Monday 31 October 2011

Happy Halloween



When we were in Lidl some weeks back I caught sight of these fabulous skulls. As John was with me I decided I couldn't possible behave like a small child and buy one but the call of the skull was strong. So I must admit I made my way back (in quite a panic in case they had all been sold!) and bought one. I then discovered that it could be hung from a hook, you could press a button and the eyeballs would start flashing and bulging and there would be a voice with suitable Halloween curses. What more could anyone want?! It reminded me very much of the Corpse Bride (if you havent' seen this film, go and do so, it's great fun),


So glad I bought one. He (or she) will now take up permanent residence in my studio, hanging from my ceiling as you can see. Didn't manage a picture of the action, as the flashing interfered with my focus as did the fact it started to turn around, but I reckon this is scary enough!!


It's a good thing no-one else walks past this window as I managed to scare myself while feeding the birds and looking back!

Saturday 29 October 2011

Bernina Calendar 2012

I knew it was coming but it was still a wonderful surprise to see the Bernina calendar for 2012 where for September the above image has been used. I have Gudrun Heinz to thank for the fact that a detail of my little Journal Quilt Je suis libre 1 has ended up being featured in this prestigious publication as Bernina selected the pictures for this calendar from among the entries for the Freedom Textile Exhibition she organized. It's travelling for the foreseeable future and has just been to Moskau and Saint Petersburg and will be going soon to Murmansk (all in Russia) and after that to Prague, Chech Republic. Just wish I could go to some of these exotic venues myself. You can read all about it and see the other entries on Gudrun's website here. In the calendar details of all the pieces featured are used and you can see my entire piece below. Read about the two pieces I entered in the exhibition on an earlier blogpost here.


The only requirement for being included in the calendar was that you had to use a Bernina to make your piece and I'm the lucky owner of not one but three Berninas and have in fact only sewn on Bernina sewing machines since I started doing my City and Guild Embroidery Course back in the early 90s. And I probably always will. Love them! Bernina themselves (located in Switzerland) made the ultimate choice of which pieces they would like in their calendar.


So hereby a HUGE thank you to Bernina and to Gudrun Heinz whom I also have to thank for being featured in the Patchwork Professional magazine earlier this year.

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Innerleithen Graveyard

As part of our The Artist's Way class we need to go on an Artist's Away Day every week. In fact I have tried to do this ever since I first read Julia Cameron's book back in 2003. She predicts that you will find to resist this but I cannot remember any longer if I found that to be the case when I first started. Now however I've long realized how much good such outings do me. Specially if I wake up with a bad headache or in a bad mood, I know to take myself away somewhere, even it it's only to go for a drive and I always return recovered and refreshed.

Not many people would choose to go to graveyards for their fun day out but roaming around these usually beautiful places makes me feel peaceful. The people there have lived their lives and the only trace they left are their gravestones. Whatever troubles me, this tells me it will pass and in the great scheme of things (if there is a scheme, that is!!) it won't matter at all. So after a visit to a tapestry exhibition in Peebles (very colourful and enjoyable!) I made my way to Innerleithen Graveyard. At first I found myself in the new graveyard but after some searching I finally arrived at the old one. There was never as far as I could tell a church there so officially it's a cemetary rather than a graveyard, but that's just a matter of semantics. I made many wonderful discoveries.

Here is an overview of the old graveyard at Innerleiten which is set along the road by the side of the river Leithen in a beautiful setting. Sadly the graveyard itself is in a sad state of disrepair with many of the gravestones damaged, broken in to parts or in the process of tumbling. Some have fallen down completely and vegetation is covering them. It looks scenic but really it's just sad.



This is another of the very unusual skulls you can find on old gravestones. The actual way they were portrayed was no doubt left to whoever carved the stones and these masons seem to have left their imaginations run riot. This is a detail of the stone at the very top (also my blip for today) which as you can see has fallen over. It also has other symbols of mortality such as the crossbones, the pillars and the hour-glass and carries two inscriptions to remind us that time is passing and we will soon be in our graves too i.e. Memento Mori (Remember the Dead as well as Remember you will die) and Fugit Hora (the hours fly by). The text is on the other side of this now fallen over stone so I couldn't read it, but according to Sheila Scott's book it belongs to John Thomson (the initials IT at the top of the stone), tenant here who died 24.1.1766, aged 72, his wife Isobel Tait, died 10.6.1764, aged 82, their son James, died 10.5.1743 aged 24, their son John, died 21.7.1789, aged 68 and also to Elison Thomson daughter of Thomas Thomson, died Cardrona 6.5.1766 aged 2 years and 9 months.



