Enchanted Horse

this painting was recently shown at the Lanark Art Club's exhibition although I actually painted it last year

I am signed up for 2 round robins at the moment. One that is just finishing has 7 participiants and the other which has only been going since February this year has 14 women taking part soI won't be getting my journal back until next March or April.

Round Robins are great fun, they are educational and at the end when your journal is returned to you, you have have a journal filled with original art work by artists from all over the world. Each artist involved in the RR choses a subject for their book and this is passed round to everyone who has a month to create pages relating to the chosen subject.

I like to research the varied subjects before starting the art work, that way I can decide whether my pages will be painted, collaged or journalled. Usually it is a bit of everything.

Dolphins

"Dolphins" 20x16 inches. Acrylic and mixed media on board.

Part of the exhibition on at the Coffee House and Bistro in Biggar.

Here is an update on the pages I have worked on for the AB Europe round robin.


Bottom - Truths, Lies, Secrets

top - Artistic Expression

Needing to catch up

Well I told you I am not much of a blogger. Most of my time is taken up with painting and crafting. I'm posting some of my more recent paintings so you can see what I have been up to. The local group I am with has an arrangement with The Aroma Coffee House and Bistro in Biggar and every two months we change the exhibition. I aim to put up three new works of art each time so I am kept quite busy these days.

The group has had two invitations to exhibit our work, the first one was at The Cat Strand in New Galloway and the second just last weekend in The Tolbooth Gallery in Kirkcudbright. These events have allowed us to show our work to a larger group of people and to gain experience of exhibiting at first class galleries.

My first Altered Book

I have just signed up to do a Round Robin altered Book. This will be my first attempt at this and I think it is going to be fun.

First I had to get an old book to alter, something I didn't find very easy. I love books and nothing gets thrown out so even finding and using a very old book was like betraying an old friend. But, I dug out a very little used Indian cookery book, it only measures about 5 by 4 inches and has a hard cover, which I understand is good to start with and being small will not be too expensive to send to the others in the round robin. My little book, when I have finished my pages in it will be travelling around Europe for the next few months, I don't know when I will see it again.

Here's a picture of the 2-page spread with tags ready for the other artists to complete when they have finished their art work.

Lanark Art Club Art Exhibition

We held the exhibition on the 23rd and 24nd August and this year we made a donation to the local Alzhiemers charity. 27 paintings were sold during the two days and preview evening and I was pleased that I was fortunate enough to sell my painting "Daisies". This was a heavily textured piece of work created with acrylic, collage and mixed media which included heavy netting and texture paste. The painting is shown here on the right.

I've not been around for a while

We have been quite busy just lately with lots of visitors. From the middle of August to date we have had people staying with us, it's been great but it does not leave much time for updating blogs and web sites, etc.

First there was my family here, filling up the bedrooms and even one, a grandaughter, sleeping on a put-u-up in our art-cum-dining-cum-sitting room. One of the days found me, my sister, my son and the grandaughter, on top of a local hill. We climbed Quothquan Law in Lanarkshire, I think we found the hardest way up but found an easy way down. We were just climbing the last few paces when we saw a large bull standing staring at us. He wasn't any bother though just watched us as we crept by and out of his way. The views were lovely as you can see here.

Whilst the family were here we had a visit from my sister-in-law, her husband and her daughter and son-in-law and a friend of the family.

When the family left to go home my sister-in-law came to stay with us for a week then when they left we had someone in who wanted a bed and breakfast place to stay. So I was kept rather busy for a while.

Things are getting back to normal now and we had the art group members here this afternoon. Everyone was concentrating on their latest piece of art but I can't seem to work up any enthusiasm. I think it's because my mind is on other things still, like researching my family history. I am tracing my late husband's line and have had some success so far.

My new project

The pictures above and to the right are of my latest swap.

One of the Internet groups I am in has set up a "Baggies swap". Participating members are paired up and each person sends the other a bag of bits and pieces, for instance, decorative papers, embellishments, fibres, buttons, tags, brads, etc., anything that will fit into a sandwich size plastic bag. From this we each create something from those items, we don't have to use them all and we can add some from our own stash if we wish.

I was paired up with Viki from Kentucky, USA. This is what I made for her. The box was made from acetate sheet and decorated with Viki's paper. I cut the sides with my Bind-it-all machine and used raffia to lace them up. Then I made a small art journal book, the pages of which I had hand painted and I wire bound it with the Zutter binder. With more of the items Viki sent I was able to make three tags to add to the box. Everything was given plenty of fibres and ribbons to tie it all together.

It was great fun to do and it is good to be able to exchange ideas with like-minded people.

Biggar Agricultural Show

Well, the show came and went. I really enjoy these sort of exhibitions. I like the excitment, the setting up and even just sitting watching everyone milling round. Unfortunately this time we did not have any buying customers although my painting of "The Doo-cot" created a bit of attention and someone spent some agonising minutes trying to decide if she would buy it or not.

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my new Blog Spot. How this will go I don't know. I'll try to keep this up-to-dated but you know how things are. Most of my Blog will probably be about my art and craft work but I will also add bits about my family and friends.

To start with I will add one or two of my recent paintings and while I'm about it I must tell you about my latest piece of excitment. The group that I am with "The Maddain Group" have been invited to exhibit their work at The CatStrand Gallery in New Galloway in Dumfries. This is quite a step up for us all and as you can imagine we were all very thrilled. The exhibition runs until 18 July.

On the 19 July my own art group The Mansefield Arts & Crafts of Symington (MACS for short) will be exhibiting at The Biggar Agricultural Show. This is a new venue for us and we are anxious that things will go smoothly - I'll keep you posted.