Pretty dancing Columbine

It's funny how the names for these girls just pop into my head. It's almost like they whisper them to me.

The title for this post is a line from a poem I can still remember learning when I was a little girl. By Cicely Mary Barker it tells the story of the flower fairy who loved to dance in her pretty little dress.
I learnt so many of those poems off by heart!

Well, anyway, here is my entry for the second week of Summer of Colour - pinks and orange. This particular Columbine has arrived at the ball with bouquet of flowers for her beau. He will probably bring her beer - they are a thoroughly modern couple!

In the pink

I've been planning a post for weeks to showcase the incredible handmade items I've bought, been gifted and won from the artistic talents in blogland. However, given that it's going to involve a lot of scanning and photography, I keep putting it off.

So, in the spirit of my new 'more efficient and organised' Lisa, I am breaking down the big project into smaller, more manageable tasks, and will throw a mention in here and there as we go along... Keep reading for the first...

I'm  posting today for The Summer of Colour - Pink. It seems I am keeping to my girl theme for this series. They just keep asking to be painted, so who am I to argue?

This one is on wood. Layers of collaged pink papers make up the background. She's painted in acrylics with a topping of fibres, an admission ticket, some mod-roc and a few other things I found skulking around in the bottom of my art box. Whole thing then softened with a coating of beeswax.

The fibres came to my possession on Saturday morning, wrapping a key chain I'd purchased from Cameron of Paint Myself Pretty. A veritable package of delights awaited me on the doormat yesterday. Tags, postcards, stickers... I was bouncing around the kitchen with joy. So much sharing and care is taken to support each other in this community. I just wanted to say thank you to Cameron and to you all.

Look - it's pink!

Without all this support, comments and messages, to say nothing of the inspiration from challenges, I would never have had the confidence to keep growing with my art. This community we have here is truly a wonderful thing.

At the risk of getting all mushy, it's time to move on. Also wanted to share with you a pink photograph. I took it in London earlier this year when I met up with Amelia and some lovely ladies from the Experimental Art Course - which coincidentally starts again today - I'm a returning student :)

Of course, the sky wasn't actually shocking pink, because frankly that would be a bit disturbing - PhotoShop helped there. This piece is a particular favourite of mine. I love the composition and the contrast of colour. If you'd like to see more of my photos from this particular shoot, you can find them on Flickr.

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

In the pink

I don't know why this didn't occur to me before... Since my ex-husband I separated and he moved out, I never really thought much about decoration. In fact, the whole idea just seemed like too much effort - what with bringing up a small boy and working and everything else.

Now, following my kitchen painting exercise I appear to have bitten the bug. Whilst I admit that I didn't actually have to do much actual labouring in my kitchen owing to the fact that the insurance company paid for it (I had a rather unfortunate water leak in my airing cupboard which came through the kitchen ceiling - messy!), I am nonetheless on a roll.

However, I'm also sensible (well, sometimes). I'm starting slowly with the smallest room. With only 1.5 walls not tiled, this is not too onerous. In fact, most decorating can be done by purchases from lovely shops like John Lewis and HomeSense (oh joy!).

It all began when I was wandering around BHS looking for inspiration for boyfriend's birthday. Well, truthfully, I was walking past en route to a 'man' shop and got distracted by the thought of pretty things for my kitchen in their homeware department. I spotted such a lovely little towel ... for my bathroom.

What gorgeous colours. I could go all aqua...

No! Suddenly an idea sprang to mind that put a large smile upon my face. Never mind the aqua - let's be a little more daring... let's go PINK! With no grown man in permanent residence I can be as girlie as I like...

Well, dear readers, let's just say that as you approach my bathroom now you may be forgiven for thinking that some strange alien technology is beating in there as it pulsates a pink glow from the neon shower curtain and larger than life bathmat. And this is before I paint me some artwork...

I have decided that the walls will be aqua though. I think there's only so much pink that even I can handle.

PS - six year old son not that impressed... "but pink's a girls' colour Mummy...." Boyfriend has yet to see - I fear this post may put him off visiting!