This is a very unusual gravestone in that it's made of metal rather than stone. It's so deceptive that I hadn't actually noticed this at all till I was alerted to it when I passed by it's side. It has a massive crack going through it and when I stuck my hand in, to my surprise it turned out to be metal. This was then confirmed by Sheila Scott's notes in her book. It's the gravestone of John Mathison of Innerleithen who died 15.2.1879 aged 76 and his wife Jane Henderson, died 7.5.1859, aged 50 and their children John died 3.11.1845, aged 5 years and 6 months, Jane, died 16.1.1852, aged 3.1/2 years and Helen, died 14.8.1852, aged 1. At the bottom (which is stone) it says very poignantly: "Lord, teach our hearts to say thy will be done".


This stone is set into the wall of the graveyard, to your immediate left as you enter. It's not a particularly spectacular one but I couldn't leave it out as it belonged to a dyer. The text is just about still readable but it helped enormously that I already knew what I should say thanks to Sheila A Scott's book Peeblesshire Monumental Inscriptions pre-1855. Here is what it says:


Here lyes Thomas Turnbull late dyer in Innerleithen factory who left the world on 8th January 1803 in the 72nd year of his age. He was a man of much ingenuity unrivalled in his art and had the merit of being the first in Scotland who taught the use of woad in dying blue. In social life his faults were few and accidental, his virtues many and habitual. The dyers in Gala and Innerleithen factory inscribe this stone to his memory in gratitude for the many benefits derived from his skill.



This cheerful looking grim reaper brandishing a spade is someone I haven't come across before. Skeletons, yes. Spades, yes. But in combination this is my first one. It's on the side of a table grave which is now completely unreadable but which Sheila Scott's book deciphered partly as belonging to Euphan Gray, wife of George Clark, who died 14.7.1743, also James.....


In my many books about graveyards (see the side bar) I have found references to the angels of the resurrection but this is the very first gravestone on which I have seen them in person so to speak. These angels blow their trumpets to wake the dead, and to let them know it's time to get up again (or resurrect!). There seem to be streamers coming out of their trumpets. And of course the requisite skull and crossbones (symbols of mortality) are also present. There was text on the other side of this stone once upon a time but it has long gone.


By the time I was done it was way past lunchtime so as this was an Away day I decided to do something I normally never indulge in and stopped in a lay-by with a snack van and treated myself to chips with mayonaise (I refused salt because it's unhealthy!!! Sometimes I think I must be slightly mad at the very least). I could almost feel my arteries slipping shut but it was very tasty and a lot of fun. Specially as the lay-by looked out over the lovely Tweed river and the views were outstanding in the sunshine.


Time enough for repentance when I too am in my grave!

Tuesday 25 October 2011

colour - quilt - collage in Malvern



My colour - quilt - collage exhibition will be on show this coming weekend at The Malvern Autumn Quilt Festival, at the Severan Exhibition Hall, Three Counties Showground, Malvern, WR13 6NW, Friday 28th to Sunday 30th October 2011. Opening times 10.00 am - 4.30 pm (4 pm on Sunday).

For more about this exhibition click here!

Monday 24 October 2011

The Artist's Way starts



The Artist's Way class started today at the Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh and I discovered that doing a trial run on Sunday doesn't give you a very good idea of how long it takes to get there or get back. Getting there was easy, even on a Monday and there was plenty of parking but getting back took much longer as there was heaps more traffic. But I didn't mind, it gave me time to ruminate about what we talked about in the class. I do much of my best thinking while driving, which is possibly why I enjoy doing it so much.


It was a very autumnal day and I walked along the lane this morning on the lookout for a blip but the stiff breeze didn't make it easy to photograph the beautiful coloured trees, and I must admit this beech looked a lot better in the flesh than it does on the picture (also my blip for today).


I'm so pleased I took that first big step to sign up for the class and now that we have started I'm looking forward to our future meet-ups a lot. All I now have to concentrate on is writing my Morning Pages and taking myself off on an Artist's Date this week. I have the feeling that it will be a graveyard although I must also make a point of taking the bus into Edinburgh to see various exhibitions before they finish. So much to do, so little time to do it in!


The problem is I have almost finished piecing a large quilt top and once I get to that stage in the proceedings all I truely want is to get it done. I suppose I should count myself lucky in at least that respect. I don't need to motivate myself to work, on the contrary I need to motivate myself to take time off!

