Happy Easter 2012!

Cherry Blossom

Thought that I'd do something different this time and attached a photo I took myself of the trees outside the front of my house, which look great at the moment, but will only last for a couple of days...

The photo captures a moment, the same blossoms in this picture have probably fallen off the tree and died by now. Not to be pessimistic,but just to point out that nothing lasts forever, and that nothing seems as good as it was, or as it is remembered.

Equally though, the best things in life are not things, or at least, not in the material sense. I'm not even sure the best things in life are moments, to be honest. Feelings are a more accurate description, I think the best moments in life are defined by the feelings we attach to them, rather than the events themselves, therefore buying an ice cream or getting a new job or getting the exam result we wanted can all be linked due to the feeling we get from it.

Although, just for the record, I prefer the "I-just-got-the-exams-results-I-wanted" to the "I-just-brought-an-ice cream" feeling, but I do love ice cream :p

I think this rant is my mind subconsciously telling me to get back to revision, and re-focus on the long-term benefit that this will have...when I actually do something...

"The amateur practises until he gets it right; the professional until he never gets it wrong".

A cup of tea never fails to calm me....

A cup of tea never fails to calm me.... by nikigirl

I really, really love this image. I didn't even plan/ think about it, I just obsess over this shade of blue, so I put some objects of that colour together with some text and photos of an attractive model and voila, with a couple of effects and ever-present butterflies it actually turned out nice, one of my favourites I think.

Don't judge me by the fact that I'm posting so late :) I have A LOT to do at the moment, we're talking all kinds of coursework, homework, interview prep, driving lessons...wait....yes....I did just say it - INTERVIEW PREP!

Now of course I'm extremely excited at the prospect of an interview, and the free food/ accomodation (and I mean accomodation of the brilliant, beautiful, neo-classic/ gothic kind) but what makes me more anxious is the idea that I'll have to miss 4 days of revision before the mocks. And still have to do the work......all of those lessons I'll miss! (Not to mention my mum's 50th birthday :/)

Can't be helped, but I really am a busy little bee at the moment, and will be for the next 10 days, and then it's mock exams, and then the terrible waiting begins afresh! Oh my life....never mind, in one month it'll be Christmas again and all will be good in the world (how quickly it comes round!)

This week has been a contrast of very good and very bad occurences, and I'm deliberately posting this photo edit of London because Londoners are famous for their stamina, whatever happens they just keep going. They're survivors.

On the plus side I got my first ever university offer this week and am extremely pleased to be reassured so soon that I HAVE a place at university next year, as long as I get the grades, and I quite like this university, so they may even be my insurance choice! I'll keep waiting patiently for the others though...

On the downside I've had quite a few setbacks, disappointments and a lot of bad news today (and it's not over yet :( ) which has really brought me down from yesterday's high and thrown a real spanner in the works. I'm just so stressed, I don't even know where to start.

Looking at this photo reminds me of better times, when I seemed to have so much less on my mind at the end of summer. Remember what I said in the last post? Ironically now my friends finally have time for me I have so much schoolwork the thought of even taking a day and night off for the weekend makes me panic!

But I'll keep going, keep plodding along :) Now I have a university offer it's all about making the grades - what use would it be to quit now, when (whatever things look like at the moment) I'm ahead. All I need is a little strength and I'll do this. Here's to the hope that next week I'll be able to update in a better tone.

Have been out visiting more far off places :) here's a photo montage from Exeter, slightly more crowded than I'd like it but I think the black & white buildings work well, and the skyline is quite cool.

Random fact; in 1068 the city of Exeter surrendered after an 18-day siege from William the Conqueror's Norman forces after swearing allegiance with to the defeated house of Godwin (the Saxon Harold Godwinson's remaining family) 18 months after the Battle of Hastings.

London 2011

The City itself and it's 32 boroughs with approximately 2000 years of history (c.AD 43, originating as "Londinium")...I must be referring to London, one of the biggest Metropolitan areas in the world and a leading capital city of Europe in terms of fashion, entertainment, commerce and finance. London is also home to 43 universities putting it in the lead for higher education too, although I'm not sure I could handle the everyday hustle and bustle and live there myself!


