I started a countdown clock 180 days ago, and today it is 0 days to go - today is Day 0 - but Day 1 of a great week of fun ahead. My house is an intersting mix of some lovely places & some messy spaces, still not sorted, but I am thankful that all of my guests are mums - mums are just sensible people - they are fabulous.......anyways - so there may not be much posting this week, I am not sure how it will all pan out, but here's a little glimpse of our new fabulous room!
This scan doesn't show this new canvas up too well, because the background is deep green & forest floor colours. It is No. 3 of my 5 'Nesting Instincts' canvases, & will sit on the top row either in the centre or on the RHS edge, depends how the next one looks. I have used the same method again, in an attempt to have some symmetry between the peices & although each piece is individual, that they all look like a group together. The vintage ticket is from an old side show operator in Melbourne & the lettering is from a local supplier. I have taken the liberty of using MoonGlow on the eggs to give a speckled look to them.
Only 3 sleeps to go til my special art visitors arrive AND I have had my first glimpse of colour on the theatre room walls - (where they are sleeping) IT'S FABULOUS! I LOVE IT - it's dark & dramatic & DH is quite unsure at this point, but for me it was LOVE at first sight - LOVE when they opened the can after mixing it - LOVE when I carried it in - LOVE now that the first coat is up! YUM! (I am sure there are people in the world who don't understand that expression being applied to paint or a colour - but I do it all the time!)
This is image no 2 of 5 canvases, which will, as a montage be called Nesting Instincts. This peice individually is called Sparrow's Nest (not rocket science!) The canvas is 8in x 10in....it is created with an acrylic painted base, with oil crayons & embossing powder over the top. The text is from an old french book that describes the anatomy of birds & some bible verses that are important to me right now. I am starting to resign myself to a last minute flurry as my house is still in chaos despite all of my preparation work - men can do that to a girl! - oh well - I married a tradie - what can I say????? With only 4 sleeps to go, it's still a little way of taking shape BUT tonight we will have colour on the wall! I have chosen bushfire tones - blackened flame & charcoal suede. YUM - it's edible!
This little birdy, sitting on it's nest, is watching, waiting, anticipating.......it's about where I am right now......my DH has decided to take on major plastering just before I recieve a houseful of guests - bless him!!! (I have other things to say - but I'll leave it at that!) It seems sureal that the 18 months since we organised this has gone by. I am SO excitedly looking forward to this - I just can't wait - only 6 more sleeps and counting (almost the hours now!) My usually pretty organised studio is full of all kinds of 'space invaders' & access to work space & supplies is somewhat limited. I was SO over plaster dust that I squished through & got out my drawer of oil pastels & a canvas........here is the result....I have decided to make a bit of a montage out of it & include some others, so I will post those as they come along.....IKKKKKKKKK........my keyboard is chalky - not good for it I'm sure.
Hi people in blog land - it's going to be a slim week, blogwise - my house is in chaos as DH's 'plastering adventures' have become 'space invaders' taking over the whole house! I am sure my guests won't mind if everything they sit on, touch, look at is covered in plaster dust!!! NOT!!! (and EVEN IF they were so polite! I can't stand it!) We are down to the wire now with only 10 days to go til the Artistic Journey Art Retreat.....and the butterflies are building......WOW......a house full of artists (I have 4 house guests staying) ONE WHOLE DAY with the fabulous MISTY MAWN and TWO whole days with the amazing NINA BAGLEY............in the middle of all of that, I am hosting a fabulous ART pARTy with a collection of artists going to the ART RETREAT. I have been packing up lovely kits for the artists coming to my ART pARTy with all sorts of treats & trinkets that I have collected for them...........I am just not getting to too much art for myself just now........ here's a little 'birdy' pic from our renovating......I am making birdy things, but I wasn't thinking of them in terms of the mess they actually make, I just love their chirping & chortling noises......DH 
was less than impressed.
