A new book cover.

I have been wanting to try this,

and today I did it. First I used a lot of different colours and covered my canvas. I had no other intensions than to cover it up with paint. When done I felt it was a bit too dark so I added some white dots.

Next I drew a simple shape on top and detailed it a bit.

At this point I had chosen how I would like it to be. I added colour to my shape and freshened up the black lines at the end.

More colour and some finishing touches. I really like how it turned out and think I will try this again. Originally I was going to continue my earlier work but, it will not play along so I guess the time is not right yet.

This kind of work suits me well if I feel a bit playful and just want to see what happens. A lot of things can happen and it's always exciting to see what comes out in the end.

Our weather has changed to ice cold. Brrrr............

Wish you all the best!

The garden work inspired me.

Yesterday we had a cooler kind of weather.

And I spent the day finishing this painting. It was already started (drawn) so it was mainly painting and detailing job to do. I guess this one will be my last at this point. Now I want to finish off a painting & embroidery piece I have left for far too long.
Can you see I was inspired from working in the garden? The words is a Norwegian song telling us some words of wisdom. We learnt the song at school.

The first thing I told this girl was to consider a change of hairdresser. Her hair didn't at all come out as I had planned but, it is how it is.
I'm very pleased with the skin colouring this time. One should believe that if one can do it once, one can always do it. As you know that is not how it works. Even though it's the same process things changes all the time. It's part of the making that each piece turns it's own way. Do you experience that often? I guess you do, that's why we say that the pieces live their own lifes.

Today I'm going to cut back some hedges. They've grown far too much into our paths. It's very nice of you to think that our garden is beautiful but, it's more like normal. The reason we worked so hard now was that last summer we didn't do anything because of all the rain. Normal would be the right word to use.
Thanks for checking in and have a great day!

No artmaking.

I've had a busy week outdoors.

For more than a week now we've had full summer and I have almost lived my life outdoors. Our garden needed a REAL cleanup and now it's done. Just some small areas left. I can feel the inspiration coming when everything is in order, and it's much easier to keep it clean than to clean up.
Two early mornings I've been picking snails, YES...........picking. With a big garden, also containing a vegetable area the snails has had more than one good meal. Well, not any more. I have promised myself to pick them every morning for awhile now hoping the rest of them finds another garden to play in. I do salt them and throw them in the garbage can. Hopefully they will decrease in number.

Right now my Lily in The Valley are blooming and sharing their lovely odor with us. I always think of my childhood when they bloom. They grew wild where I lived as a child.

When I was cleaning my lavender bed yesterday I had to cut all the lavenders down. They were old and the bushes didn't look pretty at all. Now they all have just a couple of small branches left. I don't know if this will be a success but it had to be done.  Now I try to make some new plants out of the old ones. I've never done that before so I don't know if I will succeed but it's worth a try. I made quite a lot of them just in case. This morning I had to check them first thing, and they all survived the night. Below is some of them.

I did plant some dahlias too. I've never had them before and not sure if I like them. But this year I try, if they don't behave I won't have them next year.
Yesterday we spent the whole day in the garden, from early morning to late evening. We got  a great job done and as a joke I told  Handyman that next year I'll apply for financial support for running this "farm".
He laughed.

That's all for now, I hope you have a lovely time too.
I'm off to spend my day outdoors.

Today.....

We have the most beautiful summer right now.

Today I was able to hang my washed bedlinen outdoors to dry. Can't remember the last time I was able to do that. I love the feel of bedlinen that have dried outdoors. Yesterday we had 29 deg. C here and I love it.

These tulips are more than a hundred years old. When I still had my curtainshop one of my customers gave me some bulbs. A professor came to her to examin the tulips and he confirmed that these were of a very old type. They look like any other tulip but the odor, you should've smelled it. Handyman say they smell like raspberry jelly. Another good thing is that they do multiply.

Another tulip in my garden. These do survive from year to year, the more modern types does not.

My yellwo light at the moment. I don't know their name, what I do know is that these are more yellow than anything else in my garden. When the dark comes they almost act like lightbulbs.

At last a new painting. The form of a russian doll has made me addictive. It's so fun to see how "free" one can draw within that form. But, now it''s time to go outside. Much too good weather to stay in.

Have a beautiful day too!

This weekend has been fun.

Sandra made her very first real painting on canvas. (pizzabox)

I'm really impressed by the way she approach whatever she is going to do. Not afraid to try anything, more like yes bring it on.
I showed her some paintings, talked about ways of doing it and she sat down planning her work. I did suggest to her that some simple shapes would probably be smart to start with. She drew some flowers and painted them herself.
Below you see her in action.

 I love the result and she was very proud too. Her mom liked it so much that she was looking for a space in their livingroom to hang it. Best of all is that it's ready to hang. We made the hanging wire before painting it.

Sandra want to do alot more of this and that was what I was counting on too.

I did finish another of my russian doll paintings. This one is a bit different but I like her and she is called : If I was a Viking..... I wasn't kind to her while drawing her feet, but I was trying to keep the shape of a russian doll. If you look closer, you'll see that the shape is still there.

