far out, dude . . .

far out, dude . . ., originally uploaded by billbalance.

Billbalance rock balances are amazing!

Leaf Mosaic

Leaf Mosaic, originally uploaded by JRT Pickle.

We had a lovely quiet day at Clougha in Lancashire, creating land art. I have not done any since doing the mud spiral and I looked forward to doing something. The weather is very warm for the time of year, summer seems to have arrived early and we will not complain!

I collected some red, green, yellow leaves and some lovely mud from the river bank, it is great mud, very thick and sticky perfect for land art. Mud varies a lot on where you get it, it can be dark black to a horrible brown and the stickiness of it also varies. I should write a list of different types of mud!

Now I did use scissors to cut the leaves into little squares, I don't feel this is land art cheating even though some might think so, it is just another way of using natural materials for art. I found very nice triangular bit of rock, created my mud square and then spent quite a few hours putting on the coloured leaves!

I like the end result, the red leaves after a few hours turned brown, I will go back to the sculpture later and see if it has changed even more.

Acorn Cup Mud Spiral

Acorn Cup Mud Spiral, originally uploaded by JRT Pickle.

This is a sculpture I made on the 19th March 2011. It was a lovely warm spring day and we decided to go over to Thythe Barn Wood and make a sculpture there. Richard was busy making something and I sat for ages on a log soaking up the atmosphere and letting my artistic juices get going. I noticed a small acorn cup on the ground and had a look for more, but I could only find the one! Then mud sprung to my mind, we always have some sort of container with us and I ditched the lunch into the rucksack and went looking for mud, using a teaspoon for a shovel!! I found some but it was a bit thick, water from our drink supply came in handy, actually there is a stream at the wood but it is a couple of minutes down to it and a couple of minutes back up! Drink bottle was easier! Making the mud more fluid and seeing the wonderful smooth plain beech tree trunks I set to making my little acorn cup spriral. My sculpture/photo also got into Flickr Explore on 25th March, how pleased was I!