mixed media martyr

frida round robin journal

2011-05-22T13:31:00.003+12:00

This is the last Frida journal in this round-robin (sniff sniff) - I will miss Frida! I still have pages left in my journal that has come back to me, so I might add some more of my own pages to that book while I am still fascinated by her! I have learned so much about her from the reading I have done in research for the pages.

This journal is Lee's and I have decided to do a spread on Diego and Frida. I made Diego a frog and Frida a dove. The couple were referred to as the elephant and the dove, but Frida made references to Diego being like a frog. The quote on the left page is by Frida and it says "If you see him naked, you immediately think of the frog boy standing on his hind legs."

The background is acrylic paint, the frog and dove bodies are from the internet, as are the heads of Frida and Diego. I added stickers and rubons, and wrote and decorated with black Sharpie and black Pitt artist pens.

frida round robin journal

2011-03-09T22:12:00.004+13:00

Still going on the Frida Round Robin. This is my entry in Tracy's Journal. Her theme is a visual diary or a secret diary.

I decided to do a page about Frida's Communist beliefs. The two excerpts are taken from her actual diaries.

The pages were painted with two shades of red acrylic paint. Then smudged with lack ink pad. The image of Frida is taken from a painting she did in honour of Leon Trotsky. I added the hammer and sickle with black pen. The flags are found images from the internet. I drew the line with black pen also. The images are outlined with graphite pencil.

Strathmore Online Workshop

2011-03-05T14:41:00.002+13:00

I recently did a free online workshop offered by Strathmore. This workshop was done by Pam Carriker. I enjoyed the workshop and these are the three journal pages that I produced using her techniques.

We used printouts of our previous artwork and journal pages, altered the sizes and used them in new pages. We layered these images and patterns with colour and texture using charcoal, oil pastel, graphite, acrylic paint and more.

The end result was very different art to the original artwork the pages were made from. I enjoyed it immensely. Below is an image showing the progression of the pages over the four weeks. I forgot to scan week three on the angel page (-_-) sorry.

I was very pleased to do this workshop as it brought me back to my old love of layering and layering and layering!

Steam Punk

2011-02-24T20:08:00.002+13:00

Steam Punk card I made a month ago for my Mum's birthday. I absolutely adore Steam Punk. I love that mixture of feminine and clockwork, of olde world and futuristic, I love the clothes and the accesories.

I used some Graphic45 papers called Steampunk Debutante Collection. The image of the lady is from the internet. Also used stickers and stamps.

frida round robin journal

2011-02-17T19:51:00.004+13:00

This is my entry in Elena's journal with a theme of anything Frida.

The pages are layered scrapbooking papers, printed image of Frida, acrylic paint, pencil, gesso, stickers and other ephemera. The stick-on letters are really cool! They are puffy and cool colours.
I added texture with punchinella and stencils.

frida round robin journal

2011-01-03T17:21:00.002+13:00

This is my entry in Elizabeth's journal with the theme "Self Portrait as Frida"

I kept these pages simple with mainly drawing.

Little bit of mixed media collage, but mainly fine tip felt pen. The patterns on the plaster cast on the second page are actually children's temporary tattoos!

frida round robin journal

2010-12-14T19:50:00.003+13:00

I am involved in a journal round robin with a Frida Kahlo theme. This is my entry in Eileen's journal with the theme "inspired by Frida" - anything as long as Frida's influence is felt in it.

I decided to do a mixed media collage of things that make me think of Frida.
Mixed media collage, using ink stamp pad, fine tip felt pen, found images, objects and stickers.

frida round robin journal

2010-11-16T14:27:00.004+13:00

This is my entry in Janet's journal with the theme "La Casa Azul" - anything you might find in Frida's blue house.

I know this looks a little formal ... but I wanted this to look realistic like a doll's house ... so I went with straight collage and a little mixed media decoration. Research to get an idea of the inside of her house was difficult because visitors to Cas Azul are not allowed to take photos inside the house. But then I found the Museo Frida Kahlo Virtual Tour. At first I was a little depressed that the blue was actually on the outside of her house not the inside. But on the virtual tour I found rooms with the blue around the bottom of the walls.

Now don't sue me for the in-authenticity of the rooms, this is not the furniture from Frida's house, it is my imagination. I had wanted the portraits to be actual photographs, but I couldn't find any actual photographs of Frida's mother's parents, so I went with the painted versions.

The pages are mixed media collage, using acrylic paint, gesso, fine tip felt pen, liquid pencil, and pencil.

frida round robin journal

2010-10-09T16:12:00.002+13:00

This is a spread in one of the Frida Kahlo Round Robin books. It is Maxine's book and the theme is "The Day of The Dead"

Maxine's book is a collection of card and paper held together with two rings. I cut each of the skulls out in various sizes and decorated them with sharpies and sakura gel pens and black Pitt Artist pens. Frida is collaged on from an internet image, but with extra pieces of collage added to her skirt to make it fuller. I also painted over her skin and other areas with Sakura gel pens and outlined everything with black Pitt Artist pen.

Taylor Mali poem "What Teachers Make"

2010-09-27T10:44:00.002+13:00

This is a brilliant poem! Thought I would share it with you all!!

frida round robin journal

2010-08-30T09:57:00.005+12:00

This is a spread in one of the Frida Kahlo Round Robin books. It is Kate's book and the theme is Frida in San Francisco. I decided to go with her time in San Francisco in the 1930s.

Kate's book is yummy with thick watercolour paper, and it is a decent size to work in as well. I loved working in it. My layout is far from perfect, but time was of the essence, and I am still happy with the result.

It was soon after Frida and Diego's marriage, and Frida desperately wanted children. She lost a child because of her misshapen pelvis from the accident. She suffered much pain with her right leg, and met Dr Leo Eloesser who became a life long friend and medical advisor to her. She painted more as a hobby during this stay in San Francisco, keeping her husband company at his mural painting. She also fell in love with the little children in China Town.

It is mixed media collage with gesso, charcoal, pastels, stamps and ink, fine tip felt pen, Sakura gelly and souffle pens, and pencil. Especially loved playing with the gesso and blue pastel in the sky!

Right, now onto the next journal, the theme is Frida's Blue House. Can't wait to start on it... I am rearing to go!!!!

frida round robin journal

2010-06-24T19:49:00.004+12:00

I am involved in a round robin journal project with ten other artists. The theme is Frida Kahlo. This is my journal that I decorated and did a spread and sent to Lee in Australia to do the next spread. Eventually I should get it back with mine and ten other artists take on the theme Frida that I will be able to keep. We each have started a journal so that we all have one to keep at the end.

I used a vintage children's book as my journal. I removed pages to make it the right size and gessoed the pages (MAN that took a ton of gesso and a lot of time!!!!)

The cover was painted with gold acrylic paint then red acrylic paint. I aged it with black and white ink pad. The pages are painted with acrylic paints, collaged with images and scrapbooking paper and decorated with stickers and stamps. LOTS of fun!

This was my spread to kick things off. It is inspired by Frida's description of where the notion of "Two Fridas" came from. She said that when she was young and feeling unhappy, she would go up to the window in their house (La Casa Azul - The Blue House) and look out. She would breathe on the glass of the window and draw a picture of a door onto it with her finger. She said she would then go out through the little door and run through the streets where she would go through the "O" in a store sign "Pinzon". This gate took her to an underworld where her imaginary friend was waiting for her, and the two would play. When she finished playing she would return home and go back through the little door. She would wipe off the door from the window and go about the rest of her day with a smile on her face!

I did the page with drawing, collage, acrylic paint and coloured pencil.

partner journal

2010-05-20T21:01:00.003+12:00

I am involved in a partner journal with Wendy in Australia. These are the eighth set of layouts that I have done. These layouts are in Wendy's journal.

The theme for these pages was hopes, dreams or aspirations for 2010 or beyond.

They both have gesso backgrounds with water-soluble crayon colour over the top. Both have collage elements. Hand lettering has been done with white Signo Uni-ball pen and Sakura sparkle gelly roll pen in the roses page, and black Pitt artist pen and coloured pencils in the wings page. The wings and flourishes in the second page are stamped with black ink.

I think I will try something a little more vivid in my next two partner journal spreads. Mmmmmmmm! Have to think about that!

book wraps

2010-04-01T10:31:00.004+13:00

I was busy before Christmas trying to make as many presents as I could for my family. I managed to make book wraps to give to my Mum and my sister. They are fabric covers to wrap your book up in when you want to take it with you. The wrap protects the book, and it looks good too!!

The idea came from Quilting Arts Magazine Issue 29 page 50, "Textural Book Wraps" by Angie Hughes. Angie's book wraps are just "to die for" and I would love to get my wraps more lacy thin like hers. I have been working on another project of Angie's from another magazine, a decorated bag. That is definitely a U.F.O. at the moment, I will post the finished product when I eventually finish it!!

The fabric of the book wrap is actually woven from strips of varied fabrics. Angie said she was looking for a use for upholstery offcuts, and weaving new fabric from old strips was the result. It is held together by being ironed onto iron-on interfacing. The ironed "fabric" was then decorated with acrylic paint and stamps, pieces of fabric and threads. Then a layer of organza is placed over the top and you take to the whole thing with your sewing machine. I crazy sewed all over the whole thing, folded one end in to be the flap that holds the book in place, added a decorative strip of fabric or ribbon at the end for a flourishy finish, and finally attached strips of recycled silk yarn for the ties to hold the book wrap closed.

partner journal

2010-03-22T09:58:00.005+13:00

I am involved in a partner journal with Wendy in Australia. These are the seventh set of layouts that I have done. These layouts are in my journal.

