It's Raining Cats And Dogs

We complain about our wet weather but compared to the poor residents of the North West of England, we have nothing to complain about. They have had dreadful flooding over wide areas and destruction of homes and livelihoods. Sadly some people have also died as a result. Sitting here in the drier south of the country we cannot contemplate how awful it must be to have your possessions ruined by filthy water. My heart goes out to them.

I decided to try my hand at another collage this week. This is the result and it is called Josephine's Tree. The lady and the tree are collaged but the background is digital. I was going to paint the background but when I started the watercolour began spreading on to the collaged leaves and spoiled them, hence the digital colour.

Here is the detail of the little bit of text I found that I thought would go quite well with the picture.

This is a digital image called Red Tree. For some reason Blogger doesn't reproduce digital red colours very well. They always look blurry. Take my word for it that there is not a blur in sight on the original.

A couple of gorgeous snowy Christmas cards for you here. They are produced by Canns Down Press who have a nice display of cards this year here.

Snow Bike - Sheila McInnes

Special Delivery - Hannah Cole


Some local shots of our beautiful autumn foliage and scenery.

My most recent charity shop find was the 1983 book below by Joyce Hargreaves published by Batsford. It is full of really interesting printmaking information and great prints. I have posted three of my favourites below. I can't post a link because I cannot find very much at all about Joyce Hargreaves although apparently she has been printmaking for many years.

Cockerel

Scraperboard Sketch

Web

Who could resist this seasonal door mat from Gisela Graham. I love it but I don't think I could wipe my feet on them. It would be cruel. They are far too cute

The weather was wet and miserable on Thursday so I decided to treat myself to a visit to my favourite local contemporary art and craft gallery. This gallery is like Dr Who's tardis. Nothing much to look at on the outside but goes on forever inside. It is a treasure trove of lovely art and crafts and cards. They have their Christmas exhibition on at the moment. Once inside I noticed a display of ink and watercolour original paintings by an artist I was blogging about last week - Flora McLachlan. What a coincidence. They were so dainty and detailed in real life. I didn't realise that she painted as well as doing printmaking. I also found a couple of her images on greetings cards by PrimeArts. You can see the others here on their website. These will definitely remain with me.

Greetings cards by Flora McLachlan

I have been reading a lot about the newly opened Anthropologie shop in London lately and after seeing these necklaces on their website I think I will have to pay them a visit soon. They have lots of gorgeous jewellery on show. This is the US link but I am sure they will have similar in Regent Street.

Idlyll Respite Neclace

Stone Garden Necklace

Cornelia Forster was a very prolific Swiss artist and craftswoman who created in many media including paintings, drawings, sculpture, tapestry, embroidery, ceramics, photography and poetry. Quite an extensive list. I don't suppose she had much time to herself. You can see a lot of her work at Adhikara here.

I really like her simple and attractive fruits below

and totally love this woodcut. It is very simple but beautiful.

I came across some exquisite stained glass on the Internet the other day. I have posted about stained glass before (and probably will again) as I absolutely love it. Traditional or contemporary, it doesn't matter. I think the colours are so vivid and vibrant that they sing. Only glass illuminated by light can give you that effect.

Here are some wonderful examples by Ann Sotheran who can be found here, Hazel Yabsley here and Angharad Whitfield here.

Angharad Whitfield - Allium

Angharad Whitfield - In The Garden (Autumn)

Angharad Whitfield - If Nothing Ever Changed There Would Be No Butterflies (Detail)
(See the complete window here)

Hazel Yabsley - Change Of Wind

Curlew by Ann Sotheran

Caroline Ireland and Stained Glass

I went for a slightly 20s hairdo here. The flowers are fibre tipped pen colours. Don't you just love Staedtler fine tipped pens? I am not sure if she is wearing anything apart from the flowers though...!

I like stark white trees on coloured backgrounds. Could be a bit Christmassy with a wee bit of a tweek here and there.

Pen and ink illustration of a woman and a tern. I love terns with their cute black caps. I will have to try and get my ladies to "smile". They all look far too serious for my liking. Mind you having a bird about to entangle itself in your hair is probably quite a serious matter.

Pen and ink with digital colouring. I had high hopes of this one originally but it didn't turn out as I intended. I suppose it is an example of co-ordination with nature. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

Some examples of stained glass windows found local to my home. You probably need to click on them to get a clearer version.

