DAVE BY CHRIS NIX

IT'S DAVE!

ECSTATICS BY LAURA LEONARD

This is a submission from newby Laura Leonard (aka Laura Drever - www.lauradrever.com). She is from the small island of Orkney in the north of Scotland, which inspires her to produce amazing pieces of abstract art. Keep a look out for her next piece!

These 3 drawings are a small selection from a collection of 16 that formed a peedie (Orcadian for small) booklet called "Ecstatics-a language of birds".  

From walking in the Orkney landscape, observing birds in flight while focusing on the lines and patterns the birds created in the sky, studies of various birds were made.  All of the drawings were created when the sky was lovely and blue, the sun was shinning (which is not very often in Orkney!!), and the birds were singing.

BLUE CITY BY LAUREN EWART

The following is some of the great photography taken by Loz whilst travelling abroad.

BOWER BIRD BY KAREN NIX

'The bowerbird decorates it's bower with bright blue coloured objects that it collects; blue clothes pegs, drinking straws and bottle tops are among the favourite stolen items, while bright blue parrot feathers, flowers and brown snail shells, make up the majority of decorations away from human habitation'.
I guess that I could be considered to be a bit of a 'bowerbird' as I have seemed to have collected lots of 'blue treasures' over the years.
These treasures have been given to me by family and friends - how nice it is to have precious things all around.

BLUE NEW ZEALAND BY ANNEMARIE KELLY & JOHN DEERY

These two beautiful photos are from Annemarie Kelly and John Deery.  These photographs were taken at Fox Glacier in New Zealand last year while the couple were on holiday there

.  Thanks for sharing them guys, such beautiful shades of blue!

A BLUE BOOK BY GILLIAN NIX

For this month's blue theme I decided I wanted to make a fabric book.  My year 11 students are working on an artist book project that brings together a range of textile based skills....so I thought I would have a go myself!  The book is loosely based around the theme of water and its many variations.  I started this project with one metre of white poly-cotton and just basically played at combining different techniques together.  I didn't have a clear plan in mind and just let it evolve.  I used tie-dye, shibori, screen printing, lino printing, solvent transfer, hand embroidery and free motion embroidery.  I used some really good instructions from another blog here.  I hope you like it!

This is the front....

...and this is the back...

Detail from one of the pages where I used free motion embroidery ontop of a tie-dyed piece of fabric...

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE BY CAM EWART

Blue isn't always sad and neither is Robert Smith!

A beautiful cover from Cam for the blue theme.....

BLUE ICON BY JENNY SCHWAB

I loved thinking about the theme of Blue. Some guest presenters at work talking about meditating on icons and the Easter break caused me to consider the sadness of Mary the bereaved mother and the difficulties she faced in her life. I liked the idea of the golden halo as a reference to the traditional icons. I loved escaping as I stood in my kitchen with my easel, canvas and paints.

BLUE COOGEE BY ADRIANA TORRES

 

Where I'm training we are having a photo competition, this is one of the photos on Monday 9th (if I'm right) was one of the coldest day in April! ( Im sure Im right!)  the photo was taken by one of the trainers and I thought " is a blessing view for those ones who are insane enough to be there at 6am!" I was holding the rope, freezing, took me to hours to get back the feeling of my toes....at the end it was worth it.... and it was a Beautiful "Blue" view isn't?

 

 

A WEE BLUE EYED BOY BY LISA COCHRANE

The following Instagram shots were taken a few nights ago. They capture my wee Blue eyed boy Alex snuggling down with his favourite Teddy whilst I in the background am running his bath. Teddy was given to him by his great Aunt and despite me being dead against the idea of a “sooky blanket” has been his best companion over the last 18 months. Enjoy........

BLUEBIRD OF HOPE QUILT BY ANN DYKES & FRIENDS

Here is another fantastic submission for this month's 'blue' theme from the lovely Ann Dykes.  I am in love with quilting after seeing first hand some of Ann's exquisitely made quilts last week, and I am so delighted she is sharing her work with us here, thanks Ann! 

From Ann....

The quilt is called " Bluebird of Hope" and it was done as a group project for a friend's 50th birthday.

It was purchased in kit form and a percentage of the proceeds go to World Vision for the Addis Ababa Fistula hospital in Ethiopia.

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Scottish Blues by Anne Hoodless

The first submission for this month's blue theme is from Anne Hoodless from Perth in Scotland.  Thanks Anne for sharing these beautiful photos and stories......

At Easter Dennis and I headed to Portnadorran which is a working croft village of Arisaig in the West Highlands of Scotland. They keep Shorthorn cattle, Highland Ponies, Suffolk Sheep and Border Collies.

It is situated on the coast, with direct access to white sandy beaches and some of the best views of the Inner Hebridean Islands of Eigg, Rhum, Muck and Skye. Portnadorran - translated from Gaelic to mean Bay of Otters - it is a pebble bay and is a great place for bird watching.

Lovely part of the world wild and baron but with all the beauty that Scotland holds!

Picture one was taken on Saturday 7^th April at Portnadorran around 5 pm, the hills in the background are Creag Mhor.  We were heading up to the top of the hill to Cnoc-na-Faire Restaurant where we had lovely fresh mussels and the freshest of fish and homemade chips!

Picture two and three were taken as the sun was going down on the same night, heading back from the restaurant along the beach to our caravan around 8 pm at night.

Picture four.  This picture was taken at Glenfinnan Viaduct – look closely and you will see the viaduct to the left of the picture.  Glenfinnan Viaduct is a railway viaduct on the West Highland Line in Glenfinnan, Lochaber.  It was built between 1897 and 1901. Located at the top of Loch Shiel  in the West Highlands of Scotland, the viaduct overlooks the Glenfinnan Monument and the waters of Loch Shiel.

Picture five was taken at Invercaimbe Camping at Sandy Beach, Arisaig, Scotland, which is next door to Portnadorran campsite. The woman on the rock had decided she wanted “to be left alone” but unfortunately the locals were concerned for her safety as the tide was coming in and she would have been stranded for more than 6 hours before it went back out again! The police and Sea Rescue had to be called and she was taken off the rock on a canoe and taken to shore safely. As to what happened to her or why she stood there for over an hour we don’t know, she was German and on her own!