I have had trouble getting back into my art after the hectic Christmas and New Year break, so these are simple layouts.

The theme for these pages was hopes, dreams or aspirations for 2010 or beyond.

The background for the first page is scrapbooking paper, the nest and egg are collaged on, the background is smudged with gesso, the writing is in black Pitt Artist pen and white Signo pen.

The background of the second page was stamped with text, then painted over with acrylic and gesso. The daisies were collaged on, then I drew and wrote over the top. I love Ali Edwards' ideas on taking one little word as a theme for your year!

scott base acrylic painting

2010-03-16T10:24:00.004+13:00

A recent painting I did as a gift for my Uncle who spent two terms down at Antarctica's Scott Base. This was my impressionistic and stylistic take on an aerial view of the base. Lots of fun to paint... I learned a lot as I painted it as well.

This was the original aerial photo that I used as inspiration for the artwork.

This was initial sketching using pencil, liquid graphite, white poster paint pen and green highlighter. The list was me trying to sort out the order of the layers in my head.

This was a big sketch of my painting layout to help guide the colours as I laid them down.

First layers were white gesso, then a bright layer of Phthalo Blue acrylic dropped into pools of water on the surface of the canvas. Then I lay on plastic film (glad wrap, cling film) to make patterns.

Next was a layer of white gesso all over the top, once again using the plastic wrap to add texture. I looked at lots of images of snow and ice and I really wanted to try and get that dazzling look of bright blue showing through white ice. I got a big mess in these early stages! Paint all over me!!

Needless to say there was even more mess when I started splattering dark acrylic paint over the top. The colour is a homemade version of Payne's Grey that I love to work with... Mars Black mixed with Phthalo Blue and Phthalo Turquiose. I concentrated the splatter in the are where the buildings would be because the camp appears to sit on a really dark looking gravel.

Of course I forgot to take photos at the next stages, but I used Phthalo Turquiose for the buildings, and my Payne's Grey for the shading and shadows, gesso for the highlights.

Part way through I wasn't sure if I was going to be happy enough to give the painting as a gift, and then it just came together, and I am pleased as Punch with the final outcome.

Must paint more! Very exhausting, but also therapeutic!!

art dolls

2010-01-17T16:21:00.004+13:00

Meet Frida Kahlo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Tamara De Lempicka and Vincent Van Gogh... reinterpreted in my drawing style! The following photos are of some Artist Art Dolls that I made for a Christmas present for my niece.

That is her waving at us!!

The collection picture above shows all the bits that went into the process to make them.

I searched the internet and books first for images of the artists and their artwork and printed inspiration pages to work from (top left hand corner)

Then I drew their faces first on paper with pencil, because I thought their faces were the most important part (top right hand corner)

When I was happy with the drawing, I went over it more exactly with ball point pen, then reduced it to the size I wanted and printed it at the top of an A4 page on my printer. I then carried on the picture and drew their bodies in pencil till I was happy with those (middle images)
I drew in these lines with ballpoint pen as well, rubbed out the pencil lines, and then scanned them into Abode Photoshop Elements 6 and darkened the lines and cleaned up any messy bits with the Photoshop rubber.

I found images of their artwork that I felt represented their style of art and printed out the images and the doll drawings onto iron-on transfer paper. I then ironed the images onto some fairly fine weave fabric that I found in my stash (bottom right hand images)

I clipped the images of the drawings with bulldog clips over strong pieces of cardboard, then I started painting them in with acrylic paints. When I was happy with all the colours and shading, I repeated over the lines with black Pitt Artist pen. I then carefully reironed the images between greaseproof paper, and it seemed to remelt the paint and lines back into the iron-on transfer again. I gave a small test piece a good scratch and the paint wasn't showing any signs of peeling off (Yay! that was one thing I was worried about!!) (see middle bottom images)

Next I sewed on the few little notions on Frida... the roses in her hair and the earrings. I then stiched the two sides of each doll together on the sewing machine leaving a small gap to turn through the right way. They were difficult to turn through the right way because the paint made the material very stiff and I didn't want to damage the painting either when I did it.
Then I stuffed them with some Dacron and hand stitched the opening at the bottom back together (Voila! bottom left hand corner)

These are the backs of the dolls showing some of their artwork. Didn't get good closeups of the faces of the dolls because the focus was fuzzy.

I hope to make some more artists to add to her collection in the future!

52 prompts - hats

2009-11-28T09:07:00.003+13:00

Here is the next week of inspiration in my 52 prompts journal.

This is just aluminium foil framing an image from the movie "Signs", I have laughed many times thinking of this moment in the movie when they made aluminium foil hats to stop the aliens from controlling their minds. The black is Pitt Artist pen.

I enjoyed this movie, saw it recently on TV and so I thought of the Samurai hats as soon as the prompt came up. I would like to thank Lucy Thomsen for making the origami version of the hat for me out of bronze metallic paper. The page at the back is from a book and the images are from the internet. The text was printed with a computer.

This is an image from a vintage children's book. Very simple, just loved the image and the colours, and that fantastic beret! Because it was raspberry I had to quote the song lyrics, which were written with red Sakura souffle pen.

Quick collage with a background from a vintage children's magazine and images from a fancy dress catalogue (courtesy of Dover Publications) The edges of the background were inked and the title was printed on the computer.

Believe it or not this appears to be an ancestor of mine. Scanned from family photos. What a gorgeous hat! Printed text from the computer, scrapbooking paper, scrapbooking layering.

Scanned image from the book, scrapbooking paper and vellum, black Pitt Artist pen.

Please note that these are collections of images and paste-ups for inspiration and creative venting only. They use a mixture of my own photography, art and drawing, but they also use other people's images that I collage in because they inspire me to make art of my own, and I find they capture the feeling that I am looking for perfectly. This journal of inspiration is therefore a mixture of my art and a paste-up of other people's art that I admire.

tea

2009-11-21T09:25:00.003+13:00

I have had this page sitting half done for a long, long time!

I spread the background with blue acrylic paint that was left from another project. Then a while later I came across the image of the ladies having afternoon tea and stuck that on. Then while I was doodling one day I added the halo effect in lighter and darker blue around the image. Then it sat there... and I had no idea what to do with it!

Months later I was rifling through some stencils and suddenly thought of an idea for the rest of the page. I stencilled the flowers with white gesso and the stars with blue acrylic paint. Then I hunted for a quote about tea. I added the lettering by hand with white Uniball Signo pen and black Pitt Artist pen. Then added the spiral doodle with the same two pens. And there you are!

the time traveler's wife

2009-11-19T08:33:00.004+13:00

I finished reading "The Time Traveler's Wife" (Audrey Niffenegger) a little while ago and then saw the trailer for the movie since. It was a great book that was very moving and I can't wait to see how they try to portray it in the movies. I'm sure it won't be the same as the book, but I am pleased to have read the book first.

I had to do a journal page or two after reading the book, and this was the results. There were so many wonderful moments and images and quotes in the book that I didn't know where to start. I decided these were the quotes that I wanted to remember Clare and Henry by.

Henry's page shows him time travelling and shows him falling to represent what a dangerous and helpless condition he has. His wings are because of the constant references to angels and Clare's art and they relate to the central themes of the book (you will have to read it to know any more!)

Clare's page shows her self portrait. The full page doesn't quite fit in my scanner, but she is actually floating. The floating and the quote reflect the flying theme again.

There is a printed page in the background for both pages with all the years from the book printed in different sizes and fonts. Then there is a layer of gesso and water soluble crayon. Then I drew the picture of Clare using pencil and posemaniacs for a model. I did Henry falling by cutting a stencil from an internet image and sponging with acrylic paint. I drew in the wings, then painted with silver acrylic, highlighted with red acrylic and black Pitt Artist pen and tiny touches of white Uniball Signo pen. The text was done on both pages by hand with black Pitt Artist pen and black Sharpie. The stenciled edge was done with punchinella scrap and acrylic paints and graphite stick.

I know that some people found the book slow, but it is a book that you have to feel the characters slowly, not have them thrown at you in an exciting, fast paced way. I thought that the author got the pace just right and I can't wait to read her next novel.

over the top! award

2009-11-14T15:38:00.004+13:00

Thanks to the thoughtful Tammy over at "Bonsai Habits" AND the thoughtful Toni over at "Toni's Art Blog" I have been awarded an "Over The Top!" award... TWICE. Sometimes I do get a little O.T.T. so this is quite suitable.

The rules are:

I need to pass this award on to five people, post on their blog to let them know I left this award, and then I need to answer a list of questions in ONE word.

Where is your cell phone?… purse

Your hair?… unkempt

Your mother?… taller

Your father?… shorter

Your favorite food?… chinese

Your dream last night?… fretful

Your favorite drink?… espresso

Your dream/goal?… creativity

What room are you in?… spare-room

Your hobby?… arting

Your fear?… knives

Where do you want to be in 6 years?… gallery

Where were you last night?… upstairs

Something that you aren’t?… beauty-queen

Muffins?… lemon-crunch

Wish list item?… i-phone

Where did you grow up?… small-town

Last thing you did?… coffee

What are you wearing?… jeans

Your TV?… son gaming

Your Pets?… cats

Friends?… far and few between

Your life?… disappearing before my eyes

Your mood?… changeable

Missing Someone?… sister and niece

Vehicle?… stationwagon aaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

Something you're not wearing?… nailpolish

Your favorite store?… art

Your favorite colour?… red

When was the last time you laughed?… watching True Blood

Last time you cried?… after son's accident

Your best friend?… arty

One place that I go to over and over?… lala land

Facebook?… reluctantly

Favorite place to eat?… Indian banquet restaurant

Not quite one word, that is very difficult to do!!!!

