Latest painting, Mixed media.

Hi Everyone!

Had nearly a week to get over my weekend away at Nelson Bay with the ladies from Mountains and Rivers. Great weekend, the painting was A1 as usual, for the first time at this convention I taught a class, my Owls were one of the painting choices on the Friday afternoon, it went well with seven students, we seemed to be laughing a lot I was told by the other classes, we did have a good time all weekend.

Saturday I chose a mixed media painting by Josephine Louwen, Josephine is one of our Mountains and Rivers Folk Art teachers, an excellent teacher with many years experience.

This "Zentangle" is painted by me from a design by Josephine Louwen.

Josephine can be contacted through Mountains and Rivers.









Since painting this I have looked into the pen work on the circle. Some call it "Zentangle" others doodling. Doodling - meaning is; Doodling - present participle of doo-dle (verb) = 1.    Scribble absentmindedly.

If you Google search ' doodle you find that the work is often drawn absentmindedly with no real form, often filling the page. 

While searching "Zentangle" they start by drawing what they call a 'string' and forming a shape with this drawn 'string they then draw a selection of patterns inside this 'string'

"Zentangle" is a trade mark of an internet company that sell books and patterns.

In the last couple of days I have trying out some dooling/tangling (what ever you would like to call it) of my own, it is quite easy to do, and it grows on you!

This one I drew around the bottom of a Horlicks container, it was oval. I then drew shapes inside the oval and decorated them, I then went outside the oval and drew some more shapes until I was happy with the design. When I looked back I can see a bird with it's head tucked away, I had no intention of drawing anything, just a as my mind took me. Not bad for a first attempt.

This second one I was tired so the shapes not so good, I was trying to resemble the comers in Folk Art, just goes to show it is best not to think too much when drawing these, it is best left quite spontaneous.

I drew this one the next night, must have had too much chicken! that is what it reminds me of!

These by the way were drawn on lined paper out of an exercise book with a double sided "sharpie" pen. The trouble I had is that the pen bleed through to the next page, so either put a piece of card under the page or better still draw on a sketch book or some thicker paper. Look out for some mixed media paintings using some tangles within the painting. Do try it and Have fun!

Retirement, but not for this blog.

It is with sad news that I announced that our free Thursday group has now closed. We are going to get together for Lunch or morning teas from time to time as the friendships with these ladies have been very special and they are worth a lifetime friendship's. Thank you ladies for the last 6 years of sharing painting and friendships within the lovely setting of the Fairfield Museum and Gallery. I have been teaching thirteen years, since 2000 and it is time to have a rest. I do hope that you continue to paint, I know I will and will continue to post my paintings on my blog, with much love, Lyn.

Due to my health I have to let some things go and rest more. My body has been telling me that my  ME/CFS has been stirred, there are no more days where I feel good, i have a lot of pain of late, if i went on much longer like this it would lead to a relapse.

I will still continue this Blog as I need to keep some things going in my life, as well as I can enjoy sharing my work with you all, so drop in often as hopefully I can share with you more often than I have been doing.

I will also continue with the Mountains and Rivers Folk and Decorative Painters group as the meet only five times a year. Also I will continue to be the Publicity officer as most of this work can be done on the computer. I also run a blog for Mountains and Rivers, check it out; www.mountainsandriversfdp.blogspot.com

Class news

A photo from one of our Mountanis and Rivers meeting 2012

Our Thursday class will start on the 7th February, I hope everyone had a lovely break and you are eager to start painting again.

I have been busy with my project for the Mountains and Rivers get away in March. No sneek pre-views, all the convention projects will be on display on the mountains and Rivers in a couple of weeks time, so keep checking!

A warm welcome to all my readers, thanks for your support and emails, it is always lovely to hear from you. Looking forward to sharing with you all this year. Kind regards, Lyn.

Happy New Year, for 2013!

Hi to every reader and Student, Welcome in 2013.

