Saturday, 1 October 2016

Sunday this and that

Hi Everybody!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Today is Elizabeth's 2nd on the 2nd, so I am re-posting a story written long ago, as well as my autumn piece for Art Journal Journey.
It is a hybrid piece, using a quick scene, painted with diluted acrylics, to which I added some ink pen scribbling and stamping to give some details. The face and other bits and bobs were added digitally:




This is the 10 minute original:


For 2nd on the 2nd I am re-posting a story written way back when I was still working at the Old People's home after retiring from school:

One day when I was sitting in the cafeteria of the home where I work, one of our old ladies came in, very upset and excited, and shouted "Someone has stolen my teeth! Good teeth, nearly new, I've only had them for a few weeks!"

Looking for dentures is one of the tasks which we do on a frequent basis. They find their way into waste-paper baskets, get dropped into the loo, left on benches in the park, forgotten in shopping baskets at the supermarket and left on dinner plates or dining tables. A lot of the oldies regard them as a decoration which is in the way when they are eating, others just find them uncomfortable, or they just get "forgotten". If there is a loud altercation during meal-times it is nearly always about teeth as some residents do not like looking at other people's dentures grinning at them from the table cloth or bread basket. Well, I think we can all understand that. Some hide their dentures on a regular basis - under the mattress, in plant pots, in flower vases, in wardrobes, in other people's pockets etc, and then forget where they have hidden them. I remember reading a limerick once - I don't know who wrote it - which went something like this:

There once was a man of Blackheath,
Who sat on a set of false teeth;
He jumped up with a start,
And cried from the heart,
"I've bitten myself underneath!"

But to get back to the day in question, when Mrs D. thought her teeth had been stolen. I tried to calm her down, and said I would help her to look when she had finished her coffee and cake. Every time someone came in, she told the story again - getting more and more excited all the time; "There are thieves here in the house - a burglar came when I was sleeping and stole my new teeth - someone will make a lot of money on those teeth - we should call the police!" When she had finished her coffee, I got up to bring her upstairs to look for the missing objects of value. On the way out of the room she saw some dentures lying on an old man's plate. Before I could react, she swooped joyfully onto the teeth and stuffed them into her mouth. Well, she tried, but they didn't fit. The old man sat there staring open mouthed and wide eyed. Mrs D. took the teeth out again, said "Sorry, they're the wrong ones" and went her way.....I saw how the old man reached for his teeth and before he could put them back into his mouth I swooped down on them and grabbed them to disinfect them. This was too much for the poor old boy, who cried out, "Oh, no, not again, another thief! Is nothing sacred in this house?"

Some more early morning photos:








Have a great day, take care,
and thanks for coming by!


Indian Summer

Hi Everybody!

We are starting our new October challenge at

Art Journal Journey 

-Indian Summer-

This time I am hosting, and looking forward to seeing your creations
about this wonderful season, whatever you call it -
Indian summer, autumn, fall, old wives' summer, golden October -
they are all very fitting descriptions. It is my favourite season, with it's 
glorious colour changes, blue skies, falling leaves, conkers, and clear air.
Our weather here has been warm and summery, but the evenings are getting chilly, night comes earlier, and it's fun to pull on a warm sweater again.
As always, you have the whole month to get creative and link to us, so hope to see you there!

I made an A3 mixed media piece. The background was brayered, sprinkled with brushos and sprayed. I did some background stamping into the wet paint to texture it. I painted the blackbird with a mixture of black and metallic brown, and added the text and dragonflies with stencils. The leaves were cut from painted and embossed paper, and I added some of the feathers I got from the moulting goslings at the castle. A little bit of gold stardust finished it off:









Last Wednesday Sabine AKA 'Art Bee' visited me here. I was up early and watched the sunrise, which started my day off well. 
We walked around through Kaiserswerth, chatted, enjoyed good food, coffee, cake and ice cream, and had a fun time. In the afternoon we sat at a restaurant by the Rhine, and enjoyed the happy atmosphere - some people in the beer garden were celebrating a birthday, making music and singing; kids were playing, the conkers were falling off the trees, the sun was sparkling on the water - a really perfect day! 





This is the restaurant at the old ferry:


And the ferry still exists, after more than 700 years:


We enjoyed exploring the castle ruins:




And we looked at the nice shops in 'town':




And of course, we enjoyed eating and drinking:


All in all, a wonderful Indian Summer day, and I hope we can do a repeat performance in the near future!

Have a great day, take care,
and thanks a  LOT  for coming by!


Thursday, 29 September 2016

School, cats and big birds

Hi Everybody!

Time is flying, I never know where my time goes.
Yesterday I had a pleasant day, as I had  visit from a blog buddy Sabine,
AKA 'Little Art Bee'. We had a fun time, more about it in my next post.
Suffice it to say thanks to Sabine for coming, and hope we can meet up again soon!

Our lovely theme of 'Back to School' at Art Journal Journey is almost over, so here a big thank you to Elizabeth, who made so many wonderful and varied pages, visited all the participants, and gave us lots of fun memories. On Saturday our new challenge begins, so hope to see you then! I made my usual collage of all entries for the month:


This collage was made with one of my school photos:



For Paint Party Friday I am linking this cat, inspired again by Rosina Wachtmeister, on a background made with brushos, sprays and pan pastels.







My second inspiration was sitting down by the Rhine, staring intently into a clump of grass - perhaps there was  a mouse there?



 A heron has been hanging out at the stream next to our house these past weeks:



Here it was sitting on a drainage pipe just under the parapet of the bridge:



The skies before sunrise are always most impressive:





Have a great day, take care,
and thanks a lot for coming by!