paintings prints and stuff

some of my contributions to the Flying Pictures Project Remember our Flying Pictures Project , sketchbook exchange? Lindsay has just shown an exhibition, in the US, of our completed books (sent off on a wing and a prayer for safe return) and given a talk. She sent us the printout of her words and we would all have loved to have been there - she summed it up beautifully and got across how much fun it had been, the underlying worry of each of us working in books containing such gorgeous work by the others, how we learned from each other, enjoyed discussions on our blog and privately. the buzz - and that we want to do another project together. Lindsay has shown her contributions on her blog - as it was such a good idea, I thought I'd do the same :>) Have you taken part in an exchange?

A slide show of all the gorgeous work in my book :>) - hovering the mouse over an image will show the name of the artist My book is home :>) and the sketchbook exchange is almost over :>( , I'm putting the finishing touches to Ronell's book and will post it on Monday I hope. Sorry I was a bit slow with this one Ronell. Look at all these fabulous images and imaginative ideas. The challenge that I set for my book was landscape/your surroundings, in any scale - huge vista or tiny detail - and to draw/paint a feather. I enclosed a pigeon feather and my book came back with several lovely feathers including one irridescent capercaillie feather from a military hat in Italy :>) So that's some feather sketches coming up soon! I love the different twists and original ideas that people gave the themes - the bustling French market full of character being drawn by those feather quills (Ronell), the tumbling Italian towns, glowing fruit and irridescent feather (Robyn), the ...

Moleskine exchange, Sennen Cove, surf on the rocks, Vivien Blackburn These are the 2 recent pictures in the moleskine sketchbook exchange, done in Lindsay's book with its theme of maps and destinations. Lindsay, Lorraine and Brian had concentrated on the maps/aerial view side and David had taken us into outer space. I decided to give his spaceman a nice place to splash down on his return :>) and look at destination You can see the spaceman and other pages here: http://moleskineexchange.blogspot.com/ the next day, wild surf and rain, subtle colours replacing the vivid blue of the previous day That's a harbour wall under those waves, quite a tall wall and this wasn't even a gale! That large rock reef outside the harbour helps break the force of the waves as they come in This book is currently with Gesa and I'll be interested to see where she takes it next :>) Casey (Klahn) have you got my book? I'm dying to see what you do with it. .

Nina's work in my sketchbook in the FPP exchange :> ) I was lucky enough to take part in two sketchbook exchanges [ one is now coming to an end :>( and I'll really miss it!] and I've had a lot of queries about them - how they work, timings, what type of sketch books etc etc etc etc so I thought it might be a good subject for a post here. Above is a great example of one of the major benefits - you get lots of lovely work from people you like and whose work you like :>) to keep! and lots more passes through your hands on their travels - you get to see the work in real life and not simply on screen. One of the challenges in my book was to draw/paint a feather - and just look at this lovely subtle and original take on it - I can't wait to see the rest of Nina's images, but won't see them until the book gets to the next person in the chain, my friend Glen. But just look at the masterly use of watercolour, and an idea I wouldn't have come up with...

collage and mixed media in sketchbook, swirling surf at the sea's edge. Vivien Blackburn It's fun to just play and experiment sometimes - new ideas develop that way. The sketches above are a mix of collage - marbled paper, some brown and olive green paper, a torn up small painting and a touch of coloured pencil, biro and tippex (typing correction pen) I like using collage and really ought to use it more often in larger work. This was done in Lindsay's sketchbook in the FPP sketchbook exchange. Do you use collage?

monoprint and coloured pencil. in Casey's book for the FPP exchange, by Vivien http://flyingpictures.wordpress.com/ - link to the exchange website These are my additions to Casey's book - theme: Local Colour. It's safely arrived in France so I can post them here now :>) The monoprints were done by painting onto acetate with turpsy oil paints and then using that to print onto paper. I then worked on them when dry with coloured pencil in some areas. My husband and my father are both seriously ill - I won't go into detail but it is having a huge impact on the family so bear with me if postings are a bit erratic while we all come to terms with things. .

