Having fun with chalk & photo collage

I was just reminding myself that not every little piece of art work that you do has to be for a purpose - sometimes you can just sit down and do something for the sake of it. I was thinking about a project that I did with one of my art classes once. The technique is using chalk on wet sugar paper (construction paper). So I went out and bought myself some chalk yesterday and sat down to doodle. I did several sheets it is a very quick and easy technique. When you get the pressure right the chalk just glides on the paper. It is very fun and relaxing.


The most successful piece I did was this red one. I was thinking back to the original project where I had the kids look at painting of mud huts in Africa (wish I knew the source but I can't find what I am looking for on google) They used very simple designs but the overall effect was very dramatic.

Then being me I scanned my picture and played around with the pattern variations that I could make just by flipping and rotating the picture in different collages.







Above :- Simply rotating the image creates a nice diagonal effect.


Left :- Basic repeat. I amazed that the double line I drew across the page is so even from one side to the other.









Right:- The best for last, rotating and flipping the image makes for a very interesting pattern. Far more dramatic than the original. I might buy this as a rug in Ikea!

Breeze driftin' on by you know how I feel

What beautiful weather we are having! I just had to go for a walk and I took my camera with me! Look at that gorgeous blue sky.

There was a wonderful breeze blowing everything about but it was still very warm and I just started humming Nina Simone - Feeling Good . So the sort of day that makes you hum that song has to be good!







Our tree in the back garden is the local hang out for the squirrels of the neighborhood. There isn't actually a drey in either of our trees but they love to hang out there.

Here is a squirrel basking in the sun - who knew that squirrels basked!

Who could blame him, I might have been up for a little basking myself -if we'd have had any of our patio set out of the shed.




I wasn't even upset by what the breeze did to my hair - it gave me Einstein hair - you get to see a shadow!

Spring has sprung...

Well not really! But our clocks have sprung forward! And the snow has melted, it has actually been a little rainy which reminds me of home and I like it. The rain cleared up so much the other day that I thought I would go for a little run - that soon turned into a walk (I am really not one for running). Shortly after my walk began I circled back to the house to get my camera to take picture of some rusty water mains covers. I love rust! I am sure I could do some work based of these pictures. I am thinking rubbings and rusting process.



I must apologise for not being around that much lately. I have had some personal issues taking over my life in the last 2 months and much as I wish that it hadn't affected my art-work or my blog, I have to admit that it rather took over my entire life. So hopefully I can put that behind me for the mean time and get back into the swing of things. I hope that some of you that used to read my blog will come back and read it again. I have been keeping up to date with a lot of you and how you have been getting on. There are some extremely productive people out there and I aim to emulate you.

The promise of nice weather on the horizon always makes me a little happier, at least I don't feel so cooped up inside the house.


And so I will end with another picture from my walk which I am sure will become much more routine than the running will. I should remember to take my camera out with me whenever I go. When you leave without it you are bound to need it at some point.

This view made me happy, I like that the tree was there first and so they built the footpath around it! It just made me smile!

Unfortunately just after this there is a car park and then the footpath does not continue, there is a lovely golf course and not foot path to walk around it - not even on the other side of the road. I would have walked on the grass bank but it was a bit wet!