by Marja-Leena 
In the last hour of Friday, January 13th, big fat wet snowflakes began falling, our first measurable snow this winter. I wish I could have stayed up all night to watch it. By morning it had stopped. It was still cloudy as I snapped a few shots. Now as I write this near noontime, the sun has come out and it is a brilliant world out there. The forecast says we might have more over the next few days, though here close to sea level it might be rain. Enjoy it while it lasts, I say.
by Marja-Leena 
A turban squash, that is. Today’s much-missed glorious sunshine tempted me and my cameras into action to capture this gorgeous vegetable which has been gracing our kitchen counter over the holidays and will soon be eaten.
Compare these to some earlier squash photos: green globe and cucurbita.
by Marja-Leena 
I am going through my 2011 iPhoto library, trying to reduce the numbers of photos from the almost 1800. These two almost got trashed until I began to play with them a bit and turned them into black and white. As I recall, the sky was what attracted me, and I do love that in the first photo. The strong vertical and horizontal lines and patterns of the transmission towers pulled me into the second shot. Not my usual subject matter…
by Marja-Leena 
inkjet print, frottage and drawing with conte 19.5 x 19.5 cm
Happy Twelfth Night!
Related: Twelfth Day post of 2006
by Marja-Leena 
Some readers were curious about the etching I used to make the rubbing yesterday. Here is the deeply etched copperplate, about 12.5 x 28 cm. You may have seen it before though I could not find more than a small section of it.
The etching was originally created for the Meta-morphosis VII group of prints and used again in Nexus Blue IV.
Still inspired to play some more with rubbings and drawings, I did several more today with this copperplate, above and below are the best two. I think I like yesterday’s better – beginner’s luck!
by Marja-Leena 
inkjet print, frottage and drawing with conte 19.5 x 28.5 cm.
I love how inspiration can come from something seemingly half-mindless like a doodle, as I wrote about previously. Just posting about them and reading your comments set me thinking again about the stack of proofs (test prints) on my studio table that I have not wished to discard even as they take up precious work space. I sometimes cut some up for cards and sometimes think of using parts in collages (but haven’t).
This morning, still in pj’s and a cup of coffee in hand, I felt the urge to do another rubbing and drawing from a deeply etched copperplate onto a section of an inkjet proof. Here it is in all its imperfections but I’m pleased enough to show it off. I hope to do more, maybe it will even become a little series. A good start for the new year!
by Marja-Leena 
Surely everybody doodles, at least sometimes? I often do. The top one was one done with pencil on some scrap paper a few weeks ago, absent-mindedly at first as the act of doodling usually is, then consciously as I became enamored by the results. Actually it is a rubbing or ‘frottage’ of a piece of rusted metal that happened to be nearby.
Excited at other possibilities I then went into the studio for better paper and a sanguine conte crayon to do the second one, then charcoal for the third. I think one of these just might appear in another digital collage piece one day, so doodling can be a good thing, rather like sketching out ideas, some even absentmindedly generated.
I am looking forward to getting back to my artmaking soon. Again, Happy New Year, all!
Added Jan.2nd: I just remembered a piece that I had posted almost seven years ago, a fully developed work using the rubbing technique as well as drawing: Veils Suite: Triptych. I should find some others I’ve done…
by Marja-Leena Continuing my review of some of this year’s favourite photos from the Photoworks theme, this time from the July to December posts.
July: junkyard finds 6
August: almost September
September: jute
October: autumnal shadow play
November: hand in worship
December: oh ginger
As mentioned in the previous post of images from January to June, it was an interesting exercise and at times difficult to choose from so many images. Curiously, there was only one post, ‘shadow play’, this year with images under the ‘urban’ category, whereas I think 2009 was a bumper year with lots of urban shots of London and Paris. Not surprisingly, for those who know me, the most popular categories are ‘rocks’ and ‘nature’.
So, this is the last post on the last day of 2011, a very turbulent year around the world politically and economically. Just for a while on this New Year’s Eve tonight, I wish all of you peaceful thoughts and happiness in your own little world of family and friends. Many thanks for visiting and commenting (or not) and continuing to make this blog venture such a pleasure for me even as it nears eight years.
Happy New Year 2012, may your hopes and dreams come true! Hauskaa Uutta Vuotta ja paljon Onnea! Frohes Neues Jahr! Bonne année! See you on the other side!
Related: one year ago
by Marja-Leena Inspired by other bloggers who are doing year-end reviews, usually of books they have read, I thought this year I would try one for the first time. I have chosen a month by month review of my better photos from the Photoworks theme, choosing at least one from each sub-category.
Here are my favourites from the January to June posts. I will do the July to December ones tomorrow.
January: leaves in ice
February: round and white
March: Beaty Biodiversity Museum – 3
April: trickster?
June: sensuous rocks
I found this an interesting exercise and to note that this year there was only one post for the ‘Found Objects’ category – the mask in ‘trickster’ above. More observations to come tomorrow.
Related: five years ago
by Marja-Leena 
images captured early morning, December 22nd
Christmas with our family was wonderful though too short a time. On the morning of the Feast of Stephen our eldest daughter and partner left and that afternoon our good friends arrived. A wonderful time was had with them as always, talking non-stop, eating too much, exchanging gifts and teaching them a new game. This afternoon they left and suddenly it feels very quiet here, a pause in the middle of the holiday season, a chance to catch one’s breath and meditate on the last days of another year and a new one soon to come. The weather is unusually warm and wet — up to 12C or 54F today — so unlike three years ago when we had a major amount of snow.
I hope, dear readers, that your festive season has been a happy one.
