Corrugated Cardboard Art: Christmas Garlands

I love making gifts at Christmas, if I can think of (or find) good ideas. This year's inspiration came from Jessica Sporn's fabulous Holiday Garland Tutorial. As soon as I watched her tutorial, I knew what I would make for gifts this year. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to order her lovely stencils and had to go ahead on the project without them.

I had so much fun making these garlands! They basically consist of a series of mixed media collages done on a corrugated cardboard substrate. The backgrounds are watercolor and/or fluid acrylic with stamping and other embellishments. I made my own very simple stencils and masks for the tree shapes this time, but would love to try out Jessica's beautiful stencils with some Christmas projects next year. Here are some photos of the individual collages as well as the finished garlands. I'm so excited with how they turned out. Thank you Jessica, for so generously sharing this great idea!

Hmmm... I did my own lettering on the first set of collages for my 'test garland' and decided not to do lettering on the rest. Plus, it gave me a good excuse to keep one of the garlands for myself! 

I ended up making four garlands (one for myself, of course) and one for each of my sisters. Making gifts like this is such a win-win situation. I get to do what I enjoy most while making something special and unique for the people I love. It sure beats rushing around in the stores, looking for gifts to buy. I hope you all had a chance to slow down and create during the busy holiday and that 2014 is a year full of time to paint and create!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today. I always appreciate your comments.

Tea Time with Tracey

Today's post is dedicated to Tracey Fletcher King, a wonderful artist and storyteller who shares ups and downs of everyday life in beautiful color at her blog. I first learned about Tracey through Paint Party Friday and look forward to her lovely artwork and laugh-out-loud humor every time I visit her blog. In fact, I secretly wish that not only could I paint as well as her, but that I could also be even half as funny, (OK, even a quarter as funny would be nice).

Sadly, this year has been a challenging one for Tracey, as she is battling cancer. So today the Paint Party Friday community is having a virtual tea party in her honor. My contribution is a still life painting in acrylic that I started while taking Table Top Drawing and Painting with Diane Culhane and finished(?) earlier this week. I decided it would fit the tea party theme nicely and hopefully add a bit of cheer to the party! Something about painting in acrylic sets my inner critic in high gear, but I am determined to get better at it. I find that using color is not always so easy, nor is striking a balance between realism and whimsy as I was aiming for here.

Thank you for being such a wonderful inspiration to us all, Tracey! I hope that you enjoy the holiday season with your family, and that this coming year is full of renewed health and energy for you.

Thank you also to Kristin and Eva for continuing to host Paint Party Friday and provide the opportunity to share our art with such an amazingly supportive and inspiring group of artists.

A week of table top drawing and painting

Three Vases
colored pencil drawing on black paper

Do you ever set limits for yourself that you later realize are somewhat arbitrary and perhaps more than a little silly? I seem to be good at that one. Case in point -- for a long time, I've had the idea that I am not interested in still life drawing and painting. Maybe it's because I had to do so many still life drawings of boring subjects (cones, balls, cubes) in drawing classes long ago. Anyway, because I enjoyed Diane Culhane's Between Speech and Silence Class last summer, I couldn't resist signing up for her latest class, "Table Top Drawing and Painting."

We've been drawing what's on our dinner table in our sketch books, gathering up fun items to draw from around our homes and in general having a fantastic time with what I used to think was boring. I'm seeing more things around me every day to draw and paint.

This painting, done in acrylic on gessoed watercolor paper is giving me hope that I am making progress with acrylics. Diane is teaching us to glaze, using gel medium, leading to some beautiful transparency and luminosity.

I'll be sad for this class to come to an end, but thrilled with the new inspiration it's given me to have fun with drawing and painting the things around me in my everyday life.

Thanks for stopping by! I always appreciate your comments.

Cityscape, Wabi-Sabi Style

Partial Clearing
mixed media on 8" x 8" canvas

In the wabi-sabi style, textures are rough, colors are subdued and mystery is admired. That's what I had in mind while working on this painting. For texture, I pressed wire mesh into modeling paste. I hadn't used modeling paste previously and was surprised at how long it takes to dry! But the texture is great. I also have some wonderful, gauzy paper that looks so beautiful in collage. I'm not sure if I'm finished yet with this one or not -- I'd like to build up the layers of paint toward the top, but I don't want to over do it, or ruin what I already am liking about this piece.  

Thanks so much for stopping by -- I always appreciate your comments!

The Evolution of a Gel Print

This story begins here, with a few solid colors printed on a piece of watercolor paper.

