Week 10 on Life Book (Willowing)

This piece was intended to feature stencilling to the side of the face. There is stencilling there but I only had one stencil and it is not a particularly obvious one, just small flowers but it is there hidden for the most part under seeral other layers of ink, stamping and paint! I never pursued stencilling as I found it hard to control the colours from oozing out from under the stencil but I need to persevere. Funnily enough my lonely only stencil is very like the background to my blog page! I have to learn to be a bit bolder with shading my faces. I do shade them, this one is in neocolour IIs and I used salmon as the base coat then added golden ochre, ochre, rose pink and white acrylic. I always get a bit nervous of the end result looking blotchy although I have learned that blending in additionally with a dry brush helps here too. Also I really must learn to scan my paintings rather than just photograph them as the photographs never come out as clear as the paintings and also if the skin tones do appear blotchy in the photograph you actually cannot really see it in the painting. That sounds like an excuse but it is true! :-)

"Mother Love"

I did this painting as part of Tam's Life Book course on Willowing. I painted it to honour my three beautiful children who I brought up for the most part on my own. It hasn't copied very well and hasn't come out as clear as I had hoped. At the top I wrote a sentence one of them (my oldest son I think) wrote in his news book when he was 6. It reads "My mummy always wears a brown jumper with a brooch and hoovers all day." The quote around my hair is from Isaiah "I will never forget that I have held you in the palm of my hand." I have always loved that and associated it with my three children. My daughter, Juliet, is at the top, she is now 40. Paul is my elder son, on the left hand side and he is now 41 and Daniel is my younger son and he is now 37. They had a really difficult young life because of our family circumstances and I am so proud of them all because they are all really beautiful human beings. I made lots of mistakes but I hope I got some of it right, they tell me I did. They have certainly taught me a lot too.

Three girls with long necks

I painted this over the past couple of days. I started with layers of neocolour then gesso, then sprayed ink and some more gesso in places. Then I collaged on some butterflies and added some acrylic paint with my fingers. Then I added the girls and finished off with a bit of stencilling. The different layers are meant to show through in places. Quite like it,I like the way they all seem to hae different personalities. That really fascinates me....the way you can give a face a personality with just a little "twitch" of the pencil! :-)

Life Book - Wk 8 ....A lot of play and fun!!

This was fun! "lIFE BOOK" wk 8, Mystele's lesson.... (www.willowing.ning.com) Lots of layering....pencils, watercolours, gel medium, gesso, acrylics....using fingers, cloths and brushes....scratching in, layering on papers and materials then "pulling out" a picture that you can "see" somewhere in the background you have created. It is meant to be freedom, fun and play and it really was!

My "dream house" - Life Book Wk 7

For Week 7 of "Life Book" (www.willowing.ning.com) we had to paint our dream house. I used the picture I use on FYW for the "Storytellers" group because I have always loved the image that gives us of a safe and cosy home. It has always reminded me of the home I tried to create for my children when they were tiny....just safe and warm and full of love .... and stories on Mum's knee! It was the only time in their lives when I could simply give them a cuddle to make things better.....it doesn't stay that way for long does it? Now I hope I can offer a cosy "Grandma haven" for my grandchildren too. So....for the painting, I just simply painted around the original picture. I really enjoyed doing this one!

My Dream Board!

Again a "Life Book" page. I wanted to do something simple here as the only things I want in my life now are just health, happiness and financial security for my lovely family. I enjoyed doing this very much.

My first gel medium transfer

First time I have tried this, always been a bit nervous but it worked just about! It was the Week 5 work for "Life Book" (www.wilowing.ning.com). So we had to use a photo of our face then add to it and also add positive words about our personalities....that was the hardest bit....be nice about myself....errrr....but the whole course is geared to help us do that of course. Anyway I have myself a nice off the shoulder ball gown as I have never worn one or been to a ball in my life! :-)

Week 6 lesson from "Life Book " (Willowing)

This is my work for lesson 6 from LIFEBOOK (www.willowing.ning.com) I have got a bit behind as I have been in hospital for five days (very painful and horrible experience) and been recuperating since. I have been stuck in bed or on the sofa but managed to have a go at this lesson with my work on a board. It is "Paint over Collage". You begin with collaging a whole page including the face of a model. Then you work in continuous layers over the top of the original collage, firstly with paint and brayering, then with stamping, then more brayering, more paint etc etc. This piece was designed to celebrate things we feel we have achieved in life and I decided to celebrate the place of acceptance I have managed to reach over the years about certain things which have been very hard for me in this life. I did some healing work on anxiety and guilt recently and the cat and hummingbird are symbolic of the fact that I am slowly learning to deal with it. I started off by visualising what my anxiety and guilt looked like - my anxiety felt like a wild cat that would suddenly pounce on me and my guilt (about mistakes made in my life) was like a manic woodpecker constantly pecking at my mind. I also had depression which started off as a big black slug but as I worked through the course, I learned to see depression turning into a gentle old dog who just got tired and worn out sometimes so I would keep him quietly by my side. I began to see the fear that made my wild cat lurch at me and dig her nails in so I learned to lift her from my shoulders and calm and protect her from her terrors. I did the same with the woodpecker...tried visualising lifting him from my head and stroking his ruffled feathers and gazing into his crazy eyes till he too calmed down. So when I did this painting, I put them all in but as I went on with my layering, I decided to paint out my dog, as I feel I cope well now with small bouts of depression. I placed my little cat in my arms where I nurse and nurture my anxiety as best I can when she raises her head and splays out her claws and I changed my crazy woodpecker into a beautiful hummingbird which I am trying to release forever.