Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

The weather is beautiful today - warm and  sunny, so it is a perfect day for finishing off some canvases and putting the backs on others near a window, with the morning sun streaming in. Most of these are photos printed on organza and transferred to stretched canvases, with  tea bags, stitching or writing  in layers. Only three more to do in one of the series... And of course, I am having a cup of tea to keep up my strength!

This is the Willow Pattern we are most familiar with - a traditional  chinaware design  by Thomas Minton in 1790, popularised for at least the next 200 years. Thinking back to the old poem about the Willow Pattern,  Two birds flying high, A Chinese vessel, sailing by. A bridge with three men, sometimes four, A willow tree, hanging o'er. A Chinese temple, there it stands, Built upon the river sands. An apple tree, with apples on, A crooked fence to end my song I discovered that some of my photos taken recently in China reminded me of  a contemporary Willow Pattern scene. As I am not a skilled photographer by any stretch of the imagination, I have tried to turn two very rather ordinary photos into modern versions of the Willow Pattern - well at least, elements of the Willow Pattern.  1. Original Image - Wild Goose Pagoda , Xian , China   2. Sepia tint   3. Blue tint   4. Blue tint  w...