Last Day of Birds, Beasts and Humans

Hi Everybody!

It's Friday evening already, so that means the weekend 

has begun - have a good one!

Today is the last day of the Birds, beasts and humans challenge at Art Journey Journal, and it was a great month. If you follow the link on my side bar you can see all of the lovely entries. Today I have put together a collage of all of my entries, a month full of colour and fun. Come back tomorrow to see where your next flight of fantasy will take you!

I have often showed photos of this row of benches, where I 

like to sit, weather permitting.

Recently I showed this photo of the same path, a few yards further on, and Chrissie said she was pleased to see what was round the bend...

So I decided to show a bit more, although I am sure I have shown similar photos before, but not together to show the 'lay of the land'.

On the left you can see the jetty, where the white boats stop in summer, and exactly opposite, on the right of the photo, is the main street.

The jetty is mostly used from the gulls....

Here you can see the entrance to the Market Street on the right.

There is a market held there every Wednesday, directly at the Rhine

When you continue on the towpath this bronze relief is on the wall at the corner of the Market Street, showing what it used to be like

This is a few steps further along the old walls

The old mill lost it's top many years ago, and is now a private house.

Here I am standing on the same spot, just looking back to the jetty. In the distance you can see the bridge over the Rhine very faintly.

The old fortification walls all have different names

These old steps, leading to nowhere, are under the mill. In the 19th and early 20th century the steps led to a room on the right where patients from the Florence Nightingale Hospital could change into their bathing clothes before being led to a bathing spot on the Rhine! The stairs are made of window ledges and lintels from the castle ruins.

Just past the stairs the path divides.The path on the left leads along the Rhine to the next little village, and on the right it leads round the old town.

These two made themselves comfortable at home again.

Lucky

And Lilly. Both photos were taken by my neighbour Gabi.

That's all for today!

Have a good day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Two birds, a beast and a human

Hi Everybody!

Today started out with sun, but clouded over in the course of the afternoon. The next few days will be very changeable again, but I think we are used to it by now!

For Art Journal Journey, birds, beasts and humans, I have another picture from my Van Gogh series. I still have one more, which I will show next week. This shows Joseph Roulin, and was painted in 1889. Van Gogh spent a lot of time with the family Roulin, and painted portraits of all of them. My attempt was painted with water colours and pastel chalks, cut out, and fixed to the background, which was painted with acrylics. I added the flowers as they are in the original portrait, too - I think it was painted in the Roulin's living room. I have realy enjoyed doing this series of portraits, and learnt a lot.

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

A morning sky like this makes me happy that I wake up early!

And last but not least, Lilly, at least her head!

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

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!