The 5 "over the top!" awards go to:

Tammy at "Daisy Yellow"
Linda at "Lindart"
Lay Hoon at "Mescrap Studio"
Carole at "Madness and Mess"
Amber at "Amber's Blog"

foil print fun

2009-11-05T12:00:00.005+13:00

This is an artwork on cartridge paper, using black gesso, watersoluble crayons, black ink and black Pitt Artist pen. I completed the artwork, but it is actually a failed attempt at a new technique. My friend (Helen) and I decided to try a technique from Mary Todd Beam's book "The Creative Edge"... but we made a booboo and it didn't turn out the way it was meant to. But if you are making any art at all, it is not a failure, so we carried on and had fun with what we had anyway!!

The first stage was to brayer black gesso onto aluminium foil.

It needed to be a fairly thick layer. Then you needed to wait for it to partly dry.

This was where the booboo happened! You had to wait for the shine to dull to know when it was ready. But we waited too long and it dried too much.

Then we turned the foil over onto our cartridge paper and using a pencil, and shapes, and sticks, and the side of a ruler, we drew loose shapes and patterns onto the back of the foil.

You can see that we ended up with lots of tears in the foil because we had to scratch the heck out of it to get anything to transfer over to the paper!

When I peeled off the foil it looked like this... it was meant to be covered in heavy and light black lines and shapes all over the page. So my result is very sparse. But like I said, bad art is still making art, so we made the most of what we had.

Nervous that I would lose what black gesso I did have on the page, I sprayed with fixative first to preserve all I could. Then I leapt in with watersoluble crayons and coloured and washed to my heart's content. The finishing touches were stamping the word "icarus" and then the feathers, and decorating more with black Pitt Artist pen.

partner journal

2009-11-03T10:27:00.002+13:00

I am involved in a partner journal with Wendy in New Zealand. These are the sixth set of layouts that I have done. These layouts are in Wendy's journal.

The theme for these pages was self portraits with commentaries.

In the first page the frame is scrapbooking paper cut to the correct dimensions. The centre is painted with silver acrylic paint. The image of me is a digital photograph altered in Photoshop Elements. The poem is "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath, and it has been written in with black Pitt Artist pen.

The second page is a simple drawing done on the white page with black Pitt Artist pen, and smudges of acrylic paint on the butterflies. The drawing is a younger me. The verse is taken from a poem by Vivienne Plumb.

illustration friday "frozen"

2009-10-20T16:32:00.003+13:00

Illustration Friday entry for the prompt "frozen" - Yay!!!! I managed two weeks in a row!!

This is a mixed media collage in my little "52 prompts" inspiration journal. It is in under the prompt "weather and it is "snow".

The background started with smeared gesso and silver acrylic paint. Then strips of two shades of blue sellotape. You can't really see the effect of these first layers properly. The silver has scanned looking grey and the sellotape strips are actually a beautiful, glossy, transparent blue.

Then I collaged images of the girl and jewels from magazines. I folded the largest jewel image and snipped it like a snowflake. Then decorated with white Uniball Signo pen and black Pitt Artist pen.

I didn't use any blue paint, so the blue that you see is all done with the nifty sellotape that I bought.

This is a scan of the page before I added the collage elements and the decorations. It is the smeared gesso and silver acrylic paint with the two shades of blue sellotape over the top. The sellotape is ripped into strips.

The effect is much better if you are looking at the actual art in front of you. The sellotape is really shiny and it adds gloss to the coloured page and the blue colour intensifies wherever the blue is overlapped.

fruits

2009-10-19T08:53:00.003+13:00

This is a scan of a drawing I did recently in pencil from an image in a book. Unfortunately I still haven't got the hang of scanning pencil drawings and getting them to come out looking right. It is a lot clearer in real life. I love drawing and I find that it really relaxes me. I disappear into another world when I am concentrating on the lines and spaces and time passes so quickly. If I do a long drawing session then I come out of it physically tired. Does drawing exhaust and relax you?

The book is fantastic inspiration and a fantastic source for people who like drawing fashion. The book is called "Fruits" by Phaidon. Here is the link to it on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Fruits-Shoichi-Aoki/dp/0714840831/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255072696&sr=8-1

And here is a link to the exhibition:

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/exhibitions/fruits.asp

The Tokyo Street Style outfits are funky and crazy and fun to draw!!! Below is the page that I used as a model to draw from.

illustration friday "flying"

2009-10-14T19:49:00.003+13:00

Illustration Friday entry for the prompt "flying"

Once again I haven't managed to post to this group for ages. Hope to get back on track again!

This is a mixed media collage. This journal page has torn pages underneath from a vintage book of boy's stories. Then I drew over that with watersoluble crayons and then over that with acrylic paints. Three collage elements from a magazine, white and black pens.

52 prompts - buildings

2009-10-09T20:21:00.003+13:00

Here are the next seven days of inspiration in my 52 prompts journal.

This is a photo that I took in Wellington, in New Zealand. Printing done with Pitt Artist pen. It is mounted on a handmade looking paper.

This was someone else's artwork on the internet that just moved me, so I have kept it as a paste up for inspiration.

That is ephemera monopoly money in the background, with internet images pasted on top. Text was printed on the computer, and pen used was Pitt Artist pen.

Images off the internet and layered with coloured card. Printing done with chisel ended pen and Pitt Artist pen.
I love Hundertwasser's wonderful organic buldings in beautiful colours!

Internet images of the building and King Kong. Paper scrapbooking frame. Blue card and black Pitt Artist pen.

Images from the Globe off internet. Text printed from computer. Lady Macbeth image is a previous collage artwork I created.

This was the first building that I thought of! Scrapbooking papers, stickers, rubons. Text written with black Pitt Artist pen.

Please note that these are collections of images and paste-ups for inspiration and creative venting only. They use a mixture of my own photography, art and drawing, but they also use other people's images that I collage in because they inspire me to make art of my own, and I find they capture the feeling that I am looking for perfectly. This journal of inspiration is therefore a mixture of my art and a paste-up of other people's art that I admire.

partner journal

2009-09-23T16:47:00.003+12:00

I am involved in a partner journal with Wendy in New Zealand. These are the fifth set of layouts that I have done. These layouts are in my journal.

The theme for these pages was self portraits with commentaries.

In the self-portrait as Venus page I painted the background first with acrylic paint (for you people who like detail... the colour was "Derivan Matisse Ultramarine Blue", gorgeous colour!) The image of Venus and Cupid was found on the internet. The painting is "Venus and Cupid at Vulcan's Forge" by Palma Giovane. I added my face to Venus' body (bless her!) using Photoshop Elements and cut out section I wanted and glued it to the page with Gel Medium. I continued on the curtain at the top and the sheets at the bottom using watersoluble crayons. I stamped flourishes with white ink (sorry all you artists that don't like flourishes!!), then printed my commentary with a white Uniball Signo pen (the colour is called Angelic Colour!). This pen is FANTASTIC on the dark background, the white comes out even more solid than my souffle pens and there was no trouble using it over acrylic paint.

The next page started with torn and collaged scrapbooking and magazine and pamphlet papers. Then I drew the drawing on the right hand side. Then I attacked it with gesso and watersoluble crayons and coloured metallic pencil for the glasses. It was cool too wet the watersoluble crayons with gesso rather than just water! You get a more milky effect. On the left I used watersoluble crayons on the edges and gesso in the centre. The text is done on the computer and printed on transparency sheet. The writing didn't show up too well when I sat it over the page to test it, so I glued a layer of white serviette with gel medium to the centre of the page before I glued the transparency on. You will notice that I managed to smudge the bottom of the text in the process, but I let it go, because it is OK to make bad art!!!!!

I am loving doing this journal swap, it always manages to kick start me again from the doldrums!!

52 prompts - flowers

2009-09-12T21:54:00.003+12:00

Here are the next seven days of inspiration in my 52 prompts journal.

The sunflower is cardmaking layers of coloured card with images from the internet and font typed on the computer.

The fuschia was drawn onto the magazine images of clothing fabrics, then cut and pieced onto the page.

The daisy page is all scrapbooking paper and stickers.

The daffodil page is a torn photo I took in a daffodil field (there were literally thousands of them) with a Daffy-down-dilly image from the internet. I remember the rhyme from my childhood.

The rose is drawn with watercolour pencils. It is copied from an internet image.

The picture of Sakura is from the internet, it is layered on a beautiful blossom scrapbooking paper that I adore. I practiced the Japanese writing and did it in felt pen.

The hibiscus images are straight from the internet. I ran out of inspiration and the images capture the essence of the flower beautifully!

I have been sick recently and I have got way behind in my prompts, but I will post more soon!

52 prompts - animals

2009-08-18T10:07:00.006+12:00

My friend, Helen, and I have started a new mini art project that we are working on seperately, but together (if you know what I mean?!) I stumbled on some "any year" diaries in a sales bin at a local stationery shop for NZ$1 each. The book measures approx 210mm x 145mm, I guess about 8" x 6". On the 8" x 6" page there are two day entries, or four days on a two page open spread. It is a mid year diary that starts on July 1st.

We decided to use the diary as a mini journal of art prompts. We each take turns at choosing a topic, and then we each make seven small collages/artworks that come to mind from the topic. We can use any type of art or words to portray the topic. The idea is that at the end we will have a book of 52 different prompts, each with 7 different takes, to browse through when we need inspiration. And if that isn't enough, then we can swap books and get inspiration from the other person's journal as well!

