Inspired by the Masters - summary and collage

Hi Everybody!

It's weekend, so hope you all have a good one!

Today started off cold, damp and windy, but got better in the course of the afternoon, and we had a really pretty sunset.

Today is the last day of the challenge 'Inspired by the Masters' at

 Art Journal Journey, and I was really happy to see so many great contributions. I have made a collage of all the projects I made in the course of the month, and I am quite happy with the results. I enjoyed trying new things, like paper weaving, learning about artists, and trying to copy their style, which enabled me to learn a lot. All in all a fun month!

Hope to see you again tomorrow when the new challenge theme will be revealed!

The blackbirds are usually the first visitors each morning. If their 'breakfast' is not yet there, they get noisier and noisier till I take their goodies out!

The evening sky was beautiful. There were still a lot of clouds, but lit up by the sun they made a great scene.

I love the silhouettes of the old man and his grandson:

Have a great weekend you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Art Journal Journey and More....

Hi Everybody!

My post is rather later in the day than usual, as I was feeling really bad

last night, and just needed to get to bed asap. I had a long and deep 

sleep and woke up feeling oodles better today, for which

I am most thankful.

My project today is for Art Journal Journey, Inspired by the masters. The challenge ends on Saturday, so hope some more of you will be inspired by then!

Although on Sunday there will be a new challenge!)

I am also linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin, and to Moo Mania and More, masculine.

I used an A3 brush wipe sheet for the background - I always have a lot of those floating around my kitchen! I drew the portrait of Armand Roulin from Van Gogh onto paper, painted it with water colours and pastel chalks, and glued it to the background.  I added some shading and text round the head. Van Gogh painted many portraits of the family Roulin while he was in Arles, and I will probably be trying to do some others sooner or later. The quote, 'Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul' is from Vincent Van Gogh.

The sky was very cloudy early this morning, with just a few patches where the light showed through.

I love seeing the twinkling lights of airport city in the distance.

The crow, hawk and a magpie had a another slanging match this morning - this time the hawk won.

Later on he was back in another tree, looked right, left and then swooped off - I think he spotted his lunch!

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Art Journal Journey and Moo Mania and More

Hi Everybody!

Hope you are all keeping safe and well in spite of bad weather in some parts of the world. We had a cold, showery  and grey day here, but it could have been worse!

For Art Journal Journey I have another piece for 'inspired by the masters', and my inspiration was once again taken from Ellen Jackson's woven art, patchworks and mosaics. For my project I used small squares and strips of hand-marbled paper and fragments of old letters from the 1930s. I arranged them on a black card background, and matted it with some DP. The quote I have used is, 'Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world my come to being' from Teilhard de Chardin. These fragments of old letters tell the story of people who were forced to flee from Germany under the Nazis. They are unfortunately not complete, as many parts of the pages have disintegrated. I decided to use the remaining fragments - after copying the originals - in my artwork.

We have a new challenge starting today at Moo Mania and More, 'Masculine'.

You can join in with all formats of art - cards, ATCs, Journal Pages etc, not just Moos, and you have 2 weeks to join in!

I made a card using an image from Gecko Galz, from the collage sheet, 'The smart dressed man'. The mustache was a present I got in a set some time back.

The sentiment is on a separate, moo-sized card. I used some textured gold cad as matting.

It was cold and damp outside today, and I enjoyed watching the water birds at the Rhine again. The Rhine looked rather choppy today, we had a lot of rain yesterday. 

The heron sometimes stands as still as a statue:

This duck was watching the others swimming

The gulls sitting on the jetty were cheeky as always:

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by

Inspired by and Tag Tuesday

Hi Everybody!

Today it rained all day, and the rain washed away the snow and gave us lots of dripping trees, soggy paths and huge puddles.

For 'Inspired by the Masters' at Art Journal Journey I am sharing an attempt I made to catch the style of Toulouse-Lautrec. I made this last year for the first 'Inspired by' month,  but never got round to showing it. I used oil pastels and water colours in my Giant Journal. Afterwards I made a second version with less gaudy colours, but I can't find it - it seems to be hiding under one of the many heaps of stuff here!

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is feathers. Last week I bought this feather brooch in the thrift shop, fixed to a hat. The hat is nice, but I can't imagine walking round wearing these feathers, so decided to use them here. I distressed a tag with rusty hinge, spiced marmalade, wild honey and crushed sage DIs, and stamped them with some autumn leaves using the same colours, and used some punchinella as a stencil. The feathers are from a wood-grouse, and for some reason I always associate them with autumn....

This is the tag without the embellishments.

The birds all looked rather sad today, sitting around in the wet trees. and were happy to come here for some food.

The puddles have turned into swamps again:

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!