Beginning of the end

Do I feel a slight hint of spring on the frosty breeze? When the sun is out, I can almost imagine…. So I put the laundry outside on the line! Aaah, yes, I’m definitely ready.

Not quite there yet
Not quite there yet…

I’ve been working on a few things this week that I thought I was going to blog about, but none of them are quite done yet. I did finish my dry leaves printing experiment and I’m not very impressed, so that project post got archived vertically as we say here. As in, I’m not even going to bother scanning the results for you. Cochineal prints lovely on paper though, but it also  pokes a lot of holes, LOL.

Knitting and spinning progress = 0

I’ve been thinking a lot about my painting etc. which normally is a really bad sign, and probably is in this case too, but I seem to be all over the place and that’s not very constructive either. To improve your skills it really works best to pick a theme and make multiple versions. You rarely fix all your mistakes in one go.

One minute I’m into intuitive abstracts, the next I’m trying for the impressionistic turneresque landscapes in my mind which on canvas then looks more like a naive illustration for a childrens’ book. Which I kinda dig too, in fact it could be a very good way to warm up for a picture book which title has been floating in my head for 7-8 years about my horse Charlie. Problem is, I have the format in place, but the actual plot is missing. Would be a great tribute now that he’s gone. I also had wanted to do a series of cartoons around the critters, probably for 10-12 years, but made TWO crummy attempts. Now we have Fergus who is everything I wanted to do exactly, and I’m not jealous, I LOVE Fergus, but I’m not going to copy any of it when he’s obviously so much better than anything I can output at this time. 😉 However, my brain has produced a couple of cartoon sketches this week, nothing original, but I may just work on them anyway – for the practice.

Charlie's favourite trick - as you can see I take my riding dead seriously
Charlie’s favourite trick – as you can see I take my riding dead seriously

So it’s a lovely day out today, and even though I’d really like to work on my mandalas and one of my wip paintings, I should go be outside. I’m sure I’ll feel all the better for it. Dog to be walked, firewood to be stacked, maybe I should actually go riding on the old silly? And all the frozen horsepoop in the paddock is probably going to unfreeze real soon. It’ll be so good for my back and biceps….

And, well, spring on the way also means photo weather, if my old Canon 20D is still willing (shutter has passed the average number of exposures for this model). Not that it’s impossible in winter, I just don’t like being outside in the cold wind and the batteries die to quick. Anyone want to sponsor me a 7D house?! I promise I’ll do at least one excursion every week to a new location. 😀

10 thoughts on “Beginning of the end

  1. Det lyder som om du lider af typisk “Det er snart forår”-kuller. Man får lyst til at gøre det hele på én gang, nu solen skinner, men der skal lige pudses vinduer eller hvad det nu er først 😉 Kender du teorien on det spirale organisationdprincip?
    Det er egentlig en gammel pædagogisk teori, man beskæftiger sig med en masse emner i løbet af et år, men hver gang man kommer forbi, er det på et lidt højere niveau end sidst man var der forbi. Altså en cirkulær bevægelse rundt og rundt mellem de samme ting, men lidt bedre (“højere”) hver gang, det er det der skaber spiralen. Det tænker jeg på, hver gang, jeg forlader et projekt til fordel for et andet.
    Jeg glæder mig til at se (flere?) udkast til din hestehistorie.

    1. Jeg havde ikke hørt om princippet, men det beskriver min arbejdsgang ret godt! Det er samme måde min underbevidsthed arbejder med forskellige “issues”, jeg har tidligere beskrevet det som en bunke løg, en gang imellem triller et løg ud, og jeg piller et lag af, men kun 1, så bliver det lagt tilbage og et nyt løg triller frem osv. På et eller andet tidspunkt håber jeg at komme helt ind til kernen af nogen af dem, men det kan åbenbart ikke forceres.

      1. Det der løgbillede er heller ikke tosset, jeg ser en vandretur i en skøn, gammel have året rundt for mit indre blik. Noget smukkere og mere billeddannemde end min spiral – men princippet lader til at være det samme. Held og lykke med næste tur i haven 😉

        1. Havevandring er også et godt billede. Fokus skifter ikke kun efterhånden som man kommer rundt, men også i takt med årstid og dagens vejr. Måske bliver man nødt til at akut fikse en knækket hegnspæl selvom planen var at plukke jordbær.

  2. Sorry your dead leaves did not work, Pia! I was looking forward to seeing others’ experiments and trying to figure the reasons for the hits and the misses. I am guessing you tried the dried leaves on paper? I used soya milk on my vintage linen, soaking it overnight. The results on silk (alum acetate as mordant) were good and for me, the results of the linen (soya milk as mordant on cellulose fibres) were too and the paper (alum first, then soya, cellulose fibre mordanting) also.

    1. I didn’t use soya, just vinegar and aluminium acetate like I did with the fresh autumn leaves. Same paper as last time, same temp in the oven.

  3. Hi. I actually like the leaf prints you reported on a while back. I think I’ll try some myself. Nice days are ahead! Jane

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