What I'm Working On

I've been out of the loop here for a while.  I took an acrylic class in Pasadena from Chris Cozen.  It was a busy class all day long and lucky for the students -- there were only fifteen of us.  Chris showed us how to get the most from the Golden line - fluid acrylics, various mediums, the new open acrylics and the air brush acrylics.  The new open acrylics are terrific for monoprints.  Mine looks like this.

From this plate I made a couple prints and used them as collage pieces 

  This is certainly not the  most exciting art work here.  But then Chris said our class was technique driven and we would not go home with a finished project. I learned so much in this class.

Oh, and the airbrush paints are to die for!!!  They are so highly pigmented, the colors are dazzling.  They are almost like a watercolor ink but much more stable.  I had never used them.  That's what I used on the above collage.

Chris teaches online classes with Julie Prichard.  Check out the workshops to see if any tantalize your muse.  I'm definitely signing up for at least one and maybe a couple more.  They are really affordable.  

I'm Home

I'm back.........

home, that is.

I had a few fun days in Santa Barbara.  Visited the Mission Santa Barbara

and spent some time at the wharf.  Such a pretty marina and beach.

Love the color of these kayaks all stacked up together.

We didn't do this but I wish we had.  Lobster sounds so good right now.

Had some wonderful meals - seafood and delicious wine from Santa Barbara Winery.  Also shopped up and down State Street.  Purchased

some unique tea from Teavana and some little ramekins

which were on sale at Sur Le Table.  It's not as if I don't have that store here, but I don't make it a point to go there.

Edge Tutorial

For those of you with Photoshop Elements

here's a little tutorial on how to get these edges.  Those with Photoshop can get this effect with layer masks.  This is an easier way for PSE users.  The

possibilities are endless with various filters.

I used a layer fill with color so it would show better on my white blog background.

To Bokeh or Not?

I've been experimenting.....

with bokeh textures.  The painting features a transfer of a woman's face in prayer/contemplation.  The only processing I did was add the bokeh texture.  While they are not effective on everything I think they are a nice addition to this art.

I keep trying them on lots of images, so there will probably be a rash of my images that have been bokeh'd in the future.  

DO YOU BOKEH?