And more postcards from the swap

From me.

This is from a photograph I took when I went to the Blacksmith’s Open Day at Eveleigh Workshops. I loved the the way the shadows fell on the door. Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils.

To me.

This lovely door came from June  in MI. June had done her homework and worked out that I like doors. I sent June the Ubud scene, and it turned out that June had had a painting holiday in Ubud, so it was familiar territory to her.

To me.

This beautiful night scene comes from Jen in Melbourne. This was the hardest one to scan, because the scanner wanted to make it too bright. I’ve probably made it too dark. Never mind, your screen will probably do something esle entirely to it.  In actual fact, it is very subtle and lovely – very ambitious to do a night scene in watercolour. 

This postcard exchange is beating its deadlines by a mile. We’re close to finished already. If you’d like to see the previous cards that I sent and received, look here, and here and here.

More postcards from the swap

 From me.

This card went from me to Marva in Colorado Springs.  I decided to do some of my silver bits that I’ve picked up from over 20 years of going to Bali. I used an Artline pen and coloured it with Graphitint pencils. 

To me.

This card came from Kelly is Texas.  The colours are gorgeous, as are the details on the feathers. As I write this Kelly is riding out the hurricane.

Mary and Henry – collographs

Last Sunday we had another Printfest day, with teacher Seraphina Martin, viscosity printing collographs. Here are two from my new series of Royals. These two are the ones I’m most pleased with.

Making the collograph plate of Queen Mary was the most interesting. I used Impasto Medium to paint her face, and as I was doing it, it became obvious to me that Queen Mary’s bone structure is so like Princess Anne’s.

I can remember the day Queen Mary died. I was in the ‘office’ of my father’s furniture shop, and he explained to me that the reason that there was only dirges on the radio was because the old Queen had died. How times change!

But the other interesting thing about that is that my fathers ‘office’ was also used for furniture finishing, and it smelt of wood shavings and shellac. Now I am using shellac to seal my collograph plates – we’ve gone full circle.

Henry looks evil, doesn’t he? I’ve got another one where he has a green birthmark- it’s worse. I found by trial and error that the portrait ones work best if the faces are wiped back after the colour rolls.  I didn’t do quite so many prints last week, as I inked up the portrait ones a la poupee (see glossary) instead of inking up the whole plate with the same colour.  So I DO have more to show you, but no time to scan them at the moment. It’s been a busy week.

Fortunately Seraphina has extended the Printfest (yippee, yippee) and will be having another day late in September. I’ll try to finish my plate of Queen Victoria for that one. She’s wearing the same tiara as Mary.

Postcards from…..

Showing you the best one first. This card came from Delph, in the south of France. I just love the colours. A beautiful nautical postcard. Here are some more nautical ones on her blog.

From now on, the rest of the postcards are drawn by ME. This postcard drawing of Casper in sanguine Pigma Micron pen has gone off to Texas.

It very much interested the Texan cats – also because Arabella’s fur got tangled up in it.

The next postcard is done in Tombow pens. It is from Jalan Bisma in Bali. Jalan Bisma runs parallel to the Monkey Forest Road in Ubud, and you enter it from Jalan Raya (the main street) near the school. Bali is where I choose to take my holidays. Last time I went for an early morning walk, and the driver who brought me from the airport, who is also an artist, suggested Jalan Bisma. It certainly is beautiful in the morning light, and just off the main street. The  Bali scene went to June, in the USA,  who has drawings from her holiday in Greece on her blog. I particularly liked this one.

and the lilli pilli postcard went off to Deb, also in the USA, whose postcard album is here. Lilli pilli is an Australian native, and it is also done in Tombow pens.