Almond blossoms...

 

Almond blossems, so beautiful, in the valley right behind our coast

It is called the Jalon valley...

 

 

The valley is enclosed by urbanisations (newly built neighborhoods) , like the one above

 

 

and like often in these landscapes, there's a ruin

I love Spain!

 

By now the blossoms are gone, Sahara dust has fallen down and pine tree pollen put a yellow glow on all earthly things, which means

 

Spring is finally here..!

 

Regina



From paper to digital

Hi!

 

(click)

 

A quiet day in the studio. This week I finished three paintings!

 

Two of them are of someone's grandchildren and

 the third is our painting club's topic: a nude

 

I was not too eager to paint in a naturalistic way, but in the end I am happy with the results. I will show a pic in a near future post, promised.

 

Meanwhile I played a little with my huge collection of pictures and chose three of my paper collages to work with. Mixing these in Photoshop resulted in the above digital collage. Please let me know in a comment if you are interested to see the source images...

 

Now out and about for lunch in one of the many fish-restaurants in our lovely neighborhood.

 

Enjoy your Sunday!

 

Regina

Pods

...

 

 

 

Hi!

 

Nothing, or almost nothing, to tell from my world in Spain...

 

Except that it is getting warmer, after a pretty cold (for us) winter, with even some snow on the beaches one day!

 

With spring getting here, so is the work in the garden...

 

Our Jacaranda tree is growing bigger every year and produces lots of pods. They are kind of 'wooden' and I collect them in a big bowl where they can show their beauty to me. In some way collections seem to be even more attractive... I see possibilities, think white and black painted, tiny little dots.

 

But first I have sewing to do, since I bought a lovely stonewashed tablecloth that will be perfect for wide summer pants. No fabric shops in the neighborhood, but hey, we have tablecloths...

 

Inspired, as so often,

 

Love,

 

Regina



A little proud

 

... because my necklace is finished!

All parts are recycled and the 53 big chunky beads have all been made by

me!

 

 

Now to search my wardrobe for the proper outfit to wear it,

could be all kind of natural colors I guess

 

 

the beads are made of rolled strips of watercolor paper, glued with

Elmer's glue and a finish of matte Mod Podge

 

 

I can see lots of other possibilities for this, e.g. using

washi tape (that I mostly make myself too...)

 

Not annoyed yet after over a week of rain and even snow here on

the Spanish Costa Blanca...

and so very grateful for my parents that tought us how to

spend our time, to make things, to read

... the most beautiful gift you can pass on to your children I dare say (after lots of love of course...)

 

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

 

Regina

Making beads

 

I have been making beads lately, lots of beads

These ones are made of rolled strips of watercolor paper

 

When the glue is dry, I finish the spiral with a kind of gypsum,

the stuff to repair tiny cracks in walls...

then they get sanded with very fine sanding paper

 

 

all kind of stuff that has been waiting in my studio is being used in this process

 

The travel themed stickers are from a booklet I once bought in the USA

 

 

 

Right now I finished almost fourty beads, still 10 to go. 

And I can wear my travel necklace!

 

Thanks for visiting!

 

Regina

Passion

 

 

Hi!

 

 This week I started a new painting. As I have written before, we try to follow a theme.

 This has its downside, but on the other hand: we can just neglect the theme and paint as we wish. However, I have noticed that following this theme can bring up surprising things !

 

That was the case with me and this month's theme: Passion

 

During about two decades I have been very passionate about fabrics, making art quilts, dying and stamping, you name it. Should one have asked what my passion was in those years this would definitely have been the answer.

 

After our  move to Spain I have hardly worked with fabrics and

I really don't know where and when my passion went...

So I did some serious soul-searching about this phenomenon

 and in the end succeeded to come up with this:

 

I am passionate about traveling, preferably with our motorhome;

about colours, not the pastel and timid ones, but mostly colourful though occasionaly

 toned down by working a short period in just neutrals; I am passionate about taking pictures and working these into digital collages... this week I explained this to a woman and afterwards she said: so it is just digital, not physical? No, it is nothing in fact, strange come to think of it...

So I don't know whether digital collaging fits in this 'passion thing'.
And finally: I am passionate about making things, beautiful things (I know,... the eye of the beholder...)

 

The picture above is a detail of my new painting. It is an attempt to paint one of my digital collages, the one you can see here

It is difficult to get the effect. At this stage I am not happy at all with the results, but that may change, it happened before.
At least it is a combination what I am passsionate about now

Happy painting, beautifying!

Regina

Brochures from the past

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

 

 And that creativity and artistic activity may be

 a big part of the new year.

 That's my wish for all of you.

 The world needs more handmade things, art, whatever, at least the world does not need more screen time, imho

 

 

 

In 2012 we made our last motorhome trip in the USA

 and like the years before I gathered much tourist brochures and summer festival material. Many of these were turned into collages and the above digital one is, again, made up by layering in Photoshop one of these paper collages.

 

It says: connect with the unexpected. Wise words if you want to grow, as a human but also as an artist. Don't we often hear a variation of this: what if?

 

Food for thought, plenty, always,

 

Regina