Beach bound

We were going to go to our favourite beach today but didn't in the end as the Mr wasn't feeling very well. So we stayed at home and ate popcorn and watched a film (I know, criminal in this weather but it was nice), and I made some new pieces for the shop. 

The beach we like going to has lots of coloured beach huts and a pine forest behind, which I blogged about ages ago and although we couldn't be there in person, I travelled there with the use of my paintbrush. I'm especially pleased with the sand dune, I don't know why, it just came out quite nice. I also did this piece with a picnic table looking out over the sea, which was inspired by a day we spent near Inverness on our recent trip to Scotland. We set up our little red camp stove and vintage whistling kettle and had tea looking out across the Moray Firth.

We'll hopefully get to the beach at the weekend and I can see the real thing. In the meantime I hope you enjoy these. 

Just because...

I simply can't help myself. I think I must be meant to go and live by a forest and a mountain and maybe a lake as they keep coming up in my work. This time it's in watercolour and I rather like it, but then I would say that! I've put it in the shop incase you fancy a little window of alpine goodness in your home. I'm so enjoying using watercolours at the moment!

My collection of Turquoise

Today I took lots of pictures in the gallery at the arts centre downstairs of my turquoise bits and bobs. The placing and setting of objects really changes them don't you think? There aren't many of them in total but I think they look quite coherent. I hope so anyway. I also hope looking at these pictures and editing them and stuff will spark some exciting ideas of how to use them for further work. Perhaps I need to look into labelling? Or trying to mix the *perfect* turquoise paint!

Pebbles?

I've been painting pebbles today and yesterday, and it's hard! I'm still not sure if these are any good yet, watercolour is a tough medium to crack. I've put this one in the shop to see if people like the idea anyway...

Lovely video!

A friend recently pointed me in the direction of this and I could watch it all day. Watch it on full screen, it's so beautiful! Just the thing for a relaxing Sunday I think.

My new house

Just a quick post this evening to show you my latest charity shop find. £4 snagged me this lovely wooden house, which is similar to those of Francesca and Nina and was probably last used to display thimbles (judging by the dust on it!). I can't decide whether or not to paint it, what do you think?

A Good day at the Office

Today has been so nice. I got all my framing stuff out the way early and came home to make lunch. I'd already got some bread dough proving so it was ready to knock back and shape (I also put in chopped roasted nuts and pumpkin seeds). It was really yummy with homemade carrot soup.

Then I had a bit of fun experimenting with painting oil. Not oil paints, but actual olive oil. It's so subtle and beautiful when held up to the light. I'm going to test the longevity of the effect as I'd love to list some "oil artwork" on Etsy but want to know a bit more about how it behaves...I'm already pleasantly surprised that once the oil has absorbed into the card, there is no greasy feeling, just pure translucent loveliness.

And then I got back to my collections paintings, and did a collection of twigs, which is now on Etsy. I also made another feather painting as the first one was snapped up just last night! The colours are a bit more blue-y in this one. I hope you like.

I'm now going to sit back and enjoy the banana bread I just made. It smells amazing if I do say so myself. I am clearly all about the baking this week. Next week will see me being all about the dieting. But until then... ;)

Collecting things

Just a quickie today to show you two new pieces now in the shop. They're inspired by a combination of the natural things I collected whilst in Scotland, and the uni project that I'm starting to think about (collecting and arranging objects). 

The leaves are paper collage, the feathers are watercolour. What do you think? Worth pursuing and doing twigs and pebbles too?

Right, must dash. Have a lovely Sunday, the sun is out and I'm off out for Sunday lunch. Bye!

Yum

I made bread yesterday for the first time! It was surprisingly easy but had always been one of those things you imagine is very technical and not worth attempting, but I was very pleased with these little rolls. Each is just smaller than the palm of my hand, and like french bread in texture, nice and crusty on the outside but chewy in the middle, rather than too fluffy. Just how I like it! We had them with butter and cheese and wardolf salad for lunch. Yee-um.

The next thing I want to try making is Sushi...

Scraffito tiles

I had my first proper play with scraffito (the method of painting leather-hard clay with a coloured slip, then scoring through to base clay) before we went to Scotland. For some reason I'd not done much before but my friend at work fired them for me and I'm quite chuffed with the results!

The grey shows up the white underneath clay slightly better but the turquoise is such a yummy colour. I've deliberately left them unglazed as that chalkiness is what I love about working with clay and unless the glaze has its own colour or finish I often prefer the untreated version.

I've listed the vessels and pebbles designs on etsy but it was being very slow so will do the others tomorrow. Time for a cup of tea methinks...

Scotland

Hello! We're back from bonnie Scotland! It was so beautiful, and the weather was amazing. It rained on the way up, and on the way back but almost the whole time we were there it was sunny and hot. Pretty much unheard of in that part of the world!

Camping was fun too, we had a cute little camp stove and whistling kettle and enjoyed boiling up water for tea in the evenings as the sun was setting behind the mountains. I even managed to do a bit of drawing and painting too. Bliss.

Hope you all had a good week/end, I've got loads of blog catching up to do!

Read me like a book

Morning all! Just a quick post today to show you a new collage I made yesterday using my growing collection of vintage piano music and their brilliantly coloured covers. The colours are just to die for - you know, really yummy saturated hues printed in the 60s without a trace of gloss to the surface of the card. Just pure matte loveliness. Can you tell I'm a bit obsessed?

Anyway, this one is now listed in the shop for your viewing pleasure.

This will be the last post for a week and a bit as we're heading up to Scotland tomorrow. We're so excited, as it'll be the biggest road trip we've done (9 hours or so there and back)! But I'm sure even if the weather's not great we'll have a fun time, we are going to Loch Ness afterall! That reminds me, I better get cracking with my cardboard Nessie, I'm determined to have some photographic evidence on my return - and if I have to orchestrate it so be it.

Have a great week folks!