BY THE WAY - anyone living in the USA should be aware of a new peice of legislation currently under consideration that is known as 'the Orphan Legislation'. If it is passed, it is something that would have a big impact on you as an artist......read the post by my art friend Kim Veldt
As I begin to write this post, I am thinking how this will sound as an archive, each month as I post my photos from 365 project I am saying the same thing! WHERE DID THIS MONTH GO?????? Another month of my life just passed........this month, I haven't missed a day's photograph for the first time. I must say it has caused more than a little anxt with DH & my family, but so what.........the pictures will still be here when I am not & they will tell tales of me! Being a visual person, I find having photographs from each day a clear reminder of some of that day and working out what my 'image of the day' will be has made me much more aware of my surroundings........I look in more detail..........I observe more thoroughly.......less satisfied with a casual glance........My grandbabies are literally growing up before my eyes........our little Princess is now speaking in 3 and 4 word sentances........& our little man is running & hammering & helping with everything......he loves to be outside & his MOST fav. person in the world is his DAD! (our son)...........This month there are alot of studio & garden shots. This is for two reasons, firstly my mobility has been limited by the injury to my knee, but secondly, I have been preparing for our Art Retreat with Misty Mawn & Nina Bagley. I am having 4 VERY special new art friends staying with me & I have been making lots of preparations for that. It is VERY thrilling, 18 months in the planning & finally we are down to the wire! You would think I would be cleaning my house - but NO - DH has decided to do some plastering, so everything is in chaos & covered in a layer of plaster dust - YUK - I am locking myself in my studio with my ipod tonight & hope that the housework fairies come over night to dust everything! LOL!! What do you think of my chances????? Any volunteers?????
It has been SOOOO cold here in Melbourne over the past couple of days, I just had to make some of my Winter Warmer Soup..... it's the first time this year.... reminding me that the cooler season is on our doorstep.... I LOVE the change of seasons.... each of them holds special things... I love the colours of autumn (fall) we are experiencing at the moment as trees prepare to sleep....... I love the comfort food of winter & the smell of slow cooking & the feel of a soft woollen jumper and cozying up to the crackling of an open fire.....slowly the days lengthen and you see hints of new life & buds start to appear & little nodes from early bulbs push their way into the light or Spring & very soon we are surrounded by a riot of colour & glorious vistas wherever you look........before you know it Christmas is upon us & it is summer...... long, long, hot, hot days......days that feel like they will never end, particularly when there are two or 
three at 40+ degrees C (105+F) days in a row......we swim, we barbeque, we wear light clothing & enjoy the light & the sun & the prosperity of soul it brings.......and the seasons turn again as the days shorten & the cycle of seasons begins again..... I learn to be content & have peace from observing the seasons, knowing that we all endure both summer's & winter's in our lives......and are evermore richer for them both.
If you would like the recipe for my soup..........see the continuation below.....this is my own recipe, not from a book, so it is only for your personal use, not for republishing or reuse in any form.
We have taken an unexpected trip interstate to our nation's capital city - Canberra - over the last few days to meet with a client - hence not much art happening. It's a while since I have been there & I had forgotten just how lovely it is. Canberra was designed by a Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin & his wife Marion Mahony Griffin is a beautiful city that has wide roads & a combination of native & European trees. Marion was the first registered female architect in the world. They were both from the 'Praire School' of architecture & 
believed that it was 
important to integrate the natural environment with the built environment in a seamless way. It is a configuration of circular boulevards & connecting sightlines that are incredibly beautiful. It being Autumn (Fall) in Oz means that we saw magnificent vistas of amazing colour, framed with our evergreen natives. I
also 
had the opportunity to visit a current exhibition at the Australian National Gallery called Turner to Monet, a collection of 103 landscape paintings that were just magnificent. The depth that Turner achieves just with tonal change in colour is a wonder to behold.......other artists, whose work I was not familiar with were impressive as well. This one was my fav. The colour & tones of the sea were just indescribable. Tiny nuances of change in tone that created a whole shape of itself. VERY beautiful.
