A Handful of Butterflies

Paper butterflies on my sewing table, ready to make into an art piece.  They are hand cut from old maps, sewing patterns, maps and other paper fragments.  I then paint and draw in the details and lastly stitch the body to give some added texture.  I have a really lovely old vintage frame that I have in mind to do something with my paper butterflies.  I'll share when it's done!

Paper Affair!

My love affair with paper!

Coral Tree

These doilies were used as stencils to paint some enamel paints and the layers of paint on the doilies left such lovely shades of blue I could chuck them out!  This muted teal blue is the perfect match for that brilliant coral from these blooms - just love them and they are in bloom all over my neighborhood.

Work in progress...

I am quite excited about what I am working on at the moment.  The book making course I recently did got me working with paper in a more 3D tactile way!  For a while now I have been thinking of paper sculpture, paper folding etc and started to look at recreating work I have already done, birds, proteas etc.  These are my first attempts to use paper not just to work on but to work with ie paper becomes part of the artwork - torn, folded, cut, rolled, painted, sewn... etc Thanks to Cheryl Penn's class for getting me to think out the box!

Artitsts books

I just finished a course in making artists books - hard to explain but basically learning various techniques used to make and bind books.  The book itself becomes a piece of art and artistic expression.  At this stage I was just learning the basic techniques so I have not really explored the idea as an artistic format.  There are some amazing works of art in this format and our teacher Cheryl Penn's work is excellent.  Take a look at our class, some art I mailed her and her work at www.cherylpenn.com/wpb

Birds on vintage paper

These birds were done using charcoal and paint on vintage paper taken from old girls annuals.  These 2 are displayed on my table at a recent night market that was part of "redeye" - an amazing event in our city that involved performance art and dance on the street and in the museum and art gallery! They were my first sales at the event. 

Little charcoal creations...

No matter how hard I try to do "grown-up" stuff, I just find child like things just seem to bubble up from inside.

These little sketches came about one evening in front of the telly when I had an impulse to have a go at some charcoal sketching.  I really love the grainy, skratchy quality that makes them feel like the objects have come from somewhere in the page, trapped until the charcoal set them free!  It would be cool to animate them somehow. 

The quiet before the storm

This drawing I did has a feeling of serenity but with a touch of loneliness too. I  noticed after I had drawn it that it is a double bed but with only one pair of shoes which made me think of solitude. I took the original drawing and made a few copies and then experimented with cutting out the shapes and layering them to create a 3d effect.
I remember this 3d decopage thing being all the rage in the 80's but was usually done with greeting cards layered onto a plasterparis mould with ric rac around the edge. I remember pictures of little mice in houses for some reason!