Photo on Friday #7

Iconic objects, I reckon this is one that apart from London you don't see very often these days. Not only do you not see red telephone boxes, you rarely see telephone boxes as we all have mobile phones.

But how many of us have memories of loitering as kids in our gang around telephone boxes on street corners? Making sure we'd got 10p's to phone home from town, or phone new boyfriends? Giving directions by telephone boxes (my husband got so confused when they took away the red phonebox on the main road in the village where I grew up as it was where he had to turn right to get to my street). And of course in major cities there would be postcards offering the services of "ladies" I have a feeling if you look closely at this picture there are some of those postcards!.

Nostalgia and memories, sometimes its good to look back.

Photo on Friday #6

Artists, we come from all walks of life and some of us have many artistic outlets.  Dennis Hopper is one such man.. Last year John and I went to see his retrospective exhibition of his photos take in the 60's.  He was certainly part of the "scene" and his gritty urban documentary shots of film sets, his friends, hippy camps, hells angels, the sidewalk and the peace protest movement had me enthralled.

So here is a picture of us and the great man Mr Hopper. 

Don't confine yourself to one artistic medium, try them all, dabble and don't be afraid.

Victorian Curios (Niches PaperArtsy)

Collecting (well apart from stash we never use) has rather gone out of fashion and the Victorians were certainly experts at collecting and displaying all sorts of things. Snowshill Manor in the Cotswold's  is an amazing example of this type of curio collecting.

So inspired by these Victorian collectors (plus I had a box and some polystyrene eggs) I decided to make a egg display case.

Using my favourite PaperArtsy Fresco chalky finish paints, I  painted the box in Irish Coffee and then used a candle to make some resists marks This was followed by French Roast, more candle and finally a mix of French Roast and Chalk to give a lovely soft grey / blue top coat and a great distress finish.

 For the inside niches I painted in Irish Cream and Chalk.  Using a 12x12" sheet of brown tissue paper I created a master board (needed two in the end) stamping lots of Ink and the Dog Victorian college stamps in Coffee Archival. Measured the niches and cut the tissue into appropriate sized bits and started gluing them in, back, top, bottom and sides!

The front edge of the box was painted in Chalk and dry brushed with French Roast, as were the edges to get the distressed look I wanted.

The eggs were painted in layers of Chalk, Irish Cream, Guacamole, Mermaid to get the soft pastel look of eggs.  Finally a I added some French Roast with a splatter stamp to complete the mottled look.

I'm quite pleased, although the polystyrene eggs went a bit dinosaur scaly egg looking when I used the heat gun to dry the paint, but hey I had fun making!

Hugs

Jo

xx

Photo on Friday #5

Victorian railway architecture fascinates me, these lofty architectural palaces dedicated to travel, to  journeys, happiness and sadness, hello's,and goodbyes. So many stories and so much that could have been lost without visionaries such as John Betjeman (a big hero  of mine) to save these cathedrals of brick and iron.

I spend a lot of time when I'm in London on the Euston Road, either coming in at Euston from Northampton (home), going to the British Library or in this case heading towards St Pancras if I've come in from Luton (work).  Euston Road itself is very important in railway history as it marked the edge of the City of London and no main line railway stations were allowed in the City of London in Victorian times.

You wouldn't think it was a railway station would you, it looks like it belongs in St Petersburg or Moscow not London.  All those Gothic spires and arches reaching into the sky.

Who said functional can't be beautiful?

Well you didn't think I wouldnt have a play myself would you? (#3UP Spring 2015)

So here is my take on the colour palette I picked for #3UP week. 

John keeps saving me his grapefruit tins so I decided to have a go at using one of them to create a battered tin that had been left out ion the garden.

Using a large stencil brush I just started adding Stone Concrete and Slate over the tin.  I then took the hammer to it and gave it a few bashes to dent it. I made sure the inside and the top and bottom edges of the tin had colour on them.

I then mixed some Grunge Paste with Stone and started scraping that on really roughly.  I then used one of my old matted and stuck together bristles brushes to add further texture.

Once the Grunge Paste was dry, I went over with the stencil brush again with some Hey Pesto and Guacamole and Concrete.  I then sealed it with Matte Glaze.  

To further add to the lichen effect I added some green Treasure Gold again using a stencil brush (I keep one just for Treasure Gold). Finally I added some watered down splats of Slate.

Inside the tin I've added some flower arranging oasis which is the second part of my grand plan with this battered tin.

Oh and there may have been some "staging" of the snails!

Hugs

Jo

xx

Photo on Friday #4

I've been at the seaside this week, Southwold to be exact  on the east coast for a bit of rest and recuperation after many weeks of being unwell. I've lost count of the the times we've been to Southwold as a couple, with parents, with family, but this time I went on my own.  Its the first time I've been away on my own for any length of time for pleasure, an adventure!

This was taken on a previous visit to Southwold, taken very early on the beach. The sun was just up and the light was so bright, cold and clear. Even with the glorious light I have added some filters to accentuate and deepen the colour of the crab. 

So why do I like this, what made me take a photo?  Well I like the shape of the claw and the ribs, the brittleness of the shell which is so fragile as well. That smoothness of the shell juxtaposed against the grains of sands and the colour of the claws in contrast to the whiteness of the ribs.

What do you like about it?