Week 12 already

The art challenges are almost a quarter of the way through - already!! I was a bit slower this week doing the Journal 52 pages as I needed to wait for them to dry in between layers, but I finished them yesterday and got my collage done today.

Colour Me Positive Week 12 - Expanding

This week's quote: "Until you spread your wings, you'll never know how far you can fly", and we were asked to exlpore trying to achieve goals and to use wings on our page. My seahorse sort of has wings - if you've ever seen one swimming, the action of their fin looks like a wing.

I splotched paint in blues and purples with a touch of yellow and green for the background, before I used some of my new stamps. The first one with seaweed, coral & shells, was stamped on the page and on a piece of tracing paper which I reversed before sticking to the page. I coloured these with my brush markers. Then I stamped the seahorse, drew in the fin/wing and painted it yellow and orange.

I used my favourite quote from Katherine Hepburn: "If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun." I thought it was appropriate as seahorses break rules by having the male carry the eggs and give birth, and they are such improbable looking animals!

Journal 52 Week 12 - Emulate / Duplicate

So this week, Effy thought we should do a page in the style of our favourite artist (emulate) and Sarah, thought we should copy directly trying to get as close to the original as possible (duplicate). I went with "Emulate" and combined a couple of Mimi Bondi's pages from her book "No Shenanigans".

The first part was dropping some paint on the page and pressing another page against it. When dry, you do it again with different colours. Some splotches end up quite wet, so these pages took a while to dry. I then added more colour using my fingers to cover the empty spots.

Next I added some squiggly lines with grey and white paint, circles in white and yellow, and lots of splatters in white, pink and yellow. It looked like a party, so that's the quote I went with: "Life is a party - Live life to the full".

Collages - L

This time I went with two words - "Lures and Lepidoptera". A catalogue arrived a couple of weeks ago with lots of fishing lures - they were so colourful that I tore the page out. I was looking for L words and came across "lepidopterous" and then went looking for picture of butterflies. I found some in my father's old Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopedia, which I've scanned so I can use them again.

It seemed only sensible to combine the two in a page!

I hope you are all having a Happy Easter. Don't eat too much chocolate tomorrow. Cheers.

Busy, Long Weekend

It's a long weekend here in Melbourne with our Moomba Festival running. We tend to forget that the holiday is actually Labour Day with its origins in the eight hour day movement. Anyway, I for one, have been hard at work this weekend.

Colour Me Positive Week 10 - Beauty

We were encouraged to remember that we are beautiful inside and out with the quote "Every piece of you is a burst of something beautiful",  and to use flowers on our page. I immediately thought of the garden and using one of my many photos as a basis for the page, but in the end used three stencils to make my page.

For the background, I sprayed with distress stain in purple, mustard, olive and a splash of red. This was sprayed with water and encouraged to flow down and across the pages. Even though I had gessoed the pages, it still leaked through, but luckily did not spoil my previous page. I then used a trellis stencil with modelling paste to give the page some texture (see detail below).

I used a combination of graphite pencil and coloured pencil to outline the trellis effect and suggest a climbing frame. The modelling paste dried clear, showing the colour of the stains used.

Next I stenciled the leaves using three shades of green, followed by the rose stencil using red, pink and cream. The words were printed on parchment, cut and pasted onto the page - and this time, I did use the quote supplied.

Colour Me Positive Week 11 - Intuition / Journal 52 Week 11 - Favourite Creature

It amazes me how often these two challenges have similar themes. CMP this week offered a meditation by Chrissy Foreman Cranitch to help us find our animal totem. I didn't think that I was getting anywhere with the meditation when in strolled a stately giraffe, right on cue - so I had to include one in my page.

The quote for CMP is "Trust your Intuition", and/or use an animal on your page. Meanwhile over at Journal 52, Effy Wild was asking us to create a page that honours your favourite animal. So that meant a search of the WWW  to find a suitable image - which I did on National Geographic.

