Autumnal April Art

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It’s been almost a month since I last posted – did you notice?  I’ve been enjoying some lovely Autumnal weather, kicking my way through carpets of brown and gold spread across damp green fields in my pink ‘bovver boot’ gumboots with my happy puppy gamboling alongside.  It’s turning cooler now and the days are noticeably shorter.  Serendipitously, I decided to change ISP providers and got ‘LightBox’ free as part of the deal so it’s time for me to catch up on some TV programmes.

My tiny courtyard has been half demolished as a new fence had to be built.   My lovely neighbour went to hang a piece of garden art on his side of the old brick wall and it wobbled alarmingly.  So it was decided it needed to come down before major damage ensued.  As the replacement is a lovely white painted solid wood fence the garden that was built up against the brick wall (and which was probably the only thing holding the wall up for the past twenty years) also went.  I get a tiny bit of extra space and now want even more….  It’s a work in progress.

‘We Are All Made of Stardust’ stands on my dining table, leaning against the wall  – I’ve grown quite fond of it.

(C) Stardust

With the big painting finished,  and when time allows, I’ve been playing quietly in my art room.  Nothing big and bold – just playing with paints and inks and shapes and colours.

I’ve learnt a lot.  I turned most of my experiments into cards and have photographed none of them.  Oooops!

I finally scanned the painting I made in the dying days of 2016 which bears my mantra for this year:  ‘Create Beauty; Cultivate Kindness; Expect Miracles’  I’m practising living it, I fail every day but it’s an excellent challenge.

2017 Mantra

Most recently I laid out four sheets of yupo paper and played with alcohol inks and metallic mixatives

Set 2 Brown cropped

Set 2 Green cropped

Set 2 Blue cropped

and my personal favourite:

Set 2 Pink cropped

I may or may not doodle on these, but I do have some interesting plans afoot for them which involves a largish art board and scissors and glue ……

This month I also finished a collage and mixed media painting for a special friend which I’ll show you when she has received it.

Just a heads up – Siddy is apparently considering moving to Canada

16 4 17 Canadian bandana

It was a gift from the delightful Ms Boomdee.  He’s a boy who likes a bandana!

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!

 

84 thoughts on “Autumnal April Art”

  1. More space! That is exciting can’t wait to see what you create out there:-) I have done a little “playing” with those alcohol inks and they are fun, but I can’t wait to see what you do with them. Your talent with colour and design-OH MY+ Something up your sleeve-I can hardly wait. It will be amazing!!!! No doubt:-)

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  3. The stardust painting is gorgeous in its final stage, Pauline! I loved it through your other posts but I would keep this.
    Your yupo paper artworks with the mixtures were all gorgeous! This is “new to me,” and fascinating. I like the pink one which would be my Mom’s favorite, too. The tabs, holds and pebble pattern reminded me of how people like my Dad would “tumble” stones and rocks to make them glistening and smooth.
    I love Siddy in his dandy red bandana, his eyes so clear and adorable! xo hugs for you, Siddy and Orlando. 💞

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      • It is so nice you understood my pre-auto corrext response!
        Honestly, you are so kind to say my comment about your beautiful, extended time painting was “high praise.”
        Pauline, this was such an incredible painting and what I said was truly deserved and more! 🙂 xoxo

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  4. You have clearly been productive during your blogcation! Some fun stuff there, Pauline! And Siddy is looking as dashing as ever. I need to get back to my own sadly neglected blogs pretty soon – and I don’t even have cool art work to show for my down time! 😦

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  5. Hello my friend! I have missed you, and it is so good to be visiting WP, and you! And i absolutely love that picture of Siddy.
    As I was reading about the garden wall, I was so excited knowing that I’ll actually get to SEE it next year!
    I love that you and Siddy are out and about and enjoying the fall weather, and then you come home to create. ❤

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    • Hello my dear – I’m sorry my wee package didn’t make it in time for you birthday.
      They must be rowing it across the Pacific and waiting for the next cross country runner to come by – hopefully it is not too far away. We will all pile into the tiny courtyard one by one to admire the new fence. We can play sardines, it’ll be fun! 🙂

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      • Just knowing that something will arrive … by boat, by land, by runner, or even turtle … is gift enough. Thank you, XO

