Treescapes

I'm not sure if "treescapes' is actually a word but I thought it to be an approprate title for this post anyway!
We had a lovely day/night/morning camping at McLaren's Falls and as I hoped I was able to get out and about with my camera. I took some 'treescape' photos as well as many others! One of the highlights for me was the songs of the many birds in the area, waking up to the morning chorus of the birds hearing the night calls of prey birds like the native NZ Morpork (owl family) and NZ Falcons. What a great way to start the day! Kiwi live in the area we camped but unfortunately I didn't detect any of their calls.Maybe next time:)

The bark peeling on the big ol Bluegum Tree is art in itself and I was also excited to find the ruby red sap 'bead' on the trunk. I was looking for gum on the trees I saw thanks to the inspiration I got from the Ning 'Art from the Heart' groups Organic challenge. I've never really notice sap before!

 Click the photos to enlarge them. You can also check out this Ning group by clicking on the new badge in my sidebar.

All of the above photos were taken of different parts of this tree and I collected fallen bark from it's base to bring home. I hope to turn it into a powder form and learn how to use it's natural colour for creating pigments to paint with. I will keep you posted:)

Muse me.2

Here's a few more photos from the Muse Me event. I really loved these bark loops that hung from the branches of this big tree, simple yet effective. Almost primal in some way...

this 'bird thing' caught my eye for obvious reasons! It didn't get the same sort of emotional response from me that the leaf one did but I enjoyed the cleverness of it. I bet the artists who created this never gets bored!

ICE #2 Woven

Laser copy of my nest photo and digitally altered bird photo, magazine scrap, green thread, tracing paper scrap, text from National Geographic. Collage on A4 water colour cardboard.

Collage #2. Title: Woven

The quote at the bottom of the collage inspired the whole piece. It says " The loom, the act of spinning, the notion of a community woven into the fabric of a landscape are vital and living metaphors"

The 2nd segment of writing says in part...their bringing together signifies conception...just as the world was spun, woman spun cotton and agave fibre into thread...while mean weave the threads.."

The words are obviously not in there original concept but there placement here feels right to me. The nest (coffee stained from yesterdays near disaster!) is symbolic and deliberate.

I am enjoying these collages!

Detail to show the papers and thread literally woven together in places.

I got an award today, from the lovely and warm hearted Irene who's been sweet enough to nominate me... so watch this space! THANKS Irene! :)

New toys to play with!

Well I have no idea why it took me so long but I finally downloaded some software for my computer. I guess my natural tendency towards being suspicious of any cool toys that are promoted as being free has been a little harder to shake than I thought! But thanks to a suggestion by Mick I ended up on trail of links is search of free software to download. I've ended up with a paint programme called dogwaffle and a photo editing programme called photofiltre. As you can see I played around with a photo of a bird in a tree that I took and posted a while ago now on my Tauranga Daily Photo blog (and it's also posted below) and I mucked around with one of the very few photos of myself I actually have! The editing programme is capable of a lot more than the basic functions I've used for these images (although I like these a lot!) and I am going to have a lot of fun playing around with it! Watch this space!

Paths and Passages

The theme this month at CITY DAILY PHOTO is paths and passages. I had 2 pics I really wanted to post for this so I decided to post one here and one on my other blog- Tauranga Daily Photo. If you go to that blog not only do you get to see my official entry:) you can also follow the link to see paths and passages from all over the world. It's an amazing tour. The time worn streets of Italy, archways in Rome, dirt tracks in far away places and graffiti on a lovers wall...here's my offering of fallen leaves and light play on a local walking track.

I posted a colour version a while back on my TDP blog in a post titled 'walk with me' if your interested in see that version. This black and white one is my favorite, I just wish it posted a bit bigger here!

Go well:)
PS:One of my favorite bloggers and artists is also working with trees at the moment...click here to see the latest works.

Van Gogh themed Altered Tobacco Tin

I can take no credit for the art work...I recycled the images from an old Art History Encyclopedia and then collaged them onto old memory game cards. I was thrilled when I realised they would fit perfectly! This tin has just left on a 10mnth RR journey and already I can't wait to see how it comes back! Guess I'd better be patient!

Updates- At last!

Hi All. It feels like forever since I last posted so I hope you havn't all gone and given up on me!
I've been floating between projects lately, not really getting my teeth into any of them but enjoying all of them in short burst. This canvas isn't finished. I seem to have hit a wall with it even though I started out with a plan- which I usually don't! It's a recycled canvas. It was originally a painting I did inspired by a unit I did on Jackson Pollock for my course. I liked the painting but one day when I needed a canvas to paint on and didn't have the money to buy one I decided to paint over it- which was a flop! I painted over a free spirited painting with no agenda to attempt a coffee themed painting which was purely commercial. I never finished the painting. That was over a year ago and a week or 2 ago I decided to pull it out again and give it a 3rd life...obviously nest inspired. I covered the canvas in tissue paper to add more texture as by now it has a lot of texture given to it by the previous layers of paint! I didn't have a lot of choice but to go with it! lol. I love the effect of the tissue paper (also recycled) and it's lovely to paint onto. The mesh is formally a bright pink hessian type material gleaned from a bunch of professionaly arranged flowers that my daughter got in hospital. It was quickly transformed to the browny-gold stuff you see here making it much more me! I thought I was going to do a weaving with wool and other fibres straight into the canvas (sewn into) that would be more of a 'flat nest' than a nest but still inspired by my love of nests. I went through a whole 'flat nest' stage before I made my way to pilings and my weaved nests. I am not sure what I am going to do with the rest now but as there's no rush I am just going to wait and see where my muse takes me!

