Overdue

I have missed so many Paint Party Fridays I can't even remember how many of them exactly! So this post really is long overdue, and I'm glad to be back :)

I'm working on a little "recycling" project, although I don't really like the label. Firstly, the term "recycling" makes most people think of plastic bottles and and recycling containers, and things like that. Secondly, collecting things that inspire us and re-use them in some way or other in a painting, is not really something so very special for a mixed media painter. It's just what we do. But then, we're not all painters, mixed media or others, and some people seem to need some kind of labelling to make sense of it all.

We received a whole bunch of old bound journals at the library, and most of them had those old lending cards in them, with the names and dates of the people who borrowed the books between the 1950s and 1970s. I took them all out and used some of them as a background, adding layers of colour, and some image transfer (book paper, of course) on top of it, before adding the word. "Overdue" just seemed the most appropriate, and it just fitted the size of the canvas perfectly :). And there's even more, less obvious, library related "recycling" here too - I used some cardboard insides of a roll of shelfmark label stickers for the circles. The library is an endless well of inspiration :).

"Overdue" - 30x30cm mixed media on canvas

Happy Paint Party Friday!

Choose wisely - and paint happy butterfly flowers

Another journal page in my "change art journal", with more happy "butterfly flowers" and fitting quote to go with them:

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.

I used a Japanese newspaper as a background, some round butterfly stickers for the flowers, and some patterned paper for the leaves and for some of the cut out words. The rest is all acrylics. This page was such  fun to do, and I really like how it turned out (it looks a bit better in reality than in the pictures).

I had some difficulties in taking pictures of this page, and getting the colours right, and I don't really have a photo of the entire page I'm really happy with. So I decided to try out PicMonkey to make a collage. PicMonkey is quite similar to Picnic, which was shut down earlier this year. I usually do all my post processing in Photoshop Elements, including collages, but sometimes, you just want it to be quick, and I love round corners, and in my version of PSE, they're not easy to make.

I'm having the day off today. There'll be some serious scrubbing of the flat, but the rest of the day and weekend will all be dedicated to checkingo out who's come to the party, and lots and lots of painting. Have a wonderful day, and a very happy Paint Party Friday!

Preparing for change

I bought a new art journal and have started to paint the covers in the evenings after work, to make it more personal. I meant to use my at the moment favourite colours, purple and green. But after having completed a first green layer, I just had to add some orange and red the following day.

It is actually already looking different again, as I've been working on it some more. I just didn't manage to take new photos yet. A lot of the red and orange has been covered up again with different shades of purple and some blue. And I've added some patterned paper too. 

To continue working on these covers, and to keep changing them until it all feels right is actually very appropriate for this particular art journal. Because this journal will be all about change. I've been thinking a lot about change recently, big and small, wanted and unwanted. About all the changes I want to make in my life, about how to turn negative, because unwanted, change into positive opportunities, about attitude towards change and how to influence it. It feels like now is the right time to start and make some changes. Maybe not start with all those big, scary but also exciting ones, and not everything at once. But at least start taking the first steps. Sit down with a journal and make some notes, turn the one or other little idea into action, put your mind to it, and get the focus and attitude right. And believe that everything will turn out okay somehow. And make lots of inspiring and encouraging and most of all honest and authentic art journal pages on the way.

Linking this up with the wonderful Paint Party Friday, a truly inspiring community.

SPRING*SUMMER*AUTUMN*WINTER

Sometimes you have a great idea in your head, and you get out your paints, and you start working, preparing all the pieces, only to find out, when you're putting them all together, that it just isn't going to work.

I wanted to contribute something to this month's Art-Journal-Journey Challenge, for May's theme "Zeit / Time". What is time for me? What comes to my mind when I think of time? Time flies, already it is mid May, which means that the spring season's in full bloom. Within a few weeks, the bare trees and brown grass have exploded into the freshest greens, the crops are growing in the fields, gardens are blooming, and the meadows look like green and white carpets. Very soon the summer sun will bleach out all colours, make the pale blue sky flicker, and send people flocking to the lake and river to find relief from the heat and humidity. Slowly, the days will begin to get shorter, the air will get cooler and drier, and the trees around will start to look as if they're on fire, glowing in the brightest reds and oranges, and the leaves rustle under your feet when you walk through the forest in the early morning mist. Soon, it will be cold even in the middle of the day, the air getting chillier and clearer, and beautiful delicate snow crystals start to cover the earth with a soft fluffy cover, turning the world into a perfect winter wonderland. I'm glad I live in a climate where the four seasons are very distinct (although I could do with a bit more snow in winter and less heat in summer). I had an idea about what I wanted to do and made a quick sketch for later, when I would have time to get to work.

I had been working all Saturday afternoon on a watercolour painting (more about it tomorrow), and I wanted to use the same technique for my seasons to reproduce the colours of the seaons.

Summer I found the hardest to do, probably because it is my least favourite season. Even though my idea of a perfect summer holiday does not include lying on a beach, baking in the hot sun and bathing in the sea, I usually spend them in countries where the sea plays an important part - Britain and Sweden.

It's probably not a coincidence that autumn, and especially winter, are the ones I like best. The warm oranges and cool greys and blues just work so well next to each other. I also like spring, though, green being one of my favourite colours after all. But winter is definitely my favourite :)

A palette full of colours of the seasons - spring greens, summer holiday yellows and blues, autumn's oranges and reds, and cool blues and greys of winter.

 

My idea was to create backgrounds and then stick the cut out watercolour seasons on to them. I used the same to colour palettes, and added some text. But when I was finished with them, I realised that it wouldn't really work the way I had imaged.

Even though I had tried to keep the art journal backgrounds as simple as possible, there were too many different things going on in them and the watercolours, that combining them would just be too much. So I'm leaving them as they are, as two different versions of the same theme.

As with the watercolours, it's again autumn, and especially winter, that I like best. I'm going to add some more text, I think, writing down some things about the seasons, and what I like about them.

By the way, have you ever noticed that all four seasons in English consist of six letters? That was definitely a very convenient fact for fitting the words on my art journal pages :).

Linking up to the fabulous Art Journal Journey and the wonderfully 

inspiring Palette & Paint.

Back-to-green-again wip

 Last week I was happy experimenting with a sudden red phase tea inspired worn background, but I haven't quite decided yet how to proceed with it. Jenn suggested adding teal, and I must admit it sounds very appealing. So maybe some teal combined with light green and white? Abstract or not? I simply don't know yet. I'll just have to let it hang on a wall for a bit and wait & see.

So this week, I started working on a new canvas. I'm thinking about buying the wooden frames and fabrics  separately and start stretching them myself, as it allows much more room to experience with different fabrics  etc. than the ready made ones. But I haven't got round to get all the required supplies yet, so I just popped into the shop and bought a stretched canvas, a 70x100cm one.

I usually stick to my usual tried & tested products and brands, but this time decided to try out another brand. I like these broad ones, but they tend to be quite expensive, especially at this size. This canvas was half the price of my tried & tested brand's normal, narrow one, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm usually quite suspicious when these big canvases are "too" cheap. After all, when you're going to create a piece of art you want to be proud of, you shouldn't economise on the quality of your supplies. But anyway, the most important thing is that the canvas lies flat and isn't warped, and this one was plane enough. And I think it was the first time I walked out of the shop without having spent a fortune - despite having not only bought a big stretched canvas, but three bottles of paint and a sketch book as well!

I'm back to painting with my beloved greens and added a first layer of paint. Green just makes me happy :).

The pictures I took of my palette unfortunately didn't turn out very well, so I'm afraid I'll have to post some pictures of my paint bottles instead. I don't stick to one particular brand of paints when I paint, instead I mix and match them all. I'm quite fond of Lascaux paints, though. Unfortunately, they are on the expensive side.

Unlike with last week's red painting, I know exactly what I want to paint on this one. But the background is not quite right yet and will still need some more work until I'm happy with. But first I'll have to go back to the shop and get some more paints.

Happy Paint Party Friday 

&

 Happy Palette & Paint!

Green & purple, and simply irresistible eyeliner

This months colours for the Colour Challenge were lavender & green. And some texture thrown in for an extra challenge. When I did my journal page, I somehow had "lilac" in mind, rather than "lavender", and only relised it after I had finished it. But then lavender and lilac are a sort of purple, and it's all pretty similar, and anyway, after having done some research into green and purple (which happen to be my two favourite colours), and particularly the colour purple and all it's variations in a blog post almost a year ago, I don't really know anymore which shade is what.

So here's my colour study page about green and purple (or whatever you want to call it) for February. I love bamboo, and painted a lot of them during a green/bamboo phase a few years ago. The pansy really was just the first purple flower that came to my mind which wasn't too challenging to paint. I added some coarse and grainy modelling paste at the bottom of both pages to add some texture, but it doesn't show very well in the photo. I also added some stamps, butterflies and grass, for texture. The colours didn't come out so well in the picture, it looks much fresher on the page really.

Purple is the result of subtractive colour mixing of red and blue, it's complementary colour is yellow. It's geometric form is a combination of circle and square, its ranges from 450-396nm on the psecturm. At around 1500 BC the Phoenicians discovered how to extract purple dye from the purple murex (a kind of snail). Today, there are almost no lightfast purple pigments. Lilac and lavender are more popular than the powerful and rather unpopular purple, especially in older age. Purple is a difficult colour full of opposites and a range of different connotations. In astrology, purple is the colour of aquarius (maybe that's why I find it attractive!?).

Its connotations are: self-determination, (spiritual and secular) power, melancholy, imagination, connection, lust, height, eternity, depth, magic, modesty. Purple can give a feeling of narrowness, of distance, but it's darker shades can also have a calming effect, while lighter shades can be stimulating, and even intrusive. Introvert people favour purple because they can relate to the colour's tension between two opposite poles.

Green sits between yellow and blue, it's complementary colour is red. It's geometric form is a combination of circle and trapezium, it ranges form 550nm (lime green) to 500nm (turquoise) on the spectrum. Most green pigments today are based on chromium, many pigments such as verdigris are highly poisonous, and a whole range of greens are poisonous if the pigments aren't manufactured synthetically. The colour was immensely popular at the end of the 18th century, when many houses and rooms were painted and/or decorated with (poisonous) green. In German, ther are over 40 shades of green ranging between yellow green and blue green.

Its connotiations are: life, nature, harmony, paradise, trust, confidence, hope, vital energy, exuberance, growth, new beginning, jealousy, spring, poison, fertility, new love, balance, immaturity. Green is calming and balancing, harmonious, it strenghtens self confidence and self esteem. It especially appeals to people who are nervous and restless.

Some random (and quite interesting) facts from my little, rather esotheric, colour book:

• men are attracted to women who wear purple, but also fear that they are liable to hysteria and have a strong tendency for individuality

• if you have brown eyes, green eyeshadow will make you irresistible
  
  As it happens, I just bought some green eyeliner for a change two weeks ago. I have only tried it out at home, so far, and thought that it looked rather strange, really. But I'll get it out of the drawer again now, and give it another try. Irresistible. Hmmmm...

On my palette ~ mint greens & roses

I was afraid that I would have to give this week's Palette & Paint Thursday a miss, and maybe even Paint Party Friday tomorrow as well, as I hadn't managed to paint anything since I finished my trees. But last night, I unexpectedly found myself with a free evening on my hands, and so I got out my paints and brushes and got working. 

I'm still into greens, and I worked in my art journal, just letting it flow and see what would come out of it. It seems to turn into a rose girl. The colours I used were: Olive green, Cobalt green light, Titanium white and some Mars black.

It's almost impossible to get a decent picture when all you have is artificial light available. I tried to process it as good as I could to bring out the greens and get it as close as possible to the original. The background is actually quite a nice pale minty pastel green. Not that you can see it here...

It's not finished yet, I'll be working on it some more tonight, and hopefully, I'll have it ready for the Party tomorrow.

Until then, have a look at what others have on their palette and get inspired over at

Palette & Paint!

Paint Party Friday 47*5 ~ when is it finished?

My "lollipop" trees are finished. Or so I think. At least for the moment. (And I promise this is the last time I'll post them here).

While I liked the patterns and colours, I just wasn't 100% happy with it. It didn't feel right yet. So I added a layer of white over it, but it was still not right. At the end, I used some oil sticks and generously went over it all, adding a creamy layer while allowing some of the patterns of the layers of acrylics underneath to show through.

It's hanging in the living room at the moment, and I keep looking at it, adding/adjusting a little bit here and there, and thinking about whether to add some shadows or not. It's not always easy to know when a painting is finished.

I went to see the documentary film "Gerhard Richter Painting" at the cinema (watch a extract here) in my Christmas break. Richter often lets his paintings hang for some time between each step, before deciding what to do next, letting them evolve, and often changing them completely in the process. At one point, the film maker asked ihm to explain when /how exactly a picture was finished. He tried very hard to give her a satisfying answer. She wanted a straight, logic explanation, and he simply couldn't give it.

I could understand his struggle. When is a picture finished? In my opinion, or rather personal experience, there are two possible ways to finish a painting:

1. You paint until you come to the point when it simply doesn't need even one single brushstroke anywhere anymore. It simply is just finished, and you know it. You hold it up, look at it from a little distance, satisfied, smiling, and you say to yourself "yes, it's finished".
2. You simply don't know what to do next. You pick up some paint, you are about to put the brush on to the canvas, then you hesitate. No, not there. Maybe here? No. Maybe with another colour? No. After a while, you just put down your brush, look at your painting long and hard, shake your head, and mutter to yourself, "well, I think it's finished then".

Sometimes, the second can result in the first, after some re-working or over-painting after some time. But at the end, you can't really explain when a painting is finished. It's a process, which sometimes can take weeks, months, until you come to the point when you just know, one way or another, that it's finished.

How do you know when a painting is finished?

Happy Paint Party Friday!

On my palette ~ hands-on creaminess

There isn't so much an actual physical palette this week, instead, the palette consists of three oil)paint sticks. They can be applied directly on to the canvas, and then worked and moved around with one's fingers, so  they don't have to be mixed on a palette, or taken up with a brush from a palette. Although they can be used with brushes as well, just like paint out of a tube or pot (although I haven't tried that yet, painting with one's fingers with them is just too much fun).

The colours I used are: Alizarine Crimson, Meadow Green and Antique White.

I mixed them with acrylics, or rather, I applied them over the acrylics (from last week's palette) on the canvas.

Here's a little sneak peek of the finished (?) painting. I'll be posting the whole thing tomorrow, for the Paint Party.

Have a look at what others have on their palette over at  
Palette & Paint!

On my palette ~ green, green, green

I read about the Palette & Paint Blog Party last week, on Tracey Fletcher King's blog, and I thought it just sounded marvelous. Palette & Paint is hosted by Tracey Grgig Potter (don't miss visiting he blogs of both Traceys, they're fabulous!) and the idea is to share one's palette and paint. It's always interesting to see how others work, what paints, colours, techniques, materials are used, it's so inspiring.

I'm still working on my "landscape with trees" painting, and therefore the greens dominate my palette at the moment. Green is one of my favourite colours. It has a wonderful feel of calm, comfort and nature. It's a happy colour.

I'm playing around with different kinds of greens, such as Olive green, Olive green deep, Olive green light (I like my olive greens...), Chromium oxide green, Perylene green, Permanent sap green. But also some basic Cyan blue and Lemon yellow to mix some more greens. And some Titanium white, of course, can't do without that. And last but not least, some Cadmium red deep hue to add some colour and contrast.

I didn't manage to take a new picture of my painting last night to go with these, so for this post, I'm afraid, it's just my paint and palette. But I hope to manage to post one tomorrow, for Paint Part Friday, and do a bit better for next week's P&P.

Hop over to the Paint & Palette Blog Party to see what others have on their palette!

If you don't like it, just start again // Paint Party Friday 45*3

There really is no point in going on with a painting when everything tells you it's just not going to work. And there's also no point in keeping half painted canvases, or even finished ones, stacked away somewhere, taking up space and gathering dust, when you simply don't like them at all and know that you'll never ever fnish them. There really is just one thing to do - paint over it and start again. Which is exactly what I did last Sunday.

So far, it's only  a rough sketch, the first layer of (possible) colours. But  already, I like it a lot better than the first one, underneath. I love the colour green, and I love going for walks in the woods and country side. Nature is so inspiring. So I wanted to bring some of that into my home. I've also been thinking a lot about dreams and wishes these past few weeks and months, and especially now, with the beginning of a new year. The shape I associate with dreams and wishes is round - circles, bubbles, polka dots. But I also like lines, which give direction, point the way, lead you on on your journey through life, or just on your Sunday walk through the local woods.

There is of course still a lot to with this one, and I'll just have to see how it comes along. I hope to spend most of Sunday working on it. And if I don't like it at all, well, I'll just paint over it, and start again ;)

I'm so delighted with this green glass jar I bought in a second hand/thrift shop yesterday. There were two of them, and I just wish I had bought the other one too...

Happy Paint Part Friday!

Art Every Day Month: Days 18 & 19

One of the many things I want to practise drawing and sketching are humans. So I tried to do some small portraits last night for day 18 of Art Every Day Month. The one on the left right was the first one I did, drawn from memory of a sketch I did a few weeks ago. For the others, I used the theatre programme of a play I saw in London last months. While I at least  manage to get them to look like humas, I'm still far away from achieving a real life-like likenenss, so the actors are not really recognisable at all. Of course I used my newly discovered, and already much beloved Sanguine pencil again.

Today, day 19, I finally got out my calligraphy things again. It's something I've neglected far too long. Two, three years ago, I could rarely spend an evening without getting my nibs, pens and inks out. But with all the other things happening since then, they somehow got a bit neglected, though not completely forgotten. It wasn't only me that had become rusty, my poor nibs seem to have suffered too. I definitely have to get them out more often again!

I'm afraid my proportions are, as usual, all wrong. It's because I'm always too lazy to prepare and rule my paper correctly. I just want to write. Also, I never manage to write something without making mistakes. I'm concentrating so much on the shape of the letters when I'm writing, that I completely forget the words, and so sooner or later, make a mistake.

Colourless green ideas sleep furiously (Noam Chomsky)

There. I did it.

I set up a Facebook page. Not a personal account, but a "business" page (not that I have any "business" (yet)). Why I am thinking about setting up some sort of "business" (there, I can't even write it without the inverted commas), is something I will be writing about some time later, this week, or next.

But back to Facebook. I have resisted Facebook so far (which hasn't really been very hard) for 2 3 reasons:

1. I simply felt, and still feel, very uncomfortable about sending my real name, my own real identity into the WorldWideWeb. I'm shy, you see. That's what I like about all the other things I'm using, my blog, Twitter, Flickr, you don't have to make your real name public if you don't want to.
2. I find the design of Facebook utterly unattractive. I'm a visual person, I've even been called an aesthete once, and the design of Facebook just doesn't appeal to me. At all.
3. I'm already spending a lot of time online with writing posts for my own blog, reading and commenting on other blogs, trying to keep up with Flickr, not keeping up with Twitter at all at the moment. Not to mention that I feel that I never have enough time for offline things, such as processing pictures, and most important of all, painting, drawing, sketching, creating...

So why have I now set up a page, after all? Well, it's all got to do with this e-course I've subscribed to (the thing I'll be writing about in another post, soon). There's a private Facebook group for the course, and apparently, there's a lot of discussion going on there in which I can't participate, because I'm not on Facebook.With that "project" I have in mind doing, I probably would have set up this Facebook page anyway, sooner or later, and as I would like to participate, well, I just had to set it up sooner, rather than later. Which I have done now.

And having registered, and set it up, I'm completely confused. I usually have no problems getting the hang of these things. I just try everything out and find my way through all the possibilities. But Facebook really just totally confuses me (maybe there's still that inner resistance). Also, I haven't created my profile yet. Because, as I said, I'm somehow completely reluctant to make my real name public on the web (everything you find by googling my real name is work related). But it seems that in order to connect with others, to really do something with that page, I have to create my profie. I have considered using a pseudonym (and I have come up with an adorable name (at least I think so), so much more 'me' than my real name), but I don't know really how much sense that makes. No one who knew me really would find me, and telling all my friends and family that I have an alias sounds rather impractical (they'd probably just laugh at me...). And also, I don't know if you can later change the name once you've put your profile up with a certain name.

So I haven't really come very far with my new Facebook page yet. I added a profile picture (which somehow I managed to upload twice, and I don't know where to delete it. (Where are the delete buttons/options???), and I've written a status message, or whatever it's called (I find the terminology there rather silly as well). And now I'm sort of stuck. I don't know what next to do (oh, I still so love my alias, and do I really want to write my real name?).

The only thing I really enjoyed was designing a kind of "logo" or button I'm using as my profile picture:

 

I'm sure I'll be making some alterations to it very soon (as with my blog header, which is a constant work in progress), but for the moment, I like it, a lot :). (And I think I'll have to add (digital) collage to my creative activities...).

And oh, as I mentioned, I didn't create a personal account, but a "business" account, registering as "artist", and feeling completely silly (and rather embarrassed) about it. Probably another reason why I feel so shy about daring to write my real name....

And just in case you're interested, here's the link to my Facebook page. Come and visit, and if you have any tips about how to get along with Facebook, I'd be more than grateful.

Purple & Green

My favourite colour is purple, with it's lighter shades, lilac/lavender. I love the richness and drama of purple, and the lightheartedness and airiness and joy of lilac. Purple is a mixed colour, not a primary colour, made by mixing the two primary colours red (magenta) and blue (cyan).

Last summer, I bought an old sofa from about the 1920/30s in a "Brocki" (secondhand / thrift shop). While the upholstery is in perfect condition (it had been standing in an office and was never really used), the fabric, tough in perfect condition, was simply awful. I found an upholsterer, and ever since, I've been trying to find the right fabric. I had red in mind, matching the reds and oranges in the living room, and a greyish linen fabric with plush stripes in reds and orangs seemed perfect. But somehow, I just couldn't commit to it. About two months ago, I started considering green. I haven't quite decided on a speficic fabric yet, but I know now that green is the right colour. After I came back home from yet another visit to the upholsterer's shop and having looked at green fabric, I walked around the flat and realised that it was full of greens. Green everywhere. Especially in the kitchen. Most of the kitchen supplies that come in colours, I have in green. The thought of green felt good, reassuring, soothing, right. And I realised that purple wasn't my only favourite colour, but that it shared it's place with green. Purple was an conscious choice, green an unconscious. And I simply love the combination of the two. There was one time when I almost decided to go for the red fabric, simply because of not knowing what else do choose. I'm so glad I didn't. I wouldn't have been happy with it. But I know that with green, I'll always be happy, even in ten year's time.

Green: German: Grün. Swedish: grön. French: vert.

From OE grene or groeni, closely related to the OE verb growan "to grow, to turn green". First recored use in English in AD 700. Most common colour in nature, because of chlorophyll.

Associations: life, growth, spring, hope, freshness, naturalness, confidence, health, youth, envy, sickness.

Apparently, many Asian languages don't make a distinction between green and blue, and indeed the distinction between the two doesn't always seem to be so universally clear. I have often noticed that people would refer to a certain colour or shade as "blue", whil to me, it was obviously green.

Violet: German: Violett, from French, after the flower "violette" (Veilchen, violet). Swedish: violett. French: violet.

Colour between blue and red. Next to Purpur/purple on the colour wheel. Lila/lilac is a lighter shade of purple. Colours nearer to blue. In China, the colour violet symbolises the harmony of the universe, as it is right between red (ying) and blue (yang).

Purple: German: Purpur. Swedish: purpur. French: pourpre.

Any colour/range of hues of colour between blue and red. Colours nearer to red. Between magenta and violet on the colour wheel. The colour is associated with royaly and nobility (from classical antiquity).

From OE purpul > from Lat. purpura > Greek porphura, the name of the Tyrian purple dye manufactured in classical antiquity. First recorded use in English in AD 975.

Associated with: emancipation, creativity, spirituality, mystical, mysterious, secret, dignity, desire, longing, aphrodisiac, (as liturgial colour) penitence.

I always thought that the German Violett corresponds to the English purple, but apparently, I've been wrong. Also, what I've believed to be Violett in German, is actually Purpur, and the colour I always referred to as Violett is actually Dunkelviolett. And the Purpur, that is usually used to refer to the capes of monarchs isn't actually Purpur but Red. Very confusing...

And the colours/colour codes I found for violet and purple really do look quite similar - and somehow are missing those shades I usually would refer to as purple. And I even found somewhere that Violett and Lila are synonymous. Which to me really are very different - the former being dark (purple), the latter light (lilac). And then there's of course lavender, which in English is a whole range of shades, but doesn't seem to have a correspondent in German, but really is something similar to lavender, whic is probably why I never really know how to properly translate lila into English. Very, very confusing.

I took some pictures of these clematis in the garden last year, after I just bought my first DSRL, and I was so frustrated that the rich bluish purple always ended up having a red tinge on my display. This week, I went out again to take some pictures of them and I expected to have the same problems with colours. But having learnt a bit more about manual settings and white balance, I was surprised and happy to see, that this time, I got exactly the right colour. This really must be one of my biggest achievements so far in my process of learning DSLR photography :).

