A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

A revamp

Well, there does come a time when you have to reorganise and revamp and that time was the other week for me!

My studio was in a mess, lets face it these things creep up on you. 

Then I decided it was TIME...

HOW HAD I MANAGED LIKE THIS FOR SO LONG...

THEN ALONG CAME

IKEA

 THAT SWEDISH STORE

THAT PEOPLE LOVE TO CRITISIZE

BUT 

CHOOSE WISELY AND

YOU GET THIS...

 BLISS

Amazing what a brush and a scraper tool can do

So there I was thinking, what shall I paint.  I had my reference photos open and have for ages thought about capturing one in particular....this one from West Bay in Dorset.

But how to tackle it without it being very standard, neat and actually end up with no character to the art.  So I went for loose and free.

As you see I completely changed the colour of the sand cliffs and it took  on a whole new life.

I used a large brush to apply splats (yes, I said Splats) of paint and then used one of these,

A very technical tool, a cut up plastic card, which I literally scraped across the wet paint I had applied.  I did that very randomly and the end result was the painting above.

St. James Church at Arlington Court

Although surrounded by the National Trust Arlington Court estate, St. James Church is run by the C of E ...here's a clip from their information online:

The Church of England.  St. James, Arlington: In Victorian times when the church was largely rebuilt to serve the much larger numbers of estate employees and tenants, attendance at services would have been expected for all villagers.  Nowadays the much smaller population of churchgoers struggle to support and maintain the building and with the main combined parish church only about a mile away at East Down measures are being taken to make St. James Church redundant.  Nevertheless, although few services are currently held the church remains open, visitors are welcome and donations for maintaining the building much appreciated.

(map courtesy of Bing mapping)

 

So, considering this church will close, undoubtedly during 2016, it was good to visit and see the work that has gone into their Christmas decorations.  Local Businesses and individuals have a tree they have each decorated...

Deciding which photos to add (I took a few) was difficult, so I've settled on showing All of them...

William wasn't impressed with his door though!

Sorry lad, only joking...

Then and Now

After 40 Years of Marriage

 ~ Happy Anniversary To Us ~

Chocolate River anyone?

Tree Stump Coins

We came across this great idea recently on one of our walks.  An old tree stump is being used for people to leave a coin embedded in it.  A stone is left as the hammer for knocking the coin (of your choice) into the tree stump...

No...husband isn't hitting his own hand!

It's the coin getting hit!

We thought this was a grand idea.

Street Art

Husb. has just come back from

Fuerteventura

in the

Canary Islands

~

Here's some Street Art he found out there

This next painting is good.  

The yellow tube is an Actual structure behind that wall,

the addition of yellow paint on the wall makes

it look like the whole thing is together...

This had been part of an old railway, so very fitting with the train

...and then miles from anything,

a random goat ~

brilliant.

A pleasant harbour scene in Fuerteventura

then someone drops Bread into the sea -

now where's my net!

Pink eraser

Husband bought me this unusual eraser -  it's PINK - it's HEART SHAPED - it's like a BARLEY TWIST - it's great!

and it works 

(William was impressed too)