snowy weather

Hi Everybody!

We had another cold and snowy day here. This morning it was very icy underfoot, but in the course of the day it got a bit easier. I enjoyed my walks, one along the Rhine, and then through the fields and along by the lakes with two friends this afternoon.

For Art Journal Journey I was once again inspired by the woven art of  Ellen Jackson. I am really getting addicted to weaving paper and fabric scraps! For this woven collage I used strips of hand-painted paper, some gold card, some printed/written strips and some fibres. I mounted it onto some mirri-card in dark grey, and matted it with some terracotta coloured paper. The quote I have written is from Chief Seattle, and is one I find very memorable.  Mirri card is unfortunately hard to take photos of, and my shadow is reflected on it.

The morning sky was beautiful

And here some impressions of my walk through the snowy landscape today:

Gabi and Karina enjoyed their walk this afternoon, too, and afterwards we made fresh waffles with hot cherries and coffee - yummy!

Have  a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

The Nebra Sky disc

Hi Everybody!

Brrrr, we had a cold day here. It started snowing early this morning, and caused havoc on the roads as usual. I went into town to meet a friend, the trams were running late, and there was snow and  ice everywhere.  It stopped snowing after a few hours, a lot has melted away, but we are expecting minus temperatures during the night, so it will be icy tomorrow.

For Art Journal journey I was inspired by an artist who lived 3600 years ago. I don't know his name, but he created the wonderful sky disc of Nebra out of bronze and gold. 

This is the original:

(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

The sky disc is one of the most important archaeological finds of the past century. It shows the world's oldest known depiction of astronomical phenomena. Features of the night and day sky are mixed against a background of an abstract representation of the starry sky. Between the horizons, a ship is making a nocturnal journey across the heavenly ocean. The sky disc lets us glimpse our ancestors' knowledge of the course of the universe and its religious interpretation 3600 years ago.

For my journal page I painted an A3 sheet with a mix of blue and green metallic paints and added some bronze patina. Then I spritzed gold ink onto it to make the stars. The heavenly symbols have been cut from gold leaf. The Hebrew text is the first verse of the Book of Genesis, 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth'

Some pictures of the snow taken from my balcony this morning:

These pictures were taken yesterday afternoon. The hawk and a crow were sitting in the tree, and the crow was making a huge noise squawking at the hawk. Then the hawk flew off,  followed by a loudly squawking and protesting crow - too funny!

Have a good day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

'Inspired by'.... on Saturday

Hi Everybody!

It's weekend - enjoy it!

For 'Inspired by the Masters' at Art Journal Journey I was inspired by Ellen Jackson, an artist from the USA who works with paper to produce woven art, paper patchwork and mosaics etc. Her works integrate weaving and contemporary art. Lately I have enjoyed playing with scraps and strips of paper and fabric to make collages,  and to experiment with art forms other than 'just' painting or sewing. This week I had a parcel from Susi, and it was wrapped in grey packing paper. While watching TV I tore it into narrow strips, and that, together with an A3 cardboard from the back of a drawing pad, were the main ingredients for my work. I am sure this is not to everyone's taste, but sometimes I just like to have fun experimenting!

It started off like this:

I splashed some acrylic paints, fairy dust and some sprays onto it. 

When it was dry I added in some more strips of paper (this was the wrapping paper from my Galaxy chocolate from Suze)

I added more colours with pan pastels, wove in some strips of old letters and printed papers, and added some leftover alphas, which for me always represent the words we speak or think. I wrote a quote along some of the strips, 'The normal happenings of everyday life, that weave the fabric of life's big scrapbook'. The words are part of the 'about me' I wrote on my profile when I started my blog some years back, and tell what I was aiming for in my blog.

This was a fun project, and I have already started some more paper-play pieces.

Today was very cold and frosty, and rather misty, but I enjoyed my walk along the Rhine:

The water level is still dropping, the tree on the right was standing in the water last week. The blue balloon has gone!

The ducks, geese gulls and the heron were all looking for food:

This ship made a nice splash of colour in the grey surroundings:

The little robin was all puffed up to keep itself warm

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

This and that on Friday

Hi Everybody!

I am not sure where the days between Monday and today went, but they went!

We had a grey and cold day here, but we have to take the weather as it comes, 

and just hope it won't get really bad!

At Art Journal Journey we still have one week of 'Inspired by the Masters', and I have another Van Gogh inspiration today. I kept to the same theme as 2 days ago, with a window looking out onto a scene. I painted the background (A3) with blue over gesso, and then had fun spritzing white paint and gold ink onto it. My coffee maker now has some white and gold spots on it, too, I think it looks quite nice. The scene in the middle is one I painted for the last 'Inspired by' challenge, and didn't use because I didn't like the colours. This time I gave it a coat of diluted gesso, which made it much better, and then glued it onto my blue page. The window frame was made with strips of white card, and the flowers and trellis were punched with some gorgeous giant punches that a friend sent me for my birthday. 

I am also linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin.

I have been rather fascinated by the toadstools growing on so many trees around here. We used to call these ones 'fairy steps' when I was a kid.

These are really huge ones on a massive, old tree, that lost half of its branches in the big storm back in June last year.

And believe it or not, the blue balloon is still bobbing along the Rhine....

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