The first weeks prompt was "animals" and so we each chose 7 different animals to "art" about.

Turns out that doing these prompts is quite educational as well! When you decide on a topic you invariably go to the computer for inspiration and you end up following links around and doing a little research on the topic. You discover facts you had forgotten, and new ones you never knew!

This is all a bit of fun, and a way to keep being inspired and making art! Hope you share the inspiration!!

Pukeora photos (part 2)

2009-08-05T11:30:00.008+12:00

Margaret of "Alice and Camilla" commented on my last entry that she liked the special atmosphere that the Pukeora photos conveyed, and so I have posted a few more of them. Margaret, you are so right about the strange stillness that resonates in these old hospital buildings (can stillness resonate?!) I don't have many interior photos, unfortunately because I felt so selfconscious taking photos with lots of people around. But I have posted what I did take.

As you wander around inside the building there is a strange combination of large open rooms that feel too big and hallways with lots of little rooms that feel too small. A perfect place for accommodation. I have heard that some artists get together to have retreats there. They sleep in the little rooms, use the kitchen facilities to eat, and the larger rooms to spread out all their art and craft. Because they are in one building they can craft to any hour of the night that they want before they go to bed! Sounds like heaven!!

Pukeora photos

2009-07-28T10:42:00.004+12:00

I love taking photos since I got a digital camera! It is just so easy! You can take as many photos as you like without the worry of wasting the film. I have had many artist's dates with my camera since I got it.

These are a few photos from a trip to a wonderful festival held at the old Pukeora Estate on the San Hill behind Waipukurau in the Hawkes Bay of New Zealand. The old Sanatorium was first built to care for the soldiers returning from World War 1, later it became a Tuberculosis Sanatorium. In the late 1950s it was redeveloped as a home for the disabled and physically handicapped. The hospital was closed in 1998 and the property is now used as a vineyard, winery and function center with accommodation.

The old hospital feel to the buildings is eerie and the perfect location for the Festival. I took many many photos while I was there. Here is a tiny sampling.

BBC booklist

2009-07-23T18:14:00.003+12:00

I reposted this entry after reading it on Sparklebluefaery's blog

The BBC says most people will only read 6 of these 100 Books.

Instructions:Cut and Copy the list into your notes... then...

1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read. (remove other persons X's)
2) Tally your total at the bottom.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte X
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell X
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Total Read= 13

Not very good really, but at least it is more than the average 6! I will try to return to this entry and update it every now and then. I know that I have direct access in my house or my parent's house to another 16 of these books, so I have no excuse! I have to get reading to see why they are on the list.

Please post a link in the comments section to your blog entry if you carry on the challenge yourself.

don't you love Banksy?!

2009-07-04T13:06:00.005+12:00

I have to admit that I like Banksy's weird take on art and humour. Not exactly sure about his advertising poster, and I wonder if that is his or an advertising idea that someone else said he should use. But, anyway, I had to show this artwork of his that I think it very clever.

This is a statue of Hebe, she is the Greek Goddess of youth, and her name comes from the Greek word meaning 'youth' or 'prime of life'. Here is what the original statue looks like.

If you search 'Banksy' on Flickr you will find a pile of images from his recent show.

lady macbeth

2009-07-03T20:00:00.005+12:00

"Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad"

This is a collage journal page on black paper. The image is a vintage book clipping of Lady Macbeth.

I started the page with Naples Yellow acrylic paint, then crackled over purple paint with a crackle medium. I glued torn pieces of serviette around the outside edge and glued the Lady Macbeth in the centre. The border was drawn with Sakura glaze pen and black Sharpie. So was the text. I just made up the font as I wrote it because I didn't want to use computer font (I am trying to do more of my own lettering! Man, do I need to loosen up though!!) Then I drew around Lady Macbeth with the black Sharpie as well.

If you click on the image to get a closer look, you will see the cool textures from the two colour crackle!

miss saigon

2009-07-03T09:53:00.006+12:00

Last night I went to the Napier Operatic Society's production of "Miss Saigon" and I enjoyed it immensely.

The story seemed to really kindle some emotions in me, and I cried through most of the show. Which is very strange because it WAS a musical!! And musicals have the effect of suspending my belief usually. I usually enjoy a good musical, but I never get immersed in it like I do in a movie. (My husband usually says of musicals... "It would have been a good story if they didn't keep bursting into song!") But with this one, I did get involved.

I liken it to "Les Miserables", but I never cried in "Les Miserables", only it seemed more real because it was a recent war that we have been exposed to a lot through TV and movies.

They say that it is a modern version of "Madam Butterfly", but I haven't managed to see that yet. I really should rent a DVD version.

From "Sun and Moon" lyrics by Kim and Chris:

"KIM

you are sunlight and I moon

joined by the gods of fortune

midnight and high noon

sharing the sky

we have been blessed, you and I

CHRIS

you are here like a mystery

I'm from a world that's so different

from all that you are

how in the light of one night

did we come so far?"

From "I'd Give My Life For You" lyrics sung by Kim:

"was he a ghost? was he a lie

that made my body laugh and cry?

then, by my side, the proof I see:

his little one, gods of the sun, bring him to me!"

From "Bui-Doi" lyrics sung by John:

"They're called Bui-Doi

The Dust of life

Concieved in hell

And born is strife

They are the living reminders

Of all the good we failed to do

We can't forget

Must not forget

That they are all

Our children too"

mama

2009-06-21T15:42:00.005+12:00

This journal page was kind of a result of reading Pam Carricker's article in "Cloth, Paper, Scissors" where she explained that her artwork felt like it was about a mother letting go of her children. Then I came across an image of an oldfashioned mother in a vintage children's book while I was looking for pages to send someone in an ephemera swap. She looked so calm and kind and knowing that I had to cut her out and use her. She was originally holding a door handle, but I put the lovely little bird on her hand instead.

The story it tells is a mother looking away and letting her children grow up and make mistakes on their own. The bird is the child that she is letting free. She has given her children all the warnings that she can, and now she knows that she has to let them make mistakes and find out for themselves. Looks like her son in the background learned a rather hard one!!

The quote is a line from Elvis Presly's song "It's all right, Mama", music and lyrics by Arthur Crudup.

The journal page is done on black paper with gesso and acrylic paint as a background. The collaged elements are a piece of dress pattern and images from three different vintage kid's books. The writing is painted in acrylic paints (it took a lot of layers to block out that bright blue underneath!!) and was outlined with fine black maker. The decoratons were stencilled acrylic paints, fine black marker, and white gelly-roll glaze pen.

Hope you like it!

metaphor for joy

2009-06-13T17:50:00.003+12:00

Brené Brown has touched me with her pieces of writing again! This description of joy and what makes a joyful life is touching and I totally agree with it.

Go to her website and blog to be enlightened and lifted:

http://www.ordinarycourage.com/

partner journal

2009-06-11T15:03:00.004+12:00

I am involved in a partner journal with Wendy in New Zealand. These are the fourth set of layouts that I have done. These layouts are in her journal.
The theme for these pages was still where we came from, grew up, live, etc. But I responded to her pages with these layouts.

I started with acrylic paint. Then I added printed images. The titling letters are stickers. I then decorated with watersoluble crayons, sharpies and rubon embellishments. Four out of the six photos are my own, the other two were off the internet.

I used digital photos of the piles of mess in my house, printed them, then tore them into strips and wove them onto the page with modge podge.
The bottom page was printed on the computer to contrast with the top page.

souffle pens

2009-06-10T11:45:00.004+12:00

I get asked a lot about my souffle pens, so I decided to do a quick post about them.

The pens are a type of gel pen that are done by Sakura. Sakura makes three types of gell pen (that I know of) Gelly Roll, Glaze and Souffle. I have a mixture of pens because once I realised I liked them I just bought anything I could get my hands on.

What is neat about them is the brilliant rolling end that allows the ink to just flow out magnificently. It makes them brilliant to use in mixed media artwork because they just roll over the top of the different surfaces you have laid down and just keep flowing. The colours are wonderful as well, and they really pop out when you get them on the right background colour.

They do have drawbacks, but they are so cool that I don't mind them. Because they roll you have to slow down your writing to let it flow out smoothly, the slower you go, the thicker the line. You also have to wait for it to dry properly, because it is a bead of liquid. Many times I have gone to work on something else on my page while my souffle pen dried, and I looked back to discover that I unknowingly ran my hand through the paint and it is now smudged. You also have to get used to which colours you can use over which background colours. Some colours will just disappear into other colours, but if you choose the right combination they will sing on the page and nearly poke your eye out!

Here are all the blog posts I have done that reference souffle pens:

http://mixedmediamartyr.blogspot.com/search/label/souffle%20pen

Kelly Kilmer is a pen guru in the art journaling world and here is a link to her favourite pens:

http://kellykilmer.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-pen-list.html

Well, I hope that this has helped all you out there in blog and Flickr land. It was a post I should have done ages ago, because I love these pens so much.

artist date with the frost

2009-06-07T21:07:00.004+12:00

I am currently working through Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" with a Yahoo group I belong to called "Blissfully Art Journaling" and I consider that my little trip out into our recent chilling frosts with my digital camera to be my artist's date for the week.

Here is the result of my little photographic jaunt out early on a frosty morning.

partner journal

2009-05-26T10:54:00.003+12:00

These pages are from the partner journals that I am doing with Wendy from http://wendypslittlecorneroftheworld.blogspot.com/

The theme for these pages was where we lived, grew up, came from, etc.

The 'provenance' page is a vintage book page, printed photos, gesso, watersoluble crayons, rubber stamps and black inkpad, pencil, sharpie, and written with Faber Castell Pitt Artist pen.

