Gallery news

Today a little show and tell.

Here is my new space in Skyeworks Gallery on the Isle  of Skye. Set up in time for Easter.

I have been working on lots of little pieces recently and this is their new home at the moment.

Skyeworks is a beautiful natural light gallery above the Isle of Skye bakery company.

It specialises in local Scottish art and crafts

Skyeworks Gallery
(lots of exciting things!!! )

You may have noticed my newest piece beside the stag I posted a couple of weeks ago.

New piece 'Wild Angelica'

It is torn paper and acrylic on canvas.

Detail

And two more small panels just finished. Again using torn paper pieces and acrylic.

Light reflections made these tricky to photograph.

Thought you might like a look around Portree in the spring Sunshine where the Gallery is situated.

Portree is the largest village on the Island having a population of around  2,500 and is the main centre for shopping, having a couple of banks, a bakery, newsagent, several hotels and a couple of supermarkets. The roadsign is in Gaelic and reads 'Welcome to Portree mind how you go.' Scottish Gaelic is spoken in the west Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

The main village square

The pier and harbour. Boats trips from here can take visitors out to watch Sea Eagles which nest on the rocky outcrops around the bay.

The shale and shingle beach

MacKenzies bakery and the Bank!

Portree Bay

Hope the sun is shining in your part of the world.

Linking up to Paint party friday

Spring has sprung WOYWW

Not much activity on the work desk today. These pieces still need finishing. ( The eagle eyed of you may be upset by the very messy heatgun :) )

The weather has been too nice to spend too much time inside so over Easter I took loads of Springtime photographs instead. I adore spring, its colour and fresh scents filling my head.

The wood is filled with a carpet of beautiful yellow celandine,

C.S Lewis mentions celandines in the Lion witch and the wardrobe, when Aslan comes to Narnia and the woods change from ' January to may in a few hours'
the children notice 'Wondrous things happening. Coming suddenly around a corner into a glade of silver birch trees Edmund saw the ground covered in all directions with little yellow flowers- Celandine'

The trees are brimming with blossom.

 Everywhere new life appears.

Isn't he gorgeous! :)

Linking up to woyww

Dragonfly and thistles

As you know I have been sewing lots of thistles recently.

These ones are made from silk, I then glue them onto small wooden panels which I have collaged with papers and textured pastes and glue.

The dragonfly is made from silk too.

 I covered the wings with sparkle modpodge glue which stiffened them and meant I could place the dragonfly partially over the edge of the wooden panel.
 Finally to finish two little beaded eyes.

Linking up to paint party Friday

Clay mermaids (WOYWW)

Busy week on my workdesk, lots of bits to share!
Last week I gave you a wee peep at my new seashell mermaid which I had just started.

This was how she looked last Wednesday. The background framed her form which is blocked in with gesso.

And now she is painted with acrylics and varnished she is ready to swim!

liberal  amounts of crackle medium have given her face an aged porcelain finish.

I loved making her so much I have have just finished shell mermaid number two!

I started like this with a wooden shell substrate which is given a coat of gesso and then a bit of blue acrylic.

I tried Gelli printing the background this time.

Lots of nice texture!

Slowly a new sea-spirit is emerging.......

now she needs hair...

I thought I would try and short-cut a little with raffia. I normally cut loads of strips of paper for hair and twist them. I wondered if raffia would work. Alas no, it didn't stick too well so I went back to the tried and tested paper hair tendrils.

I think she looks rather like she is juggling with the shells, I am guessing that mermaids have a lot of free-time. Lots of time to refine circus skills
.....and why not... :)

The light is better outside so I took them off the desk to photograph and into the garden.


linking to WOYWW   where artists and crafters share their newest projects

and also  paint party Friday a great place to connect Artists from around the globe.

stag silhouette and some flower soft heather

I have been finishing off some more collaged wooden panels..

This one is a combination of gesso, modelling paste, acrylic and  collaged papers. I liked the idea of working on a silhouette in amongst a collaged foreground. I used Gelli printed papers and also scratched through to make a textured landscape.The sky was made using stencilled modelling paste and then sprayed with shimmer ink.

I also have been trying more abstract plant forms on wooden panels

I used a stencil and modelling paste to get the effect 

detail

I also wondered if I could use natural materials to incorporate into some small panels.

This one uses tree bark and also 'Heather flower soft'. 

I'm not sure what it is made of but it has a lovely soft spongy texture and looks like little flowers. It is glued with a PVA type glue.

I also used it to finish off my little stag portrait. I thought some he would like some Heather to frolic in :)

Linking up to Collage Obsession

and Paint Party Friday

Sea shells and mermaids woyww

collaging paper on top of gesso

What's on my work desk today?
I found two small shell shaped wooden hangings. I am always on the look-out for objects to collage or re-paint.
 They originally were just plain and  said 'I do like to be beside the seaside'
I thought they needed some prettying up. So I had a look inside my 'sea' paper box.

I sort my paper into colour themes and put them in box files, it makes sorting easier. I collect paper of all kinds. Birthdays and Christmas create endless inspiration! These types of paper are not acid free and would deteriorate with time so I always use liberal amounts of  acrylic medium to stabilise them.

building up layers of paper, but what else shall I add?

Remember a few weeks ago my assortment of clay body parts? :)

Just what it needed, a mermaid!

 A coat of gesso....

and some modelling paste stencilled through some netting, the sort you buy oranges in.

I'm still painting her with acrylics and hopefully she will be free to swim with the fishes very soon.
(As you can see I don't use fancy paint palettes, old plastic container lids do just as well )

It was Mothers day on Sunday here in the UK so I hope all the Mums reading this had a super day. My youngest daughter took me out for a lovely meal.....If you are reading B, thank you again, that banana cheesecake was GorGeous! :)

Linking up to WOYWW

Little landscapes

On Wednesday I posted my progress on my little landscape panels which I have been playing with this week. I wanted to experiment on a small scale at first but may try this out on a much larger scale.
 They went from this......

To this....
Now spring is in the air here I am filled with thoughts of summer sunshine!

 I added some fabric thistles. I like to use fabric as another collaged element.

But something was missing.....

Dragonflies! Made from re-cycled plastic which I rescued from my bin they began as lemonade bottles which I cut and then melted with my heat gun.

Linking up this week to.

Paint Party Friday!
 and also
Collage Obsession Who's prompt is weather.... here's hoping for a summer of sunshine and dragonflies.