I drew the giraffe freehand, then covered the page in gesso to get rid of the stain that had leaked through from the previous page - luckily I could still see my pencil drawing! A light wash of watercolour was used to define sky and land, before I got to work with my coloured pencils.

Collages - K

I thought I might use keys or knobs for this one, but decided on "Knick-Knacks" as I knew that I had tons of source material in my Daphne magazines. It's a bit of a challenge in itself to find a word to use, that I know I can get images for.

Well, wherever you are (even if you didn't have a long one) I hope you had a productive weekend like I did. Hope you enjoy my offerings. Cheers.

Almost too hot to work

Today (Tuesday 8 March) it reached 41° C where I live!! It is meant to be Autumn with temperatures cooling down and leaves starting to turn red and gold. Summer is hanging on with a vengeance this year, with more days over 30° C expected and little relief in sight.

One thing it is not, is too hot to make art. (At least, not yet!)

Colour Me Positive Week 9 - PLAYFUL

So this week, CMP is all about play with the quote "Live like a grown up, play like a child" - Mimi Bondi, and the option of using circles on our page. In the spirit of the challenge, I watched a couple of Mimi Bondi's YouTube videos and tried my hand at some finger-painting.- it was fun and I got to try out the new colours that I bought last week. You can find Mimi's channel here:  http://www.youtube.com/mimibondi.

And of course, I chose a different quote: "Every child is an artist, the problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up" - Pablo Picasso.

Journal 52 Week 9 - Things you love / Things you hate

I did the "Dislike" page first and forgot to paint a background before I stuck my bits down, so I swished a bit of ink around and generally made a mess.

For the "Like" page, I prepped with the new black gesso I bought and wrote using Signo metallic pens. Very quick and easy because really the topics didn't really grab me.

Journal 52 Week 10 - Emerge / What lies beneath

I went with the "Emerge" prompt this week, but turned it one its head - instead of emerging from winter into spring/summer, my page is about how we are trapped in summer and trying to emerge into autumn/winter.

The words (which are my own) read: "The long hot summer refuses to release its grip so that we can EMERGE into the cool embrace of autumn and winter".

This one was also finger-painted - in red, orange and brown, but toned down with gesso - before being over-painted with other colours. The figure was drawn freehand.

Collages - J

J is my favourite letter being the first letter of my name, and I had lots of interesting words - but some of them would have been hard to find images for. As soon as I thought of "Jaundiced", the colour yellow came to mind as that is the colour skin takes on when someone has jaundice. So all the images are of yellow things!!

So that's everything that I have done since the last post. I hope you enjoy your visit - bye for now.

Week 8 and some collages

Since I last posted, I have only completed one art challenge, but have done three collages - so not exactly idle, just a bit uninspired by the challenges. I'm finding it all a bit airy-fairy - too much soul searching and not enough technique. I suppose I must have a different expectation after doing last year's Documented Life Project. Anyway, onward and upward!!

Colour Me Positive Week 8 - FEARLESS

This week's quote was "Everything you want is on the other side of fear"  and we were encouraged to explore fear vs. creativity and use cut-out words on our page.

I used bold and bright colours, finger painted onto a double page spread in circular patterns. I scribbled circles and scrolls with coloured pens within the circles, and as usual, went with a different but relevant quote: "Be afraid of nothing. You have within you - all wisdom, all power, all strength, all understanding" - Eileen Caddy.

I then cut our butterflies to paste onto the page and wrote the word FEARLESS on card to cover up some staples from the previous page.

Journal 52 Week 8 - Hearts / Skulls or Crows

The challenges this week include exploring what your heart knows vs. what your head knows (from Effy) or to use skulls, exploring what wisdom is in your head or bones, or use crows in your picture (from Sarah).

I have to say that both challenges left me cold - I'm heartily sick of  hearts - in art or otherwise. And, as for skulls or crows - they have no appeal for me whatsoever.

So, in consequence, I have done noting for Week 8 of this challenge. However, I may come back to it later.

Collages - G, H, I

G is for GALLIVANTING in every possible way - walking, driving, socialising and moving any old which way!

