TWO SHEEP HAVING A LITTLE CHAT IN THE RAIN

The Summer countryside is looking pretty good and although it has been hot we have had a little light rain this week. 

The current challenge at "Art Journal Journey" has the theme "Summer Countryside", chosen by Alison.

Two sheep are having a little chat in the rain under the shade of the trees.

Do you like their green wellies?

Most of my Summer has been spent in the garden.

Here is Cecil with some of the many broccoli heads which are all now safely in the freezer (except for the ones which have already been eaten).

Last year a beautiful single deep rose coloured poppy appeared and I collected the seeds to sow this year.   Many of them came up.   The bees passionately love them, there must be something really special inside these poppies.

I bought this Argyranthemum this year and I just love the way the flowers in the one plant are either soft pink or yellow and change shade and colour as they mature.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my Summer sheep art and some of the garden.

MILLICENT AND BUTTER

Hello everyone.

I went out into the garden in early March and came back in a few days ago (almost true).  The garden is now more good than chaos.

I had to make some art for the theme "Butterflies", chosen by Mia at "Art Journal Journey" and made two pieces.

Have you ever seen a night-flying butterfly?  No, me neither, although there are plenty moths in the night.

THE BUTTERFLY OF THE NIGHT

The two flowers on the right are looking pretty  worried, don't you think?

The second is a portrait of Millicent who designs and knits her own jumpers.   

Happily for this challenge she also has a pet butterfly whose name is Butter.  He comes with her everywhere.

MILLICENT AND BUTTER

Millicent would be terribly please if you admired her special knitted jumper.

And do look out for night-flying butterflies.

THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS

I love the Honesty plant.  It is well named.  It is trustworthy and reliable and seeds itself anew every year but not in an obtrusive way.  

It quietly says "Hello. Here I am again". 

I'm joining in with Elle's theme "Language" at "Art Journal Journey" with the language of the flowers.

I was sorting through a box of old artworks when these fell out of an envelope and made a rather pretty arrangement all by themselves.

The flowers talking on black

and on pink.

I used the on-black pattern to create and print wrapping paper.

Here is Cecil again, showing the wrapped present and the Birthday card.

Cecil doesn't talk much but he does make his presence known.

PERFORMANCE ART

"Art Journal Journal" is asking us to make art on the theme "Inspired by".

I am currently being inspired by Elizabeth who, this month, is posting a series of ingenious artworks made with recycled materials.

I've hardly ever made art with recycled materials so was inspired to have a go, helped by my friends.

It started with a little box of soap, strangely named "Magical Beauty Queen", and a box of biscuits.

I rescued both of these from the cardboard recycling box

and made a crown from the biscuit box cardboard.

I used Mr. E's gold acrylic to paint the crown.  He said he had hardly ever used it so that was a sort of recycling.

The deep purple fabric is from one of my fabric boxes labelled "Fabric I will probably never use".

The striped paper was cut out of yesterday's newspaper.

The pink wooden block was an offcut from one of Mr. E's projects which I rescued ages ago and have been keeping as I just liked it.

I've got a very large box full of foil papers from confectionary collected over many years and I made a little banner attached to thin washi tape.

And now - what you have all been waiting for!

It's the beauty pageant results!  Anastasia has been chosen as the Beauty Queen!  Loud cheers!!!

Cecil is the proud compere of the event.

You can see the glamorous Sapphire in the background looking slightly miffed.  She was the runner-up. 

 

That was the only photo I managed to get because -

LOOK!!!!!!

A rather strange bedraggled protester has crashed the event.

"SAVE THE TEDDY" - what does that mean?

Nobody knows.  Nobody knows what to do.

Cecil has come out of his commenting box to appeal to the protestor who is saying nothing.

How did it end?

Don't worry.

It was just a game of performance art and recycling.

They are all good friends and got together shortly afterwards for a drink and a debrief although Sapphire is still ever so slightly miffed.

In case anyone is saying - "Wait!!!  This is not art journalling!!!"

We think it is.  It's (performance) art and it is in my Art Journal for today.

Kisses to all art journallers from the four actors - Anastasia, Sapphire, Cecil and Mabel.

INSPIRED

The theme at "Art Journal Journey" this month is "Inspired by", which was chosen by Eileen before she recently died.

So this month Chris and Erika are hosting her theme as a tribute.

One thing I enjoyed very much in Eileen's blog were her journal diaries.  Each page was full of little illustrations and words which were delightful and fascinating.

I thought a good tribute would be to post one of my older journal pages which are different but the same sort of idea.  

A DAY OUT AT PEEBLES IN THE SCOTTISH BORDERS

What am I inspired by?

My art group has a monthly challenge where the theme is chosen by one of the members.   Last month was an intriguing theme "Workman's marks".  We were encouraged to go out into the streets and look for painted marks made on the road or pavement. 

Here are four of the more useful marks I found.

The next is a coloured version of the previous photo to highlight the marks.

I made a couple of paintings using oil pastels and watercolour inks using all four of the marks above as inspiration.  This was the first painting with no photo-editing except for the frame

and after giving it a good going over with Photoshop I produce this.  It's basically a crop of the right-hand side turned anti-clockwise.

Concurrently the weekly challenge with my friend J. had the theme "Shakespeare".   I used this second painting, also inspired by the workman's marks above

to make this to illustrate the quotation "The isle is full of noises" from Shakespeare's play "The Tempest".

I hope you enjoyed this post and the paintings inspired by the workmen's marks in the streets.

A MESSAGE FROM MY BEAUTIFUL PRESENTERS

My "Single Flower" presenting team would like to say thank you to each of you who contributed to the beautiful Single Flowers we have seen this month at "Art Journal Journey".  We have loved each and every one.

From left to right is Anastasia, Cecil who is Douglas's new apprentice, the glamorous Sapphire and Douglas.

We showed this Pink Flower in the previous blogpost and we have been having lots of fun playing with it.

We made our own "washi tape".   It makes a lovely seal for this pretty pink envelope.

Come back another time to see what else the Pink Flower can do.