Preconceptions - UKS Art Journey

Had a go at this one but it was a very quickly drawn/painted attempt as I didn't have much spare time ...

Postcard Challenge No 2 - Brazil

This is my second country for Darcy's postcard challenge as I'm doing it fortnightly instead of weekly. This week's country is Brazil - home of the carnival ... oh yeah! So here's my postcard, not great drawing but I hope it portrays the feeling of carnival and Brazil.

My story continues and on the back it says

"Dear ... I can't believe it worked and that you'd choose to communicate with me ... in this way. It's not the way I ever imagined something like this may occur, but here we are. What now? Issy"

Pages I've been working on

This weekend I've been working on some art journal pages which I thought were finished but then I changed my mind and decided to add a few details.

The first was inspired by Tamara Laporte from one of her classes on her Willowing (Ning) site. I love Tam's work and the piece that she created was inspired by Alfonse Mucha who was a prominent painter during the Art Nouveau period. I have called my version "Wishing" ...


The next page I created using the wonderful Stewart Gill paints I used Byzantina and Alchemy paints on a black acrylic background to create a lovely iridescent shimmer that reminds me of tafetta. I really recommend Steward Gill paints they're not the cheapest but they provide wonderful coverage on a wide variety of materials and they are a joy to work with.


I LOVE the way the next page turned out. I had no intention of making it look this way - it just emerged. I used lots of different papers some of which were sent to me as letters/envelopes, others were once tags.


And this one came together all of a sudden. I only had the background for months and months, then I made a paper doll not intended for this journal page but suddenly with the addition of a few quotes they all pulled together. I'm pleased with the result. Unfortunately my photography skills are not up to par but I do my best to capture the essence of the pages.

OK, I decided to fit one more challenge in ...

I love art journaling and would really like to do a lot more to improve. So I've decided that I may as well work to some prompts, which I hope will speed up the process, as I often waste a lot of time trying to think up themes for my pages. I came across The Craft Barn art journaling challenge quite by chance and the first prompt is 'Buildings'. Participants are asked to interpret the themes however we wish, there are no rules (which I love).

1st Postcard - Austria

And so it begins ... Darcy's postcard challenge 2012. The first country that Darcy has chosen is Austria so we need to weave this country into our story of postcards. I have no idea where this is going to go but I've started with a postcard from a non-human which reads ...

"So ... I arrive here to discover you've left already. You humans have such little faith. Still, I've not been here before and it is a most interesting place. Do you know what a sewing machine is? Well apparently this machine was invented here in 1814 by a human called Josef Madersperger. An odd looking little machine, hardly a machine at all. I will await your contact". The postcard is signed off in a signature that looks more like runes than letters. The postcard is sent to Isabel Crombie, Belle Cottage, Beach View, Lamorna, Cornwall UK TR19 55Q

Want to know where the story goes from here? I will be posting every two weeks (not every week as most people are doing). My postcard from Austria is inspired by Gustav Klimt who was born there. His most famous painting is "The Kiss".

Welcome to my new blog

Happy New Year everyone and thank you for following me here to my new blog. I didn't have a particular reason for creating a new blog apart from the fact that I didn't feel that the old one was particularly effective. I thought a fresh start may help me to be a little more focussed and perhaps encourage me to update it on a more regular basis.

Did you make any new year resolutions that you might care to share? My only resolution is to try and be more organised and to declutter my life as much as possible. My craft room is a case in point it is bulging at the seams with 'stuff'.

This year I am going to be concentrating on two projects. Firstly Lifebook which has been created by Tamara Laporte of Willowing (Ning) fame. Lifebook is basically an exploration of self through art. It is to honour all that we are and all that we dream of being. During January we will be looking at all our positive qualities, our Goddess qualities as Tam calls them, in order to create a piece of art honouring all that we appreciate about ourselves. We will be working with other teachers besides Tam, one of them is Adrianna Almanza (Ady) one of my favourite artists (ever) and I'm so looking forward to her class and drawing more of her big eyed dolly girls. This is the artwork I created from Tam's first class.

The other project I'm working on this year is a Postcard Challenge created by Darcy. This is also based on a book format. We choose two fictitious people/beings from different places and create postcards sent to/from each other and accompany it with some art created on the postcards. I'm not sure I've fully grasped the concept myself yet and Darcy explains it in a far more eloquent fashion so if you would like to find out more about either of these classes please click on the buttons to the right of this blog. This is the book of postcards I have created for this project.

The quote on the front cover is by D H Lawrence and reads "“When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego,and when we escape like squirrels turning in thecages of our personalityand get into the forests again,we shall shiver with cold and frightbut things will happen to usso that we don't know ourselves.Cool, unlying life will rush in."

If you would like to see my old blog it's here http://craftdee.blogspot.com/

May I wish you all a happy, healthy and creative year. I hope you have a truly wonderful year where many of your dreams are realised. Stay safe and stay well.