Camping in Wales

Camping in Mid- Wales was so relaxing. We camped quite remote and spent quiet a bit of time by the river across the road by our campsite. We saw nobody there the whole day, except innumerable birds and the sky at some point was full of red kites. We lit fire and the girls and hubby roasted marshmallows. I sat down by the fire and knitted and heard the red kites whistle above us. We were very close at times. I never saw a red kite flying in wild so close to me before. This was heaven. The black bird sat on the tree for ages. He must have been warm from the fire too.

We went to the Devils Bridge Waterfall. It was magnificent.Very steep down and the all the way up. We walked a lot. I felt it in my legs while I lay on my bed. This is the type of tiredness I don't mind. At times I feel I was born to be in the wild. I love nature and being outdoors gives me immense happiness. The beauty of nature, the colours all around us makes me feel like starting a new work always. So I did as soon as we were back. I have now started a new painting. A new journey, a unknown path which I like to follow through my paintings. It makes me happy.

The Magic of May

"May comes sweet and complete in every detail.
Along every lane and hedgerow bank
spring a thousand small and seldom
considered things - Nature's embroidery,
to finish off her festal robe to perfection...
Such hedgerows in May are everybody's garden..."
-Written by Flora Thompson in A Country Calender.

May is indeed a busy time of the year for the gardeners. So I have been busy as well. Everything is growing so quickly now. Especially the weeds. But everything is still under control. I have been really busy planting out my veggies now. From beans and peas to Brassica's (for the first time) Will have to see if I manage to keep the cabbage flies and caterpillars away. Have put netting so it should do the job.  During the weekend I finally completed my cowl.  This cowl was in remembrance to Vanessa Cabban. You can read more about the cowl here if you haven't read my post on it. Monday morning was still a bit cold so I wore my cowl but soon was warm in it as it is knitted in round and is twice the thickness of a normal scarf/cowl. This cowl is just perfect for those Autumn days in the garden. I can see myself wearing this a lot. Jobs in the garden for this week is complete and had to make myself a simple quick lunch. Perfect to sit outside and enjoy the May sunshine.

Hope you have been enjoying the sunshine too during the magical days of May x

Old books and New Paintings

 Old books make me happy when I find them in charity shops. They really make my day.

Yesterday I added three more books in my studio. To tell you the truth they can be found in almost every room in my house.  Maybe I should keep them all in one place, in my studio.

I love the cover of this book and the paper inside is nice and thick too.

This book now has such a beautiful painting of the Queen and some illustrations inside the book are worth framing. Hmm... Might do that one day.

For a while now these old books are my art journals. I really like to paint on them. Some of the pages are so lovely to work on. But I never spoil an existing illustration.

 Moving on from the old books now I have another finished mixed media en-caustic painting on the shelf above. The painting on the left which you saw while it was still work on progress is now finished.  I also mentioned in my previous post about health and safety working with hot wax.

So, I wanted to try cold wax medium for my next painting. Yes a lot of experimenting going on in my studio. And that's what it is all about I guess. Trying new mediums and techniques until you find the right one for you. Now cold wax medium can be safely mixed with oil paints and doesn't need any exhaust or fan in the room. Still, good ventilation in the studio is always better anyway. So I am still working on my mixed media paintings more or less effortlessly...sometimes adding oil, wax, emphera or even a vintage piece of fabric.

Colour

I am stitching, painting, rust dying and sleeping late...

As soon as the sun comes out, I go up these steps and into my garden...

Watch everything grow, with a cup of tea, sitting down in one corner of my garden; sometimes on my own but never without my thoughts and dreams. I am a dreamer and keep dreaming of living in the woods surrounded by beautiful trees and wildlife.

I wake up from my dream to find myself still in the garden...

Waiting for the poppies to flower;

Waiting for this rust dyed cloth to dry in the sun;

Watch the raindrops dry and...

Carefully take my step.

Step to fly...

And then I want to freeze the moment. Hold on to the best memories.

 So I feel happy to use colour back in my studio. I am happy to finish a new painting. This is a close up view. Lots of layers of paint. I love textures. Nature creates naturally but I create in my paintings physically by using lots and lots of paint. Sometimes other materials.

Sorry this image not very clear. The wet paint made it difficult to photograph. This painting is done with acrylic paint on canvas.

And this is another painting that I am still working on. It is not far from finishing off. This is a mixed media encaustic painting on wooden panel. I have now done five paintings so far using hot wax. Not sure at this point if I want to continue with encaustic because of two reasons: firstly encaustic paints are very expansive and secondly because its a wax paint and needs to be melted which is very toxic. You really need to have good ventilation in your work room. I do have big doors which I can open while I work with this medium but should have a exhaust fitted above the table. So I am double minded whether or not to invest more on all this or not. Working without proper ventilation in long run may give health problems which I do not wish to have. So I need a lot of thinking on working with this medium.

 

But working with just acrylic is definitely a safe option. Here a better photograph of the finished painting in acrylic on canvas. Still without title but, there are colours, which give me joy.