Art in the making

This art every day for a month game could put unnecessary pressure on an already fraught girl; but I remain mindful of my words of wisdom to others... It isn't a contest, it's learning for yourself what the discipline of creating every day can give you. And, above all, we don't need to create masterpieces. The experience is totally about us. I just happen to choose to share my attempts daily on my blog.

So today, we don't have painting or drawing because frankly I ran out of steam where they are concerned - and I have been slaving at the pc at work all day! Instead, just a few experimental photos of the implements that help me create. I love happy accidents. For reasons best known to itself, my camera just wouldn't focus properly this evening. Undaunted, I went with the flow.

I also added a little je ne sais quoi in my darling PhotoShop.

My experimental art teacher Amelia would be very proud!

PS - I really should get some clean water for my brushes!!

What do you think this is?

Experimental art this week is all about photography. We're immersed in reflections and tricks of light. Earlier in the week, I captured some fairy magic glinting at me through the trees, but today we stayed at home and relaxed over...

... a refreshing cup of tea

Yesterday, I tried in vain to 'do art'. Nothing was working, the Muse was out with her mates. All I wanted to do was paint a pretty picture of an orange lady ready for Summer of Colour on Monday and a dainty array of afternoon tea for Inspiration Avenue. I just made a mess. So instead, I played with photographs. The Muse came back from her night out and took a great interest, peering over my shoulder at the screen and making suggestions. I've never been one for reading tea leaves before, but this looks like an interesting story to follow up! Can you see the winged creature hovering over the brown speckled tea in the one above?

The beauty of experimentation

You really need to enlarge this image (just click on it) to get into the lush colour and texture.

The beauty of experimentation is that it is just that. In the words of a certain Mr Gump, you just never know what you're gonna get. And because of this uncertainty, we're not too fussed about the end result. I touched on this last week with my finger painting, but it's worth mentioning again.

It's just play and it's very relaxing - just what was needed after the week I've had.

Collage, textures, paint, glue, ink, more collage, paint and glue. Fun. Perfect for Paint Party Friday.

Wings? Eh?

It's not as easy as it looks this collage malarky. I was inspired by my experimental art course and the work of Derek Gores to create this wild Scottish beachscape. I was also doing some serious 'out-of-the-box' thinking with regards to the creative prompt at Inspirational Avenue - Wings.

I mean it would just be too easy to think birds, butterflies and bumble bees wouldn't it? Maybe I should go down the man-made aeronautical route instead? But then a song crept into the depths of my imagination and an idea was born.

This particular song was the first in the UK to ever sell more than two million copies. It was number 1 for 9 weeks and is probably sung by every tourist visiting this distant outpost of the British Isles. It is of course Mull of Kintyre by the group 'Wings' - see, I told you I wasn't thinking along normal lines!!

My collage sort of looks like a photograph I saw of the mist rolling in through the sea.. my desire is always to be here oh Mull of Kintyre....I'm sure the house may be a slight exaggeration to the one owned by Mr McCartney though. I doubt even he would have been granted planning permission (he has made his mark in the clouds though... look closely!).

This definitely looks better when viewed from a distance. I might paint over part of it to help with the illusion of distance. Lots of fun though.

Finger painting

This girl came from paint to paper via only my fingers. Mainly fingertips, but nails were needed for the finer details (it's very difficult to transfer paint from fingernails to paper with any kind of control, I can assure you!).

It's an exercise for the Experimental Art Course which I'm also sharing for Paint Party Friday. If I'd had time I would probably have done more paintings with sponges, sticks and stones for assignment 2, but this is the extent of my artwork this week. Fingers have been glued to keyboard all week churning out the work stuff.

I'm really rather proud of her. A few years ago I'd have been chuffed if I'd painted this with a brush! I think it comes down to attitude. Painting with my fingers, I hardly expected to create a masterpiece. It was play, experimentation. I didn't have to share the result on here or even indeed with my fellow students in our Flickr group. It didn't matter if it was a total disaster.

And the result when the pressure was off? Well, I like it! OK, no masterpiece, but there's something fresh and fun about her. This was on my mind a lot this week - letting go of being precious, being brave. I've been trying to apply it to my writing and creativity at work too; I've been writing a tonne of articles and helping pull together presentation materials for the senior management team. Sometimes when we try too hard it's just so stiff and pretentious.

Maybe I'll take some paint into the office and get the Board finger painting... What do you think?

