Go to Sleep, Darlings...
“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields
It covers them snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, Go to Sleep, Darlings, till the summer comes again.” Lewis Carroll
“May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks, may your heart be as light as a song, may each day bring you bright, happy hours that stay with you all the year long.” ~ Irish Blessings
Sorry for the bad the pictures. ……Will try later to see if I can get a better image of the entire painting .
I have been meaning to do a mixed media collage painting for some time now. After much acquired inspiration from artists like Carolyn Saxby, Louise O'Hara, Morag, Marji , Linda K and Serena Barton and visiting numerous artists on Youtube I was armed with enough knowledge to tackle the painting….."Cottage By the Sea".
I first started out painting the background , the mountains and cove and applied the cottage painting I had from before. I then added the Old Lace (dyed with coffee) for the sun, sea stars and the birds (Swallows) which I tried to emulate a "murmuration of swallows" but it didn't turn out exactly how I had envisioned them to be; oh well, next time. The waves were also done with Medical Gauze as well as with the Old Lace.
The mountainous hilly range, the sandy beach, the cove and the sun were built with modelling paste . Once the paste dried, I painted what was left uncoloured with acrylics, inks and reInkers.
Finally, adding a smidgen of gold leaf to the sun, mountains and horizon line, sea stars, netted waves, water, cottage windows and cove worked fine in creating the setting sun's glitter upon the landscape below…...Just love the gold leaf pen! And another tool which also came in handy was my heat gun. It worked beautifully in creating depth and dimension in the hilly terrain and sandy beach.
So now I think I would like to add to the painting a film of bees wax but not sure if I can depending on what I have underneath which is glazing liquid and if that's okay, will have to read up on that or maybe some of you might know; love to hear from you if you do.
Of course there are many things that could be better with this work like shadows and light , the waves and the sky, the murmur of birds, etc etc etc but as a whole, I'm happy with this painting.
I can't wait to work on another MMCP and explore the multitude of college elements, so much fun!!!
***
* Side Note…Do you paint while listening to music and if you do , do you somehow find it influences your brush??? Or even after listening to a song?
While nearing the completion of my painting and after listening to "Starry Starry Night" I tripled the width of the horizon line into a mountainous range and didn't realize it after I read the lyrics to the song. I also found the sea stars and sun and the cottage gave thought to Vincent's work : ) I suppose I really do love his work!
Music is a higher revelation
than all wisdom and philosphy.
Music is the electrical soil
in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.
***
~ Materials used ~
Canvas Board
Old Lace ~ Sun, SeaStars, Waves,Netting, Swallows,
Medical Gauze Material
Baby Mussel Shells ( found in my bag of mussels I steamed ) Lovely meal and bonus treasure : )
Vintage Flowers
Old Book Cover Binding
~ Acrylic Paints , Inks & ReInkers ~
Blue
Orange
Yellow
Brown
Blue
Green
Red
Violet
Purple
White
Gesso
Molding Paste - Modeling - Pasta Moldeado
Glazing Medium
Gold Leaf Pen
Submitting my mixed media collage painting ~ "Cottage By the Sea ", to Paint Party Friday
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAINT PARTY FRIDAY AND A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVA AND KRISTIN!!!
Leaving you now with this beautiful song….Starry Starry Night by Don Mclean
So I decided adding the cottage to Moon Lake would be a nice touch to it's landscape .
I added some violet colour to the water and sky , lightened the background trees and also added some yellow to the moons. I think this is it.
After the painting was done I discovered the cottage would disappear into the woods depending from the distance, angle and time of day I viewed it. I adore when paintings keep a little trickery within their panorama and when you least expect it , there it is.
It kind of reminds me of the cottage in James Herbert's book "The Magic Cottage": ) ~ 3 Times the Charm
Something unexpected happened at “Moon Lake” last week; It transmogrified into a strange, wild and secluded place.
I didn't intentionally paint “Moon Lake” this way, it just happened, accidentally. Somehow, the water, the trees and the sky took on a deeper more mysterious feel in the shadows of the night which grew older and darker as time ticked on, maybe it was just me painting in the dim light : )
I wish I had left it alone because I did like the original version but then again the new version is kind of beautiful too and I like it so I'm not too disappointed. I suppose this is what happens to someone who is a novice painter learning from their mistakes.I am still debating on adding a small cottage along the shore to the right of the painting, not sure, will ponder on the thought for a while. I also need to add some light to the trees on the shore line and then I guess that's it…. : ) Sharing this week's painting with Paint Party Friday……Thanks Eva and Kristin for hosting!!!
Another WIP "Moon Night " that I am trying to emulate from an old magazine picture.
I had a terrible time with painting the lake, still not fussy over it.
I used wood board for my substrate , inks and acrylics and I'm thinking that maybe I would like to make this into a mixed media art piece incorporating various elements including wax, will see.
So far this makes the #4 work in progress for me : )
Oh, and here is a little bit of Opera for you to enjoy. A youtube video by Cristian Faur taken from the film "FARINELLI " The story of celebrated Italian Castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera, Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi.
If you would like to see the film (English subtitles), I have seen quite a few on youtube. I'll have to watch it later on my own ; no one here, I'm afraid likes Opera, too bad ( ;
Portrait of Farinelli by Corrado Giaquinto ~ picture from Wikipedia
I listened to this piece this morning while painting "Moon Lake" : ) Really does keep me focused and at ease, especially when the lake was giving me some issues. Enjoy!
On a Date with my Old Love on Saint Valentine's Day : )
Late posting … sorry, busy this week and heartbroken over Plushenko's sad departure from the Sochi Olympic men's singles so no personal art to share with you but I think this might do : )
So for this week I'm sharing my dreams of the night , thoughts on Love that crossed my mind while half awake walking to the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning for a glass of warm milk.
