Thursday 31 December 2009

Friday 11 December 2009

Walk on a frosty day ...

... a few photos taken with my new Nikon lens:







 

... hopefully I'll get some pics of frost if I get up early enough!

Tuesday 8 December 2009

Published ...

... one of my rust/industrial decay photos was recently published in Lancashire Living magazine:



Better late than never ...

... many apologies to ANDI  for the extremely long delay in sending this piece for the Pocketful RR on the Altered Workshop group.  I hope it was worth the wait ...



 Home is ...

Saturday 5 December 2009

Journal

More pages in my "Teesha" type journal:




Wednesday 2 December 2009

This has reduced me to tears ...

More horrible news from Idaho: most members of Idaho’s Basin Butte wolf pack have been mercilessly slaughtered from a helicopter.

This deadly action is a brutal escalation of the state’s war on wolves

As most of us prepared for the Thanksgiving holiday, sharpshooters firing from a helicopter carried out the death sentence of the Basin Butte pack -- executing most members of the wolf family, including several 7-8 month-old pups.

This terrible news comes on the heels of Idaho extending its awful wolf hunt into the critical denning season -- even as the state is over half way to its deadly goal of killing 220 wolves.

Pregnant wolf mothers -- typically carrying up to six pups -- can now be targeted for death and any surviving newborn pups could face a slow death by starvation as key family members are killed.

PLEASE JOIN ME IN MAKING A DONATION TO PUT AN END TO THIS INSANITY!!!  DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE - WOLVES

Stencil experiments continued ...




Thursday 26 November 2009

Pin in the map

This is my house!   


Wanna Zendoodle?

I recently found some great art-making videos on YouTube and have spent hours soaking up all the inspiration and hoping some of it wouldn't spill out!  Last night I started watching one on zendoodling by Milliande.   I'd never heard of it before and was quite intrigued so thought I would doodle along with the video - I was up till 2.00 in the morning and ran out of ink!   Here's my far from perfect effort - Milliande makes it look so easy:



She has some really good videos but be warned - you'll probably be up all night!

Tuesday 24 November 2009

Take action against animal cruelty

It seems man's cruelty to animals knows no bounds - I'm disgusted, saddened and horrified with so much cruelty.  Please take a moment to take action against such sickening cruelty as: 

FAROE ISLANDS SLAUGHTER:  Year after year, thousands of pilot whales, beaked whales and dolphins are chased into the bay by boats, where they are slaughtered.  Metal hooks are driven into the stranded mammals' blowholes before their spines are cut. The animals slowly bleed to death. Whole families are slaughtered, and some whales swim around in their family members' blood for hours. Whales and dolphins are highly intelligent creatures and feel pain and fear every bit as much as we do.  Photos here, if you dare to look:  Faroe Island Slaughter

HOW GEORGIO ARMANI GETS HIS FUR:  The undercover investigations of rabbit fur farms in China and France – two countries from which Armani buys rabbit fur – revealed pitiful living conditions for rabbits, who are confined to tiny wire cages before they are slaughtered. In the video footage from the investigation, workers at the Chinese fur farm pull rabbits out of cages by their ears and shoot the screaming animals in the head with a handheld electrical device, often multiple times. Rabbits with cut throats can be seen twitching and shaking with their eyes wide open before they die.

These are just two of the many actions you can take to help end animal cruelty.  Please take a few minutes to help, either here PETA.ORG.UK  or here ANIMAL CAMPAIGNS



Friday 20 November 2009

New stencil

I had a go with my new electric stencil cutter today and apart from breaking one tip and another one melting, I was quite pleased with the result:




Has anyone else had a problem with the tips???

Save America's wolves - latest update

Sadly the situation has gone from bad to worse:  

The Idaho Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife have announced a “derby” hunt -- a contest to kill as many animals as possible, including wolves.

Nearly 180 wolf mothers, fathers and pups have already been killed in Idaho and Montana’s deadly hunting season. Now, Idaho’s wolves face a contest to gun them down as fast as possible.

Please take action to stop this insanity: 


Tuesday 17 November 2009

Faith is the bird ...





Faith is the bird that feels the light
and sings when the dawn is still dark.

(Tagore)

Just because ...





Sprinkle, squish between my toes,
The smell of ocean to my nose.
I can feel each grain of sand,
It falls from air into my hand.
The shells I find along the shore,
Picked up by birds that fly and soar.
They sparkle like the ocean's waves,
And carry sand from all the lakes.
I walk along the tip of the sea,
That’s where my feet leave prints to be.
I walk all the way to the end of the land,
The land that holds this beautiful sand.