More beaker moments... Look what I did!

Aha my students, I am glad you are here once again for I have many experiments to share with you. Pull up a bunsen burner and gather round the petri dish - making sure to wear goggles and button up your lab coat, for it's likely you'll get paint splashed!

Reader, I have been missing art so much this week. It has been another of those busy ones where the day job, while incredibly creative, did wear me out a tad.

So last night I had to get messy. I had to dribble and splat, squash and flick, stick and scumble and just make mess. I'm experimenting with Amelia Critchlow. It seems we're almost making art by accident - not for us the measured application of brush to a carefully considered composition. No, we are letting loose with everything from tea bags to toe nails (well, maybe not the latter... yet!). We are seeing what happens if.... and when.... and let's just mix this with that and squash it flat.

I'm storing away the results in the crazy filing system that is the right side of my brain (and also on my Flickr stream), ready to pull them out and use when the occasion arises.

Sharing today with the Paint Friday Party-goers! Pop over and join in the fun (and see who has got the most paint still down their fingernails).

PS: Did I mention that I am wildly excited about these creations? Experimenting is so free and liberating. I feel so much better :)

Twas brillig

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Lewis Carroll

When you wish to paint creatures of the imagination, I think it helps to let loose yours. A Jabberwock sounds a fearful spiny creature that creeps into nightmares to wreck havoc. I was too scared to paint one so I let it paint itself. I dripped and closed the book with a slam then ran... Look what slithered and slid onto the page while my back was turned. Long may it stay there ... I'm off to sketch a vorpal sword...

For Inspiration Avenue's Poetry challenge (and some experimental art homework).

Makes you wonder how Mr Carroll 'experimented' when he wrote Through the Looking Glass...?

At the charcoal face

I've just had a revelation and it's called Charcoal.

Seriously, why have I never used this medium before? I've owned a charcoal pencil for about two years that's just sort of languished alone and unwanted in the pencil box under the waxy lushness of my prismacolors.

I knocked this sketch up in around 10 minutes on a bit of paint-splattered scrap paper. Just thrown together without much planning, but look at the depth of shading I managed to achieve.

I've opened up a vein of possibility. Now I am dashing off to open a pristine page in my sketchbook to concentrate on a 'proper' piece.

I'm taking Jane DesRosier's Gritty Jane class....yes, and the Experimental Art class... and I've also enrolled on 21 Secrets... Well, the latter two are self-paced so I can take my time! Jane's first lessons involved blind contour drawing and charcoal. I'm hooked and will share this with the Sunday Sketchers. Hopefully I'll have time today to complete a more careful study, but there's a wall waiting to be painted (with emulsion!), and a tonne of work admin I've been putting off...

Ah the temptations and distractions of art.... how we love them!

PS: If you have time for an extra read, yesterday I wrote something from the heart - a thank you post to all my supportive friends here in Bloglandia.

Just call me Beaker

Oh have I been having fun these past few days. Well, actually it has been quite a week. I've spent daylight hours writing until the keyboard starting bleeding, but come twilight and it's time to paint and, more specifically, experiment.

The Experimental Art course finally started and I came over all scientific. I even put my lab coat on and styled my hair like Beaker. Just as well I don't speak like him or you'd have trouble understanding.

I am actually very excited and all I've been doing is doodling and staining. I do however feel like a proper experimenter. Take yesterday for example, I sprinkled coffee granules on a sheet of paper torn from Country Living and dripped water on it. Not at first glance art. In fact, I had to warn my boyfriend against throwing it out. He wasn't the slightest bit surprised that a soggy sheet from a magazine drying out over a mug was part of one of my projects. Funny that...

I knew I'd do something with it and tonight, while fighting a feeling of restlessness, I scanned it, called over Dr Bunsen Honeydew and experimented. What do you think? Is it art?

Catch the week's experiments in my Flickr pool

And remind yourself just how funny Beaker & Bunsen are... they even get to experiment with coffee too!

ood elddood

Creating

Confusing

Challenging

Above all I am experimenting!

Limbering up excercises for Experimental Art which starts on Monday and conveniently matches this week's Tic Tocc prompt to doodle.

I have experimented thus:

Pour yourself a chilled glass of Sauvignan Blanc (don't stop to see how to spell it because that wastes valuable time).