Saturday 22 October 2011

Beauty, memories and Portobello beach

Today a visit to Portobello was on the program as there was a quilt show by the Milton Quilters in the Portobello Old Parish Church. The quilts were colourful and a lovely mix, reminding me as if that was needed, how I enjoy seeing quilts in traditional patterns. So that was the first lot of beauty today, as well as memories as some of the quilt patterns have been around for centuries.

I had visited the venue before to give a talk but that had been during the evening so I hadn't realized that there were gravestones about. And what gravestones they were. A real treasure trove.


Some of them are being slowly overcome by vegetation but the above impressive grave monument, set into the wall, and sumptiously decorated can still be read at the moment:



Sacred to the memory of Jessie Rae, wife of David Craig, paper maker Portobello who died on the 2nd March 1870 aged 58 years. Also David Craig, died 29th December 1884, aged 72 years.

But the above gravestone really featured someone who was determined to make people remember her. I've never seen so much text, it must have cost a fortune. And she couldn't make up her mind between the various Bible texts and in the end (pun definitely intended) decided to go for all 3!


Here is the full inscription:


In remembrance of Agnes Kidd, born 12th January 1769, in that memorable year being remarkable for the birth of great people (she definitely wasn't shy, or humble!!), died 31 August 1863. Also her husband Alexander Orrock, merchant who died at Edinburgh of a moments illness to her inexpressive sorrow, 3rd August 1809. Her tenderness of heart, her charible disposition, her love to do the will of God made her justly beloved and respected by those who knew her till at last she fell asleep in the hopes of her blessed Lord and Savious Jesus Christ.

Thomas Orrock, died February 6th 1879 aged 76 years.

Jews said I am the Resurrection and the life. John XI, chap. 25

I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Solomons Song IL, chap. 1.4(?)

He bought me to the banquetting house and his banner over me was love.


She achieved her goal as today I definitely thought about her, although perhaps not in the way she had intended!
I parked very close to the beach so the first thing I did was stroll to the water. Sadly it's no longer weather for Crocs and I was wearing heavy boots, otherwise I would have paddled a bit in the water, whatever the temperature. This is a different look at sea and sky and sometimes it's a good idea to get a new perspective, not just on the view but on life in generally which is what a stroll along the waves usually provides for me.



I thought about the beautiful film I saw yesterday with the Pentland Film Society which I joined recently. If all the offerings are as good as last night I won't regret it. It was The Secret in Their Eyes, an Argentinian film which has won an Oscar. The film is a detective story, a view of what revenge can be like, of how people live with sometimes tragic memories, but it's also a beautiful love story. It's filmed in a dark, brooding way with numerous flash-backs and as soon as it was finished I wanted to see it all over again. Which is probably the highest praise you can give a film. I spend a lot of time today thinking about it, mainly about how our memories shape us, whether they are good or bad. Gravestones slot in perfectly to that theme, after all they are meant to keep the memories alive as per the text of the gravestones above.



Portobello beach was almost completely deserted as you can see at the top of this blog (my blip today) and above. I find a seaside visit almost irristible, although strictly speaking this isn't the sea but the river Forth. It soothes my soul to think this water has been flowing to the sea for times immemorable and it will continue to do so long after we have gone. It provides continuity when our own lives are in flow themselves and walking along a beach is the best way I know of making myself feel peaceful and calm. Having said that today it also provided a refreshing blow-out of mental cobwebs as it was very windy!

Portobello beach is adorned with these Victorian and fairly massive urn shapes which are decorated with fruit and flower garlands. They seem to serve no useful purpose as far as I can tell and are there, I guess, to beautify the beach, and who's to say that is not the very best purpose of all. And after all this there was still time to walk the dogs and do some stitching at home. Sometimes days can seem endless and filled to the brim while other days fly past without leaving much of a memory behind and that's fine too.

Thursday 20 October 2011

I am my Art Journaling Page

I figured out how to scan this journal so that you can see the whole spread in one go by scanning as much as I could of both of them from either direction. Those files were then merged using the Panoramic setting of Photoshop Elements and as you can see above it worked very well.

This is the left-hand page and features one of my own photographs taken this summer and adhered with washi tape which I have decorated. The texture of both pages comes from painting on gesso fairly thickly and then closing the journal and after a few seconds opening it up again. The gesso makes lovely patterns and textures that way. Let it dry really well though before you start to add acrylic paints. I also used various stamps on the page which I coloured in and further embellished. The Ars Longa Vita Brevis is one of my favourites and I use it a lot. It means: life is short but art lasts a long time, in a loose translations.


