Feminine art

Hi Everybody!

Today is the first day of summer, and still much too cold. But the weather prophets have promised us summer by the middle of the week with temperatures up to 30° - let's hope they're right!

For Art Journal Journey, masculine and feminine, I have gone to the feminine side today. Back in the nineties I went to a life-drawing course, and still have a sketch book full of sketches, some still unfinished. I enjoyed the course, and admired how still the models could sit, and their confidence, sitting there without clothes, so vulnerable.  I painted an A3 sheet with gesso and some smears of blue and purple. Then I spritzed it with blue and black splashes. When it was dry, I used various stencils to add some interest and depth. I drew one of my sketches onto it with charcoal and coloured it with pastel chalks, using lots of plum. I like the contrast of the round forms with the diamond patterns in the background.The quote, 'I'd rather have a mind opened by wonder than closed by prejudice' was in a book I read recently.

The sun had a hard job to get through the dark clouds this morning:

The litle jays are growing day by day. This one was sitting in the tree this afternoon, tweeting rather sadly, and looking over at me.

This went on for 10 minutes. The bird seed was finished, so I fetched a piece of bread.

He hopped over, took the bread from my hand, and hopped back to the tree to enjoy it, holding it under his claws and ripping bits off.

I love the way these horses are muzzling each other - I guess we all need someone to love.

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by.

New Challenge at Art Journal Journey

Hi Everybody!

Hope your weekend was good!

Today we are starting a new challenge at Art Journal Journey with the theme

'Masculine and feminine'. This  gives us a very broad scope to explore all aspects of what makes the sexes  different. We are born males or females,  but we are expected to develop into masculine or feminine. Is that the same? Are the traits which we ascribe to the sexes born in them, or do we learn them? What is expected of us? How does the other sex see us? What makes a man a man or a woman a woman? Do men have to be hard and rugged, cool, calculating, and smoke camel cigarettes or smoke pipes? Do women all have to be soft, fluffy, helpless and dependent on their menfolk? Is it possible, allowed or desirable to be a bit of both? This month we want you to show us all you can about this fascinating theme, to show us your ying and yang, to journal about what you think being masculine or feminine means.... You might want to just do pages about men, or about women, or both.  Whatever, let your imagination run riot and your creativity be boundless. Susi and I are looking forward to seeing what you make of this interesting theme.

For my first piece I glued some vintage book paper onto an A3 sheet and  painted it with gesso. I stenciled various motives using fired brick DI. The images of Daniel Craig  and Audrey Hepburn are from Andy Skinner. I printed 007 onto vintage book paper. I fussy cut the images and  glued them with mod podge. When they were dry, I added the black stenciling and doodling. 007 is always stereotype for the hard, cool and fearless man, Audrey Hepburn always played very feminine roles. Are women only allowed to be decorative, or can they pack a punch, too?  The quotes are from Oscar Wilde.

And a few photos from yesterday's walk - it was so cold and windy down at the Rhine today that I didn't even take my camera out of my pocket!

Love the light and shadow created by these leafy 'tunnels'

In the hospital garden:

And this one was growing by the wayside near the stream -

deadly nightshade. The flowers are always so pretty, though, and later the fruits look just like tiny tomatoes, although they are definitely not edible.

And these are the dark clouds which soaked me with rain and hail when I was on my way home:

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Last day of the sea....

Hi Everybody!

Today is the last day of the 'Sea' challenge at Art Journal Journey. Tomorrow our new theme will be starting, so be sure to come back and read all about it!

I have once again made a collage of all the pages I made for this month:

And I have one more painting to show. It was the first one I made, and then I wasn't realy happy with it, and forgot it, so here it is - a simple mixed media sea-scene, using painting, stamping, collage and doodling etc. A mermaid is floating around under the water, and a naughty sea-sprite is popping out of the water by the lighthouse, she is surely up to mischief. The waves were stamped with one of Ryn Tanaka's wonderful stamps, and then embossed. I cut around some of the waves to make a space to push the little sea-sprite through. The rest was drawn and painted, and the fish were collaged.

I had lots of visitors at my balcony this morning, sometimes they were queuing up for a free slot.

Who ate my food?

I'm still hungry....

This is my balcony:

The baby Jays are growing very quickly:

The thrush was a new visitor today:

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Surfing the waves

Hi Everybody!

Hope you are enjoying you weekend!

For Art Journal Journey, the sea, I have another journal page. The background was doodled with Gelatos which I swiped over with a wet brush when it was done. The stencil of the surfer was cut using a magazine picture as inspiration. My black pen chose that moment to go on strike, so it looks a bit scratchy. Why do pens always decide to give up the ghost late at night or at the weekend?

Tomorrow will be the last day of our current challenge, so be sure to come by on Monday to learn about the new theme for June.

And with reversed colours:

The fields are all lush with greenery and flowers just now:

Have a great weekend, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!