H is for HEREDITARY. This is another digital composition with lots of old family photos including my favourite great-aunt as a girl, my convict ancestor and his wife, my elusive paternal grandfather, my mum as a baby, my dad and his sister, their beloved grandmother and her in-laws.

My personal  favourite is the 5 Georges - George Dale (my grandfather), George Dale Snr (my great grandfather - son of the convict), George Dale (my uncle), George Trowbridge (my other great grandfather) and Georgie Dale (my cousin).

I is for ILLUMINATIONS of every possible type - bright lights, lightning, fire, fireworks, the sun, the stars, the moon, and Melbourne's White Night.

I'm glad that I decided to use the small Dylusions journal for the collages, As I sometimes find it difficult to find enough images to fill the space. Once I have an idea in my head, I spend a lot of time trawliing through old magazines for suitable images.

Anyway, thanks for looking and I hope you liked what you saw. Cheers.

Art Catch-up

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks as I've been busy elsewhere - work, doctors, reading, cooking, etc, etc. But - I have kept up with the weekly challenges and here they all are up-to-date.

Colour Me Positive Week 6 - KINDNESS

As usual, I went looking for a different quote from the one given which was "Be kind wherever possible. It is always possible." - Dalai Lama, and/or do some stamping on the page.

I really wanted a longer chain to go round my family, but the bracelet I found in a jewelry catalogue was OK. The background is a mixture of Opal & Gold with Teal & Purple sprayed and dripped over. I raided that week's Target catalogue for my family and the whole spread came together really quickly.

My quote from Goethe, reads: "Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together."

Colour Me Positive Week 7 - HEART

This week the quote was from Confucius: "Wherever you go, go with all your heart.", and/or collage an image (or three) onto your page. Lisa also gave us some YouTube videos to look at and I was inspired by Nika in Wonderland to replicate her page.

The heart is glued down before being torn in half and then cut out and glued on the underneath page. Nika's heart got torn in this process - I made my hole deliberately heart shaped. This represents the hole in the heart I was born with that still gives me some trouble and means that I am on my fifth pacemaker.

I did some stencilling, used the challenge quote as well as Moliere's "The heart can do anything." Underneath the torn page, I have journaled about my experience with this page.

Journal 52 Week 6 - Beneath my Feet / Above my Head

The upshot of this week's challenges is to let the prompts lead you in any direction. Direction got me thinking of maps and where I come from, where I've been and where I am now.

So I printed a map showing the area where I grew up to signify what is beneath (behind) me - a solid upbringing rooted in family, friends, learning and work. Paired with that I printed some old photos of myself and my three siblings (circa 1961). The tree stencil denotes solid ground and the arrow stencil moving forward/growing up.

To keep to the same theme, I printed a map of the area where I now live and paired it with a photo of a beautiful clear, blue sky through my pergola. This signifies that ahead of me is my home, family close by, friends and retirement looming. I stencilled some roses and butterflies to finish the page.

Collages - F
Journal 52 Week 7 - Nerdy Love/Self Love

So I have two F words this week - flamboyant & fabulous. I did a collage on the computer using some of my photos from the Phryne Fisher Costume Exhibition that my sister and I went to last year. And as I have all the books by Kerry Greenwood and have seen all the episodes on TV, it should qualify as a Nerdy Love for the Journal 52 challenge.

I had no ideas and no time for Self Love - may get to it later!!!

If you've stopped by for a look, thanks heaps and I hope you liked what you saw.
Bye for now.

Week 5 Challenges

I've been a bit more productive since the last time I posted and had no problems coming up with ideas to complete the challenges.

Colour Me Positive Week 5 - DREAM BIG

This week's inspirational quote was "If your dreams don't scare you they're not big enough" and/or use bold colours on your page.

Well I immediately thought about losing weight and was going to do a mirror image - one before and one after, but when I had taken a selfie, drawn a slimmer version and cut them out, I suddenly thought about shadows. This, of course, tied in well with using the words "become a shadow of my former self".

