Mary and the Thistle

Mary and the thistle

The summer of colour challenged us this week to combine Lime green and purple.
This is Mary, she has had a little digital colour change, she started off as a Gelli plate page.

Can you spot her outline on the page?
Sometimes a little face peeps out just waiting to be found.
She looked like a 'Mary '
So Mary she is.
I used bronze and purple colours on my Gelli plate page.

I painted her outline in in Gesso.

Added her features, she has a wild hairstyle!

Added a little more colour and the bright spiky thistles.

And her is Mary in her true colours, still lots of lime green and purple, but with a splash of scarlet and burnt sienna thrown in.

Linking to The Summer of color
and Paint party Friday
Also just in time for Mary to join Junes Gelli plate party

Doodling a dress for all seasons.

Detail

The theme for Inspiration Avenue this week is an' Outfit for all seasons'. My dear blog friend Jez from Butterfly mind is hosting the challenge, she is a wonderfully talented and eloquent lady so although I have been busy working on a large project  for a forthcoming exhibition thought I would most definitely enter something!
This is a collage/ mixed media piece I made for my daughter who is a 2nd year fashion management student with a passion for dresses. I designed it for a blog header for a fashion blog she set up as part of her course. Although I made it a little while ago I haven't posted it on my blog before, and I kind of like it so thought it deserved a showing.

A dress for all seasons

 In 'The Artists playroom' this week the theme is 'doodling' ; Quite a hard topic for me as the more I thought about it I realised that I don't really doodle, except perhaps while on the phone, and then I just doodle spirals. I always seem to set out with some sort of purpose when I have a pen or pencil in my hand, I think I probably doodled as a child ( Probably in Maths lessons while looking out the window) That's when I thought of the idea of making a scraperboard to scratch doodle on. As a child I used to make homemade scraperboards all the time. The bought variety were rather expensive and ate up my pocket money!

So I found some old wax crayons, coloured in some block shapes.

Mixed some black poster paint with washing up liquid and painted over the surface, let it dry and then scratched  through.

 

This is as close to doodling as I could get !

Links to Inspiration Avenue
and also the Doodle challenge at The artists Playroom

Summer Corncrake

Rainbow corncrake

The Rainbow Corncrake is unfortunately not a newly discovered bird, It is my entry into this weeks Summer of Color. I have changed the colours a wee bit to fit with the hot pink and orange combination needed for the challenge.

This piece is actually a re-cycled floorboard collage/acrylic painting (76cmx23cm) which I have just finished for the annual Skye summer exhibition at the Skyeworks gallery on the beautiful Isle of Skye. The exhibition starts in August so I have been busy trying to finish a few pieces.

                                                 

Corncrake

                                          

 The Corncrake is a rare and reclusive bird living and nesting in the open grassland and heather.It makes a rather distinctive and strangled cry which is very distinctive! It has several names in Scottish and local folk history such as "Landrail" "Corn Scrack" and "Quailzie";This little corncrake started  life like this. ( The weather was so beautiful when I was working on it I took my easel outside!)

As you can see it did begin life with a little croft house in the distance, but as the collage progressed I covered it over as I wasn't happy with it as I felt it distracted from the Corncrake, who is after all the main star of the show! The colours here are true to life, golds, pinks, purple and orange.

Small pieces of Handmade Jelli printed  and mulberry papers make up the heather covered landscape.
The Corncrake is painted with Acrylics and then given a crackle glaze to sit her nicely in her surroundings.

The foreground of horsetails stands proud of the surface with a lovely textural feel.

And here it is in its true colours 'Summer Corncrake'

Links also as usual to Paint Party Friday

As well as the summer of color!

Time flies

The Artists Playroom this week prompt is 'what drives you mad'? Well first of all it is not this clock which I dislike. I actually like the clock very much. I bought it over twenty years ago or so in a little Antique shop, for no other reason than that I liked it, and that is a very good reason.

It actually doesn't tick anymore, for that I am sad. That isn't why I painted it though, the fact it doesn't tick is not that maddening. The reason I painted it was more to represent 'time' or rather lack of it!
Time seems so abundant in our more youthful days, yet so stretched as we grow older. There is never enough of it to do the things I  love, and it is that what frustrates me.

 

 I began by stencilling a background using sequin offcuts and cosmic shimmer mist in a deep violet colour.
Then I drew out the clock and used my favourite neocolor crayons to add colour. I love my neocrayons, they colour over most things and had no problem covering the shimmer mist.

 

The butterflies were from my napkin collection. I glued them to the watercolour board and crayoned round them when dry.

 I think the butterflies represent all the things I want to do..
If only there was time...

Links to the

Artists Playroom

Lost Daisy

Mixed up and lost Daisy; collage,/acrylic on re-cycled floorboard

mix it monthly

                                                                    
Sometimes things don't turn out to plan..
The path you were going to take gets confused...
you go off in a totally different direction!