As a Viking I would probably not wear red shoes but I would have loved to own a shield like this one. I don't know why she became a Viking to me, but she did. The background is missing here too, I find it difficult to choose something suitable. I'll have to wait with this one too.

My self portraits, I forgot last week but coming week I'll do another one.

We've had summer today and will have the next days too. I simply love it!
Enjoy your week!

Always changing.

It was a wet day yesterday.

I couldn't go to the park for photographing, there was far too much rain. And as usual I couldn't wait, so I finished my painting without a local motif.

Handyman and I spent a few hours together with Sandra and her family and that was that. Because of all the rain we didn't feel like doing anything else. Handyman had to go to work to find some item numbers and I went with him to try if it would work to downsize my painting. It did. I was afraid that the shape of it would turn wrong. My idea was to make a big painting because of the detail work. Much easier to make fine details on a larger scale. When downsized the details look nice but would be impossible to make that size, at least for me it would.
Below is the downsized copy. It now measures 10.5 by 14.5 cms. like a postcard. Sorry about the quality of the photo.

Below is the finished painting without any color at the background. This one is made on a A-3 sized watercolor sheet. It's always hard to tell how big/small a painting is, just by looking at a picture. Therefore I laid them on top of each other to show you the differense.
Today I'm going to spend the day with a friend, we'll do some shopping and have lunch together. In the afternoon Sandra is coming, and this weekend she's going to make a " real " painting. Her canvas will be an empty pizzabox. I'm so looking forward to that.

Here you'll see the differense between the two. I'm pleased with how it turned out ,but I think perhaps it would be even better with a more delicate design. I'll try that too.
I'm not quite sure what to do to the background so that'll have to wait for awhile. The face is made using crayons, the rest are done by using twinks.

Have a great weekend everyone!

This time of year again.

Tomorrow we celebrate!

May 17th, that means Bunad, flags, parades, icecreams, and a lot of fun. We're going to watch Sandra in the parade and spend some time with her family.  This day is celebrated all over our country. Far north they may have snow falling during the parade, here the forecast promise more rain.

Todays painting is  showing a house close to the ocean. I bet even there they will celebrate tomorrow. On my desk right now is a LARGE russian doll (drawing) which will show an image from our local park. I hope to photograph some good shots tomorrow, good enough to paint from that is.

If I can make a good painting, I probably will do several from that park. It's more fun to make some real images tham just some imaginary ones.

What a pity you can't join me tomorrow to see it all.  I'll send you some thoughts though.

Whatever you're doing, have fun!

A good day.

I had a good and exciting day yesterday.

When I was painting and listening to the radio the doorbell rang, outside was my friend Per from Oslo. What a nice surprise, we shared a couple of hours talking, discussing and laughing. Never boring when Per shows up.
When he left I continued painting and in the evening I went to learn more about the Golden products. That was an interesting meeting. I knew a little in beforehand but wow, what alot one can do with those things. I had to buy a start package of Golden Open. This paint acts like oil paint, very slow to dry. I'm looking forward to try them out. And all those mediums, I especially noticed the cracle paste and the fiber paste.

The cracle paste is obvious, it makes the background cracle. The fiber paste makes the canvas act like watercolor paper and if one add quite alot of water to the fluid paint, that will act like watercolors too.
I know I'll have to try these things but, little by little.

When we were finished, each one of the participants was given a small bag containing Golden products. YAY!!
Below you see what was in my bag. I GOT THE FIBER PASTE !!!!!!
Lycky me.

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After the last finishing touches to my swap project, I continued to paint on my ongoing painting today.
Below it's done.  It's called : THE MOTHER.
It isn't excactly a sweet painting, more like a comment to the world we live in. How is Mother Earth doing for the time beeing? Not good I believe.

Well, that's all for now. Have some good creative moments you too!

Small paintings.

I've had so much fun making these cards.

After finishing my swap project I felt for drwaing a bit. My russian dolls keep inspiring me and while doing these I came up with even more ideas.
It's so nice to let anything else go and just be in the process of creating.
As a postcrosser I need handmade cards from time to time, and I like to have some ready for posting.

This first card was made using some scraps at first. They were glued down with matte medium and that wasn't the perfect way. My twinks (watercolors) didn't act as I wanted them to. Isn't that interesting to learn something new all the time? Well, if I had thought about it in beforehand I would have known but then again I love to make the most out of every try. As when sewing, I love to make a whole lot out of a tiny bit of fabric.

 I can't decide which one I like the most, can you? The upper one is perhaps the most interesting but the one below is cleaner and ............no, I don't know.

Playing with my twinks again. I love these colors but I have not spent enough time with them. Both faces are done using crayons.
This has been a good weekend and right now our son is home to learn some maths from his father. I'm glad it's not me, much more fun to draw and paint.

Wish you all the best!
 

Acrylics on canvas.

Without a layer of paper between  the canvas and the paint.

The Norwegian Queen showed her personal art ( she is a great collector) on telly a few days ago. That got me so inspired that I right away made a small drawing, and later on painted some houses. Now I'm deep into it and yesterday I bought several huge canvases.