Grab a magazine and a sketch book and put on some very cool music. My choice being Classic Chilled Ibiza Mix. Have a slurp of wine and flick through glossy pages until something grabs you.

Draw it with your 'not usual' hand and sort of flow along with the tunes... sipping more wine is a good idea...

Let inspiration drift through your pen. The music was rubbing my senses, the wine soothed them and the lyrics spoke to me... so I wrote them down ...  backwards, with my left hand and back to front. I switched pens. Why make this easy? A calligraphy pen that needs to be regularly dipped in a pot of ink is clearly more of a challenge.

Then, I took what I'd learned and applied it to this half-finished sketchy doodle lady for shading and hair[?]. Can you read it?

Sharing for Sunday Sketches too.

One of my many prepared backgrounds in my sketchbook came in very handy!

Live Laugh Love

"Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us."

Thomas Browne

Normally I would write something now - you know me, never can resist a little essay to accompany my art. However, I am very tired and stayed up too late playing with this. There is however a glimmer of light still in the sky reminding us that, despite the rain and chill, it is Summer!

So, to celebrate the Summer Solstice and for all those knee deep in mud at Glastonbury, this is some Summer sun just for you.

Well, it appears that I have managed to write an itsy little bit... And, well now I'm on a roll, so I might as well share how the prompt of Summer Sun at Inspiration Avenue and anticipation of the Experimental Art Course starting on Monday, got me snipping and tearing shades of turquoise and yellow from magazines to make this collage. After the tedium of waiting for glue to dry, I painted on streaks of real sunlight (tis true!) and snatched a little patch of blue from between the clouds. A little digital enhancement and she was ready.

She was going to be rising out of Stonehenge, but she heard the guitars tuning up a few miles distant on Glastonbury Tor (see pics on link) so pulled on her wellies and headed over. It might be raining, but as you can see, she carries her sun within!

The summer of colour or indeed color

I was only saying this morning that I'm in danger of taking too much on, and here I am telling you about another artistic challenge group I'm joining! But hey, the truth is that art stuff is pure pleasure and when it becomes a chore then something is clearly going very wrong. None of these challenges require that I take part every week (despite my attempts to do so).

So, it was with pleasure that I tell you about the Summer of Colour - or Color as Kristin from Twinkle, Twinkle spells it. Each week we're focusing on one colour which sounds pretty easy to me. Week 1 will be blue - I could doodle with a Bic and still have something to post - though I hope for something a little more creative (and anyway, I think my Bic is black ;).

I can also multi-task. A bit of colour play will be great for my Experimental Art e-Course which starts later this month. I'm taking this for the second time as it was just so fab the first. Places still available if anyone wants to come and play - link  in my sidebar takes you there.

I've found it hard lately to differentiate between colour. Don't worry, I'm not having trouble with my eyesight. It's more down to the fact that every time I grabbed a tube of paint while 'on retreat' I inevitably had rather paint splattered fingers and paint... well it has a habit of transferring itself onto things...

Somewhat spookily, this song just began playing through my headset - I have iTunes on random... It's called Daydream in blue...

Reflecting

I thought I would be blogging like crazy every evening while on holiday, but the reality is that I can barely keep my eyes open. What with spending all day in the fresh air and sunshine, sampling the odd glass or three of local fruits of the vine of an evening, and then listening to a mixture of the gentle sounds of my son's snoring and the sea lapping the sandy shoreline.... It all gets a touch soporiphic I can tell you.

So much for bringing sketchbook and pencils too. I have only managed the one page of sketches I posted on Sunday. Photography however is much easier. I've been looking for the interesting and unusual as well as the  obligatory 'son with ice-cream chops' and 'golden sand/blue sea and sky' shots.

Shortly after I return I am once more taking Amelia Critchlow's Experimental Art E-Course. It was just over a year ago that I became one of her first students on this class and found it one of my favourites. It's rather like joining a gym when you haven't exerised for years. Firstly, she warms you up gently with some easy stretching, then up goes your heart rate and blood begins to pump creativity through your veins. Before you know it you've built up some stamina and muscle and are ready for a Decathalon, or as many different art forms as you can cram into your experiments! There are still places on the next course and I can highly recommend it. OK, so you might not lose those inches round your waistline, but you'll sure see a lightening in that art material stash you've been sitting on for all these years.

