from a human form to....

sorry, this is a lonnnnnnnnng post!

I love this bird!  What I can't quite believe is where he came from.

I've had a fantastic day with Dee in her studio.  Dee is an amazing artist and particularly enjoys painting the human form in oils.  She can produce the most incredible likenesses ...

... as well as exciting, textural, almost abstract imagery ...

section of current work, unfinished

Dee had set up two easels in her studio ... one each!  Now I usually work with my canvas or paper flat down on the floor or table.  I have done some life drawing etc in a previous life, but very little and it's not a favourite subject of mine.  It's a long time since I relied on my paintbrush, and that alone, to make marks on paper or a canvas.  So today was a challenge!  One I was up for though I have to say.

I knew that working alongside Dee would stretch me and make me work outside of my comfort zone.  And that place, although uncomfortable at times, is a place to learn new things.  The first HuGe challenge was to paint an impression of each other - difficult when your subject keeps turning away to work on her own work.

 mine - failing to capture Dee's incredible eyes and looking like a six year old painted it!

Dee's - much more painterly but somehow missing my smile - don't worry, it reappears later!

We then started set a timer and worked on the other person's canvas.  This meant we couldn't get 'precious' about our imagery, and got us responding both to the marks on the canvas, and the model.  

We then returned to our original canvas and again, responded to what was there.

I turned my canvas and worked on the eye with long eyelashes and sweeping hair.

Dee's canvas also had an emphasis on the eyes!  After alternating a few times, the next step was to apply the jet wash ....it's ok, stay with me!...

This strips back some of the layers and adds some gorgeous, gorgeous texture.  One more turn on each other's canvas then back to 'finish' our own.  Dee got out her oil pastels (we'd been working with acrylics) and I loved the contrast of the more 'drawn' marks, and also the yummy drips you can make with white spirit :)

a snippet of some of Dee's marks made with oil pastel and turps 

At this point I relaxed into just responding to the marks on my canvas and after splashing a bit of paint around I discovered a bird shape and started working into it

penultimate layer

I've only used half of the canvas, and am still trying to decide whether to cut out the bird section and remount it, or do 'something' with paint on the other side.

here I've covered part of the canvas with teabag paper to 'frame' the bit I like!

By this time we were relying on electric light in the room so this photo really doesn't do Dee's painting justice ... sorry Dee!

Look carefully and you can see an angel on my shoulder!

What a day!  I've learnt so much - to trust in my own ability, to just 'go with it', to have the confidence to apply layer after layer (it's only paint after all!), to try new materials (I'm now fancying having a play with oils)....  Thank you Dee, it was an amazing experience.....

.... and I LoVe my birds ;)

Oh happy day!

I have had a wonderful day playing!  I was in the company of two very talented artists, Wendy Rudd and Dee Rollinson, who I've known for a while now through the Arts and Faith network.  We decided to have a play day and they both fancied having a go at art journaling, which we did, at the end of Wendy's garden!

What an amazing studio!  Wendy is a textile artist and I'm afraid I did have studio envy ;) [The house is gorgeous too, everywhere you look there's some yummy, yummy textile art!]

Such a beautiful space to create in; in the garden, but warm and cosy!  (although the sun has been gorgeous today)

We smudged paint around on the page with baby wipes, sprayed through stencils, and added die cut and stamped images to our pages.

Of course we dried some of the baby wipes and Dee used some in her pages and on the cover of her journal  (sorry, forgot to take a piccie!)

I wandered from my art journal page back to the piece of cartridge paper I'd demoed on at the start of the day and ended up creating a little zig zag book featuring my Stampotique toadstools.  It was so nice to get back to playing with stamped images again, I've not done it in aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages!

Tomorrow is another play day - over at Dee's house.  We're going to paint on canvases - eeek!  [Dee's a real artist!!!]

Happy Art Journaling :)

I've not played in my art journal for a long time and Saturday morning saw me just needing the relaxation that comes from playing with paper, paint and stitch.

I'd painted my pages in blues the night before, then decided to tear some of it away!

