Sunday 19 April 2009

DERSINGHAM GARDEN WEEKEND

As I felt the need to have a break from actual painting, with all the work I created for the Rising Sun, I decided to spend the weekend going through my wooden chest of older unframed works and paintings in acrylic and watercolour pads. Two of the pieces I came up with belong to a series called THE TEA TIME SERIES but created in very different media.


I have a favourite water colour artist, Shirley Trevena, who does floral and interior still life work that is truly stunning and a style all her own. This first piece I found was when I decided to create my work combining my love or floral and still life, but without copying Sheila's lose style. I allowed the paints to run in places and even 'printed' patterns from embroidered/embossed ribbons I have in my collage box. I simply made it all up as I went along with hardly any drawing . The window effect came last - and eventually became a series in its own right.


This second one is completely different with lots of collaged ribbons, gold, linen strips from the edge of old cushions and acrylic paint. I think this was inspired by a visit to John Lewis furnishing department to see what colours were fashionable for the home - and it turned out this soft blue mixed with creams and browns. Sorry photo is a bit crooked, but I've packed it away now for the show.
The show is mid May at a little town/village in Norfolk near the Queen's Estate at Sandringham and they are having a weekend open garden event combined with arts and crafts. Most of my pieces I'm taking are garden and floral pieces I have mounted and put into sleeves, so I can keep them quite reasonable.... as framing really shoots the price up when you choose something to go with the work. Both paintings are 16 x 12 ins.

9 comments:

Sandy Maudlin said...

Joan, LOVE that second piece but couldn't pull it up larger to see the wonderful details and textures. The top painting I could enlarge and the colors are so vibrant and alive! Rhonda said once that photos centered on the page couldn't be enlarged??? But the first one would enlarge???
I do hope your May show is super successful, too.

cathyswatercolors said...

Hi Joan, the watercolor is my favorite. Did you stamp on the flower border with a ribbon? Just love the colors and equally as sweet as all of your lovely painting.

Angela said...

Hey there! These are great - the second one looks particularly interesting, but I wish we could see it larger.
I absolutely love the bright red of the flowers in the watercolor!

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Sandy and Angela - glad you liked my collage work of old. Must get back to doing more. I uploaded the image again, but still would not enlarge, so simply made it bigger on the post in hope it can be seen better. The linen the teapot is sitting on is really thick.

Cathy - yes the red marks were made by putting fairly thick paint onto an embossed strip of ribbon and then pressing it onto dry paper. I love putting bright reds with this aqua/peacock shade of blue.

Vicki Greene said...

How very creative you are! Both paintings are wonderful.

Robyn Sinclair said...

And to think they've been hidden in a bottom drawer! Lovely, Joan. I too wish the second one was a larger photograph. Blogger is like that sometimes.

Margaret Ann said...

Both pieces are lovely...I really enjoyed the idea of printing with the embossed ribbon...You are so imaginative! :)

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Glad you liked my 'oldies' Vickie,
Robyn and Margaret.

The secret is to see such 'printable' items when browsing shops - including charity ones - and keep them altogether in a box to rummage through when the idea strikes.

Sandy Maudlin said...

These are so good - so cool. LOVE it!