Friday 30 January 2015

Canvas Tote bag

Having old paintings - oil and acrylics on canvas, and not getting around to selling them, I've decided to change them.   One of the paintings has been 'filed' for some time and so I cut it off the canvas frame and sewed it onto a market tote bag.  Well, if you're going to change something you might as well really go for it I say.

 This is the bag, measures about 16" x 15"


The painting was a piece of sheer fun.  It didn't need to be anything in particular, just a large coffee cup.  Once it was sewn onto the tote bag, I freshened it up with some more acrylic paint here and there.  As you'll see some paint ended up randomly on the tote at the bottom, but it was a happy accident, I think that works too.








.....fun to experiment with the idea which made use of
a canvas painting I no longer wanted.

It has given me more ideas.  Perhaps a series of Lurcher paintings on tote bags?

what do you think.




Thursday 29 January 2015

Maps online

No doubt some of you will have come across Google Street View. ....they changed the format of it some while back.  I may be slow at these things, but just found that you can revert back to the original Street View format.

here it is if you check it out - the new format ...



 but take a look bottom right of the screen - see the little question mark



click on it and a message comes up...

Click on 'Return to classic Google Maps'   and you will have the Original version.  I find that Original version much easier to work.  Just thought some of you would like to know this little tip.

The original face of street view...it's easier to use (at least that's what I find).






Saturday 24 January 2015

Birdlip, Glos and the Royal George Hotel

We've been back for a few days to Birdlip, Gloucestershire and stayed again at The Royal George Hotel.  

They welcome dogs so, of course, William goes along with us and he even remembered the room we had stayed in before, which we got again.     I did sketches, which I'll show you in a minute, but first some pics...starting with the view from our room.  We had our own little patio area, ideal for getting straight out and walking William.


 then off to the viewpoint


~ Barrow Wake, Viewpoint ~
This viewpoint shows how high Birdlip is - I reckon it must be two coats colder up here - see the frost!






The Cotswold's has so many cute village and towns, I'll do more photos of them next visit




and Mr. Hopeful at breakfast!

with so many places to visit in the area, it was difficult to decide
where to start. Worcester got the highest vote!






Clear skies, but bitter cold ~ I still sat and sketched though...



Another day with went to Evesham...where I seemed to be obsessed with sketching from a car park roof...



talking of cars....



near Gloucester ~ an out of town shopping complex...


Sketching in the Hotel bar....



sketched this one from the restaurant area ~ one window in particular where I could just see the tops of buildings opposite...


Then sketched in Taunton on the way home...










Sunday 18 January 2015

Lambs

As I seem to be on a Lamb Theme here, thought I would add some more pictures of these little fluffy new arrivals, with our daughter helping out.





 




Tuesday 13 January 2015

Watercolour cherries

The cherries in my previous post set me off.  I always find them fun to paint and did this on a post card....




Friday 9 January 2015

The revamp


I'm in the process of Changing some of my canvas paintings into something completely different.  I know, that sounds a bit strange but I have a collection of paintings, mostly Acrylics, that I feel I didn't want to completely paint over, or hold onto for that matter, so I'm taking them off the frame and re-purposing them into bags or pencil cases.

The prototype pencil case...




The first is an experiment to say the least, but it's a start.  A medium sized painting with cherries one side and birds the other....I discarded the side with the birds and used the rest for this.   Getting it off the frame was easy,  I decided to hand sew it.  (I haven't got a sewing machine, neither shall I as I have never been able to work the dear things!!!), so it is By Hand for me.   I sewed the bottom, then turned it the right way out and used white thread in a criss-cross stitch down the long side.  All very technical, I think anyone could follow this, which doesn't mean I will always do them like this, after all this is the prototype.


plenty of room for pens, pencils etc...




On a future project I might sew the ends
and add a zip on the long side...

but for now, I'm happy with this version



Another thought is making Large canvases into Bags.
Two options I've considered for this is to use the canvas itself as a bag, OR
perhaps glue the canvas onto a tote style bag.

Anyway, when I get round to them 
I'll let you know.








Tuesday 6 January 2015

Revisiting the Valley of Rocks

I know this is a place I've blogged about before.  Living fairly near it, we tend to go in that direction from time to time...it's worth the drive.  And, I always end up sketching the same scene...well, who wouldn't.  From a distance the main Rock formation looks small(ish), but when people walk around and stop at the top, then you get to appreciate the scale of the place.

Again, of course, I have done a quick sketch....very painterly this time and not detailed










&


Sunday 4 January 2015

New Year walk





It's always nice to get out and about, and to start the year off we headed for one of our favourite places......

We wandered around, past the house and on down to the wilderness....









We spied the ponies in their Winter paddock...


I called out to them, and they looked up, I'm sure they recognised my voice...


A certain someone thought the log shaped like a seat was meant for him!!!


That was a
lovely
walk
to 
start
the
year
off...