week 5

I am glad you like the feathers, thank you to the people who left me a comment. I do really appreciate reading them. This page for week 5 was a real pleasure for me, I couldn't wait to get started and I loved doing it. I wanted to put in the long dark bubbly seaweed and it was the first piece to go on the page, as with all the objects it is life size, so I twisted it across the double pages. Then I chose the other objects, shells, sea weeds and the feather. Above you can see the work in progress and how I added the sketched seaweed, at the left side. Then I wanted to put the mermaids purse in the centre, placed on a little piece of paper to see if it looks right. I like to place the real objects on my paper and move them around until it feels right. This has come from my experience of adding something in a drawing and then wishing I had left it as it was.

I was going to put more shells in but time ran out, Saturday came around again, so I am calling it done. The shells were hard because I wanted to get the details and this paper did not help nor did my tired eyes. I know my shells would be better in pencil but I wanted to show colours and painting with the fine brush was very time consuming.

It has taken me many hours to complete this but I think it was worth it.

I am really happy with this page, it is how I wanted it to be, like a tangled arrangement ....to me it just feels like how you find the objects on the shore, as the sea has left them. The colours are rich and the more I find these objects the more I am enjoying this project. There are lovely decorative qualities in the shapes of the seaweeds, such rich colours and somehow they just cry out to be painted.

Today I have been collecting again, a huge bag full of treasures but I will tell you about it next week with the drawing.

Hope you like them, I would love to know what you think.

millyx

Please do not use my pictures without asking my permission, thank you.

week 4. Feathers

Here are the pages for Week 4. I loved the shapes of the battered and tatty looking feathers and decided to arrange them across the double pages. We have many different birds that visit or live in the estuary. I know from my experience that in the summer months the feathers will be pristine and plentiful, so lets show the scruffy winter ones. We always know when the geese arrive with their distinctive noise. Look up to the sky and there will be the V shapes as the Greylag geese fly in and land on the grassy shore. It is often hard to see them on the ground as they blend in so well, then a low flying jet blasts across the sky and in those few seconds they panic and frightened by the noise fly up and circle around in total confusion. I could hear them calling across the shore but could not see them, but I was thrilled to see a Kingfisher, if only a blue flash flying along the river. In this estuary, the fresh water rivers from the mountains flows into the estuary, the main river is the Duddon from which it derives its name and then sea water flows in with two tides each day. The estuary attracts much bird life and the two swans who have raised a family here were swimming along the tidal river. I am not a great bird spotter but I love finding the feathers.
I drew my collection in pencil and then used acrylic inks. I wanted the fine detail of the feathery shapes so I used the number 1 sable brush. It was rather slow progress this week completing the feathers. The problem of white on white was solved with yellowy or grey to capture the paler feathers. I love the brown striped feathers, this one was a little green but I kept it a little cleaner. Thought you might like to see my colour palette. In the end I was really happy with this page.

I can't believe how quickly Saturday comes around. Today is week 5 collecting. It was a beautiful clear day with a hard frost. Football was cancelled so I had some company. The seaweed, oak leaves and feathers were all frosted. I liked the frosted seaweed which looked like pieces of white lace. The feathers felt strange as frozen shapes, they soon melted in my jacket pocket back to their soft textures. I saw many oak leaves with their familiar shape, but they looked so pretty edged with white frost. Today the water was so low that the old remains of a jetty from days gone by was visible, where slate from our village quarry was taken away by a flat bottomed boat. Old pieces of blue and white china and broken glass bottles were visible on the seabed. Yes, we fished out some bits and pieces, maybe they will appear on my pages. Today I found lots of shells. We were able to walk across areas which last week were completely covered with sea water, large expanses of sand with wave ripple patterns, bird prints and lots and lots of shells uncovered and stuck in the sand. The many tributaries and deep gullies were dried up today, but exposing the dangers of this shore and how deep the water is when the tide is in. I fear the sand and often feel nervous, too many childhood memories of sinking sands getting my feet, then ankles stuck and the panic. My steps kept to the very dry areas and if sheep or human footprints are deep it is a no go area for me. I know this shore, but I also know the dangers. The village and the shore are seperated by the railway line. The sea is eroding the grassy banks and the railway line has recently been protected with a stronger barrier of limestone rocks at vunerable places. I found a seaweed growing on the limestone boulders and collected a sample. As I sort out my treasures I suspect the shells will feature strongly for week 5, wait and see.
Thank you for the comments, hope you like the feathers. Millyx

week 3 Wind and Rain

The oak leaf was the first object I collected and it blew straight out of my hand. I had to chase it and then fish it out of a large puddle but I am glad I did. I loved the shape, the holes and the colours. The arrangement consists of just some of the items I collected on this wet and windy day, things go together by colour or shape as I select them for the double page. The orange colours really shone on this wet stormy day of week 3.

