Making Christmas Cards...

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas filled with family, friends and love. Are you ready for the new year to begin? I'm not. Feels like 2014 just flew by. I'm hoping that I will manage to create more art in 2015 and actually sell some of it.

So for Christmas I did manage to make cards for the family.


These are examples of the finished product.


The first layer involved a mix of some Goldens Fluid Acrylic red and yellows and creating an all over pattern. I utilized large sheets of Canson Mix Media paper.


For this metallic layer I mixed a couple paints but forgot to write down which ones. I utilized one of the Crafters Workshop stencils.


Here is the cut down version.



For the final step I used another Crafters Workshop stencil with cathedral windows and Turquoise.


Just before Christmas I attended a small portion of the North Georgia Art Ramble. This is a mug I purchased from the talented Robin Miller.



These fun little houses are from Robin Miller also. Her husband is from Iceland and they visit there often. The houses and landscape were her inspiration for these.



These two mugs are by Kelly Harris from my stop at Sue and John Anderson. I love the organic layering.


This platter was an early Christmas present from my mom, also from Sue and John Anderson's. It is signed Mare but I didn't get a card. Just love the details in it. Next year I'm going to apply and see if I can join in as an artist in the Ramble.


For the family Christmas Eve family get together we drew names and this was my present, a pair of toasty warm LL Bean slippers.

I hope everyone has a blessed and safe New Years Eve.

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Some art for sale

So a couple years ago Seth Apter made a call for art in a 5x5 format for his blog which I contributed to. The questions for the submission he asked were:

1. If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

2. Who has had the most impact on your creative life?

3. What is one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

He had over 100 works contributed and some were featured in Somerset Studio magazine and now all the works are on display at Five by Five, a small works exhibition that is taking place at The Empty Spaces Project, a gallery in Putnam, Connecticut, during the month of December.


The works are also for sale on Seth's blog and I'm honored that mine is included (#77).


I also participated in Roco 6x6 in New York. I actually made it to the opening which was quite the experience. Each piece is $20 and is a donation to support the Rochester Contemporary Art Center.


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Getting things done...

So, for the past month or so there hasn't been a lot of art play time because I'm finally back to installing wood floors. A couple years ago, ok maybe three, I ordered engineered bamboo and with the help of friends and family I installed it in the front half of the house. With major projects at work and as time elapsed I was having trouble mentally gearing up to start again. Well, in September I finally hit the stage of let's get this done.

Right now I am almost finished and hopefully will be done this weekend with the remaining base and shoe molding. Below are pics of the adventure. Completion pictures to come later.



























One of the many cut around challenges (powder room toilet).











One corner (clean) with the base molding done.


This is my art room during the process.





Oh and a couple of cute cat pictures for good measure. Trixie is actually asleep in the window.





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Not enough play time...

There just never seems to be enough play time. Lately I've only managed one weekend a month and I need to figure out how to pack more into the weekends including exercise. Cooler weather will hopefully help with more exercise since it is more fun to trek in the forest instead if a treadmill.

Well I did manage to play a couple weekends ago. I am still having fun creating abstracts with the Gelli plate. The first two are finished.




These next three are works in progress.







One of the things I've been thinking about is trying glass or plexiglass to do larger pieces. I see a trip to Home Depot in my future.

I also had a fun morning with Mary Freeman and her art journaling get together. She brought some transfer paper for us to play with and it made a great way to add "drawing" for someone who can't. I traced a garden table scene onto a page I had collaged and painted. I made need to go over it with a pen but I really like it. Opens up lots if possibilities.



This weekend and week I'm on vacation and installing bamboo flooring in the family room and hopefully will get the kitchen done. Pictures to come later.

Hope everyone has a beautiful and safe Labor Day.

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More fun...

Last weekend I had another lovely Saturday spending time creating.  These are my latest monotype prints using the 12x14 Gelli plate.  I am in my happy place when I manage to spend time creating.  My friend Stephanie was able to join me for the day and she had fun breaking in her new Gelli plate.
I really need to remember to take some progressive pictures.  This print started with a background using Nickel Azzo Gold, Paynes Grey and Bone Black.  I also used the Golden's Retarder to extend the drying time.  I cut out some circles and strips just from paper and laid them out then used Titanium White, yellow (don't remember which) and a bit of Bone to tone it down.

This print is really from cleaning the plate.  I covered it in Paynes Grey and let it sit a bit so I could pull the remnants from the previous print.

If I remember correctly this one is the result of lots of layers of ghost prints from the ones below.

This one and the two below are from covering watercolor paper with book pages and then doing about three or four different pulls.  I used gel medium to adhere the book pages and I don't like how some of the smaller stencils patterns seemed to smear or come out missing details so next time I will make sure I don't put the gel medium on the top of the pages.  All three of these utilized bought stencils.  One or two of them were Crafter's Workshop and the one that is in Magenta and looks like lace is a Martha Stewart stencil.



Oh, I almost forgot, Stephanie and I spent the morning playing with art journaling with Mary Freeman.  Mary has such a heart for God and always has a good message for us to think about and use for page prompts.

I was feeling a bit at a loss for what I wanted to do so I just played a bit with color and drippage.

 

I hope everyone had a blessed weekend and it continues on.  Hugs!

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