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  6. Siddy in his bandana made me smile. 🙂 I’m so glad to hear you’ve been enjoying autumn. I love your inky doodles and look forward to seeing what else you do with them. I fail at my Lovingkindness challenge every day, too, but as you pointed out about your own mantra, it’s an excellent challenge. 🙂

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  7. How lovely that you are enjoying a few days of autumn bliss, Pauline. I like that cooling break right before winter also and the perfect time to be out and with the adorable Siddy. I like your mantra and think it is certainly a hood one to get on board with. As always, your art is so lovely, and I much enjoy the photos you post. Siddy looks super cute in his bandana, I’m sure there are many who may be contemplating a Canada move, ha ha. I would rather like to go to Spain as I’m a sissy at dealing with cold weather 😀

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  8. Yes, I did notice you’d gone AWOL. Always love the way your artworks seems so alive, they give your posts such and amazing vibe. I seriously doubt you haven’t managed to Create Beauty; Cultivate Kindness; Expect Miracles this year. Thank you so much as always for sharing. As for Siddy, if he’s thinking of moving it had better be here to his Number one fan. Please give him a big hug from me. xxx

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  9. It’s always a happy day when you post, Pauline. I tried commenting last night, but I was literally falling asleep at the keyboard as I nurse a crummy cold. (I suppose they’re all crummy) I love your mantra for the year and I admit to laughing when you said you failed most days. Welcome to the human condition, eh? I’m always intrigued with your play of color, and though I’m not generally a pink person,I find those colors mesmerizing. As an aside, I was standing in the kitchen/dining area yesterday and just happened to look sideways as your original Wonderland of Alys. I’m so glad I framed it in a floating frame, as it shows off all the texture, including the stamps. I need to look at it sideways more often. I wish I could share it with my dad. Siddy makes a fine Canadian. I love that little fellow and can’t wait to get my mitts on him. Perhaps he’ll finally understand who that disembodied voice is over Skype.

    I’m SOOOOO excited about your clean slate for gardening. I’m impressed, too, that Sid is calmly present around the chaos. That’s a fabulous metaphor right there. Sending love and light and wishes for prolonged autumn days before your cold winter settles in. xo

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    • I’m sorry to hear you have a cold – they make you feel quite miserable don’t they. Are you imbibing lots of liquids and lemon and honey drinks? I think young Siddy is going to have an absolute ball when you and Kelly both get your mitts on him. He won’t mind at all!! 🙂 But be warned – his excitement pitch reaches astronomical heights …………. Quite frankly I wish you could just pop over for a couple of days and take charge of the mess in the courtyard – every time I look at it I just shake my head and sigh and go back inside. I guess I just need to start – one step at a time! Thank you for telling me about the floating frame – I have never seen my art work in one so can only imagine. It’s nice to be able to appreciate things from different view points isn’t it 🙂 Will you be able to have a quiet and restful weekend Alys? I hope so – putting your feet up and letting the kitties warm you with their purrs and wrapping yourself in a cosy blanket and maybe watching a movie on TV while you drink those nice warm lemon and honey drinks and then snooze away the rest of afternoon ….. xoxo

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      • Hello Pauline. Since I can’t be there to work in your courtyard, I would love to do the next best thing. Will you email me some photos from all angles and I can suggest ways that I would approach it and why? Also, when projects seem daunting, it can be overwhelming getting started. What I like to do is make a check list, broken down into stages of things that I can do, vs things I need help with. For instance, I can’t move heavy items alone, so I have to factor in time when Mike or one of the boys can help. I like to plan with a sketch or two, and that helps me get my thoughts together. I even did that with my tiny peace garden. I also like closing my eyes and envisioning what something will look like. As an artist, you probably do that a lot. I like to reuse things when I can, but sometimes that can block the process too. One last thing: since you have your own meditating Sid, you could measure your space, determine his size and location in the scheme, then plan around him. I wanted my Buddha to sit under a tree (as I’ve read he did) but knew it had to be to scale. It helped when I went to the nursery to look for a right-sized plants…in the end three small thyme planted in a triangle with bottom leaves trimmed.

        Your lists might be:

        Things to haul away (who will do this and when)
        Things to give away (to whom and when)
        Things to be reused or re-purposed (how) This might include plants, pots, decorative items or even broken pieces of pottery, bricks, stones, etc. to add texture the the finished garden
        Where do you want to put your table and chairs? Will there be a climbing cat “tree” for Orlando, etc. (Have you seen the ones that are stepped along fences or walls?

