Winter's on the way.

'November Beech Trees'

I have been living in the summer over the past couple of months, working on summer inspired pieces using photographs I took during the warmer months as my inspiration. This week  however I thought I would take a more seasonal approach and use some Gelli printed mulberry paper I made while the fallen leaves were still dry and crisp.

Autumn leaves

                             
 I collected  Autumn leaves and used acrylic paint to print them onto the paper with my Gelli plate.  I then used the paper to make an abstract woodland.
 The trees were splatter painted with an old toothbrush after I blocked off the surrounding areas with masking tape. The copper red reminds me of the shiny glistening bark of the Beech tree. It seems to stand out so prominently when there is not much colour around, The background of collaged bookpaper text was going to be covered more heavily in gesso, but I like the way the text contrasts with the bark so I left it. I often feel I overwork things and my new challenge is to know when to leave things alone!

Gelli printed mulberry paper

Collage obsession have a Haiku Theme this week so here is my woodland abstract with a little 5/7/5 Haiku.

Still,quiet,sharp frost.
Sweet smell of Autumn Decay
winter's on her way.

Time to light the fire and wrap up warm!

linking to Collage Obsession  and Paint party Friday.

Crossing the sea

You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.

Rabindranath Tagore

This weeks collage obsession team have asked for a quote inspired piece, so here is my mixed media canvas. It is made up of paint, textured bead gel and torn citrosolve papers.

The sea looks deceptively calm, the crossing will not be easy, but that is the challenge, to give it a go....

WIP

As you can see I intensified the colour to fit in with the Artists Playroom very interesting challenge to look at complimentary colours.
 I really should plan my work beforehand. I should study the colour wheel and work out what colour goes with what, but in reality things just evolve. This piece uses mainly golden orange and blue tones which if you look at the wheel are complimentary.I have written before of my dislike of orange, yet when it is teamed with blue I love it!



                                                                                           

The complimentary colours lie opposite to each other on the wheel. Purple green, orange blue, lilac and yellow for example.
Earlier in the year I worked on a Blue/orange piece

                                                                                        

It is the view from the Uffitzi Gallery roof terrace in Florence of the famous Cathedral. It made me realise that colours I didn't usually use really worked well when used in the right combinations.

Linking to collage obsession and the Artists playroom

And of course Paint party Friday!!

Thistle blanket

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'I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow'

Abraham Lincon

It may be cold and wet outside but I am using some of my Summer photographs as inspiration at the moment. This piece 'Thistle blanket' is collaged paper scraps and paint.

 I love thistles, and have spent the last few months painting and collaging  them in celebration of their tough hardy nature.

Such beautiful flowers standing proud and strong, growing in places other flowers fail to flourish. They are the embodiment of resilience and determination

I thought I would take a few WIP shots to explain my process

I begin by painting a fluid acrylic wash over the canvas.I don't always do this but with this piece I wanted a soft background to collage my paper scraps on.

The pieces are glued down with an acrylic medium. I build up the texture by adding more layers of paper, sanding down some areas with sandpaper if needed,

If you look to the side you can make up a print of the photograph I took and used as inspiration.

I use pebeo liners to add texture and outline to foliage. It was mentioned a few weeks ago that this gives a stained glass effect, I hadn't thought of this but I do love stained glass.
I used a crackle medium over the thistles and then rubbed dark violet acrylic into the cracks.

I covered the sea in bookpaper and then gessoed over the surface. I then rub off the excess with baby wipes. They are my must have product!!

Then once dry a thin wash of acrylic mixed with an iridescent medium for some shimmer.

Linking up with Collage obsessions open challenge this week.

Rowan berries

Rowan berries ( torn paper collage)

Autumn is here and this collaged canvas is inspired by this lovely view of Eilean Donan castle I took last week.

 Rowan trees are so beautiful at this time of the year. The scarlet berries plump and bright against the cold pale sun. Rowan is a small deciduous tree found all over the highlands of Scotland it is sometimes called ‘The Lady of the Mountain’ as its other name is Mountain ash.

The Rowan tree is one of the most sacred trees in Scottish folk tradition. Rowan is one of the trees associated with Saint Brighid, the Celtic patroness of the arts, healing, spinning and weaving. Spindles and spinning wheels were traditionally made of Rowan in Scotland and Ireland.

