Mint, Sage, Claret and Gold.

Over on the PaperArtsy blog right now is the challenge entitled Mint, Sage, Claret and Gold.
I have almost resisted the temptation to sing the well known song about herbs, substituting the words for this title!
I loved Darcy's intro piece with all the colourful stimulation, and have really enjoyed all of the contributions from the PaperArtsy blog team.
I was particularly enchanted by the book cover by Anneke de Clerck. I got out my gelli plates and had a play.
I used the recommended PaperArtsy fresco chalk paints, except that I substituted Gold for White Fire!
I created an A4 master board of background shapes as Anneke showed us, and used Emma Godfrey stamps from EEG14 to add greater depth. I stamped the flowers using some of the paints an also in Black Archival ink.
As we have the first dull day in ages, my colours don't really sing, but, in real life they do.
I love this technique that Anneke used and can see great potential for more master boards, and, am I allowed to use the "C" word........yes? Christmas cards!

Therefore, I am entering my work into the PaperArtsy challenge.

First Life Drawing in 51 years!

Last night I attended a Life Drawing Class in Chesterfield. I stumbled upon the advert for it by accident on Facebook.
It is something that I last had a go at in 1967, so, maybe it was time to have another go.

The class was run by John King who has a studio in Chesterfield and used to be a lecturer at the local art college.
I liked his relaxed approach and he immediately made me feel welcome.
I had managed to work myself up into a headachey state but felt very positive.
He began by introducing us to some artists work and suggested that, if we wished, we could try to work in their style.

Our first task was using Graphite sticks, to sketch very quickly, four poses on one large page. This was right up my street as I work quickly and I didn't have time to worry about my work. Think that they were 2min sketches.

Then two more quick sketches.

Next, using a small piece of charcoal on its side, 2 more quick pieces.

Then, the lights were turned off and John lit a huge spotlight and asked us to concentrate on just where the light fell onto the model and try not to draw outlines. Really liked this. 2 more quick sketches using White Charcoal.

This one, with the same idea was a 10 minute sketch.

Next, we had a small piece of card to print with and some black ink. These took about 10 minutes.

And finally, using the ink and card we drew the model and then, with the spotlight we added the light.
All interesting stuff. I shall be back for more next month, I loved it!

Treasure Box

The topic over on the PaperArtsy blog is "Enshrined", and there were some wonderful examples on the introduction by Darcy.
Their design team have come up with some wonderfully inspirational ideas this past 2 weeks as well.

So, I decided to create a box of treasures for my darling Rosebud, our 5 year old granddaughter.

I began by painting the box with fresco paint French Roast. the top was crackled with paste and then painted with assorted fresco blues. The sides I wrote messages and sea songs for Rose and then stamped and painted to create a collage effect.

I painted the letters with fresco blues and rubbed Treasure Gold into them and also around the edges of the box.

Inside, I lined the box with velvet.

The shells have been painted with blue fresco paints , and the patterns highlighted with Treasure Gold.

I added more treasure to the box, seaglass, small shells and some seaweed.
Rose came across it by accident yesterday and was enchanted by the contents and thrilled that the "Treasure" was for her.
The wonderment of young children is something that should be held onto by us all into our older years.
So, here is my entry for the PA challenge, enshrined.

Paper Dolls, Brave Wings.

Having some fun with my second entry into the PaperArtsy blog challenge which is Paper Dolls.

I had this notion that if I could find a nest, then some paper dolls could be at home in there. Maybe influenced by all the bird activity in the garden at the moment.

I used some TH collage paper for my background and rubbed an assortment of neutral coloured paints onto it with my fingers.

I used an assortment of fabulous oldies from PaperArtsy Hot Picks..HP1005, HP1506 and HP1601.

The girls are from TH paper dolls Christmas, which I painted over with clear gesso to enable me to paint over them to brighten them up.

Very Tongue-In-Cheek, this one, but great fun to create.

My second entry into the PA challenge.

Paper Dolls French Kiss.

The challenge on the PaperArtsy blog is currently "Paper Dolls". There has been lots of fabulous inspiration from the team.

In the intro, Darcy talked about the kind of paper dolls that girls of a certain age used to make outfits for. Jofy made a wardrobe of clothes in her post which made me want to create my own page. 

This set of stamps that I have chosen reminds me of my paper dollies so I decided to join in.

This is one of those pages where you just go where the mood takes you. No preconceived ideas, just playing.

I began with a washi tape background, used some distress inks in a distress wrinkle free way and stamped with Black and Red archival. Lots of stamping and I used the PaperArtsy stencil by Scrapcosy which has all the months on and is so handy!

Eventually I built up a story in my mind of this young French Girl, but don't want to retell as you may draw your own conclusions.

Suffice to say that she is not comfortable with her life choices and wishes the months to whisk by!

It was a bit tricky to work in this thick tome as you can see. I am almost at the end of it. It is a recycled book from Oxfam with wonderfully thick pages.

I am entering this in the PaperArtsy challenge.

New Lynne Moncrieff stamps and stencils

I was fortunate enough last week to buy some wonderful new stamps and stencils from Lynne Moncrieff''s" Thats crafty" range.
I have a small handmade book which is just perfect for playing with this gorgeous array of images and affirmations.

Lots of Distress inks, Infusions, crackle, Grungepaste, vintage lace, teabags, calico, embossing and drippage. Had a ball and can carry on playing forever.

Vintage Neutrals.

I have been sidelined recently by an amazing free online course called Sketchbook Revival.  There have been some amazing lessons on there from about 20 different artists.
I try to do something in my sketchbook everyday and yesterday I did a double page spread of my Prima watercolour paint tins.

The one on this page is a little set that I bought from PaperArtsy on their final trip to Ally Pally....sob!

Because they are largely neutrals, I thought that I could enter it into the Vintage Neutrals PaperArtsy challenge.
At the bottom of the page, I created a very quick watercolour of one of the flower borders in my garden. It was a blissfully peaceful exercise.