Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Autumn Trees in Aquarel

I don't seem to have too much time at the moment for larger projects, so I have been playing a bit in my journals. This spread is a try-out of a landscape in aquarel {watercolours} Something I don't often do, but thought to attempt. Of course there is a little coloured pencil {in the details of the meadow and a little in the shaded areas of the trunks} and acrylic paint {the red berries} I can never just do one medium.....The right page leaves me enough space to write a bit, I have just the right purple fountain pen to do this :)
I do need to practice this technique more though, but it is fun !

Saturday, June 23, 2012

La Mer ~ an upcycled book


how to make a gif at gickr.com

front of book - pre drawings
one of the spreads - pre drawings
I received some art supplies last week and they stuffed brown paper in the box to keep the items from moving around, I have a hard time throwing away good paper, so I thought to use this for a try-out project. I thought I could have the kids make something like this maybe, but then again, maybe it is a little too time consuming for them, maybe if we just did 2 or 3 pages. Well anyway, I finished mine and wanted to show you. It's kind of a twist on Carla's junkmail booklet {that I am currently also working on btw} So I have used brown paper in different sizes, just ripped at the edges, layered it to make it look old {this took quite some time, coating both sides a few times and the drying in between} and I thought I'd like to theme the images and since the colours and the texture made me think about the ocean, I made it all deep sea related. So the trick is that every pages images continue with their lines into the next page, where those lines make up different images again, it's like a puzzle {and this also takes some time and patiences and going back and forth} So much FUN ! Oh, and of course there also is a Mermaid :)

Friday, June 22, 2012

Rhythm of my ♥

This is bragging, I know.... 
this is one of my few non-art related posts. 
This one is just to say that I am pretty proud of my little man. 
Since our big move at the end of last year, he has managed to conquer his shyness and entered his second talent-quest, now at Intermediate. 
He made it to the final again and this show was a 2+ hours evening show with a packed hall. Eeeek ! Maybe I was more nervous for him than he was in the end ? And eventhough he did not come first, I am immensely proud of him. And because we share these things with overseas family, we uploaded his performance, so now you can see him too, enjoy :)

 

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Finally ..... 'the Lure'


-some details-
Usually I start a painting with a 'story' in my head, while I work the story evolves and I tend to get excited and dream away with the story that the painting tells me while I am working on it. Sometimes however -like with this painting- the story takes turns and starts to reveal things I do not want to hear or see and this time it got the better of me and I got a bit scared and had to leave it alone for a while, even considering of abandoning it all together. But once the meaning of it all started to make sense and I could live with what it said, I decided to finish it and I am glad I did. The left side of the painting is traditional and in traditional fresco style, the right side of the panel is a liquid and thin with layers of inks and paints, the centre is of course an image everybody knows
- inspired by Michelangelo of course -
  allthough a little adjusted to this particular tale where this then is not a creation of the man, but the lure to the deep by the mermaid
The panel seems to be a little challenging to photograph, as if it wants to say 'you got to see me and touch me to understand me fully'
because I always try to make my paintings tactile, I love to stroke them and feel them and understand them, and now I do this one too which has made me happy in the end. {what the painting has started to mean to me is rather personal, maybe you read the same or similar things from it, I don't want to start telling you all it told me and thus destroying a completely different story it might have for you, all I hope is that you will enjoy it}

- taken at night while still on my easel -

- taken at daylight -



  *) oh and this is part of the Fresco class I have available as on-line workshop here



Fresco Workshop 2012

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Easter Island statue ?


I just read this article and was stunned ...had to find this little 23 cm tall guy I made AGES ago when I was still at primary school...with woodwork class, all by hand....free design choice and I came up with this....this statue and then many many years later when we moved to New Zealand it sort of called out to me "hey ! remember me ! I look Pacific !" I thought then that it must have been one of those kind of premonition things and then I read this article......now I actually think I made an Easter island statue...WITH body ! funny that...http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2149846/Hidden-treat-The-Easter-Island-heads-BODIES.html
they even have a Facebook page for them..  
 

Friday, June 08, 2012

And the Wind Cries .......

This looks SOOOOOOOO much better in real life !

 My first diptych or work in two joining canvasses. 
{Click HERE for a larger view} It has been a long time coming. After listening to this particular song again in December last year {see this post} I felt it cried out for me to paint it somehow. It is a song by the legendary Jimi Hendrix and whenever he jumps into my mind I see purple {probably because of that other famous song of his "Purple Haze"} So somehow I combined the two and I wanted it to be like a thin wind or haze of some sort. In her hair are the full lyrics to the song, with the minor adjustment of 'your name' instead of Mary {so that it speaks to us all}

'After all the jacks are in their boxes 
And the clowns have all gone to bed 
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street. 
Footsteps dressed in red 
And the wind whispers your name
A broom is drearily sweeping 
up the broken pieces of yesterdays life 
Somewhere a Queen is weeping 
Somewhere a King has no wife 
And the wind cries your name
The traffic lights, they turn uh blue tomorrow 
And shine their emptiness down on my bed 
The tiny island sags down stream 
cause the life that lived is, 
is dead 
And the wind screams your name
Uh-will the wind ever remember 
The names it has blow in the past? 
'n with this crutch, its old age, and its wisdom 
It whispers no, this will be the last 
And the wind cries your name'

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

♫ Tralalalala ♫

I have a quick little happy and musical post here. 
Firstly I am happy because my son made it to the finals in the school's talentquest {he plays guitar *} so this makes me a very proud Mummie. Secondly I am doing 'Suns and Moons' with the art classes this week, so I see happy sunny faces every day  *} 


 And then I finished another little art doll this time with legs (ha !) and the legs I made out of fabric with musical print , so I called her 'Shiri' which means 'song', I can just visualize her sitting on a piano with her legs dangling down *}
 



Monday, June 04, 2012

Lily and her bird

Here's a little cute one on stretched canvas. I started her a while ago and almost forgot about her {bad mother I know.... I blush with shame} then... when I was clearing some space in my studio I saw her cute little face :) and had to finish her right there and then ! Encaptured her in a yummie beeswax top-layer, oooh smells divine and is soooooooo magical ♥ She could be yours you know, just look HERE
 
20x20 cm or 8x8 inch
yummie layers !