BLUEBELLS FOR COLOUR INSPIRATION

I often find wonderful colour combinations in nature, and enjoy taking photographs which I can use for inspiration.  Yesterday, an early morning walk took me into a beautiful bluebell wood.  When these flowers are seen en masse, at a distance, there is a wonderful blue/purple haze, which makes a lovely contrast with the shades of green and brown of the woods. In particular, I love the purply blue and lime green combination...

SINGING BIRDS!

One of my fellow makers at the One Craft Gallery, who is a wood turner, gave me some paper thin sheets of bark which had peeled off a silver birch tree.  They had lovely markings and inspired me to make some long thin cards depicting trees with singing and perching birds.

I treated the bark in exactly the same way that I would treat paper.  The background was collaged papers and tissue.  On the next layer I used the bark and then put another layer of cutout paper before adding the birds which were cut out of some art papers left over from another project - it pays to keep everything!  Some  further details were added using acrylic paint and thin black marker pens.

The bark not only provided authentic colour and markings, it gave an interesting texture.  I am now hoping to use the same subject and papers to make a larger artwork on a wooden panel.

AUTUMNAL WINDOW

Last year I made paper leaves to decorate the gallery window.  As these were successful I am using them again!  However, to add some hanging leaves to the window, I have laminated some real ones, collected on my early morning walks.  This was done not without mishap!  I learnt that you have to keep the leaves as flat as possible or the laminator  becomes jammed! Not sure how long they will last but as it is just for a few weeks it doesn't matter.  I saw some hanging in a local charity shop window, looking like wet leaves floating down, and the volunteer told me how they were done.

I have also decorated some gift bags using the Autumn theme.  This time for the gift tags I have used dark green mount card which is white on the reverse.  This makes a really sturdy gift tag that hangs beautifully! I cut it using a metal ruler and scalpel and the hole was punched with a leather punch. They were decorated with splattered gold acrylic same as the bags and finished off with white hole reinforcers and sparkly black and gold thread.  I am thinking of making some sets of Christmas tags with mount board to sell in the gallery.

AUTUMN LEAVES

Seeing the leaves around me turn to rich autumnal colours and swirl around in the wind has inspired me to make some paper leaves for window dressing in the gallery.

I started with recycled brown wrapping paper which was crumbled and ironed before acrylic colour was applied to both sides.  I then sponged on raw umber acrylic and randomly stamped on leaf vein shapes.  I then cut out the leaves using two different shaped templates as a guide. The edges were then burnt using my soldering iron - a piece of equipment that I haven't used for a long time!

The leaf garlands were formed, by gluing paper covered wire, to one side of the leaves using PVA.  Once dried they can then be bent to look as they are being blown in the wind.  I shall be using them in the gallery for the next window design.

CHRISTMAS TREE FESTIVAL

I have just taken part in the first Christmas Tree Festival at the Baptist Church in Shepton Mallet. The idea was for local schools, businesses, associations, community groups etc. to decorate a tree and let people know what they do.  The church was open for two days for anyone to look at the fabulous diverse range of trees and decorations.  My contribution, on behalf of the One Craft Gallery, was this driftwood tree,  complete with the decorations mentioned in my last but one blogpost.  The festival proved a great success and it is now hoped that it will become an annual event.

ASSEMBLAGES IN FRAMES

Here are my latest assemblages using a couple of recycled frames as a shallow box.  The first thing I did was to glue in a back board and primed all sides with gesso.  I then looked at some of my bits and pieces and the frames themselves for ideas.

Recycled frames

Some bits and pieces

My first idea was to pursue one of my favourite themes - doors. The ornate frames seemed to mimic door architraves. I decided I wanted to frame the door with topiary and use a vintage metal bird from my collection. I started painting with chalk paints in pastel colours so that the door took on a mediterranean look and reminded me of being on holiday. Collaged and 3D flowers were added and I used scrabble pieces for the flower boxes and repeated this for the lettering - scrabble being appropriate for a holiday pastime. Distressed gold metal gilding gave the look of faded grandeur.

'Holiday Home' (22.5cms x 19.5cms)

With the second assemblage I took my  two vintage metal trees as my starting point.  I decided I wanted them to be part of a wood.  One of the forests I remember from my childhood was the Hundred Acre Wood where Pooh Bear lived.  I used an illustration of his friend Owl's house, which was embedded in a large tree trunk, from the book Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne, as inspiration.

'Hundred Acre Wood' (22.5cms x 19.5cms)

'Owl lived at The Chestnuts, an old-world residence of great charm, which was grander than anybody else's, or seemed so to Bear, because it had both a knocker and a bell-pull.   Underneath the knocker there was a notice which said: PLES RING IF AN RNSER IS REQIRD.  Underneath the bell-pull there was a notice which said:  PLEZ CNOKE IF AN RNSR IS NOT REQID.'

'

CAMERA SHAKE

Paths through different woods

I have started thinking about taking interesting photographs again.  Most of the winter I have just taken pictures of my artwork and haven't really been out with my camera to explore the environment.  I have been looking back at some pictures I took last year when I deliberately moved the camera as I took the photo.  No you don't need to adjust your screen, they are meant to be this blurry!  I like the way my  eyes are not quite comfortable looking at them.  I feel it gives them mystery and movement with an air of tension.  I want to use some of them in my artwork or at least as inspiration.

These photographs were taken in my garden

A trip to another wood

   

BARE TREES

Before we get too many leaves on the trees, I want to take a look at the wonderful shapes that bare trees make - strong silhouettes in the landscape.  I am particularly fond of woods where the atmosphere changes dramatically from season to season.  Here are some samples of my work using bare tree shapes.

 

I have started to learn how to make collages digitally, using photoshop elements.  I hope to feature more in the future, but here is a start. In this picture I have taken a photograph of one of my sculptures, a small musical box ballerina, taken her off her base and placed her in my musical wood - so called because I have used musical scores for some of the tree trunks.