The 'bakery' page started with scrapbooking paper, then I built up the background with gesso and watersoluble crayons. Then I added the brochure images of bread and buns and the printed photos. The 'bakery' letters are stickers. I then decorated with punchinella and flourish stencils using liquid pencil, white ink, black ink, brown ink and orange souffle pen. The writing was done with Faber Castell Pitt Artist pen.

To anyone interested in the layers beneath, below is a scan of the 'provenance' page before I added the elements and decorations.

liquid pencil

2009-05-19T11:26:00.002+12:00

This is one of the art supplies that I bought on a recent trip to Wellington (New Zealand). It is 'liquid pencil' by Derivan. It is like pencil in a paint form and it is yummy!

I say yummy because it is the consistency of a thick glossy cream. You can thin it with water or acrylic medium and you can paint it on like a watercolour. It comes in six different colours: red, sepia, yellow, blue and two shades of grey. These aren't bright colours, they all look like pencil, but the colours are the undertone.

Here are a couple of links for you to have a look at:

Matisse Derivan product information page (includes some videos)

eHow.com article about how to use it

So far I have only used it to stencil through punchinella. The effect was brilliant though. I was able to vary the thickness I put it on for a varying effect, and it had a wonderful chalky pencil finish which was brilliant for a different texture and feeling to ink or acrylic paint stencilling.

I will blog the page I used it on in the next week after I am sure that my journal partner has got my journal and sees it first.

marvel vs dc

2009-05-13T12:45:00.004+12:00

These were two excellent movies! Both managed to capture that incredible comic book feel. Watchmen made a legendary graphic novel come to life, and Wolverine kicked ass like no other comic book movie! To anyone who likes the sci-fi, comic book, graphic novel sort of genres, I highly recommend they try reading Watchmen. It is difficult to read in the graphic novel format, but it is so much more than a comic book! The Wolverine movie fight scenes were like no other I have seen on the big screen, they managed to cut between real, hoisted and cgi filming seamlessly (please forgive my terms as I do not know the film lingo!). I know this isn't everybody's cup of tea, but it was definitely my hot rum toddy!!!

i choose authenticity

2009-05-12T11:18:00.004+12:00

I have added a badge to the side of my blog as a celebration of living an authentic and wholehearted life! This wonderful message of authenticity is from Brené Brown. Please check out her website and her message.

partner journal

2009-05-11T18:13:00.003+12:00

These pages are from the partner journals that I am doing with Wendy from http://wendypslittlecorneroftheworld.blogspot.com/

The size of the journal is 8 x 6 inches - which is very small for me - but I am surviving OK. In fact I am finding the different size to be quite refreshing! They are mixed media pages using scrapbooking paper, acrylic paint, watersoluble crayons, souffle pens, Pitt artist pens, ephemera, printed photos, etc.

I drew the angel on the pink page with pencil.

the scent of the roses

2009-04-28T19:08:00.005+12:00

You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,

But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.

Thomas Moore

It is Autumn here in New Zealand and the beautiful roses are nearly all gone. So I thought I would post a few pics I took when our roses were in their prime. Yellow roses are my favourite! But the white look stunning, too!

tattoo

2009-04-23T09:30:00.003+12:00

This is a mixed media collage on a journal page. The prompt was "tattoo" and it came from the Yahoo Group I belong to "Blissfully Art Journaling"

Of course if I ever was to get angel's wings tattooed on me, they would be much, much smaller than this, but I like to dream of a different me sometimes.

The method was scrapbooking papers painted over with black and white gesso. Computer printed image and title. Roses are magazine images. Stamped with black ink and white gesso. Decorated and written with white souffle pen.

art swap

2009-04-19T14:40:00.004+12:00

This is an art journal that I made as part of an art swap organised by KiwiCarole at Madness and Mess blog. I filled the journal with many different types of paper and card. The idea was that every page would be a starter prompt for a journaling diary or art journal and would inspire the artist that used the journal.

The cover is another "fabric paper" creation from serviettes. Then there are layers of chiffon and paper and a computer printed image on silk fabric that I did from a photograph of an angel I took at a cemetery and a scan of a painted background that I did. All stitched together with my trusty sewing machine (broke a needle doing this!)

This shows the inside cover and the letter that I wrote to the swap partner explaining my creation. It folds up and goes in the pouch on the inside cover.

This is the back cover made from a vintage board game.

These are a selection of pages from inside the book. Some were scrapbooking papers, some were vintage book pages, some drawing paper and card, old ledger paper, canvas paper...

I was worried that I was making something by hand and then I would never see it again overseas somewhere, so I made an exact duplicate of it at the same time. So I sent one away on my swap and then I kept the other myself. Now I don't know whether to use it or keep it as it is!

music satchel

2009-04-08T12:01:00.006+12:00

I promised more art, and here it is! My sister is an opera singer and she said last year that she was trying to find a satchel type bag that she could carry her music in to work. She was having trouble finding something that wasn't either the wrong shape or too boring looking. So I hunted and hunted for a modern looking satchel (which was hard to find, I might add!) and then I added an artwork to the front of it to make it different!

The satchel turned out to be a fairly cheap one from a stationery shop. It was perfect with its large blank front panel.

The artwork is handmade "fabric paper" - I have seen this technique in "Cloth, Paper, Scissors" magazine and in Beryl Taylor's wonderful book "Mixed Media Explorations". It is a process of building up paper with PVA glue on a fabric background. I used a plain fabric in the background and then layered sheet music, serviettes, and images on card and paper with PVA glue. The servittes are wonderful because they go quite transparent with the glue and you get different layers showing through from underneath.

This image was from a glossy magazine. I blended it in by gluing serviettes over the edges of the paper. I chose her because I loved the glowing colours of her outfit, and her classical pose.

This image is of L'Opera in Paris (quite suitable for an opera singer's bag!!) and it was a reproduction image that was a giveaway in a "Somerset Studio" magazine.

Once I was happy with the layers I had built up, I took to the art with my sewing machine! I picked some plain and some fancy stitches and sewed around the images (to help make sure they didn't dislodge later) and around the whole artwork to frame it and secure the edges. Please don't look too closely at the sewing because I am NO seamstress! I love that I can finally make use of my sewing machine in mixed media artwork. Sometimes I go crazy with it, and I don't worry at all that the sewing is terrible!!

I gave this to my sister for Christmas and she was over the moon with it! I hope that it hasn't fallen apart yet!!!!

feet

2009-03-26T09:13:00.007+13:00

This entry is prompted by Joanie Hoffman's blog entry "Hoffman in a Teapot or Thepest in a Teapot" about why artist bloggers post pictures of their feet.

Well here is the proof! I also have photos of my feet. I took this photo a couple of weeks ago on one of my walks around the walkway that follows the shoreline around our town. When I stopped for a rest on the beach halfway through my walk, I took photos of my feet, my shadow, the contents of my backpack, and the scenery.

I think we do it for a few reasons. One, because we don't have anyone to take a photo of us and our feet are the furthest away part of our body that we can shoot ourselves. Two, because we are more comfortable with the anonymity and non-revealing nature of a photo that does not show our whole body, or too much of it. Three, because as artists we like the creativity of representing something in a partial, representative way.

I don't know if you all agree with this or have other ideas, I would be interested to know.

p.s. If I am starting to bore the artist followers of this blog with too much conversation, I promise that I plan to post some art entries again soon!

art bag contents

2009-03-25T20:05:00.003+13:00

"The Art Journal" Yahoo Group started talking about taking your journals on a trip, and that lead to queries about what is in our art bags, so I have photographed my travelling art bag.

It includes a rollup art case with all range of markmaking supplies in it, including rubbers and sharpener, glue pen, and paintbrushes with water tanks. Also magazines for collage images, plastic folder with collage images and ephemera in it, tinted charcoal pencils, tinted graphite pencils, watersoluble coloured pencils, watersoluble crayons, souffle pens, sharp craft scissors, double-sided tape, punchinella, art rag, digital camera.

My favourite things at the moment are probably the watersoluble crayons and the Sakura Souffle Pens. Everyone knows that I love my Souffle Pens!!! They are so brilliant for doodling over journals!! The watersoluble crayons because you can draw them on then smooth them out with water, then draw over the top again, then smooth out again.

Success New Zealand! S92A has been scrapped!

2009-03-24T15:25:00.005+13:00

"The Creative Freedom Foundation are celebrating tonight after National's announcement this afternoon that Section 92A will be scrapped, and that they will work towards finding an alternative. Chris Keall at the NBR reports: "Prime Minister John Key has announced that the government will throw out the controversial Section 92A of the Copyright Amendment Act and start again. Section 92A has been scrapped.". This is fantastic news, and it's great that Prime Minister John Key has taken a stand on this important issue. This draconian and naive law was originally championed by former-MP Labour's Judith Tizard. Now we need to help make some sensible copyright law that will protects artists and well as New Zealanders. The CFF are preparing to take part in this process. Today is a victory for New Zealanders - artists and non-artists alike. The CFF thanks everyone of you who supported this movement: we couldn't have done it without you!"

Well done "Creative Freedom Foundation" - we can make a difference if we try!

See the bar at the top of this page for a link if you want to know more.

award winning blogs

2009-03-17T19:54:00.005+13:00

I am finally nominating some blogs for the awards that I got:

Inspiration Award:

One Lovely Blog Award:

Marie Antoinette, a real person, a real award:

These are all blogs that I frequent. Please check them out because they are all wonderful blogs created by wonderful people! Thankyou to all these bloggers for their encouragement and their inspiration!!

inspiration award

2009-03-15T09:31:00.003+13:00

Aaaaaaah! Another award! I haven't got the last awards sorted out yet!

