seaweed mermaid

Another mermaid is finished to add to the growing collection. I thought my previous mermaid needed a sister.

I think they look rather nice together!

They are clay and collaged paper on wood.

Her jaunty crown was made from beaded edging. I am not sure what it is called but you buy it by the metre from haberdashery shops.

Her hair is very seaweed-like, encrusted with shells.

I can imagine her resting on the rocks and gazing out to sea.

Cracked textures

Another mermaid on the way.
I am using Ranger Crackle accents on her body.
It is one of the best crackle mediums I have found. The precision point makes application really easy, especially to small pieces.

Messages in the breeze

Messages in the breeze

My Island landscape is finished.
It is about having time,space and peace to remember.  In ancient folklore Dandelion seeds were seen as carriers of messages for long lost loved ones... a wonderful thought.

It is a mixed media piece on canvas.

 I added a piece of seascape into the corner to help with the flow through the canvas.

I also intensified the purples and pinks.

detail

I follow the wonderful Jane Davies blog  'collage journeys'. She wrote recently a piece on how do you know when a piece is finished? she wrote...

 " I am often asked the question:  How do you know when a piece is finished?  There is a long answer, which I try to give at workshops.  And as I give the long answer, I'm trying to find it for myself as well.  It is not a neatly packaged answer, but involves tangents and detours.  The short version is this:  you know that a piece is finished when it isn't bugging you for more development.  When the piece gives you that "a Ha" feeling, and there isn't one thing about it that is niggling at you, then it is done.  When the conversation is over, your piece stops "talking" to you and stands on its own two feet"



A wonderful description!
This piece has finally stopped talking to me! :)

linking up to the Paint party Friday.

landscapes and flowers; WOYWW

This week I haven't had much on my workbench as I have been working
on a new canvas. Since last week I have been filling the foreground with a carpet of wildflowers.

Last week it looked like this, the house is, as you can see from the top photograph gone.!
I couldn't get it to work and in the end gave it a wash of gesso to get rid of it. I think I need a break from the painting to see what I need to add to the distance. It needs something but I am not sure what.

I have been using flakes of this lovely copper leaf to add little pieces of shimmer.
It looks beautiful in the sunlight.

Apart from that the only new thing on my desk is my sketchbook.

I have been quickly sketching wild flowers to help with my canvas foreground.
the flowers I collage are fairly abstract but I like to look at how they are formed and use my sketchbook to work out ideas for my collage paintings.

For those visiting from WOYWW here is the finished mermaid box I was working on last week. check out Sundays post for details of how it was made.

Hope the sun is shining in your world.

Linking up to WOYWW

mermaid on a box!

Last week I mentioned I had something under-wraps.

I gave you a little sneaky peep on Wednesday but couldn't show too much as the box was a birthday present for a dear friend who had mentioned she liked my mermaids.

The box was bought ready made from a gift shop. It was just a plain cream box, lined, but apart from that just in need of some va va voom!

I wrapped the parts I didn't want to get messy in newspaper.

So when I was done it was a quick unwrap.

Minimum mess.

Here are a few detailed shots.

The tail was made from collaged aluminium. I painted acrylics over the top and then scratched through. The silver glistens through the paint like silver fish scales.

linking to collage obsession

and take a word

Making layers

 a work in progress,

Still some way to go.

I am going to add lots of wild flowers I think to soften the scene.

The canvas started off like this.

Broad washes of acrylic paint.

Some people ask why I paint and then cover up the surface with papers...?

I think it is because I don't like white, I look at a white canvas rather like a rabbit must look at a car when stuck in a it's headlights.

fearful...

So I cover it and then re-cover it in paper, although layers of the paper still do show through areas of the painting.

much better, I can breathe :)

Scraps of paper and black gesso cover the dreaded white.

linking to Paint party friday

under-wraps ; WOYWW

This weeks work in progress  is still under-wraps....
It's a birthday present so can't show too much....  shhhhhhhh don't tell. ;)

I can show you these though,
Rangers liquid pearls! Aren't these colours scrummy!!
I may use them all if the mood takes me!

And I will be using a bit of this,
49p!! I do like a bargain.

I will show and tell very soon, when hopefully It will be delivered to it's new home.

For those who tuned into my workspace last week from WOYWW,
 This....

Turned into this....

Maiden of the waves

It is clay and paper collage on wood. The clay used is air drying and I have recently been experimenting with paperclay. I find it is less fragile than other airdrying clays as I think it has paper pulp added to the clay mix, making the unfired moulded pieces pretty tough and easier to sand and paint. I have looked on you tube at making my own but it looks awfully messy and to be honest life is too short!

And finally I know it isn't quite a work-desk, but it is a new canvas I am working on.

At the moment it is just lots of paper scraps and black gesso....

I think a landscape may emerge.


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The maiden of the waves

 A couple of weeks ago one of my blog readers asked if I was done with mermaids....

Nope :)

The Gaelic word for mermaids is ceasg 

this means maiden of the waves.

I love this description!

The ceasg has the body of a woman and the tail of a salmon, and she can grant her captor three wishes.

My ceasg started off like this...

The 3D effect is moulded paper clay which I painted with acrylics and fixed to a collaged wooden panel.

twisted paper hair is added.

I think she looks rather sad, or perhaps wistful?

BiG thank you for all those who commented last week about photographing light reflective surfaces. I photographed the finished mermaid outside in the evening and I think the colours are pretty true to life, your wonderful advice helped!

Linking to paint party friday

A random assortment; WOYWW

What's going on on my desk today?

A very good question. A box of clay body parts, a collaged panel partially sanded, some black and white gesso and a small postcard of an eagle.
not a great deal to show really, apologies. ;)

so here to make up for my lack of work are a few of my recent photographs taken in the sunshine of the west coast of Scotland.
This is Invergarry. It would be hard not to take a good photo of this view. On a clear day you can see for miles.

Still snow on the highest mountains.

And below the road through Sligahan.
the large cone shaped mountain is called Marsco and it is part of the Red Cuillin mountain range.

Hope you enjoyed a quick tour of the west Highlands, promise to have more on my workdesk  soon! :)

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