Creatures of Fey

 Hoped to do a Little more this week but time has been short so here is my newest journal page. I find I am often drawn to painting and drawing mermaids. I found a gorgeous poem called  'I am a creature of the fey' (an old term for the Faerie world) by Heather Alexander  
Its first line reads,' I am a creature of the fey, prepare to give your soul away,' wonderfully spooky!
Up to now I have only painted friendly mermaids, perhaps It is time to give my next one a bit of menace.
As I mentioned in my earlier post on Sunday I have been looking  for inspiration from the mermaids of  Teesha Moore  

 It is a year since I did my last big mermaid canvas. I have started another but it is going to take a little time to finish so  just a journal page for now.

Last year I was commissioned to complete a large mermaid canvas.
I was asked to incorporate two mermaids and a cat! So my mermaids are diving down to look at the cat who is protected by a bubble of air. I didn't want him to be harmed!!  ( I am a huge friend of furry felines) It was strange, and frankly rather disturbing to put a cat at the bottom of the sea and at first I wasn't at all sure, but the lady I made it for seemed very happy. In the end I rather liked the cat in the bubble!

                                                      

This is a little WIP shot, sorry for fuzzy photo, I didn't seem to take any good photographs of my two mermaids!

WIP

And finally my little Summer mermaid

 She hangs in my bathroom. Cerulean blue is one of my favourite colours and the Aqua shimmers in the sun.
It has a very textured surface with embroidery and pearls,beads and shells around the collage.

The shells were fixed and set in Polyfilla, which is a product normally used to fill holes in walls.  It seemed to work fine and I varnished it. It seems to have stood up to a year in my bathroom so I guess the plaster is watertight!

                                                       

Links to the The Artists Playroom

 and Paint party Friday 
and Artists in Blogland

mayflower girl

Using photo montage

I have been experimenting with photo montage recently after finding some exciting you tube videos made by collage artist Teesha moore.

I don't usually use photographs in my collage, but I find Teeshas work very exciting so thought I would give it a go. I love her mermaids so will try that next but to start with I tried a little Mayflower girl.

Mayflower girl

She started off very differently...

Although I don't want to copy her style I think with a bit of tinkering I can use some of the ideas I have learnt in combination with my own more textural style.
Teesha prints her collages at the printers and then works into the print further with pen.
Instead I messed about with the piece on Pixlr.

I  like this one where the green tints make her rather like the female equivalent of the Green man, an old pagan symbol of spring and rebirth.

 Green Mayflower Girl

Links this week... Inspiration Avenue

Where is spring?

Waiting for Spring

 Arm is most definitely on the mend after its unfortunate bath in scalding hot water! I had no idea a cup of boiling water could do that much damage...or take as long to heal.

Finally I did a little work in my journal today, The APR challenge is 'flight' and this is my last minute entry, my Sparklepodge Crow is waiting for Spring. This does look a little wintry for spring but recently the weather in the UK has been so cold and snowy white is forefront in my mind.

The background is built up of layers of white wrapping paper I saved from Christmas (Love a bit of re-cycling) and then layers of gesso and my new friend modelling paste. The crow is black gesso and then a coat of sparklepodge... I just love that name... :)

 After my enforced rest I have been watching loads of You Tube Artsy tutorials, there is so much out there! I now can't wait to get experimenting again just need a bit of spring warmth and I'll be ready to go :)

Added links Paint party friday


                                                   

Homeland

The North coast of Scotland ( on a sunny day!! )

My Homeland.

Inspiration Avenue theme this week is 'your home town' the place where you were born....

As I posted in Sundays blog I am recovering from an arm injury so am unable to create anything new for a couple of weeks :( so instead have been looking and sorting through photographs of past work and fond places....

I was born and brought up on the north east coast of Scotland. Caithness is a wild and windswept county at the very edges of the UK mainland. The wind whistles in from Shetland and the Arctic circle with little to hamper its progress as it is a relatively flat area with huge skies and high sea cliffs. Later my family moved to a croft on the Island of Skye, off the north west coast of Scotland. This is a very different landscape. One of enormous heather covered mountains which reach down to to sea. It is very beautiful and now no matter where in the world life takes me I think of it as my home.