(Morgan Swain)

Monday 16 November 2009

Save America's Wolves

They need YOUR help!


In Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies
On March 6th, 2009, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved the Bush Administration's discredited plan to eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in Idaho and Montana -- a decision that could lead to the deaths of more than 1,000 wolves!

In Alaska
More than 1,000 wolves in Alaska have been killed by aerial gunning since 2003, and state officials are pushing to kill even more wolves this year using aerial gunning, poison gas and snares.

In the Southwest
Misinformation and anti-wolf sentiment runs high, with the few remaining wolves in Arizona and New Mexico at risk of extinction. With only around 50 Mexican wolves -- and just two breeding pairs -- left in the wild, we need sensible, science-based wolf management to ensure the “lobo” will survive -- and thrive -- in the wilds of the Southwest.

It seems man's inhumanity towards animals is still going strong in this supposedly enlightened era - please take a minute to help end this disgraceful slaughter:  SAVE AMERICA'S WOLVES

Sunday 15 November 2009

Stencil experiment (part 1)

I made the sunburst stencil!

Blue bird

Saturday 14 November 2009

I hope you dance ...

Well this page was a struggle from beginning to end!  Do you ever have times when this happens to you?  I think it's the best it can be but I'm not very happy with it  ...


I Hope You Dance ...

The words are from the song by Lee Ann Womack, written by Tia Sillers and Mark D. Sanders.  Hear it on YouTube:  I HOPE YOU DANCE



First spread complete ...

... but then maybe not - we'll see! 

Be unique ...

Thursday 12 November 2009

Work in progress ...

Still some cutting & pasting to do on some pages and lots of shading & doodling; then the REALLY scarey bit, the writing!!!!



 


  

Tuesday 10 November 2009

6 weeks ago ...

... I was here:

(sigh)

White page banished it is!

I started adding colour to the pages with different acrylics (Golden, Daler Rowney) but wasn't really loving the results with a single colour so went back and added more.  I'd done some ragging on this purple page then rubbed in some transparent yellow iron oxide and love the result:




I'll probably alter the other pages too ...

Journals ready to go ...

My Fabriano paper arrived yesterday from GREAT ART so I made two journals following TEESHA's instructions on her blog:



Now to attack them with my trusty paintbrush!

The other day I received a package of goodies from my good friend CECE GRIMES on the Arte ed Anima group.  Instead of being plain ole SueB on the group I'm now SueBee (buzz buzz) and she sent me some great ribbons and collage sheets - thanx chuck!  Btw, if you love jewellery, check out Cece's Etsy shop - A WHIMSICAL NOTION

  

The group are also doing an ATC swap with different themes each month - October's was of course Halloween and this is the package I received from  GABY BIEBERLE :

                        


As you can see, Gaby always goes that extra mile when packaging her artwork!  Here's her fabulously spooky ATC:

 Thanks Gaby! xxx


Thursday 5 November 2009

Stencilling results ...

 Well here's the result of my first attempt at stencilling ... I've used a cardboard folder (those that Amazon send their books in) to keep my spray paint samples in.  Once it's dry (a little patience needed) I'll paint the inside.



I have learnt the following:

(1)  Tim Holtz masks are a nightmare to remove from their backing and are very, VERY sticky!  But they look great ...   

(2)  MONSTER PAINTS  are miles better than Krylon - they dry quicker and it's easier to control where the spray goes.
(3)  I should wear gloves or keep my fingers out of the way of the paint (see below).
(4) I can't stencil how Mary Ann suggests, ie don't think about it, just spray.  I don't do random!







Thought:  I wonder how long my fingers will be purple?



A stencilling we will go ...

My Tim Holtz stencils have arrived so I'm off to have a play ....


Tuesday 3 November 2009

Thought for the day

I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes!

Art inspiration

I've been feeling very blaaaah about my art recently, particularly as my muse seems to have been in hiding!  I've done lots of reading and surfing waiting for something to excite me and finally I found some inspiration.  I know it's as old as the hills but after finding Mary Ann Moss's blog Dispatch from LA I'm going to have a go at stencilling and signed up for her online class.  Finding good stencils locally is an impossible task so I've splashed out on an electric stencil cutter from Blue Gallery.

by Mary Ann 

I was also happy to find some how-to videos on Teesha Moore's blog Teesha's Circus as I've long been a fan but thought I'd never get the chance to do a class.  Naturally I've been out shopping for supplies and treated myself to some Faber Castell pastels and have ordered some Fabriano paper online - amazingly I found a supplier in the UK!   Check out Great Art if you think you might "need" some!

by Teesha

I think my muse may be back!!!