Thankyou, so much, Rini from "Catharina's Love" for this lovely award. You must go and look at her blog as it is very inspiring. Or you could check out her Flickr page. Please take a look at the GORGEOUS angel page that she has done!

quints

2009-03-12T09:13:00.004+13:00

This is just the most inspiring photo I have seen in a long while!! Isn't it just exquisite?!

It is called "Quints" and it is by Lottie Davies. I just love these photos she has done with elaborate set ups and little stories that go with them. A lot of these creative shots seemed to be linked with dreams and childhood memories. The photo above has all the interest of a wonderfully complex old painting, and I stared at it for ages!!

heartstone

2009-03-12T08:54:00.003+13:00

Life is so funny!

I went for my (fairly recently) regular pastime of walking the limestone pathway down the river and around the coastline of our town yesterday, and I stopped at my regular resting place down on the stoney shoreline (no sand on our local beach!). My son's mp3 player had just gone dead, and I didn't bring a book, so I stared at all the stones on the beach where I sat. I thought to myself "it would be cool to find an interesting shaped stone." I looked, and there, just sitting there, was this gorgeous little heart shaped stone! It is just so perfectly a heart that I had to bring it home and treasure it!

Now I have to decide how to put it in some suitable artwork that will do it justice!! Any suggestions?

wuthering heights update

2009-03-10T08:38:00.009+13:00

I have found out about the screen versions of "Wuthering Heights" and thought I would share them with you.

The above image is from the 1992 film starring Ralph Fiennes (sigh!) and Juliette Binoche. But the original version was 1939 starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon.

But there was also a 1970 version starring Timothy Dalton and Anna Calder-Marshall.

But wait... there is more... the BBC did a 5 part mini-series version in 1998 starring Robert Cavanagh and Orla Brady.

AND... as if that was not enough... there is a new film version on its way in 2010 starring Michael Fassbender as Heathcliff and Abbie Cornish as Catherine!

So what are you waiting for? You better get down to your video store and get watching! Tell me what you think!!!

wuthering heights

2009-03-08T21:09:00.002+13:00

Well! I have just finished reading "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë. It was a strange book to read. The style of the writing was easy enough to read, but strange the way it was written. It was an unusual (for me) storytelling style with little regard for description of event or emotions. You really followed the story as an observer without knowing any intimate knowledge of any of the characters or the actions that took place. For me it meant that I was never too sure how I felt about any of the characters, in fact the way I saw them kept changing continually. The only feeling I had that lasted throughout was the desperate sense of things getting terribly more and more twisted in hopelessness. Although I know that it is a love story, I really felt like the characters were so twisted with ulterior motives, standards and traditions that I really didn't feel like it was a love story at all!! I think I will try and get a movie version of it out from the library to see someone else's vision. That might bring the characters to life more for me. It is a very depressing story isn't it?! I might read it again in the future after I have found out what other people see in the characters and the story.

one lovely blog award

2009-03-04T13:34:00.003+13:00

Thankyou Raewyn at "Whinneys Whims" for this "One Lovely Blog Award"! Raewyn is a fellow Kiwi and she comes from Hawkes Bay as well. She is an absolute scrapaholic, and I think you should go check out her blog!

According to the rules you need to:

1. Add the logo to your blog.

2. Link to the person from whom you received this award.

3. Nominate 7 or more blogs.

4. Leave a message on their blogs, letting them know they are “One Lovely Blog”!

Well, to be honest, I haven't got around to nominating people for the last blog award I got!!! Aren't I naughty!!! And I have just had a phone call to go pick up my injured son from school, so I can't work on that right now either!! I PROMISE though to get onto both these award lists as soon as possible!

Thankyou again for thinking of me, I am very proud!!

move over Manolo Blahniks... hello Kumfs!!

2009-03-04T10:16:00.002+13:00

Oooooooooooh!!!!! I want these boots!!!! They are called "Zara" and they are by "Kumf". I love Kumf shoes, they really are so comfortable. I have to admit that in the past they have been a bit conservative for my liking, but this new range they have put out this year is just full of scrummy designs like this one!! I love them... I want them!!!!!!

I have been published... kinda!

2009-03-01T15:34:00.007+13:00

I finally got my copy of "art house co-op"s book for "the scavenger project"! I was worried that my copy was never going to arrive because I heard other people got theirs a few weeks ago. But here it is, and I am completely over the moon!!!

I knew that even though there were 24 sections to the book that you could have contributed art towards, you were only guaranteed to get one image into the book. But I got two images in, and I am ecstatic about it!! It just has given me such a buzz to actually see my images in print!!!

That is my image on the left hand side with the title of the section printed on it! And they got my name right as well!!! I called this image "Thief", here is the link to the blog entry when I did the artwork: thief

This is the second page I was on. I am the right hand image with the Wooster St sign and the traffic lights. I called this image "city" and here is the link to the blog entry from when I did it: "city"

lamplight

2009-02-10T20:39:00.004+13:00

This is a drawing/painting done on canvas primed with black gesso. I drew the image first with white pencil. Then I painted in the metallic colours with my fingers using acrylic paints (gold, silver, copper). I then added defintion with pastel pencils and coloured graphite pencils.

This was just a quick fun piece of artwork that I did from a photo of a lamp at an experimental art workshop. I LOVED using my fingers to paint the metallic paint. It felt more expressive than using a brush!

Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavie

2009-02-09T20:02:00.008+13:00

I love this video! I just love it when people get a bit creative! The song is cool too!!!

I found it through "Teesha's Circus" blog.

Blog Award!

2009-02-07T08:53:00.003+13:00

Marie Antoinette, a real person, a real award!

Thankyou to the lovely Carole at MADNESS and MESS for this gorgeous award! This is the first award I have been ever given, and I absolutely love Marie Antoinette so it is twice as special!! I apologize to Carole for how long it has taken me to act on her award, but it has been a weird couple of months and I haven't been doing a lot of art or blogging.

Rules of acceptance:

1. Put the logo on your blog

2.Place a link to the person who nominated you

3.Nominate 7 blogs to receive this award

4.Place a link to those blogs

5.Leave a message on their blogs to let them know they have been given this award

Well, I have done the first two parts of these award rules, I will continue with the rest on another post when I get more of a chance to decide on some other blogs to nominate. There are so many other people's blogs that I love and I will have to check that they are happy to accept blog awards as well. So tune back in at a later date to find out who they will be!!

Keep arting everyone! Thanks for sticking with me over my dry patch!!

Kenya

2009-01-28T18:33:00.003+13:00

This is a page from an art journal. It is layered collage with vintage book pages, serviettes and postage stamps. I coloured with gesso and watersoluble crayons. Added a hand drawn image of a tree and painted it. Added the hand drawn word "Kenya" and the writing around the orange picture with souffle pen. Embellished with watersoluble crayon, souffle pen, gesso, coloured pencil and black sharpie. This took a few layers that I wasn't sure that I liked before it all came together and I was happy!

The story behind the images is that the 26 year old Princess Royal, Elizabeth, was in Kenya when her father, King George, died. But because the news took a while to get to them, noone there, including herself, realised that she had become the Queen of England.

OMG - Suzi Blu has my childhood dream bed!!!

2008-12-23T09:23:00.005+13:00

I can't believe it! I just responded a little while ago on a yahoo group that in my childhood I always wanted a bunkbed that you set up a little workstation underneath. I admitted that I still wanted one now, and my kids didn't get one so I was hanging out hoping that in the future my grandkids might have one so that I can satisfy my need. And blow me down if I don't notice that Suzi Blu has exactly the bed that I am talking about!

She really is the child in all of us! Bless you Suzi Blu!

tiny little flower

2008-12-12T23:47:00.004+13:00

"Who would have thought it possible that a tiny little flower could preoccupy a person so completely that there simply wasn't room for any other thought..." - Sophie Scholl.

I thought that this quote was perfect for this journal page! This was built up with a layer of old sheet music, then a vellum sheet with the coloured circles, then the collaged vintage image of the girl. I then used scrapbooking paper blocks around the outside of the page. There is watercolour pencil around the collaged image that I wet with water and brush. I finished by embellishing with orange watersoluble crayon and purple sharpie. The saying is done with computer font.

I love using the vintage book images and pages of text or music. It is wonderful taking all the different elements and then mixing them all together.

alphabet soup

2008-12-09T23:17:00.005+13:00

This is a mixed media piece I did for the "Scavenger Project" an art project organised by Art House Coop. The prompt they gave was "alphabet soup" and this was my response.

It is a mixed media art work on a vintage book page. I drew with pencil and painted with acrylics. The words have been written with white souffle pen.

The words are imaginary dialogue I wrote using the story that was on the vintage book page. The key words are in the soup in the ladle. I enjoyed doing this page. It was nice to do some drawing and painting again rather than collage. I liked the old page and the text as a background to start from and the double prompt of the words on the page as well as the prompt from Art House Coop.

I am interested to see whether any of my submissions will be printed in the "scavenger project" book, but it is not due out till next year, so I will just have to wait!!

odd item

2008-12-05T17:16:00.006+13:00

Christy Hydeck is celebrating that she has been published in a collage calendar. On her blog she has asked us to answer a question. I thought I would answer the question on my blog with an image because I thought it was fascinating.

“What is the most odd item within your reach right now?”

Well, it is a tiny metal box with a tiny flywheel from a watch. Sometimes you don't stop to think about the fascinating little objects that a there right next to you.

