POPPIES AT DUNGENESS!

After the recent day course with the Silton Art Group, I have completed a mixed media painting on board (30cms square) - see top pic.  The subject is Derek Jarman's cottage and garden at Dungeness.  A photocopy of a photograph of the site is shown above left.

On the day with Linda Appleby, I finished a painting on paper using acrylics, which is shown above right. Linda made the comment that the poppies should be larger and more prominent.  I took this to heart and used collage, to give extra emphasis on my finished mixed media artwork, which I did in my studio at home...

BUTTERFLY BAGS

Some more gift bags for the gallery!  This time decorated with poppies and butterflies - a mixture of collage and doodling.  I used matt acrylic medium, which acts as a glue and varnish, to attach the images.  On the gift tags I coated both sides with the medium so that they wouldn't curl...

GRASSES, POPPIES AND BUTTERFLIES

Today I have been helping do the window in the gallery.  One of our members, Phil, who makes beautiful wooden objects, brought in a lovely selection of grasses.  These were used together with some of my cupcake poppy garlands and cardboard butterflies to create a summer window.

SUNFLOWERS AND POPPIES

I have chosen sunflowers as a subject before. This mixed media artwork on canvas of sunflowers and poppies was bought by a fellow member of the One Craft Gallery co-operative. A section of it is used for one of my most popular printed cards.   It is a long thin canvas ( 80cms x 30cms) and was inspired by a photograph of a huge meadow, full of sunflowers, poppies and other wild flowers which I saw in The Daily Telegraph.  I just loved the bright  happy colours and the abundance of flowers, especially the sunflowers.

Recently I used colour photocopies of photographs of the picture to collage onto the backs of these two bookmarks shown below (on the right).

POPPY FIELD WINDOW

We have just redone the window in the One Craft Gallery.  My poppies are still there but butterflies and grasses have been added.  I made these butterflies a few years ago for window displays.

They are made from sheets of deep purple card from Yeovil Scrapstore (a treasure trove of useful materials), which were cut to shape, using my templates in various sizes. I then put blobs of paint on one side, folded the butterfly in half over the paint and opened it up to reveal a pattern - just like the ink blot pictures I used to do as a child! I also painted the backs of the butterflies so that they can be viewed from any angle. They were then embellished with a metallic gold felt tip pen, wire antenna were added and a hole punched on each corner so they can be hung in different permutations.

These pictures were taken from inside the gallery, looking out on market day!

MORE REMEMBRANCE

Inspired by the poppy installation at the Tower of London (see last post), I have just completed this mixed media artwork on canvas. When I started I had no intention of adding a distressed gold gilded heart outline and the word 'remember',  I just wanted to do a canvas of red poppies.  However, when I had done this it just looked like a rich piece of wallpaper so I felt it needed a focal point and message to add interest.

'Remember' - mixed media on canvas (30ms x 30cms)

This will shortly be added to the poppy window at the One Craft Gallery alongside these two collaged bookmarks that have layers of WW1 imagery and, of course, some red poppies!

Remembrance bookmarks (side1 is on the left)

RED POPPIES

Red poppies are certainly the flower of the moment!  All the events to mark the 100 year anniversary of World War 1 have brought them to the fore. In particular, the wonderful art installation of red ceramic poppies that is growing daily at the Tower of London.  When finished on Armistice Day - November 11th,  there will be a poppy for each military fatality that was lost in the war - 888,246!  The work is by artist Paul Cummins and is called 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red'.  He was inspired from a line in the will of a Derbyshire serviceman killed in Flanders.  Each poppy is being sold for £25 with 10% going to several armed forces charities.  It is hoped that £15 million will be raised.

My latest poppy gift bags have cut and ironed red cupcake cases collaged on to them which were then embellished with gold and black marker pens.  I then made a decorative pouch for the gift tag out of the centre of a toilet roll.  I explained how in a previous post. (Gift Tags - March 12th 2014).  Re-cylced red ribbon and white tissue completes the bags.

'Spanish Poppies' - acrylic on canvas (60cms x 30cms)

Some years ago I did this commission - a field of white daisies and red poppies from my customer's photograph of a field near her holiday home in Spain.  Using the complementary colours of red and green certainly creates a picture that won't fade into the background!  I remember using cut pieces of polystyrene dipped in red and black acrylic paint to form the poppies.  I have used poppies in other flower paintings but I now I feel inspired to do another with nothing but red poppies!

POPPY WINDOW

As you can see, my recently made map bunting and poppy garlands have contributed to the latest window dressing at the One Craft Gallery, just in time for the remembrance events for the start of WW1. The cube, with the installation of realistic poppies made in silk, is the brain child of our fantastic hat maker, Lizzie Oliva. Each poppy is, in fact, a brooch and for sale.

POPPY GIFT BAGS

I have used some more cupcake cases - white, purple and orange -  that were also lurking in my cupboard, together with some dollies, to cut out some simple poppy designs. I then collaged them onto painted brown bags, using matt medium. When they were completely dry, I embellished the shapes with various marker pens.  These are now for sale in the gallery.

CUPCAKE CASE POPPIES

I have discovered another source of paper for projects - cupcake cases.  It started with looking up how to make poppies on Pinterest and I found red cupcake cases were a starting point.  I wanted to make some poppy garlands for window dressing in line with the remembrance of the beginning of World War One in August. I happen to have some cupcake cases which had been in the cupboard for years and some were red!  I ironed them flat and painted them with my trusty acrylic wax.  I then cut petal shapes (two cases for each flower), used a black permanent marker for the centre and then hand stitched a rope between the two layers. Not sure how many I will be making (I need to buy some more cases), and how they will be used in the gallery window, but I will take a photo when it is done!

SUE'S SILK SCARVES

Giving a touch of summer in the gallery at the moment, are these gorgeous silk scarves by Sue Arnold.  Sue, a retired primary school teacher, mother of two and grandmother of four, only discovered silk painting three years ago. She lives in a Somerset village with her husband and spaniel Poppy. Her garden is full of flowers and that is where her inspiration comes from, although she also produces a range of abstract and geometric designs.

In her own words here is how she achieves these results. "The scarf is attached to a frame, stretched and held in place with pins. Then the paint is applied to the main body of the scarf using a sponge. Paint is then applied with a fine brush to the ends of the scarf where I add my flowers. The final detail is added using a special silver outliner and further depth added using a technique similar to that used with watercolour. When dry the completed scarf is ironed on the reverse side, the heat setting the colour so that it doesn't run when washed."