Vintage Cars — Vintage Color — Paintings by digital Artist K M Gatzka

I came across  an old webzine by chance the other night featuring digital paintings by Artrage users — and just loved this set of themed paintings around vintage cars.

I’ve been using Artrage for some time now and have been trying to master some of the basics of digital painting. I’m no artist — it’s an uphill battle — but it’s great relaxation — losing yourself for a while with “pots of paint” with some favorite music playing in the background.

This lovely set is by musician and digital artist K M Gatzka — here is his blog. Kirk mainly uses the Corel Suite of drawing and painting software — each artist has his or her own favorite. I’m just a dabbler and find Artrage very affordable, highly intuitive in use and well supported with help files and forums.

Give it a try — you never know when your next masterpiece is just around the corner!

Our New Lounge — Before and After

Summer 2007 to Christmas 2012. Two images taken from about the same position. We’re making progress!

Recycling Old Oak Beams

It’s 2007 — and we’re stripping out the floor joists from what will be our new lounge area.

Move on to 2012 — November. Decide to use some of these old oak floor joists to construct two raised plant beds for some yew hedging plants.

The worst part was dragging and man-handling them the 50 metres up to the house from their pile in the garden.

I leveled the lower beams, chocking them up with pieces of flat paving, and cutting to length with the chainsaw.

Then selected other lengths to lay on top, turning them around and flipping them over, to try and get the best contact so that they sat snug and stable.

Their heavy weight was enough to keep them in place.

The porous garden sheeting was cut to size and draped over each side of the ‘bed’ which would keep the soil in place when infilling.

When I’d filled each trough (bed) with soil, compost and a bag of horse manure, the rest of the sheeting was turned back over the top, then cut through every 50cm to take each of the ten yew saplings.

Then I finished off with a gravel mulch.

Weekly Photo Challenge Green Autumn Color and Texture Tarn South West France

How Green – How Green this walk has been! Such a lot of green moss on the trees – I have no idea why – OK, the time of year is November, in the depths of Autumn here in South West France, but not particularly wet. In fact when we went on this local walk, we had bright blue skies and a temperature of 19 degrees.

OK, I know the photo challenge is green, but I couldn’t resist adding a little red – just as important during this autumn time – and so complimentary to the color green!

Fresco Paintings — Nicolaus Greschny

Some years ago, we were lucky enough to view a tiny Chapel, lost deep in the less-frequented regions of the Tarn.

Its exact location is best forgotten  as one of our party of three had wheedled the key from whomever it was who held it (not me I might add).

It isn’t normally open to the public. However, by those in the ‘know’, it’s renown for its splendid frescoes by Estonian painter Nicolaus Greschny.

He has painted well over 80 paintings, the majority of which adorn the walls of churches in the South of France. A year or two later, we enjoyed a guided tour of a larger church on the outskirts of Villefrance de Rouergue, in the Aveyron, again to view more frescoes by the same artist.

So what is Fresco?

Should it happens to be asked when facing both the question-master and the ten million watching public, during your attempt to win the jackpot on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”, then just choose the option that has the following KEY Words — FRESH WET LIME PLASTER – MURALS – WATER BASED PIGMENTS – WALL PAINTING and the money’s yours!

“Les nomads du silence” — exhibition by Sculptor, Jephan de Villiers

During our afternoon walk near Ginals earlier this year, we stopped off at the Abbaye de Beaulieu to view the exhibition there by the Belgian sculptor, Jephan de Villiers. It added an extra hour to the walk but there was no rush, the weather was warm, and we got more wonderful photos!

As a young boy, Jephan spent long hours in his grandmother’s garden near Versailles, collecting twigs, leaves and bits of bark to construct vast yet intricate model villages. He has since enjoyed a successful life as a sculptor of international acclaim. Here are some images of work from one of his recent exhibitions, his delightful and whimsical “Nomads of Silence” – magical miniature figures reborn from the dead and decaying detritus of the forest floor.

Our Old Flagstones get a New Home

…. from a pile of slabs……. to a classy stone floor ….here’s how…

We laid these flagstones in an “Opus Romain” pattern — laying the flags in regular rows,  but varying the row-width across adjacent rows.

You need to decide beforehand on which widths you are going to use. Commercially available flooring in this pattern usually come in 3 widths; for example, 60cm, 45cm and 30cm. The lengths of the individual slabs will vary so that each width will have say a couple of rectangular sizes and maybe a square size.

“Sounds complicated?” “Not really, once you see a picture or two of how the pattern works, it all pretty obvious.”

…….so onto a few ‘Tips & Tricks’…….

