The Midnight Garden

Soft secrets whisper through the grass

as the night creatures stir

dreams fly from a hidden lair

And the seeds of tomorrow are sown

There must be something about January for its chill and drear seems to inspire me to dream of seasons past and to come - the warm kind - and to paint flowers. This time last year I called my 'Poppy Period' and it seems we have come full circle with the seeds of last winter bearing fruit again!

There are paintings in various stages of completion drying all over the lounge floor and calling me back. This one came from a messy experiment. It started life as an abstract watercolour butterfly, then I tried my new stencil and played with some spray inks. It was all set to become a piece of scrap when suddenly I saw the poppy heads stirring in the night as the fairies brushed past their stems...

Sharing with Sunday Sketches.

Flame-haired

I am trying to think of something to write about this flame-haired beauty. Maybe commenting on what she's holding in her hands as the beginnings to a story.

However, I am afraid that this evening the words won't come. All I can think about is the newly laundered sheets waiting on the bed next door, the fluffed up pillows and feathery duvet... Sigh, it's Saturday night and only just 11pm and all I want to do is snuggle down and sleep....

I do want to join in Sunday Sketches though... so here she is! I partly borrowed her from a couple of illustrations by the fantasy artist Stephanie Pui-Mun Law from her instructional book 'Dreamscapes'.

Swimming with wings

Penguins are such fascinating birds - evolution in action - birds with wings that act as fins so they soar through the ocean's depths rather than float on thermals.

Dressed in their smart black jackets they are born entertainers too. There's something about a bit of cute that brings out the protectionist among us - another quirk of evolution?

I'm painting the subjects of the sea's realm this week for Moyra's journal in another collaborative project. There's something about working with others that brings out the joy in me so, Universe, can I just say... I'm putting it out there that...

If anyone has any creative projects they need some help with - I'm your gal! I'll write myself a creative sales pitch and post it here in the next day or so.

Sharing with Sunday Sketches. I have been away for far too long!

Feathered inspiration

I managed to persuade my son to do some painting with me today. I even let him choose our subject matter - this rather resplendent yellow-billed turaco. Look at those feathers shimmering. His effort lasted around 60 seconds before he got bored - I took a bit more time with mine, but this was still a pretty quick study, so I thought I would share it with the Sunday Sketchers.

I have been drawn to collecting feathers lately. My boyfriend fears that the men in white coats will be taking me away as I present yet another 'haul' from one of my nature forays. My gathering to date has been somewhat monochrome - we don't have many exotic birds round these parts - the best I can usually hope for is the iridescent shine of a magpie's tail feather. I found a particularly excellent specimen recently simply by looking up into the trees and asking very nicely - sure enough, a few steps back along the path already trod, there was one right there in the middle just waiting for me :)

Last week though, my feathered friends decided I needed a treat ... just look! (yeah, I know there are some leaves and a twig in there too!). Alongside the peacock feathers there's also one from a jay - can you spot it?

A magical journal journey

Taking Gemma's journal to Glastonbury seemed like the most natural thing in the world to do - for after all, has not this group of artistic ladies named their project 'magical journal journeys'?

And just look at the cover - dragon skin for sure!

So, I carried the book of magic up to the Tor and to the Chalice Well. At the Well it took a light shower in the healing spring water - luckily dragon skin is quite water resistant!

And then, back home and suitably inspired by feminine energy, I created a homage to Mother Earth in these two pages.

I feel a change in me, a shift in the currents. Something long dormant has woken, a spell broken by another... The urge to create is strong in this one...


(I'm also sharing these sketches with the Sunday Sketchers - I have long been absent from my friends there!)

What do you do...

When orange ink blobs bleed through from the page in a journal you were working on to the other side of the page?

Why, you sketch Koi carp of course!

 

These are my pages for Maggie's orange, yellow and grey (with a splash of something else if you feel like it) journal. As the months roll by each time the postman brings me my next delivery the excitement bubbles up in a fizz of anticipation. What treasures will be unveiled this month? How will my fellow artists have immersed themselves in the colour fest of each journal. Are they as paint-splattered as me?

