Thursday, August 18, 2011

Bus Rolls

Last year I acquired a gorgeous and very long run of vintage bus roll.   More than 6 metres long in total, and lovely sharp white lettering against a black inked ground.  Unused I think, looked like New Old Stock quality.    Some of the wording had repeats and I like how these two are framed to show a bit of that, with a little variation at bottom and top.  I have been waiting until we had a place to display these before getting the first lot of it framed up.  Little Glory Picture Framing of Kapunda was recommended to me and has this week finished two lengths I took to them to frame.

Maggie poses in profile in front of the framed bus rolls (pic above), now in place on the wall that was waiting to display them.

These framed pieces are a bit more than 1 and a half metres long.  Instead of mounting on mat, they are framed with a lovely whitewashed timber frame, which is then set into a narrow almost-black timber frame.   As these are displayed indoors, no glass was used (to reduce glare and also to keep the framed pieces from being too heavy).  These treatments were excellent choices and Little Glory's work mounting and framing it all was outstanding.

Below you can see the bus rolls hanging up, just on an adjacent wall to the window wearing its new black and white buffalo check curtains (made up by yours truly).  Nice complements !  I am loving the look of the room with the crisp graphic text elements of the bus rolls on display.
I have saved some extra lengths of bus roll featuring different lines of text to have framed next year, for display in the (future) sunroom.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Blue Study

I sometimes sketch objects I see, for practice and also it is fun.  Occasionally one of the cats will sit still long enough to be sketched.  Winston was still for ten minutes, just  enough to sketch a lovely study of him in charcoal.  It is a fast sketch, so not super precise, maybe even a bit primitive ?  I worked to capture his soft shiny fur, the intelligent gaze he had while sitting for me, and his general character.  I have done several such studies of him (and some also of Pookie...none of Maggie, she does not seem to want to sit for a sketch).

I liked doing his whiskers  and fur in the charcoal and smearing it a bit gave it a softness that really looks like his coat.  I added some notes about how I might develop this composition.  In fact, I thought I might paint this up, but have not yet.  I thought of doing his fur in indigo.  He is a blue cat, after all.  And he revels in his blueness.  But in the end, charcoal seems to suit his impromptu portrait very well.  I liked this particular sketch and had it framed up, even with scribbles I had put on the page.   The title of this composition is "W".