Merry Christmas!

Wishing all a blessed and joyful Christmas.



This year I made monoprints with a little added splattering since I had so much fun with it at Art and Soul. I love how each one is a little different.



On another note I have a big wall in my foyer that I've been trying to figure out what to do with. Found some picture shelves at IKEA and made an art gallery out if it. That part was Mom's idea and I wanted something that would work for changing art. Hopefully I will get myself in gear this year and sell some of it.



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Having a blast...

So a little catch up on class projects this week.
Monday - Gelatin Monoprinting













Tuesday - Wabi Sabi Encaustic





Tuesday night - bracelet using copper and cut up gift cards


Wednesday and Thursday - making papers and Wabi Sabi collage









Wednesday night - Monoprinting collage





Just a wee bit tired but having fun and making new friends. Off to bed to start a little fresher tomorrow.

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Play Date...

Today I managed to set out to find the hotel gym and get in some exercise.  I'm such a good girl!  After a shower, leisurely breakfast and leisurely morning, Erin picked me up to take me to her house to meet her lovely family and see all her artwork.  After the grand tour we settled into Erin's studio to have some play time.  Erin worked on a piece she started before that is turning into a graffiti type and looks awesome.  This picture doesn't do it justice.

Erin gave me a canvas board so I could play too and I had a blast playing with modeling paste, a rug grip as a stencil and some fluid acrylics.  I also played with some of her inks to make the circles.

During our play time we were also joined by her two dogs and two of her four cats.  I've been missing my cats so it was nice to get to pet all her furry kids.  Her human children are cool too and it was a lovely afternoon.  Erin's husband made us a delicious dinner of chicken piccata, mashed potatoes and caprese with their home grown tomatoes, I'm such a bad photographer these days.  I should have snapped a picture of the crew at the dinner table and the awesome spread.  Erin's family is such a pleasure and it was a thoroughly lovely afternoon.

Now, to pull together all the supplies I will need for my class tomorrow which involves creating fabrics and papers with mono printing.  Can't wait!

Portland, Oregon...

Landed in Portland last night to attend Art & Soul retreat.  So excited to be spending an entire week learning and creating.  Today my friend Erin, who I met last year at Art Is You, picked me up for a day of exploring downtown.  She took me to many wonderful places including Scraps, a center where artists take their leftover supplies for resale, Cargo, an import store, Blick's and a few other places I've forgotten the names of already.  It was a windy rainy day or I might have manged to take more photos but I saw many wonderful things and bought some fun papers to use for collages.  We even popped into a cool store that has some of Flora Bowley's artwork so that was cool to get to see some of her originals.

Below is a pic of Cargo and some of my haul for the day.

Tomorrow I'm off to see Erin's home, meet her family and see her artwork in person.  So looking forward to it.  Tomorrow night is the opening party for Art & Soul.

Play Time Part Two...

Will wonders never cease!  Two posts in one weekend.  ;-)

Saturday I had a lovely art play date with Ann Bailey and her friend Patty.  We also spent some time with the rest of her talented family.  Click on her name above to see their work.  I decided to live on the edge and take my new blank 36x36 canvas and below is the resulting work.  I thought I might spend some more time on it but I've decided it is finished.  Now to decide if I want to keep it or sell it.  I was going to put it over the fireplace but it is too dark for that spot so we shall see.


At lunch time we headed out for some fast food and on the way back saw a family with free kittens.  We couldn't help ourselves and stopped to look.  Their poor mother was run over that morning and the family was able to collect two of the four kittens.  Ann had been looking for a kitten so decided to take the little boy and call him Artie.  My old grey cat Scooter had passed a few weeks ago so I decided I would take the little girl and name her Trixie.  They both had an immediate flea bath and fortunately they are young enough to not think you are trying to kill them.  I have a lot of experience with that through my teen years with indoor outdoor cats (before they had things like Advantage).  She is so tiny and such a little love bug.  I haven't been able to put her down for long all weekend.  The other cats are afraid of her even though she is a fraction of their size.  So funny to watch but everyone is slowly adjusting.


I hope everyone had a nice rest from Labor today.  Hugs!

Some Play Time...

