Freeing Up With the iPad.

Reflections, River Stour

This became . . 

After watching David Hockney on his iPad I was excited to get one and paint with my finger! I discovered to my delight that I could be very free and loose with it. As I live near the river Stour I took my iPad down there one afternoon in this lovely weather we've been having to try it out. I took photos and did some quick painting.

....this.

This came from...

this.

Now what I need to do now is translate the technique to oils.

Textured Garden Cherub

As texturing photos with layers in Photoshop is all the rage I thought I'd have a go at it.

This is the original taken late last Summer in my garden. I fell in love with this little chap and as he was reduced in the local garden centre he came home with us.

I cropped the original and changed the colour/saturation. Then I added a few different textures (I'd already experimented with ink and charcoal on different papers and scanned them) as layers - changing the opacity on some. The edges needed that old look so I had to do that from scratch there and then making a new file that I can use again.

old photo edge (Feel free to use this if you like. You'll have to scale it.)

Why was I messing about doing this when I should have been painting? The truth is sometimes I just can't do what I think I should be doing. It's as if my hands are tied behind my back or I just plain talk myself out of it more's the point! Anyone else feel the same?

A Splash of Watercolour

While I'm in the mood for posting. I'm sharing a little urge I had.


Watercolour is a challenge but its unpredictability is fascinating and compelling. So the other day I thought I'd abandon all fear and carefulness and jump in for a splash (literally) of the stuff! No setting up a still life, no planning, no careful draughtsmanship, just acrylic ink, imagination, years of failures, my homemade bamboo
(leycesteria actually) pen and blobs of gorgeous, wet, glowing colour.

It was very enjoyable, I have to say but maybe I'll do just a teeny weeny bit of planning in future.

Printing on Fabric

This is my printed (upside down -I couldn't be bothered to go back to Pshop and turn it around!) fabric of the rose I painted digitally in PainterX. The fabric is a plain cotton and I gave it a good covering of Golden Digital Ground (white matte). I did tape it on 3 sides to a piece of plain A4 paper so it would feed nicely through the printer. It printed well - quite crisp and because of the base it is washable. I initially printed one without any ground and that also printed quite well but got a little creased and a few inky black bits. It also washed straight out so on the remaining roses from the piece I coated first the back and then the front with fabric medium to seal the ink in. When this was dry I ironed it on both sides. When I did my washing test it seemed to work fine! It also has a softer hand (feel) than the one with the digital ground.

Having done it I wondered what I should then do with it/them? To find out you'll have to go to my other blog  LaziDazi!

Digital Painting

There is something about snowy, cold days that makes me feel sort of homey, if you know what I mean. I feel   blessed and very grateful to be warm and have such a wealth of materials to work with, as the mood takes me. This particular media happens to be virtual! I've been playing in Corel Painter X (it's X1 now) with pastels.
The idea is too see if I can print it out on to fabric and then work something textile/stitchy on it.

I think that will have to wait until tomorrow now as it will mean a lot of fiddling with glue and such.

I'll let you know what happens and it might turn up on my other blog  Lazi Dazi . Then again it might not work so in that case it won't!

Stay warm, cosy and rosy.

Something Cheery for a Foggy November

                              Suffolk Hay Bales    Acrylic on board 28"x24"


Hello Peoples

I have a new follower after all this time. How nice and welcome!

I'm not sure if this is finished but I'd thought I'd post it as it reminds us of heat and sun which we occasionally get in an English summer. I'm indebted to Su  (her lovely blog is su-livingontheedge.blogspot.com)  for this one as one day last summer she very kindly turned the car around and parked up a leafy lane in order for me to take a photo. So thank you, Su.

Looking at this painting as I write this post and being able to see it much smaller in front of me (rather than on the end of my nose in the studio), I think that I'll have to adjust the ratio of pink and orange on the biggest bale as it's almost 50/50. Just a thought . . .

Funny How Things Change

Lately I've been fiddling around with fabrics and threads. I've even done a bit of felting too.

It seems my love of texture has now been expanded to include all these lovely goodies. As for materials I thought I had everything one could ever need for mixed media work and then I realised how wrong I was, especially after visiting The Knitting and Stitching Show a couple of weeks ago. I bought shiny silks, embroidery threads, wonderful Wensleydale curls and wool tops. I bought feathered yarn and Lutrador and microwave dyes!

I haven't done a 'painting' for weeks and I'm now thinking of a different blog to encompass my latest love.

I'll let you know when it's ready although you never know, it may be just a fling, just a fleeting infatuation! Somehow I don't think so. Funny how things change!