Collages and a Tah Dah!

For the collage theme over at Art Journal Journey this week I have continued using up old scraps and failed paintings.

The above was a collage I started years ago and never finished.  I think it was at the beginning of my tea bag painting phase.  The trees are dried gum leaves.

This collage is a combination of three failed works!  I pasted them onto a large sheet of card and then added some leaves.  The tea bag in the centre I left unpainted as I thought it might get a bit too busy.

Now I don’t know if this qualifies as a collage as it is digital.

I used a watercolour of some apple blossom, a photo of my Mothers wedding day, (the two ladies with her are my grandmothers.  Christmas is a time of family and I feel the need to honour these ladies as they are no longer with us.)  I also used some bits of lace that I scanned.

Tah Dah!

For Paint Party Friday, I finished the painting from last week thanks to a suggestion from Denthe and others.  Denthe suggested that I paint the bird looking at the girl as if it was going to take it from her.  That really hit the mark for me.  I am going to call the painting The Last Flower.  The birds are upset that she has picked it as now they will be hungry and there will now be no flowers to form seeds and feed the earth.  I think the girl has realised too late what she has done in her mission to smell the beautiful scent.

People who have looked at my last post for Sunday Sketches will recognise the bird as the Tui.  There is a reason that I have been painting them a lot.  My younger brother had a stoke 3 weeks ago.  As children we were very close, but in late teenage years we became estranged.  A couple of years ago I got in touch again with him and we have been developing a relationship again.   As children we use to spend holidays with our grandmother and she still worked some mornings so we were dropped off at the National Museum in Wellington and we took turns at what we would look at.  Dave was keen on birds so I drew them and he took notes from the displays.  Then we would make a project sheet on each bird for our Grandparents.  

I think what we also like the most was when Grannie picked us up and took us to fancy restaurants for lunch.  She let us choose whatever we wanted.  I think that is where I got my love of fine food!! 

When we got in touch again Dave would send me photos of birds that live around his home in Canberra (Australia)  His favourite  NZ bird is the Tui, so I am painting a series of cards for him.  Below is a painting in gouache that I am going to frame for him.

It is so sad he is only in his fifties and his wife is dying of breast cancer.  They had just got back from Mexico where they had gone for treatment for Liz.  It is not working unfortunately; I think the stress of it all plus other family stuff caused it.  So, if could please send your prayers or healing vibes to Canberra, I would be grateful.

That’s it for today

Hope you all have a wonderful week and thanks for visiting.