Hair-raising

Hair-raising

I'm not too sure where I'm going with either of these pieces, they are just finding their own way.

They both began with pieces torn from magazines.

The hair-raising lady had her missing body parts drawn back in with a liberal dose of colour and imagination. She feels almost finished, though part of my sees a pencil sketch of something appearing through the blue background... What it might be is still floating around my right brain somewhere...

The second piece is sharing a story of a tender heart exposed, laid bare. I should point out that the 'Chinese' calligraphy is purely a product of my imagination - should it actually spell anything I would love to know! Imagine... my subconscious may be able to communicate in other languages... what a marvel that would be!

I may continue with these today or just leave until their stories more fully reveal themselves to me.

Sharing today with Paint Party Friday.

An open heart

Fortune favours

Gypsy Rose sees everything in the leaves. She listens to the changes of the seasons and hears the whispers of secrets that travel on moonbeams.

In the light of a dancing fire she'll predict your future, but are you sure you want to hear?

Gypsy Rose is herself a reincarnation. Shadows of her former self remain as layers beneath her piercing gaze.

Be wary of falling under her spell!

Gypsy Rose will be at Paint Party Friday in a few hours. She sits in her tent waiting to share her stories. It's up to you if you believe...

Rose is a mixed media painting and collage. She is indeed a lady of layers with the ghost of an older painting underneath too. She has much to tell - providing you grace her palm with silver first.

Would you like Gypsy Rose to share her stories with you?

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."

Carl Sagan

She had many faces

Models do have many faces don't they, though I suspect they probably suffer from the stereotyping brush as much as the air one.

Playing with a different type of media this week. I haven't collaged for a while. This is my output for one of my course lessons that we've been working on this week. (Don't worry, not all the lessons involve dismembered body parts... though we will be taking ourselves off-kilter quite a bit.

I hope it's as much fun taking the course as it is writing it. It feels such a pleasure to be sharing within our group

I've just noticed that the neon pink paint I used as eyeshadow and blush hasn't been picked up by the scanner! Clearly I'm just not used to the bright lights of the catwalk and needed to adjust accordingly. I'm a bit too tired to try again - you'll just have to use your imagination. It's bright and it's pink - honest!

How many eyes can you count in the picture?

Sharing with the gang at Paint Party Friday.

Primavera

I have to say I am absolutely chuffed at how this came out and, as is typical with my creations, it wasn't quite what I intended at the start - which is kind of me all round really!

This is actually two pieces layered digitally on top of each other.

You might need to enlarge her to see all the details. Background is made from collaged papers layered with acrylics, watercolours, alcohol ink and glimmer mist.

Girl is a mixed media piece on old book page.

I was truly inspired by Priti Lisa's post on Inspiration Avenue this week. She invited us to investigate:

The allegory of Spring

Something with a hidden meaning

Something from your soul

When I draw these girls they do truly come from the soul. There's a magic in creation. Willow is a daughter of the Spring, born under a sap moon. She brings light and life and is bursting with energy, but also spends time in quiet focus nurturing the seeds within her.

Here's the background on its own.

Afraid

She was afraid of letting herself go...

He was afraid she'd got entirely the wrong end of the stick when he'd given her that rose... and why was she looking at diamonds in jewellery shop windows?

He was afraid... very afraid...

A bit of fun for Inspiration Avenue's Fear challenge. I was playing with collage after seeing what Sharon Tomlinson had been up to on Katie Kendrik's course. It was supposed to be a piece of wild passion and romance, but the Muse was feeling cynical and down to earth. She decided a fear of commitment might be more grounding (and it did rather fit the theme - subliminal influencing going on there I suspect!).

It's painted over collage followed by more digital layering.

I was never really afraid of commitment when I was younger. This may have been a personality defect on my part as I ended up getting divorced. However, seeing as I got my son from this error of judgement it's not a decision I would ever have changed!

Viva Espana

Well, I've been back a week already and I'm sure you're all sick of the sight of all the Madrid images I've skillfully manipulated and tweaked.... images that capture the heat and magic of the Spanish capital and fill your senses with flavour and scent.

What? You've missed them? Surely not... Has Blogger been playing up again?

OK, I confess, I have been a bit tardy. What can I say? It's not laziness I can assure. I'm just swamped with the life of the entrepreneur, and believe me that is an exciting, if hectic place to be. I seem to have come through something of an epiphany in the past few months. I have so much more belief in myself, determination and ambition. I'm growing more than I did in teenage growth spurt (I always was a bit of a late developer!).