Despite having the lessons from last time, this is definitely one of those courses where I know I'll benefit from taking again - especially as I've added another 12 months creative experience to my art stash. As with many of these online lessons, half the pleasure and learning comes from the student community - the sharing and marvelling how differently we can all interpret instruction and guidance. I remember last time in the pre-course introductions all the chat around how timid we were with our art.... a few weeks later and we could have filled a gallery!

The photograph up top is the result of one of Amelia's lessons (have you guessed what it is yet?). You'll have to sign up and become an experimenter to learn more...

Diving in

Too much going on. Too much on the list. I wanted to paint last night but I was too antsy. I'd been antsy all day, not being able to settle long on any task before flipping to the next one. A mind full of projects, plans and expectations. I sat in front of a blank sheet of paper and wanted the result NOW. There was only one thing for it. Just dive in - it was, after all, going to be a seascape.

I set myself the task of painting without paintbrush. As you can probably tell, this was painted mostly using one finger! I employed an old credit card and bottle top towards the end for the final flourish. Readers of an earlier post this week will know what this illustrates!

It is of course Friday and ta-dah, I have something for Paint Party Friday! It might well look like a child's finger painting - but hey, it's paint on paper and it's Friday! (If Amelia is reading - look! More experimenting!!)

Now here's a slightly older painting which you, (yes, YOU!) can get your hands on. It is currently up for bidding in the Inspiration Avenue Auction for the Angel Faces Charity. Currently it stands at a mere snip of $20. Just look at her, she's imploring you to bid... Who could resist those eyes...?? And, if you don't like this, there's so much more to choose from!

In reply

Readers I am delighted to report that following a deep and restful sleep I am once more myself. Admittedly, come 6.30pm as it is now and a day involving my son having a play date and learning to ride his bike without stabilisers, I am perhaps a little jaded round the edges, but the mood remains buoyant even if the energy doesn't!

I read a delightful blog post this morning that hit my creative soul like a dose of espresso. Amelia from 101 Bird Tales (aka my art teacher from Experimental Art) is writing on the joys of finding your creative outlet. Art is not necessarily about paint she reminds us. I had this self same conversation with my sister at the weekend as we looked back not too fondly at our 'art lessons' at school. Art at school was about paint. It was either watercolour or oil. It was still life, portrait or landscape. It was about passing exams. Creativity and imagination, let alone providing food for the soul apparently had no place. We were only shown how to pass exams, not explore what sparked our creativity, what made us laugh out loud with pleasure at the sheer fun of it or to experiment with what art meant for us. I really hope things are different now...

Now I know that while sometimes, you have to think about your audience - if you were hoping to licence your work for a stationery range perhaps or working on a commission. However, most of the time I personally just let go. This week I had fun with the Three Muses 'Odd Bird' challenge. My imagination was given free reign to rummage around in my subconscious (and my magazine stash) for the very treasures that an odd bird like myself might wish to use with such a prompt.

So, I created this crazy piece for me - a most literal interpretation! I collaged a background, painted over it and rubbed it with a soggy tea bag before leaving it out to dry in the summer sun. I poured over Vogue and snipped and formed the features of my feathered friend. She's quite the fashionista this bird - look at all that bling too. She totters around the savannah in her 4 inch heels and flaps those feathers regally. If she had a nose, she would look down it at her lesser plumed cousins.

Oh yes, and before I forget, Amelia will be running the Experimental Art eCourse again in the Autumn - I can't recommend it enough.

Wordless Wednesday

...Well, almost. I've seen lots of people posting on this theme and when I painted this I thought it said everything it needed to. But you see the problem is... I quite like to 'talk'. Wordless is not something that comes at all easy to me. So, I'll just try to keep it brief. This was painted using cocktail sticks, cotton buds, stick from the garden, a pom pom and tissue paper. It was inspired by experimental art course and a photo I saw on this blog - an aerial armadillo. There, that was fairly wordless was it?

Child's play

We're nearing the end of the experimental art course. It's been such a pleasure just playing - a return to childhood where art could be anything. I think my love of collage came from cutting up Mothercare catalogues and making pictures with a glue paste made from flour and water. Babies in prams, babies in warm clothes, babies in nappies, babies having fun, babies getting messy! Good old Mothercare!

Funny, my son loves a catalogue too - particularly anything involving lego or other toys... And I have become rather attached to the latest Boden catalogue. It's not just the lovely (but sadly over-priced) clothes; it's the pictures themselves, the locations; the style. I want to draw them all, cut them out and make ... well.... collages.

