Bluesy Daisies

Hello all - hope you're doing okay.  Is anyone else experiencing the same time-slippage as I am?  Time feels expansive and plentiful, passing slowly, and then you look up and suddenly days have gone by in a flash.  It's weird!

I'd planned to be back with another post quite soon after my Skype's the limit page spread, but somehow here we are more than a week later.

Ah well, I'm here now with another flowery page - one that took well over a year to finish.  Not that I was working on it all that time of course!  I got part way and then other things took over and the page got shut away and forgotten about.

I work in lots of journals simultaneously, and I just happened not to open this one - the large Dylusions journal - for many months.  When I did, I found some half-finished possibilities that were finally ready to be completed.  You saw one with my hand-painted Daisy, daisy (daisy) page, and now I'm back with some Bluesy Daisies today.










This one is really best in close-up.

There are lovely textures...














... touches of shimmer, courtesy of the paint pigment, nothing added ... 














... and gorgeous, subtle pools of colour blending and moving across the texture.














This was where it had got to about a year ago - some texture paste through a Donna Downey stencil for the flowers, with additional tiny grungy square "pebbles" from a Crafter's Workshop stencil.















And all of that I'd given some soft tinting to with some Sennelier watercolour paints...

... on the petals and flowing across the page and around the texture.













When I came back to the page a couple of weeks ago, I needed to find something for the light area in the lower left-hand corner.  Maybe I'd originally had a plan, or maybe that's just the shape of the stencil.  I toyed with a couple of photos, but they weren't making me happy.














I was in the mood for something a bit more spare and spacious.  I didn't want to crowd the flowers or their leafy stems.  This simple looping of fine twine seemed to fit the bill.












I love how it casts shadows when the light hits it, so you get a bunch of extra loops!















I peeled some of the thick cardboard backing away from these Quote Chips so that they wouldn't be so bulky within the pages of the journal.














It probably doesn't matter really - there's a full thickness one on the Skype's the Limit page, and that's in the same book.













And that bark heart is pretty chunky, so there may be an impact on later pages if I'm working across the full spread.  Not to worry, it will all add to the artsy imperfection!












I must have been in a sombre bluesy mood with the original creation - all those misty greys - but now in spring I found myself reaching for some fresher greens to brighten the mood just a little.














I used some Fresco paints in watery washes, so that I could echo the "messy" colour application of the watercolours.














And I used them to add extra shading and highlighting to and around the flower heads as well as for the green leaves.







I have to confess that even with those brighter greens, most of my favourite bits of this spread are where the greys are strongest.

I even ended up softening the greens with more grey.  I guess the original impulses were making their way back to the surface!

There's some white spatter (of course) and then we're pretty much there.












How do I remember what I did a year ago, you may be wondering...

Well, at the time I was in the habit of scribbling down my processes/products on the facing page in this particular journal - so I added the new steps as I went too.

And from that I see the final layers of grey were done with Distress Crayons.  It was three weeks ago, so I'd forgotten that!











There's an airy lightness about the page which pleases me, but with a slightly wistful, melancholy atmosphere.  And that seems a pretty accurate reflection of this slightly strange limbo we're in at the moment.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you're having a gentle weekend.  Stay safe, stay well and I'll see you again soon, either here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland. 








The night was so very still that one should have been able to hear the whisper of roses in blossom—the laughter of daisies—the piping of grasses—many sweet sounds, all tangled up together.
L.M. Montgomery

I'd like to share this at Art Journal Journey for Mia's lovely Flowers theme
I'd also like to join in with Anything Mixed Media Goes over at the Bleeding Art Challenge