A Busy Week.....

I'm still practising my drawing.....this is number 8..... but tomorrow I must move on to adding paint and embellishments - I'm lagging behind. (Go and see Lynn's lovely piece and you'll see what I should be doing!
I've had a busy week; it all started on Wednesday when DH and I went to Birmingham on the train (an event in itself!)
First stop was for coffee..... (it seemed a shame to disturb this)

...then we visited the Museum and Art Gallery.....
...where we had arranged to meet Rosie and her husband.

There was a special Edward Burne-Jones exhibition on (The Perseus Collection) which was a lovely surprise.

After all that the four of us had lunch in an Italian restaurant, where Rosie gave me a gorgeous present she'd made for my birthday (plus a fabulous art book.... Collaborative Art Journals). Lucky me!!

It was my birthday yesterday and this is my "official birthday portrait" taken by my personal photographer, lol !!! Please don't click on it to get a better view of the wrinkles and baggy eyes.

Fabric Collages

I completed a couple of fabric collages this weekend - they are for a special project I am involved with (its a tiny book...4 1/2" x 3 1/2"). I painted the dove and its background on cotton fabric using acrylic paints.
I also went to The Beetroot Tree gallery and had a wander around their brilliant new exhibition called Mutual Support. It features 'Up Front' - a group of 8 female artists who create beautifully adorned bras, corsets and other pieces of mixed media art. You can see some here and here.
Its all in aid of Breast Cancer research and they have all kinds of activities going on including a raffle where you can win pieces of their art (they even have a 'booby prize' haha!!) I went with DH and so couldn't dwell too long...I may have to go back for another look this week!
Corinne Phillips is a friend I met through blogging....she shows some of her fabulous work from the exhibition here.
These are the 8 artists involved.... (click to read names)

The Lady of Shalott

I've received quite a few emails regarding my last post and it seems many of us are Lady of Shalott fans. I love the poem...such a fascinating story...and there have been many versons of her recorded by artists.
Thanks to Wendy I have discovered the fabulous Loreena McKennitt who sings the poem...this is glorious............I'm off to YouTube to find more of her songs!

Coffee and chat......

Tried to be fancy with my coffee today and made a clover leaf stencil - just humour me please. Over at Kimmie's place (and Pat and Patty's) its 'Tea on Tuesday', plus a bit of chat.

Well .... did any of you watch the new series on TV last night about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood? I'm a big fan of the PRB and it encouraged me to get out all my gorgeous books on the subject. Even DH became quite interested.
I have a very old book about Rossetti which I bought about 30 years ago from a junk shop.

I've never really flicked all the way through it before and was rather surprised when this fell out...a postcard dated 1904. Its a picture of Bournemouth (where the book was first purchased).

The book was published in 1906 and the inscription inside is 1908.Here's the man himself...a self-portrait from inside the book (it has tissue papers covering the pictures).
Here are my favourite paintings from this - which is my favourite PRB book.
Just look at those fabric folds in the detail!
Then I began to realise that one of the reasons I'd chosen all those paintings was because of fabric - the velvets, the satin and the embroidered cloth. And the worn and tattered skirt of Millais' 'The Blind Girl'. (Plus the lady in blue reminds me of how I feel in the mornings.)
They were certainly a talented bunch of artists.....if you want to find out more about them look here.
I'm hoping to take DH to see one of the best collections of PRB paintings this Saturday - at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (fabulous place - and its all free!)

Just wanted to thank Tara at www.aquamarineart.blogspot.com (a new friend I met through Suzi's class) for giving info on her blog about Photoscape which you can download for free here. Thats how I've put some of my pictures into groups!!

5, 6 and 7....

Here are my last three attempts before we start using colour. I've just downloaded the new videos....so I'd better go and get started!
Many thanks to all of you who have left such positive comments - they mean a lot. xx

....And Four

I think thats it for today.... shame I didn't start this one lower down the page!! Hopefully there's an improvement from number one....

Practice Piece Number Three