Another forgotten building, another found inspiration

Walking around my Dad's village, I couldn't help but be drawn to this beautiful old building, which we thought might have been an old shoe factory.  The broken panes of glass and the rotting, peeling paint just draw me in, as I imagine who used to live there, what used to happen and why has no body restored this little piece of history.

Making Flowers

I've got back into card-making the past couple of weeks, since my grandma asked me for a batch and there seem to be so many birthdays at this time of year. I've continued using the flattened brush as a shape for petals but have also started experimenting more with different colours and flicking paint over the background, as I didn't like the plain white.  Thinking of trying it as a canvas painting next.

Back in my favourite place

Manchester has probably been the biggest inspiration in my life so far and today I got the pleasure of spending the day there in the sun.  The architecture always astounds me - the way the old Victorian buildings still stand proud against the ever-growing background of new development.  This little pub is like a shiny gem stone, unique and irresistible.

Look up and see a work of art

I was on the train to London.  I looked up and saw this and I just thought wow.  I don't know why I am drawn to old run-down forgotten buildings, but I am, and the contrast of the greys and the browns here against the bright blue sky is just stunning.  The lines through the sky complete it.  It was the most beautiful thing I have seen in a long time.

Making a mountain out of a molehill

 

This is a painting I am doing for a friend's sister's 30th birthday present.  She has done a lot of travelling and this photo is one she took in Nepal.  I love the contrast of the colourful man-made flags against the natural world behind them.  Landscapes are not something I normally do, so I'm trying to get over the fear of the mountains and embrace them.

Congratulations card

Just as a quick break from a painting I was doing today, I made a congratulations card for my wonderful friend Amy.  Just pushing the bristles of the brush onto the page gave a lovely petal shape - ideal if flowers are your favourite theme!  What's especially nice though is that all the different colours and tones that have been loaded onto the brush come out, to make the petals look really individual. 

All the paintings together

So this was a bit of an accident - as many great discoveries are.  I had some prints done of some of favourite paintings and was cutting them from their original oblong shape into squares, which I then mounted onto foam board.  I had six scraps leftover and suddenly saw them all together.  Each individually is a nice painting to look at, but united they create something else entirely, something unique.  I am going to continue along this route and see what else happens when I merge individual pieces together.  I also thought about sewing into these to give them some more texture.