Large birds and black birds

Hi Everybody!

Hope you are having a good day! I was pleased to see the sun when I got up this morning, and although it stayed very cold, it was good to be able to see sunshine again. Roll on Spring!

For Art Journal Journey, Birds, beasts and humans, and for Moo Mania and More blackbirds - black birds, I have made another journal page. The background is another brush wipe page, and the greyish shadow in the middle reminded me of a shadowy man - seen intuitively, which inspired me to draw a few lines to make it into a man with a bird on his head. A blackbird of course. Or just a black bird. I added more colours to the page with Gelatos, as I made it last week on a dismal day and wanted to see other colours than shades of grey.... I stamped the birds using Archival black and embossed them with EP extra fine. The stamps are from various firms - Catherine Moore, Tim Holtz, Lavinia  and Kaiserkraft. 

The quote is from Bob Dylan.
I am also linking to Simon Monday Blog, no rules

Nothing like a nice sunrise to start the day:

I had fun watching the heron cleaning his plumage yesterday. The long feathers were waving in the wind, he reminded me a bit of Heinrich Heine's Loreley, sitting on the cliffs by the Rhine and combing her hair to distract the boats-men.

The ducks were sleeping at first but evidently got woken up by the heron fidgeting around:

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Birds, Blackbirds and black birds

Hi Everybody!

Hope your day is going well!

At Moo Mania and More we are starting a new challenge today with the title of 

' Black bird - blackbird'. So let your creative juices start flowing, spread your creative wings, and join us! For my DT piece I made  a background using a brush wipe sheet, onto which I sprayed  some diluted colours and  added some fairy dust. When it was dry I added more colours with Gelatos. I made a stencil for the bird, and painted it with black glossy acrylic into which I sprinkled some fairy dust. You could get the idea that I like using fairy dust! The quote is from the Beatles' legendary song, 'Blackbird singing in the dead of night'. I added a strip of washi tape as embellishment. I am also linking to Art Journal Journey, Birds, beasts and humans, and to Simon Monday Challenge, no rules.

Today was another day which alternated between being cloudy and pouring with rain, with a nasty, sharp wind blowing to liven things up.

The morning sky looked quite nice, and the crows came and waited for their breakfast:

The blackbird is nearly always my first visitor on the balcony:

And the only one down at the Rhine today was the heron, who was, as usual, standing in the cold water and  fishing. Today he let me get really near.

  

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Vincent, coca cola and mist

Hi Everybody,

Hope you are having a good day.

Here it was cold, wet and windy, with an eclectic mix of snow, sleet, mist  and lots of rain; good weather to stay home. I did go out for an hour this afternoon, but was happy to get back home again!

Our new theme at Tag Tuesday is 'In the style of'. I chose Vincent van Gogh, and made a quick sketch with gelatos, which I chopped up into three tags. I love the movement in his landscapes, and did this one from memory, it's a good exercise just to play like this from time to time. It's not perfect, but it doesn't need to be.

I made this 6" easel card as a commission for a friend who needed a card with a coca cola theme. The 'shutters' have been punched with my giant border punch.

Just a few photos of the misty and wet Rhine today:

The ships loomed up out of the mist:

The heron  evidently decided to stay home, but the ducks and cormorants

were out.

Have a great day you all, 

take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Monday this and that

Hi Everybody!

It's  another chilly and windy evening here, but we did see the sun for an hour or two today, so that was wonderful.

For Art Journal Journey, Birds, beasts and humans, and for Moo Mania and More, circles, I have made another journal page. The images used are from Gecko Galz and Dina Wakley, over a hand-painted background. I liked this background, so have scanned it and can thus use it again as a print out for future work. I have started doing this with some of my BGs, as it does save a lot of time and paint, especially when trying to produce on a daily basis. I used a white pen for highlighting again.
I am also linking to Simon Monday Challenge, no rules.

I wasn't keen on going out today, as it was very cold and windy, but Karina came and collected me, and we had a nice walk along the Rhine and through our little town. The 'Konditorei' (cake shop and bakery) was open, so we got some wonderful cake to take home and enjoy with our coffee and tea.

This is the little yard behind the florist's; I love

the old houses

I snapped the Protestant Church reflected in the windows of one of the shops:

And the sun shone for us the whole time we were out!

Hope you have all had a great weekend!

Take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Birds, beasts and humans

Hi Everybody!

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend.

It was cold and rather grey here today, although the sun did try to look out

for a few minutes here and there, and we have stormy and wet weather on its way. Oh well, we have to take the weather as it comes, and I know

a lot of places are having to battle with much worse conditions.

For Art Journal Journey, Birds, beasts and humans I have a  painting to share. It started life as a bright background, which got more or less obliterated by ginger and lemon tea - tasted good, but evidently not good for paper and paints. It had lots of purple splodges on it, and suddenly they morphed into yellow-spotted purple white-foot Squirmies. They look rather scary, but are actually quite harmless. The have one eye at the front and one at the back - perhaps the origin of the saying 'Having eyes at the back of your head'? Their purple skin is rather rough and scrubby looking, as they like to bathe in lemon and ginger tea, which is not good for the skin at all. Juveniles have orange coloured scales, and adults neon yellow ones. When two meet and mate, they fuse into one being with 2 heads, which makes sure that the wife can always keep an eye on her husband. Their hair is short and bristly, interspersed with soft white curls. As they are very nervous and afraid of others, they always chant 'Muttermuttermutter' when they are walking along in order to scare off unfriendly beings. They are always accompanied by the long-legged purple picker birds, who mostly travel on their heads and act as look-outs. The Squirmies have large, white button-like knobs along their front sides, but experts have not yet been able to work out what function they have. They also have white feet so that they can find each other easily in the dark. They are very shy, and rarely seen these days. If you should happen to spot them please contact the organisation for investigating yellow-spotted purple white-foot Squirmies, who will surely be most delighted to hear from you.

I managed to take a few photos of the heron and gulls today, after that it was so wet I had to pack the camera away.

Today nobody was working on the roof of the old house, which was well covered with plastic sheets to keep it dry. But I did get a picture of the old beams, which really look decayed and wormy

Have a great day you all, enjoy the weekend, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!