art

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Larkspur art journal page

I love purple and blue flowers, and larkspurs are one of my favourites. In the language of flowers, larkspurs signify lightness and levity. They also have magical connections to health and protection.

Larkspur

For the journal page I used paints and inks, washi tape, corrugated cardboard, a stencil, cutout butterflies, a pressed larkspur flower, larkspur seeds, rust-dyed fabrics, a white pen, and impasto gel medium.

Larkspurs self-seed in our garden and come up every spring in myriad colours of blues, purples and pinks. Their soft, feathery foliage is pretty, too.

At the moment, with the end of summer and herbs starting to die off, my studio has become a drying room with bunches of bergamot, lemon balm, and basil hanging from the rafters to dry for use in the winter.

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Dawn – a mixed media painting

Dawn is one of my favourite times of the day, waking to the sounds of birdsong, watching the sun rise to light the morning sky in vibrant bursts of colour as the world shifts slowly from darkness to light.

At the beginning of the day, anything is possible.

I found this piece of music in an old music book, and it made me think of a dawn chorus, of birds awakening and greeting the new day with joy and optimism.

For the background I used the page from the old book of piano music, paint, and stencils. Then I added images from scrapbook papers, dried flora, and fibers. Lastly, I painted the three birds onto  paper, cut them out, and glued them onto the painting. I wasn’t brave enough to paint the birds directly onto the canvas in case I ruined it. Painting them onto paper first meant that I could start over if I wasn’t happy with them.

A kingfisher, a heron, and a tomtit, ready to embrace the new day.