Our Friendship group will start again in Feburary, I will let everyone know the date as soon as I can. Love to catch up with everyone, maybe we could all get together before then to have coffee and a chat. Cheers, Lyn.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

To all my Students and Readers. This has been a busy two months, we went on a well needed holiday to Tuncurry staying  in a town house faceing the sea and a cosy B&B that was over a 100 years old.

We were lucky enough to meet the new oners who had just taken over the lovely old cottage and they showed us around it was lovely!

The original owner and builder, built the house for his family, he was a local saw mill owner in the Tuncurry area, He also built the church next door, sad to say though, he just finished the church when he died, so the first service in the church was his funeral. It is nice to know though that the house is still giving pleasure to people who live and stay in the B&B. The 3 town house's built on the same site were built 12 years ago. Two are holiday lets and one is private. The whole site is on a corner near the Tuncurry/ Forster bridge.

We are all due back at painting in the New Year, 2013. On the 31st of January.

See you all then and have a lovely Break and Happy New Year!

Watercolour Painting

Saturday was spent an enjoyable day attending a workshop by Chris Roy. We painted a watercolour painting called 'White Orchids'. With gorgeous results from everyone!

The day was relaxing, not rushed and the painting was complete by 2.30pm giving us an early mark.

This is my piece, painted on the day workshop. It was painted on 300g rough watercolour paper using Acrylics.

Chris can be contacted through her web page, see my links on the left.

Latest paintings

Hear are two of my latest paintings that I have finished off, both I started a couple of years ago and they became UFO, (unfinished folkart objects) I finaly rescued them from the shed to finish off.

The pelican I have drawn from a photo by Leisa Hennessy, I did not have to do too much painting to him when I found him as he was nearly complete. 

And the flowers I first painted the background, then thought what can I do with this now as I had enjoyed the process so far. Checking out my many photo,s of flowers that my brother had taken over the years, I started to piece this collection together. I had to work more on this one to get the look I wanted. Not so much a bouqet of flowers but a clean simple fresh look at flowers. The feathers have a matelic finish on them, you can not see this in the photo.

 Well take a look and you may see what I mean!

Remember, both of these are covered by copyright, do not copy in any form, thankyou!

Crochet and Painting

Hear we are nearly in July, hard to belive it is a month since we came back from convention! Time has passed quickly, I have had yet another virus, not so good and with having chronic fatigue syndrome it lasts longer and very hard to get rid of. Still had plenty of rest and many ideas for painting, all I have to do now is find the energy to catch up on my painting.

Just before convention I spent some evenings crocheting fingerless gloves and scarfs. My fingerless gloves are great for cold days while working with your fingers free.  My scarfs are not the usual long scarfs that you find everywhere, but short fancy scarfs that are warm and soft to wear and at the same time are not as bulky as normal scarfs.

My scarfs are my own design,  I look at the wool, how much yarn I have bought and decide how I am going to crochet it. I never crochet two pieces alike. The flower clasp is also of my design and will fit any scarf. I use new wool in every project. Please do not copy my designs, if you email me I will gladly send you the pattern for any one.

 This Aqua scarf is long enough to wrap around the neck and fasten with a little flower clasp. keeps the neck warm while still being fashionable. Made from 100% wool.

This Blue/purple scarf is crochet in 100% wool too, Longer and wider  than the one above, worn over the lower necklines of today it will keep you warmer while still being soft and lightweight to wear.

Another style, this cerise colour scarf is shown doubled over. It can be worn like this or opened out for a wider scarf, it also has a flower clasp to keep it in the postion. Also made from 100% wool, soft and warm to wear.





As winter slowly comes to an end I have to put away my crochet hooks and back to my painting again, it has been some months since I have painted, the longest I have not had a paint brush in my hand.

The next few weeks I will be back with more painting as I prepare a few projects for the Mountains and Rivers 'No Frills' weekend away in October. Only one project will be chosen. I have been asked to teach a class at this weekend away, while this being scary and excited at the same time I have a few ideas to put onto canvas ready for this event!

So look out for more painting news soon, thankyou for reading my blog, seems that people from all over the world are reading this, it is quite popular, who would have thought that. I would love to hear from some of you, or even as a follower, I promise that I will not send 'spam' your way, I am just interested in my readers, Thanks! Lyn.

