear to be letting up any, which is unfortunate considering I'm supposed to be going to my work mate's engagement party on saturday night. I WILL be better! Oh yes!...

Had a nice visit from the little fuzz on saturday though. I sat and ate giant pretzels whilst he watched 2 of his favourite films, Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

"Oooooooh, she's put Gremlins 2 on...."

"Maybe I can see better if I get a bit closer....."

"It's Gizmo!!! Look!! GIZMO!!!!"

He's easily entertained! Although trying to get him to go outside to 'do his thing' when he's trying to watch a film isn't the easiest task in the world!

Anyhoo, since I have managed to get a rare day off from work I'm off to lie down with a tissue stuck up my nose!

Have a nice wednesday all!

Gem xxx

We all go a little mad sometimes...apparently

Hello hello, nearly the weekend all! Yey! 


Anyhoo, I've just finished my latest art collection today, which I have sooooo enjoyed doing! It's a horror movie collection, which is great coz I'm a huge horror fan. I tried to stick to more mainstream films so people will hopefully have some vague idea what's going on in each piece!


I have enjoyed doing this collection so much I might actually extend on it in the future, but I'll leave it how it is for now I think. Anyway, time to take a look!

An American Werewolf In London (1981)

"I didn't mean to call you a meatloaf, Jack!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Fly (1986)

"Am I becoming a hundred-and-eighty-five-pound fly? No, I'm becoming something that never existed before. I'm becoming... Brundlefly. Don't you think that's worth a Nobel Prize or two?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Exorcist (1973)

"You show me Regan's double, same face, same voice, everything. And I'd know it wasn't Regan. I'd know in my gut. And I'm telling you that 'thing' upstairs isn't my daughter"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wolf (1994)

"The worm has turned and is now packing an uzi"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maniac (1980)

"This has got to stop. It's silly, and it's not getting us anywhere"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't Look Now (1973)

"This one who's blind. She's the one that can see"

And that's that! As I said I may add some more, there are too many good films out there to ignore, but for now it's on to the next collection!

Sleep tight, don't have nightmares...

Gem xxx

He's a maniac....maaaaaniac!

Evening all....


Just finished the fourth piece of my latest collection, my horror movies collection. A collection that I must say I am thoroughly enjoying doing! 


Having already done The Exorcist, An American Werewolf In London and The Fly I thought for my fourth piece I would do something a bit less main stream and do one of my favourites, the classic 80's slasher 'Maniac', starring the ever wonderful Joe Spinell (RIP dude, love you!) as Frank Zito. 


The film has recently been remade starring Elijah Wood (very strange choice! Apparently they wanted John C. Reilly who would have been great, but hey...) but I don't think it will come close to the original , so this is my tribute anyway!

Once my collection is finished I shall put them all up for the world to see, but for now it's on to the next piece!....

Gem xxx