Happy Christmas.

A short post to wish you all a very Happy Christmas.

I have included a few photos of my latest creations, including the sketchbook I have made to take on my travels to New Zealand. I bound it with some watercolour paper printed with one of my textiles. I think this way of binding is called 'Butterbox'. You can see the stitching on the spine below.

The next few photos show some techniques from my Wednesday art class, and as you can probably guess, we used some leaves in this process.

Above and below, another technique from the same class using tissue paper and watercolour paint. Some very interesting textures were created this way.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who pop in to browse my blog from time to time, and to wish you all a very joyous, peaceful and creative 2018. I will hopefully be posting again in February, once I have returned from my New Zealand travels.

Experimental Collage

As usual, and in my haste, I neglected to take any photos of these experimental collages before I added the paint!  The above double spread, and the page on the left below, were made on some blank pages that I added to the book I made from my blue pages, (here). Strips were cut from magazine images, and I chose a variety of coastal views, with a couple of Eastbourne, including the pier with red poppies in the foreground. I had mixed up the images, but somehow, they didn't seem to gel or work together, so out came the white acrylic paint, and a roller! I needed to keep the theme of 'coast', and I also wanted to keep the red poppy images in the foreground. After completing the page on the right, I decided to simplify further for the image on the left.

Above left, I had woven the strips of coastal images together, but again decided to roll over some white/blue paint, before collaging images of the shells. I took the patterns from the shells onto the background, to add more interest, and to try and meld the shells into the background. The page on the right, and below were made by combining text with collage, and I also used some of my own stamps to add interest to the two narrow pages above right.

Above is the reverse of the cut out text, but it gives quite an interesting view of the page underneath!

I tried to use newsprint to build up the coastal image above, and added some paint to the collage. I also copied a Haiku underneath the image, and a phrase that I came across onto some tracing paper on the right.

The collaged pansies above have also had some painted flower heads added, with the Haiku copied onto the last part of the concertina book

To finish off this post is another experimental piece, and here I have collaged crumpled up white tissue paper onto a piece of mountboard, and then added the paint after the glue was dry. It reminds me of looking through a bramble hedge to a sunset behind.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have enjoyed this post!

Downsizing and Manipulation.

This all started with one very large sheet of paper that we were given in our art class. The idea was to use a large brush, and some paint or ink, and to cover our paper with brush strokes, dribbles, splashes, swirls, lines, in fact any marks we felt moved to make. Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of my piece until after I had cut it up, working further into each smaller sheet.

I cut my pieces into approximately 10" x 20", folding each piece in half, ready to make into a book. 

I have clamped my 'signatures' together, ready for stitching.

I had enough paper left over to make a smaller book, with pages of about 5" square. Above is the cover for the smaller book, one of my previous paintings from a while back, and printed onto some cotton cloth.

This book has inspired me to add some paintings from photos I have taken along the seafront. The textures and shapes on some of the pages seemed to lend themselves as backgrounds for sea birds, groynes, or pebbles. 

My attempt at a Haiku!

After taking photos of these pages, I was able to manipulate the colours and textures in Photoshop, giving me alternative ideas for further experimentation.

Above and below are some results which I used to make covers for another small book.

I also played around with the colours.

I have left the reverse of these pages blank, giving me the opportunity to add some written words, and some other art work that I have made inspired by my photos of ripples on a pond.

Still a few scraps from my prints left over, so I have used gold acrylic paint on the reverse side, and made a couple of concertina books. I wasn't quite sure what to do on the gold side, until I bought a copy of this wonderful book. In fact, I bought two copies, one for my six year old grandson, and one for myself. It is, 'the lost words' by Robert Macfarlane, and illustrated by Jackie Morris. Such a beautiful book, and I noticed that many of the wonderful illustrations are on a gold background. I experimented by drawing on my gold backgrounds with black waterproof pens, so collected some autumnal plants to sketch on the reverse of the narrow pages.

Quite a long post this time, so well done if you managed to get to this point, and thanks for reading.