Autumn Project-Finished painting

Here is the painting I did for my Autumn Project. It is worked in

water colours and acrylic inks. You can read more about the

Autumn Project  here

Berlin

Last week I accompanied my husband to a conference in Berlin.

I spent an action-packed few days on sightseeing tours with 

social events in the evening, which included a cocktail party,

a Cabaret show with songs from the musical and a dinner dance in a 

Museum. I visited the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and did a Cold 

War Tour. The Art Tour day was spent visiting the Old 

National Gallery and the New National Gallery, a contrast in both

 building styles and in the art works. We spent a beautiful, sunny day

on a river trip in Potsdam

Berlin is such an interesting city, with so many new buildings and changes

taking place, but the memories of the past are all around.

Here are some photos of Berlin.

Part of the Berlin Wall which remains 

The Brandenburg gate

The French Church

Sony Centre

Potsdam

Dutch Quarter in Potsdam

Bridge which divided the former East and West Berlin,
still painted in light and dark green 

Tag Tuesday-Autumn Extravaganza

This week the theme for Tag Tuesday is Autumn Extravaganza.

It really feels like Autumn now. The nights are getting darker, 

there is a chill in the air, the leaves are starting to turn,

and berries and fruits are abundant.

I was really pleased with the Autumn Extravaganza theme,

as in art class we are doing an Autumn Project. In preparation

for a painting we have been collecting ideas for autumn, so it

fits in well with the tag! If you want to see the start of my Autumn Project

you can view it on my blog here

For my tag I have made an Autumn wreath, filled with the fruits of autumn.

It is painted in watercolour, with accents in gel pens. The brown background

 represents bark, and was a rubbing with Inktense blocks over fabric

 for texture. The border is Washi tape.  It is finished off with 

a sprinkling of autumn leaves, made using a Martha Stewart maple

 leaf cutter, which I bought in the USA a 

couple of years ago. I photographed my tag on some of the

 pictures I have collected for my project.

A Country Lane

It was a lovely day for a walk. After a morning of rain

and dark skies, the weather cleared and I was glad 

to have some fresh air. There are a lot of berries at

the moment, adding spots of colour. Otherwise

everything is still mostly green, but the leaves are

 starting to take on their autumn colours.

Autumn flowers

These dahlias, which I bought in the market, are such perfect autumn colours.

 Each one is full of pattern and texture. I like taking macro shots to see the 

detail on each petal.

Tag Tuesday-All the Colours of the Rainbow

The theme for this week's Tag Tuesday is All
the Colours of the Rainbow.
As the weather here was very dull and wet, I

decided to do a colourful tag to give some cheer.

I have made some butterflies in All the Colours

of the Rainbow. They are made of tissue paper

and coloured in with  watercolour pencils. I went

over them with gel pens for a bit of sparkle. They are 

set on a background made from cardboard, which was

coloured and stamped. I added an extra rainbow cord 

round the edge of the tag.

The Eye of the Needle

I  consider myself very lucky to to have attended the exhibition  The Eye of the Needle-English Embroideries from the Feller Collection at

The Ashmolean in Oxford on Friday. It is a private collection of

17th century English embroideries, which displayed extreme 

skill and detail.

The detailing in the flowers, animals and birds is quite astonishing. The figures

are beautifully stitched, the shading in the folds of garments is particularly fine,

and the faces and hair bring them to life. The overall quality is dimensional and

full of texture, as padding and relief stitches are used to make different elements stand out. As well as embroidered pictures, either of Biblical or Mythological 

subjects,  accessories such as gloves, caps, and coifs and boxes and samplers

are on display.

 The Ashmolean is running an English Embroideries Trail to go alongside 

this exhibition, showing work of the same date belonging 

to the museum.

Photography of the Feller Collection was not permitted, so I am posting a photo

of the book which goes with the exhibition.

Micheal & Elizabeth Feller-THE NEEDLEWORK COLLECTION : 1

The Sacrifice of Isaac

C17th embroidery in the Ashmolean collection. In order to achieve a relief effect, real birds' skulls and beaks were used underneath the stitching.

Book Cover: Isaac, Samson and Paul

Beautifully worked book cover in three sections.


Apologies for the unusual formating on this post, Blogger has changed my
format and won't let me alter it.

Autumn Project

Term has started at our local adult education centre, where I am

 studying painting and drawing.

We have been given a theme of Autumn to work on. It is an open

brief, we can choose our own subject and which media to paint in.

I am not sure how this piece is going to evolve. Here are my workings

for the early stages.

Scrapbook of ideas

Study of a leaf

I loved the colours of this image, which I chose to work from

Tracing my drawing

Experimenting with watercolour

Acrylic inks