Found a blue feather on the ground......

 As I was walking through the gate of a cemetery after attending a funeral a few years ago I noticed this feather in the grass under the pine trees. The blue caught my eye, I picked it up & put it in my bag. I have a collection of feathers in a turquoise glass jug in my art room, the blue feather joined the collection.

 This is the first layer of colour on the canvas, at this stage I had no image in mind, just playing with pastel colours.

 Just continued changing colours, turning the canvas to make the paint run in different directions.

 Adding more layers....

 What would a dark border look like?

 Made scratchy lines with thin wire dipped in dark paint.....

 It needs blue.......

 more blue......more drips...

 more blue, lighter now......starting to like the patches of  warm colours showing through from the previous layers....is something happening now?

 change again, add aqua.....

 remove the dark border.......still no image in mind,  creating texture using just paint.....looking better now......but not finished .....now I know it needs a dark against the light background!

 Then I saw my blue feather.....

 To finish I lightly sanded back some of the blues to reveal more of the warm under layers of paint.

Blue feather.

Sometimes painting without pressure, with no real or imaginary image to try to reproduce or create is a much more pleasurable experience. I enjoy letting go & trying something just for the fun of it, sometimes I end up with a painting I am  pleased with, sometimes not......but sometimes one thing leads to another & creates a feeling, atmosphere, texture, colour, a memory......an image: imaginary or real.
Yes I am happy with this painting!
(raylee).

Reveal

Just a little peek at a corner of my room.
(raylee).

(raylee).

Colour in my winter garden.......

 ......no words needed......

(raylee).

Mixed Media Experiments

tried some conte crayons over acrylic......

......& pieces of dry acrylic peeled from the palette glued onto cardboard........just to see what happens......maybe something, maybe not?

maybe it's just for the birds!
(raylee).

Nature Collage - 365 Creative Challenge 2013

yesterday's collage today......my grand daughter gave me the gumnuts & feather  to use in a collage.
 i rescued the cardboard, christmas  wrapping paper & raffia from the bin, & the hessian & old bits of doily were scraps from the wedding decorating.
all put togetther  with gel medium on an old book cover.

two more to go!
(raylee).

Mixed Media Art Pages - 365 Creative Challenge 2013.

 good morning........hope you are enjoying this sunny sunday morning.
catching up with posting my "365 creative challenge" pages.......
the first one is a collage on old book page with words highlighted & covered with black crayon.

this one of feathers is pen & watercolour on a collage of old shopping lists.

pencil, pen & watercolour birds on sketch paper.

 acrylic bird on previously painted & stamped note paper stuck over an old diary page.

 pva glue & acrylic over old watercolour that was previously stamped with moulding paste & painted with acrylic.
  the acrylic was applied while the pva glue was wet, when it dries it sort of crackles.
 i painted a glaze of prussian blue over the top half just to see how it would look.
 a lot of my pages are experiments, trying different applications & different mediums together to see what kind of textures & colours appear.
i have been keeping notes of each experiment so that i can repeat the ones i like.

leaf shapes in red watercolour from the tube, painted over a a pencil sketch on sketch book paper, which was covered  with acrylic.

 when it was dry i went back into the leaves with white acrylic, & when that was dry i painted the blue bits in watercolour again.

i wiped across the ones on the right of the page with a cloth while wet to soften & blur the look.

this "challenge" is making me a bit more organized in my approach to making art.
i try to have all the different mediums stored in a kind of order to make it easier to find the ones i want to use.
as well as my "how to" notes i also keep a written record of my photos .
yes,.... i know it's a bit old school, but it works for me.
do you have a system to record/remember things you do, or things you want to do?
i would be interested to hear your ideas.
(raylee).

Crochet Pillow Case & Continuation of Bedroom Makeover/ 365 Creative Challenge 2013

the  crochet granny squares all stitched together with a chenille back to make a pillow case, (this makeover began previous post, 12-7-2013).

it is a cool colour palette. it needed  something to brighten things up.

i chose  yellow.......a colour i don't use very often......so decided a little bit would be ok to add some zing to the blue/grey/purple colour scheme.

 i almost threw the lemons in the bin a couple of weeks ago but something stopped me. i like little touches of the unexpected.

 the back of the pillow case,....... the chenille, the vase, & the clock are op-shop finds. the bedside table & bedheads were kerbside throw outs.

i made these quirky curtain rod ends with styrofoam balls, feathers & glue from the cheap shop. the greys in the feathers tie in with the picture & the vase.

for the collage picture i used an old canvas bought from the tip shop.

i am almost finished in this guest room, just deciding on a bedside table for the other side of the bed, & where to hang another picture/pictures?
 this has been a fun project.......the white was like having a blank canvas to play with.....
i might do this again!
(raylee).

Feathers - 365 Creative Challenge 2013

watercolour & pitt pen on paper.........

torn paper images of colourful fruit from magazine collage & oil & water soluble crayon on old diary page.
(raylee).

All Mixed Up.......Mixed Media

another week of creativity.......well just some of it , i've  been busy with lots of different projects lately but haven't had time to photograph everything as yet . 

yellow is making it's way into my work.......but pleased to be back to my favourite blue!

i still don't seem to be able to stick to one thing, i like to mix it up a bit.

i have used watercolours, crayons, acrylic, moulding paste, pitt pens, aqua sketch pencils, sewing pattern paper, magazine pictures,

music sheets, business cards, printed photo, printed tissue paper, diary paper from the diary/planner that i am using for these collages,  small used canvas, masking tape & stencils for this week's creative challenge.

 we  would like to welcome Alejandra from Argentina , &   Aloquin from New York........we are so pleased to have you visit our blog.

& that goes for all of our visitors, hope you find something of interest to look at........don't be shy ......ask questions if you have any, or  just say hello in the comments.

(raylee).