Two weeks in France with a small project book.

This delightful little book was made by Rachael, otherwise known as Shroo and I was the very, very lucky winner of this little book in her first giveaway. I’m not one of those lucky people who win things all the time; in fact I can’t remember ever winning anything as lovely as this. Anyway, I’ve never had a little book like this before and it arrived just in time for me to take to France. I wasn’t too sure what I was going to do with it because when in France I usually manage to find the time and space to do some painting, and it's usually the acrylic on canvas type of painting. I use a semi derelict building next to my sisters house and set up a small studio space inside. It’s a fantastic place to sit and paint and I thoroughly enjoy it. I borrow a small radio, tune in to radio 4, soak in the atmosphere of rural France and wait for inspiration. Anyway this time I arrived with my little book in my bag plus the pack of canvases I had previously posted. I didn’t have a plan or project in mind, I just arrived, set up my studio space and sort of went with the flow.

And these little drawings are the result of ‘going with the flow’. Maybe it was Rachael’s art work on the cover that inspired me but; what happened in this little book is completely different to any thing I have ever done before.

Above, first page started on the plane

I used pen and water colour on paper rather than acrylic on canvas. Over the course of two weeks I learnt to love the freedom of water colours and the satisfaction of starting and finishing something small in one session.

Above goldfish and coypu, acrylic on canvas

I did get so excited about my newfound style that I  worked on a couple of canvases  using this much freer style and incorporating the techniques I was using in the book.

above; red pot and view from the window, day it rained all day. 

My subject matter  turned out to be local wildlife. That wasn’t planned but the location is so rural and the wildlife so prolific and varied it was an obvious choice of subject matter.

Above, goldfish pond, goldfish, dragonfly and waterlilies.

I didn’t get a lot of photos because most of the time I was out walking the dogs when I spotted something, and I hardly ever had my camera with me.

Above, coypu, heron and brown river carp, pond up the lane.

If I saw something to stimulte the  imagination, I would stand and observe for as long as possible and then go back and download some images from the net to fill in when memory failed.

Above; lizard, frog and newt from the garden. 

above; magpie from the garden

Anyway….. this entire post in dedicated to Rachael because without her, her artistic inspiration and her wonderful little journal, none of this would have happened. This is what she said about the book and this is her site.

http://artyshroo.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/giveaway-winner-announcement-hurrah.html

A simple two-signature pamphlet stitch book, using pretty pink waxed linen thread with beaded dangles that hang below the spine so that when the book's open it will lie nice and flat.  I chose a mix of glass beads and Tibetan silver charms that would complement the splooshy colours.

I used a piece of ribbon from my mum's sewing box, threaded through the spine to tie-fasten. I added two yummy lampwork beads to weight the ribbon which can be tied in a pretty bow on the spine when the book's open and being used.

 I used some designer paper to create a lining to the cover and a spine-strengthener then collaged some vintage images - just because it looks pretty! The paper's a fabulous heavy weight cartridge paper (300gsm) which will take pretty much anything thrown at it, so ideal for mixed media work. There are 12 pages - it's a nice size for a small keepsake project

Well Shroo; This has indeed turned into a valued keepsake project,

with many, many thanks to you

Hopefull I will post more of my trip to France, but for now, I just wanted to get these drawings and my thank you to Rachael posted  :-)

The Goddess Ostara, the Spring Equinox and the Eclipse.

 The Goddess Eostre, the Spring Equinox and the  Eclipse.

Above is Ostara ( Eostre) drawn in 1884 by Johannes Gehrts, a popular German illustrator.  In this illustration the goddess flies through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putto (which were the secular equivalent to religious cherubs), plus sunbeams, birds, animals and spring plants. From the earthly realm below, the Germanic people look up at the goddess.

Today, Friday 20 March 2015, has been a very strange day. I set my alarm to make sure I was outside in plenty of time. We were told the eclipse would start around 830, climax at around 9.30 and be over by around  10.30. So there I was up, showered, dressed, out in the garden, camera in hand and full of anticipation by 8.15. For me, that’s very organized. I was so disappointed, the sky was full of cloud and the sun was nowhere to be seen. Anyhow at the time I was more concerned with what lay scattered over the grass.  At first it looked like the site of a massacre, there were little white feathers everywhere, plus a couple of what looked like tail feathers. The culprit was nowhere to be seen, I’m guessing it was a neighbours cat, there seems to be a lot more cats around here recently. I’ve been feeding the birds in my garden for years and never had a problem with cats harassing the birds before. I felt terrible guilt for actively enticing birds into my garden only for them to be ambushed by some savage, marauding saber toothed, needle clawed feline monster. I was extremely upset. Then I took another look and on closer inspection, I began to feel a slightly more optimistic. 

There was no sign of blood or half eaten carcasses and the feathers looked as if they belonged to a young seagull. If that was the case, I pity the cat because young seagulls are never out of their parents’ sight.  The parents sit up high on roof tops and lamp posts watching their young with hawk like precision.  Woe betide anyone or anything that gets too close or threatens their baby.  Mummy and daddy seagulls are among the most ferocious of animals.  If anyone inadvertently gets too close to baby they start dive bombing and attacking, they aim for your head and they can be quite vicious. And the noise has to be heard to be believed.  I’ve now convinced myself my garden was the site of a cat learning a valuable lesson rather than place where some innocent came to a traumatic and bloody end.

Anyway……….back to the sky and the impending eclips. There was an occasional parting of the clouds where the sun could be spotted if you were fast enough. It became colder and the light changed. I had my camera ready and my prescription sunglasses on but the light from the sun was so bright it was difficult to see exactly what was going on. But I did see it, not the whole thing because much of the time the sun was behind cloud but I saw quite a lot. I tried to photograph it as best I could but it was difficult. 

My prescription sunglasses didn’t give nearly enough protection, the suns rays were concentrated and much stronger than usual and I spent most of the time squinting up at the sky waiting for the clouds to part. I did take a few photos but in the end I just pointed the camera roughly in the right direction and clicked. These are more of a happy accident than anything else and the colour isn’t at all as it actually looked. The brightness of the sun, the intensity of the cloud and the strange eerie light was quite dramatic, there were pink and orange tinges in the cloud, but the camera exaggerated the effect. 

 

Then I noticed the long shadows. This far north we get spectacular light effects and exaggerated long shadows especially late afternoon in the winter months when the sun sits low in the sky, but this was something different. 

These shadows were stretched, not only very long but also very thin, they were elongated shadows in muted half light, quite beautiful but unlike anything else. In the end I wanted to get back indoors, it had become very cold and my eyes hurt through straining to see the sun. 

 

I thought I should try to clear away some of the feathers before I went indoors and it was then that I noticed the frogs, what a noise. Five or six of them were bobbing around the pond chasing each other, blowing out their little fat chests and making the funny froggy noise they make. 

 

AND….. frogspawn!!! Yep sometime during the eclipse, my pond froggies gave me frogspawn. 

 

And now I’m exhausted, now all I want to do is sleep.

Happy Ostara.