Seasons Come, and Seasons Go.

"She enjoys rain for its wetness, winter for its cold, summer for its heat. She loves rainbows as much for fading as for their brilliance. It is easy for her, she opens her heart and accepts everything."

          Morgan Llywelyn, Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish

 

 

It has been about 8 months since my last trip home to N.Ireland and a lot has changed in that time. Seasons come and go but it never ceases to amaze me that the world is a beautifully designed place that runs like clockwork in spite of our delusion that we are in control.

I had two winters in a row last year, winter in the southern hemisphere followed by a northern winter. For this reason my opinion of the seasons has become a little askew! The Irish winter was wet and dark and cold but even so it was lovely walking around in my parents garden, sniffing the decay and dampness. It really appeals to my dark side.

 

 

However the earth has merely been sleeping! Look what has happened in the last few months.

mum and dad in the very green garden.

 

Some giant super-veggies!

              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The changes from winter through spring to summer  made me reflect on how the seasons are ordered and what a wonderful world we live in; which in turn lead to me designing this illustration.
The circle of a designer's life!

Thanks to my niece Tori for the photos of summer and freaky vegetables!

Summer Camp

The best fun a painter can ever have is when they are doing what they love, wading in paint up to their elbows and wallowing in colour!

This week was a good one, it was finally time to go to virtual "summer camp"organised by Carla Sonheim!  I packed my virtual bag and made my virtual snacks and off I went.

I had chosen to take the class run by Diane Culhane, an amazing painter whose work is full of colour and character and an amazing teacher. Each day we watched a video and then went off to our virtual cabins to explore what we had been taught. It was a great exercise in stretching the imagination and learning new techniques.

There were other classes I would have loved to have done but maybe next time.

I will show you some snippets of the work I did this week. It was a great inspiration to me so I got a lot of work done. Here is a small sample.

                                                               

Exploring line with angles and curves and then finding new shapes within the shapes which have been created and adding colour.

Creating a collage with random pieces of paper and then looking for new shapes within that shape. Isolating those shapes and forms with gesso.

Colouring the forms with paint whilst trying to retain some of the clarity so the collage paper and texture can be seen. Unfortunately this one got too opaque so a lot of the texture was lost.

Creating an image from a collage beginning with the form of a tree.

Adding colour to discover and create new forms within the previous collage.

This is just a snippet of what this week was about but for someone who like to be surrounded by paint, paper and ideas it was fun!

Feathers and Flux

One of my oil pastel images was used to illustrate an article in  Mint Magazine produced here in Adelaide by Annie Waters. Each issue of the magazine explores a theme and the theme this time was Flux. Check the Mint website out here and you can like them on facebook here. My image is on Page 36 of Issue 3, Flux which you can find here.

And he lives in a land of upside down trees.

Imagining a world with upside down trees!

Gelatine Monoprinting

This week the weather has taken a turn for the worst and we have had high winds and rain in Adelaide. This has meant that indoor pursuits have been very attractive so as well as developing my image making I had a session making some gelatine prints. When I say gelatine prints I mean prints made on a print plate made of gelatine, the type you eat! Apologies to any vegetarians....you can buy vegetarian gelatine but I have not tried it yet.


Gelatine print making is a great image making process as the image is uncontrollable to a certain degree and you get some wonderful texture and marks that you can't get any other way. Each print is a one off and totally unique monoprint.

I have shared the process here just in case anybody would like to have a go at making some too.

If you are going to make some prints you will need;

gelatine powder  (which you can buy in the supermarket. I have never tried the vegetarian substitute for gelatine.)
water,
a tray to put the gelatine mix in, like a swiss roll tin
saucepan,
stove,
acrylic paint, or ink
brayer,
something to roll the paint out on, I usually just use a tile or sheet of glass.
Gatherings of items you can put on your gelatine plate to  make images, leaves, pieces of paper, either abstract or cut-out, lace, thread, anything you can think of that you could place under a piece of paper!


To make  the gelatine plate mix 6 tablespoons of powdered gelatine with 1 1/2 cups of cold water in a saucepan. Add 1 1/2 cups of warm water and put it on the stove to dissolve slowly over a low heat, just enough heat to melt the gelatine.
Keep stirring it with a whisk to stop it becoming lumpy.
After the gelatine has dissolved pour into a tray. This amount made enough to fill a swiss roll tray which was about the size of an A4 piece of paper. Put in the fridge to cool and harden. This does not take very long, maybe half an hour for this anount. Take care not to spill it over the edges as it is very difficult to remove from the floor, well more messy than difficult and also do not put it down the sink as it will mess your pipes up.



When the plate is ready tip it out gently onto the bench. I usually place it on a piece of foil to keep any mess contained. Use your brayer to roll some paint over the plate. It should look like this:.

Place some items on the gelatine print that you would like to make your print from.

Place a sheet of paper over the plate and the material you are printing, in this case my leaves and rub the paper all over with your hand. When you lift the paper your image will be revealed! As you can see the material on the plate has left a negative image. You can use fabric instead of paper if you like.

You can now lift the material off your plate, and put another sheet of paper over the plate to create a ghost image which in this case is a positive image of the leaves.

 The images can be addded to in photoshop or by using them as a basis for mixed media like I did here where I added my watercolour butterflies in Photoshop.

The gelatine plate will last for a week or so in the fridge but eventually gets a bit yucky! I find that it gets more and more interesting as it gets older as there are more cracks and marks on it which add texture.

Here are some more of my images from this week.

There are many techniques which you can use to increase interest in your simple gelatine print. You can draw on the plate before you pull your image. Just remember to do it backwards.You can draw after you have made your plate. You can make marks with random objects you may have just lying around begging to be used either by pressing directly onto the plate before making your print or by stamping onto the image afterwards. You can create stencils and place them over the paint and then make your image or place cut outs which you have painted on top of your painted plate and then create your print.  You can  include your prints as part of a collage or collage onto your print.
For something really unique how about binding your prints into a book.
 The sky is the limit! just have fun.

I hope you have a go at this image making process and I would love to hear how you get on and see your images.

Staycation

This week we are having a staycation. For anybody wondering what a staycation is here is a definition;

"A vacation spent in one's home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions".

Staycations are taken for various reasons, laziness, poverty, appreciation of your own environment, family committments, too many cats.... the list could go on! We are big fans of the staycation and love the opportunity to  look around our beautiful city of Adelaide. We have wandered around like tourists spotting unusual bits of architecture in side streets we never normally go down, having lunch, hopping on and off trains, trams, buses and boats, drinking too much coffee and generally acting like we haven't got a care in the world. The weather has been amazing also even though it is winter.

Adelaide does resemble a massive mechano set at the moment. It seems that everywhere you look there are cranes and building work going on. Global financial crisis, what global financial crisis is that! It will be interesting to see what happens next!! Hope we don't run out of money mid projects.

The following photos are from our walk and boat trip on the River Torrens.

Loved this guy even though he looks like a fish out of water on the paving!

So bendy!

Lovey Dovey, lovey dovey, lovey dovey, all the time.....

This sweet little pair of birds have been billing and cooing and generally getting loved up outside of my window all week. They are adorable!

 Isn't it amazing how animals and birds form partnerships and relationships which are about more than creating the next generation of little birdies. He shows real concern for her, grooming her and spending quality time with her out on the tree.

 
































Sorry about the terrible photo but I took it out the window as I didn't want to scare them off and I didn't have a lens suitable for getting a close up photo.




They reminded me of this image which I did a while ago.

 Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time....Steve Miller "Space Cowboy".