A departure from my journal art


I've been working feverishly the past couple days painting wild colors on 4 x 4 masonite panels.  I like the freedom of movement, and you know what a sucker I am for color!!!!  Haven't decided what to do with them yet.  I'm going to do something similar on a 12 x 12 and will post when that is done.

Collage Workshop


I was fortunate to take a workshop last week-end from Janis Marashlian.  She provided lots of images, papers, accessories, etc. and we put them to work in our collages.  I took pictures of the studio and the marvelous art hanging as well as a few collages of fellow classmates

And finally my piece....  The butterflies all around her head are Janis' idea.  I love my butterfly maiden!!

A Day in Encinitas


Mike and I spent a day in Encinitas visiting the Self Realization Fellowship Meditation Gardens (so quiet and beautiful) and window shopping.  Had a nice lunch at Thyme in the Ranch.  A couple pictures below:

 And beautiful koi swimming in the pond fed by a small waterfall

And finally lunch

My First Art Show


Lots of excitement around 
here.  These are some shots of a few of the entries in a recent 
city-sponsored, juried art show.
  My first show and my little women
 (12 x 12) were somewhat
 dwarfed by the large canvases.  It was a fun evening and important
 to me as I wanted to see how the process works.  The venue was Yoga Works, and all 
was done in a professional manner.
  We had the
 usual wine and cheese
 but also two gentlemen playing 
a cello and acoustic guitar.  
And best of all
 I sold my first piece of art - my little woman with the butterflies
 on her shoulder.  That is probably the most exciting part of the
 entire process.  It inspires me to do more on canvas!!  I seem to do most of my art in my journal
 as a journal take up a lot less room than canvas.  I have promised
 myself to dig out that large canvas and do something with it as well.

    
And finally my two little women

Artful Voyage in Mexico

Everywhere onboard ship there was great art.  I love this "crystal ball" which was atop the post of a railing.  Be sure to click on the image to see the magnificent detail.  

The two photos below were of art quite unique.  I had to snap the photos at an angle to avoid the flash bouncing back at me. One of these is silver twisted into all kinds of kitchen utensils. The other houses four ironing boards with collages on top.  I was quite taken with all of these.

Artful Voyage in Mexico with Tim Holtz

Our dinner group consisting of Sherry, myself, Karren, Linda and Lezlei.

Yours truly with Tim and Mario

We had wonderful classes.  A whole new world for me.  Lots of assemblage.  I work at the speed of a turtle, so didn't finish any of my projects.  If you want to see some great samples, look at Sherry's blog.  She has some great photos.    She spent hours in the studio which was set up for us with all kinds of supplies.  We could work there in the off hours.  If you have a chance to do one of Tim's cruises, by all means do so.  There were so many give-aways.  Those plus the instruction and projects were worth the price of the cruise.

Oh, and..... you can have as many desserts as you want, right Sherry????

  

Artful Voyage in Mexico with Tim Holtz

In port at Cabo San Lucas

And

And

Another ship in the harbor

The colors of Mexico

Pork for dinner anyone?

Three Days to Go

Only three days until we cruise with Tim Holtz to the Mexican Riviera.  Seven glorious days to relax and play.  Lots of workshops with Tim and Wendy Vecchi.  Hopefully there will be sunshine uninterrupted.  I'm taking my point and shoot digital and hoping to get some good photos of the colors of Mexico.  I find it interesting that my home is decorated in neutral tones (lots of white and off-white) and yet I use vibrant, wild colors in my art.  Is that indicative of a split personality?  I still have much to pack.  I don't know how anyone can pack ahead of time.  I don't own that many clothes.  I also don't want my clothes wrinkled anymore than can be helped.  So.... I'm always packing at the very last minute.  Oh, but I have my lists!  Invariably, though, I forget something.  The great thing about this cruise is I don't have to bring ANY art supplies with me.  Every last thing is supplied.  I was on Tim's website and looking at pictures of the masses of boxes that were being picked up to deliver to the ship.  Woa!!!!!  That's a lot of play power!  I've got my ATC's ready to go, and I'm excited!!!  

No posts for a week, but I'll have stuff to post when I get home.

Meantime here's my latest portrait.

She's got Betty Davis eyes!!!!   

A while back I did some paper bag art.  Here I've 
just added a transfer of my contemplative woman over 
a paper bag which already had 
some fun graphics on it.

