Decorated Page Workshop - Lesson 3

I have got very behind on working on my challenges - but have finally posted my lesson 3 for the study of Gwen Diehn's "The Decorated Page" workshop.
The image transfer method can be found here

The girl that silenced the world for 6 minutes

A friend recently reminded me about this YouTube video. I first saw it about a year ago, but it still astounds me every time I see it. It was made in 1992, and sadly, very little has changed since then...

I wonder what she is doing now?

Lot's of reading, not much art...

Well, I seem to have had my nose buried in a book this last week, so two new entries for my reading journal.

The Cellist of Sarajevo - by Steven Galloway

I loved the lyricism of Stephen Galloway's writing, but found his characters hard to warm to, even though they were in the trying circumstances of a city under siege.

My second book this week - A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khalid Hossini - also had war as a theme. I found this book utterly heartbreaking, and totally gripping...

Note: If you haven't read either book, then be warned that the text in my journal page will contain some spoilers...

Birthday Gift

Well, I have been busy these last few weeks making gifts for friends, some I can't yet show as they haven't been handed to the recipient yet, but this one is now in the hands of it's new owner... My friend celebrated her 50th birthday this week and I made this little book for her, inspired by Martha Lever. I have always loved collecting quotes, so I picked some of my favourites to share.

The images were painted in watercolour on watercolour paper, some have the addition of PanPastel in the background, and a little stencilling added, others also have some rubber stamping. I then made a little booklet out of dark green paper, and stitched it together, then pasted the watercolour paper on each page. Finally I made two covers using fine brass mesh, which were attached with thread sewn through the eyelets and attached to the sewn binding of the book, and then added some fibres as a finishing touch.

Workshop at Stourhead

Peter, Alex and I attended a fun event at the National Trust gardens at Stourhead today. They were running a painting workshop called "In the style of...", where we were invited to paint a view of the gardens in the style of one of the well known painters who had visited and painted the park in the past. The idea had been to paint en plein air, but unfortunately it was raining, so we worked in the education room.

Peter chose to paint in the style of Turner, I chose John Piper, and Alex was perhaps the bravest of us all, because he invented his own landscape (rather than copying a painting) in the style of Cezanne.

Sing for Water West - Bristol

Here is another video of us singing at Bristol Harbourside on 2nd July. The song is a beautiful arrangement of John Lennon's Imagine, by Ali Orbaum, who is an accomplished Community Choir leader in Bristol, and one of the major organisers of the event.

The latest news is that we have raised in excess of £20,000 for Water Aid, with money still coming in - so we are well on the way to reaching our target.

Update: We raised a grand total of £37,000! A big thank you to all who contributed.