Sunshine Sunday

Race you to the Beach!

Silly Saturday

“Bonjour,

Passe moi l’aspirine”

Silent Sunday

“Those who can not hear the music think the dancer is mad”

Paint Party Friday

Making some art with my Thames foreshore findings, gathered on 23.Oct.16. If you would like to see more about that fabulous treasure hunt click here and  here

I spent ages playing around with bits and pieces before I arrived at this arrangement. I’d love to know what you think.

The pieces down lefthand side are the broken stems of clay pipes, the rest is pottery found on that day.

I am going to experiment with a new found toy – Sugru. (Introduced to me by Mrs Snail – she teaches us all so much!) I’m hoping to fix the pieces on to the canvas with this substance that turns to rubber, but no time left today as I’m off to pick up Big Bro and Little Bro from school in a minute. A Granny’s work is never done!

Joining in with Paint Party Friday

All pieces of art made on the Beach Clean theme are going towards and exhibition I will be doing with Miss E in Dorset Arts Weeks 2018. However we are beginning to talk about a smaller event next year – I’ll be sure to let you know  all about it.

Arranging things

I could happily spend days arranging things.

All collected on Sunday on the Thames foreshore. We were told that the green glazed pottery was likely to be Medieval.

Rust, teeth, pottery, bones

Dorset County Show

Storm

Acrylic on Canvas

12″ x 30″         30 x 76cm

Joining in with Paint Party Friday

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Details:

Click on any photo to see a larger picture.

This is one of my entires for the Dorset County Show which happened on the first weekend of September. It is about time I told you how I got on.

In order to get a free ticket to the Show one needs to have quite a few entries, and as you are only allowed two entries per class, there is a variety of Homecrafts to cover

 

The last three on the list were the photographic classes

My two ‘pictures in any other medium’ were these beach clean art paintings

I arrived early in the morning to put all my exhibits out, so there were very few other entries there.

It seemed we were not supposed to put a title or any note about the painting, although no-one really knew.

 

I got to the show at about midday, eager to see the other entries and if I had got any prizes or comments from the judges. Mine was the only abstract painting in the category.

Here is the winner

Now I look at this again it looks more like pastel to me rather than oil or acrylic, but maybe it is oil pastel.

And our painting?

Here it sits with it’s competitors, no we didn’t get a prize, but it really was fun to enter. Thanks again to everyone who joined in with the creation of this painting, which I love!

Here are the first and second in this category

And some Commended ones

However……

I did get a First for a crocheted wig!

The judge wrote: Brilliant idea. Good even crochet. Nicely distributed curls and combination of stitches. Well done.

And a Highly Commended for the knitted wig

Judge’s comments: Good even stitching. Puffball effect well thought out.

And her comments for the blue Wavy Wig: Nice idea. Well chosen stitches, well finished.

(You can find patterns on my Ravelry page or Etsy shop.)

The winner of the knitting class was a massive jacket, I expect it is snug to wear.

It is interesting to see the variety of things entered in these categories.

I also got a Highly Commended in the portrait category for a photo of my son and his family.

The weekend was a huge success for my daughter’s family who were entering cows and calves. They won trophies galore and Miss E won her class and Best Overall Young Handler with her calf Rainbow Splash.

Proud Granny!

 

Our painting!

I have entered our painting in a ‘Any Media’ painting class in our local County Show. Thank you so much to all of you who helped me get to the final design.

Judging happens tomorrow morning at 8am – exciting – I’ll let you know how we did!

Joining in with Paint Party Friday.

 

Paint Party Friday

The second completed painting in the Beach Clean Art series – yes, I’m now confident there will be a series!

‘Beach Clean 2’

Acrylic paint, rust and fishing line.  8″x 8″

I love the rust pieces and some deserve a place of their own – the found fishing line, which comes in all sorts of colours, is perfect for attaching bits and pieces.

The painting started out like this – the one top right

one of this group of backgrounds I did back in July

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I was blown away by the wonderful response last week to my cry for help. I can’t express how immensely grateful I am to all of you who joined in the discussion. It really did help so MUCH!!!!!

Are you wondering how the painting looks now?

Well it has been sitting on a table in my sitting room for me to look at several times a day and I have tinkered with it many times. Taking everyone’s comments into consideration really helped to concentrate my mind and consider all the elements that were brought to my attention – what a gift you all gave me – really!!! Here is last week’s post – Help!

And here it is now – nothing has been fixed yet.

Already as I look at it I know I will rearrange the turquoise rope at the bottom when I fix it, but I think it is nearly there. It just needs to sit a few more days for me to be sure.

The title will be ‘Beach Clean 3‘

Joining in with Paint Party Friday…..

…. and completing the second of 7 paintings for my 16 for 2016 Challenge

 

Help!

Decisions decisions!

Remember this painting which i had just placed together but not yet fixed, when I wrote this Beach Clean Art post ?

Today I set about fixing it all together. I really like the piece of wood on the right too much to let it go yet, so I replaced that element with some of the rust I found on Ringstead beach.

This is how it looks so far with the small canvas screwed on and the rust attached with a bit of netting and red fishing line

1.

Now I’m driving myself crazy trying to work out where to go next – does it look right as it is – less is more – or is this better …..

2.

but is the balance right? does this look better?

3.

or this

4.

Aaargh! My head is aching!

