Paintings of Pretty China

I love pretty china. When I was ten years old, my godmother gave me a beautiful cup and saucer.

My Mum didn't have anything pretty in her cupboard so I felt pretty special.

It sparked in my a love of old cups and saucers and pretty china.

Much later on I was lucky enough to inherit some cups given to my grandmother for her wedding.

One afternoon when I wanted to paint something, my eye fell on the cups and saucers. Why not? I thought. And I did a series of paintings of some old china.

 

I also inherited a creamer jug and bowl from my Mum.  

 

These can be viewed with more details about them on my Ebay store

Easter Baskets

Easter baskets ready to collect coloured Easter eggs

Easter

Easter is almost with us. It is the main Christian time of the year. It is a remembrance of the time when Jesus was crucified, giving up his life in support of us, taking the sins of the world on His shoulders. 

We remember Easter in different ways. Easter in the northern hemisphere comes in Spring time. This is a time of new growth in the fields, chickens starting to lay eggs again after their break over winter, and rabbits coming our of their burrows and leaving their foot prints in the snow.

Easter in the southern hemisphere comes during a time of lovely Autumn weather, blue skies, calm days and chilly nights.

Easter Eggs

Easter eggs and bunny rabbits are on the minds of all the children in the Western world. They are hoping that the Easter Bunny will hop on by their home and leave them lots of chocolate Easter eggs in brightly wrapped coloured foil. It is a time of fun and preparation.

Families gather together as at Christmas time for a celebration meal. It is a time of joy. 

Christian Religious Celebrations

Holy Week

Holy Week refers to the week before Easter. It is the busiest time for Christian Churches, especially the Catholic Church. There are Masses held on Holy Thursday evening (the Thursday before Easter Sunday) celebrating the Last Supper of Jesus with His disciples and the Washing of the Feet when Jesus washed his apostles feet. Holy Thursday is also referred to as Maundy Thursday.

No Mass is held on Good Friday. There is a service commemorating the death of Jesus.

Holy Saturday evening is the Big Mass of the year. It starts out in darkness and with a bonfire outside the church to bring the new light of Jesus amongst the people. From there a procession wends its way into the Church where a joyous celebration takes place with lots of singing and bells ringing and sometimes, incense rising. 

The children go home to sleep and give Easter Bunny time to make his rounds. In the morning, on Easter Sunday, they are up bright and early to search for their Easter eggs. 


Happy Easter to everyone

Crazy Patchwork and Collage

Crazy Patchwork

I have always loved crazy patchwork with all the little pieces of beautifully coloured materials carefully sewn together by some diligent hand, then embroidered and maybe beaded as well. Just the thought of it sends me meandering in the clouds. 

Photographic Collages

Reviewing the photos in my blogs 

windowlane.blogspot.com.au
allergiesandcfs.blogspot.com.au
www.allergiesandcfs.com/lets-talk-health.html
www.mygardentreasures.com.au/garden-blog.html
www.mygardentreasures.com.au/the-bantam-blog.html

I realized that I make a lot of collages of photos to put in them. At first I thought it was because I like to get in as many photos as possible into the one space, but on reviewing that, I think that it is really the fact that a photographic collage looks just like a piece of patchwork.

 Even the tray in one of these paintings is painted with a patchwork design. 

Here I did some digital patchwork art. 

Even the headers of my websites consist of collages of photos.

Mosaics

One of my good memories of doing art was the time I spent making a mosaic with very tiny pieces of coloured tiles in an earthenware bowl. You can see it above. The white fluffy Silkie hen is eating out of it. 

Studying Digital Art

I recently finished a course in Computational Art, Digital Design at Stony Brook University, New York where we were encouraged to look at our art to find out what sort of artist we were.

So now I have discovered that I like putting pieces together again. Perhaps I have something in common with

All the King's horses 

And all the King's men

in the Humpty Dumpty verse only I succeeded where they failed.

Folk Art and Decorative Painting

Folk Art Flowers

I found some paintings I did quite a while ago and put some together in a collage.

Background Colours

I do like black as a background for the folk art painting as I find that the colours almost jump off the page, they look so vibrant. Other background colours can also suit your decor but I always come back to black. 