• Sizing  the Flagstones : This is perhaps the trickiest part of the job! There are no hard and fast rules—you need to assess what you have to work with and try and work out the best width options to choose—to achieve a pleasing pattern without undue waste.
• Essential Tools — Angle Grinder (preferably with a diamond/carbide disc), club hammer and bolster cold chisel, eye protectors, ear protectors and face mask, tape measure, T-square and marking chalk or pencil.
• Cutting stone with the grinder – make the straight cuts with the grinder steadily and evenly, letting the machine cut gradually to its maximum depth, around a few cms or so. It isn’t necessary to cut a stone “all-the-way-through.” Then with the bolster chisel inserted around the middle of the cut, give it a few sharp blows with the club hammer—and it should split away cleanly and easily.
• As you can see in one of the images above, I’ve angled the grinder slightly “off-vertical” — undercutting the edge. This is a little trick to make it easier to lay the cut edges of the flags closer to each other, avoiding the chances of odd lumpy bits left after breaking stopping the close fitting of two adjacent flags.
• Then carefully and gently tap along the top of the cut edges with the club hammer, chipping little fragments away to leave a more natural looking stone
• Finally, should it be necessary to remove some stone from the underside of a particularly thick slab, make a series of close parallel cuts, and repeat again at 90°, and then chip these away carefully with the hammer and chisel. (A great way, incidentally, to make your own stone dice!).

You may then decide whether to grout the spaces between the stone with a lime mortar — or simply brush in some sand or fine gravel. Depends on what look you’re after.

And if the floor is exposed to light and rain, then you’ll need to weed the cracks from time to time if they haven’t been grouted.

So give it a try and “Bonne Chance!”

Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreign – Post Cards and Maps

“Don’t Forget to Send me a Post Card”……. without fail, I would always ask my friends when off to foreign lands, to pop a card in the post to me – the more weird the better.

Well, that was in the good old days of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Now we have the internet and Facebook and digital cameras and nobody feels the need to bother with postcards anymore.

Never the less, I still have my pile of postcards packed into the top drawer of the dresser, and when I saw the WordPress Daily Post Photo Challenge this week was ‘Foreign’, I thought I would pull them out and see what my friends and I where up to on our travels before the digital age!

Early Morning in South West France Sky On Fire

How often do you see this?

It was last Thursday, about 7 o’clock in the morning.

And the sky was on fire.

Just for 5 minutes or so.

Then the sky went back to normal.

Did it really happen?!

Taken with my ipad3, Thursday, 25th October 2012.

Fabre de Lagrange, 81140 Penne, France

Art Deco – Paris 1929

The Art Deco period during the 1920’s and 1930’s, I think is one of the most stylish periods in the history of design.

The black and white advertisements I have found in my copies of the French magazine ‘L’Illustration’ of April 13th and April 20th 1929, are quite stunning in draftsmanship, humor, and little historical plots in the life in the chic Parisian lifestyle that men and women were aspiring to during this period between the First and Second World Wars.

If you compare the images from my earlier post on the L’Illustration magazine - 18th October 1913 edition, to the images here, it is quite remarkable the difference in style over the 10 year period from 1913 to 1929.

So what happened?

The 1925 Paris Exhibition was probably the biggest influence on style, design and architecture, and the birth of the Art Deco movement.

The First World War – 1914 to 1918  had a huge influence on the change in culture, particularly for women. (anyone who is watching Downton Abbey on the TV at the moment will know what I’m talking about – ITV – Sunday nights UK).

Life was meant to be gay and carefree – women where at last beginning to feel in their grasp the much strived for freedom in the fashions they wore, the sports they undertook and the wonderful new adventure that the motor car was providing.

Such a Romantic Period – Super Fast Cars – Gorgeous Watches – Holidays in Nice – 1920’s France was the place to be!

Do you like these L’Illustration Magazines? if so, do look in my Etsy Vintage Shop – 3rd Shelf from the Top. They are for sale there INCLUDING the magazines that have the images illustrated here!

So go have a look. Here is the link to the THREE MAGAZINES that I am selling together:

October 18th, 1913 – April 13th, 1929 – April 20th, 1929

This is a great way to buy them, as the shipping costs are much lower if in a package of 3 magazines, so quite a bargain.

I would love to know who buys them and why.

Are you a designer who likes to collect historical documents of the early 20th Century? I must admit they are very inspiring when the creative juices are being stirred!

Perhaps you are a digital artist and need to add some more images to your library. I know a lot of you are very gifted Scrap booking and collage artists. I would love to see what you could do with these Art Deco images.

Are you learning French, or studying French history? L’Illustration magazine is a more interesting way to help you on your way with the French language and provide little snippets of French history, which was the daily news during the 1920’s.

Of coarse, you could just keep them on the coffee table and wallow in the wonderful world of the Parisian Lady of 1929. A little glimpse of her world, what she was buying, what she read……What was going on on April 20th 1929?