Stacked

Focus52/2012, week 13 (mach 25-31): stack

On Monday, I had to go to Germany for the day, to Konstanz, just on the other side of the border, to attend a course. Luckily, I had a little bit of time left after the course to go to my favourite pottery before I had to catch my train.

I love these mugs. I think they're gorgeous, and they just have a perfect shape. I bought the first one, the bottom one, about two or three years ago, and every time I go to Konstanz, I buy another one. Or at least I try. Because the last couple of times I went there, there were only one or two left, and she told me that she had just made a new batch, which were all in the oven. But on Monday, there were two lovely blue ones left. I have one more of these, but it's a bigger one, and didn't really fit into the stack.

My goal is to eventually replace all my assorted, mass produced mugs with these hand made ones. One or two at a time. And maybe next time I go there, the new batch will be just out of the oven.

A is for Albatross

I've been thinking about using one of my sketchbooks to do an illustrated alphabet, and last Sunday, I finally got started on the first page. I've made a list in my notebook with ideas for each letter. It's fun to think of things, and I've already filled in a lot of the letters. But there are some letters I just can't think of anything at all at the moment. Well, was easy to choose. A stands for Albatross.

This one is a black-footed albatross. Black-footed albatrosses aren't really blue at all. They are dark grey/black, with black feet, obviously. But the photo I decided to use as a reference had a blue tinge, and I thought it just went well with my blue winter page and palette I used this week, so he turned into a blue albatross.

It's probably going to take me ages until I reach Z, with all the other things and projects I want to work on. And there are even more letters after Z to fill the remaining pages of the sketchbook. I'm not going to restrict myself to one language, but am just going to use whatever fits best. And it doesn't really matter how long it  is going to take anyway.

I took out my good old "Wahrig" dictionary to add words beginning with the letter A, which gave me a bit of a headache. Might think of something else for B. I cut out the letters from book paper and pasted them onto the page. Apparently, although acrylic ink is made from acrylic paints, it is not as water-resistant as the paint itself (or maybe, I just didn't wait long enough for it to dry properly). Some ink blobs covered up most of the mess. Must remember to mix my own liquid acrylics again for writing. It's not a big deal to do. You just add enough water, really.

Why an albatross? It's not that I have a special thing for albatrosses, let alone ever seen one. But I've recently discovered the books by Swedish author Majgull Axelsson, and I've become addicted. They are not cheerful books, often rather depressing, really, and sometimes even disturbing. They're mainly about women and their relationships as mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, and no matter what their circumstances in life are, no one is ever really happy. I've read four of her books, am reading the fifths one and have one more waiting in my bookshelf. Somehow, her books totally speak to me right now. It's their bits of wisdom I seem in need to hear at the moment. Suche as the sentence from her latest book "Moderpassion": Livet skulle ha kunnat vara mycket annorlunda. On än inte nödvändigtvis bättre. (Life could have been very different, although not necessarily better). Yes, a different life would not necessarily have been so much better. At the end, it's all about what you make of it.

My favourite book of her so far is "Den jag aldrig var". It's about MaryMarie, who's leading a sort of double life. One of her personalities is Mary, the successful minister, who, when life becomes just too much, is struck by a form of aphasia where, whenever she tries to speak, the only word that comes out is "albatross".

Anyway, it's Friday, it's almost weekend, and time for party now! 

Happy Paint Party Friday!

On my palette: Winter blues

I know, it's spring all around here, at least on this side of the globe, and many of you don't want to be reminded of winter right now. But Blue is this month's colour for the Colour Challenge, and blue for me is the colour of winter. The bluish tones of snow and ice, deep blue skies contrasting the snow white landscape, and that special, magical time of transition, when day turns to night, and everything is bathed in blue - the Blue Hour. It is my favourite time of the day, which is so special because it's so short, and so easily missed if you don't pay attention. It's most beautiful and intense up in the mountains.Which really is the best place to be in winter anyway.

I love winter, and blue makes me happy. So here's my blue winter page for March:

Blue is one of the three primary colours, it's complementary colour is orange. It's geometric form is the circle. It ranges from 500 to 450nm on the spectrum. Blue is quite a mysterious colour. There are many languages wich don't have a separate word for blue, but only one word for both blue and green, or blue and dark. In ancient Greece and Egypt, there was no word for blue at all. Blue pigments belonged among the most expensive, and there were many wars fought in the 17th and 18th century because of blue. Among the most prized and exclusive blues were Indigo and Ultramarin. Ultramarin, made from Lapislazuli from mines in Afghanistan, was one of the most expensive pigments, and only the most famous and succesful painters were able to find patrons who would be willing to finance it.

I've been wanting to use one of these snow flakes for ages. It comes from a table decoration chain, which I've cut apart. I also did some hand stitching on it.

The connotations of blue are: romance, sky, water, fidelity, infinity, truth, clarity, wisdom, longing, reliability, consistence, peace, contemplation, purity, justice, other-worldliness and cool distance. It is the colour of intuition, yearning, dejection, intangible mystery, intensive passion. It is the colour of the sky, both day and night, of goddesses, mermaids. Blue has a calmig, relaxing effect and is the classic colour for meditation.

