Love is all you need

Hi Everybody!

Hope your week is going well.

For Art Journal Journey, Masculine and feminine, I have made another journal page - what else?! This time I used an image of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, printed onto some glossy book paper. There was not enough ink in the printer, and it came out with stripes in it. As the ink stays wet on the glossy paper longer than on a normal one I was able to add some black EP and emboss it, which gave another different effect. This was not quite how it was planned, but sometimes we need to go with the flow! I fussy cut the image, and mounted onto an A3 sheet painted with black gesso mixed with some dark blue and sprinkled with some fairy dust. The text is a quote from John Lennon and was written with white using a large stencil, so that it dominates the page. I outlined the image with white and wrote a Beatles quote directly onto it.
I am also linking to Moo Mania and More, anything goes.

Just a few photos of my early morning visitors yesterday, as I was at the hospital most of the day for some examinations and tests.

This little jay has a tuft on his head and a feather sticking up at the front, he looks really funny:

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks for coming by!

Moo Mania and Art Journal Journey

Hi Everybody!

Today we are starting a new challenge at Moo Mania and More -

anything goes. All formats are allowed, so if you are making anything in the next coupe of weeks, link it up to us - we will enjoy visiting your blogs to see what you have made. At Art Journal Journey it is day 3 of 'Masculine and Feminine',

so I made a journal page to fit both challenges.

Here are 2 variations of my wall photo which I used for the background, you are welcome to download and use them as backgrounds if you want to.

Yesterday I forgot to show the fruit tag I made for Tag Tuesday, so here it is:

I used three different papers from the same set. The gingham paper is the 'table cloth' with  a punched lace edging, and I fussy cut some cherries to give more dimension to the top layer. I added some fibres and raffia for the bow.

I love the willow trees on the meadow where the horses are, and the horses spend a lot of time in their shade.

Lately I have been busy taking pictures of the flowers I have seen in gardens, or growing by the Rhein, or just by the wayside:

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

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!