well this should have been a slide show - but photobucket is just taking FOREVER to load it and that's on broadband - so I give up! I'm not going to waste any more time on photobucket slide shows :>(

mmm sorry I did a slide show but it takes too long to load :>(

2 sketchbooks arrived from Gesa for the moleskine exchange, belonging to Brian and Lorraine - and they are looking fabulous! :>) Lorraines theme is CLOSE. She started the book off with a drawing of her beloved garden in coloured pencil , closely followed by a naughty couple in the undergrowth by David getting very close ;>) , already shown on our website. Now Gesa has followed on with this great lively view of children and tenements, washing blowing in the breeze. It somehow has echoes of the stable and Bethlehem don't you think? Gesa Helm's gorgeous lively Joan Eardley tribute - In Lorraine's sketchbook in the moley exchange. Joan Eardley is a favourite artist of mine, I love both her Glasgow tenement paintings of urchins and her beautiful free abstracted landscapes. a close up of the children by Gesa Helms The other book belongs to Brian, who started off with moody local landscapes in coloured pencil - did you use solvent Brian? the double page Marsh fe...

Vivien's Time and Tide series in the FPP sketchbook exchange - Nina's book, theme: Local Colour Nina's book is now with Ronell so I can show the pages I did - Nina's pages were bathed in golden sunlight and Glen had continued with large red poppies. My first thought was to do some extreme close ups of poppies but I decided to cool things down instead and do the English coast in changing weathers and times. These were done in a variety of media including watercolour, Inktense, Caran d'Ache Neocolor II, watercolour pencils and mix of them all. I've now received the next 2 moleskine exchanges from Gesa - no pressure there then! and am off to enjoy browsing them and have a think about what to do next before sending them on their way. Gesa has done some lovely sketches of wild island landscape - I'm hoping she'll do some in my book!

a small fragment preview of my addition to Casey's book in the FPP sketchbook exchange This is a fragment of my addition to Casey's sketchbook - theme: Local Colour . It is just about to be sent winging its way to Ronell in France. It already contains work by Casey, Nina, Glen and now me and it's getting fat :>) I had to extend the cover to fit the pages :>)

details to show what is collage and what is paint or pencil David asked which bits were collage (see previous post about the sketch book exchange). Here are elements blown up to much larger than life size and sharpened/sharpen edges/increase contrast- ed to show the edges more clearly. They don't show as much in real life and are of course much smaller. I think you can see here what elements are used where. David wrote about them on our moley blog http://moleskineexchange.blogspot.com/ daviddrawsandpaints said... Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Flowers aint got nothin' on these Three Poppies and the Popettes! This is pure 1960's Phil Spector girl band shakin' their red petals off with a trio of backing singers providing bass, tenor, and alto - boom, oooh, yate-ta-ta. I dig this! I love it!! what a way with words :>D And Robyn says my Flying Pictures sketchbook has arrived with her in Italy and is looking fantastic with all the exciting additions and now won't fi...

Poppies dancing in the wind. collage, watercolour, coloured pencil, Vivien Blackburn, moleskine exchange July '08 I can post the images now as the book has arrived with Stephanie. These pages were done for the moleskine exchange http://moleskineexchange.blogspot.com/ . This is in David's book, theme: Dance. You can see his wonderful intense tango dancers below, followed by Gesa's great abstract thoughts - timing and steps, cooling things down with a tranquil cerebral blue. This photo doesn't do them justice. That's the joy of this exchange, seeing the work in real life with texture and marks and being able to hold the book and look and look :>) There are several exchanges going on out there and I'm following some with interest - please feel free to leave a link in the comments for people to follow if you are taking part in one. I'll add them in a later post when I update on our exchanges again. .

a digital experiment, combining collage, watercolour, coloured pencil and collagraph elements. Vivien Blackburn An experiment in combining different elements to create something new. This is made up of collage, watercolour, coloured pencil and a collagraph - using photoshop to combine, erase elements, adjust sizes to make them work together, pushing and pulling and doing I don't know what until it works for me. I'm deep in end of term marking and paperwork :>( so not a lot of painting going on at the moment. I have finished the work in the FPP and Moley exchanges though and they are on their way to Ronell and Stephanie :>) check the exchanges out here: http://flyingpictures.wordpress.com/ the flying pictures project and http://moleskineexchange.blogspot.com/ the moley exchange I can highly recommend taking part in an exchange like this - I'm so enjoying them - opening each book as they arrive is fantastic and a chance to see lovely work in real life - and...