Published on Feb 9, 2014
This video from Emmy award winning composer and performer Edvin Marton features never before seen fan pictures sent from across the globe to create a unique video to give his friend Evgeni Plushenko the energy to skate like never before at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games.
There's a genuine camaraderie that encompasses the Olympic
Stadium.
A stranger from afar, something unexpectedly happened to me last
Sunday and although I was cheering my country it was Plushenko's
stardust that filled my eyes and heart. An amazing Olympian who left
me with a starry night to remember.
After watching Plushenko skate that night I was left with remnants
of the music he had chosen for his program floating in my head; I
just had to find it, and I did!
It happens to be a collection of famous musical scores,
specifically ones taken from Plushenko's past programs. A compilation
put together by Plushenko's friend , emmy award winning composer and
performer Edvin Marton. Not only was this new musical compilation
destined to be absorbed like a sponge by the audience for it's
profound spirited intensity of the combined movements but also for
being loved passages of time, Plushy's time. Plushenko used every
bit of his unique and amazing talent in his performance, floating on
air high above the ice in every jump with ease and exquisite
interpretation to each of the musical pieces marking periods in
history . Definitely a genius idea in my mind ; that, I think was
part of the magical program Plushenko and Marton devised.
The music soared and ignited the fire in his exuberant heart,
aflame with all of the apical of spirits of his homeland partisans
and now the world's.
He left us enchanted.
“When he is on the ice, the soul of Russia is on the ice.”
Thank you both Plushy and Edvin , for an unforgettable show.
Until Later,
Annabelle
Hey Gloria, Look what I found…..directly from Russia! Enjoy!
Since last Friday I've been busy working on my WIP "Brown~Eyed Daisies and Chrysanthemums " Bas- Relief Painting contemplating the finish I want to render it in. So far this is what I have achieved in the next step of the work, adding a few more tints of colour ,wiping away the excess and highlighting some of the areas ; now, I'm sort of stuck where to go from here.
So I thought a little respite from the painting and dreaming along the way that I would share this Dream Catcher I made.
Being one who always loves the intricate magical work of a Spider's web, I'm not at all surprised when an idea pops into my head that it's source derives from Charlotte's Web…: ) and leads me somewhere new.
As I recall, the idea came to me when I saw a little boy fishing on a dream catcher; I thought, why not a spider fishing and instead of his catch of fish, make them fireflies .
Here is where vintage jewellery comes in handy.
Mopsy the Spider fishing for fireflies
A Little Star
Fireflies and a mother of pearl heart
So now , without rushing the work , I must get back to finishing this Bas~ Relief. …..I have another painting that I'm anxious to get started : )
How exciting it is when one finds a magical surprise in their mail, never knowing that it ever existed, until one day there it is, veiled in falling snow. At first, I didn't know who had managed to enhance the WIP Bas ~ Relief painting I've been working on but with a little investigation, I found the magician behind the work was none other than the secret robot belonging to Google+ . I kinda of like it and actually I discovered more of my images had been touched by his magic wand and had been for some time.
Moral of this little story, check your mail a little more often and read it all for you never know what you may delightfully find concealed inside the envelope: )
Art has it's way with me, almost always , if I let it.
Usually, even before dawn has waken, it quietly arrives accompanied by the high pitched vocal of a hunger cat by way of a strong aroma of percolating coffee entering my senses and triggering my creative habit…..my "Art Obsession Habit ". A habit I happily accept with a few minor negatives thrown in, like one having too many unfinished projects. One of those unfinished projects is this Bas- Relief of potted daisies and chrysanthemums I've had for some time now. A found art piece which was never finished and had the worst colour ever.The original background was a chocolate brown and the flowers were painted gold. So I decided to give it a fresh coat of white gesso paint.
After a number of applications of a monochromatic colour and drying periods in-between, I mixed some paints and started to repaint it. I also used some interference gold and mother of pearl for the flowers. In the process of deciding on the shadowing of the florals ,my daughter mentioned that the work reminded her of Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting in the way I had painted only a few of the daisy centres brown. I had never realized it until she mentioned it but her remark did make me feel good about this work's progress.
For now, I call it “Brown ~ Eyed Daisies and Chrysanthemums”
One of the beautiful physical charcteristics on my mother's side are the eyes besides gorgeous thick hair, two of the traits I seem to have missed out on.
Mind you, when I was young, if I spent a few hours in front of the mirror, I could claim close to those same characteristics....π
Anyway, yesterday while visiting my mother and helping place a few pictures on the wall, she asked my daughter to place her picture on Facebook. Since no recent pics worked well , my husband suggested we use the one her friend had drawn of her as a young woman in the sixties; as you can tell by her bee- hive hair do.
Not only is she lovely but the drawing is equally beautiful and in my mind the way my daughter Emma photographed the picture makes it that more fascinating and quite intriguing by her incorporation of the reflected image of the living-room window doors.
So I thought it be nice to share with you this morning this art piece, actually two art pieces, a photograph and a drawing of my mother .
I suppose I should take a moment to leave you a forwarding address since I've haven't been much around the old place for a while.
You see, I've finally found my Home Sweet Home.....on Tumblr. A new blog I call "Cabinet of Old Secret Loves "
A place where I keep all that belongs to the earth. A collection of sorts, a collection of Dead People's Stuff and of the Living. Poetry, Literature, Art, Music, Movies and Film, Magical Lands, Culinary Inspirations for a cozy, comfy home.
In addition to re-blogging curiosities rare and common from time to time I will write my own posts inspired by my new found muse....Tumblr.
This place holds an endless library to my heart's desires, maybe Tumblr may even become your very own personal library as it has become mine.
To navigate the site scroll down the page and click on the word "older" where it will take you to the next page; so far there are 510 pages in the Cabinet.
