Bridge jigsaw.....

Feeling slow and sluggish? Brain not working properly? Fed up with not thinking straight? Irritated at how easily stuff is escaping you? Look no further... help is at hand! Look as clever as Isambard Kingdom Brunel in seconds! Build a bridge in three easy steps and amaze your friends! There arn't even any fiddly interlocking pieces to confuse you. Hurry while stocks last.....

Had a bit of fun with this. I have been experimenting with more unusual ways of showing photographs recently, and here is one of the results. It is a triptych of Bradford on Avon bridge which got a good going over in photoshop, and then the image transferred onto lazertran and applied to canvasses. I like the quirkiness of the different sizes.... even if it is a little emulative of the 'three flying ducks.'

Enjoy..

Be careful what you wish for....

A while back I was out gallivanting with my camera and stopped at a high, prime spot over the town. I found an unusual view of a higgled-piggled, windy street, but for love or money could not get an angle from where I was stood that didn't include a very stark, white van parked there. I wished it away to no avail, then thought 'well maybe I could erase it in photoshop.'

Once home I had a brief look at it and decided it would take too much faffing about to clone, heal and smooth it away so I left it in in all it's glory, printed it off as a photo and reached for the oil paints instead. I used the photo as reference and made the painting into a diptych... sans van.

To cut a long story short... guess who came into the gallery and bought both the photo and oil painting? ......

Yes, Mr and Mrs White Van!!

When the Saints go marching in........

to the Championship League! Congratulations to all connected with Southampton Football Club from fans to players, and everything in between.... have a picture of a red and white flower to celebrate with! It's the least I can do.....

Right, onto equally important matters such as new ideas for the gallery, and keeping things fresh and exciting. I enjoy a lot of experimentation as do many other creative, arty farty types and find happy accidents lead to some fantastical results. A prime example being the lamps I do. I recently saw a television program where slivers of semi precious stones were scanned and the results printed on silk. The colours were so vibrant and reminded me of the glass paints I use. So a fun morning was had, scanning the more abstract of the lamps and taking out interesting sections to blow up and print onto canvas. The colours were fantastic on the canvasses- the light from the scanner really picks up the luminosity of the special paints. The upshot means people can now buy a combination of a complementary, contemporary abstract canvas to go with the lamp they like.... all for under the price of a football shirt, a ticket and petrol money to get to St Mary's!

( That's £80 to anyone with math as bad as mine!)

Cascade.....

Every now and again the sun shines and the wind abates long enough to feel it. Every now and again you revisit places and remember why you return.

It has been at least two months since the camera has come out in anger. My husband and I played hookie from the Gallery, and took a day to walk round Bowood Gardens. We have been to various parts of the grounds several times over the years, from doing shows to just getting some energy off the children as they were growing.... but we have never been just for ourselves to take a leisurely stroll in the warm.

It is beautiful. Soft, undulating, emerald green lawns sweep down to a lake teeming with wildlife. The House itself sits at the top of the small hill watching over proceedings, but the joy is the layout of the trees, plants and rocky, hidden walkways through it all. No matter which time of year you go there will be something to look at and admire. We took the long way round and came across a a quirky walled maze of boulders and miniature caves under a canopy of cooling tree tops, following a small stream. And look what we found........

( this photo taken with a long high aperture setting and a four second delay- soft, bright and delicious!)