Good Friday

Image of embroidery I did a few years ago on silks and satins.

Today started out with hot cross buns, paid for that later (reflux) just love hot cross buns but the spices in them give me much pain, still it was worth it. This was not a day for housework, so I finished a book that I have been reading by Bernard Cornwell, 'The Winter King' the first of a trilogy about the legend of Arthur and Merlin, I have always been fascinated in this Legend and while I was in Cornwall UK a couple of years ago with my sister Phillipa, we stayed in a castle called Camelot, not the Camelot but it was over 100 years old, built on the top of cliffs overlooking the sea, across from the ruins of Tintagel where Arthur was supposedly born and below were the caves that Merlin supposedly inhabited. There is no proof in history that Arthur or Merlin existed during these wars with the saxons after the romans left England. A really good read I must get the next book in the trilogy now as its hard to keep track of the names.

I watched the DVD Fleetwood Mac 'The Dance' which was 106 minutes of pure magic. What talented musicians, I am transported with the beautiful smokey tones of Stevie Nicks, and the mellow voice of Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham what can I say about this amazing guitar playing genius and voice. I do so admire people who are so passionate about their music and it comes through in their performances. I loved all the tracks but The Chain is a favourite and Tusk with the Marching Band joining in was pure magic, John has a really good sound system and loves to turn the volume up and the music just washes over you in waves. I have a very mixed range of music that I love, my favourite from way back when was Fats Domino, voice of pure molten treacle. But I love gutsy singers with a very raw sound, love good guitar playing, blues, jazz, hard rock to gospel. When I was a young girl living on a sheep and cattle station in NZ, my older cousins used to sing gospel songs in harmony when doing the dishes, I was in heaven, singing is not something I do well, breathing is my problem but I do love listening to music when I am doing my art, Leonard Cohen's Dear Heather is a good one for me. In the afternoon it was around to Jo's to make more birdnests with my granddaughters for their easter eggs, this was a fun time for them and me.

Our website seems to be operating again, our IT man Scott very patiently explained to me that the problem was between our website provider and our internet provider BigPond, in language that I could follow, he explained that there are a number of links ie Perth - Adelaide, Adelaide - Sydney, Sydney to LA in the USA, and so on, and there was a link broken in America on a Bigpond line which is why those with Bigpond where having the problem. We found some people had no problems where others had intermittant access I am guessing their providers went through Bigpond and to the likes of us on Bigpond who had no access for nearly a week. So our deepest apologies to anyone trying to access our website http://www.artisticjourney.com.au/

Finally a message to the lovely Juliarose I have been unable to reply to your kind comments on my blog as I cannot access your email by reply, would love to contact you so could you send me your email address.

Sorry Juliarose, I am not very good with blog procedures, I am supposed to tag someone. Sorry I can think of only one blog to tag and that is my dearest sister Phillipa who has a wonderful blog on her vintage collection, she also sells vintage products if you contact her via her blog. A lot of my wonderful vintage stuff I have got from her, oh there is no better friend than a sister and I have three, how lucky am I.My dear Jo has been under a lot of strain with a rebel teenage daughter which has increased in intensity this school term. Its very hard being a mother and a daughter at this age, one questions reasons for the behaviour which is so out of character, they have been through all the counselling routes to no avail, one has to think maybe a physical unbalance. Once they come out the other side of all this I am sure they will be the greatest of friends. The photo above of Jo shows that she is very slight in build, what it doesnt show is her sensitive nature. As Jo's mother I am trying to cut her slack in the shop to enable her to cope with all the tension, and be supportive both to her and to my granddaughter who I usually have a very close relationship, guess I can only be there for them both to help pick up the peices.

This week has been a bit of a challenge, it has come to my notice that an online shop has downloaded an image of my artwork from my blog and directed her customers to my blog. I can only see this as using my knowledge of the Golden products to promote their online sales. This website does not have a retail shop so does not have to contend with the expenses involved. I understand there is a place for online shops but their ethics are not always very high, there I have vented my spleen. Unfortunately for those who visit my blog and have learnt techniques that I have been only to willing to share and promote the wonderful Golden Products, I will not be putting anymore of my art samples on my blog, however if you contact me by phone or email I will do my very best to help you. I really, really am sorry to take this step but it leaves me very vulnerable to predators. I hope you will continue to visit and read my blog and if you don't I am sorry I will miss you.