I discovered the work of Ivan Shishkin (a Dutch Russian painter) from 1880’s – hauntingly beautiful work on treescapes. The ones that I saw in the exhibition are not pictured in the link, they were deep moonlit night tones & hauntingly beautiful trees in beach scenes with deep paynes grey skies.
Coincidentally we visited at the time that our nati
on commemorates the service of our armed forces - called ANZAC DAY It has been quite a few years since I visited our National War Memorial & I was amazed at how much money & work had been applied to create appropriate representations of Australian service in the various conflicts we have been involved in. There is a big wide boulevard with intermittent reflection points, each of which have a monument to either a particular war, or to one of the branches of our armed services. At the top of the boulevard is the War Memorial building which houses artifacts, interpretive info & original multi media that you can view.
The
memorials were huge edifices......it fascinated me that we always choose art to soften the blow of the terrible reality. Their forms were all hard surfaces with primarily angled & harsh shapes, there is nothing kind about war, other than the mateship & friendships formed that for some, last a lifetime.
I created this piece over the weekend for my gorgeous DIL's birthday today, but I didn't want to post it until I had given it to her, JUST incase she happened to peek at my blog! The detailing of this necklace is rather long (approx 6 inches) & has been designed with a short neck chain so that the centre piece hangs quite narrow at the top and then spreads into a fuller expression as it gets longer. The composition is quite intricate & includes green agate, green glass beads, hand blown glass hearts & a hand cast pewter heart in the middle. Of course one of the key ingredients is another one of the gorgeous 'frames' from Alpha Stamps. I used a large & small square. The small square has loops top & bottom which I really like because there is more flexibility of it's placement. I used the reversible metal tiles & hammered it into the square. I really like these tiles, because they aren't 'flimsy' and they have 2 different styles on them. It was a little tight, but not difficult to do. I have found with the last necklace I made that the 'frame' section turns as you move around & it is facing the wrong way as much as the right way. So with this one, I created it double sided, equally co-ordinating, using the Butterflies Collage Sheet from Alpha Stamps. I have really enjoyed creating this piece, & although I ended up doing it differently, I was inspired by Deryn Mentock's bead wrapping on this special piece. Thanks Deryn for your encouragement & support.
Any one who knows me very well, knows that I am just not keen on the whole Asian story.....I don't like the food, the smell, the filth, the crowds, the whole bargaining & bartering way of shopping, the design styles, the minimalism.........yep, I think you're gettin' it, it's kinda not my thing! I realize that there are lots of people who do like it, but I am just not one of them and my trip to China late last year just reinforced what I already felt.
It's funny, because I did see some interesting things in China & when I first got back I was rethinking some of my opinions about it, however as I have tried to use one thing after another that I have bought and found that they are counterfiets, or only a case with nothing in them, or it doesn't work......the same feeling is reinforced...yep - I just don't like the whole Asia thing! Having blubbered on about that ENOUGH, understandably a Gothic Arch Challenge with an Asian theme obviously was MORE than a challenge for me! Still playing catch up with my arches, this is one that has hung around for ages, because I just haven't been inspired to do it. The arch is primarily just a collage of imagery & printed papers. I have used gesso on the arch so that the stuck down imagery has some 'tooth' to stick to & is well secured. Then I stuck down the glossy images on both sides & when they were dry, I completely painted over them. One side red & one side in burnt umber.....I let that dry a bit & then worked in to it using a baby wipe, I rubbed to both remove some of the paint AND to 'scour' the images a little. Then I let that dry & worked over both sides with black wax crayon. Using a 'bradle' (a pointy thing with a handle) I scraped & scratched into the wax. I have purposely scrapped the faces completely back, so they look white, remeniscent of the white painted Giesha faces. When I was happy with how it looked I glued an Asian fan on the front at the bottom.
