Art images – Summerhouse Art

Will’s Been Busy

Posted on July 27, 2020July 27, 2020 by Helen

Will has been quite busy lately. A benefit, I suppose, of the times, since we’ve been staying home. As I mentioned in an earlier post, he’s been reacquainting himself with an old art form he loved in the past, Lino cuts. And it’s been fun, fun, fun since then. First, he had all the fun researching and finding new tools, paper and all the other accoutrements of making lino cuts again. Then, when everything was ready to start, the fun of actually doing this art form again. And it really was like riding a bike for him. Printmaking was one of his majors back in the Art College days. Lino cuts are one the easiest to set up. No expensive presses needed, for one. Although, I am aware that he does from time to time look for a nice small, vintage press to add to his studio. He also set up a whole new Etsy shop called WillBushellFineArt featuring his own work. These lino cuts are small, just 4 x 4 inches or approx 10 x 10 cm, done on acid free rice paper. Very easy to mat up and frame. Plus, he also set up a new Web site of all his work over the years, which you can find at Willbushellfineart.com It features an archive of paintings and drawings from 70’s to the present. Hope you enjoy.

"Much Later" lino cut, by Will Bushell, summerhouseart.com

"Ray's Way", lino cut, by Will Bushell, summerhouseart.com

"Moon Flow", lino cut, by Will Bushell, summerhouseart.com

"Pudding Proof", lino cut, by Will Bushell, summerhouseart.com

New Scarves on Red Bubble

Posted on July 29, 2015August 20, 2015 by Helen

Royal Jester Scarf by Will Bushell, on Red Bubble

We’ve been adding new products on some of our Print on Demand sites. Red Bubble has come up with a lovely scarf and we’ve been having a bit of fun applying some of our designs to them. As you can see, they are HUGE and would look lovely wrapped or tied. The fabric is soft and light. Here is Red Bubble’s description.

Large 140cm square ( or almost 56 in x 56 in.) so a lovely size for wrapping and tying.
Full print is visible on the front and reverse
Microfiber polyester with a slightly transparent effect
Hand wash only. Do not dry clean or tumble dry.

Another example is my design Spread Sheet Tango on both a scarf and also matching Pencil Skirt.

Spreadsheet Tango scarf by Helen Bushell on Red Bubble

Pencil Skirt,Spread sheet tango by Helen Bushell on Red Bubble

Then another of my Painted Daisies design….

Painted Daisy scarf by Helen Bushell on Red Bubble

And also of a Collage done by Will titled “You May Know One”

Collage scarf by Will Bushell on Red Bubble — “You May Know One” Collage by William Bushell on Red Bubble

and another lovely collage by Will, Tuesday Afternoon, which is really a favourite of mine. But we hope you’ll have a look at all the other designs we’ve posted too. And if you see something you would like made into a product we haven’t done, just drop us a line.

"Tues Afternoon" collage scarf by Will Bushell on Red Bubble — “Tues Afternoon” collage scarf by Will Bushell on Red Bubble

Just a few more products on our Society 6 store

Posted on June 19, 2015June 19, 2015 by Helen

We’re really enjoying Print on Demand these days. Such fun way of getting our artwork out there at affordable prices and good quality too. We really got excited this week because Society 6 has come up with “all over print T-shirts”. So now you can have a design all over the T instead of just a little design on the front. Plus, we thought, may as well try out some leggings too.

We’ve been busy adding more products on our Society 6 store. I can never get over how a little sketch can take on a whole new personality once you put it on other items….

Take this little sketch I did on a scrap of spreadsheet paper. Just having fun with pencil crayons and some felt pens. Looks quite different on a pillow or a T-shirt

And a couple of my paintings, one rather tropical and the other an abstract of our garden take on a whole new look on T’s.

