Holiday postcards

My postcards for the ANUK postcards on a holiday theme. Maria had given me lots of ephemera from her Majorcan holiday and it was fun to select items. I love coffee so there was a lot of references, mainly sugar bags.

Laura's quote 3

Picasso's quote about money, a fun doodle and a 1966 penny and ha'penny. This reflects Laura's 40th birthday and her return to accountancy. It's also an allusion to my first day of doing Treasurer business for the Parents' Association. I wrote a cheque for over £5000 amongst other things.

Laura's quote 2

Laura once gave me a poem by Robert Graves in a deco so there's a transfer of it on the LH page and his quote that there's no money in poetry on the RH page. But there's real money behind it!

Laura's quote 1

My first spread in Laura's quotes book. Oscar Wilde finishes "now that I am old I know that it is." This is not necessarily the view of the artist.

WIP2

Here's another bit of process enjoyment. I wanted a background for a Picasso quote so I doodled in pencil. I wanted to outline in a waterproof pen so used a Faber Castell PITT pen. The desired thickness came from a brush tip - which I enjoyed so much I started colouring in some shapes. This meant I used pens instead of pencils and I wet the red shapes as well. Very pleasurable.

WIP

There's been a shortage of art here for the last week, due to holiday and family, but last night I got out this page, a pill bottle, a black ink pad (waterproof) and my WHS watercolour crayons. I gessoed the page and then my mother phoned, for a while. That meant I had to phone my sister, for a longer while, and then it was bedtime. When I went to the book today I wondered what I was supposed to do. The crayons must have meant I was to colour in the rings when I had made them with the pill bottle, and the waterproof ink meant I intended to wash the colouring, but then what? I love the zing of the colours as they change from crayon to paint, it's like the excitement of a magic painting book on a wet day when I was little. Now I want the "ping" of an answer to What Next.

Failure/success at something else

I'm failing in the challenge to do a daily page in my art journal, though I have done a few backgrounds and thought out what to put on them. However, this is because of being busy with Parents' Association business. I was honoured, a month ago, to be asked to be Chairperson. I graciously said no thank you as I know I'm too immature (at 48!) but I volunteered to be Treasurer instead and suggested a superb person for Chair. Last night was the AGM and we were unopposed. I think we will make a nice team.

While not producing any art I have done a lot of thinking about it, and where and how I do it, and I expect to make changes after half term, hopefully with good results.

Daily art journal

It's all very well doing some art every day, but where's the time for photographing it and then waiting ages for Blogger to upload?

Feel balanced

This is definitely tongue in cheek.

Feel inky

I finally was able to buy isopropyl alcohol locally so I made up some ink sprays and played with them. The idea of the alcohol is fast evaporation but everything got rather wet here. It was nice to play but not highly successful. The back of the page actually looks better! If a journal is a document of life then this shows what I was at on Tuesday.

Feel blue

Having gessoed a page white, it was natural to paint a black page. Once again, something in the newspaper caught my eye: monkeys at the zoo who were afraid of blue face paint. (That could be a problem in Edinburgh Zoo as the Scottish flag is commonly used in face painting.) It was looking stark until I thought Teesha and got out my Aquarelles

Feel sharp

I love black and white. I knew what I was going to do here, then the newspaper I had laid down for protection had THE FACTS in black and white! So I changed my mind, sharpened up the act and got stamping.

Aspire

Ideas for improvement.

Feel glad

I'm about to pop in to a MacMillan coffee morning before going to work. It's being run by the daughter of a friend so I may only buy some tablet (made by my friend) and leave, therefore I've had a nice cup of coffee in my favourite mug. My mother was so glad of the support of MacMillan nurses a few years ago. (I think it's stopped raining.)

feel good

Feeling so much better with tidiness all around me (and I didn't feel guilty getting things out to use). Alice and I went to a show tonight to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support. It was very professional, with songs from various shows, and ended the first half on the high of Bat out of Hell. Lovely memories, so feeling really good!! (I had wondered about calling this page feel square, but I don't think I do!)

Feel untidy

I'd got disorganised: no space on the dining table again, art materials all over the place again. Spent some of the day tidying and cleaning, before chauffeuring again.

Two missing days

I made no art on Monday but posted my two RR books. We went to the 6th form production of King Lear at night, which was excellent: I am amazed at how word perfect they were. They all spoke with meaning, in the round. I'd never seen it or studied it so I was interested as well as moved.

Today I've been out with a friend: my creative side was thrilled with coffee in The Dome, originally bank headquarters, with lots of marble, a huge high domed roof, wonderful light and palms (and good coffee and a refill), watched dd rowing, and caught up with various things. So I'm failing the art journal challenge, though I did prepare a page before going out.

Everyday book

The task this time was sun-bleached colours and the seaside. The blue sprayed paper by Maz was just wonderful, weaved with a distressed copy of e e cummings poem and two mini origami boats.

Quote book

Quote from Robert Frost about shooting stars in Linda's book. I used watercolour pencils and the blue changed with water from what I had intended.

Feel fair - gosh the 6th daily page already

Harvest festival with our "new" mnister. Lorna and I were asked to do an activity on Fair Trade and food miles so the group stuck food labels from all over the world onto a map. Thought provoking. Some interesting web sites for calculating food miles and finding food in season. We were surprised how quickly it was all over.

Then a combination of art, Dr Who and Jane Eyre.