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.

Support democracy in Iran

If like me you have been following the brave demonstrations for true democracy in Iran - head on over to this site and 'light a candle' to show your support

Water, water, everywhere...

My F page is finally finished for my Alphabet Discovery Journal - the theme for this page was foam, and I wanted to try out a technique I had read about in a stamping technique book. First of all the background was painted with a wash of acrylic in pale green, I then stamped the word Foam with white gesso, applied a collage of newspaper (the financial pages of course) at the top half of the page, and wrinkled the paper to give the effect of water. Then more acrylic paint was used in shades of blue and green for the water, and brown and yellow for the sand. The paint was wiped off where the letters had been stamped - the gesso acting as a resist.

I then applied a little more gesso to the tops of the 'waves' and the shoreline. The foam at the water's edge was created by sticking some fusible fibre (the no-sew hemming tape), heating it gently with a heat gun, then while it is still warm sprinkling on some white embossing powder and heating it again. It gives quite a good effect, although it is difficult to see in the photo. The finishing touch was to add some fibres to represent seaweed.

Sing for Water West - The Big Sing. 600 singers raising money for Water Aid
Still on the subject of water - today was the 'Big Sing' at Bristol harbour side - 600 singers from various community choirs around the West of England raising sponsorship for Water Aid.


All the singers have been learning the same 7 songs for the past few weeks, and came together to sing them this afternoon, with only one joint rehearsal in the morning (which I was unable to get to!) Fortunately, the forecast thunderstorms did not materialise, and we were, if anything, too hot. I can be seen in the photo above 2nd from the left in the back row - singing along with the Tenors. Click on the video below for an extract of our first song Iqude - a traditional Zulu song (filming courtesy of my son, age 11).

Did you know that -

• At least 4,000 children die every day as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation.


• 884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world's population.


• 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, this is almost two fifths of the world's population.


• WaterAid projects providing safe water, sanitation and hygiene education cost just £15 per head.

Our aim is to raise a total of £24,000 from The Big Sing - I will keep you posted when the total comes in. Click here to read more about the wonderful work that Water Aid do, and if you would like to make a donation to this great cause you can do so here

Alphabet Journal - Z

The latest letter for our Alphabet Discovery Journal is Z - so what else than Zebra's, Zentangles and Zetti?

Haven't yet decided if I want to add some colour to this page

Drawn with Pitt Pen on multi-medium paper

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Inspired by Eliece's blog By My Hand I decided to start a reading journal to keep a record of some of the books I have read. I have decided not to keep it chronologically, but paint pages in advance and find a page that suits the mood of the book (as does Eliece). That will also give me some flexibility in going back to cover books that I have read in the past.

Having said that I started with a book that I have just finished reading - the wonderfully named "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows. This is a very easy book to read as it's epistolary style makes it easy to pick up and put down, but I whizzed through this charming story in a couple of days.

For this journal spread I chose some pages that I had previously painted with shades of blue acrylic, then as the book is partially set in Guernsey, I printed out a map of the island and cut it out to use as a mask. I also used images from the book cover, both collaged and painted on.