There is one more page, but I'm leaving that to Maggie to discover (plus... it scanned really badly and I only noticed after I'd put it in the post!!).

Sharing my orange, yellow and grey with Sunday Sketches.

Aloha!

Did someone say Hawaii?

I can hear the sounds of the surf, smell the vanilla beans and feel the music pumping through my veins. Shall we grab a board and go surfing?

Layers of sunshine, flowers and holiday make up this piece. There are raffle tickets for luck and secret words hiding beneath the paint.

Can you see them?

Sharing some Summer with Sunday Sketches - Aloha!

Vulnerability

A little creepy. Empty eyes. Statuesque perhaps.

Collage, stamping, drawing, spraying, blending, painting. A bit of everything in this. A maelstrom of technique and message but nothing coherent. I know how she feels...

A bit vulnerable perhaps? I just watched Skyfall. Nice to see Bond being a bit vulnerable. It's all the rage. Iron Man is at it too. Makes a change to see the heroes act a little more human. It makes me feel a certain connection - like they could get tennis elbow from gardening too...

Sharing for Sunday Sketches.

L is for Lion

A bit more effort went into this than the giraffe and iguana, though the background was from the same batch of paint brayered onto paper.

Strictly speaking it's not a sketch, even though I plan to post for Sunday Sketches (so I hope nobody minds)... as well as the A-Z blogging challenge. I'm all in the wrong order this week - my sketches were of long neck and wrinkly skin.

I was a bit disappointed with the scan - there's more green showing than is actually on the piece. What do you think of him. Is he looking 'lion' enough?

I think I'm going to do more like this. They are fun.

Happy Mother's Day

I painted this for my Mum. Since she moved into the 21st Century, bought a laptop and discovered the internet she's also begun reading this - so I had best be nice! No teasing or cracking jokes about her computing skills - especially as it's Mother's Day today. It's easy to be nice about my Mum though, she's pretty wonderful. Loving, supportive, tasty food maker, creative, caring and generally everything a Mum should be. She's even doing the cooking today (I did offer readers, I assure you, but she insisted...).

I doubt she's checking this too early on Sunday, so can post this image of the card without fear of spoiling the surprise when I see her later. It represents a move to a different flora (although I am still painting poppies). Echinacea is my new obsession - or Cone flower as it is more often known (probably because no one can spell Echinacea (even the spell check is bemused, offering up 'machinable' as it's best guess).

I am also very enamoured of my Dylusions spray inks. I own six rapidly diminishing bottles and am lusting after the rest of the range. My fingers are permanently stained giving the impression of a nasty skin condition and severe bruising. What can I say... I'm an artist!

Sharing for Sunday Sketches... it's a bit beyond the sketch stage, but hey I like hanging out with that bunch so let's just pretend....

Who you lookin' at?

I've got my beady eyes on you sunshine - just watch yourself! Tap, tap, tapping on your door...

You've got to feel sorry for the crow family - much maligned. Not helped by this new series The Following - a serial killer obsessed with Poe. Creepy. This fellow is actually pretty friendly. He does have his eye on your jewellery though....

I bought a couple of bird books yesterday from a charity shop - I feel an urge to painted our winged friends (alongside the current floral obsessions). Had some of my poppy paintings printed up onto large canvas this week - the idea being to take them back to the galleries that showed an interest and see if I can persuade them to adorn their walls and tempt their customers. Wish me luck!

This fine black bird is thrilled to be visiting his brethren at the Take a Word challenge this week and he also put in a request to check out my friends at Sunday Sketches. Who am I to argue with him?

Girl with attitude

Yeah, that's right. I've got attitude...

When I can't get the eyes and nose right I just find a magazine picture that fits and stick it on - so there!