This is the page on the right with a picture of me (aged 16) at top left. The rest is self-explanatory and speaks for itself. I have dated these pages on the 15th August but I seem to be unable to resist adding to pages I previously thought I was finished with. I only recently added the dots along the sides, just because I fancied doing that. So maybe my pages are never truely done and the journals are an ongoing work of art.

Monday 17 October 2011

Freedom Quilts



It seems like it has been quite some time since I blogged about my main occupation, quilt making, and yet, this is how I spend most of my days, even though I enjoy my little forays into mixed media, photography and graveyard visiting and all my other actitiving.


It's just that making quilts is very time consuming so there is little to show you while I'm in the process and on top of that there is the requirement of most shows not to have revealed your work to the world before the exhibition concerned opens. Such was the case for these 2 little (20 x 30cm) quilts, but they faced the public for the first time at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August this year, so quite some time ago. I had so far forgotten I hadn't revealed them here.


They were both made for the theme of Freedom and will be travelling all around Europe for the coming few years, including exciting visits to Germany, the Czech Republic and Russia among others. This travellling exhibition is the brain child of a German quilter, Gudrun Heinz. She comes up with the themes (I'm participating for the 3rd time in one of her exhibitions), and organizes the busy schedule of where they will be exhibited. You can read all about coming venues, past exhibitions etc. on her website here. And there is also a CD available for each of these exhibition including the Freedom one.


My inspiration for both pieces came from a page in my Vintage Gluebook that you can see underneath on the left hand side. The vintage image I used on that page seemed to embody the Freedom theme to me. And by great synchronicity the page actually shows a map of a German city as well as gothic German text. How's that for co-incidence! It was simply meant to be turned into pieces for a German exhibition.


All the fabrics I used were hand-dyed and painted and of course they also feature my signature embellishments, seed beads! The figure was printed onto cottom fabric sheets and appliqued down. There are also postage stamps as well as vintage paper text (covered in Glossy Accents) and the title: Je suis libre, which translates as I am free from French. It sounds a lot more exotic in that language!

Thursday 13 October 2011

Fresh Green Spread



I'm beginning to finally catch up with my art here. There are still some art journaling pages to go and they will come in the very near future but that will be it then and I'll be up to date. Of course it won't last long as I'm working on more pieces at the moment but those will have to remain a little secret till next month. All I'll reveal is that I will be guest designer for a US company and I can already tell you the kit they send me has proved to be inspirational!


This is another spread I did for the Sketchbook Project 2012. My theme is monochromatic, but within that theme, every one of the spreads is another colour. Needless to say there are more spreads than colours so I'm doubling up on some colours such as green, by either going darker, or lighter. The squares shown on the right hand page are also a standard item for all my spreads for this sketchbook and have been made using watercolour pencils.


The lady on the left is a tape transfer and for the rest there is some collage as well as doodling on these pages. The butterfly tape is from Tim Holtz and I've added green colouring to it.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Glenholm Graveyard

The day beckoned dry and sunny (also windy and cold!) so could not resist another graveyard visit. Today it was to Glenholm Graveyard which rather appropriately is situated at the end of a dead-end road. And once again I was struck by the beautiful position of this graveyard in the landscape. What a view to greet you if you believe in the resurrection!


This detail is part of the table gravestone of James Deans, tenant Chappellgill, who died 31st December 1764, aged 67 and his wife Helen Kellie (the daughter of the Reverend Simon Kellie, see underneath) who died 25th September 1779, aged 78, their son George, farmer Culter Park who died 26th October 1829, aged 89, his wife Margaret Paterson who died 28th March 1801, aged 46, their daugher Grizzel, died 4th June 1798 aged 18, and their daugher Janet, died Sept. 1801, aged 17. The way the Memento Mori text is used to frame the skull is very unusual and I had never come across it before.


This is a close-up of the skull and what a cheerful one it is. It looks positively delighted and grinning from ear to ear out at us.


The church (dedicated to St. Cuthbert) that was once present in the centre of this graveyard has long fallen into a total ruin and there is just a very small part of the wall left (covered in ivy) into which there sits an wall tablet dedicated to the Reverend Simon Kellie, who was in office at Glenholm Church for 45 years and 6 months (someone was definitely counting!). He died on the 28th October 1748. Also mentioned on the tablet are his first wife Rachel Brown and his second wife Mary Livingstone, and also his children William, James, Elizabeth, James, Margaret, Grizzel, and William (the repeat names no doubt due to the fact that the earlier ones died in infancy).