I have much more to say on the subject, but that is for another post... I have another chapter of a business book I need to go and read right now!

But, before I shoot off, I must share that this week I am hosting the Inspiration Avenue Challenge. Naturally, my thoughts turned to Spain for our theme, seeing as I still felt that country's rays on my skin and tasted the Sangria. Unfortunately, with time not being on my side, all I managed was a background! It was supposed to have a painting of my own of a flamenco dancer, but I had to borrow a couple and have a play in PhotoShop instead. One is a painting by the talented Mai Griffin and the other a photograph from unknown source. Good old PhotoShop eh?

Below is my background - if you enlarge and save for the high res version, you are welcome to have a play and share what you come up with - just come back here and pop in a link to your creation!

Next week I might just get around to sharing some photos! Oh and did I mention that I bumped into some pop stars while I was out there.... Every teenage girl's dream to turn a corner and find yourself surrounded by The Wanted. If only it had been Take That.... ahh.....

Mellow Yellow

Soft, silken Primrose, fading timelessly

John Milton

She is Primrose of the Fae, born in the Spring, creature of the soft woodland dwelling in among the mossy roots. We haven't captured her playful spirit here, having disturbed her sleep (so she's a bit cross).

Summer of Colour finds us in yellow this week.

I painted Primrose over a collage that looked like this....

Art recyling...

She had a head for fashion

I'm not entirely certain what this creation is any more! It began life as a designer hat for the Three Muses Challenge. I was pondering what was in vogue at present and so grabbed a copy of that illustrious publication, borrowed Philip Treacy's Muse and shaped and formed a living breathing monster of head gear which sat atop this poor lady's head. Philip's Muse sure is a strange lass, make no mistake. Perhaps he keeps her under a tighter reign than I managed, because after the hat was finished then she really went to town with my paints and inks. I'm not entirely sure what to make of  her. Are you? (You may need to enlarge to see the bizarre details of the millinery).

I won a hat design competition once. I bet you're impressed now! However, perhaps I should explain before you go thinking I'm some sort of fashion genius... It was a team building exercise involving large quantities of chocolate, cardboard, tissue paper and glue. In a task reminiscent of The Apprentice meets Blue Peter we were required to design a new concept in chocolate complete with packaging.

I came up with the idea of hats in a hat and so six pairs of sticky fingers got to work moulding and shaping until we had an Ascot-style hat with reams of tissue and feathers sat atop a box of choccies squished into the shapes of jockey caps, bowlers, baseball caps and even a fez! There was no one fired in my team I can tell you. In fact, we left weighed down with the spoils of the competition - chocolate naturally!

Got to dash, going out to a comedy evening.

The piece is made of collaged magazine snippets over and under acrylics and inks.

Charity Auction for Breast Cancer Care

The creative theme at Inspiration Avenue this week is Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness month.

I've posted my piece for auction on the eBay charity auction pages. If you'd like to own an original Lisa Wright, you can bid for it here!

In a departure from my seeming obsession for painting faces, I've returned to an old love - a spot of collage - also an attempt to shrink the magazine tower that is building down the side of the sofa.

This is a little canvas block painted pink acrylics and smudged with inks, collaged with pinks from magazines, textured with molding paste, rubbed with more inks, dabbed with paint and highlighted with inktense pencil.

I love the technique. I feel I might be using this again!

Measures 12cm x 18cm x 1cm

Auction ends: Wednesday 20 October 22.15 BST

Starting bid: £5

All proceeds go to Breast Cancer Care.

Please spread the word to anyone you think might be interested.

Detail

Phoenix

She's rising from the ashes of her old life, casting off the shackles. She's ready to take on the world.

Phoenix represents a part of me. I'm reaching back into missed opportunities from my youth and taking a new artistic direction. It's time to take more risks, to tread where the timid fear and grab more of life. It's time to believe in what I can achieve (note, I actually wrote 'might' there first then resolutely deleted such a negative word). When I'm painting I feel so euphoric - an emotional rising!

This piece really gives definition to the term mixed media! She began as a sketch on cartridge paper - just a face. She took form with prisma colours then was cut out and glued onto some prepared tougher acrylic paper. In the meantime, I made my collage texture sheet brayering colour onto some watercolour paper then cutting up the result into 'feathers' which formed her headdress and gown. Black pastel gave some depth, then I glazed and painted her face, added some inktense, more prisma colours and just kept playing!

