Art Journal Journey and Christmas Cards

Hi All from a sunny NE UK. It is lovely to see the sun again after all the heavy rain yesterday and it is forecast to be nice all day today. Thank you for calling in and hope you enjoy my efforts for today.

At Art Journey Journey we are being asked this month to be inspired by the masters.

This may be a bit of a shock so get ready-----

I have long been an admiring of Beryl Cook and I was lucky enough to see an exhibition of her work when we took shelter, from the rain, in the art gallery in Blackpool many years ago. How wonderful the paintings were all bright colours, so much fun and some very large--not just the ladies the whole painting.

I also adore the hats that Pierre-Auguste Renoir has in a lot of his paintings-well I do admire his paintings in their entirety but the hats stand out for me.

Here is my Cook Renoir fusion. ' Lady at Street Market'

I first printed out a Renoir type background that I found on Google--it was a free to use background to download. If you add the words Renoir background there are several.

Next I drew my Cook lady by looking at one of the pictures in my Beryl Cook Book which I have had for many years but still enjoy. The hats I extracted from Renoir prints but coloured them with Promarkers and drew hat stands for them. I dressed my Cook lady in my own designs and did her face and hair in an appropriate style. I also used a white pen to pick out various bits of the picture.

Now for Christmas Cards to add to Marina's Challenge-thanks Marina for encouraging me to make some cards a bit earlier than I would normally make them.

Both made in a similar way. The cards were patterned in a Cuttlebug folder. I made the background paper for the topper . The first card has a bought embellishment in the centre and the second card has a Gecko Galz image. Both have Gold wrapping tape to add a bit of sparkle.

Hope you have a great day

Love Chrissie x