Old Paintbrushes have a New Life

These little paintings are quick, easy, and simple. I have a favourite little brush, one of the first brushes I ever bought. It is a size 2 flat brush. The problem with flat brushes is that the paint tends to get stuck up near the ferrule, the metal bit that holds the hairs of the brush together and clamps the wooden handle to the hairs.

This little soft green handled brush had had such a workout that the hairs had become spread and kind of curled up at the edges. The size 2 brush is a very narrow brush and this little brush painted all the bushy parts of the painting on the left. I never throw out an old brush. It may no longer be useful for what it was originally intended but it can often be useful for other areas of a painting.

Balancing the Colours of your Painting

You will find your paintings will always look balanced if they have the three primary colours in them - red, yellow and blue. Pink is made from red and white, so for folk art or decorative painting, you can also say your painting will be balanced if it contains pink, blue and yellow. Pink flowers are more in abundance than red flowers.

Have fun painting these designs.

Rose Petals, Strawberries, Grapes and Polystyrene

Bantam Hens Like...

What do these ingredients have in common?
They are all loved by my little bantam hens.

Each afternoon when my hens are let into my garden (which is different to their garden), they make a dash to a favourite rose bush in the garden. This rose, Mary Rose, flowers prolifically and as a result drops many petals. 

Fallen rose petals

Yet again, today when the hens got out, they rushed to the petals on the ground . One hen, a little buff Pekin who is eighteen months old and very low to the ground, ate more than a dozen petals. Later I saw her pecking with relish at some polystyrene pieces I had taken out of an old pot plant when I was repotting it. 

Here are some pullets eating a bowl full of rose petals

Now why do my hens love polystyrene? I have no idea. A few months ago when the pullets moved into their new back garden, a little garden just for the pullets, there was an old polystyrene vegetable box with some plants in it. Those hens attacked this box with gusto each day when they were let out until I finally removed it.

Food for Bantams

You may say, 'Well, why don't you feed your chickens decent food?' These purebred bantams have the best of every world. They have just had a beautiful new chicken shed built just for them. They have mixed grains available all day and they get lettuce leaves and yummy (for them) food scraps each day. 

These consist of fermented food, grapes, soaked bread - gluten free and yeast free, strawberries and tomatoes and sometimes some meat or fish. They are really spoilt and yet they eat polystyrene as if it were chocolate.

Here you can see the black Silkie protecting her rose petals

Drawing your Meal

Here's a great video by a talented guy.

• He's a chef and just loves cooking.
• He's a film maker and just loves making videos.
• He's an artist and just loves to draw.

• He loves to grow his own food.

See how he draws his ideas for your next plate of food. 

The Power of Orange

 

The Sacral Chakra

The chakra are energy centres in our body. There are seven major energy centres located inside the body along the spine.

The Sacral chakra is the second chakra. The colour orange is attributed to this centre.

The Sacral centre affects the reproductive area of the body. It is centred in from the navel and about five centimetres (two inches) below the navel.

Crystals

Orange crystals aid this area. Carnelian is a lovely deep orange crystal that benefits this area.

Carnelian, worn in the navel can have a beneficial effect on women if they are having period pain.

Orange Food

Orange can be found in some flowers, in the sunset, in bushfires and also in some food like oranges, carrots, pumpkin and sweet potato. To strengthen this area, eat these orange foods. Apricots and peaches and mango are fruits that can be eaten in this colour range. All these foods are gluten free foods.

Colour

Orange is a warm colour. It is made up of red and yellow. In art it is known as a complementary colour. The colour it compliments is blue. Blue is the colour of the Throat chakra. The throat chakra and the Sacral chakra are connected.

Burnt orange or terracotta is sometimes worn by women in winter. This makes sense as it is a warming colour. Apricot is the pastel shade of orange.

Orange Flowers

This colour flower can also be found in the garden. An old fashioned flower is the nasturtium. Its bright orange flowers bring life to the garden bed. Other orange flowers are strelitzia, Iceland poppies, knifophia, arctosis and geum. Having these in your garden is a great way to introduce the colour into your life. Plants with orange flowers are usually very hardy and do well in the heat.

Think about where this colour fits into your life.

Other post you may enjoy

Colour Healing, Chakras

Chakra Areas of the Legs

Amethyst Crystal for Healing