Inspired by Van Gogh

Hi Everybody!

Today I am not feeling good, I have had a bad throat since Thursday, and it's getting worse. Yesterday evening I had fever and went to bed at 7 pm, which is most unusual for me. It was  extremely cold and windy, so I am happy that today is a bit warmer, although I have decided to stay home all day and get better! I can't remember the last time I stayed in all day, I must be feeling bad!

My painting today was inspired by Vincent van Gogh. I used a brush wipe sheet which had a lot of blue and a bit of red on it, added some blue spray to darken it, and some fairy dust. Then I drew the picture, from memory,  with pastel chalks and oil pastels, and sprayed it with hairspray as fixative. I am linking to Art Journal Journey, Inspired by the masters.

Yesterday started off windy, but with a lovely sunrise. It clouded over very quickly, and got really stormy.

The birds were sitting in the morning sun waiting for me to fill the feeder, which empties very quickly.

Have a great weekend, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Inspired by....

Hi Everybody!

We  had another cool day here, with lots of clouds, but here and there the sun fought its way through for a minute or two, so that was good!

Today I am sharing a painting inspired by Picasso and Braque. The cubists based their work on geometric shapes, and I wanted to do a portrait like this one from Picasso.

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

I started by painting my page with black gesso, as at the moment I am fascinated with bright colours on black.... (The journal has black pages, but the pastel chalks 'stick' better onto gesso). Then I painted rectangles in various colours with acrylics. When it was dry I used pastel chalks to draw the face and neck. I tried to get some of the geometric forms into the face, but was not happy with the result at all, although I like the colours.

Then I photographed the various parts, and saw that I liked some better than others.

Then I decided to play around with the parts and arranged them into a collage, and at last, I am more or less happy with the results. But it is fun trying to do things in new ways and to experiment.

I am linking to Art Journal Journey, inspired by, and to Paint Party Friday, hosted, as always by Eva and Kristin.

Here a few photos from my walks today, I managed over 15 kilometer, so was happy with that!

The black clouds and sun looked very dramatic

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Nanas Galore and more

Hi Everybody!

We had a cold and damp day again, but I am sure the weather will change again soon! That is one thing we can predict with certainty!

Today I have another page of dancing Nanas to share, inspired by Niki de Saint Phalle. I had a lot of fun painting it. The background was done with sky blue acrylic, sprinkled with fairy dust and textured with a dry background stamp. I used my stencils to draw the Nanas and had lots of fun colouring them and giving them happy bathing costumes. I am linking to Art Journal Journey, inspired by the masters, and to Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin.

This is a Nana figure I made some years back, using wire, paper  and plaster bandages. She was made to hang from a hook on the ceiling. Unfortunately the hook was not strong enough, and sooner or later she fell down and broke her arm, which I have since repaired. I tried to hang her from the door to take the photos, and did my best, but hope to get someone to fix me a proper hook so she can fly free. She should have been a lot rounder, but I had to make do with the materials I had, and so she turned out as a thin Nana!

In the grey and misty morning the birds were again sitting in the tree waiting for their food:

I met Mrs Blackbird on my walk:

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

Inspired by...., raindrops and birds

Hi everybody!

We had a cold, grey and wet day here, thank goodness for wellies and raincoats! On my walks I had plenty of opportunities for taking photos of raindrops!

I spent this afternoon in my arty kitchen painting, this time inspired by Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), a self-taught French  painter whose works can be classified as naive and post impressionistic. I love his jungle pictures, full of strange plants, which often remind me of places like Queue Gardens, and exotic animals. I painted the background in my A3 journal again using acrylics, and then drew the plants with felt pens, gel-pens and a white pen.  The leopard was stamped onto paper using Archival black and black EP, coloured, and then fussy cut. The lion is a rub-on. The butterfly was stamped directly onto the 'sky'. The stamps and rub-on are from LaBlanche. I am linking to Art Journal Journey, 'Inspired by the masters', and Fashionable Stamping Challenges, animals., and to Moo Mania and More, favourite colours.

This morning I could only see the trees directly behind the house, the rest was lost in the mist:

Here the mist started to lift:

The trees and flowers hung full of sparkling raindrops:

The spider's web turned into a glittering curtain in front of this hollow tree:

Have a lovely day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!