Lost Aussie on the loose

Home and Homemade

My garden is slowly bringing forth it's bounty!  Lots of cloudy days and thunderstorms makes ripening my tomatoes a slow process, but at least I will be able to each them knowing QUITE well, where and how they were grown!

The flowers too are blooming, albeit slowly.  My lovely hydrangeas are finally showing  their blossoms and whilst I've tinkered with their 'glory' a bit in photoshop, they do look really beautiful in real life too!

And last, but not least, a little away time from the pixel pushing.... headed down to the basement to ferret through my fabric stash to create something a little more tangible!

I'm fond of the OVERsize bag, the one you can really get some serious STUFF into and this rather fits the bill.
15x13inches with a 2inch gusset you can fit in a wealth of journaling and art supplies inside...or even a mass of veggies from the local market.  It's all lined and has super long handles in case you want to sling the thing across your chest messenger style!

Who knew Home Ec' classes would ever be so useful?

Tree At My Window

Long before I got caught up in my weird world of Art there was a time when I read (and wrote) poetry constantly.  One of my most favourite poets is Robert Frost.  I love the vivid imagery his words conjure up for me and there are many pieces of his poetry that speak to my heart.

This latest little exploration with my new encaustic paints is my homage to Mr Frost.  I may create in different ways these days, but the thoughts and words still manage to find their way out of my head in some form or another!

How Do You Know...

Wax Works #5

These past few days I've been focussed on completing my Artsy "to do list", including making 30 sets of front and back photos for a collaborative book project for the Photoartjournals Yahoo Group and then working on pages for Judy Wilkenfeld's book, part of a round robin collaboration.

In between those tasty chores I have continued to experiment with more encaustic pieces.  I really like this medium and it marries well with some of the digital pieces I've been working on lately.  I bought a whole bunch more boards when I was at Dick Blick on Saturday so that should see me set on a wonderful painting binge for sure!

"Written in Stone" is only small, 5"x7"  but it's a good and comfy size to work in, especially as many of the new pieces are rather experimental!

Another Big City Day

I've lived in the States on and off for nearly 10 years now!!!...hard to imagine!  But I think it was this very larger than life-sized DKNY poster that was the first photo I ever took in New York City!  Incredible to think that it is still there after all this time and perhaps even on the side of the same building!

Saturday was warm and sunny so DH and I decided to hit some street fairs in Little Italy and spent some time sipping on wine and eating antipasto at a sidewalk cafe, all to the accompaniment of a wonderful jazz band, set up there, right in the middle of the street!  Even if the beers cost $10 apiece it was worth it for the entertainment alone!

Bond Street was not too far from where we were headed so I made the obligatory stop at Dick Blick...oh how nice to see all their wares in person, although they are a  LOT cheaper on the net!

We also ventured a little further south and toured through China Town.
Hard to believe that on one street you immersed in Pasta and Vino and on the next, it's all Charred Duck and Tsingtao.

Odd Objects and Curiosities

Like many Mixed Media Artists, I am a hoarder of many weird and wonderful objects.  Some more useful than others, and lots of them just "there" for the sake of interest.

Point in case being a single mannequin hand, somewhat battered and worn, but totally irresistible as a Flea Market find!

This week, it graces the Macro Day challenge for Fingers and Illustration Friday's "hoard" topic!.....perhaps useful after all!

Flickr'ing Away

I hoped across to Flickr today to catch up on some picture browsing and realised that my own site has been sadly neglected and I still have one of those early freebie accounts with just the bare essentials!  Oh dear!  So, it's on the 'to do' list and hopefully this week I will hunt down a few of the bazillion pics I have on my hard drives and upload them..but don't hold your breath!

Missy Angel here is a pic that I took in Australia in January when I was returning from a trip to Manjimup to see my Mum.  She's been away visiting my Brother in Vietnam for three weeks and just got back.   So it was nice to be able to talk to her on the phone again after what seemed just ages.  Precious times when you can enjoy a good natter with your Mum!

Anyway, I don't know quite why the fascination for tromping around cemetaries to take pictures of memorial statues...but they make for great stock photos and fodder for tweaking in Photoshop!

And...the countdown is ON....two more weeks until the BOYS get here....I can't wait!

Ding Dong Bell

I've spent most of today holed up in the studio designing Wedding Stationary - of all things!  Not my usual gig, but a promised favour for someone special, and I hope they like it!

In between churning out invites, menu cards and whatnot I grabbed a few minutes to "play" ergo "earth,sea,sky"!

I also managed to snap a pic of the last of my lovely Peonies.  With all the rain and thunderstorms we have had lately they had rather a short lifespan, but were glorious nevertheless...

Out of the Woods

Sad to say but I've been sick as the proverbial dog since I got back from Florida....evidently garnered more than just a few new freckles while I was there.  I thought I was being pretty sensible with the food I ate and it was only at the hotel, but I guess "something" must have slipped by!  Anyway, I seem to be on the mend now and that's all that counts!

Today I had an email from my artpal Nancy asking 'how to' do something she had spied while blog surfing.
Basically she had seen a picture re-created from an original photo but with various selections duplicated a number of times and each new layer set to a different blending mode in Photoshop.

I whipped up a quick sample version to illustrate the question she was asking me and the "Secret Life of a Tree" is a further worked version of that piece.

Start with a background layer of your chosen photo.  In your chosen graphics programme, either Paintshop Pro, Elements or Photoshop, duplicate the background. Using your rectangular marquee tool make a selection of a focal piece of your picture, copy and paste your chosen portion of the original image onto a new layer.  Change the blending mode of the new layer to something you like, here I've used mostly Multiply, Colour Burn, Screen and Hard Light. 
Continue making new selections and copying them to new layers, moving them around and varying the blending modes until you achieve a pleasing result.
Bear in mind you can also alter many other variables of each layer such as hue, saturation, curves, contrast etc.

Easy peezy lemon squeezy and a fun way to make more of what might otherwise be just a bit of an ordinary photo!

Feel free to email me if you have any other questions about how to do this!

More on Exploring

Life seems to have been non-stop this past week and if I was dreaming of some more Exploring, then I certainly got my wish!  We just got back from a lovely three day visit to Sarasota in Florida.  A happy mix of business and pleasure and yet another destination to add to my list of "must" return to see more!

These two snaps were take from our balcony at the Ritz Carlton which was just wonderful  We also got to spend some time at the beach, which even for a die hard Aussie I would have to say was pretty nice.  We did a little meandering up and down Main Street in town and the shops were quite inviting with a wonderful assortment of galleries and antiques to browse.  Most of all it was nice to feel the balmy breeze through the palm trees as we ate outdoors at night!

I didn't take too many snaps while I was away but the statue of the Baker man outside one of the cities many restaurants was such a cutie I could not pass him up!