Nature journaling

I though I'd try my hand at a few pages of journaling about nature.  I used found images, commercially made stamps, home made stamps, sketching from found images and lettering.

The home made stamp images are in the top middle and right hand side of the page.

 This Sunday I leave Melbourne for a two week visit to see my lovely mum in Western Australia.  I will hopefully have some nice country images to share with you.

Anne  xx

A little baking, animal watching and creativity

I love it when I find a super easy recipe that's delicious.  I made this Easy Lemon Slice yesterday and it's delicious with a cuppa.  The recipe can be found here.  I would add a little more lemon juice to the icing as it's quite stiff.

 

I came across this DVD in the local library "The Ocean's Supermum", a natural history documentary about the Australian sea lion.  It was beautiful and I can tell you, sea lion pups are incredibly cute.

In rather disheartening news, our protest about the McDonalds

development in Tecoma appears to have failed.  During the past week about 50 police were deployed one morning at 4a.m. to secure the site and stop any protesters entering.  The police presence was in addition to security working on behalf of McDonalds.  There is nothing more distressing and intimidating than to see police dressed in semi riot gear.  For goodness sake, what were they expecting.  We are a peaceful community protesting a development by a multinational foreign corporation taking over our beautiful part of the world.   Buildings standing in the way of the development have since been demolished. 

On going for my daily walk with Sophie I discoverd the footpath I usually walk on along Burwood highway was/is closed to pedestrians.  Police and security staff were positioned along the footpath and I was told it was closed for safety reasons.  I think not.  If it was that dangerous, nobody would have been standing there at all, more rigid barriers would have been put in place rather than the thin timber fencing that is currently in use.  To continue my usual route I had to cross two roads with pedestrian lights which is safe.  I then had to walk on the other side of Burwood highway and cross over this busy road without the safety of pedestrian lights.  I was assured by the security guard I would be assisted across the road by the police but no such help was forth coming.  High school and primary school students use this footpath as a safe way to walk home.  I saw today that the footpath has now been totally closed off and boarded over.

We feel totally gutted as a community, we feel sick and disappointed that the only voice that is heard anymore is the one that has the money.  We feel betrayed, bullied and intimidated, our faith in democracy challenged.  Thank you to each and everyone of you who has taken an interest in this story and supported our cause.  Thank you for helping shout out loud that we don't like or agree with what is/has been done.

In bid to calm my distress after my walk, I decided a little creativity was in order.  Over the past year or so I've been collecting free postcards from the local library which advertise all manner of things from cultural performance, education, awareness of social issues and the work of artists.  I based these collage pages loosely on colour themes.

I intend hanging these in a new creative space coming soon to our backyard.  :)

In other creative endeavors, I've entered the world of journaling, a totally new way of creative expression for me and I love it.  There are no rules, even better.  I've started by cutting out images from magazines and going from there.  The brain storming that was going on while doing this was so much fun.  Here are two pages I've completed, I think.

The two pages look better seen together.  I know these first two are quite basic but as I learn more about this genre and learn new techniques, I'm sure they will become more interesting.

The pages currently being worked on.

 

 This is my preferred page so far.  I've lots more work to do on these two pages incorporating stamped and hand drawn images.  I used light water colour washes on the pages before adding other elements.  The flowers in the vase above are an image from a magazine and I've used a black fine line pen to highlight different areas.  It's always a big risk to put your artwork out there.  I hope I haven't bored you all to tears.

 Melbourne is currently experiencing it's worst winters day this year with rain and lots of it, cold and extreme wind, the type that turns you umbrella inside out.  Wishing you all a lovely weekend and better weather than what we are having today.

Anne  xx

A bunch of flowers

There are some wonderfully inspiring people in bog land and one such inspiration for me is Kirsty from Sixty One A.  Kirsty is an artist and crafter.  She makes amazing art pieces from driftwood she finds on the beach in Cornwall, sews creatures from the sea and land and creates spectacular collages.  It is her collages that have inspired me to try one of my own.

I thought I would start with something simple, a bunch of flowers in a vase.  I started by drawing a basic outline of my picture on watercolour paper and started building up the picture by gluing small pieces of magazine paper.  Drawing on (pardon the pun) my knowledge of oil painting techniques, I tried to use lights and darks to create shadows and shapes.

I used paper pieces that included patterns and writing to add interest which I found helped make the picture more realistic, to my eyes anyway.  :)  When I was happy with the collage, I lightly shaded watercolour pencil around the picture.  Here are a few close ups to show some more detail.

I had a lot of fun doing this and spent a good four hours on it.  Of course when I'm immersed in anything artistic, the time just disappears.  I'd love to know what you think of my bunch of flowers.