She's really looking down her nose at me isn't she? Scoffing that I couldn't get her features in proper proportion. I don't think she's too happy that I forgot to paint her hair back in either - nor that I didn't pay much attention to style or even colour. Rather too much grey in it for her liking.

Stroppy little madam isn't she?

I like my paintings to have a bit of personality though - kind of companionable (if that doesn't sound too 'I talk to myself bonkers).

Thought I'd share this for Sunday Sketches together with this 'girl with a hat'. Both painted last weekend at the arty gathering in Felixstowe. The former also fits perfectly with Take a Word's 'Mask'. What lies beneath?

Contented sigh

Ah such bliss. I have just returned from spending a weekend where the entire focus was to live, breathe, talk and drink art (well we almost consumed it... you know how it is when you're not concentrating and you dip your paintbrush in your coffee...). Seven lucky ladies met up by the English seaside to paint and make and boy, did we do just that!

I have not been so prolific in ages - helped by the creativity going on around me and the swapping of art stories and supplies, I churned out piece after painting. I dabbed and drew, sprayed and stroked (and even, at one small point, stitched!).

I could share more with you now than just this dreamy lady, but where would be the fun in that? I want you to come back tomorrow! And anyway, right now I have to get back downstairs to my work studio and pull out my paints again!

Sharing this sketch over a lusciously layered background of paint and tissue and stencilling with my friends at Sunday Sketches who I know will be so jealous when they read about my weekend!!  Did I mention how amazing it was?

Crone song

Tunes of love, joy and sorrow

the crone's songs lines her face

Memory notes dance across cheeks

and the voices of generations sing a story

I don't often draw wrinkles. In fact, as women we seem to focus on how best to prevent them and so hide the passing of the years. I think we prefer our voices, rather than our faces to tell our story!

This old lady has been sitting on my Pinterest board - faces to draw - for some time. So when I saw the Take a Word challenge for wrinkles this week, I thought it was about time I attempted someone with a bit more character than the fresh-faced beauties I usually create.

If you look very closely (or just at the pic below!!) you will also see that she is sketched over a collage of crinkled tissue paper decorated with musical notes. I actually remembered to scan in my background before I drew her which is a small miracle!

Sharing too with with my regular crew at Sunday Sketches.

PS: if you like art journal collaborations, you may enjoy yesterday's post.

Girl with flowers in her hair

I like to stick a bit of flora in my hair when the opportunity arises. In fact, a photograph of me with pink petals in my hair is actually on a ''proper" company website - for an IT Hosting company. (I would post the actual link to the correct page but unfortunately I can't remember which one it was on. A prize for anyone who finds me!).

This post will eventually get around to plugging an exciting blog party happening next weekend, but first it requires some scene setting.

As I created this piece it began to remind me of my friend and arty collaborator Priti Lisa who, ever since I first saw this picture on her blog, I imagine to permanently walk around with flowers in her hair and channelling her inner Frida.

Priti Lisa

This week I have been excitedly planning the big reveal of the art journal collaboration/round robin that Lisa organised for a group of eight artists last year - as well as planning the beginnings of our second artistic adventure starting on March 1st.

Come along to my blog next weekend for links to all the participants showcase the work that travelled the globe and share their experience of being a part of such a project. I'm not going to say any more now... you need to visit next weekend!!

Well, for some reason this post has taken me ages to write and I need my breakfast.

Sharing with the crew at Sunday Sketches.

The roses in my girl's hair were created using a stamp made from the heart of a cabbage...

Possessed artwork

A couple of works in progress to share with Sunday Sketches.

Now, where would you go with these? I'm thinking butterflies with the first - I stuck a sample cut out in the scanner, but I think I'll draw, rather than actually collage - and that one is almost scarily big!

Naturally, it's not until she goes in the scanner that I spot one eye bigger than the other (I'm sure it's the machine that does it...).

Mind you, the Scanner did make up for changing facial features on this second piece. She went in, looking a little green around the gills, as if perhaps she was about to audition for a 'walk-on' part in The Walking Dead.