Although the scan of this page looks a little simple, I have layered watercolour, acrylic & oil pastel to create the 'frame' for this piece which has quite a bit of dimension in the flesh. The MOST exiting thing for me is that I have used my hand cut stamps for the first time in artwork. They look at home there, & I am happy with how they came out. I had intented to use real lace dipped in texture paste of some sort to give some dimension to the lace down her dress, however I didn't have a piece that worked, I remembered my hand cut 'pattern' stamp & it worked a treat.
This is the story of the Ephemeral Moment, which I have written up on a lovely little tag:
I had the MOST delightful thing happen recently when our little Princess was over………….the night before I got a splinter up under my nail (very ouch) & I just couldn’t get it out despite blood, a tiny cut & MUCH prodding.....I plastered it in Rawleighs ointment (age old cure all) & wrapped it up in a band aid. At some point during the afternoon Ellie (now 21 months old) holds my hand & saw or felt the bandaid on my finger…….she looked up at me with furrowed brows & said ‘Nonna hurt; ouch’…….& I agreed ‘hurt’ (what we call injuries with her) & she turned around with a big smile & said ‘KI’ (which is Kiss without the ‘Sss’ which she yet to master) & took my finger & kissed it……it was priceless….
One of the fabulous parts of seeing lots of people's homes as you appraise, design & carry out renovations is that you get to see an amazing array of art. Yesterday was a particularly good 'find'. I have discovered by accident that I love patternation. As I have been assembling my Project 365 pics for this month, I have realized how many of them are occurances of regular or irregular patterning or (of course) my other love - colour.....Whether in nature or designed by mankind, I am always arrested by colour. Most of these pics are too......here are some of my discoveries
With all of the family history I have discovered in the last week, I have been feeling rather nostalgic & reflective..........despite having created an arch with my Celtic background, I wanted to work some more with the Celtic them, so I created a page in my altered dictionary. So far I have traced back 5 generations & in the process made HUGE discoveries about my paternal grandparents...... this page reflects this & includes a copy of my family tree as I know it at the moment.
Yup, still arching, I have used some intricate cut out material from my dear art friend Connie & the Shakespeare imagery is from Alpha Stamps. I think that I am running out of inspiration for arches & might I need a bit of a change in direction.....I am happy enough with the front (LHS), but the back is a bit dodgy....too many blocked shapes for me......but the more I added, the worse it got........oh well........I know that not everything I make will be a Mona Lisa......but I MUST keep making, because I don't know which piece that begins as an empty canvas will become her! Off to work in my Ephemeral Moments Journal, I have had a couple of those lately that I want to do not want to pass unnoted......oh, and I am STILL dying!
I have one of those wierd families, you know the kind that this one doesn't talk to that one & this one had a secret baby & this other one married his cousin & all sorts of mystery & cloak & dagger stories. 
I have been working on the Gothic Arch topic Celtic & I knew there was some Celtic history somewhere in my family tree way back. (the red hair, green eyes & fair skin is a bit of a give away) In the process of researching, I came across a big piece of my family tree puzzle. I have a big box of old B & W photographs I inherited when my paternal grandfather died & I really don't know who hardly any of the people in them are, so it has been a bit of a guessing game. Some time ago I tried to start to put together some of my family tree, & made some progress, but got stuck quite quickly. In the process of doing this arch, I stumbled onto a BIG piece of the puzzle. 