The blues I used for my colour page are: Indanthrene Blue, Phtalocyanine Blue, Cerulean Blue, Primary Cyan, Light Blue and Light Blue Violet. I used Winsor&Newton, Liquitex and Lascaux acrylic paints.

Some expressions can have quit different meanings in different languages. In English, feeling blue means that one is feeling sad, melancholic, depressed. In German, blue is not really associated with any of these feelings, being blue means being completely drunk. Although the said feelings could follow afterwards...

Linking this up to Palette & Paint as well. Go and have a look what everyone else was up to, and what paints and supplies they used.

Want!! But how do I get it???

My computer is driving me mad. It's getting slower and slower, and everything just takes ages. High time for a new one! I've been thinking about buying a new computer for quite a while now, and I've pretty much decided to do the switch and buy a Mac. So on Friday, I went to town really early in the morning to go to the Apple Store in time before the invasion of the masses.

It was my first time in there, and, I must admit, it was a totally confusing experience. All  of the staff seemed busy running around. What was I supposed to do to get one of them to help me find what I wanted/needed? There was a roped-off area where some people were queueing. There wasn't any sign or something that said "Queue here for help/advice/service". No directions either for what was on the floor below. Everyone seemed to know exactly what to do and where to go, except me. So at the end, I just had a look around at all the stuff, and then left to go to H&M go get a replacement for my favourite sweatpants that are falling apart. At least I know now which one of the two iMacs I want. The smaller one will do perfectly for me.

Well, it might take some more time until I'll actually have that thing on my desk. At the moment, I'm contemplating mail ordering  to avoid another confusing visit to the Apple Store. So I just drew myself a little iMac for the time being, until I've decided how and where to get it.

My mobile phone is driving me mad too. It's at least 5 years old, which in mobile phone technology means that it's pretty much archaeology material. The batteries last about a day at most, and frequently die on me some time during the day. I know what I want to replace it with, I just wish mobile phones and services weren't so terribly expensive here in Switzerland (at least if you're older than about 15 or so, and/or happen to be a faithful, reliable longtime customer who always pay their bills in time)!

So, I just keep drawing, until I've saved the money for the real thing :)

The one thing that worries me a little bit about getting an expensive, shiny, all new computer is that it will be standing on my work deks. My good old laptop is covered with paint splashes, which often requires scrolling up and down in order to be able to read text properly. I really wouldn't want this to happen to a brand new computer. I'll have to think of something.

Oh dear, life can be so challenging at times.... ;)

Evening walk

My muse seems to have taken a few days off. I just didn't have any energy at all to pick up a paint brush, or even a pen, these last few days, and when I did, I just got even more frustrated. So I forced myself to go for an evening walk, taking with me my camera, which I had rather neglected for some time now, and my 50mm lens, which I really have neglected for months.

I like to put my camera on the ground to see nature, and with it things, life, from a different perspective.

A walk through the woods always helps to clear the mind and restore some energy. And I even got out my paints and brushes this weekend. Hope the muse has returned from her early spring holiday now!

Paint(ed) box

I didn't do much painting this week, at least not picture wise, but I did something I've been wanting to do for ages. Some time ago, I bought a little wooden box at a "Brockenhaus" (second hand/thrift shop) to keep my pastels in. It had the right size, it was cheap, and I thought that it was pretty enough to have good "make-over potential".

It was rather dark, a bit dull, and had some pieces of paper still sticking to it. It  needed some colour and brightening up. I started with a couple of layers of gesso. I didn't really bother to remove the paper bits. I tried, but they were sticking very fast, and I didn't have the patience to peel it off.

Now, what colour? I decided on some lovely purple. Simply because it's one of my favourite colours :).

But it wa a bit too purple and needed some white over it.

And at the end some toning down to make it look more old and worn and woody.

So here it is, my finished little paint(ed) box to keep my pastels in.

Happy Paint Party Friday

A box, some gift wrapping paper & a bit of washi tape

This little box is just the perfect size to keep my oil paint sticks in. But it looked rather plain, and in need of some colour.

So I took some lovely spring green gift wrapping paper and pasted it on with gel medium. Sounds easy, and it is, actually, but when you're as clumsy and ackward with everything gluey as me, it gets quite messy. But worth it. At least if you're not too bothered if it doesn't turn out completely smooth and perfect. Which it never does. At least not when I do it.

I had some Washi tape lying around which happened to be just the perfect colour for this. And a good chance to actually use it. So all around it went. I can never resist Washi tape when I see it in the shops, and I alreaday have a pile of it, but I always forget to use it, so it just lies around gathering dust most of the time.

Waiting for the gel medium to dry. Just ignore all the imprefections...

Looking much better now, despite all the little imperfections, and perfect for my oil sticks. I actually really enjoyed it, despite all the sticky mess, and now I have to look for some more boxes to past paper and tape on! And isn't this just the perfect excuse to mailorder some of those gorgeous patterned paper at Shepherds  Falkiners in London?! :)