She is for Mixed Media Monday - 'warm it up'. This is the textured sheet I made to cut up for feathers.

It is a truth universally acknowledged...

If those words set you swooning over the mere thought of Mr Darcy emerging from a lake dripping with sexual tension then read on my friend, for this shall be a tribute to one of my all time favourite reads...

I first read Pride & Prejudice when I was 12 and didn't really get it. Well, let's face it, what experience did I have of such adult emotions? A few years later and a different English Literature teacher and we read it again. Ah, this time I was starting to get it and, you know what, it was actually quite funny too.

Then, A levels came along and guess what - yes, there it was on the syllabus again. Now, we could actually have gone a different route but this was our teacher's favourite book ever and he was totally in love with Elizabeth Bennett, so was he seriously going to forgo the opportunity to swoon over her bosom so his pupils could read something different? Of course not. This time however, something special happened. I too became hooked. I was not in love with Elizabeth Bennett, but I loved her feisty nature, I despaired at her prejudice and poor decision-making and how I yearned alongside her for Mr Darcy.

Well, readers the sun has set a few more times since then and my copy is well thumbed - it gets an airing every year or so and sometimes I just dip a toe in. The BBC adaptation that turned Colin Firth from a 'he looks vaguely familiar' actor into an overnight sex symbol was truly inspired. If I myself had been given the job of casting those roles I doubt I could have bettered the Beeb decision making. I still have a battered video recording. The tape around about the lake scene seems to have got a little stretched over the years - can't think why?

Then, more treats with a cinematic version. I was ready to be a little disappointed here. How, I thought could then condense all that characterisation and turns of plot into 2 hours. Well, they couldn't really. And Keira Knightley playing Elizabeth. Now, while I have nothing against the girl, (I mean this is the second time this week I've given one of her films a plug), she really wasn't suitable casting. Too darn pretty - that's why! Elizabeth, while not plain, was never a striking beauty. Her attractiveness lay within her wit and charm - her feistiness. Saying that though I enjoyed the film, even if the final scene of Elizabeth and Darcy running around in the morning mist was highly dubious!

This piece, a mixed media collage, was created for the Inspiration Avenue challenge 'Books'. I thought I would attempt to bring these two well loved characters to life - lifting them, as Jane Austen manages so admirably, from the pages and into the realms of your imagination. First attempt at drawing a man too - how do you think I did?

Background is ripped old book (not Pride & Prejudice for that would indeed be sacrilege), acrylics, Prismacolour pencils and Derwent Inktense pencils.

Paisley ponderings

Get ready for a rambling post. My excuse is that I am ill. I have the rather thrillingly-named Labyrinthitis. You might be forgiven for thinking that I am wandering in a maze of confusion or perhaps under the delusion that I am in a fantasy-film pursued by a Bowie baddie. In fact, it is just an inner ear infection that manifests itself in doses of dizzy and whorls of woozy.

And now the reason for the title. Paisley being the theme for the creative challenge at Inspiration Avenue this week, and Paisley being in the picture above. Since I read the prompt earlier this week I seem to be spotting paisley's swirls in places I had never noticed. For one who is supposed to be creative and observant, I only just realised that the pattern appears on one of my favourite summer skirts (a really long hippy affair). It also popped up on the packet of last night's dinner accompaniment.

I was inspired this week by the work of artist Nikki Farquharson (examples below):

Cool eh? I discovered I didn't quite have the patience for this level of detail and wasn't entirely happy with my final output, but I'll try some more I think. My original looked like this, then I played in photoshop for the final version up top when I decided that perhaps the tissue paper ruffle to the skirt didn't have the quite the desired effect. Think I'll borrow my son's felt tip pens , rustle up a dose of patience and have another go...

Eye love a good story...

My finished piece for the Three Muses 'eye' challenge. You can see the work in progress and explanation in my previous post, but in short I cut a strip out of a magazine picture across the eyes, then drew them back in. This was a fun technique to try and I threw in a pile of other media as well as the collage and coloured pencils. A bit of water soluble oil pastel here, a touch of acrylic there. Cutting out a feature then drawing it back in opens up a whole world of opportunity. I kept her eyes fairly true to the original, but next time I might go for something much more kooky!