Will took a border from a card I’d done years ago and gave it a whole new spin. I do like it on leggings…

and here’s how it looks as a T shirt in lilac. It really looks good as a shower curtain too. Check it out and many other designs on our shop on Society 6. We’ll be adding more designs to the new products as we can.

We’re putting our work online!

Posted on May 1, 2015August 20, 2015 by Helen

Will and I have been looking at our artworks in a whole new way lately. As a couple we’ve produced quite a lot of work in the form of paintings, collages, mosaics, drawings and photographs. We’ve been looking online lately and wondering how these artworks would look on other objects. So we’ve started opening online shops on various Print on Demand sites and having some fun seeing how our works look on things like pillows, iPad skins, totes and mugs, etc. There’s a huge selection.

Here is Helen’s painting of Abstract branches on a pillow

pink-branches Helen Bushell -Society6 and also on an iPad skin…

pink-branches-ipad-Society 6 And Will’s collage as a tote bag

&-tote-Society 6

and a mug.

&-mug-Society 6

And we think they’re kind of fun! The images shown here are on products in our Summerhouse Art Shop on Society 6. Society 6 has a great reputation as a good quality printer that really gives great customer service and promotes artists too. We hope you’ll have a look, since these and other images are ready to be printed as regular prints, printed canvas, tote bags to even larger items like shower curtains and duvet covers.

As we expand our images and shops, I’ll be updating on the blog so the latest new images are here too.

Playing with Scanner Photography on a Sunday Afternoon

Posted on March 9, 2014January 11, 2015 by Helen

I’ve been having a lot of fun with Pinterest, saving all sorts of lovely images that inspire me. In fact, I may be having too much fun. Please do feel free to have a look at my Pins if you’re into Pinterst. Anyway, I keep bumping into works done by artists I’ve never heard of before and being introduced to new ideas to explore. Now I’ve heard of scanner photography before but, I just recently found out that one of the first to play with it was Harold Feinstein. Worth looking up and enjoying.

Anyway, we should have been outside pruning the Kiwi, but I got distracted showing Will the scanner photos I’d pinned. Which of course led me to trying it out and I soon had the dried Hydrangea blooms on the scanner. Will found a handy black box to cover them in and off we went.

Then we scanned the dried Amaryllis blooms …..

Which led to layering them all in Photoshop….

Which led to wanting to add even more… a lovely silk patchwork scarf perhaps?

And now, a first try at layering all three images…

Then a second try where some of my interest in patchwork and quilting started to come into play…

And last, with some subtle changes, creating a whole new patchwork with all the images. We could have gone on but we kind of like it as it is now.

Amaryllis Blooms – So Beautiful From Start to Faded Finish

Posted on January 21, 2014January 11, 2015 by Helen

Every Christmas I’ve always indulged in growing an amaryllis bulb. Sometimes I’ve been lucky with old bulbs sending up new flowers but this year, all I saw coming up was leaves and more leaves. So, when I spied a lovely plant already in bud in the grocery store, on sale, I swept it up with the groceries and carefully hauled it home.

And it was so lovely! And quite prolific! All in all, eight blooms in a most luscious, gorgeous scarlet.

But the show was not over, for a couple of artists, when the blooms began to fade.

The lines and furls of it’s spent blossoms were quite gorgeous too.

And when they fell off I carefully transferred those beautiful spent blooms to the window sill to keep company with a very old Hydrangea bloom, a collection of Buddha ornaments and some blue and white pottery. Very nice company indeed.

Playing with Paper, Scissors and Glue Sticks on Rainy Morning

Posted on April 26, 2012June 13, 2020 by Helen

pluto

I’ve not been posting much but I have been working…..really. I won’t even show a photo of my studio..way too much stuff going on but none of it resolved. But the other day, at the kitchen table, good music on the CD player and a few old mags found at garage sales last summer I had a little fun. Here’s my rather over the top collage of crazy color. Nothing quite like playing with glue sticks, scissors and recycled papers and mags. I’ve got another one waiting, still to do. Oddly, I’m finding this a good exercise for generating ideas for my other studio work. I may just play again this morning. My motto: Have Fun EVERY DAY!