As usual I am so behind on catching up. So a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking a Donna Downey class at a local scrapbook store, Altered angel. It was so much fun learning to use pan pastels. We learned to examine a picture to see what colors exist and created two pieces. The first was a recreation of an existing piece and the second from a photograph.






I've also bought a larger art journal book from Hobby Lobby and played a bit. The first I was in a pastel and stencil mood and the second is some color play.








This is a small collage I've been working on and I think I'm done.





I hope everyone has a safe and blessed Labor Day.

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Staycation...

Last week I had a lovely staycation.  I'm afraid I was very lazy which you would think would make me feel revived this week but alas no.  Anyhow, I had a wonderful July 4th with my family and I had a cooking bug so made a whole bunch of food.  See the spread below.  I tried a grilled skirt steak for the first time and although the flavor was good the meat was too chewy so probably will try a different cut next time.  I tried making Rosa Mexicano type guacamole and I think I came close.  Maybe it is always better when you get to sit and watch someone else make it.  ;-)

 

 

I did manage some creative time and started this 24x24 abstract painting.  Still not sure what/if I want to do anything else to it.  It looks better in real life since this was just an iPhone snapshot.

 

I also started a smaller canvas.  My original intent was to do a base of various papers and then layer in some paint but I just really like the papers.  A little wild and crazy but I like it anyway.  I have since added some ribbon to the seams and I'm going to look through my photographs and see if one might work with it.  We shall see...

While I was chilling the pets were chilling.  Of course they do that all the time but just had to take this picture of Tigger and Puppy.  Puppy tolerates Tigger but Tigger absolutely adores and loves Puppy so he is in his happy place. 

 

I hope everyone else had a wonderful July 4th full of friends and family and love.  Hugs!!

A Little More Art Journaling...

I had a lovely morning yesterday with some more art journaling.  The lovely Mary Freemanary hosted a class that runs pretty much monthly and it is always such an enjoyable time meeting new friends and being creative.  Mary starts us out with a prayer, prompts and helpful tips and techniques.

 One of my challenges is that I'm not much of a verbalizer on the page.  I love playing with color and technique ideas but putting words on the page is a struggle.  Or maybe I just don't want to go past the point of playing with paint and picking up a pen instead.  Something to ponder.

Anyway, Mary had a new green that just makes me happy (you know what I mean).  Granny Smith green by Martha Stewart.

I had fun playing with that and a neon pink and orange.  Mary also had a stash of stamps and I had fun playing with a little house stamp.

 So looking forward to next month's get together.

If you get a chance head over to Mary's blog and check out her artwork and her wise words.

Art Journaling

A couple Saturdays ago I attended one of Mary Freeman's art journaling classes. I met her in blog land and just love the prompts and techniques she gives. So much depth and wisdom. This is the journal page and I had fun playing with all the different supplies and tapes.




If you ever get a chance to take one of Mary's classes you will love it.
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Race for the Cure

No long message to read through here but I'm joining the Race for the Cure walk this Saturday and would appreciate any donation you can give to support the cause.

Thanks!

Click here to visit my personal page.

A Little Bit Of Paint...

One of the challenges I have is how to photograph my work especially since the lighting in my house is so dark. So I bit the bullet and bought a light kit with a light box.  I have a smaller one but the lighting just wasn't bright enough. This one gives me something like 1000 watts.  I think I need some football field lights to not need the tripod.

I haven't managed a lot of creative time lately but I have managed a few new pieces during some crafty time with my girl friends. I so treasure that time of fun and laughter. We each work on very different things but the camaraderie is priceless.

Anyhow, here is what I've been working on. These three are 16x16 and I had fun playing with using an old credit card for laying down the paint and texturizing. I didn't have my tripod at the correct level for a straight shot so I'll have to take new shots at some point.

This next one will likely get a makeover. I'm not fond of the color that I ended up with but I had fun using modeling paste to give it a lot of texture.

Other than that not much is going on in my world other than work and work. Oh, and I am managing to exercise regularly and doing an eating program to get back to losing weight. It does require a lot of food prep which seems like way more work than the exercise portion. Sigh.

On another note I am going to Art and Soul in Portland this October and am very much looking forward to connecting with friends I met last year and learning some new techniques.

Well, time to head out to catch a late showing of Oblivion. Just love Scifi movies. Hugs!

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