Isn't it just the most precious little thing in the world?! It is hard to see from the image but there is the finest little wire coil in the centre. The entire metal box is about an inch long. Anyway, marvel at this little wonder of a mechanism, and enjoy the rest of your day!

strawberries and cream

2008-11-29T12:22:00.005+13:00

This is a nursery rhyme I remember from books when I was young. I couldn't remember all the words so I had to do a little googling to finish a couple of lines. It reminds me particularly of going to my grandparent's house, because I used to get out a "Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes" book everytime I went, and read the old rhymes.

This is a collage page from a journal. I used scrapbooking paper, vellum, stamped images, vintage magazine image, and sharpies.

illustration friday "opinion"

2008-11-25T16:42:00.004+13:00

executive education (false gods)

...it is my opinion that educating a person to enter the workforce immediately to an executive position is a mistake, I feel that to be a good executive you must have risen through the ranks.

This was a straight collage onto a journal page. I usedimages from a vintage book, magazine article, serviette, and assorted ephemera. I have been wanting to try some straight collages without the added afterthoughts of mixed media. I like that I am forced to work it out with solid pieces rather than "cheat" with added lines and scribbles. I enjoyed this, I am sure I will do more!

proper copper coffee pot...

2008-11-22T23:22:00.004+13:00

The Hastings Community Art Centre has an open exhibition every year with a threefold theme. You can enter any mixed media art of any size, and you can choose to use one, two or three of the words in the theme. This year's theme was "Copper, cats and car parts"

After researching copper a little as inspiration, I decided to make a copper coffee pot. It has a wire shape inside and has been covered with tyvek paper painted with copper acrylic paint. I sewed the tyvek onto the frame with metallic thread, then decorated the pot with a turkish flavour. I used glue gun, embossing powder, stamps and ink, fabric pieces, beads, etc. Then I heated it with a heat gun.

Here are a couple of close ups of the detail. If I were to make another one I think I would use heavier wire for the frame, so that it didn't lose it's shape. And I would like to use a lighter tyvek paper. It was fun to make, and something quite different for me.

I would love to take this theme further - I loved the whole Turkish inspiration with gypsy's, and Turkish harems, and Turkish dancers, and beautiful rich colours, and rich Turkish coffee. Oooooooooh!

That reminds me - I want to get the book " The various flavours of coffee" by Anthony Capella - I just love coffee, and the imagery that came to mind as I read the blurb just took me to another place.

happy birthday helen!

2008-11-16T17:58:00.003+13:00

Thought I would show you a card I made recently for my friend Helen. It is always a bit of a challenge making birthday and Christmas cards for each other. Because we do a lot of our art making together, we have to come up with something a bit different than we have been doing lately, and on top of that we have to be making it in secret. I decided to go the collage way for this card, because that is what I have been dabbling in lately. It is A4 sized card with a book page stitched onto it. I decorated the book page before I stitched it to the background card. The collaged images are from vintage books and vintage children's playing cards. The text was printed onto vellum with the computer. I added stitches with cotton and embroidery threads.

thief!!

2008-11-11T21:55:00.008+13:00

This strange little fella was spotted nicking off with an expensive piece of jewelry! He buzzed through the room and out the window and everyone there thought it was just a willy willy blowing through. This high speed camera just happened to catch the guilty culprit redhanded.

This is a page in a journal. It is a mixed media piece with pages from a vintage book in the background. Then I coloured the background with watersoluble crayons and acrylic paint. Then I collaged on the images of the man, the ring and the wings. I used a white pen marker to do the feathers on the wings and outlined the figure with black fineline pen.

If you look carefully, you will see the woman that the ring was stolen from in the picture. And she is wearing the very same ring!

Can't find her? Take a close look at the wings!!

Hawke's Bay A & P Show

2008-11-10T19:36:00.006+13:00

Well,as promised, here are some images from the Hawke's Bay Agricultural & Pastoral Show. Once again it was one of those things that I just had to go to, it wasn't fantastic while I was there, but afterwards I know that I will have to go back again next year.

We got sunburnt, it was a glorious day! I enjoyed taking the camera with me this time. It made it seem a bit different. Really just spent money on food and some rides for the kids. Hope you enjoy these creative shots!

shoes will do that to a woman!

2008-10-28T22:05:00.004+13:00

This journal page was just a bit of a laugh. It was a play on words because I started the page with newspaper images and a heading about Fiji and then fruit stickers and labels underneath and then while I was searching in a magazine for images of tropical fruits I found this rather "fruity" image of a woman who went surfing naked in Sydney to get a free pair of gold Manolo Blahniks (shoes, to you peasants and jandal wearers!)

Well it just all fitted in perfectly!

riding the highs and lows of life

2008-10-22T22:07:00.005+13:00

This is a journal page with a host of ephemera underneath. There is a bad lotto ticket, courier stickers, magazine cuttings, stamp, Starbuck's pamphlet, etc. I painted over them all with acrylic paint leaving little bits to peek through, then I drew over the page with sharpies.

This isn't the entire page because my scanner isn't quite big enough for the journal that I am using! I keep saying to myself that I will keep my art smaller on the page when I do it...but I never remember.

I am busy working at the moment, but I am trying to keep my creativity going with little snatches of art. It is a long weekend here in Hawkes Bay this weekend. We have Friday off for Hawkes Bay day and Monday off for Labour Day, and it is the tradition in our family to go along to the Hawkes Bay A&P Show (Agricultural and Pastoral!!). We will walk and walk and walk around hundreds of exhibits (when hardly any of them really interest us!), we will watch the kids on the side show rides (and watch our money ride off with them!), we will eat hotdogs and candyfloss, and we will get sunburn even though we drench ourselves in cancer society sunscreen lotion. Aaaaaah! And yet I am looking forward to it as usual!!

I will take my camera with me and try and get some shots (even if they are just arty ones!) to put up on my blog.

If I am lucky I will get some time for some art on the weekend too!!!!!!!!

another badge

2008-10-22T17:47:00.001+13:00

Badge

2008-10-19T00:20:00.001+13:00

City

2008-10-16T23:03:00.004+13:00

Through this broad street, restless ever,
Ebbs and flows a human tide,
Wave on Wave a living river;
Wealth and fashion side by side;
Toiler, idler, slave and master,
In the same quick current glide.

John Greenleaf Whittier (At Washington)

This is a collage page in a journal. It is a magazine image glued on a page coloured with stamppad ink. It is smeared with acrylic paint. The lettering is stencilled with souffle pen. Then it is doodled on with pencil, souffle pen and sharpies. The poem just suited it perfectly.

Pam Carriker Blog

2008-10-16T08:53:00.004+13:00

Pam Carriker at "The Bag Lady's Art" has just reached the landmark of 10,000 hits and she is offering a give-away of one of her gorgeous prints in celebration. Go on over and check her blog out! She does beautiful mixed-media art in rich soft whispery colours. This is an image of one of her give-away prints:

girl alone

2008-10-15T09:38:00.003+13:00

Just thought I would add the scan of the girl I drew by herself without the weight of her strings attached heart! This one is a scan rather than a digital photo so it is probably a bit clearer. I need to find myself some really smooth paper to draw on. I find when I do these sorts of pencil drawings I just want them to be absolutely smooth so that nothing interferes with the line. Does anyone have any suggestions? I might ask one of the Yahoo Groups I belong to. Mmmmmm. Good idea! Bye.

illustration friday "strings"

2008-10-14T23:44:00.003+13:00

"strings attached"

This is my Illustration Friday entry for this week. It is a pencil drawing on paper, with string and a red heart cut from a coloured magazine page. It is late at night, but I had to post this before I went to bed!! Goodnight!

Eeeeeek! I've been tagged!!

2008-10-11T20:21:00.004+13:00

I have been tagged by my art blogger friend purple cat. She must have crept up quietly because she totally caught me by surprise! Anyhow... I have to tell you 7 random facts about myself and then tag 7 other unsuspecting bloggers!

Random Facts:

I love deep fried stuffed mushrooms.

I am terrified of earthquakes.

I used to do ballet and tap.

I couldn't survive without cups of good espresso coffee.

My profession is Accountant (don't hold it against me!)

My calling is Art.

If I was to wake up in a painting it would be a ... Klimt!

And now I have to tag 7 other blogs:

Please look up these blogs for a bit of eye candy and a bit of life and a bit of a laugh!

Mamma Mia!

2008-10-11T20:04:00.003+13:00

Just went to see Mamma Mia (the movie) last night! It was a lot of fun! I loved all the old Abba songs (you just have to ignore the way the actors sing them!) Beautifully overacted (just like a real musical) I would even consider going along to a sing-along night (it was hard not to sing along!)

Lighthouse

2008-10-06T18:20:00.004+13:00

Aaaaaah! I'm still in a good mood from having finished an Illustration Friday drawing! Now to keep the momentum going! This is a journal page with an excerpt from Virginia Woolf's "To The Lighthouse." Unfortunately I can't claim to have read this book. I found the quote (as well as a couple of others from the same book) and comments on the story line, and now I have to say that I want to read it. I have some others on the go and in line at the moment ("The Artist's Way" "Novel About My Wife" "At The Sign Of The Sugared Plum" and "Petals In The Ashes"), but I think I will see if there are any Virginia Woolf books in the library next.

The method for this page was colouring the page with watersoluble crayons first then washing them with water. Once dried I collaged on the images of the lighthouse, the boats and the woman.