And as for what this piece is telling you. Well, I invite you to speculate dear readers. Who is the man on the beach and why has the woman lying next to him been ripped out of the picture. What relationship do they have to our moody beauty? Is she perhaps the abandoned wife, left with nothing but a diamond necklace? Or maybe she came across this photo in her late mother's possessions and finally begins to piece together the mystery of who her father was... It all waits to be told...

Or is the picture just a fragment passing through. Does the real story here hinge on the necklace? I'm thinking a great deal about diamonds this week as I read 'The Necklace' for the Wish Studio book group. More on this here, where another story begins...

Melange

What a perfect art challenge for when I'm insanely busy yet still desperate to create!

Melange: noun, assortment, conglomeration, gallimaufy , hodgepodge, jumble, medley, miscellany, mishmash, mixed bag, mixture, olio, pasticcio, pastiche, patchwork, potpourri, salmagundi, variety.

The theme at Inspiration Avenue this week.

This took me 10 minutes including the rummaging around in my stash for collage materials. Never throw any scrap away I say! All sits on a canvas board, various papers and fibres sculpted with a bit of gesso. I love creating :)

The little gecko is scampering through the litter and glitter - see his sparkling scales catch the sunlight!

Far, Far Away

When I set the creative challenge at Inspiration Avenue this week, I had been completely inspired by Heston Blumenthal's fairy tale feast where he created life-sized gingerbread houses and magic pumpkins and had dragons carry trays of delicacies to his diners. Well, I think that's what happened, or maybe my imagination is getting a little too carried away!

Suffice it to say that a Fairy Tale theme seemed perfect! As usual when I set the challenge I always start off the week with great plans (normally involving hours of work) and end up rushing at the last moment. This time was no disappointment. I mean if you're talking fairy tales then you must go over the top - what would have happened to Rapunzel if she couldn't be bothered growing her hair and stuck with a bob? And just suppose if Cinderella wasn't really that bothered about going to the ball and just wanted to sit at home with her feet up instead? No, this challenge called for some effort...

And so I present my homage to Princesses, dragons and magical castles in lands far, far away.

Mixed media on canvas - collaged background papers and then I painted the Princess and the dragon on top. Acrylics, coloured pencil, tissue, wrapping paper, ribbons, fibres and the magical stone of Amror...

Available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

More than one story

It is pulling at me again - that story - you know, the one that's in me... waiting to come out. I keep finding little life indicators prodding and reminding me. It's time to start...

Once upon a time, I found a new arty challenge site but kept missing the deadlines for entry. Until now...

Mind Wide Open is one of those 'do something with this picture' challenges and as I gazed at the lady in question my imagination began to go on a ramble. As every artist creates their piece, each will form their own story around Emily (for I do believe that must be her name). Some will have her dreaming romantic notions of dashing Dukes proposing on horseback. Others may find her wrapped in an apron, arms folded in a Liverpool back street waiting for her drunken husband to return from the dockside pubs (my Mum loves a pinny-saga!). Maybe she herself is a frustrated artist; bound by society's conventions and forced into a role her soul was never made for?

And so, my piece took shape with the fragments of the stories as background and two of the faces of Emily. As I played with the paper of her dress, I saw butterfly wings in the fabric so was drawn to add some more of the creatures - helping her stories take flight.

Emily's story in pictures evolved before me as the whispered words of her past mixed with the hues of her moods and seasons. She was a delightful companion. Can't wait to 'read' her other histories.

I feel pretty...

... said Mona as she surveyed her new look in the mirror. It was about time she had injected a bit of colour into her life, and the new eyes her plastic surgeon had suggested were a welcome relief from looking so moody for the past 500 years or so. Sometimes it's a tough life being an icon of art history.

Mona and I have been having fun together all weekend. She's more of my art experimentation from my new course which I have to confess I am enjoying immensely. I played with paper and glue, threw in a bit of doodling and collaged to my heart's content.

She's also the perfect entry to Mixed Media Monday's 'I feel pretty' theme. Don't you agree it was time that Mona had a makeover?

Time for tea

Pull up a chair and join me for a brew. I'm having Earl Grey. It's the last tea bag in the box but I'm sure we can squeeze two cups out. I've some birthday cake left too - of the chocolate fudge variety - which is terribly naughty but hey, we're not 40 every day.

I decided I would spend a portion of my birthday yesterday 'doing some art'. My Muse however, wanted to lie around in bed and be a prima donna, so my wonderful plans for artistic output instead turned into a bit of a mess. The picture you see above is a digital amalgam of two journal pages on the subject of Afternoon Tea. I layered up the best bits to make a book mark to salvage something from my efforts.