I have been using Ancestory.com & it seems to be quite good. In the process I found a distant relative who has been looking for some of the detail that I had, and they were able to help me. I have my grandparents original wedding invitation and (quite out of character for the day) the invitation to the wedding is from my Grandmother, not from either family. I had no one still alive to make any enquiries to about this, so I had just shelved it. I had this photo here, which looks like a family photo, but I wasn't sure whether these were people that my Nana may have borded with (her family was from interstate) This week I discovered that these people were her parents (therefore my paternal great grandparents) & all her siblings! She was the youngest of 10 children! By the time she was married (1939, war time) here mother had died & her father was deathly ill. AS well as that - I discovered that my grandfather actually had 5 siblings & everything I had ever seen showed him as the only child.....SO a big week! My arch has been created with olive green tones, in keeping with the customary celtic tones. I had this B & W photocopy of a large gate with celtic patterning that someone had given me & so I muddied it up with qn acrylic glaze & some Raw Umber paint. I have some clippings from the Book of Kells & I have highlighted all the gold. The small 'whiter' piece in the middle at the bottom is a clipping from my family tree back to England in 1854 (when my relatives first came to Oz).
You cannot visit Paris & remain unmoved. No book can describe it. Each door you go through, every coffee you drink, beckons you, wooing your soul like a secret lover…….then it ensnares your heart like a vine
I must confess, I ignorantly & blissfully lived down under for what I expect to be about half my adult life, before I experienced the ache that comes from leaving Europe behind. My first trip to Paris was in November 2000; my 40th year.
They say life begins at 40, it’s true. The constraints & strivings of youth have evolved into life experiences that, to some extent define you. You are ready to embrace new ideas & romanticize about possibilities the future may hold. You are more deliberate about things & more (in my case, but less in others) willing to take a risk, give something a shot, go out on a limb.
I have the privilege of hosting this week's Gothic Arch Challenge & I have set the topic of Paris. My arch is made up with a combination of memorabilia, photos, ephemera & store bought papers – plus memories & feelings of loss….. You 
see, last weekend I was supposed to be enjoying church in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (where I am told the choir singing sounds like angels from heaven) I would have arrived there on Saturday. On the back is a photo our daughter took of my hubby & I the evening we arrived in Paris for the first time from the top of Arc de Triomphe, & a map from an old Beaddekkers travel guide from Mary at Green Paper Packages. The line drawings on the front (Notre Dame) & the Back (Sacre Coeur) are from a calendar I bought in Paris. When I hosted the arch last year, I spoke about what everyone was doing with their arches, I promised to post a pic of mine, so here they are, still only in a raw form, I just keep feeding them onto the rings. I am not sure when I am finished whether I will still use rings, I may just use leather lacing, as some of them are quite 3D & it would be good to have some flexibility in the binding. As it is at the moment though, they are easy to store & still look good despite being in a 'temporary' phase.
With the painting that we have been doing recently I have painted up a little wooden shelf I found in an 'Op-Shop' (thrift shop) to put all my decos & altered books on. So of course I wanted them all looking as wonderful as possible! It is a little while since I touched my altered dictionary & I hadn't done anything to decorate the cover or add any 'frills or furbelows'......so this is what I have been up to, as well as some new pages...but no time for a long post tonight........... I have paint drying and another arch to finish (I am HOSTING the Gothic Arch Challenge this week)
Yesterday after work I was looking in one of my fav. haunts for treasures for the artistic retreat I am participating in mid May. I happened across this tiny (5" long) exquisite vintage slipper. The detail on it is divine with tiny mother of pearl beads & double rows of glass seed beads along every seam. It is in need of some TLC, but it is in JUST the right place for this as I would find it fascinating to do the restoration work on this. The beading would be quite tedious, but fabulous! I am participating in a Cinderella Deco Swap hosted by the VERY inspiring Sarah Whitmire in the Alpha Stamps Yahoo Group, why don't you join in?