This is my tiny drawing. It measures 13 by 16 cms. Watersoluble crayons and acrylics.

 After studying it for awhile I saw that the shadow was wrong. When a painting holds this kind of image the shadow needs to be accurate. The house is so simple that the suroundings and colour value does matter a whole lot I think. Simplifying things does give another experience.
 The one below is done. I don't know how many layers of paint it holds but now I'm pleased. This is acrylics only, directly onto the canvas. It measures 24 by 30 cms.
If one study it closer one can see that the lines are not as strait as they should be, but to be my first I'm still pleased. I used some Regular Gel at first to add some body to the canvas before painting. 

The painting below is still in progress. As a matter of fact this was the first painting. I added the Gel and made some circles in it just because I wanted to know how it worked. I wouldn''t have done that now unless I had plans for the circles. First I made them as flowers, but they didn't fit in. What remains here is the earth part and the shadow. This painting will rest in my studio for some days untill I can see what to do.

This canvas was already prepared for painting so this one has layers of old bookpages on it. It measures 30 by 40 cms.

 I'm sure you all can imagine how it looks like inside the Royal Recidense. Golden hue, red carpets, high celings with beautiful stucco work and paintings. Right there, in the middle of all this, our Queen adds a huge lot of extremely modern art.
It would be very easy to add a lot of national romantics in there. ( and perhaps that's what most people would expect to find in there)  But instead  our Queen denied to give up her personal taste, she brought it and integrated it into the palas. Queen Sonja is really something, and she did inspire me alot this time.

Have a good and inspired day you too!

Just me again.

 A weekly self portrait.

My intention is to draw one weekly self portrait. The hardest thing so far has been to get a photo to use. But at last I got one that can do.
I find it too hard to have a mirrio sitting at my desk and then look into it while drawing. My art studying friend told me to draw my portrait without even a glance at the page. Draw just by looking into the mirror. Well, that will have to be later on. For now it's enough to draw myself.
Below is the photo I'm using for my drawing.

And here is my drawing. I used 10 min. I hope to improve by doing this once a week the rest of the year. Right now I see a lot of things that's wrong but I'll train my eyes. Isn't it hard to make it look like the one we are drawing? At least it's hard for me. My drawing doesn't look like me at all. It will be fun to compare my drawings when the year is gone. Hopefully I do some progress.

I had to show you my newly planted flowers. They look so great with all these raindrops on them.
Yesterday it was hailing and during the night some frost but these are doing well.
Enjoy!

Have a nice week!!

Finally!!

Some days ago I finally found a real art supply shop.

And to my surprise they are loaded with goodies. This first time I only bought some new brushes, and a couple of new acrylic colours. The shopowner told me that soon they were going to arrange a Golden presentation and I signed up at once. Can't wait to learn more about their superb products. For example, I didn't know that all Golden products were able to open when dry. Did you know that? When the paint is dry it's possible to undo that, right on your canvas. WOW!
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When I was babysitting as a child one of the familys had this huge Russian doll. It held 20 or 24 dolls. I always admired that doll and decided to, if I ever got the chance, collect them myself.
The one on the photo my mother gave me. It's small but holds 10 dolls. I do have a few more, but when it first became a real collecting object I lost my interest. When abroad I always visits markets to see if I can find some old ones. Many many years ago I found one but didn't buy it and that has been irritating me since. I don't know why I didn't buy it but probably because of economic reasons. We had just built our house and didn't have that much money to spend.
As I remember that doll it was all black and decorated with warm reds, greens, and gold. UGH!!

Yesterday I had to pause from my trading project and went for rearranging my Russian dolls. Later I got the idea to make my own doll and below is the result of that. Except from the face this one is painted using twinks. She is made on one of my book covers.

 Here she is done. I'll probably go for another one and make her a bit larger and develop the design a bit more. This first one reminds me a bit of Greenland, because of the design around her shoulders. While knitting, this kind of design are always refered to as a Greenland design. The Inuits have similar designs to their traditional clothes.

Well that's my little Sunday update. Right now the sun are shining but a little while ago it was hailing. Still a bit cold.
Have a great day everyone.

VIP.

I'm working on a trade project.

We've had such wonderful weather the last couple of days, that means a lot of garden work and planting in some new summerflowers. Then, just a few minutes ago I heard on the radio that coming weekend will bring frost again. It's unbelievable.

My trade this time gave me a real challenge, it wouldn't work out as I had planned it and because of that I had to change my choise of tecknique. The way I do it now looks promising and I'm really excited about this whole thing.
Have you ever tried trading? I highly recommend it, it's a special joy to make something ment for another person and the excitement added to the whole process. As you understand I can't show what I'm making other than some close close closeups.

My part of this trade contains three pieces that together will make one whole expression. I haven't decide whether to connect them yet. First I need to see how they work together when done.

 OH, I'm so enjoying this and I hope my trading partner enjoys it too.

We're promised nice weather tomorrow too, I wish the same for you whatever nice weather means to you.