Paint Party Friday

Hi Everybody!

Hope you are all doing well.

Today I am sharing a rather grungy collage I made some weeks back using everything I found on my table and flying about in my kitchen - so I called it
'Everything but the kitchen sink'. I suppose it's a therapeutic way of changing my mess to an ordered mess which can be filed away!

I just went mad on an A3 sheet of craft paper and pasted and pasted till it was all covered.  Once  the background was covered with pieces of old newspapers, images and envelopes I started on the second layer, adding some washi tapes, a doodled feather, an Easter bunny, a scrap of floral decoupage paper, a scrap of vintage linen, and a photo of the 'unknown girl from the Seine', a girl who drowned herself in the 19th century, and whose beautiful face inspired many pictures and stories. You can read more about it here. It is poignant story and well worth perusing. And in the middle I put a photo of me taken when I was about 10 and had just had mumps. The numerals were from an old sheet of rub-ons, with a price tag of 1 DM, so they are probably from the 1990s. I finished it off by rubbing some gold wax here and there and then adding  some messy sewing. I was asked recently if I couldn't sew straight lines....Yes, I can. I used to sew all of the clothes for my family and taught sewing and textile art for many years, but on my journal pages I just want to have fun! Straight lines can be very boring! I am linking to Paint Party Friday, and to AJJ, Mia's flowers challenge as there are roses on it:

Last week the gates to the castle ruins were opened again, which made me very happy, and so I dived in and took lots of photos. The ruins are home to many birds, plants and rodents these days:

I love to see the plants sprouting from the stones - nature taking over her territory:

This was taken from half way up the stairs:

There's  a wonderful view from the windows, the castle dwellers were able to see every ship that passed by and authorized to collect taxes (The rich and powerful taking from the poor -some things never change!)

Here I'm right at the top:

And looking down:

The watchman:

Castle inhabitants:

This staircase is kept locked, pity!

I will show more  next time.

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Rain's Thursday Art Date - round and round.

Hi Everybody!

The week is flying by again - where does the time go? I wish I knew.

Rain's theme this week has inspired me to dig out a few of my circle pieces.

I am always fascinated by them, and use them a lot in my art.

A round clock-face is always a good example - the hands go round each  and every day:

I have used circles - the symbol for the circles of life, time, and the year here:

And here:

Lots of circles in this print of one of my lino-cuts, and the quote from Einstein fits very well to the theme:

Life is a series of adventures which circle around us:

This lovely Punch figure is on the Punch Tavern in London:

Here a diary - a record of how our life goes round - bound with circles:

Some altered, paper-bags (used to store art):

Here with a quote,'Life is a circle, the end of one journey is the beginning of the next. In the circle of the year the end of each season is the beginning of the next':

And the beautiful moon is round, and waxes and wanes in the circle of the month:

And the sun which makes life on earth possible:

 Many circles in nature, too:

Coffee and cake make the world go round too!

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Midweek post

Hi Everybody!

Hope you are all keeping well and fit!

I have been out and about and walking as much as possible, I 'need' to keep visiting the ducks and geese in the various parks to see how the little'uns  are growing. And they are growing fast!

This is the last of the floral pages I made with my too-wet water-colours. The painting was digitally places onto a hand-painted background, which was given a script overlay in Serif. I am linking to Mia's theme at AJJ:

And I have a hybrid tag for Pinky's 'animals' challenge at Tag Tuesday. All cats seem to be fascinated by balls of wool, toilet paper rolls  and other things which move so easily, and this one is no exception. The cat is from Mischief Circus and the tag was assembled using Serif:

On Sunday I visited the duck pond at Schloss (castle) Kalkum and was pleased to see the geese and ducks, large and small all flourishing:

And I have 3 very short videos taken with my phone, so not good quality:

Sorry about the cyclists passing through. Cycling is forbidden in the park!

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!