I present above a bit of a return to child's play. Tea stained page in my sketchbook with a simple cut out from the Boden catalogue. I got this far, intending to do more then stopped - cause I rather liked it! Sandals on the beach... Mmmm - don't you just wish your toes were scrunching through sand right now, shoes kicked off and running into the waves.

I wonder what happened to other six shoes from these pairs... I feel a short story coming on - perhaps involving six single lads searching for the owners of the missing sandals, a modern twist on Cinderella. Will the six single ladies ever be reunited with their footwear and will they welcome the addition of a handsome man returning it to them? I think that they'll just slip their shoes back on, laugh and head out along the beach arm in arm singing happily and swigging champagne!

PS: I guess this rather loosely fits with Mixed Media Monday's Child's Play theme too!

Concrete Poetry

My rushed entry for Inspiration Avenue's Architecture challenge.

I didn't really have time this week, but then suddenly a spare few minutes caught up with, boffed me on the head and said "slow down chickie" - relax and make some art. So I did!

Some more collage practice. A holiday home from Uruguay with delicious yellow walls set against the bluest of skies made abstract then given a bit of a colour and texture boost in photoshop to really. Funny how such a confusion of images still says 'South American'. Well, it does to me anyway.

I loved the headline - Concrete Poetry -a verse or two away from some of the monstrosities gracing our cities today. But it's true, there can be so much beauty in the unlikely.

I cut the images out of World of Interiors magazine. Gosh I love that publication. Imagine being a photographer and journalist for them, travelling the world in search of the most magical of abodes. I'm part way compiling a blog post on my dream house. I would be lying if I didn't admit to snippets of ideas making their way from these glossy pages. Country Life also makes its presence felt in my dreams.

An interview with my art teacher

If you're a regular reader here it won't have escaped your attention that I'm a bit of a magnet for online art courses and collaborations. Earlier in the year I came across artist Amelia Critchlow's blog and was drawn in by her storytelling. When she wrote that she was running her own experimental art course... well.... I just couldn't resist!

Am I having fun?

Am I getting messy, sticky and leaving a trail of destruction in my wake?

Am I learning, experimenting and developing as an artist?

Well, I have no hesitation in answering yes to the above. Amelia was kind enough to agree to an interview, so please join me in giving her a round of applause to artist extraordinaire - Amelia Critchlow - cue theme music...

Amelia Critchlow

I'm kind of imagining myself as a female Jonathan Ross here (complete with messy hair and loud suit). For those living away from these shores, Wossy (as he is affectionately known), is a chat show host.

Let's kick off...

Have you run online courses before?
Courses I’ve run previously have all been in museum, gallery, university, or community based settings, so this is the first time I have taken my art teaching on-line. It’s all very exciting because I can put forth exactly what I choose and love without having to tick any boxes!

by Slevek, student on Experimental art e-course

What was the inspiration behind this course?
My main inspiration stems from teaching family groups where parents want bring their kids and I noticed it’s often the parents that want to do art, but the most legitimate way is through their children as people often lack confidence or time to pursue their own interests. Also, the idea of it being on-line means that it can be accessed any time and there is no need to turn up at a set time and place each week, which suits people working and those that may need childcare to go to a college class – no childcare needed, just wait until the kids are in bed!

by Amelia Critchlow

This course also allows people to look at art in new ways, (experimental ways) as lots of people will not do art if they think they have to get it ‘correct’ – look at kids, they don’t worry about this, they just get down and get messy and play – I think adults should do this too. Who isn’t happiest when absorbed in something creative that one loves doing?

This course is a bit like a mini foundation too whereby you have a chance to try lots of different things and decide what you might like to pursue further. I am looking to run a second course when I know what people would like the most having done the first course . . . . .

by WrightStuff, student on Experimental Art e-course

What’s your personal art history?
I was fortunate enough to be brought up in a really ‘arty’ family. My father is a trained artist and now lectures, writes and teaches art, and my mother was a trained dressmaker and now patchwork and quilter. I saw nothing but creativity when growing up and was always encouraged to make, make, make. As a result I took art at GCSE and A level and although my first degree was meant to be in English and Art, it ended up being mainly academic. So when my eldest went to school I returned to Morley College in London to do a Foundation degree in Art and went on to Wimbledon School of Art to do a pure Fine Art Degree – it was both the hardest and the best thing I did! Throughout my life I have always attended evening and other art classes too. I adore learning with a passion and have had some amazing teachers. I am sharing a lot of what I have learnt on the experimental art e-course.