 Rowan twigs were placed above doorways and barns to protect the inhabitants against misfortune and evil spirits.

 Rowan trees planted near stone circles in Scotland were especially powerful. Scottish Fairies were said to hold their celebrations within stone circles protected by Rowan trees.

I like to think the fairies are preparing to hold a celebration around my lochside trees soon.... ;)

Collage obsession have chosen the theme of black and white plus one other colour. I thought it would be fun to change the colour digitally adding just the red berries to make a strong contrast.

rowan trees ( Collage obsession )

Linking up to collage obsession this week.

Also linked to Paint party friday

Doors and windows scavenger hunt!!

'secret garden'

 This Month Artists in Blogland have come up with a new themed Scavenger Hunt and this month it is 'doors and windows' so I thought I would have a look back at my previous work to see what I could find. The idea is to source any work new or old to fit the theme!

This small canvas was finished last winter and is called ' the secret Garden' named after my favourite children's book by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

                                   
                         

I based  the secret garden doorway on this  on this watercolour I painted of an Old Byre door. I love painting and photographing old doors, the two below were in Yorkshire.

 I love the way the Virginia creeper covers the walls around them.

postcard

This is a little postcard I made for a postcard swap earlier in the year.

Thistles in the window (watercolour pencil August 2013)

I love this old doorway, I took it in york when I was visiting earlier in the year, I think it would make a great collage!

linking up to Artists in Blogland scavenger hunt!!!

more sheepyness!

'Little lost sheep'

A week may have gone by but the subject stays the same...

If you saw last weeks post then this one may look familiar. It is another of my 'Summer on Skye' canvas collages and is currently hanging at the Skyeworks gallery on the Isle of Skye.
This one was tricky to photo as the light reflected off the surface. It is a little less blue than it seems here.
Over the summer I worked on various animal and bird projects. Up until then I had mainly used landscape as my inspiration but as a challenge thought I would try using my collage/paint techniques using Scottish flora and fauna as my inspiration.

The little lost sheep is in fact not sad to be lost. She actually prefers to wander away from the flock where the grass is lusher and there is space to breathe. Sometimes it is good to be lost.

She started off with a friend..

Who she lost along the way...

Now she has dragonflies for company.

Plaster painting

This last piece was an experiment on plaster. I rather like it. The plaster soaks up the paint like a sponge. I decided to leave it as an abstract experiment instead of fiddling too much with it.

Linking up to paint party friday
and this weeks Artists Playroom link up which is based around the theme of 'challenge'

'Summer on Skye'

It's getting chilly and the days are growing shorter, so here is a little piece of late summer to warm your day.
I made several large mixed media canvas during the summer. Most for the Skyeworks Gallery on the Isle of Skye. This one however went to a dear friend who loves Skye.
For those who have been following me you will notice the thistles  again ( My favourite summer theme)

Inspiration Avenues theme this week is 'faces' and I thought it would be nice to throw two woolly faces into the mix!

The Highlands of Scotland are filled with them...White dots scattered over the heather coloured landscape.The soft bleating often the only sound to break the silence.
Every turn in the road ...they are there....
Sheep....

This one was just waiting by the roadside waiting to be photographed!

You can go for quite a few days without seeing a human face in these parts, but few days go past without crossing paths with a 'Scottish blackface' or a 'Cheviot'.

They don't have a lot of road sense!

This collaged canvas started life as something rather different... a pair of stags, I loved the idea of the deer but it just didn't seem to work, and decided drastic action was needed!

They morphed into sheep! At this stage black faced sheep, but I didn't like the black, so...

 A bit of a white gesso and a quick change of breed!

I like them better as 'Cheviot ' white faced sheep. You can also see here one of the little collaged Dragonflies. The day after I finished the canvas I saw a beautiful dragonfly on the path down to the sea, he was gorgeous.

Dragonfly

I wished I could take better closeups...but you can just about make him out!

The thistles are collaged with handmade paper.

I have a couple more Summer Skyescapes left to show you, which I will do over the next few weeks.

Linking up to Inspiration Avenue and Paint party Friday this week.