Friday Fly #1

This is my new feature!

Let me explain ...

The lovely EWian is asking for ideas and inspiration for art journaling. This has fired up my imagination (although I have yet to put it into practice myself!) and I have made some suggestions already. Pop over to her blog and make a suggestion yourself - not only may you have the chance of winning her generous giveaway but you will get some great ideas from lots of different people for journal prompts.

This will be my next one ...

Go to the Charity shop/Thrift Store!

There are some amazing finds to be had in the book section. Some even sell old patterns that are great for collaging or buttons.

Not only will you find some great material for your art projects but you will be helping someone out there too.

I've recently started to volunteer at my local Sue Ryder charity shop. We get some really great stuff come through the door. Some of the books are so unusual and amazing value.

I have bought one that has been sitting around for a little while on Fly Fishing Patterns.

I have never fished (nor will I) but the fly designs are beautiful.

I will try and draw one each week and post it on a Friday.

Those times that I don't, I'll try and post a scanned one for inspiration for everyone else!

I'm scanning the first one from the book as it's too late to get one drawn and posted tonight (I'm not a quick painter, more of a slow, steady, leisurely one!)

The picture is of a Barracuda Streamer

Please use this as the basis of a journal page, painting, sketch or ATC.

I would love to see some!

Dad's Birthday

Happy Birthday Dad!

DL card. Watercolours.

Weekend Wordle 4

All about Windsurfing!

My weekend has been consumed by this! We had our first 'taster' session last weekend and promptly signed up for a course. So we were windsurfing yesterday and today and are going next Saturday and Sunday too. We're learning at Upper Tamar Lake, near Bude, North Cornwall.

We went to Braunton, North Devon yesterday and bought summer wetsuits. We met a surf 'legend' Andy Shollick (although I didn't find this out until afterwards!) at Second Skin. Such a genuinely helpful and enthusiastic man. Having tried on wetsuits at other surf shops, this was such a different experience - true customer service.

Hopefully, my art will be inspired by the water and wind and take another new direction ;-)

http://www.wordle.net/

My lovely dish!

Well, here it is. The dish that I made last term at pottery!

I glazed it 2 weeks ago and collected it yesterday and am so happy with it!

It's a white glaze with a transparent green glaze on top.

I call it my shell dish as it will house my local beach finds.

Sunny Flowers 2

Some more Sunny Flower ATCs.

All drawn with Uni Pin fineliners. All coloured with Faber-Castell Pitt Pens. The background of the top card is painted with Liquitex acrylic iridescent copper.

I think the white background is a little too stark on the other two cards so I might paint them.

I picked up my glazed pieces from pottery today. I'll post pics tomorrow. I'm really pleased with my shell dish.

Been trying to keep fitness up for windsurfing (so lots of walking and going on the treadmill and rowing machine).

Thank you Rhonda

This might seem bizarre. I had an odd dream last night about someone I have never met called Rhonda. I have an image of what Rhonda looks like from her profile photo on her blog. In my dream I was staying at her house and she had a library of art books that I was overwhelmed with. In my dream, she was wearing a dark suit and looked very professional, someone I wanted to learn from, and at the same time was very warm and giving.

This dream is obviously related to two things:

1. I won a giveaway that Rhonda had

2. On Rhonda's site she has been talking about her most recent art book purchase - An Illustrated Life.

Slightly more bizarre is that the gift that I had won arrived this morning! A premonition perhaps?!

So, the above is a photograph of a photograph! Rhonda went to the trouble of going to the print shop and getting this done for me and it arrived mounted, ready to frame.

I am SO happy with it! This will go in my living room.

I was given the option to choose any of Rhonda's prints from

http://www.thephilosopherartist.com

Click on the photography section to see how difficult it was to choose!

Thank you Rhonda for such a great gift.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Dad!!

Weekend Wordle 3

Here's my Wordle for the week. I've been plenty busy and have done things that I've never done (windsurfing) or that I haven't done for a long time (swimming).

I've found time to art as well and visited some galleries. It's North Devon Art Trek this weekend and next weekend. I met Allison Nicholson at 14 The Gallery, Great Torrington. Allison is a textile artist and her canvases are great - so intricate, detailed and layered. She uses a lot of 'found' materials and it was a real pleasure to chat with her and see her work in progress. She will be hosting a workshop at Pilton College, Barnstaple in October so I'm planning to sign up for that!

I've kept my personal journal everyday (hence its huge presence in the wordle) so I'm pleased with that.

Sunflowers

I was asked to make a Get Well card for my partner's work colleague.

Here's the watercolour I did for the card.

I finished it last night and added my 'trademark' metallic threads with beads after mounting it on some 'yolk' coloured card before gluing to the A4 size card.

Ooh - best crack on. Am going to work today in the local Sue Ryder shop ... nervous as!

Mum and Dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary

Mum and Dad will have been married 40 years on Sunday 14th June 2009. As we don't live near to celebrate the occasion with them, we sent a standard rose for their gift.

I painted a card in watercolour to mark the day. They've been through many ups and downs in life but have remained strong together throughout. Despite the fact that, geographically, I have moved further and further away over the years; we have become closer with time.

Happy 40th Anniversary Mum and Dad!

(And as if to celebrate - a local half marathon (between Hatherleigh and Holsworthy) is being run tomorrow called the Ruby Run! Sponsored by my favourite supermarket Waitrose!!! :-)

Sunny Flowers 1

Here are some of the series of ATCs that I am working on. I've really enjoyed doing these and think I will be making lots in lots of colours!

These are all drawn using Uni Pin Fineliners. They've taken over as my firm favourite black pens from Faber Castell because of the many different nib sizes. Here I've used 0.2 and 0.05. They're fade proof and water proof pigment pens. (I did use my FC Brown fineliner for the middle card).

Coloured with watercolour paints.

Today I also bought a Reeves A5 sketchbook with customisable cover. I'm going to use this for a journal purely for 'personal' use so its contents will hardly ever show up on my blog. I'm going to be using it to monitor my wellness/illness in an illustrative way.

This will hopefully:

a) Help me to do self monitoring and self managing more effectively &

b) Do something little everyday in an arty/imaginative way.

Hello again

Sorry I've been 'absent' for a while.

Over the last few days I have been arting again.

I'm working on a series of ATCs. I also started back at pottery again last week.

I started to make a vase which I finished today. my items from last term have been biscuit fired so I've been able to glaze them today. Hopefully they'll be ready to bring home within the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime here's some pics of my little vase pre-glazing.