Hair New Era

Bonnie's challenge for this week's Photo Art Friday was something that connects to the number 3/three. Not only will you see three of my photos here, but each shows three of something - deck chairs, sail boats and trees.


This picture - originally a slide, like the two others as well -was taken at the beach in Brighton, England. It was a windy, partly cloudy day, and almost no one was sitting in these chairs. However, they had something very optimistic about them the way they were patiently waiting for guests to lounge there despite the English moody weather. The texture applied here is Kim Klassen's "warmsun", blending mode linear burn at 50% and copied once with some adjustments (levels, saturation, brightness).


With these sail boats - shot at the coast of Cornwall, England - I went a little bit bolder. The picture was taken in the evening with the sun already gone, but the clouds were still pink and the mood was nice, but quite dark. The original picture is a little bit dull, so I thought some "pepper" can't hurt. I first applied Bonnie's texture "dappled dawn", blending mode exclusion at 90%; did some hue/saturation adjustments; applied Bonnie's texture "mauve magic", blending mode color dodge at 25%; some more saturation and brightness adjustments; and finally I cropped the photo a little bit more. I'm in love with the color!


Finally trees - of course! Again, we are in the Swabian mountains in Germany on a cold winter day, a very cloudy day I should add, the original photo is just dark. I cropped it down to three trees; did a levels adjustment to brighten it up a little bit; applied Bonnie's "edited acrylics" (one of my favorite textures) in blending mode pin light at 85% with some saturation adjustments. I only used a part of the texture, the upper left hand corner, and I thought how interesting it looks when you drag out the texture.

What I really like about these challenges is that I try something new - blending modes I usually ignore, or playing around with the texture first before applying it. Every time I realize how much I still have to learn, but I love, love, love it.

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In January I created this mixed media canvas for an Inspiration Avenue challenge. Today, I've put it in my Etsy shop for sale. It is still one of my favorite works - I just love the warm colors of autumn (I really don't know why I prefer the word "autumn" over "fall", perhaps it is more poetic. Is there a difference between the two words?).

I'm quite excited about the season change. Many trees in my neighborhood are turning leaves, it looks beautiful. The two crape myrtle in front of my house are glowing in a deep pink, it's marvelous. I simply love this stunning display of bold color.

I hope all of you - at least in the Northern hemisphere - enjoy the earthy colorful season.

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While I was still living in Germany, my favorite clothes were made by the Swedish company Gudrun Sjöden. I love the high quality of the clothes, the material and unique cut. Gudrun Sjöden didn't care what was trendy (still doesn't). Her designs have always been unique, colorful, flowing - simply beautiful in my eyes.

Then I moved to the US and had to say goodbye to my beloved Gudrun style (except for the pieces I still own). However, the last time I went to visit Germany, I stocked up on Gudrun clothes and I also got on their mailing list. Yes, they send their catalog from Germany to California! And only a few weeks ago I found out that the company actually sends their clothes to the US from Sweden if you order them there, and the shipping is FREE. Of course you have to pay in Euro - kind of a shocker, but so worth it.


Their catalogs are pure eye-candy. They often go to other countries for a photo shoot - I still remember a splendid fall collection shot in Morocco back in the 90's. A couple of months ago I received this catalog with a photo shoot in Botswana. The photography is so yummy, I simply have to share it with you.

Finally I'm back to the challenges at Inspiration Avenue, and this week's theme is "poetry". So beautiful. Reading poetry in another language than German is still difficult for me as I think too much gets lost and I am not able to understand the entire meaning, which is a real shame. However, I do love poetry in my native language, German. One poet I read over and over again is Rainer Maria Rilke. His poem "Herbsttag" (Autumn Day) is one of my favorites. You can find a translation at the bottom of this post; this one I like better than the one I found back in October and that I posted here. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find out who did this translation, I found it here. If you're interested in how many translations exist of this one poem (and thus show how difficult it is to translate poetry into another language) you will have a ball at this site.

Well, there still is not much of spring over here, so it doesn't look like in this photo at all. I took this picture exactly a year ago and at that time my little garden was just beautiful. When I look outside now I see a lot of green, but the only other color I see is the orange of the calendula (they are so reliable) and some early tulips as well as the blossoms on the pear tree and a few shy ones on the cherry tree. It certainly is a much slower start than last year. The good thing is that I don't have to water which is always a blessing - nature is providing for that (I have a low-water garden anyway).





