Darwins Adopted!

Well sometimes I just crack myself up! Not sure others will get my weird sense of humour though. I have admired Marsha Jorgensen's art for some time now and admit to stalking her blog over at Tumble Fish Studios. I love the colour and techniques in her work (and can only wish I had half the talent occupying her little finger!) and so I decided to borrow her style (and I say that very loosely Marsha) and have a play. Here he is, poor Darwin! I read this funny quote from Steven Wright about his theory of Darwin being adopted (tongue in cheek I guess as he is a very funny comedian) and couldn't help myself, so here he is, captured at the moment he finds out. Of course Larry the fish just had to tell him, he can't let the poor fellow go through life not knowing can he! Acrylics, watercolours, collage elements, papers, stamping with Stazon and journalling .

I have been having a little journal playing. Yes, yes I know you got that! It was time for my February page for the Blue Bazaar journal challenge and here it is. This month saw the prompt in the form of a variety of images to choose from. I only used the triangular shapes and the words 'art journal' from the prompts. Funny but this page was just screaming to get out and ran onto the page as fast as I could get it down. Love it when that happens! Maybe because its just simple, no mucking around being the perfectionist this time as I am want to do then become very disappointed later! More of this I say! Yes, I like this fast flowing work!

Pretty simple as I said . Acrylic background some paper collage elements, more paint washing and splattering then a fiddle with the journalling pen and voila! If only all of life could be so simple and such fun!

On another note the secret project is growing, so well in fact it's much bigger then my original intention, as sometimes these things are want to do, it has taken on a life of it's own. I am happy with the progress however, maybe I'll put in a few sneaky peeks soon. Don't want to blow the suprise for the recipient!

Card and Collage

It's my mum's birthday this week so I have been busy making her a little something. First a card made from some beautiful Luxe design papers. These papers are from the Sprinkles and Capris ranges.

I love these papers, bold and bright designs just right for summer! The central flower was cut from the patterned paper, embossed with clear embossing powder then painted with twinkling h2o's. Love the colour and sheen these little paints give to everything.

Next a fabric and paper collage on canvas.

White linen background, then layers of laces, a gorgeous Basic Grey paper, and a few little bits to embellish with. Top it off with a lovely little frame and a cute vintage image! Let's hope she likes it. If she doesn't the dd has put in a request!

More Medieval Madness

Here's a few more pages from the medieval scrapbook. Once again the scanner is giving me a few problems with glare from the white backgrounds so the colour here is not as true as it should be. This first page design has been taken form a germanic medieval text and is reproduced as true to colour and design as I was capable of (except for the bleep, bleep scanner of course). The reason for the choice was the couple in the photograph, my brother and his good lady, have Germanic medieval personalities so this seemed the right choice for their picture. Here they are at their investiture as the new Baron and Baroness of Riverhaven, their local group. Ah, yes, there are titles, position and power to be had!

This photograph for the next page was quite small after trimming away unwanted distractions from the subjects (the Baron and Baroness at the feast), and so I have chosen a persian design for the page and made their photo the centrpiece for the design. Again the design is faithful in both colour and pattern to the original medival design but without the original centrepiece.

This design for this page came form a French book of Hours, one of my personal favourites. I love the vine and scroll leaves and birds. The photo is of the then King and Queen (viking personas) after the fromal celebrations in their relaxing and less formal mode. I know the design is french and they are vikings but I like this design!!!

This next one I don't remember where the style has come from. I think it was from a book of hours as well, correct me if I'm wrong. The photo is of the brother peeking over his new tourney shield, huzzah! I just need to finish the wording for the page to be completed.

And finally the blast of spring colour! Here they are the Baron and Baroness enjoying the tourney held next day in honour of their investiture. This design was taken from another book of hours, Italian I think from memory. The original was just beautiful. Again I have reproduced the colour as best I was able to stay faithful to the original designs, but again the thing with the scanner and glare. If only I could go back and age the paper!


There you have it, a little glimpse of medieval fun in todays settings. Now that's an anachronism!

Medieval Mayhem

The secret project is slowly coming along. This week saw me celebrate my 46th birthday, although as usual things didn't go to plan. There was an unexpected suprise which was lovely and my fabulous children cooked me a birthday dinner, which I loved. Unfortunately I have been sick for the last few days with Gastro, nothing to do with my fab children's culinary attempts but through other means. This has resulted in little arty enterprises for the last week and so I thought I would share with you all a project I undertook some time ago, a medieval book of sorts.

