So, Annie - What Have You Been Up To Today? I Hear You Cry.......

On the left - below - I made a watercolour of my collage - as you see, I didn't draw or trace it out - I just started painting, so it's not that accurate a rendition:

 

In the flesh, these two don't look quite so post-apocalyptic as they do here:

Here I am trying out composition (aren't I always) straight onto the table - no white space...

Can't beat a bit of typography; sometimes it's just what's needed to add that element of surprise / questioning / implied meaning:

I just started to see a creature striding across the space and had to make it so...

Sunday Morning = Mum, Sunday Afternoon = Artist

After the party in celebration of small son turning five, I headed to the shed for the afternoon and started painting my own paper swatches for using in collages - after having cut up the mono-print to use the inked, marked surface, rather than simply found papers - and also after having seen the Matisse Cut-outs (another post for another day).
Laying down ideas:

Grouping the coloured swatches - I liked the honest simplicity of the much less composed layout. Less self-conscious:

Made a few close-up photos to clip those shapes - changes the relationship of the colours:

And this one started out as the page for painting the cut out card pieces onto - to catch the overflow. I liked the 'edges' and added the little squares of colour (Bissier-style) and filled in some of the shapes/spaces created:

Like Lovely Stones

After a good sort out in the shed, there is a lot of paper waiting to be cut up and laid down in interesting compositions.

Here I couldn't resist chopping into some unsuccessful mono-prints from nearly ten years ago. They have become stone-like circles, reminding me of the ones I collected from holidays in South West Scotland and taking their cue from Bessier.

The yellow just had to be added.

She Must Be An Inspiration...

I found a few postcards from a visit to the Fashion and Textile Museum two years ago, whilst tidying out my shed, the other day. They are of some printed fabric designs of Lucienne Day - see my previous blog post. Henry and I went down to the exhibition in the June - just before it ended.
I've always really liked her strong shapes and confident colour use. Also, the rhythm she creates by leaving plenty of space in some of her designs:

close up of calyx - by Lucienne Day

flotilla - by Lucienne Day

untitled - by Jacquline Groag

mobiles - by Marian Mahler

linear flowers - by Marian Mahler

by Marian Mahler

Looking at these again - I MUST have unconsciously been thinking of these roundy-pointy shapes as I cut out my paper for collage...
Happy to be influenced by these though it has to be said!
Off to the Bishop's Garden in Norwich for a wander this weekend - hope the sun shines on you.

Is It Like This For You Too?

I found this a while ago and bookmarked it - so when I looked again - I thought this HAS to be shared...
True and WISE words....

A Big Thank You To Every Visitor

WoW - today I couldn't help noticing a satisfying number pattern.
This blog has had:
- 11111 page views
- 170 posts 
Well - eleven thousand one hundred and eleven is down to you lovely people and obviously, I have posted one hundred and seventy times here - team work!!

It makes me happy to know you are a small but loyal crowd, so a warm-hearted thank you for your continued constructive creative support.
I was thinking it would be good to celebrate when we get to 200 posts...
but how?

Maybe Matisse Will Help...

I've been trying to sort out my shed - and have a good clear out - but got a bit stuck - the horrid wet weather made it difficult to move paper goods about - and then the hot weather meant it was roasting in my shed and the garden demanded attention (can't have that new lawn ruined by being ignored). 

But these are merely excuses, the blunt truth is that I have not been making much over the last two weeks.

Anyway - here are just a few of just a few more that I have been doing...

Going to see the Matisse Cut-outs exhibition at the start of next month and can't wait to be inspired up to the brim

Life's Tenuous Balancing Act..

A few more pages from the sketchbook.

These seem to be about balancing shapes and colours - they remind me of a simple geometry-based computer game Henry used to play as a young school boy. 

Interesting how the dark edges around the paper affect the composition further...

So far I have been cutting up found papers in a random stylee - but the other day I took a number of close-up photographs of textures and colours around the home... My artwork has always embraced the ordinary, domestic and homely, so printing and cutting up the photos might be a nice way to employ these aspects as part of my new direction: