Week five challenge on colour me positive.

Sometimes i surprise myself this week the challenge was dream big and use a lot of colour on our background. All I could think of was an elephant and flowers. I wasnt sure if I could draw an elephant but this one came up. I cut him out of paper I had done some gelli printing on and the back ground was various layers of watercolour paint, inktense pencils and spray through a flower stencil I then cut out some more flowers using a punch. I really am having fun with these, I wasnt sure I would manage but so far the prompts may have taken a day or so to percolate but eventually something happens. so glad I am doing this.

Baobab trees

It is wet and cold, unbelievable. Lovely steady rain and a fire has been lit!! I have been sewing a bit and also looking to see if I could wangle a trip to the centre but in doing so (dont think it will happen) I went through some of the photos from other trips and needed to do some drawing, love ;Baobabs.

Keeping my hand in

I had fun doing this but was a bit disappointed that my inkjet sticks and my water pen didnt do quite what I wanted them to do, still it was fun.

week 4 of colour me positive

This week we had to add a photo or drawing of ourselves, I chose a photo and the challenge was to use the words believe in yourself. I loved doing this page, turquoise paint. stencils, amethyst spray, then some drawing. Great fun. I dont aspire to the heights some of the participants go to, but I do stretch my self a bit every week. Arthritic hands which seem to be getting worse dont exactly help so I tend to try and keep it relatively simple.

From my sketchbook

It is so hot I have done very little, a short walk in the morning, what house work has to be done and then try to find something to fill in the time. I have been watching the stages of the Tour Down Under on tv, glad they are riding in this heat and not me! So the sketchbook has been out and as the colour me positive challenge has been enthusing me I have been sketching and playing with real and imaginary things. Great fun. I really wish we would get a decent cool change preferably with a lot of gentle steady rain. It is amazing how at this time of the year, whe3n tempers are short, money is tight things begin to fall in a heap. We are making bread in the breadmaker with a shifting spanner on the bucket to hold it down, we have ordered a new one but that will be a week, water pumps are breaking down, leaks in pipes, under the concrete of course. I wonder what next.

Week 3 of colour me positive challenge

I have been having a bit of fun with these challenges, it is free to join, google it. The quote this week was Live Life and we could put in a bit from a song. I used a bit of one of David Bowies as it seemed somehow appropriate. This is stretching me, I am only using an A5 book, an Indian hand made paper one, it has lovely thick paper for painting. I am tending to do layers, probably a bit too subtle on this one to see but I am not very good at coming up with fresh new ideas so this is pushing me beyond my comfort zone. Not a bad thing. I hope I can keep up with the full 52 weeks.There are some amazing pages being done. Getting hotter, we walked early this morning. Yesterday was the local Young stock show for our Welsh ponies. We did nothing in one ring, he obviously didnt like us or our ponies but well in the other, 2 reserve champions and a champion.Very hot, a long way to go, not the best grounds and I think we will seriously think about not going next year. A shame but this is such a hot time of the year, it is not easy getting stock ready and it coincides with the cycling Tour Down Under and cyclists are out every where, not much fun negotiating them on the Adelaide hills roads.

Having fun wth pen and inktense pencils

I had fun doing this, maybe a few more to be done when I have time. Hot and humid.

Colour me Positive week 2 and a bird

My arthritic and rather shaky hands are meaning that today when I did my week 2 of the colour me Positive challenge I had to keep it simple. The prompt was Be Brave. I had fun doing this, I had already painted a background in acrylics, using up some paint I had left over, and so I then worked out what I wanted to say and sprayed over a star stencil and another I had. Drew up a figure and some star shapes and cut them from left over gelli plate papers, so useful to have on hand and after gluing them down wrote as well as I could my words. I suppose I could cut them out or use stencils or stamps but somehow I wanted to have the personal touch of my own fairly wonky writing. Wish I had done caligraphy when I was young. I am having a lot of fun with the gelli papers making birds too, painting the reeds, drawing seed heads. I dont know where or when this will stop but I love the different birds I am creating and as some one said, they will make wonderful cards. John has gone fishing today, and he rang to say he is on his way home with some fish, Hooray. Last night we went over to my youngest daughter and her husbands place for dinner and my lovely granddaughters partner had come with some fresh crayfish which we had on the bbq, absolutely delicious and I have 2 frozen cooked ones in the freezer for later. It wasnt a late night but lovely to sit outside and eat good food and I even had a glass of bubbles. today I have walked around the ponies, early when it was cooler and then mopped the house, I now have the air conditioner on as it went from a very pleasant low to mid twenties this morning and cloud to the sun out and mid thirties. Playing with paint and glue as well, slow but fun.

Gelli print birds

I have been having fun drawing bird shapes on the back of paper I have printed using my gelli plate. What to do with them? I played around with some acrylic paint and small canvas boards. My arthritic hands make painting the legs a bit difficult. I am finding that I can't do fine painting any more.

New Challenge

I have joined a free on line group called Colour me Positive which will give a challenge each week of an art journaling prompt. I am not good at art journaling but thought it would at least make me try to do something every week. I found a smallish book with hand made papers in it that I have had for ages and have begun, I dont know if it will last a year, I may have to do two books. Our first prompt was Gratitude. I am not sure if you can read what I wrote, double click if you cant. I had fun with it but it is very like the suggested first post, I will try not to copy, others in this group have done marvellous things. It has finally cooled down, it is windy and quite cold, now all I want to do is sleep! I hope every one has a brilliant 2016.