Oh' the wanderlust is on me....

...And tonight I strike the trail, And the morning sun will find me, In the lovely Carrick vale...

Chorus (now youse'll a' sing along wi' me!):

"We'll swing along to a hiking song, on the highway winding west, Tramping highland glens and bracken bens, to greet the Isles we love the best".

It was a real pleasure this morning to hear the extra weight of a moleskine plopping through the letterbox. And even better to open it and read the continuing story of places and destinations with maps to show me the way!

Hedgelea Park looks a wonderful place to live out there in the countryside, but no matter where we live we all can still be part of a (virtual) artistic community.

Now how on earth do I follow Lorraine's pastoral peacefulness? Ha - there's the germ of an idea!
Hold onto your seats for we may be about to take a bit of a detour to another destination!!!!!

Lindsey's moly on the move again.

Lindsey's moly will be winging it's way to David in East Kilbride, first thing in the morning.

Here is a sneak peak of what I've done.

Brian's book - theme: Stretch

Gesa Helm's work in Brian's book - theme: Stretch

Brian's book contains coloured pencil sketches of his local landscape, followed by the same of Ireland by Lorraine, a visit to the carnival with David and continues with these fabulous sketches of the Isle of Eigg by Gesa.

hmmm sorry Gesa - that looks rather too blue onscreen - imagine it greener please everyone!

I really like the loose gestural marks, catching the feel of the scrubby highland grass, old stone wall, rocks and scree. There's an interesting write up on the back as well about how the mist controlled how much could be seen - how far the horizon stretched - just to the stone wall? or to the cairn? always changing.

I love wild places. I travelled a lot in Scotland as I lived there for a few years but I never made it to the islands and always wanted to.


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Lorraine's book - theme CLOSE

Gesa's work in Lorraine's book - theme: Close

This book is looking so good! it starts off with a coloured pencil drawing by Lorraine of her beloved garden, closely followed by a loving couple in the undergrowth by David and then this lovely Joan Eardley inspired image by Gesa over 4 pages.

I love Joan Eardley's work - both her Glasgow tenement children and her lovely abstracted landscapes.

details

These are so lively and the photos don't do them justice - the mix of collage and painterly marks, glazes and scumbles of paint need to be seen in real life.

I'm going to have to wait ages for the next one I think :>(

I can't wait to see what else has been happening to mine :>)

and on to another post about Brian's book ....

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A bit of stretching

... before I pack this up to send to Vivien, I realised that I haven't posted David's entry on this one.
Here it is: arms up in the air, there's a bit more peopleing going on in the STRETCH moley now. The place where I stayed last week, and had the moley with me, didn't have that many people around, but plenty of sheep. I'll post a teaser of that on my blog, but you can see the first couple of centimetres here, too :)

David's entry in Brian's STRETCH moley

close up of dancing poppies

details to show what is collage and what is paint or pencil as David asked which bits were collage .
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.

I love the popettes jiving comment David! what a way with words :>D

Dance by Vivien

Here are Vivien's dancing poppy heads. They jiggle on their stiff, hairy stems, nodding nervously, shedding petals. If you listen very carefully you can even hear their quiet rattle as they dry in the sun. I knew the moment I saw them what was I was going to add. Dancing in the same field, as the crows swoop overhead. The dance is infectious in this Moley.

Freedom by Lindsay

Look what came in the mail today! I love this contribution to Casey's Freedom theme by Lindsay. She starts at left by laying out some of the key colors that Casey used to phenomenal effect in the earlier pages of the book, than incorporates these hues into a landscape that seems to nearly vibrate with color. This in turn transforms into a swirl of geometric abstraction, referencing the broader palette of the landscape while bringing in still more colors (like the soft oranges at right). It reads to me like a visual symphony, with each movement building into the next one in turn, and with surges of dramatic intensity counter-balanced with calm, quiet moments. Lindsay has also successfully matched what for me is one of the most satisfying parts of Casey's work - the soft blush of pink on his fourth page that follows like a gentle sigh after the explosion of reds, pinks, and purples that came before it. Lindsay's grace note here is in those soft oranges, cascading delicately onto the last page and leading to...

Hmmm, looks like I'll have some serious stretching to do here. Great work, folks!

Above the close

... you can see these.

Detail, In the close,
Lorraine's Moley

That isn't all there is in my share of Lorraine's Moley. I think, in fact, it is done. But I'll let it sit over the next week, to see if the mixed media mess needs some proving.

I will post it next weekend, Vivien - and more importantly Steph, if you two can wait that long.

Lindsay's moley

Here is Lindsay's moley with Brian's addition.

I love the way one flows into the other and yet they have very distinct styles. I'm very impressed by how Lindsay solved the problem of smudged oil pastels and incorporated the solution into the finished idea, very clever.

Last night, as I made the pencil sling for the moley, I had loads of ideas for what I'm going to do.