Late Adopter

I have finally got round to becoming addicted to Flickr ... why didn't anyone tell me ;-)

The main reasons I've taken the plunge are:
a) to stop my blog from becoming overloaded with photos
b) to organise my photos/scans of artwork and make them available for me to gaze at/bore other people with when I'm out and about.

My main problem now is that I have ton of images I want to post but have to go through and think of titles and tags for them. The first batch are up now (with some tweaking still left to do) ... mainly photos from our trip yesterday to the Scar House Reservoir in the most gorgeous weather imaginable :o) ... feast your eyes here

Look to the Skies

Ballooooon

I just about managed to catch the hot air balloon before it hid behind the building. This photo was taken from the nicest (in my humble opinion) bit of the York city walls.

Sun-bathing Butterfly

Flutterby

I love this one ... it's a red admiral I think ... I managed to get up really close for this shot - poor butterfly was probably left emotionally scarred for life. This is on the York city walls again :-)

A Flower for a Friend

Get Well Flower

This is another photo to cheer up my poorly chum who is pining for her now absent gall bladder (aka Evil Lord GB) ... sausages will soon be yours ;-D

A Get Well Soon Frog

Frog Napping

My friend had an operation yesterday and this picture is to make her smile, even if it hurts :-( ... Get well soon!!! Big hugs!!!

Sprinkled Jewel Drops

Leaf Droplets

The weather in York is super-sunny and super-hot ... makes me hanker for the seaside or at least a garden sprinkler ... slowly wilting here ... send icecream ;-)

P.S. Glad to hear my friend is making a good recovery from her recent op ... not back on the wine yet though so that's obviously a bit worrying ;-)

Superhero Drawing

Mine All Mine

This drawing is my own little tribute to my favourite necklace from Superhero Designs which I love ... I'm currently saving up for another one (or maybe this one ... how am I meant to choose?!!!)


Superhero Costume


Wendel Watches

The picture above proves the ~well known phrase~ 'you're never more than a metre from a cat trying to interfere with your artwork'.

If you go down to the woods today ...

Inca Rockery


Something in the Woodshed

Work in Progress

A happy painting for a friend :o)

I'm doing this painting as part payment for the ipod my friend has gifted me. It's actually more colourful and sunny than this photo suggests and it's only half done but I thought I'd show how it's developing.

Sunday Funday

A few Sundays ago I had an art play date with my lovely friend Liz (who I secretly think of as a 'Lizbet' but I haven't tried that out on her yet) and we took over her living room for an afternoon to make arty type things. It was soooo much fun and Lizbet (I'm sure that will catch on now I've made it public ;-) is now addicted to collage. Hurrah!

I *finally* got round to using a kid's paint set and did a fab bit of geometric painting (i'll post it here soon, promise).

Hopefully we'll be having another Sunday of glue, scissors and paint again soon :o)

Floor Treasures

I am a beachcombing magpie at heart and that means I notice stuff on the floor that other folk walk right over. Here are a couple of things I've notice at my feet in recent months ...

The Art of Seeing

This was one of a few 'floor treasures' I spotted at the Henshaws Arts & Crafts Centre in Knaresborough (see previous post) which is a very inspiring place to spend an afternoon. The quote is from Jonathan Swift.


Girl in the Grass

That's another one from the Arts & Crafts Centre ... there was a matching one that had 'Boy' carved into it but I didn't photograph it for some reason ... maybe my feminist side subconciously editing my shots ;-)




Faded Princess

Last of the floor stones from the Arts & Crafts Centre.


Floor Locker

I spotted this rusty padlock stuck in the floor of a track through a forest north-east of York ... the name aludes me ... have I mentioned before about how much I love seeing man-made objects in natural settings? ~~~ it's all about the juxtopositions baby :o}

The place where hearts grow on trees

Heart tree

This gorgeously delicate tree is in a sensory garden in Knaresborough where there's loads of inspiring stuff crammed into a small place (more photos to follow!).

BTW ... good news doesn't come much better than this ... and just read some of those comments ... the world can seem a comfortingly small place sometimes :-)

All the pretty houses

Roof with a view

That's the view from the view of the York Minster ... one day I might get round to going on the York Eye (a mini version of the London Eye) so I can do a compare and contrast ... I have a feeling it won't be the same as standing at the top of a cathedral but I'll reserve judgement for the moment.

Bless Birmingham Conference Centre

Flat wooden trees with cute cat face

I took this somewhat out of focus photo at a conference in Birmingham - I love coming across cool art in weird locations ... next time I'll steady my hand first though ;-) I haven't got round to trying to find out who the artist is so let me know if you have a clue.

Never was a Cadbury Girl

A gift for my favourite Cadburys addict :-)

Jeepers has it really been such an age since I last tiptoed across this blog? Excuses to follow but for now here is a collage thingy I made for a friend with a sweet tooth. The lady is from a 50s prom dress sewing pattern and the dress is made up of Cadbury wrappers ... next time you catch me with a mouthful of choccies I have the perfect excuse - all part of the preparation for my next piece of art ;-)

Words in Progress

I collect inspiring quotes ... here is the inside cover of a book that I'm collecting them in:





... more to follow as I fill up each page :-) BTW, the silver bits on the first picture are some groovy stickers from a local craft shop which I added some colour to.

Ouch ...

Picture of Pain

Several months ago I was in off work in *immense* pain (all better now, thanks :-) and decided I might as well try some art therapy to take my mind off things ... so I got out my watercolour pencils and started drawing my pain. Funny thing is that I thought it would be much darker than it actually ended up being - weird ... mind you it's a bit like when you try to describe pain, it kind of gets diluted along the way.

Lively Lily

Colourful Cala

This took a lot of patience :-) I made sure I stopped before I got the urge to run around the house screaming and ripping things up ... not quite sure whether it's finished really but I'm a bit wary about going back to *that* place ;-)

Dance me to the end of love ...

Embrace your junk-mail

This is a bit of altered art using a fab picture that my bank was kind enough to send me in an effort to try and sell something to me ... can't remember what it was advertising ... don't think they offer dance lessons ;-) So anyhoo I just added a fringe of colour around the sides, traced the edge of the dancers with a gold pen and then stamped a line from a Madeleine Peyroux song around it. Makes me smile every time I look at it, which can only be a good sign :-)

Slight Return

Blue Cushion

Yay, I'm back ... again! I have a glut of photos and arty stuff to post so bear with me :-)
The painting above was inspired by this photo of a silky cushion I saw in a magazine:


cushion source

I did it in watercolour pencils first and then *painstakingly* went over the bluey-green bits with a watered down blue metallic paint. I'm please with how it turned out but it's definitely one that looks better from a distance :-)