De-clutter Day 3

A tassle from a handbag. I love the handbag, but the tassle was driving me mad.

Gelli prints with foam plate stamp

I did ten more prints using the same foam plate stamp technique yesterday. Not all brilliant, but they all have something I like. Here is my favourite:

And some detailed shots at an angle to show the lovely gold and bronze sparkle

De-clutter - day 2

Day 2. 

I'm throwing away a cardboard box. I had kept it since my birthday. It was the box for a beautiful vase that I received as a gift. And I liked the box a lot too, as it had some interesting drawing on it. But here we are. I've taken a picture of the drawings and the box is in the recycling bin. I'm doing well!

Gelli print with foam plate stamps

As I was looking at Gelli Arts' latest technique, I remembered I had bought foam plates in Deals (€1.49) a while back and hadn't really used them for anything.

First, I entered the monthly competition (I didn't win).

Then, I watched the video on their blog:



And then I got started.

And I couldn't stop.

And this was with just copying the designs from Gelli Arts, and using a couple of colours.
I can't wait to try out other stamp ideas. I particularly like the idea of writing, as it's so simple, no messing with mirror images.

This is my favourite of the lot:

But I also like this one:

And this one:

And this one too. This one would have been my favourite if I hadn't decided to mix styles and include writing, which I think doesn't really work with the wheels/coins/aztec symbols thing.

And here is a different one, using lines. One of the images is the simple print,  another is the ghost print and another is using the foam as a stamp, but I couldn't tell you which is which at this point. It's so easy to get lost in your own little world when you're gelli printing. I really like this one. It makes me think of the exhibition A Terrible Beauty currently showing at the Georgian Society.

And here are the foam stamps and a couple more prints

30-day de-clutter

I read somewhere, on Facebook probably, that if you find it hard to de-clutter your house, try to get rid of one item every day for 30 days.

So this is my item number one - a really old scented candle. It doesn't smell any more, and it accumulated so much dust that it would be a fire risk! It's pale green, but I had to manipulate it in Picasa so it doesn't look so gross.

Must See Exhibition - A Terrible Beauty

Movies

Time for a movie catch-up:

Lucy:
Scarlett Johansson plays a student who gets into trouble and ends up with a pack of a new drug in her body. And it tears open inside her. And it does things to her brain. Good action movie. Not as deep as it's trying to be.

Guardians of the Galaxy
A young boy is abducted by aliens after his mother's death. Fast forward. He's now a young man, a human who lives amongst aliens in a galaxy far far away. He gets into trouble. He gangs up with a motley crew. There is a lot of action. It's good fun. But not very deep. I am Groot

The Young Victoria
Lovely romantic movie about the young queen Victoria, how she came to the throne, how she developed her relationship with her husband Albert. With the guy who plays Quinn in Homeland. His name is Rupert Friend.

Frozen
The Disney phenomenon. After watching a TV program about it over the Christmas holidays, I had to  watch this. The songs will remain with you forever. Let It Go. Do you want to build a snowman?





Joe
Set in the deep south. Joe (Nicolas Cage) takes a teenage boy under his wing when the boy comes looking for work. Violence, Alcohol, Family abuse. It's slow-paced but excellent.

Locke
One man. In his car. Driving through the night. You wouldn't think it would work. But it does. The best movie I've seen in a long time.

Sur mes lèvres
A young deaf woman works in an office, where she feels undervalued. She hires an assistant - he's a young man who's just come out of jail. Excellent movie.

Documented Life Project - Week 7 & 8

I know, I know, I'm cheating. I'm combining two challenges into one. But that's the only way I could catch up and give myself time for other art pursuits.

Week 7: - Layers - Cover up good stuff - Going undercover

Week 8 - Layers - Repeating elements - It's worth repeating

I didn't actually intend to cheat. I started with an idea inspired by a web page I came across during the week, about the signs of a heart attack, and in particular the lesser-known signs for women: throat, neck and jaw discomfort. So I chose one of my Gelli backgrounds, and wrote on it a few personal lines. And then, I covered it all: the printout of that web page, a cutout from the latest Marks&Spencer's food magazine (always full of colour and yummy shapes), plenty of acrylics paint.

And then I went a bit mad on hearts - I already had the cutout chocolate hearts from M&S. And I added a big Gelli-printed heart and a few little ones, my own heart stamp, and a few stick-ons. Et voilà - Week 8 challenge in the bag!

And my quote, from The Little Book of Calm.

The background:

The web page that started it all:

The actual heart Gelli print. The heart I added to the page was the stencil. Sometimes I find that the stencil turns out a lot prettier than the print itself.

Details:

The facing page, listing all the elements:

Documented Life Project - Week 6

Week 6 Challenge is all layers - When not to stop - Don't stop till you get enough.

So I put in a bit of everything: a Gelli print background, one envelope, the reverse of another envelope (a small piece), a piece of an opera program (Iolanta - Bluebeard's Castle, Met HD), gesso, acrylic paint, stamped donuts, markers, acrylic silks, Distress stain, Gelli-printed donuts, and paint splatters.

BB sees squids in it. Of the ring variety, on a plate. Well? I see the bottom of the sea and all its wonders.

The Gelli-printed background:

Donuts and splatters:

The Facing page, listing all the elements, and my quote, from The Little Book of Calm:

Details:

Documented Life Project 2015 - Week 5

Week 5's art challenge is to use your underpaper. The journal prompt is "What lies beneath"

This week, I decided to only use one page of my sketchbook for the art challenge. The facing page, I used for documenting my art tools and props, like Roben-Marie Smith did in hers.

And I kept it quite simple. I added nothing to the page, except for a little doodle on the left-hand side. When a page is perfect, why cover it up? Quote from The Little Book of Calm again.

Documented Life Project 2015 - Week 4

The art challenge for Week 4 is Writing, and the journal prompt is Words with Friends.

My handwriting is really bad, so I decided to work around this challenge rather than take it literally. I picked a special email from a friend of mine and glued fragments of it onto the page. I chose a page with an ugly background, as I had decided I was going to cover most of it! I can't bear to cover a nice background, although I'm going to have to face that challenge soon!

I added a layer of gesso and Neocolor II to cover most of the text of the email. I added flowers, stamps, doodles, cut circles (from a messy Gelli print). And I splattered golden acrylic paint over it all.

And then I did add some handwriting, as this is something I really need to explore and develop. I pencilled it in, having used a ruler to make sure my lines are straight and even. I then used a Faber-Castell PITT artist pen to fill in the letters. A bit chunky, but I'm committed to the journey! The words are from The Little Book of Calm. I probably won't find quotes that work for every journal prompt, but I'm determined to avoid the usual journaling platitudes (Peace, Love, Art,...)!

My ugly backgrounds:

Stamped flowers:

Cut circles from Gelli prints

A little doodle on a post-it that got incorporated. Originally, I was going to use my Roses watercolour as a tip-in, but then I changed my mind, but this quick drawing was already gessoed in, so it's staying there.

And here are the two facing pages. Not very structured, but apparently, that's the style!

Roses

Spent a good bit of yesterday afternoon working on this little watercolour. Again was inspired by the same ArtTutor video (or here if you don't use Pinterest).

I started with a detailed drawing, and then I was afraid to lose the lovely lines and shapes, so I used Permanent Rose (PV19), a lovely transparent colour.

I didn't really think of my composition when working on this. It's just a little practice painting after all.











Here is the original drawing (I've darkened the photo so you can see it better). I'm glad I took a photo of it. I think I like the drawing better than the finished painting!

And my little setup at the table downstairs