This Gothic Arch Challenge topic is from quite a few weeks ago & was titled OLD SCHOOL DAYS. I have used some of the fabulous childhood images from Alpha Stamps Collage Sheets
M is for Magpie
ABC Books #2
& Chalkboard
The background papers are the Basic Grey 'Recess' range - the same one I used for my little school house. I like to use the little 6 x 6" pads because they have great scale for small work & the Alpha Stamps images & the Recess papers work together so well. The stamping is purposely muted, but is also from Alpha Stamps. Leslie (Alpha Stamps owner) has released what I have wanted FOREVER........clear numbers AND clear letters gives MUCH for flexibility for design & placement. I LUV 'EM. WHILE you are there checking those out though, HAVE a look at the city scapes...........these are really great.......I love them to use in collage, they make great background stamps & scenery for humans in the foreground. This new CLEAR one will be in my next Alpha Stamps order to be sure............Haven't taken my 365 pic for the day yet, so I am off to find something interesting in my studio to photograph.....it is almost 11pm............my camera might turn into a pumpkin!............anyways............at 12 midnight I am observing a minute's silence.......I am supposed to be on the flight leaving Melbourne to Paris tonight, instead I am at home, nursing a torn ligament in my knee. 
We are in a glorious transition between Summer & Autumn - although the days are shortening, & day light savings has ended, we are having some wonderful sunny days. The sunset this evening was simply spectacular, this is the view off our front verandah......it lit the sky on fire.....I never tire of the beauty found in the colours in the sky. Moving on from there though, I have decided I CAN be a bit obsessive! Last week rubber, the week before catching up on skinny book (which I haven't touched since) and THIS week, it is gothic arches. I just didn't realize that I had missed these little beauties!! I am SUPPOSED to be creating something else, but I am TOTALLY stuck with it, so I am arching away - catching up on all of the topics that I have missed between a trip to NZ & a torn ligament in my knee! OH how I HATE being so debilitated, EVERYTHING is an issue & it is 14 steps up to our front door, so especially going out of the house is an issue! 
This topic was called 'Transitions' & I think that many of the artists were concerntrating on the turning of the seasons we are currently experiencing. That is fascinating me as well, Autumn is one of my favourite seasons because of all of the stunning colours everywhere you look. I have already done an Autumn arch last year, so I wanted to do something different. I have created art around the transition a car makes from a new shiny 'city slicker' to a rusty old wreck in a bush paddock. (AND what a discovery they are for those interested in photography when you come across one - MORE about that later!) I painted the arches with black gesso, then on the front, made stripes of oil pastel that I blended together. Then with a stylus, I scraped a city silhouette in to the soft pastel. The car is one of my favs.......the new beefy looking Chrysler.............I have 'doctored' the pic on the back using Golden paints to accentuate the rust & 'forlorn' look of the scene.
I am not sure where in the world you are viewing this from, so I just wanted to explain a 'paddock'....a paddock is a vacant block of land that is relatively unworked, these are some of the things I have found in paddocks on my travels. All of these shots were taken in Australia.
It is SUCH a long time since I did a Gothic Arch, & I am ashamed to say, there are nine topics that I 
have missed between other art assignments, a trip to NZ & a torn ligament in my knee....As I am hosting next week, I really wanted to get back & create a couple of arches before I put my challenge forward.....it is a lovely topic & I know that people will enjoy it..........This weeks topic is SO easy for me, because I love creating water scenes.........The boat is from a brochure & is not my work, I did all the colour & blending (much harder than the boat.....LOL!!) OH and......THIS is a very little sneak peak of my new collage sheet called FISHTALES that will be available through Alpha Stamps.. This arch is so sparkling & twinkly on the back with a liberal coat of moonglow in several shades to create a sparkling sea. The quote reads 'the fisherman know that the sea is dangerous & the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.'
& have a look around. BELOW is a list of catagories which house archives, each of my previous posts here. Each post is allocated to a catagory as I write it, only 7 remain on the main screen at a time, after that they archive into their assigned catagory as they drop off the main page. So that's the place to click if you'd like to see something in particular.
IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING THAT EVERYTHING THAT I POST ON THIS SITE IS COPYWRITED. I UNDERSTAND HOW YOU CAN BE INSPIRED BY EXPOSURE TO VARIOUS ARTISTS, BUT PLEASE DO NOT STEAL MY WORK.