For my "green mug & purple nails" shot, however, I didn't pay enough attention of my white balance settings. It didn't turn out as had it in mind at all, and the purple/lilac of the nail varnish didn't turn right at all. This time, the opposite of my last year's clematis shots happened: the red tinge turned into a blueish one. But white balance is something I'm still struggling to master, especially in indoor situations.

Well, I'll keep on working on that. And I'm thinking about making a colour series: one colour a week. I'll definitely start with green :)

The beauty of the ordinary

I'm taking part in a workshop by Irene Nam, Simple Soulful Photography, which started at the beginning of the week. I had read about it on someone's blog, and after eight weeks of focusing on the technical aspect of photography with Mastering Manual Mode, I thought it would be a great idea to focus on the creative aspect.

The first two lessons were about self care and making space, which are important ressources for a creative life. Both self care and making space seem to be such simple things, things that we know do us good, common sense, really, but more often than not, oh so difficult to follow. Self care, treating yourself to little things that do you good without feeling guilty, I find especially difficult. But the space making isn't much easier, even though I often feel that if my desk is full of clutter, I just can't think anymore and as a result, get nothing done. I'm beginning to wonder what exactly it is that's continuously holding me back from clearing away the mess and clutter in the flat and giving me breathing space. But maybe another lessons in self care is to allow yourself time, and to take little steps.

On Friday, we got the first weekend photo challenge, which was to look for the beauty of the ordinary. I love going for walks, but more often than not, I have to force myself to actually go - and most of the time, I end up not going at all. But this morning, after re-reading the lesson, I grabbed my camera and just went.

I left the house shortly after 8 o'clock, to avoid a) the hot weather (the weather gods seem to have decided to skip spring this year and go straight to summer) and b) the masses of people that fill up the woods and walking pathes on a warm, sunny Sunday - both things I absolutely hate. Plus, there's the advantage of the great light which you get in the early mornings.

So out I went, looking for the beauty of the ordinary, which nature provided in plenty. I love putting my camera down on the ground and just click the shutter, without knowing what it's going to focus on. The results are often surprising and amazing.

My little tour led me through parts of the local cemetary, where there was a field full of those white and yellow daffodils and buttercups, which were absolutely enchanting in the early morning sun.

Another part of the lesson/photo challenge was to look for those things we maybe would want to dismiss as not making a good enough picture, and just take it anyway. Being open to getting caught off guard by an image. I passed a hedge on the way, with some pink flowers and some light shining through. It looked rather too dark but remembering the lesson, I decided to try and take a picture and see what would come out of it. Well, this is what did come out, and my, I'm glad I did stop and give it a try. Isn't this pink and bright green spring bokeh just making you happy? It certainly makes me happy :-)

 On the way back home, there was a patch with some small hyacinths, pink and blue, on a littel patch of green right next to the main road. It wasn't the most charming place, but you'd never guess from the images, would you.

I put the camera on the ground again, but this time used live view to focus. I don't like using live view at all (and I don't know how some DSLR users prefer to use it instead of looking through the view finder), I really just find focusing with it very annoying. But unless you want to ly down flat on you're belly - which I preferred not to do considering the grass being all wet and damp with dew - it's often the only way to maintain any control of your focus. But sometimes, it's well worth taking a bit of trouble :-)

There were some little common daisies as well, next to the hyathinths, looking still a bit sleepy and only just beginning to wake up and unfold. Common daisies (Gänseblümchen - "little duck flowers" in German) are the flowers that (along with buttercups) remind me most of my childhood. Making daisy chains in the sun on the green outside the house, what a wonderful time to spend a school free Wednesday afternoon. I haven't made a daisy chain in ages, decades, really. I think it's high time to make one again!

On the way home I passed the local bakery, which openes for a couple of hours on Sunday mornings. After having walked for two hours, a hearty breakfast was more than deserved, so I treated myself to my favourite Laugengipfeli (a croissant made of some kind of pretzel dough, very popular here) and a special Sunday chocolate croissant.

I feel full of energy after my early morning achievement, ready to tackle the space making and mess clearing. I think I should definitely try to make this into a Sunday morning routine, as part of my self care programme.

Wishing you a wonderfully creative and enchanting Sunday!