        Oh I’m having fun!

        So yes to drinking lots of tea. We went for an early Mother’s Day/Mike’s birthday brunch today, gathering Chris from college for the afternoon. Mac is volunteering for the week at Walden West so he has to be packed up and delivered by 3 on Sunday. Otherwise we’ve been lazing around. I bought some local honey, learning that it can be good for your immunity/allergies/etc. Have your heard that? It’s tasty, too.

        Love to you, Pauline.

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        • Holy Moly Alys! I need a cup of tea and a wee lie down after reading this! This is amazing – you are a wonder and I am going to sit down with a pen and paper tomorrow and then I’ll email you some photos from different angles – Ha-ha – if I can turn around in it. You have listed ideas that haven’t ever crossed my mind. Thank you, you are a wonder!!

          Honey is very good for immunity – for instance honey and lemon drinks can dispel cold and flu symptoms if you get onto it immediately. I haven’t heard about it in relation to allergies though. Don’t over indulge though – in some people honey is just as hard on the adrenals as sugar – though there is some evidence it is helpful for others who have blood sugar issues. You have to test it out to see which way it goes for you. It’s very tasty and nice to have in a drink before bed – helps you sleep. 🙂 xoxo

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  10. Hi Pauline, It’s so good to see you again. I’ve missed visiting you. I like your new stardust header – beautiful! I applaud your mantra for this year. It’s a good one to live by. I hadn’t heard of yupo paper, so did some learning there. The effects with alcohol inks and metallic mixatives are amazing. The pinks are beautiful, like rose petals; but I can’t take my eyes off the blues. You can’t let Siddy move to Canada. You’d miss him too much! 🙂 The red does suit him though. Have a lovely weekend. Enjoy your autumn colours. We don’t get them here.

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    • Hi Norah! I’ve been a bit tardy of late – too busy making to stop and write about it I guess 🙂 The inks are very bright – the camera and the scanning process doesn’t pick up the brilliance of the colours and the shimmer of the mixatives. I wrote about the yupo paper in the original ‘Inky Doodles’ post but you have probably forgotten about it all now – I forget that my friends aren’t as deeply immersed in my artistic makings as I am 🙂

      We don’t have many native deciduous trees either Norah, but my wee park where I walk most days has several oaks and chestnuts which make a delightful showing at this time of the year.

      And o course you are right – I would never part with my wee fellow – he’s my guru of happiness 🙂

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      • As long as you enjoy, Pauline. That’s the most important thing. And I am always grateful for the richness of your posts when you share – such treasures.
        If I read about your yupo paper, I forgot, sorry.
        It is nice to have a few deciduous trees about for that autumn feel.
        “Guru of happiness” what a wonderful title!
        I hope you are enjoying the weekend.

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  12. I do like that painting of the universe, and the first inky doodle that looks like polished stone is fabulous. Of course, being a fan of color, I like the others as well. Glad you are messing about in the art room. It is good for the soul. Siddy is very crisp and cuddly looking.

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      • getting ready this weekend to move things out of the kitchen, move furniture around in the living area and drop-cloth it, move to the other place once I clean everything out. I’m thinking it might be a good thing to take Monday off, since I can get some help from a friend. I’ll fill you in over email tonight or tomorrow! I’m still struggling on the sinus thing, but lowered my cholesterol by 38 points (the bad stuff) with my Lisa-is-hungry-all-the-time-diet. That was good enough to avoid meds. Now I just need to figure out the diet so I’m not so hungry (it’s the cut in fat that worked on the cholesterol and that makes me ravenous; down from 60 grams to about 45 a day. Ugh. )

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        • I’ll wait til we email to go into the health thing – there are alternatives….. You have just officially entered the horrid stage of renovating – but such a good idea to be staying elsewhere! It will be such a joy when its done 🙂

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  13. Wow! A new divider that gives you more garden space sounds perfect. At least next spring it will be perfect. In the meantime, Love all your experiments. The browns struck a cord in me oddly. Maybe because I’m in need of grounding even after being in the dirt for days now. The blue is my other favorite and it all comes behind that wonderful work of art named Siddy. How dashing he is sporting his souvenir kerchief. I’m sure he would have brought himself one back had he been allowed to travel and visit Ms. Boomdee himself. She was so kind as always to think of him too. Love the title of your piece ‘We Are All Made of Stardust’. Perfect. I’m struggling to write a post as well. Maybe soon.

