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.

New Zealand Inspirations.

After the last, very stressful and emotional 5 months, I've just spent a glorious 4 weeks staying with my daughter who lives in New Zealand's north island, Whangarei to be exact. It has given me the time to recuperate and rest, and to slowly get back into my textiles. Above is a finished piece of work that I started in NZ, and finished at home today. It has been inspired by the colours and shapes of the landscape, seascape and plants that I saw, with the added element of a kauri shell, which I cut from lino and printed.

Above and below a few of my very many photos. I think this small selection should give a flavour of where my inspirations have come from.

Some close ups of the finished work. It is made up of a combination of gelli prints on paper and cloth, a printed lino cut, hand stitch and free machine sketching which I have been doing since arriving home.

I used different fern leaves with the gelli plate.

Some of the gelli prints on paper above, and below one of the photos I took from the glass bottomed boat, showing the seaweeds and colours beneath the sea.

We enjoyed some fantastically hot sunny days on the beaches, swimming in warm, clear blue seas. I managed to make some quick paintings in my small sketch book. 

There are trees at the edges of lots of the beaches, so I also made some very speedy sketches of those, and on one day I also had a go at trying to capture the bird above before it flew away. It was a bit like one of our magpies, but with more white on it's back.

An inland walk to Abbey caves took us past these many boulders, that almost looked like sculptures. Nature's artwork!

The Kauri shell lino print on the top left, with some sketches of the unfurling of a fern on the right.

Some of my small collection of shells, gathered with the help of my five year old grandson.

Sketchbook coloured print, and a drawing of a kauri shell.

Finally, a photo of my daughter and myself in their local Quarry Gardens. Huge thanks to my daughter and her family for giving me such a wonderful 4 weeks. I'll hopefully be back again next year, and it may be for a bit longer, so watch out!!!

Thank you for joining me, and I hope to be back again soon.