ciao bella

tagged

The lovely juliarose tagged me, this is new to me, not sure what to do but will give it a go, 7 random facts about me. oh gosh!!!! ok
1 born in the land of the long white cloud, my wonderful New Zealand, moving to Australia with my family in 1982. NZ is still home.
2 oldest of four wonderful sisters at 63 years young, so i am the big sister.
3 drove through Germany on the right hand side of the road with my sister as co pilot and map reader, think it was more of a challenge for her, reading the sign posts.
4 love mixed media art, pure escapism
5 have a never give up belief in life, and will give anything a go
6 my passions are chocolate (oh I cant believe I said that one) vintage everything, reading, music
7 I would love to be able to dance, any kind of dance, just love the rythm and in my mind I can soar with the 'So you think you can dance" contestants

There now as you can see I am a quirky minded soul who will be up to my elbows in paint for as long as I can move my hands and fingers. Love to travel, especially Europe and the UK, I am a late starter where travel is concerned. Thought I would go for 6 weeks with my sister, do it on the rough, and that would be that, wrong, now I can't wait to go again. I come from a warm loving family who instilled in me that I could do whatever I want do where I like, I just took a while to come to believe it.

Holidays

Hi to you lovely readers who take time to read my ramblings. I have had a very relaxing week away with my wonderful husband, we both needed it. Was great to spend time with my oldest daughter Kirsty and her family. Collie is two and a half hours drive away and we don't get to go down and see them as often as we would like. Kirsty feels a bit neglected sometimes. When your children grow up and have their own families and a ultra busy life, as parents you feel that you dont quite fit in as much as you love them. I treasure the times when Kirsty is able to come and stay with us in Perth on her own and we get to spend one on one time together. As I too treasured the time I was able to spend with my dearest mother who died 15 years ago, I miss her so very much. Just a message to those of you lucky enough to still have your parents with you, treasure them every day. Well enough of my thoughts. While I was in Collie on Saturday they had a Trotting Meeting that Kirsty, Jack my grandson and self went to on the spur of the moment. We are not gamblers, but I have always loved horses and find trotters pure poetry in motion, so I just love to spend time watching them. We where the last of the big gamblers, took $1 bets on the last four races for a bit of fun. I spent $4 and won $2.30 so for $1.70 had a lovely afternoon. The week was extremely hot and the countryside down south is very dry, so it was a rather beige landscape of dry grass. John and I spent one day driving a round trip to Kattanning where there is a wonderful antique and collectible shop called 'The Goose's Bridle' can you remember the saying a wigwam for a gooses bridle when you asked what something was, well this is what it is named from, how cool is that and what a great name. Naturally I found a few things to purchase, they also have this wonderful old Aussie shed to the side, cobwebs and all. In there I found a tin of old rusty nails, a part of an kerosene lamp that looks like a crown and a lovely old bedside clock which I like to collect. Inside I found some lovely vintage fabric peices that I just had to have. Some of these peices are for a collaborative peice that Joanne and I will be starting very soon, I will put the different stages on the blog as we go to share the creative process, this will be using techniques we learnt from the wonderful Michael de Meng. The fabric bits will be going into a vintage mixed media book I am designing and will be teaching. This book requires a lot of vintage peices and fortunately I have been collecting for a few years now. I will also put this on the blog to share with you and I will have it on display at the Art Retreat, so I will have to work my butt off to get it done in time. Still I find with most projects its the collecting of all the elements that you want to put into it that takes time. Here I am digressing again, its just that I have so much I want to get into, art related. Above is a photo of the beautiful Collie river on the hottest day!Above is my dear Kirsty, worrying about her double chin hah! she should worry. We spent a lovely day in Bunbury, this photo was taken at Aristos where we had a fresh fish lunch. While driving around Bunbury we came across this row of baby doves taking flying lessons, how cute are they. We have doves in our back yard, but never have I seen so many babies altogetherThis one obliged me as I zoomed in for a close up. How ghoulish am I, a baby pigeon flew into our garage and killed itself trying to get out, I left the body there for months until it mummified, its safe in a container now waiting to be put into the right art assemblage, its short life was not in vain.I cannot stay away from art for long, on pondering what to give my two Collie grandchildren I came up with an idea that would involve them as well. I picked them up after school then we went up to the bush and gathered bits and peices to make a birds nest for their easter eggs. Think they loved the gathering part most, although Jack 8 enjoyed the construction also. We got a couple of tennis balls to use as a mold. Wrapped small peices of the lovely paperbark around one half. then was the creative part of twisting wire, old string, dried grass, leaves, seed pods, bits of glass etc around the shape, gluing with lots of pva glue. When all this was dry we took the ball out and lined the inside with lovely goose feathers we found down by the river. We wrapped the easter eggs (bigW) in glad wrap keeping mind the mites etc that would be in the feathers. and wella not as good as the bird makes, what do you think, the kids loved them. Now I am thinking how am I going to make 7 more before easter!