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    • The brown is surprisingly popular Marlene – I thought of it more as an accent piece, which goes to show we are all so individual in our preferences! The real pieces are far more bright and vivid than they show in photos or scans which is why I’ve decided to make a huge collage using them all. I guess I’ll be a bit busy for the next week or so 🙂 And yes, I’m hoping I’ll have something decent to sit in next spring – we’ll see.

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  14. I doubt Siddy would go; he knows on which side his chicken is roasted; and how’d he leave all those vibrant colours When you talk about alcoholic paints i wasn’t sure if you drank the alcohol and then painted or if there was some other combo? Whatever it’s working very well..

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    • Nice to see you Jenny and thank you. The thing I love most about the pink is that it needs no embellishing – or in my case ‘doodling’, as the inks have made their own images quite clear enough to the observant viewer.

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  16. The first line of this post sounds like a confessional visit Ms Pauline. I haven’t heard of Lightbox but we have Netflix and wouldn’t be without it. Who needs commercials when they are watching something? Lovely art, lovely colours and lovely Suddi.

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    • Forgive me father for I have not posted? 😀 LightBox is a slightly less up market version of Netflix, carrying many different programmes and a few crossovers. I now get free Spotify (via my mobile plan) and free TV (via my unlimited gigatown broadband plan) so am set to never leave the house again 🙂

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          • Best I have seen! I guess it all depends on the price you are paying. Here in Tasmania, we are all supposed to have Broadband but wouldn’t ya know it, out here in Sidmouth we can’t get it! Turns out when they turn off the old network sometime in the future we are going to have to pay for satellite…sigh…

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            • That sounds bad! I got lucky along with all other Dunedinites a couple or so years back when this city (probably because of Otago University and the associated training hospital) got chosen as one of the gigatowns – ie the first places to have the ultra fast fibre network laid through the whole city. I of course immediately put my hand up and, except for a few initial teething issues, have been enjoying it ever since. There is lots of competition between the ISP’s which also helps.

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              • The best we can do out here is DoDo believe it or not but they deliver a halfway decent service so till we are forced to reconsider we are happy with them 🙂

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  17. As always the art work is wonderful. I love all that you do. Siddy is a New Zealander at heart. You can see it in his eyes.

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  18. There’s that cute Siddy boy! Tee-hee, move to Canada! Only in the summer mosts though because you’d be a Siddy popsicle in January.

    Love your Yopo work and the Pink and Goldie one is my fav believe it or not. We love these products too and I did a demo night a few months back. I tried Alcohol ink on clear acetate then die cut some butterflies. They almost look like blown glass, well, fine enough for a scrappy project.

    Your fall days sound pleasant my dear! Usually after a busy summer, it’s nice to put the feet up and enjoy the indoors. Lucky you to have a couple of partners in crime to cuddle up with. Hugs all around xo K

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    • Oh yes, you reminded me years ago, when they first appeared I made butterflies on acetate with the inks. I cut them out and put them into the stash and used the last one on a journal page I did last year 🙂 I hung one in a window but the inks fade quite quickly in bright light so it didn’t stay colourful very long. With the longer, cooler evenings me and my partners in crime have just begun tv watching after a very long break. They go to sleep and I amuse myself with laid on entertainment and some yarn or some pencils……
      Yay Winter!! 🙂 xo

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  19. Beautiful work. I’m partial to earth tones, so the brown/gold really lit up a happy spot in my brain! Although your personal favorite was stunning and reminded me of roses or dahlias or soft peonies bursting into bloom. All lovely! Siddy is loveliest of all! I may join him in Canada soon, too, as things are getting ridiculously crazy here in the US. (Send help!)

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    • Thank you Cheryl, and welcome! We are fortunate to have a large body of water between us and the potus. And a population that would not welcome him. So we don’t need to build a wall 🙂 Canada may have to. The brown inkie is popular – I may have to enhance it!

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      • Please know that the majority of us here do not welcome him either. And please know that we are putting up the good fight against this narcissistic tyrant. I hope the rest of the world does not judge us who did not vote for him and are resisting as best we can. Thank you.