Afternoon Tea.... what a luxury. I've partaken of the indolence at both the Ritz and The Savoy in London. Tiny crustless sandwiches, scones with lashings of cream and jam and the daintiest dolly cakes you can ever imagine. Leaf tea served in dainty flowered china. Quiet whisperings of old ladies that look like Miss Marple in twin-sets. It's all deceptively filling too. I don't think I needed to eat for around 12 hours afterwards.

A tradition few have time for these hectics days but one that feels quintessentially English.

My entry for The Three Muses' teatime challenge. Collaged bits and bobs (that were real and then became digital), acrylics, neocolour crayons (birthday pressie!), tea and coffee stains (for real authenticity(, punchinella, sparkles. No cake crumbs though - now that would be a terrible waste... You need to click and enlarge to see the detail.

A-tissue

Do mermaids ever catch colds I wonder? What do they blow their nose on?

I've been meaning to hook up on this great challenge site for ages and finally am participating in Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team. This month we're 'grabbing a tissue'.

I love using tissue paper in my mixed media work - in fact, it was one of the first additional media I experimented with when I began this exciting artistic foray. For this piece I had in mind to conjure an angel. I have some lovely tissue paper covered with cupids and some sparkly globes as well as some thicker golden samples. I gave her strong wings and soft hair but somehow the picture just wasn't working. The wings did not look like they would ever unfurl, much less fly. It's funny because I was working on this Monday night, just as I had written my post about being 'prepared to change our paintings', where I was talking about life as well as art. So, undaunted I quite literally ripped the wings off* and angelic creature of the stars became siren of the sea instead. I like this. There's so much texture and layered colour from the tissue - in fact, I can't actually close my journal now owing to the layers of tissue and the addition of some real shells. Well, a mermaid must have adornment mustn't she?

I'm still not happy with my noses. I want them to look all cutesy but instead she looks like she's been slapped around the face with a shark's tail. I think I may just practice nose after nose in my journal until I form one I'm happy with. I guess I would never make a terribly good plastic surgeon.

Mixed media journal page (well, sketchbook really since I rarely write in it!). Coloured pencil, acrylics, tissue papers, oil pastel, clear gesso, shells.

* No angels or mermaids were harmed in the creation of this painting.

Walk on the wild side

Don't you think there's something very exotic and interesting about foreign newspapers? I mean my local rag is pretty dull to me; but there's a real intrigue about a copy of the Ventura County Star I have in front of me. I've also got the Los Angeles Times. How glamorous does that sound? And check out these homes for sale in The Northland Age Property Express - at the moment I'm favouring a beachside property in Whatuwhiwhi with enticing views of Perehipe Bay...

Well they say one girl's rubbish is another's treasure and the packaging that came wrapped around some treats from California and New Zealand recently has had me intrigued enough to hang onto it - I am so rubbish at throwing anything away!

Some of the adverts make absolutely no sense. What on earth is this one selling? I figured it was some kind of mobile home until it mentioned the cameras and a basement...

So, I was planning a rambling post of this variety when serendipity turned up on my doorstep with an art challenge to go with it. The Three Muses are asking for newspapers to be used in our creations this week so I found an alternative use for all these pages other than planning my emigration to Whatuwhiwhi.

I was also missing getting sticky with collage. I present my Hollywood homage. This is Holly, she's just arrived in the City of Angels after hitchhiking from Florida F.L.A. She's scouring the papers for a place to live while she waits for her big break. She hadn't previously considered dental implants and wonders if they'll hurt. Maybe she should just buy a doggie costume...

There are many layers to this piece - just like Holly's story... Mixed media collage: Canvas block; newspapers from around the globe; a picture of Holly from a magazine; pink and aqua acrylics; some paper flowers; some sparkles; tissue paper; a feather I found in the street yesterday (I didn't realise we had pink birds in England); a little shining star (in the corner of her eye). The LA Times header was placed using a cool technique. I stuck some cellotape over the newspaper. Soaked it in water and rubbed off the backing. Voila, a see through transfer that still retained enough stickiness to glue right on!

I'm also rather obsessed with these colours at the moment - this will go rather nicely in my pink and aqua bathroom me thinks...

Said, Hey babe,

Take a walk on the wild side

I said, Hey honey,

Take a walk on the wild side

And the coloured girls say,

Doo do doo do doo do do doo