This dear little nest we found on the ground in the laneway, as I collect nest this was not one I was prepared to give away, goose feathers enhance it.

Well now its back to work again, must say I love my work, mmmh parts of it not so much, the creative side of it yes! We have a lot of work getting things ready for the two art retreats. Have you seen the lovely Judy Wilkenfeld's blog Red Velvet, this girl is going places her blog will wrench your heart. Judy is off to teach at Art and Soul very soon, and we are negotiating to have her teach at our Art Retreat next year so keep an eye on our website www.artisticjourney.com.au Joanne has some real interesting artwork that she has been doing lately, if you have time take a look.

ciao bella

altered books 2

I managed to get two more spreads finished in my altered book this week. I learnt that it is not all that easy to stamp into an altered book, you will see my incomplete stamped images. In this first spread 'building up layers of stamped paint. I like the effect you get with this technique. The fluid colours used mixed with gesso is paynes grey, jenkins green and transparent red iron oxide mmmm I like this colour.

We also punched holes down the right side and inserted eyelets and wired in beads and charms.The second spread with folded pockets and stitched edges. Painted cobalt turqoise fluid mixed with gesso, thought the colour was too bright. a wash of transparent yellow iron oxide mixed into the turq and gesso gave a nicer aged look. When you are folding pages in this manner the age of the book will come into account, if it is too old it will just crack or split, not a nice look.

We got five new colours in Golden Heavy Body paints in the 60ml tubes to add to our range in the shop this week. Transparent pyrrole orange a lovely reddish orange and great for layering, C.P. Cadmium red dark very dense in colour will be great over a black gesso. Transparent Yellow iron oxide I really love these transparent colours they look so good layered over other colours to give richness of colour they also blend into each other well. Indian yellow hue a beautiful sepia type rich yellow which is also transparent. the fifth colour which I just adore is graphite grey, think dark lead pencil colour I have used it with black and white blending all three colours in some areas, then dry brushed interference gold in places these colours really excite me. I can't show you the small canvas I did with these colours as it was a gift and I forgot to take a photo. However it came up so well that i will be doing more and I will share it with you then. We also got some colours in the 119ml pots for those not finding the tubes are going far enough. Alizarin Crimson hue, almost what I would call a blood red and transparent, I havent tried it yet but can't wait to try this one. Manganese Blue hue hmm how would I describe this colour I think it leans towards the turquise bit hard to describe I really like it and blue is not a favourite colour for me. Now Van Dyke brown hue, think of old masters oil paintings, my favourite brown. Gold mica flake (small) the small denotes the size of the flakes, very rich gold can see a lot of potential in dimensional art for this product. We have also got some new, to us, Golden gel products. GAC 900 fabric painting medium which gives launderability to painting clothes it is also adding to paints for airbrushing and screenprinting. GAC 400 stiffens textiles and dries to a hard stiff film. Useful for stiffening unprimed canvas or sculpting and shaping fabric can't wait to try this in mixed media. Acrylic Glazing liquid in satin and gloss, extends the open time of acrylic colours. Airbrush medium designed to modify acrylic fluid for airbrush use. Works well on clothing without the need for heatsetting. All these mediums come in 236ml bottles. Silkscreen medium in a 236ml jar water based/non textile use. Designed to blend with acrylic paints for silkscreen application. Increases working time and retards paint from drying on the screen. Safe to use with minimal odour, so there you go for those of you looking for a silkscreen product.

I have included this image I like from a diva's deste disc that I purchased. I love old photo's that show the clothing worn in that period just look at those boots and what about the long socks, or are they stockings. the standing little girl certainly looks happy with how she looks , the wool coats and hats, I bet they where prickly. This photo just gives you a sense of time, its not a professional posed photo so you get the old box she is sitting on with the building in the background.

I will be unable to post for a week as I am going down south to the country, to stay with our daughter and her family and some much needed R & R. I will catch up with you when I get back much refreshed and ready to go.

