Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

 #100daysofeggcups - drawings of egg cups from my collection  - YELLOW    Watch a reel of days 11-20

  Artists have always found inspiration  in their every day activities. The very early cave paintings are records of daily life - hunting expeditions for food and responses to the elements.  From the 1800s, Van Gogh's artworks about the daily work of peasants have charmed art lovers and  even in the Pop Art movement, the colourful art of everyday edible items like ice cream cones, cakes and hot dogs by Wayne Thiebaud have become collectable.  It is no wonder that during a pandemic lockdown when walking in the neighbourhood  is  the only exercise allowed  that these walks  take on a new fascination.  Last week, I recorded my walk on a strip of  paper.... I joined a variety of  drawing and found papers  and added /scraped gesso to the surface. As I walked, I  drew with pencil shapes I saw on the way and then came home and added ink and pencil marks to fill in some detail. As you can see from the photo above, I cut the l...

  This is my tag for the current theme at Tag Tuesday - Book Print. I like using text as a background for tags and today, I reduced one of my recent  line drawings and printed it on a small book page .... as you can see,  the book's chapter is entitled "Of Holy Living and Dying ( from The Book of Books) .  I thought this was appropriate as this 'Covid man' drawing depicts Nature happily thriving while man appears to be "unravelling " at the edges of body and mind...  Original drawing - Wilma Simmons   Silk screen print on fabric  : Wilma Simmons  Silk screen print on paper : Wilma Simmons  And here are some other tags on book print backgrounds - these are free motion stitched "Nature" portraits done earlier in the year.  

" Do you draw first?" - I am often asked this question about my works which are collaged and machine stitched, like these from #The100DayProject.  In the last post, I shared a drawing  and the resulting stitched work. (left below) The simple answer to the question is 'yes' ....but ... I can't claim that  these are drawings - they are more like 30 second sketches.  In the top photo, you can see that I have photographed  a scene from my front verandah and I also sketched it very quickly and not accurately , blocking in shapes with multi directional lines. Then the drawing has been scaled to fit my preferred size for a wearable art pin - I also took some artistic licence and omitted the house. Sometimes I work directly from the photo doing a similar thing - adding and subtracting elements for the sake of the design.  \   And here is the stitched interpretation of the sketch....  Day 21 #100pinpoems  "Morning mist softens...

I am very happy to be included in the 2019 workshop program at Studio CC. There are still places available for this creative workshop -   Now only  one day : 22 June 2019.   Please go to the  Studio CC website   for registration information . 

The Apron Project 2019 - The theme is "Her Strength is Her Superpower"   I created a "Strong" apron for the project. It features a photo transfer from one of my original life drawings with free form machine stitching.   All the artists' aprons are donated to raise funds for the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Women's Shelter  - crisis accommodation for women suffering the effects of domestic violence.  Please check out the auction website - there are truly amazing aprons created by some amazing artists. 

With a rather late start to 29  Faces - an online challenge to create a face a day for the month of February, I  have a lot of  catching  up to do. To make it easier, I have chosen to follow a "Fairy Tale" prompt list and am drawing faces on small gift tags , and yet it is still a challenge. Fairy Godmother from "Cinderella" - "Even miracles take a little time."  Red Riding Hood  "Every moment is a moment when you're in the woods"  Sleeping Beauty " If you dream a thing more than once, it's sure to come true."  Snow White -"Remember you;re the one who can fill the world with sunshine"  Donkeyskin - "Virtue always triumphs" 

 Seasons - Watercolour and ink art tags by Wilma Simmons  I found this series of art tags in one of my boxes ( while searching for something else!)  - I made them in 2017, but have now released them for sale in my Etsy shop  ... These little art works can be used as  gift tags, book marks, decorative hangings, creative journal or collage elements, or even as an educational resource -  creative writing or story telling prompts .  Summer - art tag by Wilma Simmons  Autumn - art tag by Wilma Simmons  Spring - art tag by Wilma Simmons  Winter - art tag by Wilma Simmons 

We walk through  each day, with a  restless wandering.  Deep down craving  a different path.  A shining light.  A dream to hold on to.”  ―  Susan Bocinec Terry,  Moods and Musings   To start off Tag Tuesday for 2019 , our team leader, Valerie  has chosen the theme "New Beginnings", so I decided to work with  a new technique and create a new "path" .... The background of this tag is watercolour paper, spattered with three colours of watered down  acrylic paint ( blue, yellow, red) . Leaves and garden debris had been placed over the paper, creating masks. The "path" was where a branch had been placed. The idea is when the paint has dried, patterns seem to emerge. Using ink and coloured pencils, I defined the image. Shadows and lines were created by smudging the ink and drawing with coloured pencils.   Here are a couple of  images of the background without any work on it, and the beginnings o...

Collage: paper, paint and ink  - Wilma Simmons 2018  The tree knows four truths – earth, water, air and the fire of the sun. Collage: newspaper, ink, pastel - Wilma Simmons 2018  The tree holds four truths in one. Root, limb and leaf unfold out of the seed and these rejoice till the tree dreams it has a voice... (From Judith Wight : The Wattle Tree)  Work in progress - ink, paint, pastel - Wilma Simmons 2018

When I heard that 11 September was the date for me to nominate a Tag Tuesday theme, I immediately remembered that fateful day in 2001 when the whole world seemed to stop and change with the terrorist attacks in USA. And so my theme is PEACE.   My first tag for peace ( above)  is  hand drawn with felt tip marker and coloured pencils and depicts some images of peace for me. This tag is inspired by the totem paintings of Sandra Silberzweig, but my tag drawing is not as refined or as detailed as hers. This was just like a children's colouring-in exercise so very calming and peaceful!  The second is simpler - a photo transfer with a stitched paper and white-washed collage foreground on top of a magazine page . An alphabet stamp was used to create the word. I hope you think it looks like a peaceful scene?   And the third is really, really simple. I cut out an image from a magazine advertisement. I wrote the message with pen and ink, and cut out a...