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!