Old and unwanted made new again

I came across some bird cut outs that had been in storage and the lady did not want anymore, having seen the painted item in one of the Folk Art and Decorative Painting books back in 1976, I recognized them, picked up the pieces and looking through my old books (Volume 4- Number 2). I came across the patterns for them. This is the result of one. There are 3 in the set, for bird coat hangers. Quite cool and easy to paint.

This is the Kookaburra,
the first in the pattern.

These two make up the set.

I painted 5 in total, quite fun to paint!

This is the book! Volume 4-Number 2

Happy Painting!

Baby Lama

I have just finished painting this Baby Lama. Painted from a photo I took at the Royal Easter Show some years ago.

Easy to paint and I enjoyed it very much!

For a free pattern, please email me and I will send it to you!

Painting Paper Mache

 Some of our ladies painted oval paper mache boxes with a design from the book 'An Old Fashioned Garden, Volume 6 by Peggy Nuttall.

The box was very deep so we repeted the design on the base, it would also look nice with the top of the box painted with flowers. Some flowers are also in the same book.




The book uses water mixable oils, The boxes we decorated are painted with Jo Sonja paints.

                                      

                                               This one was painted with grass and a flower garden on the deep base instead of repeating the design, they both looked nice.

Painting on Glass

Painting on glass with simple daisy pattern. Make sure that the glass is super clean, I wash them in the dishwasher.

Cut the pattern out and place inside the glass or bowl, tape in position, you can add some tissue paper inside to keep the paper close to the glass.






Use Jo Sonja Glass and Tile Medium Part B to mix 1/1 with Jo Sonja colours and paint on design in thin coats, layering untill you have the depth of colour you like. Dry well between coats.

Dry well, a hairdryer can be used but with caution! not too hot or for long time, wine glasses are best left to dry naturally.
When dry paint over the design with the Tile Medium Part B, dry well.
Can be hand washed but not in the dishwasher. Care should be taken when washing so the design will not be damaged.

Painting on metal

Hi There!

A few weeks ago I was given some small compact mirror's by one of my students. After a few experiments with some Jo Sonja mediums, (and some misshaps!) I was successful in painting on the compacts with some great results. I used the pattern from Christine Whipper that we had just painted in a workshop and some wildflowers from Chris Roy's book on wildflowers. Of course the patterns were reduced in size to fit the compacts.

 The surface was first sealed using Jo Sonja 'all purpose sealer' I used two coats, letting it dry naturaly in between. The first coat may 'bead' or reject the sealer in some places,  use a flat brush so that you do not get any brush marks.

Next I experimented with background paint and tube paint. I found that some of the background paints were two thick to give a realy smooth coverage, so I used a few thin coats of tube paint and this provided  better results. I also used a flat brush and tried to avoid leaving brush strokes.
Let one coat dry well before recoating.






The mirror with the yellow background (top photo, left) I used Decor/texture crackle, filling in the space and leveling this off, let it dry for a few days before using washes of colour on top.

To finish off the compact I used Jo Sonja satin varnish, 3-4 coats, dry well between each coat. This will protect the painted area.  If painting for gifts they also look good in a matching bag, this will protect the compact while being used in your handbag.
Have Fun! Lyn.

2 Hours!

We spent an afternoon at Mountains and Rivers meeting and a two hour painting workshop with Christine Whipper. With some homework (background and leaves) we were able to complete the project shown.

It was a beautiful project to paint and with step by step demonstrations everyone had good results.

This is a close up of the painting above. Our next meeting we are painting a lovely goldfish with an intresting background.

Our Friendship Group at work

These photo's were taken last Thursday at our Folk Art Friendship Ring. In the background you can see the old farm tools on display in the 'Shed' of the Fairfield Musuem, at Smithfield, NSW.

 Kerry and Chris have kindly let me take photo's of their recent work, both these patterns are in the Folk Art and Decorative Painting books. The pink teddy on the suitcase is by Donna Gilbertson, I am unsure who the original artist of the poppies is, both ladies have done a great job!