I was for some time a member of the SCA (otherwise known as the Society for Creative Anachronism, an anachronism being a thing out of it's own time or place). Here I frolicked around in medieval clothes, learned medieval skills such as costuming (a personal favourite), cooking (yum, yum), embroidery and an endless list of other skills which I thoroughly enjoyed, while watching the fighting prowess and skills of the those so inclined within the group (fab entertainment let me tell you). Unfortunatley due to more mundane reasons, eg job, travel, costs etc, it became difficult to continue my involvement in the group but I wanted to do justice to some of my photos from this time rather than just the usual scrapbook type pages which although lovely would not have been in keeping with the overall experience, and so I decided to embark on a medieval style scrapbook. After lots of research and some frustration over my own lack of skills, especially as a painter, the book was born. Here's a few pics...

The designs in the above pics were all copied from various original medieval designs from books, and manuscripts of the period and from a variety of countries. They have been copied then hand painted in an effort to faithfully reproduce the original works and designs. It is difficult to reproduce them faithfully here as the scanner tends to focus on the backgrounds and so glare is an issue. Oh well it's all a learning experience and if I decide to do another some day I would likely apply paper ageing techniques (I had learned little about them at the time I produced this work) to the background papers in an effort to produce something that looks more aged.

Ah well, there it is, a wonderful weekend to you all and to all our southern friends I am thinking cooler thoughts for you all.

Journal Journey's

Well I have decide that this year will be dedicated to learning, both in a professional and artistic sense. On a professional level I will finish my Diploma of Early Childhood this year, yahoo, but also artistically I have decided to spend time learning all I can and so have signed up for the journal challenge over on the Blue Bazaar website. There are many of us and already I am amazed at the pages that have been done. Prompts in style and techniques will be offered each month and it is just wonderful to see how each person has interpreted these ideas and the amazing page each person has created. This months prompts were to create an abstact background and to draw something. Shock, horror, my heart is pounding! Did I hear draw!!! The mere mention of the word draw in relation to some artistic thing I would be involved in turns my insides to water! Me, who draws the world's most challenged stick figures! Well I did say it would be a learning curve. Time to tighten the belt and get brave, or at least down a quick drink of one's favourite poison and pretend! And so to battle!

Here is my January page. The background is a watercolour paper, covered in gesso, texture paste and acylics. I then used tissue papers, gel medium and stamping to create the weed look. The fish is my drawing (well there's a suprise!), also on watercolour paper. Painted in acrylics then embossed and adhered to the background with gel medium. The doors are a collage item adhered with gel medium as well. The word bubbles are created separately on watercolour paper, coloured, text applied then coated in dimensional magic then adhered to the background. Lots of fun and I did enjoy the process more than I thought I would after I finally sorted my head around the whole drawing thingy. Of course the original ideas I had were quite different, but as is often the case with art, it develops a life of its own and becomes something quite different from the original idea. So there, the first one done and not too bad I think, well at least I can live happily with it and thats what counts! This however is not the only journal challenge I have set myself this year. I have also set myself to doing some collage journal work as a personal challenge and so have embarked on another separate journal to explore collage work in. That's right I am running two completely different journals at the same time. I do love a challenge! The one over on Blue Bazaar is more about techniques etc while the second collage journal is a bit more personal. Here's a peek...

and the next...

Well there you have it, the start of an interesting time, well for me anyway. The collage process was loads of fun and quite theraputic really. I really enjoyed this process from beginning to end and am keen to do more. Let me know what you think I would love to hear your comments.

On another note entirely this is not all for the year. No, the year will not only be about journal journeys, this alone would not sustain my interest and too much is already floating about in this head of mine to stop there. The secret project is coming along well and I am enjoying that journey as well, but... more of that at a later date.

A bit more

Well it's been busy this week back to work and all that! My atc from Sanderijn has arrived and it's beautiful! Here's a peek...

This pic doesn't do it any justice of course. It is much more beautiful in person. It has a shimmery background in multiple colours then is embossed in gold, edged in red glitter and overlaid with lovely fabrics and a beautiful brad and pin and it smells like heaven! Yes that's right it smells wonderful! My whole desk area has a wonderful fragrance surrounding it now. I must admit I hadn't thought about adding fragrances into the mix , now there's some food for thought! I told you she was a wonderful artist, what a fab idea. If art is for the senses then this makes perfect sense (ahh, no pun intended there). I believe a little experimenting of my own will be happening soon.