The page was covered in paper napkins and stenciled in yellow oxide, white and pink, then the before picture was stuck to the page and painted black to become a silhouette. I painted the shadow directly onto the page. The words DREAM BIG (or smaller!) are stamped on the page and the other words are written under the shadow.

Journal 52 Week 5 - Monochromatic/Psychedelic

Sarah offered up the monochromatic challenge - to use the same tints or hues to express your mood, and Effy offered the opposite - psychedelic, using all colours to express your mood.

I actually started with the psychedelic challenge using book paper and bright green paint as a background. I then stenciled and stamped before adding lavender paint. This made the page look a bit dull so I rubbed some off with a baby wipe and added patches of pink, orange and teal. I painted over one of the stamps in teal, then did some pen work to highlight the shape. I'd call it more colourful than psychedelic though.

Excess paint and ink from the stencils and stamps was used up on the facing page. One of the stamps - a lacy doily - looked a little like tree tops, so I drew some trunks and scribbled in some foliage using a graphite pencil. The water brush brought out the colour more, as did more pencil marks. Not what I would call a good effort, but I had fun playing.

Collages - D & E

I am having fun doing these too. A trawl through some recent Royal auto magazines and a travel brochure culled enough "daredevil" type activities for the D page, and the Daphne magazines provided what I needed for the "encompass" page. I interpreted "encompass" as surrounding or encircling, so most of the items on the page are circular, and yes, that is a devil's tail coming out of the L in daredevil!!

Cheers and thanks for stopping by.

Art Challenges - Weeks 3 & 4

Well inspiration did eventually hit for the week 3 challenges, but it was weak and I ended up using the same piece for both challenges.

Colour Me Positive Week 3 - LIVE LIFE

This week's quote was "Make today so awesome that yesterday gets jealous" - focusing on how we can make today the best day possible. The alternative challenge was to use some song lyrics on your page.

So I went with song lyrics and chose Carole King's "Beautiful" which is one of my favourites. My page started with a very wet acrylic wash which I smooshed on the facing page, ending up with a sort of marbled effect. I glued paper napkin paper to the page with white paint - I find this better than dealing with glues or sticky mediums. Spotted pattern on the bottom, a vase cut out of a blue & white napkin, then a rounded shape from a napkin featuring balloons.

I then painted over the balloons in co-ordinating colours and turned them into flowers, painted some stems and leaves to fill the spaces, and then wrote the words of the song's first verse around the picture.

 Journal 52 Week 3 - Song Lyrics / Favourite Bowie Lyrics

Quite weird that both of the challenges included song lyrics this week. I could not pick a favourite Bowie song and nothing at all popped into my head while trawling though lyrics on the WWW, so I decided to just post the page I had done for CMP. This photo shows some detail of  the texture obtained by using the napkins underneath the painting.

 Colour Me Positive Week 4 - Believe in Yourself

So the smooshing on the facing page just looked a bit drippy, but I could a vague face in the paint, so I sketched it out. I decided to use my watercolour pencils for this portrait even though I find them challenging to work with. Sometimes when you add water they disappear, other times the lines of colouring in show too much. I can't seem to get it right.

Also the paint on the page gave her face a splotchy look which I could not get rid of. Should have used paint!!

Journal 52 Week 4 - Full Moon / Moon Madness

So Effy wanted us to explore the full moon in our pages and Sarah wanted us to explore moon madness or lunacy. That's a bit weird because this weekend I just re-read Nora Roberts "Northern Lights" which is set in the fictional town of Lunacy!!!!

Anyway, I found this great quote "The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand" and this image just popped into my head. The moon was made using crackle medium with battleship grey underneath and cream on top - although it didn't crackle much. The silhouette was traced from a magazine and the background painted with a mixture of paynes grey (looks dark blue to me), medium grey and pacific blue.

I am really pleased that I was able to translate what I had in my head onto the page.

Collages - C

The word is CAVALCADE and I had to resort to printing images from the internet to get enough for the page. I coloured the spaces with Faber-Castell Brushmarkers.

That's it for now - thanks for visiting.