I've been obsessed with faces lately, so here are a couple more.  This time I used markers and basically scribbled the faces.  It's nice to feel free and not try to make the face look like anyone.  

A little journal art for the day

Margo Makeover

I finished Margo today.  This could become addicting.  It's a great way to use your sketches over and over and have a different outcome.  I want to try a digital alteration using this sketch.  Just have to go to my Photoshop notes and decide what I want to do.  If you click on the image you can see more of the detail.  I'm also using some of my art images for notecards.  I have templates to use so I can print them off on blank notecard stock from Staples.  They make great gifts.  Who knows, maybe I'll soon open an Etsy store???

Paper Dolls

I got this idea from an article in CPS Mar/Apr issue.  Make a grayscale photo of one of your drawings and embellish.  It's like playing paper dolls.  Plus you can use your drawing/sketch over and over. The image on bottom is the beginning of another piece.  

Quick Sketch

This is a quick pen sketch of "Martha", and I do mean quick!! I colored with alcohol markers again not wanting the perfect look.

I honestly don't know where the time has gone. I'm in the process of cleaning out my studio of items I don't use. I have every issue of Somerset Studio, and I think it's time to part with a few years' worth. As most of you know we artists tend to hoard paper scraps, ephemera and found objects. It's amazing what I found when I started going through these things. I'm going to call the senior centers and see if I can donate some of my stuff. It's just a little too much. It's organized clutter but just the same it's clutter. Besides, it will leave room for new art supplies!!!!

Fun, fun, fun

I had some fun today playing with some new photos of my

granddaughter. I used the splatter mask courtesy of Roben-Marie of Paper Bag Studios on the "angel". I used a piece of my

art work for the background of the other photo plus Jessica Sprague's

paper frame overlay.

Miscellaneous Collage - Journal Art

I've been doing a little journal art the last few days as well as my faces. This first one was done with glimmer mists, acrylic ink sprays, acrylic paint, stencils

Acrylic, gel pens, markers, transparencies.

Acrylic, stencil, clip art, old pages from Physicians' Desk Reference.

Playing some more with texture tools of my own making, wrapping paper, dress pattern tissue and miscellaneous images.

And finally this.

Martha

Martha is done in graphite in my journal. I'm going to use the same technique of covering with a skim of molding paste and then painting. It works well because I can still see the drawing under the dried molding paste.

Jane

Her Name is Margo

Margo now has hair and she looks a little more real. Continuing the faces and painting. I added teal and burgudy streaks to her hair to show that she is a "today" girl.

Practice!!!

I started this practice with the oval shape. She does look a bit

bald but hair can come later.

Practice makes perfect? I don't care about being perfect, I just

want to get better with faces. I've promised myself to practice daily. I won't bore you with all the really "bad" attempts, but here is a sample of step one.

I've just finished my photo editing class with Jessica Sprague

so it's time to get back to more art. I'm planning to

take her class for photography with an SLR digital camera. That starts in September so I'll most likely be posting photos while I'm in

that class.

Have a great day!! You're awesome!!!!

Portrait 2

Second in my portrait series. I found this one more difficult to execute and I believe it was because I used heavy body acrylics instead of the fluid acrylics. DJ Pettit instructs to draw the image, then use a palette knife to add a skim coat of molding paste. When that is dry, paint with fluid acrylics. When the molding paste dries, you can see your drawn image through it and paint over. I want to try another with oil painstix and see what results I get. I also think that I have some difficulty painting intuitively. I still try to get it "just right" and that spoils the overall effect. So practice, practice...... I'm going to give Pam Carriker's face technique a try too. If I could paint a bit more intuitively I believe my ladies would have more character. On the other hand, I like their primitive quality. It just depends on the outcome one is seeking. DJ has some great work on her blog. Looks like she has used Lesley Riley's TAP paper to do an image transfer on fabric for a quiltie to be published in Cloth, Paper, Scissors.

Back to Getting My Hands Dirty

I really enjoyed my two weeks of Photoshop but I'm finally getting back to art with the paintbrush. I love faces and so I plan on doing a series because I really need the practice. For this one I tried D. J. Pettit's technique. I'd sure love to take a class from her. I guess Suzi Blu does a great online class too. Jennifer just finished her class. Hop on over to her blog to see her fantastic results!! I'm somewhat intimidated by faces and can never seem to get the eyes right, at least to please me.....