Garage Sale Loot, A Russian Tall Ship and a Real Find – Paxton Chadwick’s Illustrations

Posted on August 8, 2011January 13, 2015 by Helen

Last Saturday, unlike my last entry, was the most perfect summer day ever, sunny, warm and just generally full of promise. A good day for garage sailing.

I always have this little superstition that you must find something at the first sale or it won’t be a good day. OK I made up that superstition myself but it often proves true. Garage sailing, as I’m fond of saying is a lot like fishing, sometimes you catch something, and sometimes no luck at all. If we don’t find much I just pocket that weeks garage sale allotment and save it for the next week. The first stop yielded three big pots of plants for the garden at $1 a pot! Now that’s a good start. And we were off to find even more good loot.

And speaking of fishing we found these colorful lures, which will make a nice present for Eric and Scarlette, the avid fishers of the family. Personally, I just like the colors.

How do you like the Garage Sale sign at the top of today’s post? Oddly enough this sign was for a garage sale to raise funds for a group that rescues street cats. Anything to do with cats is something I’ll support and I found a lovely Cat bag and a book of Cats in Art cards. That’ll make a lovely gift for some cat lover don’t you think?

We found a garage sale given by a fellow who claimed that he “used to go garage sale-ing”. How is it possible to be a former garage sailor? I can’t imagine stopping. It’s hard enough to wait for spring and the season for it.

Like a true bargain hunter he had picked up these wooden rings from a friend who was closing up a shop. No idea what they were for… we all guessed for macramé. But they were so lovely that I had to take a couple of photos.

And also a pic of this ornament, which I suppose is supposed to be a Sword Fish. But just a pic, didn’t buy it. I’ve been trying to leave something for others, you know.

Then as we drove on to James Bay by way of the Harbour we spied sitting moored a HUGE three masted tall ship. So of course, we had to go and check it out. Turns out it was a Russian Training ship in port just for a few days. They were giving free tours to anyone who wanted to check it out. It was called the Pallada. I’ve left the cars in the photo just so you can get an idea of the size of this ship.

In James Bay we found a few more treasures. This little arrangement of garage sale loot shows the vintage colored dominoes I found. We played Dominoes later that night and I must admit Bill won 4 times in a row. A rematch is imminent. Plus I found a glass cream and sugar set, which reminded me of my childhood for some reason. The birds were from the same sale as the dolphin pictured earlier and may feature someday in a mosaic. The cat card is from the book of Cats in Art cards found earlier. This is my fave card in the bunch.

Also found these cement pillars which will end up mosaic-ed soon, I hope and become rather nice plant pot stands.

To get an idea, here’s what happened to a chimney we did years ago.

And yet another little arrangement of treasures. The bedside table will I think get redone and painted, but I’ll leave the drawer which has the greatest texture. We had to snap up these vintage lamps and clock too. Bill is planning to rewire the clock. He loves these old clocks and this one has a most lovely shape.

In Fairfield, I had to snap these colorful buckets of flowers. This store has always been here, a spot I always slowed down to enjoy when walking home years ago when we lived in this area .

But now, for the best, which I have saved for last. For those of you who already know of Paxton Chadwick, this won’t be a surprise. You may enjoy reading a bit more about him, since not only was he a very talented illustrator but oddly enough a Communist in England. What I found out about him could only be found on Communist or Labour blogs. I’d never heard of him before, but when I found this little beat up book illustrated by him I was enchanted. They have the look of printmaking to them, almost wood block. The detail is fantastic and the colors, well, just enjoy. Now I’ll have to find other books done by him for Penguin Books in England so many years ago. This book was published in 1952. So I leave you enjoy just a few of these fabulous illustrations. I did find a few more illustrations here on Google images. And all this enjoyment for only 50 cents!