Saturday, 4 April 2015

Happy Everything

Hi Everybody!

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Weekend, Happy Everything!

For Art Journal Journey, favourite poem or quote, and Moo Mania and More, eggs, I have made another journal page, this time with an Easter Bunny. Not usually my theme, but I found Mrs Bunny in my stash and decided to use her. I gave her a coat of crackle varnish and distressed her a bit, and added some structure paste to the contours of her basket and eggs,  to the flowers on her dress, and to her eyes. The background was made with brushos over wet gesso, with some extra colours added with Gelatos. The birds were drawn with black ink.







We had a lot of clouds again today, and the sun peeped through now and again.



In the evening I watched the Easter Moon rising in the sky:







Have a great weekend, take care,
and thanks a lot for coming by.

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!