By Amelia Critchlow

What exhibitions or works by other artists have blown you away recently?
I particularly enjoy the work of Wangechi Mutu whose painterly collages are powerful, evocative and revealing depictions of womanhood and in particular the experiences of women of colour. I also happened to go and see Annette Messagers recent exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London and her obsessive collection of things, the stuffed animals, the hand-stitching on fabric was amazing. There was one room filled with nothing but huge sheets of red satin that spilled out of a small gap in the wall and then covered the entire floor, there was a machine billowing out air that made it ripple and move and light up and shift over hidden objects. It was so evocative and surreal, and one day I long to do a huge installation art piece too. I enjoy contemporary art for the way it pushes boundaries and makes us question ourselves and the world around us.
I also went to the Whitechapel Art Gallery not so long ago to see Sophie Calle, another female artist who pushes herself out as far as possible and involves others in her artistic interactions. I won’t say too much here, but do go and look these artists up. As you can tell I like female artists that draw on both their own personal experiences, but also question the world around them too.

What were you hoping participants would take away from this course?
My biggest hope for this course is that it would entice those who love being creative or who are really keen to be artistic in some way but lack confidence or don’t know where to begin. It gives me so much pleasure to see adults find something unique and special for them in amongst the stresses and strains of contending with life! I know what doing art has meant to me it’s been a life saver, particular over the last few years when I have had to deal with a horrible split from my ex partner and finding out my youngest has asperger syndrome, and dealing with all this entails. Art is therapy and pleasure and a means of expression.

I also hoped that people may get from the course that art is not just about painting or drawing something technically correct. The world is full of potential art materials and ways of being artistically expressive and it’s a fun journey to embark on. It’s also designed for those that are practicing artists who may want to try something new and get some fresh inspiration.

This course is all about giving ourselves permission to PLAY!

by KayaKutie, student on Experimental art e-course

How has it met or exceeded your expectations?
I am loving every moment of it, seeing what wonderful creations people are coming up with. What will appear next on the course group pool. Hearing people’s positive feedback and how they are getting so much from it. This means so much to me. I am still learning as I run it so I will have to give full feedback at the end of this first course!

How have your students inspired you?
My students have inspired me because they have risen to the challenge of being experimental and have come up with some of their own great ideas of materials to use in response to the assignments I have put out there, and people have made some of the most inspiring and interesting creations, and often I find myself wanting to go off and do the same thing too!

What are your plans for future courses?
My plans for a future course would be to go in to one of the weeks in more depth. At the end of this course I am keen to hear what people particularly enjoyed on the course, and ask them if they could do a second course what would it be in, ie. what would the like to re-visit in more depth. It’s much better that I give people what there is a need or asking for! I’m inclined to think it may be something along the lines of a mixed media and collage course. I am really interested in interesting methods of application and image transferral. I enjoy playing with surfaces and getting surprise effects and there are some very interesting ways of getting marks, surface effects and also applying one surface to another . . . .ooooh, I can feel the excitement just thinking about it!

Art makes the world go round!

The next course begins on 14th June. You can sign up here.


By Barbara Rae, Student on Experimental art e-course

More tea Vicar?

I've been a-sketching, a-scribbling and a-swirling this weekend - but no a-scrubbing. I removed myself from the temptations of hoovering, ironing and other domestic duties by taking myself and a large quantity of my art studio to my boyfriend's house. With my son away, the artist did play. In fact, I found myself rather addicted. Play was the operative word. I didn't really create anything special. I just experimented and filled my sketchbook with colour. Colour is certainly something I have become much more brave about in the last year and layering. That's what gets me interested in art these days - peering into the depths of a picture and seeing what's hiding under all those layers and then creating that same sense of mystery with my own paintings. This weekend has been about layers of pencil, layers of colour and paper. Finding my depth.

The more observant among you readers will be recalling that I am taking an experimental art e-course. Clearly my lessons are translating to the page and my head is chock-a-block full of ideas from this play for more serious pieces - if only I could stop playing long enough to give them a go!------------------------------------------------- (cat just stepped on keyboard - thought I'd leave it in for amusement).

In fact, I can't really stop. You see I have this idea for a flower picture and I want to do something with maps... Thought I'd share these with the Sunday Sketches crew.