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        • Oh goodness Cheryl, I did not mean to offend you. If you knew me better you would know I have a great many friends in the US, not one of whom voted for or wanted this current situation. I am well informed on the situation, (as is most of the western world) and we all await eagerly the time when this too shall pass. All resisters have my greatest respect and unending moral support – the odd joke or two not withstanding.

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          • No, I wasn’t truly offended. We just want everyone to know this is a horrible mess–as I’m sure you do. Many of us are devastated in every way. Humor and history are keeping us afloat as well. It will pass, like a kidney stone, perhaps. But it will pass. Let’s hope it’s a fairly benign passing.

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            • Yes. Let us keep hope alive – sometimes it may seem that is all we have, but if we keep true to that and not give into despair we really can move mountains. The awake people of the world are with you!

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  20. Tell Siddy Canada is nice but too close to the US for comfort. He would not be happy here–trust me, it’s quite difficult to be happy here these days. Your new inkies are lovely–and are begging to be doodled! I like the brown one–it makes me think of the stuff that start to grow as wood decays and returns to the earth . . .

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  22. Siddy would be most welcome here. We’re celebrating 150 years as a country and his outfit suits the occasion perfectly. I know some great parks where there are fabulous things to sniff along two rivers he’d surely enjoy. Plus I have a small white dog who’d enjoy the company.

    Your favourite swirly pink piece is mine, too. It makes me think of peonies which have yet to bloom here but soon, I hope.

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  23. Your artwork is so beautiful!! I have zero artistic talent so I am always in awe of those who can create! Your work is particularly impressive.
    If you haven’t already checked it out “Grace and Frankie” is a pretty fun Netflix series. Enjoy!

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    • Thank you Karen. I always tell people who say they have no artistic ability that they just haven’t been shown the steps yet. Everyone can do something. I’ll check out Grace and Frankie and appreciate the pointer. 🙂

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  25. Canada is a fine country but please ask Siddy to give very careful consideration to his plans. 😉 Love your doodles. How are you finding LightBox? I couldn’t get good sound quality on it, and there was a lot of lag. Haven’t tried it for a while so don’t know if those problems are still there.

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    • I think on consideration Siddy may find it a little close to the crazyman, so he may choose to stay. I’ll have to see if I can find a Southern Cross bandana for him 🙂

      The sound on LightBox is okay but there is an occasional lag which doesn’t appear on Netflix – which I also got as part of the same deal, free, but only for a year.

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  26. A post from you is always welcome, Pauline. I particularly like the artwork you have been playing with. Do you remember when we first became WP friends you said something like some people don’t stay, but that’s OK. What a long time ago – we stayed.

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    • Thank you Derrick -yes, it has been a while now hasn’t it. That must have been one of my posts when I was waxing philosophical about life the universe and everything…… I’m glad you both stayed ❤

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  27. I have been so busy recently that I haven’t had time to play with my new inks… perhaps that’s something for the autumn. I really like your brown creation… it makes me think of soil and I would want to doodle bugs and minibeasts all over it. I didn’t buy any of the earthy colours, but I think that has inspired me to think again.
    I’m so glad that the wall did not collapse into your garden – that could have been a disaster. The white fence sounds like a lovely blank canvas upon which you can paint with plants.
    Siddy is looking particularly smart. As he gets older (he’s 12 now) Max finds ‘smart’ increasingly challenging… I know the feeling!!

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    • Ha, yes – ‘smart’ is not an adjective I have ever heard associated with me 🙂 Max is getting into his mature years now, is he coping well? Orlando is 11 and while still handsome his behaviour is giving me cause for concern from time to time. I’m paying attention.

      The colours ‘coffee’ and ‘slate’ are particularly pleasing to me and surprisingly I find the addition of a wee dash of ‘butterscotch’ inevitable in all these prints. You must do an earthy mix and doodle your earthy creatures. It would be so fun!!

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      • Max is a little more bewildered than he used to be and much less bouncy. He’s still happy though and does, on occasion, frolic around like a puppy.
        I will be investigating earthy colours very soon. I have ‘honeycomb’ but not ‘butterscotch’ and I’ll have a look for coffee and slate.

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        • A little less bouncy is no bad thing I am apt to think. Being happy is important. I think ‘bewildered’ might be applied to Orlando also – he seems to think there is some kind of monster lurking about any door that is opened and being carried over the threshold is the only safe way for him to come inside. Happy inky doodling!!

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