This is my own photo I am proud to say, taken about a week ago with just a small edit - the phrase "Keep calm and carry on", associated with the British, reserved attitude and I thought, applicable to London in particular, and perhaps even to the stresses of everyday term-time life...

Quote from Samuel Coleridge's "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner", thought it fitted well with this picture, such a beautiful ship (I've been on it), such a haunting poem, and so appropriate for a day as rainy as it is here today - "water, water everywhere nor any a drop to drink" - another infamous quote.

The shades of blue in this my photo could, I think, almost make it appear painted...

So this is an edit of the place where I stayed in Rovinj! Beautiful isn't it? Anyway I'm off to Kent for the next 5 days (hence the early time of this update!) and can only dream of the kind of hot, sunny weather I'd gotten used to in Croatia :(

;) looks quite good considering the sun, clouds and sky are all edited, I think it could even look like a real photo - would you have guessed?

(ps., look again, the sun is impossibly high for the town to still be in so much darkness, and the clouds are far too low for real life! I still love the image though...)

I'm aware that it has been a while - but I am now free of AS exams! Now I can finally show you what has been getting me through them, and I have to say as soon as I saw the photograph with the water lily I knew I could work with it and am happy with the result! I even managed to incorporate a stamp with our lovely Queen Elzabeth II on it, adding to the vintage-type look I was trying to achieve :)

Edited the detail in this picture but did not take it :p, I just loved the idea of the fish in the bubble, the key, and finally the pebble-mesh background, which was blended with the original grain background of the photo I found :) It's all about the details, small print, fine lines, whatever you want to call it - much like life itself, it's the little things that really count.

Girly. Because I felt like it. It's been too long since I did any proper surreal stuff or cubism, for that matter, and this photo I found was too good to waste - I've always loved glass perfume bottles, especially coloured ones. They are the height of class :) still have Dior's "hypnotic poison" perfume I won at a raffle when I was about 10, and seriously did not know how expensive (and nice) perfume can be...

I'm now officially 17. It's not all that different from being officially 16 really, except you can imagine you're like Zac Efron from 17 Again, except this is in fact my first time of being 17. Oh well, not so similar then.

Spent the last three days in Cambridge University on a shadowing scheme, so excuse me if I'm a bit head-in-the-clouds, and yes, when I get time I will do some art with some of the photos I took around the colleges :) Happy February everyone!

Merry Christmas

Christmas collage! Well, it's more wintry than Christmassy but I still really like it, and yes, the gingerbread house is in fact a photo of a real gingerbread house! A big thanks to the beautiful site http://beautyineverything.com/ I look at the photos everyday, for inspiration for my art and just because they're such amazing photos!

It's absolutely freezing here and there's snow everywhere, have a great Christmas wherever you and a Happy New Year 2011!

*I won't be updating this blog for about 2/3 weeks as I'm going to stay with family the other side of the country after Christmas until the first week of the New Year.

Sorry for my apparent recent obsession with black & white, it'll stop soon, I promise, I just love the style, and by coincidence all of the images I got the ideas for were quite "old world" looking.

This montage is based on a strange dream I had, sort of like Alice in Wonderland, but slightly darker - and so I created this based on that, and the fact that I'm just liking the slightly gothic stuff at the moment, most of my previous work (on the last page under "Older posts") was really bright, I swear!

"We're all mad here" ;D

More on Spain. This time, the Botanical Gardens of Marimutra in Blanes are the focus of this picture, using more photos I took myself of the stunning sea views and bright flowers, it was like a Kew-Gardens-on-the-sea type place. Photography heaven!

Something borrowed, something blue, something urban, something new! Here's my work for today, originally I had a massive image of an entire brick wall with a park bench & everything, but then I decided to crop it to focus in on the butterfly and all the pattern work - looks good?

P.S, the "real" photographed flowers were taken by me in Kew gardens, haven't even looked at them since the end of my G.C.S.E year 10 project!

This is actually an edited photograph, the original photo was a close-up of the night sky (taken on holiday in Cyprus) with the moon being the only object in the shot, however, again using GIMP 2 I decided to make the picture a bit more interesting.

Note my obession with the "supernova" and "sparkle" effects :D