Sunday 1 February 2015

Winter Snows


I had my first 'snow day' of the winter off work & got such a lot done! I looked out for the gritter but for a very small road down to my house on a Sunday it wasn't very likely. ;)


I've been playing with a lovely book lent to me by a friend - Stitched Textiles: Flowers by Bobby Britnell  The 2 pics above were made based on her samples, not actually an 'exercise' like the drawings below - I think I just jumped right in there! I've also been involved in artchain & used these images for my first day.


BB has you draw a flower/seed head (or both, of course)  observing everything you can about  it - she used honesty & as it's one of my favorites I drew the dried sprig from my studio.


Here I've used my non dominant hand, must press harder! Scuse the bleed from the next page, they are very absorbent pages in the sample sketch book I'm using. I'll come back later & do an ink wash & a charcoal as suggested.



These 2 pages are changing the white ground in various ways. I've done most of them before but hadn't used my gold acrylic (top) or ink (bottom) till now, just delicious on top of wrinkled tissue paper & getting a sketch book together based on a borrowed book makes you actually do these things.


I had a great time during a power cut early this year making a lovely mess with acrylic, stamps pastels & spent dyes a la Hillary Beattie  (why do I have to wait till the lights go off?) - I'm enjoying her book The Gentle Art of Gelliping on mono printing but I haven't succumbed to a 'Gelliplate' yet - my gelatin plate lives in the deep freeze!


Here's in finished form one of the many cards I enjoyably scraped together - I do batches for my family & friends birthdays, so quick & accessible & you can't see it very well but there are a couple of stitches in there. Some even end up on the studio shelves.....


I also got a small hearts order finished, must make some more for my Etsy shop for 2 weeks time!


Sunshine above this morning


followed by a mini blizzard a few minutes later & on & off all day.


Snow drops in the snow where they should be

& even a little deer at the bottom of the garden searching for something to eat earlier in the week, hmmmmm...

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boy you certainly did. Love that sweet stamp you carved and your sketches in pencil. Yum. xox

Kim Henkel Creations said...

Hi Emma... what fun art exploration is! A great way to spend a snow day. Everything looks lovely, but I especially like your little orange leaf stamp on the blue/purple background. Here's to more days of winter creations! (minus forty here today, so I am tucked up inside the house creating!)

ju-north said...

A lovely post Emma! So interesting to see what is going on inside and outside!

Heloise said...

Beautiful cards and photographs.

Suztats said...

Love your tissue papers with paints and inks. Snow days are the best for fun creativity! You've been very busy, and it's great to see what you've been doing. I love my gelli plate!

Robin Mac said...

What fun you have had - I love it all, especially the tissue paper pieces. Fascinating photos of the snow and the deer. Keep warm.

Julie said...

Lovely to have a play day and you were so productive :-) xx

Linda Vincent said...

Hi Emma, lovely to see what you've been up to! I especially like those heart cards. Your outdoor photos are wonderful...how lucky you are to have deer wandering around like that.

jackie said...

Nice to catch up with you too. I have had a lot of fun with the block printing. Our winter in Hampshire is so much milder than yours.

suziqu's thread works said...

Hi Emma
I love your first two pieces and those hearts are really gorgeous!
Beautiful snowdrops in a sea of snow! I can't imagine the blizzards there while we are having sunshine and light rain!

Laura said...

beautiful Emma, I can't believe you're snow drops have been blooming for a while!!! Here just the snow is blooming, but the tips of the tree branches are excited for spring to arrive!