At the present I am feeling that there are not enough hours in the day and I could do with several more pairs of hands and a bucketful more energy. I have so many projects I want to get into that I am jumping from one thing to another. I want to play with the Golden products, I have just been reading in the book'The New Acylics" by Rheni Tauchid about the metallics, irridescent and interferance colours, I just want to try them out, but then I need to get onto my vintage fabric journal using silks, ribbons, lace, embellishments etc that I promised the girls we would do when we finish the altered book. Oh and then there is my fathers journal on his war years. and travel!!!! Well I must prioratise hmmm Driving to the shop the other day I saw this amazing tree all lemony yellow trusses of flowers dripping down. Now if you didnt realise we have had a lot of exremely hot weather for a prolonged period, one day of rain since before Christmas, so to see such a vision is extra special. So this morning I drove back to that street and took some photo's hoping no cars would come along while I am stopped on the brow of the hill (yeh its illegal) taking photo's, so I can share them with you.

Aaargh this dodgy mouse we have here is driving me bats, so I am quitting now and going to play, hopefully I will get the chance to blog again next week. Have a happy creative week.

Altered Books

Several weeks ago, the Wednesday class's started making altered books. The techniques we have followed are from the book 'Altered Books Workshop' by Bev Brazelton. Two other books on this subject I recommend are 'Altered Book Collage' by Barbara Matthiessen and the first book I bought on altered art 'Altered Book, Collaborative Journals and Other Adventures in Bookmaking by Holly Harrison. One of the students asked what I thought was the best glue to use in the book got me thinking so I started another altered book, I have included photo's of this book, it is a technique so have not gone for a theme but concentrated only on techniques and these I will share with you. The book needs to have sewn signatures (a group of pages sewn together not glued, if you open the middle of a signature you will see the thread sewing it together). Do not use a book that is to old (I would recommend less than 80 years old) as when a book is to old the pages have become very brittle and fragile, when you fold or bend them even after painting or maybe more so, they break and crack. I sampled three methods of glueing, PVA I found was too wet and caused the pages to wrinkle badly. gel medium soaked into the paper and was also too wet causeing wrinkles and the edges of the pages didnt glue down well. The medium I preferred was Golden Clear Tar Gel it spread easily and was nice and tacky.Golden does recommend this medium for use as a glue. Great also for gluing down paper collage.

You will see my pencil marks where I have left notes for myself on which method I have used to glue pages together or colours I have used. Throughout this book I am only tinting my Golden white gesso with the smallest drops of Golden fluid colours. The reason I have done this is because I personally love the colour of old aged paper and I wanted to emulate that colour. I found this method gave me those lovely soft aged colours and a matte finish. I really like this technique of designing with words. Before painting pages, with a pencil, draw blocks around certain words to make a message (ie on right side 'the lady's - face was oval - her - gown - provocative - beauty ) on the left (monsier, - the most adorable creature - lingering, - with - hope - met his eyes at last ) then paint all the page except the blocked words. When paint is dry use a black pen to block around the words then link them up with straight lines as in this instance, can be shaped lines, dotted lines etc. This class was a lot of fun as one of the students had quite a suggestive novel. Will be interesting to see what she came up with out of that text. I love how the words just pop out of the page. The fluid colour add is Golden Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, almost perfect reproduction of old paper colour.

Image transfers, the one on right page is Golden Soft gel matte and image on transparency. On the left Golden Regular gel matte and image on paper printed on inkjet printer. For gel medium transfers I have a sheet on our website http://www.artisticjourney.com.au/ that you can download.

Adding tags technique the stamping on the background is some stamps I cut out of a kneeling garden mat I bought from a hardware shop, its about 1 inch thick which is good to hold when stamping. It has a imprinted pattern on it which I think makes a nice pattern. The fluid I used in the gesso for these two pages was Golden Burnt Umber which gave a pink brown colour.

Cutting windows, the images are my own photo's.

I did say that this book was a sample did'nt I? Of course you cant see the eifel tower from a window in Venice, what can I say.
Cutting Doorways, the colours used adding to gesso are Golden Raw Sienna and then adding Golden Cobalt Turquoise and sponged on with a sea sponge.Through the open doors. Don't you think this image of a sculpture is awesome, cannot remember where I was it, possibly Germany, I saw some amazing art there.Finally the pop out technique. Images of gargoyles at Notre Dame and my attempt at drawing the church in the background using a black and white Portfolio crayons which I sealed with Krylon spray sealer so that the crayons didnt smudge or transfer. Next week we will be doing a page background and possibly hanging embellishments if time allows. I will post these when we get a few more pages done.