This week I  have joined up to a new challenge called Mix it monthly. We were given two images and a theme of Picasso to get us going. Well as you can see I went a bit off track on the Picasso bit :)  I do like Picasso, but his style is so different to fine I found it very difficult to get motivated.

a bit of inspiration from Connie

http://babydee.erichdesign.com/

  I did start of with good intentions to go down the Picasso route, but I went to see the Great Gatsby last week, which was amazzzing!I Loved the glamorous costumes and vivid colours and  thought I would go for a 1930s style lady making the most of the hat and gloves  and all things stylish. I reworked her face in Acrylics and used heavy modelling paste to make the folds in her dark dress. I also used an Iridescent medium over the dress to make it sparkle. I kept the colours muted and cool so the sleeves and accessories would pop out.

I used he pattern from Connie's Picasso lady for the sleeves

And gave her some lemon yellow gloves

          

Work in progress, the dress was layered in lots of  black gesso and modelling paste

The piece is collaged and painted on a piece of old wooden floorboard, it gives a lovely solid substrate. I know Sandra over at Doris's daughter uses floorboard panels to great effect and I have quite a bit of re-cycled timber to hand so thought I would give it a go! I must say I loved working on wood so much, it has inspired me to try again!

I am not sure why this glamorous lady is lost and alone on the Scottish hills. She definitely doesn't look dressed for the wild outdoors! That's where I thought I would link to the APR this week where the theme is the Bizarre. I guess she has a long and very complicated story to tell :)



And just to show I haven't forgotten completely about dear old Picasso here's another little piece on watercolour board, a bit more in tune with the theme.

Mix it monthly

                      

I'm also linking my' little lost Daisy' in to this week Take a word for the first time. The theme is Cool colours!
As I said it may be June but the Scottish hillside still can be a bit chilly, bet Daisy wishes she had brought a jumper!

and finally
Linked to Paint party Friday!!!! a happy place where like minded souls share their love of all things arty.

Teapots and Teacups

There is most definitely something about drinking tea out of bone china cups, it tastes nicer, much nicer. Perhaps as I have just had a mini holiday, or perhaps because of the weather I am very much in love with the idea of afternoon tea. As a child I lived far away from my Grandma, so visiting her was a treat and the part I remember most about the visits was four o'clock afternoon tea. These days afternoon tea seems to be all about salmon sandwiches and luxury hotels but back then it was a bit more basic.

Sliced white bread, homemade jams, scones and homemade cake. The tea was served from china cups and from a teapot with a built in tea strainer ( very posh! ) and here it is, grandmas tea set...

Grandmothers tea set. On heavy watercolour board

As you can see I used Neocolor crayons, I love how quickly you can get an intense textured background. I also used the same method for this piece.
                                    

Another favourite teapot of mine, Art Deco 1930s

                   
And to finish a little teacup, missing its saucer , painted and collaged on a Jelli plate background of hearts which I stencilled.

Collage/ acrylics on jelli plate paper

I rather like this vintage version.

Or this Pop Art version! very 1960s

 Links this week to the The Artists playroom  and it's teacup based theme. It is to promote Tracey Fletcher Kings cuppa with friends project, which sounds wonderful!!!

and also Paint party friday
and Inspiration Avenue and their retro theme this week

Enjoying the sun

Apologies for being quiet over the last couple of weeks.  I have had two lovely weeks holiday and spent most of it out and about enjoying the beautiful weather. It has been a little too nice to stay in and paint all the time so I have been out with my camera. I have also had some Internet problems so thank you to all those kind people who left comments on my last mermaid post, I will respond and visit you shortly!

 Scotland is a most beautiful place to be, especially when the sun shines..

 The wild flowers have begun to bloom.

The horsetails are standing proudly.

 and the gorse bushes flame with gold.

I have been doing a Little gardening in the sunshine...

Here is a little outdoor sketch I did of my old wheelbarrow.

The lambs are growing and the birds are ready to leave the safety of their nests soon..
I found this little fellow in a shrub I was about to prune!

I was really worried about him, he looked far to young to be going out on his own, I checked up on him a few hours later and he had gone so I hope his parents found him!

On my travels in the sun I passed by Eilean Donan castle at Dornie. It is a landmark I pass by but rarely stop as I am usually in a hurry to get somewhere.

some of you may recognise it from the Highlander film! It also graces the front of many shortbread tins!
It looked so beautiful in the sunshine I stopped to take a photo and have some tea in the cafe there. My daughter tells me that they make and serve the best millionaires shortbread in Scotland. Millionaires shortbread is basically shortbread smothered with toffee and chocolate! The castle is only a few miles away from the bridge over to the Isle of Skye.

Well, as I said will catch up with what lovely things you have been up to very soon. :)