Lino carving, dots and cirlces!

I've had an unexpected break from both blogging and art. I got caught up with birthdays, kids and family visiting and haven't created a thing in nearly 10 days! Even though it was really good to see our family I'm definitely ready to get back to my circles and dots!
I did foresee a short break so before it all got busy I spent the day creating a new lino cut.The cut is in part a continuation of the ripple effect concept I started exploring in the 'chain reaction' series for the International Collage Exchange. The resulting lino cut is below.

This is my first version....my daughter asked if I was thinking of fingerprints! It was too 'busy' for me so I removed some of the lines and ended up with....

I  like this version better, I wanted to create a print that reflected a concept I was playing with- that ideas and thoughts are like seeds. We either plant them out and nurture them or we leave them in infertile soil.

The curved lines around the seed illustrate the 'ripple effect' that takes place when we make choices. Every idea, thought or action or inaction creates it's own ripple but it all starts in the middle, with the seed.

This is a 'hat' print. It's the done on a serviette using a wet lino block. (hat = happy accident technique.)

I couldn't leave the print alone...as you can see I turned nearly all the prints into ripped seeds for collage work. I guess I could have saved myself a lot of work if I'd thought of this first! I think most of my prints will end up being 'downsized' in this way. Sometimes I take the long way but better to have gone the long way than to have not made it at all:)

I promised some circle posts from other artists in my last posting and here they are! Mick Mathers and Robyn Gordon are 2 of the artists kind enough to share links to their 'circle' posts with me to repost here.

Mick is a talented digital artist and through his art I've learnt to appreciate the art of digital collage. His daily collages are often part of bigger series, related to each other in their subject likeness but always different in their appearance and techniques. I enjoy the diversity of Mick's work and his ability to make a digital work appear either earthy and mysterious or bold and structural like the image below.

This artwork is part of his series "Reinventing the Wheel." Please take the time to click on over to check out the series as well as the rest of his blog!

Robyn Gordon is an artist who fascinates me! Her carvings are wonderful, earthy, rustic and soulful. Little niches filled with treasure and soft rounded curves that are beautiful to look at...and I imagine even more so to touch! Robyn also has a knack for putting together posts that honour the work of others and the link she has shared is one of those. I recommend you make yourself a coffee and head on over to Africa for a while! Robyn's 'spots and dots' post can be seen here.

Thanks Mick and Robyn! If you have a link of your own you'd like to see here it's not too late. Just let me know in the comments section.

Next posting: Fabulous Mail! I've received my swap items from LaWendula and my collages from the ICE exchange.

Autumn Treescapes

I was really looking forward to 'recharging' my batteries with a walk around Yatton Park last week and after several days where things kept coming up I finally made it there last Friday. The top photo is my favorite, the way the light falls on the trees trunk and the way it seems to go up so far it could reach the sky...

I couldn't help having a play around with a few of the photoscape filters, the result below is the combination of about 3 of them.

Next post: Circles and Dots- Featuring Mick Mather's  'Reinventing the wheel' series and a revist of Robyn Gordan's (Art Propelled) Spots and Circles post and some rusty bottle caps. Watch this space:)

::..::..Dots and Lines----

I've been surprised by both my own response and your response to my '....circles and dots...' post. Personally speaking, I love the act of making circles and dots and I like the way they look. I love the simple imperfect forms and the way the ink spreads and acts when the liquid is applied, it takes on it's own transformation and grows leaving me at it's mercy. I can only dictate so much of the final result and I like that. I never really considered the dots or circles appeal to other people and I appreciate the comments you've left me. Regina Dwarksang of Mostly Turquoise left a comment and said that she was having her own personal "week of the circle" and asked to link the post (thanks!) Neva said '...like the cosmos, dots, ever there, ever changing...' which summed it up pretty good in my book! Several bloggers also said they were feeling inspired to 'go make dots' which is really awesome to here. My journey with these dots and circles isn't over yet and I'd like to invite you to join in. If your doing dots and circles of your own, or if you have a favorite post you'd like to share or repost from your archives please let me know and I will do a post with all the links.

I like the lines..the random shape and size. I was intending on doing dots but the 'bleed' from the lines was more effective.It reminds me of rain. These are washed with tea and not coffee and the overall colour is cleaner than the coffee which was a little murky in places.

Yes...they do look the same as my last circles but they're blue-black:)

Some where along the line I started doing lines (excuse the pun!) A while ago I started doing barcodes to represent society (before the nests...) and this reminds me of one. However...this is was actually inspired by the life giving veins that leave delightful ridges on a leaf's surface.Leaves have a double appeal for me...visually they're works of art and the textures are so beautiful to touch. The act of rubbing a leaf is so grounding for me and it speaks directly to my creative spirit.

You can see from the photo below some of the ideas I played with. I think I will be coming back to the tree  idea at some stage too!

Coming soon: The fabulous handmade book that arrived in the mail today from Amelia Critchlow of 101 Bird Tales.

 An update on LaWendula's Mad for Colours Paper Swap and...

A Take it and Run post. Watch this space if you want to join in with this project!

....Circles and Dots....

I've been playing with circles again! I wanted to create some different patterened paper to use in my collage work and this is the first lot that I've come up with. I can see myself really enjoying these!

This top photo shows the order on which the dot idea grew. I took the small samples to bigger paper after this and found that I couldn't do it with the original pen (felt tip) I chose because it was too dry to smear when I brushed it with coffee. By the time I got even half a page of dots done it was too dry! Atleast it was an easy fix with a different pen!

I love the old weathered look achieved by the coffee and ink blending slightly.

I spent ages just looking at this pile just as it is here... tranfixed and totally absorbed in the thought process going on. There's nothing high tech or high skill about these yet I get the feeling that these are some how important in my artistic journey....and not just because I like the way the look!