 Thanks for stopping by for a visit and a big welcome to my new follower. 

Enjoy your Sunday,

Anne  xx

P.S.  I sign this type of artwork as Damelia in honour of my Grandma.  Damelia is a combination of her two names Dorothy and Amelia.

Oil painting portrait update

Hello everyone.  I thought it was time to update you on the portrait I have been working on.  It is very close to being finished, perhaps another two lessons and it will be complete.  I have work to do on the lady's ear and hair, some tidying up of the windows and some other small details.

Yesterday's lesson had me working on the dress and I am very happy with how it has turned out.  In an earlier post, I expressed my distress at my teaching taking over my painting.  What I now do is have a small flat canvas nearby which she can use to show me techniques if she needs too.  I haven't actually said anything to her but I think having the canvas there has given her the message.  

So it's time to start thinking about what to paint next.  Maybe another portrait so I can practise my newly acquired skills.

Have a wonderful day.

Anne  xx

Doodle bird

A few days ago I was doodling in my sketch book which I use for ideas for card illustrations and stamps.  This little bird evolved and I decided to turn it into a stamp which I've called my Doodle Bird stamp.

 

Sketch book doodles.

Doodle Bird stamp and images.

A slightly cleaner Doodle Bird.

My thanks to Chantal of Chantal Vincent Art (see the button on my sidebar), for inspiring me to have a shot at making my own stamps.  I am happy to say that my technique for carving stamps is improving.

By the way, check out Chantal's blog for a gorgeous free twitter hummingbird design for your blog.  You are so generous Chantal.

Happy creating everyone,

Anne  xx

Pen and water colour illustrations

Every girl needs one of these in her bedroom.  Yes?

I'd like to curl up here with a good book, a cup of tea and a granny square blanket to snuggle in.

If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know I like dabbling in all kinds of arty/crafty things and I've been working on pen and water colour pencil illustrations this past weekend.  These are my two favourites so far.  

You'll notice I've signed the name Damelia instead of Anne.  That's the name I use for this type of  artwork in honour of my Grandma who loved to paint, craft and garden.  Her name was Amelia Dorothy.  She hated the name Amelia and was called Dorrie.  My middle name is Dorothy and I love the name Amelia so I combined the two names and came up with Damelia.

See you soon,

Anne

Experimenting with lino prints

After being inspired by Chantal Vincent's gorgeous lino prints, I though I'd have a crack at doing some myself.  I vaguely remember doing this in art class at school and have the pillowslip to prove it.  I don't have all the equipment yet to do a really top notch job, but I'm fairly happy with these beginner's results.



 First design idea.

While cutting out the drangonfly design I decided to add a flower, stem and leaf as can be seen below.

At present I don't have any ink or rollers so have used stamp pads to print the image which has turned out mottled rather than a solid image.

Second design idea.

Original sketch of a Crested Tit.  Isn't he cute?

Drawing to transfer to lino.

Starting the carving process.

You can see I've made some mistakes here as the bird looks like he is hovering above the branch.  When I was carving, I carved away the part where his leg is attached to his body.  Oh well, next time.  :-)  All part of the learning process.  Here is what the final carving looks like after I've tried to clean off the stamp ink.

I got a bit slack here and didn't carve out all the left hand side surface.  Tch, tch. 

I've had oodles of fun trying this out.  The design and drawing process is definately the most enjoyable part for me at this stage.  Hopefully with time I can improve my carving skills for a neater image and aquire some more equipment to get a more professional and finished look.  I did want to find out if I would enjoy this before I spent too much money.

Have a lovely weekend,

Anne

Highschoool artwork

My favourite memories from high school are when I was either in the library or having art classes.  I remember doing all kinds of interesting things in art that I had never been exposed to before.  Working in clay, silk screen printing, tie-dying and making lino prints to name a few.

After I discovered Chantal Vincent's blog (check out the button on the side bar), and being inspired by her stamps and lino prints, a little memory came to the surface.  Didn't I have a piece of artwork in the linen cupboard from high school days, something I made when I was either 13 or 14 years of age?
I went scrabbling last night and found my memory and here it is.

From memory this is a lino print.  The design is of my Grandma's house, she lived just across the road from the high school and we would visit her for lunch every day.  (Home was 20 miles away by school bus).  Looking at this artwork (which is printed on a pillowslip), I can't believe I actually did this.  Here is a closer view.

Looking at this makes me want to have another go at lino printing and I've already started drawing up some designs which I think would look very nice on a linen tea towel or two.  It's fun playing around with sketches and ideas.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.  We are quite sodden with rain here and probably won't see the sunshine this weekend.  Ah that means lots of opportunities for delightful inside craft stuff.  :-)

Anne