A trip to the seaside, and green fingers!

My little altered book of green, an idea generated by Linda Kemshall on DMTV, has had a couple more pages worked  into today. I chose to research the colour green for my altered book, and today I decided to draw my husbands hand from a photograph. He loved gardening, and so I decided that the phrase 'green fingers' fitted the theme perfectly.

In her video this week, Linda also suggests using photos, maybe from a magazine,  as a starting point. Once stuck onto a page, she suggests drawing out from the image. I chose one of my own photos that I took on my recent stay in New Zealand, because the ferns were so green, and I liked the contrast of a little bit of pinky red from the fern in the middle. This is a technique we used in art classes at school before I retired, but it does give some really interesting results.

I'm also, still playing around with ideas sparked by the original photo I took of my daughters shadow reflected in the glass door leading into her garden. I made the above small experimental piece this week, but almost prefer the reverse image that you can see below.

I have played around with it in photoshop, and below it is now green, ready to fit into my little book of green.

Finally, I spent a couple of days by the seaside this week, Eastbourne in East Sussex to be exact, and I was so lucky with the weather as you can see.

A seaside version of the Three Graces!

Looking through the trees to the lovely blue sea, still not anywhere warm enough for a dip yet though!

A friend took me to the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne, and we saw the Annual Schools 2016 exhibition called 'Walking the Line' It was amazing, and well worth a visit if you happen to be in the area. It's on until the 5th June 2016. I loved the boot made from wire, and the way it was casting a shadow on the wall behind.

Beautiful drawing skills going on here, I can't believe these were made by children.  The photo below shows just a very small part of a concertina type construction that is wrapped around a large column in the gallery, and the mainly black, grey and white drawings and collage that travel along it's surface are full of movement, texture and depth. 

I enjoyed a walk through a small park, and was delighted by the Neptune water feature, especially as he was watching over a nest at his feet! I saw some gorgeous day old coot chicks, so maybe that nest was theirs.

My friend also took me to some local bluebell woods, and the blue haze that met our eyes as we walked through was just so amazing, The little clump of primroses that we spied along the way were also a welcoming sign of spring, and I think the two funny little flies resting on the pale yellow petals must have been thinking the same!

Unfortunately, winter seems to have returned this weekend, but hopefully it will be a very short lived cold snap, and spring will be back again soon, but in the meantime, keep snug!

A TROPICAL Green Man!

I've added a few more elements to my 'GREEN' themed altered book. Having printed off some photos of my green lady, (my daughter), I decided that as we're coming up to May Day, I needed to add my version of a green man. I printed off a couple of photos that I took in New Zealand, lovely lush green ferns amongst them, and cut them to the rough shape of a bearded head. The eyes and nose were cut from plain paper that I painted and stuck on top.

The version of my green lady above has been printed onto canvas, which I stitched into, but as it looked wrong, I cut out the middle and added another unstitched piece. I think the leaves showing through give enough detail. The one below is just a copy on paper, but I did work into it with some inktense pencils, as you see from around the edges where I have carried the image onto the page.

My 'Tree on Epsom Downs' photo has also been manipulated, and I have cut around the shape and stuck it down onto one of the pages, adding some gelli printed fabric above it. 

Green tea, and mint tea below are being poured from some teapots that I had stamped onto fabric some time ago. These two were going spare, but fit perfectly into this green theme.

Finally, these parrot tulips have been just glorious, and although the petals are curling and dying, I'm still seeing a lot of beauty in them. Maybe something to inspire a watercolour at some point in the future.

Thanks for joining me.

My Green Lady.

This is a photoshop manipulated photo of my daughter that I took early one morning while I was staying with her in New Zealand. 

The original one is below, and above are four more that I played around with, and have printed onto canvas, ready for stitch.

I will try to explain how I photographed this image. My daughter's shadow was against her kitchen wall, but was also being reflected in the patio doors leading into the garden. Through the doors is a fence, covered in leaves, so the reflected image of the shadow also allowed the leaves to show through! What a wonderful opportunity for an unusual photo. I wanted to enhance the greens and blues, hence the results from playing around in photoshop.

I went for a walk in our local Oak's Park this morning, and saw this small clump of bluebells. Now I could be wrong here, but to my mind these look like our native bluebells, rather than the more common Spanish variety that seem to grow everywhere these days. They were such an intense blue, and smaller, but just so beautiful, I had to photograph them.

Blossom above, and below, young leaves just beginning to sprout from their buds.

A very smart crow, and I loved the way the trunk on the tree below looked as though it had been folded like fabric.

I have subscribed to Linda and Laura Kemshalls DMTV for the year, and decided to try out Linda's challenge to make an altered book using the the theme of colour. I love blues and greens, and was trying to decide which one to choose, when I came across the poetry book below in a charity shop. My decision was made for me, so I have started with the obvious choice of leaves. Now I need to do my research into 'green', and hopefully come up with some more unusual ideas for the rest of the book.

Way before Christmas, I made this funny little folded book from one piece of A3 paper that I had covered in gestural painted marks. After folding it into this circular shape, I stitched some of the pages together and added some other small bits and pieces for extra interest.

It almost looks starlike from above, but seems to hold its shape well, and makes an interesting, small sculpture to sit on a shelf.

A bit of a mixture today, but I'm definitely going to be working further into my 'Green Lady' leafy canvas, and also hopefully into my altered book.

Thank you for giving my Blog your time, and I hope you've enjoyed reading it.