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Last night, when I couldn't sleep, I decided that it is time to move on. This was a horrifying week, and I sincerely hope that it was the worst week in 2011. A HUGE thank you to all of you for your comments, prayers and e-mails - this has been so much help, and I know that one day Katie's family will feel the same gratitude for this wonderful community as I do (they already do).

But I think it is time to move on - and I'm convinced that this is exactly what Katie would like us to do, living life to the fullest just as she did.

I visited Inspiration Avenue just to check what their weekly challenge is, and it's an easy one - about color. Which is my color? Well, of course it's


Orange is bold and bright, daring and full of life, feisty and fun. It doesn't always fit in and it doesn't get along with everyone. It brightens up a dark place and is the light in spooky times. It's earthy and strong, powerful and magical; warm and welcoming. It stands out, is different. But it is also maturity and wisdom combined with playfulness, though sometimes plain silly.

I need more orange in my life, and I'm determined to get it!

Rhonda's theme at this week's Art Walk Friday is "blue". My contribution are photos from two very different parts of the world.

Rhonda's Art Walk Friday this week is all about fall. How much do I love those fall colors. While walking around the neighborhood a few days ago, looking for some nice autumn subjects, I suddenly saw these leaves in the beautiful light of the sun. I have no idea what kind of tree this is, but the colors really captured me.

The last day of September...

The past days have been pretty toasty here with temperatures topping 100, but today it's way more comfortable and even though it's still very much like summer, autumn is definitely on its way. Tomorrow starts my favorite month of the year - I simply love October with all its colorful abundance.

So here comes autumn - this week's theme at Tuesday Taggers. I'm a real sucker for pumpkins - hey, they're orange! - and of course I had to contribute something pumpkinish. I saw these pumpkins in the garden of a winery up in Mendocino County.


October also means pumpkin patch - oh, I can't wait! All the beautiful color this months gives out with full hands, and at its end there is the best holiday ever. Did I mention that I'm also a BIG fan of Halloween?

Recently I found the Tuesday Taggers. They have a weekly challenge, and since I was looking for a new project I decided to join. This week's theme was "house" - you could create any project that you liked as long as it features a house.


By participating in Louise Gales Creative Color Challenge I've started to love turquoise and sea greens and use them way more often now. This card was pretty easy: Glue down background paper onto 4x6 card. Paint sea with acrylic paints (I used laguna, aquamarine and white). Smear the same paints on a small piece of bubblewrap and stamp. Let dry. Cut house from cardboard. Adhere different papers and stamp them. Punch little cat and put into window. Stamp mermaid and color with Distress Ink (vintage photo, spiced marmalade, worn lipstick, wild honey, peeled paint, faded jeans). Adhere to house and house to card. Print out words and glue to card. Done. (Stamps used: Mermaid/rocks by Expressions in Ink; Starfish Document by Stampington & Company; Shell Trio Wording by Stamp-It)

If you want to see more of the Tuesday Taggers, you can check it out here.

I'm quite surprised! It's only Thursday, and I'm already done with my piece for this week's Creative Color Challenge. The first time I barely made it by Saturday, then it was at least Friday - so does that mean next week's piece (the last one for this challenge) will be done by Wednesday?

Seriously...

This week's color was Sea Green, and to put a little twist to it, it's been combined with Cathy Nichols' theme "To the sea" of her Found Art Friday. And the deadline pretty much is today (now you know - I obviously need the pressure).

Here's my "Voice of the Sea":



The color looks almost like last week's turquoise, right? Well, blame it on the camera. I couldn't for the heck of it get even one picture in which the color was reflected correctly. This one - after zillions of photos - is the one that comes closest. The color is "laguna green" and really looks like that including all the shades that I mixed with it. But - the camera didn't recognize that. So please imagine a beautiful laguna green in three different shades...

I painted on a 8x10 canvas, stamped the starfish with antique white and wrote the quote by Kate Chopin - I really love this quote. I inked the stamped image of "sunsource" (Stampington & Company) with Distress Ink and sprayed the torn page with Glimmer Mist and also inked it with Distress Ink. As a final touch I adhered several treasures I found at the beach.

Working with this color was real fun. First, I really like the color, and Cathy's theme "To the sea" helped a lot since I love to create anything ocean related. No wonder I was done so quickly!!!