A FISH WATCHES TELEVISION

Where do ideas comes from?  Everywhere and nowhere.
I found these three paintings while browsing in my sketchbooks.

A page waiting for something to happen,

a fish

and a strange rectangle.

Together with the theme "Dreams or Wishes" chosen by Eileen at "Art Journey Journey" they became

A LITTLE FISH WATCHES TELEVISION DREAMING OF A WORLD BEYOND THE SEA

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We were no sooner back from house-sitting for a friend than we were off again to a cottage in the ancient Kingdom of Fife which overlooked this marvellous view with the sea in the far distance.

Every morning and evening we walked around the beautiful area.

We did see a red squirrel running around right beside the sign the first time we walked past.

The ruined cottage was just down the road from where we were staying.  I rather liked it.

Every day we walked along a part of the Fife Coastal path and I'll show you some of the walk in the next post.

A PAINTED SAMPLER

Hello everybody.
I didn't expect to be away from Blogland so long but a good friend asked if we would like to stay in her cottage while she was away on holiday.   As she lives in an beautiful part of Scotland, it was an offer we accepted immediately.

This little burn was on one of our walks, close to the cottage.

One of the (many) first things I wanted to do when I came home was make art for Erika, who is hosting "Art Journal Journey" this month with the delightful theme "Polka-dots, stripes, plaids or patterns".

We've been having a massive clear-out, including paintings and other art objects and this little sampler was one which I saved from the going-out box.

I thought it would be fun to make a similar sampler digitally using bits of old paintings and went through many attempts before finding simpler is often better.

Of course the garden has gone crazy and I quite like when it does that.

The tomatoes are larger than ever before and grow very well in Scotland both outside and in an unheated open greenhouse.

Last post I showed the upside-down wife

and promised you the upside-down husband. Here he is just as I quickly drew him, upside down

and here he is the right way up.

Hahaha!  I think he has managed to acquire a pet from another planet, and I'm not too sure about him either.  He's also brought a strange plant along with him (or maybe it's a lamp?).  Do you like his hat?


Hastily moving on, Mr.E's Sweet Peas are still doing well and here is Douglas to show them to you.

Once again I'm glad to be back and I look forward to visiting you again.

DOUGLAS GOES TO THE FESTIVAL

The month of August is the time for the Edinburgh Festival when Edinburgh goes crazy with drama, comedy, music, art, dance, books and so much more and the streets are full of happy visitors.

It's also the time when I and Mr. E. helped by Douglas visit the Book Festival first thing most mornings to have a scone (or two) and coffee.
This year Douglas brought a friend along.

Douglas also helps to drive us into town and of course has his own special street.

Aren't we both lucky to have Douglas!

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I had to make another piece for my friend Gill who is hosting "Art Journal Journey" this month with the theme "Anything with Eyes".

Those of you who still do or used to travel by plane for work will be familiar with the term "The Red Eye" when we are awake at an unearthly morning hour to catch a plane and even worse trying to look reasonably intelligent when we get to our destination.

I made a collage to remind myself that I don't have to do that now.

THE RED EYE

Manic festivalling leaves little time for making art but as the timetable was all upside down I drew some upside down small drawings each under two inches (5 cms) in height.

 UPSIDE DOWN WIFE

WIFE THE RIGHT WAY UP

Don't you think the wife is rather good?  There is no way I could have drawn her like this the right way up. I like her hairdo and frock, though maybe not the shoes.  Not too sure about her pet, though, do you think it is a flying cat? 

Come back next week to see her upside down husband. Can you wait?

THE ONE EYED GARDENER SURVEYS HIS GARDEN

It's always exciting to find what the new challenge is at "Art Journal Journey" and this month Gill is asking us to make art on "Anything with Eyes".

Of course I immediately thought of the one-eyed gardener and here he is, looking pretty pleased with his garden.

I'm pretty pleased with our garden too which has been looking its best with all the hot sun and cool rain.

Come along the Cobbled Path

to where the little sheep is looking after the yellow oxalis in the Rock Garden

and the most beautiful geum ever is flowering in the New Flowers Bed.

I hope everything is flowering in your world too and see you again soon.

TWO LITTLE BIRDS LOOK AT THE FLOWERS AT A GARDEN PARTY

Hello everyone.

I am still trying out the new colours and colour combinations from my "new" paintboxes, combined with my older ones

and continuing with the art I showed earlier.

If you are wondering - the objects on the windowsill are poppy heads from the huge double pink poppy which went insane all over the garden.

I don't think this piece is going anywhere but it has a few interesting bits and serendipitous colour combinations

as here, where I like the sweet innocent lime flowers

and here where I like the circles and the shade of pink in between. 

There's an interesting challenge on Instagram just now called "Garden Party Challenge".   We're given a list of easy prompts

and using the ideas from the painting above I made this.

TWO BIRDS LOOK AT THE FLOWERS

It's not a card (yet) so I think it is allowed at "Art Journal Journey" where  Chris is asking us to make art on the theme "We're all/going" which pretty much covers everything and my contribution to the theme is "I'm going to play with my colours and then enter a new Instagram challenge".

And for those of you who like to see my garden, here is a little border which is always a surprise as in Spring it is covered in Spring flowers and I always think, that's it over for the year, then it produces something like this.

Hope you have a good week and see you again soon.

GOING IN ALL DIRECTIONS

Hello everybody.

Over the past few months I've been going in all directions, often all at the same time, so Chris's "Art Journal Journey" theme this month "We're all going..." is very appropriate with

holidays -

the garden, always the garden, and especially the vegetable plot together with flowers for the bees,

and a rare collector's item - a photo of me in my gardening clothes, gardening face and hair, and my knitting, following the suggestion by my sister that I could sit in my garden occasionally (eh? what? sit???). 

I've been experimenting with some new watercolours in the paintbox and made some larger pieces which turned into rather nice cropped pieces too (for card and wrapping paper designs).

"Small Tower"

"Small tower" cropped and photo-edited

And a photo-edited version of the whole piece -

Going round the bend in all directions

I've missed blogging and visiting and I hope to see you soon.