School creations!

Dear Friends,

Well at last I have finished my school work for the year! Such a busy term but had a wonderful time throughout! Here below are some studies done by Grade 2 students at MLC - just love what they have achieved.

I got them to design a house based on some research - giving though to location, colour and shape.

After attaching them to heavy card the they drew in the surroundings to set the scene and add a story to the felt home they had created. We had everything from castles to tee pees!

Here below is the latest installation at St Catherine's in Toorak. This has been created by children from Prep to Year 6 and we even had some weeny folk in from the preschool. The theme is Underwater Circus.
The children had a lot of fun imagining all the different creatures and what they would do  - a challenge but I really love the end result. Three members of my family are holding it up so that I could get at least a couple of shots. Imagine lots of yelling and "For goodness sake HURRY UP!"  You get the idea.

Felt lends itself so beautifully to works such as these. The ability to be able to create any shape and mould distinct forms. It is hard to see in these shots but the bottom has many coral and rock forms that are very dimensional.  I will get a better shot when it gets installed.

I am looking forward to getting on with some smaller projects this week! My arms have quite had enough of rolling bit felts!

Hoping everyone is having a wonderful week
Love
Elizabeth
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Journal studies

Dear Friends,

I find it funny that when I have a large felty thing on the go I need to draw and paint as a sort of antidote or refresher.

It is not that I am not enjoying the felting process - it is always a magical thing to me - but the getting back to

basics with a pencil and a brush has no pressure, easy, comfortable and more importantly just so portable!

This is a little square book that I picked up at the Hong Kong airport about .............years ago! Just a little  8" square blank book. Finally decided it would come off the shelf leaving its endless relatives of blank books stuck there.  I started by painting each double page a single colour.

I have kept this journal study focused on working out new colour combinations and trying out the poppy
bloom in different shades. Even if they don't exist in real life  - the artist is able to do as they please. How groovy is that?

Each double spread has the same elements in different colourways - and I have discovered great joy in just challenging myself to find new shades to marry.

I think that postage stamps are a great addition to journalling  Little gems that provide information regarding colour and subject and very stimulating for further study. A bag of used ones is very inexpensive and the international ones are a real education.

Of course a few birds have crept in as well. The one below is actually just done in markers rather than watercolours.

Well I hope you are all finding time to do something creative just for the heck of it. Not for sale or an order or any other time monitored reason - just for fun.

Love

Elizabeth

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