She came out flushed with a rich shade of orange - although she still looks terrifying. I think she'll get the part without too much effort. Funnily enough she is actually risen from the dead so to speak, as she's sitting on top of another portrait that freaked me out even more than this. I had to cover her in a shroud of tissue paper collage. She may have got her own back by possessing this new interloper to her page.

So, what would you do with these? Ideas please!!

Left hand drive

I couldn't figure what to paint so I stuck the brush in my left hand thus allowing my right brain to take over the driving.

As you can see we swerved around quite a bit while we figured out just who was behind the wheel and which way to turn to avoid total disaster.

We ended up here. It's a river, not a road (by now we had parked and were moving more slowly on foot).

I wasn't actually painting with my foot at this point, it's just a figure of speech to give you the impression of a more careful consideration of subject matter.

I'm typing with my right brain too. Well, the fingers are using the left but both hands are on the keyboard to get the message all right. All right?

I should maybe think about going to bed... I sleep on the right if there's any left.

Seasonal Sketches

Something seasonal for the Christmas countdown. Later today I will have to tidy away the art supplies in order to rediscover the dining table - which I keep 'for best'. I mean there's no point using it to eat on every day is there? It just won't feel special when we do.... That's my excuse for covering it with an art supplies mountain and I'm sticking to it.

In 2013 I intend to sell lots of art to fund operation 'we're going to need a bigger house'. Lately just getting through the door has become a piece of performance art in itself.

It's good to state ambitious intentions. Yesterday I took delivery of The Icarus Deception a very exciting new book by Seth Godin. He challenges the cosy old rules of comfort zones and compliance and reminds us that we all have the wings we need to soar. It's about bravery, adventure and creativity. I'm in.

Sharing today for Sunday Sketches. Pop on over and see what the gang are up to!

Chloe is determined

Chloe is a determined lass. Despite the fact that my lengthy absence from the world of blogging (yes, pretty much a whole month - shocking eh?!), has meant that I have accumulated a somewhat large stash of art to share with Sunday Sketches, Paint Party Friday et al, she insisted on being created last night.

While the other half was watching old episodes of ER on TV, I was forced to sit down and create this set jaw and steely gaze. Her background was already in existence so I should point out that the blood splattered look has nothing to do with the frequency of GSWs flowing in and out of the trauma team's hands at the other end of the room.

Other half has only just 'discovered' ER and is working his way through season after season. Carol is currently heavily pregnant, Romano still has both functioning arms and Clooney has gone to Hollywood. I was a big fan 'back in the day', but it's amazing what we forget and what memories itch to let slip to let slip mention of the danger of helicopters, impending love triangles, multiple births and heartfelt reunions.

It is becoming all too easy to get sucked back into the storylines (despite the fact that Doug Ross has moved to pastures new....).

Collaborating

Back in the summer I was gifted (from Karen - I am Rushmore) a beautiful handmade journal with each page a unique opportunity to create more art and expand upon what was already there. Assorted ephemera, painted backgrounds, tags, textures ... all beckoned and invited me to come and play.

I was so excited - so much possibility... and yet...

So much opportunity to mess it up! The Muse went all shy, foolish thing. I tried reasoning with her. Doesn't she realise I just want her to be 'herself', my artist within that loves to create?

Well, it took some time, but I feel she's finally allowing her authenticity to flow through. This week we received back the Round Robin Art Journal that has been through the hands and creative thought of eight artists. I was blown away by the contents and you will be too - watch this space for once we each have our treasures back we'll be holding a blog party to share all that loveliness with the rest of our creative tribes in Blogland!

Taking part in this shared experience gave me the confidence that I wasn't going to 'ruin' Karen's book, and I am slowly adding my own layers, my story to sit alongside hers. I'm excited to see where this adventure will lead.

Thank you to all my artist friends who help me grow, push my boundaries and bring such joy and friendship!

Sharing this sketch over one of Karen's backgrounds today.I took the hard black line as the bridge of a nose and the rest just flowed from there...