There were so many things I liked about this original print. The colors are soothing and the overall composition is quite nice. I could have stopped here and been happy. In fact, it may be fair to say I should have stopped here, or at least been a bit more cautious as I proceeded. But as you can see, I forged madly ahead with handmade stencils and more passes on the plate until I ended up here:

Yikes! This definitely falls into the it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time category. Even so, I really love how the bottom half came out. As I looked more at this print, I decided it had a split personality and I wasn't sure what to do to make everything work together. So, I cropped my favorite parts, ending up with three smaller pieces.

The beauty of printing on watercolor paper, is that it's sturdy enough for collage. I ended up doing a lot of collage on this part of the print.

 

There was a lot I liked in this section, but I wasn't so happy with the red and gold, so again collage came to the rescue!

And finally, my favorite part of the original print:

For a very process-oriented artist, as I tend to be, this is such a satisfying and enjoyable way to work. 

I'm linking this to Carolyn Dube's Colorful Gelli Print Party and to Paint Party Friday. Check them both out to see all of the wonderfully creative things people are doing with paint! Thank you so much for visiting my blog!  I always appreciate your comments.

Twilight Smile -- mixed media portrait

Twilight Smile
mixed media on paper
9" x 12"

  

This is one of the faces I painted for the 29 faces challenge (Face 7).  My obsession in this painting was creating layers - layers of stenciling, collage, stamping, washes until I was ready to draw a face. I did use a reference as I drew this woman, but I didn't worry too much about getting an exact likeness. I've doodled faces for most of my life, but I find that sometimes looking at real faces when I draw really helps me with getting the details and expression right. This woman's crooked half smile really appealed to me!

I'm also sharing this with Paint Party Friday.  Check it out to see some wonderful art and join in the fun. Thanks so much for visiting!!!

"In the Distance" a Wabi-Sabi Landscape

In the Distance
acrylic on 8" x 10" canvas

In 2011, I had the good fortune to take a workshop with Serena Barton in Portland which focused on her interpretation of the wabi-sabi concept in encaustic. I blogged about my experience that day in an earlier post. At the time, I was completely enthralled by the wax, and yet as time has passed, I find myself thinking about wabi-sabi again and again. I even have a journal I started after that workshop that I use specifically for contemplating wabi-sabi.

According to Serena, "Wabi-Sabi is an aesthetic, a state of mind, a mix of emotions, and a way of perceiving life. It embraces cycles of change, including life and death. Wabi-Sabi values the seasoned, well-worn, accidental, and imperfect. It includes the sorrow of change and loss, as well as the acceptance of these." Wabi-Sabi colors are muted and textures are rough. If you think of a flower as it is just beginning to turn brown at the edges, you can get a feel for Wabi-Sabi. To me, it includes beauty, longing, mystery, and depth -- all things that appeal to me in art and life, and that I hope to create in my work.

I did this painting after reading Serena's new book, Wabi Sabi Art Workshop. It was actually an unsuccessful painting I'd started earlier, so I decided to paint over, creating more layers and textures in the process.

I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday. Go check it out and see all of the wonderful art that's been created this week. Thanks so much for stopping by! I always appreciate your comments.

Identity Crisis

We all know adults who who still don't know who they want to be when they grow up. In fact, I find myself in that category from time to time.  When it comes to my art, I seem to be the artist who doesn't know what she wants to do, or conversely, I'm an artist who wants to do it all! At some point, though, it's time to focus more, to settle down and choose my own style. Or is it? I've been painting a lot lately, which is great. But a quick look at what I've worked on over this past week shows that I am clearly all over the place with my art!!

This is a page from an altered board book I started last spring while taking Carla Sonheim's "Flower Crazy Class." The technique involves using collage, gesso, watercolor and pencil. I love doing flowers, watercolor, drawing and feel like I could just keep doing these crazy flowers for the rest of my life and never get bored! 

Then I decided to try out the same technique, but with a different subject, resulting in this whimsical piece.

I really love integrating collage with my drawing and painting skills, but I also still love doing 'pure' collage. Before I knew, it, I'd done this little collage.

And then, to further complicate things, I've been working on this abstract acrylic painting! 

So, as you can see, I really am not very focused in what I'm doing. Following my whims is certainly fun, but is it wise? Is it important to settle on one style?

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your comments are always appreciated.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

It's been a flower crazy spring for me, ever since taking Carla Sonheim's wonderful online class in March. I've been doing more work with the gesso and watercolor technique, sticking primarily with imaginary flowers.

This one is actually a close up from an altered board book I've been working on. I've been doing collage before the gesso layer and I love the way it looks.

And here you can see the complete spread of crazy flowers.

I really love drawing flowers. I always have. But today, I decided it was time to branch out with this technique.

And before I knew it, this little bird stopped by for a visit.