To everything there is a season....

Hi Everybody!

Hope your weekend is going well.

We had strange weather here today, warm and humid, very unusual for November!

Today Susi and I are beginning a new, private challenge - 99 faces.

Susi finished her 49th face for the other challenge yesterday, so now we are starting again. If you think we are a bit crazy - well, could be, but it's fun!

For my first 'new' face I have made a hybrid/mixed media page in A3. The background is a collage which I scanned. The face and the profile are my drawings, the nude is a water-colour sketch I made in the 90s, and the starling is one of my balcony visitors. The nude is sitting on one of the columns from the basilica. The script in the background is one of my old family documents. The clock-hands, butterfly, an overlay and the 5 were added digitally, and were freebies. I printed it out, and fitted it into my painted page, for which I used titan buff, green-gold and ocker, all from Decoart. I used various stencils to pull it all together. The quote on the page, 'To everything there is a season.....' is from Ecclesiastes 3:1

It is also meant for Art Journal Journey, inspired by autumn colours, and

Kim's Show your face

The photos today were all taken on the road where I live. I just looked for rusty bits and bobs, and found them:

And the rusty leaves fit to the rusty parts:

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

This, that and the other for Saturday

Hi Everybody!

Happy Weekend!

For Art Journal Journey, inspired by autumn colours, and Moo Mania and More, crowns, I have  another hybrid journal page. The painting in the background is one I made back at the beginning of the 1990s. I added  the figures in the foreground, stars and the flying fish digitally. The bird-head, crown, fish and owl are from Itkupilli, the runner is from June at Dezinaworld. I am enjoying digging out 'oldies' and giving them a new lease of life.

I love watching the contrails from the planes, and how they slowly dissolve:

The horses have gone to their winter stables, and the old bath tubs, which are usually filled with water for them to drink, are now filled with leaves

This seagull was sitting alone on his little rock today, and 2 ducks were swimming around the rock in circles. I watched them for quite some time, it was really strange.

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Autumn, the year's last and most beautiful smile

Hi Everybody!

It's Friday already, which means it's time for Paint Party Friday,

hosted by Eva and Kristin. My piece is also meant for 

Art Journal Journey, inspired by Autumn. I made a mixed media A3 page. The centre part has been made from  digitally altered and combined photos. The background shows castle Avenue at sunset. The watchman is part of a photo taken recently in Kettwig, so I hope the folks there are not cross with me for giving their watchman an outing here! I digitally removed him from his background and put him here. The birds were add-ons, I changed the colour to gold to let their feathers sparkle in the evening sun. I used an overlay from Daisytrail. I painted around the picture using a mix of yellow, orange, ocker, green and black, and stamped into the paint while it was still wet. I used my second scratchy brush, Jill (the sister of Jack). The wonderful quote is from C.S. Lewis, best known for his Narnia books, although he wrote many other wonderful works of fiction as well as theological books.

This is Jill. She was recently VERY insulted when I showed Jack and left her standing in the brush pot, so this is my way of putting things right with her.

Here they are together, a wonderful,  scratchy pair.

The weather has been good this week:

I love the rusty arches sculpture at the castle ruins:

Have a good day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

A crown for Leonardo

Hi Everybody!

This week is flying by again, and it's Thursday already. We are still enjoying good, autumn weather, so that's something.

For Art Journal Journey, inspired by autumn colours, and for Moo Mania and More, crowns,  I have another digitally altered mixed media page. I think Leonardo's work and thoughts were definitely worthy of a crown. The background was painted, collaged and stamped. The quote I have used here is from Shakespeare. I used add ons from Itkupilli and unknown.

Some photos from today's walk. in the first photo the stream looks dark, but the sun was lighting up the stream on the  other side of the bridge:

The time before sunrise is always very special:

One lonely gull was watching me down at the shore:

We  had beautiful and ever changing skies all day:

The little market is right by the Rhine, and it is always tempting to see what good things are on display.

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!