Van Gogh's Mother

Hi Everybody!

Hope you are all doing well!

For Art Journal Journey, birds beasts and humans, and for Paint Party Friday I have another attempt at Van Gogh to share.

I tried to copy the portrait of his mother. The background is a brush-wipe sheet (A3), with added colours from pastel chalks. I drew and painted the portrait onto a separate sheet, painted it with water colours and pastels, fussy cut it, and fixed it to the background. The quote is also from Van Gogh. The black smudge under the portrait is my own invention!

Some pictures taken today, starting off before dawn:

We had a wonderful sunrise:

At the Rhine it was very cold and windy, the heron and wild geese didn't seem to mind:

I saw these beautiful cloud formations on my way home:

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Bastet, cats and a bird

Hi Everybody!

We had another very cold and frosty day here, but I know some places are having even worse weather with huge amounts of snow. Stay safe, you all!

For Art Journal Journey I have my second old Egyptian piece for the 'Birds, beasts and humans challenge'. I made these journal pages a couple of weeks back, and was originally planning to start with them at the beginning of the month, but they hid under a pile of stuff and didn't show themselves on time. The journal page today (A3) is about the goddess Bastet,  She is depicted as a woman with a cat head or as a cat. Cats were revered in ancient Egypt. One of Bastet's duties was to guard the moon by night, so that it could not be stolen by thieving rodents, and she is also associated with women and dance. There are other, earlier interpretations of her role, but I love the idea of her guarding the moon.

I painted the background and pyramid with acrylics, which I sprinkled with fairy dust. When it was dry I added more details and colours with pastels. The moon was cut from gold-metal leafing. The picture of Bastet as a cat-headed woman was drawn onto paper, coloured with felt pens, fussy cut and glued on. The illustration of Bastet as a cat is from Wikipedia, and has also been coloured with felt pens and highlighted with white. The quote was written by hand. I am also linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin.

This is a canvas I made a year or 2 back  depicting Bastet:

The day started off well even though it was very frosty; it's always good to see the sun.

I managed to catch the jay on my balcony today.

Thanks to all who asked about my hand. I still have a lot of bruises, but it is healing, and my ribs are hurting, but will also be better in a few days - I hope! I need to b more careful not to fall over things at home!

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Beings from Ancient Egypt.

Hi Everybody!

Hope all those who have had a lot of snow are keeping safe and warm,

look after yourselves!

For 'Birds, beasts and humans' at Art Journal Journey I have made a journal page (A3) with an old Egyptian theme. I painted the background with orange and yellow acrylic paints and sprayed some diluted red ink to give more colour. The image shows Tutankhamen squashing his enemies under foot, on a background painted with blue-green and gold.  Then I added colours for the jewels and gold, and used white highlighter to define the lines. After fussy cutting it I placed it onto the background. I drew the eye of Horus and the Ankh with felt pens. The quote is from Pharaoh Akhnaton, who lived about 1400 BC. I find the strange beings who are part animal or bird, and part human, very fascinating. Horus was one of the oldest and most significant of the Egyptian deities, and is sometimes portrayed as a man with a falcon head. The Ankh is also known as the 'Breath of life', or the 'Key of the Nile', and represents the concept of eternal  life.

Hope to have more photos to show you tomorrow, I wasn't able to get out much today!

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Tag Tuesday and Try it on Tuesday

Hi Everybody!

Just a short post, I had a little accident and hurt my hand.

Lucky my projects were all made in advance!

At Tag Tuesday the theme is blues. 

I am also linking to Simons Monday Challenge, H is for...happy colours and hopes of spring.

At Try It On Tuesday our new theme is 'add a photo'. You have 2 weeks to join in You can make what you want, as long as it has a photos on it. Hope to see lots of you there!

I made an altered paper bag, a memory bag, with family photos from my childhood days, and a tag inside.

I work up this morning to deep snow, and watched the night turn to day.

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

More Birds, beasts and humans

Hi Everybody!

Hope you have enjoyed your weekend. Have a good start in the new week!

For Art Journal Journey I have made another A3 journal page. For the background I sprinkled brushos onto a damp page and then sprayed with more water to get the colours moving. I used stencils from Dina Wakley with black acrylic paint for the faces. The  elephant was also made with a stencil, but I don't know the manufacturer. The steampunk birds with human faces are from Paper Artsy. I stamped them onto tissue paper with archival black and embossed with extra fine EP. The quote is from DH Lawrence, and was hand-written.

We had another grey day here with rain and sleet showers. Not many people were about today, but lots of seagulls, who enjoyed my leftover bread.

The ducks didn't seem to mind the weather either!

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by.