Friday, 3 April 2015

Heads and hearts

Hi Everybody!

Another day has flown by and I only managed a fraction of what I was planning to do, but I suppose this happens to a lot of us. I am sure time passes more and more quickly as we get older!

For Art Journal Journey, favourite poem or quote, I have made another journal page. The quote is part of the lyrics from a text by Jack Penate. I used another mop-up page after sprinkling brushos and water rather too liberally on a large sheet of paper. I prefer taking off the excess colour with a sheet of paper, as I can then use it for another quick journal page.  I used various stencils in the background, and one of Dina Wakley's moon heads. I drew the body with china ink, added a strip of washi-tape and a heart, and the quote. Quick and easy! I am also linking to the anything goes challenge at stamps and stencils






Today the weather was calmer, but still with lots of clouds scudding across the sky. These photos were taken this morning:





And these 2 this evening:



Have a great weekend, take care of yourselves,
and thanks a lot for coming by!

The autumnal face

Hi Everybody!

The weather here was quieter today after the storm, although it was still very cold and windy. Looks like Easter will be as cold as Christmas was!

For Art Journal Journey, favourite poem or quote, I have used the first 2 lines of John Donnes Elegy IX, The Autumnal. You can read the rest here if you are interested.
The background (A3) was painted with gesso and sprinkled with brushos while still wet. I drew the face and the leaves as hair, and painted them in autumn colours. I went over the edges with a gold structure paste. I used Gelatos to lighten the colours of the face and neck.
I am also linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin.









The aftermath of the storm - the sun putting in an occasional appearance:


Muddy paths everywhere:


Damaged trees in the river:





Lucky and Lilly wish you all a happy weekend:









Wednesday, 1 April 2015

The white owl in the belfry sits.

Hi Everybody!

We had another stormy day here, but  it is supposed to be moving somewhere else now. 11 people got killed, a lot injured, and a lot of damage has been done. Our climate seems to have changed a lot in the past couple of years.
Hope your weather is good!

For Art Journal Journey, My favourite poem or quote, I have made a page using a poem of Alfred Lord Tennyson, who was poet Laureate in England at Queen Victoria's time. We learned lots of his work at school, but this is the first one I can remember learning with my Auntie Betty, who loved poetry, and always read to me out of big, fat poetry books which I loved. Later at school, we also used to sing it.  Here is the complete text:

When cats run home and light is come
And dew is cold upon the ground,
And the far-off stream is dumb,
And the whirring sail goes round;
Alone and warming his five wits,
The white owl in the belfry sits.

When merry milkmaids click the latch,
And rarely smells the new-mown hay,
And the cock hath sung beneath the thatch
Twice or thrice his round-e-lay;
Alone and warming his five wits,
The white owl in the belfry sits.

For my journal page I printed out a copy of the music score to this poem, and painted it with dark blue acrylics. I placed the fussy cut owl - a scan out of one of my old books - in the middle, and wiped away some of the colour in diagonal stripes from the middle. The I used white and pale yellow Gelatos to bring in some 'light'. I wanted the diagonal stripes to hint at the 'whirring sails' (windmill) going round. I coloured the owl with white and yellow Gelatos, layer for layer, till he glowed. At the bottom I wrote the first verse of the poem and sketched in 2 cats, perhaps Lucky and Lilly, on their way home to spend the cold night curled up by the fire. 






Some photos from this morning. We had short sunny intervals in between black clouds, rain and extremely windy gusts for the rest of the day






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

New Theme at Art Journal Journey

Hi Everybody!

We had another wild and stormy day here, with rain, wind, hail-stones etc  - you name it, we got it. Other places were worse hit, there was a lot of damage and three people were killed.

Today we have a new theme at Art Journal Journey - 'Favorite poems and quotes' and our hostess is Beulah Bee.

She has created a wonderful example for us, which you can view on the AJJ Blog or on her blog. This is a wonderful theme, and I hope to see lots of entries again. But please remember, your page should illustrate the quote or poem you have chosen, and the text should be on the page, too.
I chose one of my fave quotes from 'The little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.
The background has been painted, sprinkled with brushos, sprayed and dripped. I stamped into it while it was wet to give it more texture. I drew the planet and the little prince and coloured them with water colours and Gelatos. The quote was computer generated and outlined with a purple prismalo pencil. I drew the outlines and details  with a fine charcoal pencil.








And here a little round up of the quote in many languages:


Just a few photos, once again mostly clouds and rain drops - there wasn't much else today!





Repairing a roof - I wouldn't have wanted to be up there in that wind!


And as the weather was bad, I kept warm in my kitchen baking chocolate muffins. And no, I am not going to eat them all, they are for a neighbour who needs them for  celebration at work. But I did bake a little extra batch for private consumption!



And last but definitely not least, Lucky and Lilly have the last word(s)


Where are the yummies?


I'm hungry!


I want more!

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