I have also been teaching myself to paint birds. These 4 are my first 'new' attempts and while not brilliant the are much better than my previous efforts! I tried to paint birds at the start of the year and I got so annoyed and frustrated with them I gave up and told myself I would come back to them when I was ready, I had no idea that would be 6 months later! I was in the 2nd hand shop recently doing my regular hunt for art supplies and books when I came across a fantastic book called "The country diary of an Edwardian lady" which was written in 1906 and is full of wonderful water colour paintings of the birds and plants that it's Author, Edith Holden saw in her own garden in Warwickshire and on her travels through England and Scotland. She includes lots of poetry and quotes by Shakespere. This book is ofcourse a reproduction and the cover note tells me that someone named Tom gave it to his " Beautiful Wife in memory of our trip to England in 1981" (followed by 4 kisses!) My amature attempts do little to showcase her wonderful work, these birds are almost childish and cute but I do feel encouraged by the progress from my last attempts!

The last photo is a quick painting I did for my course where I had to make the words the painting...I worked quickly and it was a good energy release. It wasn't until later that the white spatters looked like...somthing else a bird does! lol lol.

The first Tuscany is going under a 'renovation' of sorts..I have covered part of it and started again in the canvas. I will post pics soon.

Ok, fingers crossed this will all post for me now. I will attempt to visit y'all now too..can someone please leave me Sweet Irene's new blog address as I can't find it! Thankyou:)

AB

Close up of right page (currently the front page. The following 2 are visible through the cut outs.

I should really ban the word 'finished' from my vocabulary!These are essentially the same pages as I showed last time but stepped up a little.
I really want to get good at altering books and decided to try several new things with these pages- cut outs and masking text. This book is a bit of a Guinea pig. Learning on/in/with the book means mistakes in/on the book or things that are a little rough, but practise makes perfect as they say! I hope you'll continue to enjoy the journey with me:)

Beads, wood pigeon and forest birds from recycled magazine.

Beads, Saint Frances (recycled magazine image) paint, tissue paper (for texture) ribbon, original text. Says "I see a temple in the forest" "I see hope."

I had already found the St Frances image and used the birds when I spotted the words " I see a temple in the forest" and " I see hope" which I pieced together from the original text and gave them a new context. I was looking at book sculpture on line and decided to do some cutting with a craft knife, nothing ventured, nothing gained! These aren't exactly sculpture in the true sense but that was the inspiration and this book now has a lot more intrigue. People have commented to me both here and in person that they love books and could never do this to a book. I highly recommend everyone tries it! I would never use a perfectly good book for altering. I choose books that are old but not collectable and not damaged (yellowed, spotty, musty, brittle) and I won't use a book that I think will be of interest to others. I found 2 copies of "Treasure Island" today, 1 of "little woman" and 1 of "Tom Sawyer" but decided they might actually get read and loved again by someone else. The books I use are either destined for the rubbish or an extended stay in either the 'free' box at the second hand shop or on the back of a shelf unread. I bring these books out of there retirement so to speak! Here's a link to an artist who does 'book autopsies' nothing gory, unless of course you can't bear to think of any book being cut up! They're very clever- be prepared to be wowed!

Altered Book...nest/bird theme of course!

I started this book last night and I am really pleased with the way it's progressing. The sun has been a real blessing, drying my pages quickly and allowing me to add to them or start others with only a short waiting time.
This tree page has a lovely sculptural feel and which really appeals to me. It's the second tree I cut out as I made a mess of the first one and chopped off a branch where I shouldn't have. I will leave this tree as is with the text showing and on the pages behind it I want to isolate some of the text...would you believe that I found 'sitting under the old tree' and 'before the Autumn rains" in complete sentences of the pages? Total fluke too as I didn't read the pages before selecting the pages I cut for the tree. A happy accident. I may also keep the image...

I had thought that the middle page was finished, but after looking at the photo's I think I may deepen the green to bring the birds out a little better. I was so thrilled to find these birds in an old 'knowledge' magazine for kids!

The top page shown here is finished and I found the bull finches in the same magazine as the woodlands birds. The pages are cut to the shape of an image on there other side (not shown..all I have done is paint them greeny/brown at this point!) and have been covered in tissue paper and then painted over using a sponge.

All in all I think it's been a great days 'work' and I'm looking forward to doing some more asap!

We're off to the hospital again tomorrow..hopefully only a one nighter this time. It's a check up to make sure the new bone has taken everything is as it should be..plus a cast change so shouldn't be too complicated or at least I hope it won't be!
See you all again soon!!

This was a comissioned painting done last christmas. It's probably one of my favourites!