Been Painting Again...

June 2011 - 8 x 8 canvas

I started this little canvas about 2 months ago and didn't get time to touch it again until this last weekend.  I really had a nice weekend and enjoyed the relaxation of no tv, no computer, just hours and hours of painting in a couple of sessions.  I was inspired by a painting I watched artist Sharon Tomlinson paint.  She does such a good job with faces and mine sure need some work.  I followed her method of applying text from a book as a base, then gluing down pics of flowers from gardening catalogs to surround the central area.  Then I sketched in the woman shown.  Everything, including the flowers are painted over with acrylic paints.  Not too sure my flowers look like they did originally, but having a picture to start with gives you a range of colors and some placement.  If you get time, go watch some of Sharon's YouTube videos on "Morning Art".  She has a gentle voice and does a great job of showing her process step by step.

Journaling (cont. 4)

Well these are some of my latest pages. Anyone who knows me knows I love the Wizard of Oz and now all the prequels to that story written by Gregory Maguire, like "Wicked", "Son of a Witch" and "A Lion Among Men". So of course, I had to have an "Oz" page in my journal. Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West is my favorite character....

The whole swine flu outbreak and the concern over it becoming a pandemic has had me really worried, so doing a spread on it helped me deal. The middle set of pages are a blatant plagarism (or is that only when it is the written word?) of a Zettiology artist/goddess - Teesha Moore, art work. I'm not intending to sell it or anything, so hopefully my "copying" won't be frowned upon. I really just admired her style and wanted to try my hand at it. I'm also NOT a fan of orange, so that seemed the perfect color for me to force myself to use. I really like how it turned out. Of course I had to do a bunch of doodling in the dresses and in the edge borders, but that is just me. Any chance to doodle.... Trying this taught me a number of different things and I love, love, love, her style of writing in her journal pages. So fun and interesting.

Art Journaling (cont. 3)

The copper cobweb page is a tip in. Something I had never tried, but had admired in other artist's journals. The delphiniums are from my garden and yes - they were really that blue Decided to try painting some on the reverse of the pages. I also tried my hand at a crackle technique on these pages too. See the yellow peeking through the navy, night sky? On the pages with the painted flowers, you can see, (if you click on the picture to see the larger size) that I glued down some tiny blue/green and copper round bits. Those bits are actually the waste left over from computer boards being created and holes punched. My sister Cindy, and BIL Kelly, kindly brought these (and other types) to me after learning that I used all sorts of leftovers to create art. They told me that what looks like copper is, in some cases, actually GOLD. Whoo hoo! Maybe I should insure my book..... :-) The lime green page is one I did after my baby sister, Carrie, told me she was considering becoming a Druid. So of course I had to investigate it and learn what I could about it. Sounds like a perfect type of religion for her. It reveres all that is of the earth - wind, sky, water, trees, animals. And it's primary tenet seems to be doing good things for and to one another. Be the good example you want others to be. Very interesting.

Art Journaling (cont. 2)

I had to journal at least one page about Obama. I had admired him for several years ever since seeing him on a talk show. He just made so much sense and was very unlike the normal "politician" that we are all sick of. Was so tickled when he actually decided to run for President and even more thrilled when he won! Hope that he keeps his word now and helps our country get back to being the highly esteemed nation it once was. The page with the lady in blue with the waving hair is my attempt at doing the style of art journaling that I've seen Susan Shie do on her journal quilts. I knew I'd never do a whole quilt like she does, so took her style to my art journal pages instead. It was fun, but (and I know my friends won't believe this of me) way more detailed and intense than I normally like to do! Give me a mindless doodle any day!

Susie art

Have you ever seen the wonderful, folksy quilts created by
Ohio artist, Susan Shie? She calls her art "outsider" and boy does she have a definitive style all her own! She has been "out there" and way ahead of the pack for as many years as I've been quilting (25+ oh my!) When I was doing all the traditional quilting stuff, Susie was making some fabulous pieces with super heavy quilting, thick battings, and lots and lots of embroidery, beading and mirrors. Now that I'm into some of the more "artsy" quilts, Susie has moved on ahead again and is creating huge narrative journals on her quilts. They are still very folksy in form with whimsical figures and pictures all over them. And Susie's painting them with the use of an airpen, which is similar to an airbrush, but with far more control. Anyway, I just love her journal quilts but know I don't want to invest in the equipment or time to do it her way, so I sort of improvised and created a small 8 x 10 size piece on card stock. It was my friend's birthday so I decided to do it using all the "aging" quotes I could find and turned it into a birthday card for her by scanning and reducing it to a card size afterwards. It was a lot of fun to try.

Sample Art

Here is a samples I did using some of the new rubber stamps from

Art Girl Designs. The stamps are deeply etched red rubber and come on sheets

that are 6" x 9" or there abouts.

New Stamp Designs

I'm so proud to announce that my good friend, Dawn Burrows, who is a talented graphic designer by day and an equally awesome mixed media artist by night, has just produced her first two sheets of rubber stamps! She's selling them via her Etsy site so please go check them out! Some parts of these designs began life as her family photos, but they then underwent a lot of tweaking and fluffing to get them just right. LOVE the little girl reaching for the star and the little boy sitting on the building blocks. There are some great architectural pieces too that will make for some really great ATC's as well as greeting cards. I'll be posting some pics in the next day or two of what I'm doing so far with these stamps.

Rainbow Swirls - Hand Dyed Paper

Finally! I managed to work out the details and technique to something that I can consistently reproduce and have begun selling this beautiful, rainbow swirled paper in my Etsy shop! It's been a long haul and one of the biggest lessons was figuring out that not all glossy cardstocks are created equal. After much trial and error I've found a brand that lets me turn out some of the most vivid and luscious colors you'll find. I've packaged them in packs of 5 sheets - 8-1/2" x 11" as that seems to be the most frequently requested size. Check it out. And let me know what you think. I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this paper! And if you buy some, I'd REALLY love to see what you do with it! I think it will be great in cards, ATC's,

journals, book covers, scrapbooking, you name it. Now if only I can bring myself to cut into it!