Take time....

Hi Everybody!

Hope your weekend went well, and here's wishing you a good start in the new week.

For Art Journal Journey, time, and for a new private  challenge Susi and I are doing just for the 2 of us, I have made another time face. Our challenge to each other is to do 49 faces, without a time limit, and Susi set up a Pinterest Page for us to pin them. I have drawn several faces lately, mostly replacing some parts with clocks and flowers, and the faces are always still immediately recognisable as faces, and this is one of the things I want to experiment with  my 49 faces. I drew half of a face, and doodled green vines and leaves around a clock, which I stamped with Archival black. When I stamp the clocks I always set the hands to the time I stamp them! The face was coloured with water colours and I spritzed some inks roundabout. I added the quote, 'Take time to plant seeds of thought and watch them grow'.
I am also linking to Kim Dellow's face Friday.

This is the statue of the Elector Jan Wellem, and is the one which the 'Giesser Junge' saved (more in yesterday's post if you missed it). I will tell you more about Jan Wellem tomorrow.

This old eel-catcher is permanently moored in the old Harbour basin.

The 'Uerige' is another of the ancient pubs in the Altstadt, and there is a row of bronzes depicting people drinking their beer. The text means something like, 'This air makes Uerige Beer taste good'

The pub sign:

Another pub sign from the 'Schiffchen'  (Little ship) -  this was a pub and restaurant that my late husband liked, so we used to eat there from time to time.

My husband was born in this little lane, which doesn't seem to have changed much in the course of the years.

Another of the beautiful churches:

This little shop sells arty stuff, and the artist who owns it has placed this wonderful chair outside. The letter is an invitation to sit in the chair and take a photograph, a great idea!

I will show the last of the photos tomorrow!

Till then, Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by.

Time flies and memory fades

Hi Everybody!

Hope your day is going well!

We had rain this evening, which cooled us off nicely,

but the next couple of days will be very stormy again. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain all day - sounds like good weather to paint, craft and read!

For Art Journal Journey, time, I made another A3 mixed media journal page. The background was a sheet which I had used for brush wiping. I gave it a coat of gesso to even it out, and then collaged more vintage printed matter, old letters and  bits and bobs from my table and boxes. The stamps were still hanging around from the post challenge.This is a good way to clear up and have fun. Mona Lisa was stenciled with black paint (Stencil from stencilry.org). I wrote the quote around her head. The dragonflies are also stenciled. I used grey ink here so that they looked a bit transparent.

And here is part 3 of the 'Altstadt' photos.

Here you can see the Church of St Lambertus with its crooked spire, and the tower of the old palace.

The post office tower, near the harbour:

There are lots of statues, old and new:

Here is the 'Giesser Junge' - the moulder's boy. There is a story that when the sculptor Grupello was filling the mould to make the huge statue of Jan Wellem, he evidently didn't have enough metal, and his boy collected metal trinkets and jewelry from bystanders and was thus able to save the statue. This statue is to honour that boy who saved the day:

This is St Nepomuck

A beautiful fountain with geese:

Düsseldorf is a 'Carnival Capital', so lots of statues remind us of this.

'En de Canon' is one of the oldest pubs in the old town, and was the place where the  Elector Jan Wellem used to go for his drinks:

Carnival again:

And this lady is dancing on top of a Litfass column:

Last but not least, the Lion of Düsseldorf, the emblem of the town:

I will show the rest of the photos tomorrow.

Till then, have a good day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Old times....

Hi Everybody!

Friday has flown by again - time can definitely move faster than

I can!

For Art Journal Journey, time, I have another journal page. The centre part is a mixed media collage, once again full of flying bits of this and that which always seem to fill my table and boxes. I placed it onto an A3 sheet, and used gesso and titan buff round the edges to frame it. I added time stamps from various makers -Paper Artsy, LaBlanche, Chocolate Barock and Unknown. The quote I printed round the edge is from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 'Dark times lie ahead of us, and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right:'

And I have some more photos from my trip to the 'Altstadt' this week. Some of the streets there, especially Bolkerstrasse, have mutated to places where bars, pubs, clubs, cafes and eateries fill the whole street. The old town is often called 'The longest bar of the world' - die längste Theke der Welt. It is visited by a lot of tourists, but it is not a place where I like to be.

The birthplace of Heinrich Heine is also on Bolker Street. The famous German poet, writer and journalist was born there in 1797, and today a book shop there bears his name.

There are many beautiful old churches there:

And some of the old, narrow houses are still in evidence:

The cat statue looks rather worse for wear:

A bronze showing the old town as it was:

The beautiful 'Rathaus' (town hall) dates from 1570: 

The statue of  blind Justitia, or Lady Justice on the town hall:

More old houses:

The tour will be carried on tomorrow!

Till then, have a great day, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!