Next I washed a layer of dark paint over the top. I had planned to use Payne's Grey because I love it so, but I discovered that the lid had been broken and my tube had dried up. Because that is what I had envisioned, I made up my own version of Payne's Grey with Mars Black, Phthalo Green and Phthalo Blue. It seemed to do the trick. I masked the portion where the beam of light shone and painted over the entire page (except the woman.) I rubbed the paint off a few times with absorbent towels.

Then I attached the bird image and wrote the text with souffle pen, and added embellishments with sharpie and souffle pen.

illustration friday "sugary"

2008-10-06T10:30:00.004+13:00

Yes!! I'm back! I managed to get an Illustration Friday drawing done before the week had finished! I have had lots of ideas for the other weeks, but never got the chance to do them. Well this time I got my brain thinking hard straight away and I did it!

This is done on a new brown paper journal that I bought from a local bookshop. I loved the brown paper, and I thought that it would be something different to draw on (if the mood struck me to draw on something different!) (and it did!)

The process is just pencil on brown paper, acrylic paint, and souffle pen for the colour on the lollipop.

Powerful Woman's Motto

2008-10-05T21:31:00.003+13:00

I had to do a post and tell you this brilliant quote!! I borrowed it from Ricë's blog "Notes From the Voodoo Cafe" . It is just so on the mark.

Powerful Women's Motto:

Live your life in such a way that when your feet
hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders and
says....."Oh Shit .... she's awake!"

I really am going to have to put that in a journal page!!!!

Beckon

2008-10-04T17:57:00.005+13:00

This is an acrylic painting on board. I used artist quality acrylic paint as well as "Jo Sonja's Artist's Gouache Iridescent" paint over the white dress. I haven't finished the eyes completely yet, but who knows when I will get around to finishing them! So I thought I would post some more traditional painting on my blog.
This is my first painting of a person. I had drawn people before, but never painted them. I used a photo of a relative as a guide.

These are close ups of two areas to show the types of texture techniques that I have used. Can't think of anything else to say! Gosh!! I am so boring at writing in my blog!!

old,new,borrowed,blue swap

2008-09-29T20:42:00.004+13:00

I have joined in an art swap organised by Carole on her MADNESS and MESS blog. The theme is "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue." I won't post my entry untill the swap has gone ahead (wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!!!), but I will post a little tempter image.

I hope that doesn't give anything away!! I know it won't because there is a lot more to my swap than you think!!

I'm a bit nervous because I haven't been part of a swap before. But it was lots of fun to do something that you knew was going to be a surprise gift for someone else. The due date meant that you knew you had to get it finished and the theme made you use your brain.

I had a little hiccup this weekend in the final stages with printer complications, but a few emails to the supplier and a quick visit to my friend's place got it all sorted out in the end.

I am already itching to join in another swap! Can't wait to see what I get from someone else!!!

Angel monuments

2008-09-29T16:31:00.003+13:00

Here are some photos of angel monuments from a local cemetery. I love looking through old cemeteries and I love angels, so I treasure these photos. I plan to play with all the images digitally for use in my artwork.

Angel

2008-09-27T10:31:00.004+12:00

I just adore angels! This angel is a photo I took of a memorial statue at a cemetery. I posterized the image and superimposed it on the image of the wall of a room being renovated. I printed the image out and then collaged it in my journal with snippets of sheet music and old dictionary pages. The colour around the edges is watercolour crayons, the circles are souffle pen and the dotted lines are acrylic paint.

Enjoy this image! I will post some of my angel photos on another day. You are bound to see many more angel images in the future. They are just heavenly. Compassion personified.

For Sleep or Death

2008-09-19T10:14:00.000+12:00

I was trying to portray a more solemn feeling with this page. I haven't got the hang of the collaging the way I would like to at the moment, but instead I just went with my flow to see what would result. The poem by Ruth Pitter gave the feeling that I wanted and the collaged images underneath are pages from a vintage children's book about life for Victorian children. The woman is from a Dover Clipart book. I drew the line of washing and the hooded figure. The colour was a dilute wash of muddy green acrylic to start with then coloured pencils and coloured graphite on top. The words and the poetry were written with souffle pen and I went around the words of the poem again with coloured pencil.

It's not dramatic like other people's journal pages, but it contains the more sombre elements I wanted, and that is good enough for me!!

journal of mine

2008-09-16T16:42:00.005+12:00

This is another first page in a journal. The other journal is more for memories and this journal will be more for everyday thoughts and feelings and observations. Sometimes a bit of fun, and sometimes a bit serious, I guess.

I had loads of fun doing this page. Because it didn't really have to say anything I just doodled and doodled till it was full!

Procedure was page inked first with green ink pad (idea from Ricë Freeman-Zachery http://voodoonotes.blogspot.com/2008/09/part-ii-art-journal-page-backgrounds.html). Then I glued scrapbooking page patterns around the edge (idea from Suzan Buckner http://thriftycollageartist.blogspot.com/2008/02/step-by-step-instructions-to-jouranl.html). Then I collaged magazine images (the altered diva is Kylie Minogue with a serious makeover!!). Then added rubber stamp images. And finally doodled with sharpies, coloured pencils and souffle pens.

Bright and bold and brassy!!!

2008-09-09T09:52:00.004+12:00

Finished a new journal page, first page of the journal chronologically. It had the gorgeous picture of the bunny on it that I had to keep intact! She is rushing away in such a determined manner - I just love her.

Credits for this page are due! I followed Ricë Freeman-Zachery's suggestion to use a photocopied image of myself on the page http://voodoonotes.blogspot.com/2008/09/part-ii-art-journal-page-backgrounds.html . Have decided to get my son to take a pile of photographs of me with all different expressions, which I will print a pile of each of them out all ready to go. Then I will just pick the expression I want for the page I am doing at the time! Thanks Ricë!

The other credit is to Suzan Buckner and her suggestions on how to create a journal page with colour and collage http://thriftycollageartist.blogspot.com/2008/02/step-by-step-instructions-to-jouranl.html . It helped me look at the edges of the page as a frame for the writing in the middle, encouraged me to go for bright colours, and made me try highlighters. Thanks Suzan!

The process was: collaged pages of penpal letters and vintage book page, acrylic paint washes, stickers, highlighter, gel pen, felt pens, soffle pens. I just kept going till I felt it looked balanced enough. The felt pen writing is a bit heavy, that's because I need to go and buy some sharpies. This was the only felt pen I had in the house that would write over the underlayers. Hoping to buy some today!

Very bright colours, and busy, but I like it!

Dance

2008-09-05T22:51:00.004+12:00

This is a page in the art journal I have started. The photo is of me in my teenage dancing days. The process was glued in a vintage ballet book page, painted over acrylic paints with a brayer, fixed on photo printed on transparency, freehand lettering done in souffle pen.

I can't believe I actually finished a page!!! Mind you I haven't journalled on it yet. Maybe tomorrow!

My Little Book of Love

2008-09-04T12:39:00.005+12:00

Well, decided to add a post while I am waiting for gel to dry on an artwork. This is a tiny wee art journal I have started, almost in jest, just to get me collaging and journalling. The book measures a magnificent 7cm x 7cm. That makes a double page layout of 14cm x 7cm. I picked up a pile of these little books from "The $2 Shop" (that is NZ $2). They are cheaply made with corrugated cardboard wrapped with fabric for the covers and cheap handmade paper inside. But with a little gesso magic they are ready for art. I named this one "My Little Book of Love" and am filling it with little spreads showing things that I love. So far there is Angels, Coffee and Art. Definately 3 of my top faves! I will post extra pages as I manage to complete them.

Finally Started Art Journalling!!

2008-09-03T14:30:00.008+12:00

I have been listening to advice from some Yahoo Groups:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Blissfully_Art_Journaling/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/collage_with_claudine/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theartjournal/?yguid=208894800

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thecreativelife/

and I have finally started working on an art journal. I still have not decided exactly what journals and diaries I want to have on the go, but I am starting with a wirebound art pad that I just found cheap in an art shop I frequent (Humanity Books and Fine Art Supplies). It is quite large (a bit bigger than A4 for each page), but I think "big is beautiful" and I am going to give it a go.

I have followed the prompt by Ricë Freeman-Zachery http://voodoonotes.blogspot.com/ about journalling over old diary/journal pages and old letters. I hunted out some of my old pen-pal letters from highschool and copied a few of the pages to use as a base for these first journal entries that I do. Below is the result of sticking the first five pages down.

The first page is a page from a vintage book with a story about an Easter Bunny and a letter from a German penpal. The second page is letters from an Egyptian and a French penpal. The third is letters from the Egyptian and German penpals and one from a French penpal written in French. The fourth French and German penpals. The fifth page is a rearranged copy of a "history of the German Democratic Republic" sent by one of my German penpals.

They are just yummy the way they are, so I am a bit nervous about taking the next step and painting over them. But that is the process so I am going to do it. At least I will have these scans to look back on if I want to, and of course I still have the original letters!

I am hoping that tonight I will paint over them so that I can do the next stage tomorrow. Wish me luck!

2008-08-15T12:47:00.004+12:00

These are the "Wordle"s from my blog page and my Flickr page! Neat eh?! The bigger the font the more the word occurs. If you want to try out this cool toy, go to http://wordle.net/

This would be so cool for a background to an artwork or a journal page. It would be a cool starter tool for a writer or an artist. It would also be a brilliant tool for a school project (must show my highschool son!).

Enjoy!

Postscript: My son did use this for schoolwork! He was studying the Treaty of Waitangi (New Zealand History) and he chose two different articles written about the treaty and the land, one from a Maori point-of-view and one from a European point-of-view. He then did a wordle of each one to see what words had more emphasis in each article and how they differed. Very interesting exercise!