Now for something of my own. Over on Blue Bazaar they hosted a series of mixed media challenges last year which greatly increased my interest in this artform and has resulted in my own delvings into the area. I watched with interest as the girls plunged into various challenges and techniques each month and did some exploring of my own. Towards the end of the challenges came the fabric challenge. I had been tossing around a few ideas for a fabric piece of my own anyway and decided this was as good a time as any to have a go and so... to battle! And here she is!

Here's a few closer peeks...

and...

The central picture is constructed using unbleached calico and an iron on transfer of Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" which has been reversed by the transfer process. The background is coated in polished pigments and impasto which gives it that beautiful shiny look, then edged in vintage lace. The overlaying mask is constructed using felt and vintage silk sari fabric then it is built up in layers using more of the silk then some vintage laces and trims, beading, silk and velvet flowers and leaves and a few little charms to add some interest. She was then attached to the background which was made from a lovely course textured fabric and appliqued with gold vines and leaves. The whole idea for the piece came about from looking at a series of beautiful photos of the venetian carnival. Since the early Renaissance period the city of Venice undergoes a transformation and around February each year Carnivale is born. The city's residents don fabulous costumes and masks and enjoy a range of festivities culminating in the masked ball. Now doesn't that sound like a great time! Anyway I love Vermeer's painting and why not get the girl out for a good time! So that's it really, there she is. She now graces my wall and I was very pleased with the result too! Hope you enjoy looking. Leave me a comment if you do, or even if you don't! I love feedback!

Atc's overseas

I can now share with you all some atc's I made a few weeks ago as they have arrived at their destination in The Netherlands yeterday. For those not familiar with atc's they are artist trading cards, little works of art using any media that appeals to the artist. Their only formal requirement is that they be strictly 2.5" x 3.5" in size and they are for trade only and never for sale. It is quite challenging to produce a piece of artwork so small. Many artists are restrictive about the number of decorative additions to such small works so as not to overcrowd them and create a chaotic feel to their artwork, however in saying that I have seen some amazing art created in such a small format. I recently entered into a swap with Sanderijn (obviously in The Netherlands) with a christmas theme, well it was that time of the year! She is such a creative soul and I have admired her work for some time now so was quite excited about it. I made two atc's, one for the swap and one as an RAK (random act of kindness) just for fun to send to her. Here they are...

Here is the first, "A Christmas Angel". The background is made from tissue paper and gloss medium then has a little strip of music and the word noel added. The angel is a freebie image (sorry can't remember from where now) and mounted over a jewellry finding with a small brad. The wings are constructed from card and feathers the also held in by the brad on the finding. I then attached the skirt and cord with glue. The wings spread out, but in this picture they are folded down for storage and travel. Below is a picture with the wings opened out.

And here she is in all her glory! I like her this way better but the moveablility (is this a word???) of her wings was necessary so she could be stored more easily without damage. Anyway her recipient liked her so that's all that matters really! Below is the second atc sent, also using a freebie image (curtesy of Renee Robinson fabulous collage artist, visit her on Flickr).

I just couldn't resist this little guy, after all that effort to find out no Santa! He was just too cute! Anyway I'm glad you liked the atc's Sanderijn, anytime you want to swap I'm there! I will post a pic of her atc when it arrives.

Below is a couple of other atc's I made some time ago. I just loved these silly old paper advertisements from the 50's and 60's. They are such a hoot and just screaming for someone to send them up! Can you believe they were serious when they created these! Here's the first one. I am planning to make a series of them but haven't as yet completed them (I will keep you updated as this happens), called Dick and Jane. Do you remember those old first reader books from your childhood? Well Dick and Jane were the first official school readers I can remember so it seemed appropriate to name these two after them. They sure look like Dick and Jane's to me!. The first atc in the series used two different advertising images. Jane was from an ad for hosiery I think while Dick came from an old bathroom advert. First a background of tissue and gloss medium, then a gel transfer using a pattern similar to many bathroom tilings of the period, then after it dried the images applied again using gel medium. The atc is edged with a frayed ribbon creating the fringe effect.

Of course I envisioned the two of them doing something else entirely different to their original creators! The second atc uses images from an old shaving soap ad. Bit racy for the 50's era! However here's the second installment of Dick and Jane...

This one is constructed in the same fashion but instead of the gel transfer an overpainting with gold mica paints was used in the background. I felt the images were too large for much else in the background, the couch just gets in the way, bit like what Dick is probably thinking really! Well that's it for today. I'll be back with further updates in the series at a later date.