Frida Kahlo

Hi everybody!

Had a busy day again here, with a long walk, and nice bike ride through the fields and woods and then along the Rhine, did the laundry - 54 steps down to the basement for each load, and then 54 steps back up again! - and created a lot of chaos in my crafty kitchen!

The new theme at Art Journal Journey for August is Frida Kahlo, which I had the honour to choose this time. 

Frida Kahlo de Rivera, was born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón  on July 6, 1907 and died on  July 13, 1954. She was a painter who is best known for her very moving self-portraits,  which graphically depict her pain, suffering and joy.

Her life began and ended in Mexico City, in her home known as the Blue House. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national tradition and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.
Mexican and Amerindian cultural tradition are important in her work, which has been sometimes characterized as naive or folk art. Her work has also been described as surrealist, although Frida said of herself, 'I do not paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality'. In spite of her illness, her terrible injuries, and her often rather volatile marriage to Diego Rivera, she never gave up painting or lost her fighting spirit.

For my piece today I have superimposed her painting of 'The broken column' over a postcard of Mexican 'Dia de Los muertos' folk-art. I  then added colours with oil-pastels and gel-pens. I used a white highlighter to doodle flowers and the  outline, and added one of her quotes. I chose this painting to start with as it epitomises for me how she saw herself, and how her suffering shaped her art, against a background of the Mexico she loved. 

One of my fave and much read books is her 'Painted Diary', (Gemaltes Tagebuch), which I would warmly recommend to all who have not read it. I have prepared several journal pages for this theme, and will be showing them in the coming days and weeks. I hope lots of you will join in, too!

I am linking to AJJ, Frida Kahlo and Paint Party Friday and  Simons Monday Challenge J is for J(ournaling)

And here are a few impressions of today's outing.

Just one berry hanging on the tree:

Found another herd of cows today - the one with the big horns had its beady eyes on me all the time:

There was a tiny and very narrow, rusty bridge over the stream:

I rode through the grounds of Schloss Kalkum, and the ducks all came waddling to meet me, but I had to disappoint them, as I had already eaten my roll! The little ones are so sweet and fluffy

And this is either the chapel ghost or my reflection:

Have a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Blue and Green

Hi Everybody!

Another week is flying by, I wish I could run fast enough to catch up with it.

We had cooler weather today - so nice, and there was a great breeze blowing along the Rhine, so I cycled all the way to the harbour in Düsseldorf, it's about 20 miles there and back, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had lots of breaks to take photos and have a sit on a bench, too. Tomorrow will be good weather again - I hope, and I will try to do another trip. The weekend should be very hot and stormy again, so I want to use the good days. I still can't get my thumb round the handlebar, but manage to hold on well without it.

Today I made a quick journal page. I have been busy with other things this week, but can't show them till August begins. I painted the background with blue and green metallic paints over gesso, and stamped into it while it was still wet with a dry crackle stamp. This lifts of some of the colour, and gives a textured, white crackle effect. You can then use the stamp to transfer the blue crackle to another sheet of paper, which gives another background....As I used various colours, it seems to change colours, depending on the angle of the light. I used 2 stencils (Stencilry) which I daubed with gesso using a kitchen sponge, which again gives a nice textured look. This was quick and fun to make.

I am linking to Moo Mania and More, texture, and to Paint Party Friday 

I saw other horses today, but they were also busy grazing....

I watched the hay bales being stacked and stored:

A plane on it's way to the nearby airport:

The post office tower of Düsseldorf in the distance:

The Esprit Arena for concerts and sporting events is just across the road from the Rhine:

The Trade Fair is next door:

And here another bridge and the skyline of Düsseldorf are coming into view:

Hope you enjoyed your tour today, I will keep the other photos for another day!

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Flowers, birds and happy mail

Hi you all!

I think Germany has been moved to the tropics without us noticing. The weather is really hot and humid, and we keep getting really violent rain and hail storms - not so pleasant. We have had as much rain in a few days as we usually get in 2 months! I managed a dry walk this morning, through the fields and and along the Rhine, but this afternoon I just stayed home and watched the rain coming down!

I made this cardboard piece some weeks ago for a challenge, and it got 'lost' under the heaps on my table .... last week when I cleared up I found it again.

I used corrugated cardboard, partly peeled, painted white, and then used a napkin for the summer flowers, as it reminded me very much of the meadows here. 

I am linking to AJJ, flower power and Moo Mania and More, texture

This beautiful card arrived in my post box today, from Ulrike.

She saw an old letter on my blog last week, and asked if she could have a copy to make a brush. I mailed it to her, and she made this wonderful card, with flowers, butterfly, and the white script. Thanks Ulrike, it is a treasure!

The meadows are flourishing with the warm and wet weather.

This is the field where I watched the farmer bailing the hay at the weekend - he evidently finished the job really neatly!

These 2 are rather grainy as I had to zoom a lot - can you see that long necked bird on the field? It  looks like a heron.

And these ducks and the swan were enjoying their morning swim!

Have a great day whatever you are up to, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Tag Tuesday

Hi everybody!

We had strange weather here again - this morning it was hot and humid, and this afternoon thunder, storm and torrential rain and hailstones, a real contrast programme again. I went for a nice bike ride along the Rhine this morning, this time in the other direction, so I got to see the white cows but no sheep. And in the afternoon I just got home from my walk when  the storm started, that was good timing.

At Tag Tuesday our theme is Statues. We do have some nice statues around here, but I decided to do something like a prehistoric statue, and chose the menhir (standing stone) which stands at the corner of our road. It was erected about 2000 BC, and is 1,70 meters. There are scratches and marks on it which may date back to the middle ages, when it was custom to lead condemned prisoners past the stone, and bang their heads against it.... The residents here were scared of this heathen stone, and the Church of St George was built nearby to protect against the bad vibes. The Church was unfortunately destroyed back in 1649.I often wonder what stories the stone could tell if it could speak....

I made a very simple tag using a photo, matted onto green card and some floral card to make it look more cheerful, and added a textile flower to soften it.

Here is the original photo, can you see the face on the stone?

Here is a close-up - I am sure there is a face looking at me:

Okay, back to normal - a few photos from today:

The cows stayed under the trees in the shadow:

The Rhine was fascinating - for me - as always:

This is the old pump house from 1773 on the tow-path:

This container ship was chugging slowly along the Rhine, and travelling at the same speed as I was riding my bike:

The motor-boat was so quick it was almost out of the picture before I could press the button:

And the horses were taking things easy in the heat:

Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!