I've been so excited by plants and nature this year that it seemed a great idea to create something botanically themed for this year's Christmas card. There are so many plants associated with Christmas that I'm spoilt for choice. I've also recently bought a really great, little, inkless printer for printing out images and photos - it's called a Poooli printer. So this year I will not only be hand-painting, cutting and sticking, I will also use photography and printing. Here are two partly created elements, but the rest is a surprise for the recipients.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Lots of clear, sunny days for doing cyanotypes. I recently coated some lovely, heavy, watercolour papers with cyanotype chemicals and wanted to experiment with some honesty seed pods that I collected from the garden last year. They worked really well for cyanotype printing and created a somewhat ethereal, underwater look. I also loved the look of it as was being rinsed - I must try some half-rinsed experiments at some point?
Since September last year, I've been creating outdoor activities, locally, during Covid restrictions, with a focus on nature, sometimes supplying resources. We've created so many things including bird feeders, lolly stick puzzles, mud art and transient, but beautiful, blossom land art.
Not just more framing, but a new piece for my 'Memory' series. These are a set of double-exposed colour Instax photos of my monochrome painting of my mum combined with various flowers in the garden. Then arranged in a grid inside a hand-painted wooden frame, embellished with pressed flowers. It was all very experimental and has taken more than a year to accomplish.
I thought I would sort out/organise some of my Instax photos. I absolutely love my Leica Sofort instant camera and took it to quite a few places on my travels in 2019. I took a lot on our trip to New York - all black and white, so I've picked the best and carefully arranged/stuck them in a sort of grid. Now to get them framed.
I actually finished my allotment collage commission a while ago. As it is a private commission, I can't show the whole image, but thought it would be good to show some more photos of certain areas. I ended up creating a shed, a bee house, a strawberry patch, wild flowers and more. It really was a most enjoyable piece to create and the clients were very pleased.
.jpg)
Early January - and it's snowing! The studio looks so pretty! Happy New Year to all!
As usual in January, I am creating my postcard art donation for the international TwitterArt exhibition/auction - this year held in the UK in Cheltenham, raising money for the LINC charity helping Leukemia and intensive chemotherapy patients. I've been doing some black and white illustrations for an unpublished poetry book about the thoughts/musings of a baby. It's all very experimental, but I drew a baby bedtime/nursery illustration that I hope people can relate to, entitled 'Ever So Quiet'. Do hope it sells.