Thankyou for letting me take these photo's ladies.

Finish off the placemats with a few coats of Jo'Sonja satin or gloss varnish, dry well and lightly sand between each coat and they will last for years.

Workshop for Elders

Paintings with some of the Elders at Hoxton Park aged care center.
We had a lovely day painting a canvas with letters, flowers and scrolls, these ladies are a pleasure to spend time with, and they enjoy painting.

Third place

At the Luddenham show I entered 2 projects I have painted.
The Rooster in the section; Decorative Folk Art and the Swallow Cottage in the section; Original design.
 I am quite happy to say that both recieved Third place!

This design is an adaptation of a design from an American book; Sharing Gifts of Nature by Barb Halvorson, published by Viking folk art.

http://www.viking-publications.com/

In the book the rooster is painted on a saw, titled Rooster.

The Mountains and Rivers have sponsored some sections of Folk Art in the local shows so that people will be encouraged to enter Folk Art and Decorative Painting into these shows. The next one coming up in April will be the Camdon show, entries close on the 31st March, contact Camdon show for details.

New, Art Shop, Art Max

Good News for all the local Ladies and Gents.

A new art shop in Liverpool opened, (at the shop where Art Metrix was).
It is called Art Max; for all your Art, Craft and Scrapbooking Supplies.
I had a look around yesterday, basic art supplies at the moment, a little bit of everything. picked up some Art Spectrum brushes for watercolours, the Sablinsky 550 range, not bad prices.

Try them out for yourself; Shop 6, 170 George Street, Liverpool, NSW. Phone; 02 9734 7176. http://www.artmax.com.au/

Water Colours

Both of these patterns are available from Carol Swan. They were also published in the monthly magazine, Folk art & Decorative painting. Carol also has other designs published in the magazine.
 

They are very good if you would like to have a go with water colours as they all use Jo-Sonja colours. You do not need to buy special paints. I do like the Art Spctrum watercolours as they are brighter and of course made in Australia. I painted these two watercolours with Jo Sonja.

I had fun painting these two as it was a change from Folk Art, but my love is painting Folk Art. The brushes I used were my Folk Art brushes, but it was hard not to leave streaks in the paint, a softer brush would be better, one with a tip on the end for the detailed work. I might add that the daisy painting was painted on cheap water colour paper, it did not take the wash very well also it tore very easy when rubbing off the masking fluid. I think it also looks a little dull. The second one was painted on water colour paper by Carson, brought out the colours better, did not tear and was great with washes for the background. My advice do not buy cheap papers, even for practice.

Best brushes for price and watercolours are the Art Spectrum, Sablinsky 550 range, have only tried them at the Matisse open day, but was recomended them by the rep  for water colours. They have the fine tip you need for water colour painting.  Have fun, Lyn.

Our Morning at Mattisse

Last Saturday was open Day at the  Mattisse Paint Factory, three of us, from our group spent a leasurly morning browsing through the displays from various teachers and painters. We arrived early, parking was good, there was plenty of street parking. One advantage of being early is that it made it easy to speak with teachers and representives, later the crowd grew and it was hard to get even close to the stalls. 

Barbara at one of the stalls.

I spoke to a representive of Art Sprectum about water colours, I have dabbled with water colours in the past, and as you see from the next entry I have painted a couple of Carol Swan's pieces, it was nice to be able to have my questions answered on the day and even try some of the brushes and lovely colours.

This was only a small area of stalls.

Two factory tours were available during the day, along with raffel's and give aways on arrival,  a small band playing light relaxing music made the day. Coffee and yummy cakes were available in the car park, and we found a lovely spot to sit before getting our second wind and returning for a second look!

Outside in part of the car park they had set aside for the larger canvas and painters. Sorry I only took three pictures! I was busy catching up with friends I had not seen for ages and of course all the lovely goodies!

I might add that the open day is mostly for displays and to have your questions asked, The only stall selling anything had books for $6, everything else was for display, a couple of teachers had pattern packets for sale.

Look out for next years Open Day, it always seems to be in early October!