Peace weather grams installed

 

Because we will be in Scotland on International Day of Peace (21 September) we installed our peace weather grams in the Magnolia tree now before departing - never too early for peace. 

This year Fiona printed Peace is beautiful; and I have printed don't give up on peace.

We have posted and gifted quite a lot of the weather grams - but this year they were sent out into the world without strings as strings apparently  create issue with some postal services. During the week we sat and put strings on the ones going into our Magnolia and the ones that Fiona's dad will distribute among his meditation group.

A few images of the weather grams in the tree follow - including some still hanging in from last year and some gathered and placed on Ken's sculpture chair at our front door.

To round the blog post off I have included some other images of peace related fragments in our front garden.

It is only a small thing - but in reality there will only be peace when enough people stand up for it. May we continue to find peace beautiful and never give up on it.

Birds in the rough

 

I have decided to take some partially made wee birds with me to the cottage so that I can finish them over there.

As you can see from the opening photo I managed to saw and roughly sand 6 wee birds. Some of the process photos follow.  Cutting some blocks; and marking them up using a cardboard template.

This is the first time I have used my small band saw to cut the bird shapes.

Finally another photo of the six birds that are cottage bound. I will be leaving a few home for working on later.

Watercolour work

 

I have finished the two watercolours I started last week as you can see from the opening photo and the one below. Both the bridge and the cottage ruin are located at Latheronwheel Harbour Scotland. The colours of the images are a bit off as they were taken a bit hurriedly.

Progress photos of the work and a couple more of the completed work follow.

Every now and then as artists we need to pause and sort our materials etc. This week I sorted my Daniel Smith watercolours into two tins; and then did new colour swatches to identify which colours were in which tin and on which line. As you can see from the first photo below  I had done this in the past; but with new colours it all needed to be done again.

The last photo below is of some of my watercolour paper that I had tested colours on as I worked - bit messy but interesting in their own right. These sheets were discarded to make room in my watercolour art box.

Moon rising and setting, sunrise and iPhone magic

 

As the title suggests this blog post is a mixed bag of moon, sun and blossoms. The opening and following photos are the moon rising - not quite full. The setting sun adding a glow to the tree branches.

The moon setting this morning.

The sun colouring the sky this morning. Two different time periods - one earlier front the front door and later on my walk along tamarind Street.

And me playing with the camera on the iPhone to capture the beauty of a few blossoms.

Pausing to soak in and record beauty lifts my spirit.

More for the Pop Up Art Show

 

A mixed bag this week. I managed to start two new watercolours; finished one watercolour; and made two sets of fungi forms.

First the new watercolours - you can see in the photo below I first did the outlines and the opening photo shows I got to setting down glazes.

The following photo shows the finished watercolour of the rusty shed at Kirtomy cove.

And the following images are of the second set of fungi forms I completed yesterday. 

The fungi form bowls are based on fungi that grow on fallen logs in the forest areas around our town

Back on the hammer and stake

 

It was good to get time in the workshed today to make a set of fungi form bowls - you can see the outcome in the opening and following photos

As is often the case there are many steps in creating these small forms - turning the disks of metal into small bowls; putting an indent into the indoor centre ; and systematically hammering the bowl on my 'finger' shaped stake.

A couple of process photos follow.

A photo of my handmade stake (made by a blacksmith in Portland Oregon: and my hand made Japanese metal working hammer  follow.

Photos by Fiona of me hammering.

A good session in the workshop!!!!