Friday Challenges

Hi Everybody!

The week is nearly over, it's Friday already, and that means it's time for 

Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin, as well as our own challenges,

 Art Journal Journey and 99 Faces.

I made a mixed media A3 page. The background is a brush wipe page to which I added extra colours to match it to my hybrid centre piece. For the background I used a photo taken in front of one of the houses here in the square by the basilica, with the autumn plants which were in a big pot. The face is one I made for another challenge, and has been cut out and added to the background. I added 2 sunflowers, and a brush from Foxey Squirrel in the background. I am having fun at the moment combining painting and photos to make new art.

Also linking to Kim's Show your face

 And I made a hybrid piece meant as well for Moo Mania and More, crowns. The background is one of my old family documents, overlayed with a photo of a corner of the Marien Hospital here. Then I added my self portrait, looking over the roof to see where the cat is. One of Itkupilli's bird-people has been crowned and is sitting on the hedge, and a passing couple with their child are wondering what is going on....

We had good weather for most of the week, so I was able to enjoy my walks along the Rhine:

We had beautiful skies mornings and evenings:

And as usual, I had fun watching the boats, and wondering where they come from, what's in them, and where they are going to....

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Thursday this and that

Hi Everybody!

Hope your day is going well.

My first piece today is for June's 'Cheeky' challenge, where the theme this week is 'sisters'. I have an old photo, from the beginning of the 20th century, which shows 2 of my husband's aunts as children. I digitally removed them from their photo, softened the edges to make them look more faded, and placed them behind a window of our basilica. I added some freebie brushes from Foxey Squirrel. The 2 little mice are there because I often see mice scurrying about in the entrance to the basilica - the proverbial Church mice? These little girls look so sweet here but when I got to know them in the 1970s they were 2 very crabby and unfriendly old ladies! Time changes all things!

Here is the original, the sisters together with their brother,

who I cut out of the composition today:

For Art Journal Journey, inspired by the colours of autumn, and 99 faces I have made another hybrid collage: I used a painted background and placed some brushes over it. The face is my 'alien lady', although she could be a wood nymph. I added the autumn tree and some leaves. This is face number 5 - 94 to go!

Some more photos of the basilica:

Do you recognise the window?

I always love the lamps

There were lots of men at work, busy chopping down branches and sweeping up mountains of leaves:

And some more rusty bits. I was pleased to discover another of the rusty rosettes on some other gates, there are quite a lot of the same sort around here, I suppose they were all made by the same artisan.

Have a lovely day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Autumn leaves, lace and shells.

Hi Everybody!

Hope your week is going well - my week is going too quickly!

For Art Journal Journey, inspired by autumn colours, and 99 Faces I made another A3 journal page. The background was gessoed, and after drawing and painting the face, I masked the face and sprayed some yellow and orange inks. I drew the leaves using some real ones as templates.

Here I added a digital mask, I think I like this one better.

For Simply Neutrals at Wen's blog I took a photo of some pieces of lace with shells placed onto them:

I then framed the photo digitally.

This is a tablecloth made by great Aunt many, many years ago:

A close up:

The leaves get less day by day, but the fungi on the stem seem to be growing:

The last berries:

And this is the wonderful view we now have, sitting on one of the benches and looking at the Rhine! It would be funny if it wasn't so stupid. What a waste of public money!

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!