A delightful little book (The Kirk in the midst; the story of the parish church of Broughton, Glenholm and Kilbucho, by Andrew Fox) mentioned that when the Reverend Kellie was on his way to his new parish in Glenholm on the 31st March 1703, he was violently detained by several women of his former parish. Sadly the booklet didn't know the reason why. The mind can only boggle!


Within the graveyard there is a fenced off area dedicated to the graves of the Tweedie family, large landowners and an eminent presence in the local area.

Monday 10 October 2011

Linda's 4 x 4



Every month I make a small collage (4 x 4") for another artist in the (closed!) OhMyGothic Yahoo group and in return I receive one from someone too (my theme is flowers). We have worked our way through Gothic Arches (hence the name of the group), houses as well as skinny pages and I for one am quite content with the 4 x 4 size.


For October I made the 4 x 4 for Linda who had set a theme of joy for her 4 x 4s. I started with a piece of the required size of a fabric paper collage in pink and green colours. The text on it reads: When the heart speaks, you must stop and listen. I then added a Victorian scrap lady to this as well as the word JOY. I stitched the letters with red thread and also used that to outline the two large heart images which were part of the original collage. One of the hearts was also beaded with size 11 gold seed beads. I layered the collage with felt and decorative paper and stitched around the edges with a green satin stitch, using my sewing machine. Finally I added the layered paper flowers in the bottom left corner.

Saturday 8 October 2011

Melon and Mauve ATCs



The colour theme for the closed Colour Groupies Yahoo Group this month was melon and mauve. We then all became a bit confused about what colour melon was. I first thought yellow but then discovered in a book I'm reading about colour that melon was considered to be a tint of red so that was what I stuck with.


To make the theme clear I decided to write the colour combination on the front of the card this time. The background fabric as well as the melon colour fabric was hand painted. The background was machine quilted before I handstitched the melon fabric on top. I added a small piece of a fabric - paper collage in the right colours on top and beaded around the edges and voice, melon and mauve.


All the cards are more or less identical and they have now all arrived with Lenna, Debby, Caryl and Tristan.

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Eye and Heart Journal Quilt

On the 1st October the new theme was announced for the Sketchbook Challenge. It was: View. The first thing I did was look up the definition in my nearest Dictionary (dating from the 19th Century) and I was quite surprised by the number of definitions: act of seeing, that which is seen, pictorial representation, outlook and manner of looking at anything intellectually, are but a few of them.

But while I was working my way through all those descriptions and totally unexpectedly, the following saying came to mind: What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over. Where did it come from? In truth I have no idea why my subsconscious mind decided to send that to my active brain but I did listen. I thought about what it means. If you have never seen something you won't miss it when it's not there, is the nearest I came to.

Of course as a visual artist my eyes are my most important tool and the way I view the outside world has been trained over many years. So it seemed about time to honour my eyes for this View theme.

As I mentioned previously I'm combining the Sketchbook Challenge with the series of Journal Quilts I'm making this year for the Contemporary Group of the Quilters's Guild in the U.K. The size for those has to be 10" square. I started by making a collage of eye images torn from a wide variety of magazines and advertising leaflets (see picture above). I scanned this into my computer and started to play with the image using a program called Repligator (I have version 16)



I finally came up with the above effect (using Manga Rays). I proceeded to machine quilt a red velvet background, printed the image onto a silk fabric sheet, removed the backing paper and ironed on Bondaweb (Wonder-Under in US speak), and cut the image out (not an easy job with all those skinny points!), and then ironed it onto the background. I added the text (made using a Xyron Design Runner on white cotton) and added the heart button. It was a wooden heart but a Sharpie pen soon turned it black. Buttons are a required element for the last 4 JQs we make this year. The final touch was the beading.

Tuesday 4 October 2011

More painted pages

As I mentioned in an earlier blogpost I'm slowly making the necessary ingredients for the collages I hope to make for the 14th Collage Exchange next year. I needed more papers so duely set to and painted some more today and again used the wonderful cotton reel which produces two circles in one go. Circles are my favourite shape in all the world and by making more papers using it I know they will all go together well, which is good n ews for the resulting collages. The next thing I need to do is start on fabric to accompany the papers. The above one is also my blip for today and here are two more.


