Finished What's Love got to do with it?

This is the finished and varnished picture. For once I am happy with the result!

So proud of my little dog Molly

Just been over to my friend Carols. She has lambs and we let them out to play. My dog Molly has never met lambs before, so she now is my star girl. These lambs are boinging all over the place, coming right up nose to nose and she has not chased them at all.

This is such good news as when I first got her she chased everything, with a view to a kill too, so re-training does work!!

What's Love got to do with it?

Another piece I am working on 24x24 on hardboard.

!st stage is to prime with Gerstacker primer, its a new one and I find it very good and very waterproof. Then a layer of polyfiller, with stamps and various media attached. I had no idea what was going on with this work, so just went with it.

Next leave to dry. Then more primer. then make sure all is stuck don and leave to dry.

Board has warped a bit but it flexes without breaking the top materials so its ok to continue. Framer is going to have fun with this one.

Now I am throwing some paint at it and cooking this with the heat gun. Set off the house fire alarms twice, so exited to the garden!!!! Colours used, Pthalo turquoise, some very vivid cheap (the works) yellow, copper and gold. Looking good so far. Now I want to lighten the background with some white. Then it will get some bitumen which will change the colours. After this I will overpaint more acrylics.

New Paintings.

Well I am trying to get out of my sock phase. I have a 3rd pair for stock on the go, but I am now painting again.

Here are the latest two paintings.

Green Sunday - corny its got green in and was painted on a Sunday - this one is just not taking a good photo, so looks a bit flat colour wise.

Blue Autumn - say what you see is my new motto.

A couple of close-ups so you can see some details.

I have another on the go, which is mixed media, so far its got polyfiller, those net bags from oranges, wool and eggshell. Now I am having fun throwing some paint about.

Dickens ATC's

I have a few online arty friends and we are swapping 5x7 ATC's. I have been experimenting with image transfer, using Berol Marvin Medium. These have worked quite well but need patience and if you wet them too much they get sticky on the front side. So I had several failures.

Method is to photocopy the original design, then paint the Marvin Medium on the front. Two coats were needed, with 2 days drying time between coats. Then another two days to cure. You then wet the back of the image and rub off the paper. You are left with a transparent image, sometimes better than others.

These are the ATC's I made using pages from Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens, published by Chapman Hall, published 1886 (the book is in very poor condition so I felt it was ok to break it up). Images stuck on with Atelier Binder medium. Top coat Gloden Tar Gel and I used acrylic paints. The cut out flowers from the paper have also been stuck on in some of the images. Two paintings have been cut up, both on 140lb water colour paper.

Manfred Mann - Colchester Mercury

I have been to another concert!! So late start this am.

Managed to get to meet the band and got all their autographs too. Plus just two quick pictures.

Paul Jones (69) and Tom Mcguinness (70) still playing fantastic.

Not so good an image I need a new camera, this was on my mobile.

Anyway i had a good time.

Having had surgery my poor wee dog is finding it hard to recuperate.  Upset tummys all round. Poor Molly had been ill again when I got home. Friends had looked after her till 10. She had the runs all over the art room, thankfully its lino, but at 11pm not fun to clean up!! Its another saga in my life but I do hope she is now going to be better.

The Blues Band at The Apex in Bury St Edmunds

Last night I went to the Apex to see my favorite band, The Blues Band. http://www.thebluesband.net/  I just love these guys and have been going to their concerts for 31 years. OM goodness that is a long time. 

Well it was a real hoot I decided to have a go and see if I could still fit into one of the old tour T-shirt, miracle with a bit of adjustment to my spare tyre yeah I'm in. Loads of people asked me about the teeshirt and my badges, even the staff!! I know I'm an old groupie, but you just can' get the groupie out of the girl no matter how old she is!!

Over the years i reckon I have been to over 40 concerts, stayed for a weekend with the band and other fans in a hotel in Grimsby, met all the band many times and know the roadie and staff that always sell the merchandise. Its a bit like a family thing. 

If any of you are old enough the lead singer is one Paul Jones who was lead singer with Manfred Mann in the 1960's. Tom McGuinness was also lead guitarist in MM. Dave Kelly is the best ever slide and acoustic player he's been in some great bands too. Base is played by Gary Fletcher who writes a mean song too. Drums are played by Rob Townsend, he's brilliant too.

If you like blues Paul Jones has a radio show on BBC R2 on Mondays at 7pm. That show has been running since the 1980's. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00y8x5p/Paul_Jones_09_02_2011/ 

This was one of the best gigs I have seen the guys play and if I died now I'd be happy.

Not much art going on here as I am still on socks. Nearly at the end of my patience with them, so the needles will be going away soon for their summer vacation.

Digging has been going on at the veg plot as we have had some good drying winds. The greenhouse has nearly been cleared out and the earth from that is put on the root crop beds.