My sketch books contain many pages of inspiration from these beautiful landscapes.I know I love looking at other peoples sketchbooks, the skribbly the better. Here are some pages from mine.

As I usually work in collage I often tear paper and sort colour experiments in my sketchbooks.

And sometimes I experiment with watercolour. I think I used wax resist on some of this page.

And finally these form the basis of torn paper collages on a larger scale.

sligachan river

four very fine cats

 This is my Family croft with my favourite pet cats. It is torn paper on canvas with some acrylic paint.

croft by the sea

Storr

So these are little pieces of my Homeland.... :)

Fun with the metal polish

Distressing magazine images!

Well not that distressing...  I have been experimenting on how best to change magazine images without a whole lot of effort...

This method works best on Junk mail, the sort with glossy pictures. I used Brasso. Not the liquid cleaner, but the one that looks like cotton wool fluff. I found the liquid polish just made the paper soggy.

Junk mail ready for the metal polish!

 

I found that if you rub gently the image begins to rub off. The surface of the paper is not scratched and the inks are spread around. Depending on what image you use the effect can begin to look like a watercolour painting. The text can be completely erased.

Brasso image

This is exactly the same photo, all I have done after using the Brasso is stick it in my Journal with Modelling paste as I found Pva wrinkles the thin paper too much and put some gesso  around the edge and stencilled text on the side..That easy!!

Making up a collage with distressed images

 

 

This method uses elements of the magazine page as collage pieces. I liked these colourful wellies so I distressed them with the Brasso.

Then I tore round them collaging them on to some paper I had printed with a Gelli plate

I used offcuts of butterfly stickers to make the printed paper.

Then you end up with a vintage looking image! The roses were from a gardening catalogue, I just rubbed them until they started to fade out a bit. The paper can also be used just to create texture as I did in the background to yesterdays post 'the Hare and the Tortoise'. Lots of uses, lots of fun. :)

I am linking up this page to The Artists Playroom the prompt being 'what do we often overlook'. I know I can spent hours in 'hobbycraft' our local art and craft store in amongst all the gel mediums, image transfer gels and die cut stencils, but  sometimes equally exciting results can be achieved by raiding the kitchen cupboards! I have been instructed by the Doctor to rest my arm after a burn injury. So no cutting, sticking or painting for a couple of weeks :( instead I will have lots of time to look at what everyone else has been creating... another thing which I often overlook through lack of time. No excuse now!!

Linking to APR
and Carolyn Dube Gelli print party

Hare and the tortoise

Collage obsession

There is a lot to be said for perseverance, the ability to keep going even if things don't look too rosy was drummed into me from a very early age. I remember sitting at the kitchen table, maths homework in front of me with a sulky look on my face and being told by my father ' No one likes a quitter'. That's always stayed with me, and perseverance and determination are qualities which I greatly admire, not the standing on top of people to get where you want to be, but the quiet determination of the tortoise.
Collage obsessions challenge was to portray our favourite piece of children's literature and I have many!. The lion, witch and wardrobe, Anne of green gables, all of the Enid Blyton books ( I LOVed the famous five) although she seems to be unpolitical correct these days, but decided to illustrate the Hare and Tortoise in my Journal. It is mixed media and I experimented  using metal polish on some of the paper I collaged with to give it a distressed look. I'll write a post on my metal polish experiments soon, I'm still trying out different products and papers.

What I treasure

 APR CHALLENGE

'What I treasure' is the theme for this weeks APR, and I could have drawn any number of special things I have stowed away, I'm a terrible hoarder, If Swirlygirl is reading this she will be round tomorrow with her declutter manual! However it is true, sometimes it is hard to throw away things, but when it comes down to it what I really treasure is the freedom and space to be me.
This is a page from my journal. I thought I would take the plunge and pick up the pitt pens ( Jez at butterfly mind uses them so well) I don't often use pens or markers, couldn't resist adding a bit of watercolour and coloured pencil...and of course torn paper on the little birds. I must try and do a none collaged piece to see if I manage it.
As for little places to store precious things, how about this...

 This beautiful little casket was in the cathedral museum in Pisa. It doesn't show too well on the photo but the enamel was vibrant cobalt blue. quite beautiful..One of my many hundred Italian Adventure photographs, knew they might come in in useful!