The following images are of artwork by Caroline Ireland and are produced using a combination of wet watercolour and pastels. I think my favourite one is the bird in the tree. It is a magical explosion of colour.

Sunday again and time for another blog. I spent some time doing one of my favourite things this week, and that is looking in old churches. I love everything about old parish churches and even better if they are over 500 years old. I think so much prayer, meditation and thinking of others in churches becomes embedded in the atmosphere, and I must say I have never been in a church and felt uncomfortable. I particularly love looking at and photographing stained glass windows. Admittedly much of the stained glass we see in our churches today is Victorian or later. The very first churches had plain glass windows. I stand and gaze in awe at the artistry and craftsmanship of the men and women who designed and made these beautiful objects. A bit like wonderful monumental sculptures of angels in churchyards, they are often overlooked. Not by me though. A church local to me actually has a tiny stained glass window dating from the 1300s. Isn't that incredible?

I have posted a couple of my photos of windows that I have discovered in my travels. Stained glass has a unique quality of colour that cannot be replicated by any artistic media that I know of. It has a intensity and vibrancy all of its own and although we all try to replicate that, we never can. I certainly cannot anyway. I have quite a few books on stained glass which I like to browse through now and again when I am looking for inspiration for colours. I particularly like the depictions of angels with the fabulous colours and patterns of the wings and the robes.

Anyway, to change the subject; my featured artist this week is Caroline Ireland. I have long been an admirer of her work but it is not for the minimalist. Her artwork has colour in spades. In fact, I think she probably uses every single shade of colour known, in each picture. I love them for their vivid, beautiful colours and patterns and mystical subject matter. She can be found at the totallyessential website here. If you click on the artists directory at the top, then click "I" on the alphabet, it will show you Caroline's name second down on the list. Some of the pictures I have posted are no longer on the website but she has lovely work there and it is well worth a look. She does with colour what none of us would dare.

Well, that is all from me this week. Hope you enjoy my artwork. I have placed it well away from Caroline's....lol.

Blues, turquoises and golds and a lovely English village

This painting is entitled "Golden Hen In The Orchard"

This little painting is entitled "Your Tree Or Mine?"

This is the preliminary watercolour sketch of my hen. Bit of an odd shape I know.

A decorated and stylised bird from my sketchbook

Stained glass window to the Caldicott family. Click photo to enlarge.

Cottage on the village green at Warborough

A village lane in Warborough

I actually put paint to paper this week and did a couple of little watercolours. One is of a golden hen in an orchard - very stylised as is my style. The other one is of two little birds who are having a bit of a confrontation over whose tree it is. Both pictures share more or less the same limited palette of blues, turquoises and golden browns. A lovely combination and one of my favourites. I have also included a tiny little sketchy watercolour of the finished picture. It doesn't really bear much relationship to the finished article but then a sketch doesn't have to. I have often produced a sketch and when I start painting or drawing the finished picture, there are so many changes that it doesn't seem to be related at all. That is the beauty of art though - it is an ongoing process and you never know where inspiration will take you.

I visited some friends over the weekend with my brother and his partner. They took us to a lovely little village called Warborough in Oxfordshire. It was the quintessential English village and utterly delightful. After a lovely meal in the local pub we strolled around the outskirts of the village and visited the parish church. We even spotted a couple of lapwings in the fields trying to distract us from seeing their nest. They had nothing to fear from us though. Because of the recent rains we have had, everything looked beautifully fresh and green. I love this time of the year for that reason. I envied the villagers with their lovely thatched cottages and cricket green but then I realised that there is a price to pay for living in heaven. They are inundated with cars during the summer weekends because the area is so lovely and a great place for walking dogs. I found the place so inspirational that I returned home and started on my little artworks while I was in the mood.

The parish church had some beautiful stained glass windows which are a passion of mine. The quality of the colours in stained glass is much more intense than I have seen in any other media. The one is have posted here is relatively recent and records a local Warborough family. I just love the deep raspberry and turquoises of the robes. Wonderful.

I have also included a very decorative and stylised bird from my sketchbook. I am so into birds at the moment. We are having large numbers of them visiting the birdtable in the garden and the fat balls hanging on the tree stump. It is so lovely to see the young joining in too. My birds don't resemble any of them of course, but I do draw the occasional realistic bird as well which I will post at a later date.