Some of the pages I made today reminded me of the beautiful photographs shown on the news yesterday, made by the ALMA telescope in Chile showing the beginning of the universe. Very hard to get your head around the fact that we can now see this happening many million years later but also awe inspiring and breathtaking! One day we might be able to see the very start of, well, of what exactly, the beginning of the very beginning?! Was there anything prior to that? It truely is almost impossible to graps all the implications.


This last page is very dark although I brightened it up a bit with gold acrylic. It looks very leathery (which could be a good thing!) as I kept on going on it for that little bit too long. I should have stopped when the going was good. I might add wax to it at a later stage to reinforce that leather look before I start using it in collages.

Monday 3 October 2011

Stargazer Bracelet

I've finally finished my first beading project started in the 3 classes given by Laura McCabe back in early September (see this earlier blogpost), and about time too. I'm sure I finished my pieces last year a lot earlier but I've been fiendishly stitching, painting and playing in my studio and only allowed myself to bead in the evenings.


This bracelet really sparkles and despite what you might think looking at the picture hardly weighs anything which makes it great to wear! I also bought it in the silver and blue colourway (oh yes, I was oh so bad!) and can't decide whether to complete that first while I still remember how it's done or whether to complete one of the other 2 projects started in class! Will show you pictures of all that just as soon as I've got another kit finished.

Sunday 2 October 2011

Broughton Graveyard

We visited another graveyard today, this time the one in Broughton, approx. 20 minutes or so down the road.
The graveyard is still in use although the church (originally dedicated to St. Maurice, a 2nd C. martyr) has long been a ruin. By the side of the ruin there is a barrel vaulted cell (you're looking straight at it in the picture above) which is reputed to be the cell of St. Llolan, who is supposed to have established a church on this spot after travelling here from the Candida Casa, St. Ninian's settlement in Whithorn. It has been restored by the architect James Grieve.
On the other hand in the Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Peeblesshire it says that it is more likely to be an old burial aisle. I favour the more romantic version of the saint.
Broughton Graveyard has everything you could wish for in a graveyard, an elevated lovely location, a wealth of yew trees, a ruined church and a mysterious cell. And what with the falling leaves and the low hanging mist, what more could your ask?



This is the door to the reputed cell of St. Llolan, which you can visit by borrowing the key from the shop in Broughton, although not on Sunday as we discovered!


This interesting arrangement of an angel's head, lyre and poetry book is to be found on the grave monument for the Reverend Hamilton Paul, late minister of the United church of Broughton, Glenholm and Kilbucho, who died on the 28th Feb 1854 at the age of 80. He had been minister there for 40 years. His brother Montgomery (died 13th March 1846, aged 75) is also buried there. Apparently the Reverend who was born in Ayrshire was a friend of Robert Burns (hence perhaps the poetry book?!).



The above gravestone is not all that remarkable but I was struck by the verse on it. The full text reads:



Erected to the memory of Janet Alston, infant daughter of James Alston, who died in Broughton on the 19th Jan. 1840, aged 1 year


This lovely bud so young and fair

called home by early doom

just came to show how sweet a flower

in Paradise should bloom.


The said James Alston who died at Hyndford Wells on the 11th April 1861, aged 55 years. Also Isabella Noble, his spouse, who died December 23rd 1863, aged 55 years.

Although I'm not as interested in Victorian gravestones as I am in the very old ones this was a particularly lovely angel so could not resist capturing her in a picture. Her position high up on a pedastal and almost into the branches of the nearby tree, adds to her beauty.

A last look back at the ruin of the church of which only the East gable is still standing with the adjoining portion of the North and South walls. Above however the bellfry is still there, with the bell inside. The graveyard is still in use today although the more recent graves are in an adjoining field, next to the old graveyard.

Saturday 1 October 2011

Mellow Yellow Spread



In honour of our mini Scottish heatwave, now gone, I'm sharing another spread I did in my 2012 sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project. You can read all about this project here and this is my second year of participating. You can see my art for the 2011 Project here and just recently my photographs for the A Million Little Pictures were also digitally added under my artwork.


My theme this year is Monochromatic and each spread is dedicated to a different picture. A unifying presence are those little squares you can see on the right hand page. On the left you can just see a doily peeking out at the bottom. I had been using this as a stencil in my painting and suddenly realized how wonderfully yellow it looked. The page also features lots of doodling and I can't help adding to that whenever I work in the sketchbook, even on pages that I had thought were already finished. But this is probably the definitive page.

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