Can you lovely people help me!?! Which one.

The pressure is on a bit as for the first time ever I am entering three paintings into the Dorset County Show and this might be one of them.

Joining in with Paint Party Friday where you can see masses of wonderful artworks.

 

Paint Party

Joining in with Paint Party Friday.

I’m still playing with this one, so nothing is fixed yet.

Acrylic on triangular canvas with pieces picked up on the beach whilst dong a Beach Clean.

See the picture’s development so far here.

16 for 2016: July

These are the targets I have set myself for 2016, inspired by Cathy. Pop over and see how she’s doing with her targets.

16 WALKS (of more than an hour)

8 done, 8 to go.

Four hour walk along the river and round Hengistbury  Head

It wasn’t meant to be quite that long and the day was very hot, we underestimated the distance, but I managed to gather more material for my Beach Clean Art which all helps with the target of 7 paintings.

15 HANDMADE GREETINGS CARDS

11 done, 4 to go

None this month

14 NEW ITEMS IN MY ETSY SHOP

7 done, 7 to go

None this month

13 SWIMS

11 done, 2 to go.

2 more in July – one swim of 26 lengths!!! I was meeting a friend and she got stuck in traffic, so I just kept swimming. I was delighted but the legs were a bit shaky when I got out of the pool. I’m not a good swimmer and my initial target was to do 10 lengths each time so I was very proud of myself.

The next time I did 18 lengths as I had taken Miss E with me and she was so happy in the pool creating swim-gym routines, that again I just kept on swimming.

12 GARDEN POSTS

6 done, 6 to go.

One this month.

I am keeping up with the End of Month View, which is motivating, but a bit embarrassing as the progress is not what I’d like it to be. Hey Ho!

11 HAND MADE TOTE BAGS

Zero

10 TYPES OF HANDMADE BEADS

6 done, 4 to go

None this month

9 PIECES OF TEXTILE ART (started)

3 started, 6 to go

None this month. This feels more like a wet weather project.

8 MORNINGS of SORTING and STORING

3 done, 5 to go.

None this month

7 PAINTINGS (or other pieces of art)

1 done, 6 to go

This is where I have made most progress this month. I have been creating masses of Beach Clean Art as photographs and I’m excitedly in the grip of this new creative obsession. It is taking me on the most marvellous journey. I’ve painted lots of background pieces but there is just one that I am happy with as a finished piece so far – what do you think?

the rest are still works in progress.

6 BUS RIDES (using my bus pass)

2 done, 4 to go

None this month

5 NEW TYPES OF EXERCISE TRIED

4 done, 1 to go

No new ones this month. So far I have tried Pilates, Belly Dancing, a Dance Class, a Zumba-like class.

4 NEW PATTERNS for my ETSY SHOP

Zero

I am disappointed not to have completed some patterns yet – there’s still time.

3 MASSAGES

1 done, 2 to go

None this month – again, it’s more of a cold weather thing for me.

2 WAYS TO HELP REFUGEES

Zero

For now I am going to have to stick to crocheting ‘Squares for Blankets‘, but I am still on the look out for another suitable contribution to make.

1 NOVEL READ

Zero

Still 2 false starts.

I have just been recommended ‘The President’s Hat’, have you read it?

0 BEADS BOUGHT

Zero

Thank you Cathy for this inspiration, it continues to be a great motivator.

Assemblage Art

Quentin Crisp

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Joining in with Cee’s Odd Ball Challenge

Repeat

no dazzling summer

dull skies give an even light

best for photographs

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The rusting sea defences at Charmouth Beach, Dorset, on England’s south coast. Their shapes, colours and textures fascinate me, sculpted by the sea.

Did you watch the BBC’s ‘Springwatch’ or ‘Springwatch Unsprung’? On the latter programme there was a guest called Martin Dorey who founded the 2 Minute Beach Clean

“We are a growing family of beach lovers rolling up our sleeves to help rid the world’s beaches of marine litter and plastic pollution, two minutes at a time.

We believe that every piece of litter removed from the beach matters. So it doesn’t matter if you do 2 minutes or 30. Each and every piece of marine
plastic removed from the beach is a piece that will no longer go on to kill.

Our movement has grown enormously since its inception in 2014. Since then thousands of people all over the globe have used our hashtag for their
beach cleaning activities.”

Inspired by this I went to Charmouth to do my 2 minutes, and then posted my finds onto the 2 minute Beach Clean Facebook Page. 2Min Beach Clean is on Instagram as well.

I came across a huge tangle of detritus too heavy to lift

but including a fascinating array of waste, all with an unknown human story attached

I set about cutting bits out that fascinated me and put them with the rest of my haul of beach rubbish. 2 minutes turned into a wonderfully relaxing hour of  beach-combing finding more REPEATs

Amongst the rubbish it was this rope that intrigued me the most

which I have since discovered, from a diving friend, is a float line for a fishing net, probably a net for catching prawns.

I soaked the best bits in rainwater and just had to have a play around with the shapes

Next time you visit a beach spare just a couple of minutes to pick up the plastics, it thrills me to feel part of this wonderfully international inspiring idea.

Joining in with our 52 Week Photo Challenge: REPEAT

and

Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge: prompt words DAZZLE and SKY

Next week our Photo Challenge Prompt

is

ROUND

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Update: I have just started a new blog to house my Beach Clean Art.