Secrets of the Saucy Seaside Postcard & The Big Draw

Russell-Cotes Art gallery and Museum is an architecturally fantastic building which holds a great collection of art assembled by the husband and wife collectors Annie and Merton Russell-Cotes.

It's a great gallery and this weekend we went along to see the Saucy Seaside Postcard exhibition.

The exhibition is a window into the past, showing the workings of the Yorkshire based card company Bamforth, including a great documentary showing the men behind the postcards.

It was also a chance to see original sketches and paintings for the postcards and cards. One of the most interesting things about the exhibition was the selection of Valentines cards which included Valentine 'warnings' - which ranged from hints to nosey neighbours not to be so gossipy to personal attacks and threats!

This weekend Russell-Cotes was also hosting some Big Draw events. The Big Draw is a UK wide campaign to get everyone drawing! This October it's the 9th Big Draw with events at over 1000 venues including galleries, museums, libraries, shopping centres and schools.

See the Big Draw site for more info: http://www.campaignfordrawing.org/bigdraw/

I managed to miss the morning's tuition session, but I still had a go at drawing this sculpture. I spent a couple of hours but could have taken longer over it. I did get a couple of tips from the tutor but I couldn't stay long enough to get her feedback on my adjustments. It's not quite right but it was good practice!

Russell-Cotes Gallery site: http://russell-cotes.bournemouth.gov.uk/default.asp

Breast Cancer Awareness Poster

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Originally uploaded by Franny B

I love those Flickr tools!
This poster was created from my original watercolour painting using fd's Flickr Toys

October is breast Cancer awareness month!

breast cancer awareness selection
Originally uploaded by Franny B

In the UK we are entitled to free mammograms on the NHS but this isn't the case in the US.

Clicking on the Breast Cancer site means that sponsors donate free mammograms to those in need. Visitors pay nothing. Mammograms are paid for by the site's sponsors and distributed by the National Breast Cancer Foundation. To help click here

In my mosaic pic I've selected a few of my prettier paintings. I chose a little pink border for it but it doesn't quite show up!

Tagged!

Wow, I've been blogging for only a week and I've been tagged! Thanks Hens Teeth! :-)

Tagging Rules

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog
2. Share 7 interesting/random facts about yourself on your blog
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post, leaving their names as well as links to their blog
4. Leave a comment on each of their blogs to let them know they've been tagged!

Seven facts about me....

1. I love quizzes, trivia, puzzles and all things quizzy. University Challenge is my fave quiz at the moment, even if I can only get a handful of questions right each week. Unbelieveably, my parents were both on a team that competed on Uni Challenge - it would be fantastic to get a copy of the footage some day!

2. I once had to check for bombs in the toilets at Kings Cross station. I was working there as a cleaner at the time and apparently it was standard practice before important visitors - I think Prince Charles was visiting that day. Cleaning Kings Cross was actually preferably to some of the other jobs I've had - the worst was definitely working in a bank call centre.

3. I collect things - Jugs, postcards, fridge magnets, marbles, Agatha Christie novels and snow globes - to name a few.

4. I've had tea with the Queen. Not entirely true, but I did go along to a garden party at the palace when I was about 15. I can't remember much about it apart from my lovely pink outfit and ridiculous pink high heels.

5. I love Fred and Ginger films - Carefree, Swing time and the Gay Divorce are some of my faves. I also love Hitchcock films - Vertigo, Rope and Notorious are just amazingly good!

6. I love music - pop, jazz, folk, country, indie, opera, dance - as long as it's got a great tune, beautiful vocals and great lyrics!

7. I play football but never watch it. I'd recommend it to anyone - 5 aside girls football, it's a great laugh, good exercise and a great way to unwind!


Here are my 7 taggies - your turn! :

Sigrid Frensen - http://sigridfrensen.blogspot.com/
Linda Hammelman - http://hammelmanart.blogspot.com/
Calvin Tang - http://calvidanny-blogger.blogspot.com/
Mary Ellen Golden - http://maryellengolden.blogspot.com/
Suzanne Smith - http://abrushwithcolor.blogspot.com/
Lizzie T - http://lizzytdesigns.blogspot.com/
Sarah and Rachel - http://roxycreations.blogspot.com/

Step by Step - Botanical painting

Some of the photos are a bit too dark but I managed to remember to take a few as I painted this picture of three Sycamore leaves. View the set as a slideshow , or have a look at the set on Flickr for some notes on each of the steps.

I love to Scrapblog!

I can't remember how I discovered Scrapblogging but it was instantly addictive! I haven't done any scrap-booking since I was a girl and I'd never thought of digital scrap booking.

Scrapblog is a fantastic site, it makes it so easy to put together digital collages from your own photos and from digital scraps that the site provides under themed headings.

This is one of my first attempts at a digital scrapbook of my floral paintings:

Inspired

Inspired by beautiful blogs like Sigrid's: http://sigridfrensen.blogspot.com/ ,
Gustavo Aimar's: http://www.mimesa.blogspot.com/
and France Belleville's: http://wagonized.typepad.com/wagonized/
to name a few, I've decided that I need a blog to display my artwork and tell you a bit more about the process, trials, highs and lows of my artistic experiments...

This is me - not sure why I look so confused but I was working on a commision which was going quite badly!