Today, week 4, I spend two hours wandering up and down, stopping to take in this beautiful day. Such a still clear day, of soft colours with the misty blue grey hills and pink and blue colours of the sky. The tide was coming in and the water in the estuary looked like a mirror with the reflection of the hills. Lots of birds about, as a single white feather came floating on the water and stopped right next to me. I enjoyed the walk, the silence and the frosty chill which had made pretty ice patterns in the pools and pockets of white frosted grass. It all added to the calm scene. The sea mist is again creeping in to make it all a frozen winter wonderland as evening falls. I am about to start week 4 as I sort my finds.
Thank you for the comments, I am enjoying my beach finds, hope you are too. Millyx

Week 2 and the little things

So last Saturday I ventured down onto the freezing cold shore with layers of clothes and only my face exposed to the biting wind. I know that if this strange behaviour is spotted by the locals there will be questions. You see today I went in the pouring rain, I had the place to myself! What on earth is she doing down there on a day like this?
I so enjoyed the first week, loved recording the seaweeds but I had a niggling thought that it might end up being seaweed each week. Well yes seaweed is going to feature strongly but I did find lots of little things, tiny shells, berries, seeds, leaves and snail shells. So I decided to capture them together on a separate page from the larger specimens. This means you are getting an extra page of finds with week 2 double page.
Week 2 features the biggest black mermaids purse that I have ever seen, it was a WOW moment for me. I am really loving the colours of my finds...rusty oranges, greens and browns, deep inky blue blacks...and everything seems to blend with each other.
It is a very tactile experience, feeling wet slimy strands, soft slippery objects and sometimes a bit smelly...a foot or a piece of stick to poke around helps.
It is really making me look, seeing how beautiful some of this sea weed really is, the different shapes which you really start to notice when you draw them.
In my enthusiasm to get started I chose a large sketch pad I already had, the paper is quite thin and it is not taking the paint too well and resulting in wrinkled pages. I have decided it adds to the sea theme.
Thank you for all the comments, glad so many people are interested and some new followers. Please let me know what you think, leave a comment, as you join me on this journey.
Must go now and sort out my new bag of treasures for week 3. Hope you like them. Millyx

My New Project for 2011

Welcome to my new project. On January the first I walked along the shore and enjoyed the fresh air and the views. The snow had melted and the grassy shore was very wet, soggy and slippery so I had to pick my way carefully. As usual my eyes scan the ground for interesting finds as my head continues to sieve through my thoughts. I need a new project, something fresh to occupy my need to draw. Gradually I start to find little interesting pieces of sea weed, lovely colours and then a snail shell, so out comes the collecting bag.
Maybe I have found my project, if I can find some more interesting objects. My foot pokes about in tangled debris and I collect tiny shells and leaves and seeds. There must be a sycamore seed, there is always a sycamore seed and I felt the delight as the large blackened shape appeared before my eyes. The sea water gives the leaves a dark blackened colouring, especially the many oak leaves. Red berries are always collected, that is my unwritten rule. Gradually after my hour and a half walk my bag is bulging with the wet tangled up treasure.
I have decided that each Saturday I will collect for my project. It is a big book, a double page spread will record my finds. There are some rules, only natural objects and walking the same piece of shore. One week to record and then a new week and new finds.
Here is Week 1, recorded in pencil and acrylic paint. Hope you will follow and see what the sea washes up, what grows and lives here and the lovely feathers from the birds in this beautiful estuary.
Hopefully 52 weeks later ...a fantastic book of my shore line finds.
Thank you for your comments, I love reading them and they are appreciated. Millyx

Happy New Year

I can hardly believe it is the last day of 2010. Looking back I have achieved quite a lot of different creative projects. My square book that I started on the first of January has many pages filled with my drawings. It is a visual diary of my year and each page is a record of objects I found. One night when I couldn't sleep I got up in the early hours and to pass the time flicked through the pages of this book. Each page holds not only the objects but the place, the day and the memories are captured. In the future I know this will remain the same.

My zigzag Oak book holds little images of the life cycle of the oak tree as it yields its harvest of acorns and the changing colours of the leaves. It still thrills me t0 hold a tiny acorn and know that a huge oak tree can grow from it. My own little acorn continues to grow into a larger tree each year.

Red berries remain a favourite subject and many other seeds, insects, leaves, feathers and shells. All these things so familiar to me and yet each year I am drawn to them. I love collecting and recording my finds.

