Water Paper Paint… Play!
July 21st, 2011 § 16 Comments
I’ve been following the work of Heather Smith Jones over at her lovely blog for quite a while, having fallen in love with the delicacy of her watercolor works and her wonderful compositions. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when she brought out a book. I couldn’t get my copy fast enough.
Now that I have it, and have greedily consumed every word on every page, I have to gush… This book is fantastic! It’s not just a dry (haha!) how-to, it offers a bunch of projects to unleash your experimental side and makes you feel like a kid with your first paint set. It’s liberating!
I also love the gallery section which showcases the work of eleven other fab artists. Some, like Geninne, are firm favorites and some are new to me; like Andy Farkas. I have a passion for hand printing and Andy uses watercolor pigments mixed with rice paste instead of the usual oil-based inks to achieve stunning watery woodblock prints. Ooooh (rubs hands together) I’d love to give that a try! – And that, and that… and that! Seems like the perfect mantra for the entire book.
I’m really enjoying Heather’s exercises, being generally inspired and working with some new challenges. I love the natural loose texture that watercolor has. But finding just the right amount to use in a composition is a bit of a balancing act. What you leave out can often be more powerful than what you leave in. So I’ve been playing with the idea of just capturing the essence of something. Leaving out everything other than the essential. Revelling in one element rather than all. Sounds like a good life mantra too.
Pop on over to Our Creative Spaces for tonnes more inspired peeps.
Credits | Top four images from ‘Water Paper Paint’ by Heather Smith Jones. Published by Quarry Books. |
Pgs 140-141 : September Pages and Three Little Birds by Geninne D. Zlatkis | Pgs 134- 135 : Refresh, River Study 5 and River Study 6 by Andy Farkas | Pg 155 : Layers by Heather Smith Jones | Pg 50 : Painting for Using a Colour System by Heather Smith Jones. | Images from ‘Water Paper Paint’ are used with kind permission and are subject to copyright. Thank you Heather | Bottom two images by Alisa Coburn.
I love the postman…
July 12th, 2011 § 7 Comments
Look what he brought me today!
This is my beautiful brooch from the Flowerpress Brooch Swap. Thank you Jesse, I absolutely adore it! In fact right now feel like I am the luckiest duck in the world! Made by the hugely talented Jesse Breytenbach from Jezze Prints it has travelled all the way from Cape Town ready to be fawned all over and shown off to all and sundry by me. (I will do an excellent job of that Jesse, I promise.) Check out all those teeny-tiny perfect stitches and french knots! And the lovely cards all packaged beautifully and tied with string… contented sigh! There’s nothing for it, now I have to find an elegant new coat to do it justice.
Susie did I mention what an inspired idea your Brooch Swap was. Thanks for hosting, you’re a star.
Smuggling
July 5th, 2011 § 9 Comments
It’s school holidays… again… where did that term go. It’s all systems go on the home front but sadly not much on the creative. We’ve started the holidays in wonderful mid-winter style, timing a couple of kid-seeking lergys with being one parent short. So until the jetsetting Mr returns and Daddy Daycare reopens I’m on a mission to get as many vitamins into our systems as possible. I’m taking on the ‘Getting a Fussy Four Year Old to Eat Greens’ Challenge. Which is the height of creativity in it’s own right.
A while ago when I saw this recipe on Morrgan’s sweet blog I swear the heavens parted and angels sang. It was bookmarked at the speed of light. It’s got heaps, literally heaps, of zucchinis smuggled within it’s moist cake body and it’s got gooey cream cheese icing on top. I figured she’ll love it, it’s a winner for sure.
I did all the grating on the sly and the littlest was sniffing the yummy baking smells and helping smooth on the icing in no time. All the while I’m thinking if we pull this off it could be the smoothest con of all time. I sprinkled on some flaked almonds and served it up trying not to drool all the while. And then we waited, perched on the edge of our seats as she took a nibble… she smiled at me…
She loved the icing… and…
…tossed the rest.
Needless to say the zucchinis are jubilant. Cheeky sods!
p.s: The rest of us fairly inhaled ours, so I reckon it won’t be too long before we revisit it.
Zucchinis, your days are numbered!