I had quite a bit of stamped and painted tissue paper on my desk after taking one of Jane Davies' online courses (highly recommended!!) so decided to add some to my pages.  The leaves are a hand carved stamp.

I cut some more leaves then stitched them to a partial page using my sewing machine (I LoVe doing this!!).

A while ago I bought some lovely old wooden printing blocks and used the 'g' (just because I love the font!) to add some more texture to the page

It all made for a happy Saturday :)

a spot of knitting and felting

To get myself back into creative mode over the Christmas holidays I did a spot of knitting, helped along by a lovely selection of wool in John Lewis' sale!  I'm not one for knitting clothes, I like small projects that don't take too much stitching up, so I got out one of my favourite knitting pattern books -

There's just something about knitting - the feel of the wool, the texture of the 'knit', the regularity of the action of knitting.  An occupational therapist once told me that all these things are good for your mental health so knitting is good for you!

I intend to crochet some pebbles (the pattern is in the same book) in matching wool so I can use my little knitted pots in my classroom as a colour sorting activity and a counting activity :)

These 'almost owls' are also heading for my classroom.  I knitted up a rectangular shape, invented some wingtype shapes then put them in the washing machine to create felted owls.  They're just waiting for stuffing and features to be added now before they, hopefully, star in some reading books for the children.  I'm going to put them around the house and garden, photograph them and write them into a story - at least, that's the idea.  I teach in a special needs school and reading books that don't rely on the current trend of 'sounding out' words are hard to come by.

I finally finished my summer project from a couple of years ago!  This was a very straightforward pattern to knit and I couldn't work out why I'd not finished it, until I discovered it was because I'd run out of wool!  After another happy trip to John Lewis I knitted up the pocket, crocheted the seams together (in retrospect it would have been better to stitch them but crocheting's easier!) and stuck it in the washing machine with the owls for the felting process.  This isn't a project heading for school lol!  It's mine :)

Happy New Year!

I got my creative juices flowing over the Christmas hols by doing a bit of knitting, which is now waiting to go in the washing machine to be felted before becoming a couple of owls...hopefully!  I then started on a project  I've wanted to do for a while ...

... creating a collage style lampshade!  I really want to make one for the lounge but decided to 'practice' on my bedside lamp first!

I started by taking the shade apart and using the inner plastic bit as a template I cut out some newspaper then  added layers of paper using a white pva glue.  I added stitching, a zip and lace and generally had a ball!  The tricky bit was fixing it all together but despite the odd wobble I'm very pleased with it.

May this year be full of many good things!

Christmas Card Challenge

There's nothing like a good challenge to get me motivated....I think this is the earliest I've got my 'special' Christmas cards made! (I have been known to make them on Christmas Day itself!!)  MoneySupermarket.com are running a Christmas card competition so I got my cards finished in time for their  deadline

My Mother-in-law, bless her, would never forgive me if I didn't give her a handmade card, she gets them out each year!  My Mum treasures hers too. 

I started with my embellisher, adding some texture to a piece of white felt with bits of lace and organza, before 'drawing' a snowflake on the back with my sewing machine.

After cutting the snowflake out I spent a very happy, crafty evening with friends adding tiny silver beads to the stitching.  My friends were busy knitting, making Christmas presents.

I mounted the snowflake onto some card layered with lace and organza and edged this with glass glitter, adding some mini 'snowflakes' using some lace daisies.

I kept the beads out for my second card, edging the square of white card with a blanket style stitch with a variety of blue and cream beads.

Snowflakes are my favourite theme for Christmas cards and these stamps were new this year from Hobbycraft; the punches and pearls are from my stash!

I still have one special card to make - my husband also gets upset if I don't make him one ;)

You can view the competition entries on MoneySupermarket.com's pinterest board, and you still have time to enter if you'd like to win an ipad mini or hobbycraft vouchers!  But only if you're quick, entries must be submitted by 12noon on Christmas Eve.

Edited 13/10/13 to remove links at request of MoneySupermarket in order to meet Google's quality guidelines