Tomorrow I want to begin a new project, as I struggle to pick a theme, maybe I do not need to choose, it will choose me.

A very big thank you to all the people who leave such lovely comments. I really do appreciate reading them. May I wish you all A Happy New Year for 2011.
And may your little acorns grow into giant oaks. Love Millyx

Another frosty day

The village looks very pretty with a light covering of snow. On Sunday we wrapped up warm and went for a long walk along the frosty roads. The photograph is the view taken off the railway bridge, just down the hill below my house. The shore was all frosty and glistening and twinkling in the sunshine.
After our uphill walk through the snowy lanes we enjoyed the lovely views of the lakeland hills on this beautiful crystal clear day. The hedgerows are all bare except for the holly bushes with lots of red berries. I picked lots of different seed heads to record when I get the time. My favourite images were of the frosted oak leaves scattered every where, they looked so beautiful against the snow. Lots of fallen red berries were trapped in the frosty ground. The Hawthorn branches were still laden, large droplets of water dangling and sparkling from their red berries.
The rose hips had suffered, all soft and squashy and blackened with the cold. I managed to pick the two for my picture.
When we returned home I wandered in my garden and found the two oak leaves fallen off my little oak tree which I planted as an acorn about three years ago. And finally the little branch with the bright red berries also picked from my garden.
I sketched it in pencil on Sunday evening. Today I painted it using the five colours of acrylic paint and my number one sable brush . Hope you like it.
I am using my new laptop for the first time, so hope this works out. Thank you for the lovely comments, we still have the mouse, nicknamed him Woody.

The mouse in the house

Oh have we had some fun with this little fellow. An apple under the kitchen table was missing a huge portion and the ground surrounding it was covered in red mice confetti, he obviously doesn't like the skin. So we left the apple but placed our newly purchased humane mouse trap next to it. A peanut inside it, we know he eats them ....that is another tale, and we went to bed.
I happened to say to my husband that I might draw him if we manage to catch him. Next morning , excited husband rushes upstairs to say "we got him!". He had placed him in my tall glass vase with some apple pieces to keep him happy. The vase was my idea really, so I could see him and he could not escape. The mouse had leaped out of the trap as it was opened and into the kitchen sink so was a little wet ! I just loved him, grabbed a sketch book and set to recording him.
It is tricky sketching a moving subject but in the end he obliged and sat nicely with his pieces of apple.
We let him free outside in the coal and wood shed. Guess what......last night he had found his way back in, the trap is set ready for him. I think he likes it in our house best.
A big Thank you for all comments. Glad to hear others have had mice too. My laptop is serious, so maybe I might be lucky enough to get a new one for my birthday next week...hint hint to someone who might be reading this.
Hope you like our pet house mouse. He is actually a Long Tailed Field mouse or Woodmouse. He is very cute, I might knit him a jumper for Christmas.

Windy weather

Windy weather, stormy weather is the forecast today. You can say that again, as we can hear the wind whistling through the house. We are cosy and warm with a wood burner. I am having a well deserved rest having just spent the morning helping to fill and carrying baskets full of wood to the coal shed with my husband. The truck load is now stacked high. We had the first snow on the hilltops during Monday night. So now I am now going to sit and draw and paint.
My laptop is poorly, gone to be looked at. I started moderating the comments as I was getting lots of spam in the comments and maybe have got a virus, anyway my screen is just a mass of wavy blue lines. I am using someone elses computer, had to load my photographs here too.
So that is why I have not posted for a while, crossing my fingers it is not too serious and can be fixed.
Back to the drawing. I was walking down a little lane and suddenly I hit a wind tunnel, debris was blowing through the hedge, and I had to protect my eyes from the branches and leaves and bits of dead plants crashing into me. Then as I passed all was calm again. This strange experience made me stop and look back and I realised the road was littered in the blown red berries, leaves and twigs and the hedgerow was stripped clean. I picked up rose hips and hawthorn berries, leaves and some rusty coloured fern. Here is some of my collection, painted in acrylic ink and my fine number one sable brush. It is becoming my favourite brush when I am in the mood to do things slow and carefully it is a delight to use.
Thank you for all the lovely comments and the interest in the mouse. We wonder how many we have? Latest news is a half eaten bun, so now all bread safely in the cupboards. Then I discovered they have eaten flower seed packets in a kitchen drawer and chewed at a new packet of toilet rolls upstairs in the bathroom. Now he/she is getting naughty, very naughty. I now have a drawer of mice paper confetti. But it makes me smile, I can't get cross but I would love to know where my golden acorns are.