altered-ego

3 Days, 3 Canvases

I had the most glorious weekend off work! Pure joy. Now when can I stop working altogether?...

3 days in my art room, catching up with all sorts of music I've not listened to for ages. I grabbed 3 empty canvases and without any real thinking about it, just began to pull papers, fabrics and colours that met my mood.

 
"Let's get something nice for tea". In honour of my mother - who always loved something nice with tea. I used some dressmaking patten paper on the background which always reminds me of her.  

 
Sing your song to the wind and let it be heard on the other side of the world. I liked the idea of using "song bubbles" in the form of my hand-made buttons (using paper, fabric & metal) that would float on the wind. In this picture  I imagined that the good we do will spread good karma across the world to people and places we have no idea about and make them smile. I like using the harlequin stamps I made as well as torn music sheets and lace in the background.

 
"Teatime Treats" - another one of my tea & cake themed pictures. I don't know, one day I'll tire of them and stop doing them, but until then, I suspect that I'll see alot more cake in my artwork.  :)

Collage - some fun new techniques

I had such a glorious bank holiday yesterday. I sat in my art room all day and experimented and played, - all the while listening to Radio 4 (a sure sign of my maturing age).

In a few weeks time I am leading short course at my church called "Creative Prayer Journal". Over the 5 weeks of June I want to show them how to make their own prayer art journal using various techniques. The wonderful thing about this is that most of the folk would never have done anything like this before. I am still putting the course together and so am making a prayer journal as a sample. I'll put a step-by-step tutorial on here over the next few weeks. Here's the cover of my sample prayer journal:

  

I then went on to make a canvas using the same method as my journal cover. I do love Blackbirds and their song inspires me and always makes me smile. The canvas is 10x8 inches.  (click on image to see full size)

 

 

Come to Tea - collage

Robin pendant

My little hand-painted Robin on a collaged and stamped background in soldered glass.

More painting...and a pendant

I painted this teeny Blue Tit, placed it on a collaged background and then turned it into a soldered pendant   (5 X 6 cm)

Playing with backgrounds

I've been working up new backgrounds for new pictures AND practising painting my birdies. The robin is painted in acrylics on muslin. A bit of freehand drawing and quick paintwork gives me enough of an idea of a bird for me to play with.

The background is made by cutting and tearing various pieces of fabric and paper and pasting it onto a piece of felt fabric (actually it's one of those cheap felty cleaning cloths). I then mix a solution of glue, white paint and water and paint over the whole thing and leave to dry. Or, you can try to iron it dry and let the iron stick to it rather spectacularly...

  

I cut up the completed background into 5 pieces of various sizes which will potentially make 5 new pieces of art. I cut out my painted robin and added some word art and some of my hand-made stamps.

 

Once it was all assembled I sewed over a few areas

 

Yay, my completed picture.

   

 

Yay, today I begin my new blog!

First post. Here's a place I'd like to share some of my art work and what inspires me. I've been inspired by many courageous fabulous artists out there and wish to express sincere gratitude to the universe for so much colour and creativity!

Here's some of the stuff I've been doing lately... When I was taking down all my Christmas cards last year I knew that I wanted to recycle them in some kind of art. Why not turn them into pieces of art that can be given away as Christmas gifts this year? So I set about making a set of altered, recycled Christmas pictures.

Most of the pieces are “felted paper”. I start with a piece of felt cloth and glue crumpled tissue paper onto it. This can then be painted, stencilled, distressed, sewn and inked. Onto that I glue torn or cut images from the Christmas cards, even using some of the hand-written message inside the card. I usually split the thicker pieces of card so that the final image is more pliable if I wish to sew onto it. I do some more painting or stencilling, add any other objects like fibres, net, lace or beads and then varnish the whole thing with good old fashioned quick drying clear floor varnish (bought from the pound shop)!

Each piece will be framed into a box frame and I hope will make a unique gift.

 

 

Peace on Earth

 

O Holy Night

 

 

 

Madonna and Child

 

 

Love, Joy, Peace

 

 

Good News

 

 

Christmas Robin