An update on the FPP sketchbook exchange - I now have Casey's book :>) as Glen finished her section in record time! ..... no pressure then :>0 Casey started her book - theme Local Colour - with some lovely colourful sketches of people and market fruits, a real flavour of France :>) There is a beautiful fresh fluidity and freedom in the way she catches these and it's great to have them here to see in real life. and Nina carried on with some beautiful observations of people in Stockholm, chatting, relaxing ... Again such a strong use of pen, so assured, and then lovely loose floods of watercolour. Lovely glimpses of local colour - and then this great landscape Glen followed on strongly with watersoluble pens and a sketch of the flower shop opposite her fish shop with busy shoppers and buckets of flowers. and I have to follow all this ! and Nina's book will be in the post to Ronell this week as I've virtually finished my pages :>) with a total change of pace fr...

Poppies by Glen Heath - detail I have the next book in the FPP sketchbook exchange and help!!!!! what a challenge. The book is Nina's and her theme: Polychrome. http://vivienb.blogspot.com/2008/06/sketchbook-exchange-ninas-work.html You can see how Nina started the book here, with a beautiful watercolour of the view from her home. Now Glen has lived up to it with this lovely study of poppies - the full image is below with some of Nina's work showing on the left: How to follow this ???????????????? I need chocolate And how am I going to part with this book? and I've had a sneak preview of the next one which is currently with Glen - and it's gorgeous as well I need more chocolate . .

This is our friendly garden hedgehog enjoying a pasty (OK - I know the edge is scorched!) - he/she really enjoyed the cheese and potato pasty and remains of the cat's dinner :>) Flearidden I know, but awfully sweet. He/she was limping so we'll keep an eye on the situation and make sure food is out. (the limp isn't due to the cats as they have a live and let live attitude to the hedgehogs) He/she is very efficient at keeping the slugs and snailsin the garden at bay. The cats just watch with interest - and a little wide eyed annoyance at their dinner disappearing! Sam doing his best Bruce Willis impression And above is why no painting has been going on - the family have been over for a visit, so nothing else was happening. The cats were not impressed with the scary noises, too many people and disruption to their routine. Glen Heath Detail from Glen Heath's addition to the FPP sketchbook exchange - isn't it fabulous? This is in Nina's book - theme: Polychrom...

mixed media sketch . Beacon Hill, Charnwood, Leicestershire. Vivien Blackburn This one is winging its way to the US to take part in an exhibition with friends - 2 English and 3 Americans. I had to stay with small images to fit in so decided on a series of work on trees from my plan chest (she says smugly ; >) - said plan chest still feeling shiny and new and lovely and I need to look in at it each time I pass the room! ). I don't often work small except for plein air sketches so it wasn't easy to find work to fit in 10x8 or 11x14 frames. Today I had to post the moley exchange book, the FPP exchange book, these sketches and 2 cards to the US - eeek!!! it added up to rather a lot! Keep your fingers crossed for sales so I don't get these back. .

Sketchbook exchange update Nina's painting in her book - which is currently with Glen (but I got a sneak preview!) and will come to me next. Isn't it gorgeous? Her theme is polychrome and there are the most gorgeous subtle colour changes in there with a wonderful sense of light - the golden light of late afternoon/early evening I love her sense of balance with the other elements as well - the writing, colour swatches and lettering make a really beautiful spread of pages. The use of watercolour is masterly too. A book of all the images is clearly going to be essential - I'll hate saying goodbye to so many of these. .

watercolour, fragment of watercolour sketch - Vivien Blackburn I picked up Glen's book on Friday and have had fun (though it was intimidating after seeing the gorgeous images she'd created) adding to it. These are fragments of what will soon be flying on to Ronell in France :>) I've done 2 pages and just have to do the half page, where the next person - Ronell - can interact with my image. My book is on its way to Lindsay in America now with Ronell's work added - I'm dying for Lindsay to get it and show what Ronell has done with it :>) I know it's going to be gorgeous! Once Ronell receives this I will be able to show the whole of the images and the book so far .... and another fragment from the other page - any idea what it's done with? I'm thinking it might be good to produce a Blurb book of ALL the images from ALL the books when we've finished - what do you think? I shall be so sorry to say goodbye to the ones that won't return to...