Ruins

Ruins

With apologies to "The piano man"

It's 3  o'clock in the morning
It's still as black as pitch
I want to get back to sleeping
But I got the "Inspiration Itch"!

Many years back, I used to laugh at my husband for keeping a notebook and pen beside the bed, now I find myself doing it too.

One of my recent themes for my Postcards was ruins, and oh dear! my itch has come up with some crazy ideas.

As usual, my ambitions have exceeded my capabilities, and many ideas remain on the back burner for some time in the future.
As you know, Australia  is not ancient in regards to European civilisation, so we don't have many "exciting" ruins to emulate.
Initially,  I had ideas of depicting ruined homesteads or shearing sheds, but found it difficult to reproduce either corrugated iron, or timber slabs for the walls........I could find no commercial fabrics, so that idea will have to wait until I paint or scan my own fabrics.

I finally decided to use the silhouette of a spired building, which could represent a ruined church or abbey, a castle, or even a flour mill.
Initially I planned on using black EXPANDAPRINT to add  both texture and depth to the building;
Unfortunately, I found the paste too thick to manipulate for the appearance of bricks or stonework.
Similarly, cutting polystyrene trays to represent stone work was too blky for use in a 6 by4 inch format.
I finally decided on heavy duty Lutradur, painted black and with touches of Xpandaprint to add texture.
I placed Angelina film behind the openings/windows, to represent the sun shining through the ruins, and finally, I couched knitting fibres with added beading for flowers or fruit to not only soften the silhouette, but also to add some interest to the scene