Off to Art and Soul in Hampton, Va.

Not that I post very often anymore, but hopefully I will have a lot to share when I return from A&S. Really excited and exhausted from packing all the supplies needed for five painting classes. What fun!! Plan to take a lot of photos to share as well. Smooches!

New Paintings

It's been a few days since I posted, so I thought I would share what I have been up to. Of course still counting down to Art and Soul. I have all of my supplies assembled and ready to go. The nice thing about doing this in advance is that now I know where everything is if I need something. lol. I did a couple more paintings experimenting with different colors to make skin tones. Oddly, I thought I had come upon something in using the cheap acrylic paints to do my faces, and I learned a few things. One is that it is very thin and goes on rather blotchy, the other is that I like the shades I get, and its much easier than tyring to make my own, but as they say you get what you pay for. Here is the one I did using the cheap paint on watercolor paper.I like the shading, but it was hard to spread and blotchy. I decided to give it another try using canvass board and a mixture of the cheap paint and Goldens. It went on smoother (perhaps the canvas board helped) and I was able to get smoother complexion. This one is still a work in progress...

Counting the Days

Woo hoo, just 18 more days and I am off to Art and Soul in Hampton. This is my second year, and I am more excited that I was the first year. I have signed up for classes from Misty Mawn, Lisa Kaus, Carla Sonheim, Serena Barton, and Katy Kendrick. All the classes require either drawing or painting, right up my alley.

Monday is the final class for the Paulette Insall class. I'll post my final portraits next week. Haven't done any sewing/quilting in over a month. Guess I have been obsessed with painting and gathering all the tools need for the classes at A&S. It always amazes me how many tolls one has to bring. This is definitely an expensive undertaking, but well worth it. Well, until later....

Week Five of Painting class

This week we added the hair and eyebrows. Next week we work more on the faces.

Art & Soul Fatbook swap

I joined the A&S fatbook swap again this year. Only 4 weeks before the event ! Woo Hoo!! The theme of the event is Rock and Roll as was the theme for the fatbook. I really struggled with this theme, because even though I love R&R, I am more of an R&B girl. My all time favorite R&R band is The Beatles, and I thought I would use them as my focus. I must admit that I always want art to be fun and when it becomes stressful, then I of course no longer enjoy it. That was the case with this swap. We had 45 pages to do (I know) and by page 10 I was wondering if i was crazy to have joined. We had the option of doing something that related to Art and Soul, or to a class we took at A&S. I decided to paint some of the pages, but alas that was REALLY time consuming. So to put this whine to bed, here are a few of the pages I did. I hope the recipient won't be too disappointed.

Painting in Progress

This is week three of the painting faces class...here's what I have done so far...Great class

New Drawing

Still working on my drawing skills.....

New work

We are in week two of Paulette's "All about faces" class. For week one, we drew faces, and in week two we are making the backgrounds for the portraits. I plan to work more on my drawing skills, especially the noses, but I am happy to be near the painting phase.

New Class

I haven't posted much in the past week or so. Lots has been happening. Some sad and some happy. We lost my mother in law recently, so it has been a sad time. We take comfort that she lived to be 87, and is no longer suffering. My husband is coping as well as one does.
On a happier note, I am taking a painting class from Paulette Install. I have been practicing drawing for a while, so it is fun to add wonderful painting techniques to my drawings. I have been painting since last summer, but I am finally getting to take my first true painting class, and learn how to add facial features and coloring. I am really looking forward to Art and Soul (seven weeks away) so that I can continue to learn more painting techniques. I will have classes with Misty Mawn, Lisa Kaus, Katie Kendrick, and Carla Sonheim. Woo Hoo!!

Great find today

After my doctor's appointment today ( shots in my knees for arthritis) I decided to do a bit of shop browsing before going home. Stopped in a TJ Maxx, just to look at the home products and found this wonderful item. How adorable!
I wanted to hang her in my studio, but decided to hang her in my office instead, since there isn't really any more wall space in there. I know, I'm a girly girl.

Today's art

I haven't done much artwork in the past week, so since I had a free day, I decided to paint a while. I started two backgrounds, one on my favorite art board and one on canvas. I like the colors of the background on canvas, so I used that one. I was inspired from the latest issue of Somerset Studio in which there are a LOT of paper dolls. It reminded me of how much I loved them as a young girl. I really like the way this piece turned out. What do you think? As you can see I am still anxiously wainting for spring...

Spring anyone?

I have caught the digital art bug. I have for the past week, been searching the web for online classes and free tutorials. I have found some great sites and tutorials. While searching my photos in Photoshop for photos I could use in a digital piece, I came across this photo of Verbena's from a hanging pot on our deck last summer. It really made me smile and dream of the warm days to come. I didn't do much art out on the deck last summer, but this winter's cabin fever has made me determined to spend some afternoons out there painting, drawing, or soldering. Anyone else out there with cabin fever?

Down but not out

Today I am moving a bit slowly, because I have a sinus infection. I've had it for about a week, and hope the worst is over. When I am not feeling well or feeling down, I always go back to an activity that soothes me. It is quilting, and believe it or not, it is traditional quilting. I love the log cabin block and have made quilts with different variations of this block for years. I must say that although I love mixed media, it doesn't come as easily to me a sewing or quilting does. Perhaps that is because I have sewn since I was a teenager, and although sewing is not mindless for me, it is comforting. My quilts are very lively, because I LOVE bright fabrics. The blocks for this quilt are scraps from other quilts I have made. I never throw my scraps away until they are too small to do anything with. Needless to say a have a large scrap basket. I am making a king size quilt, so I have a LOT of blocks to make. Hopefully when I feel better I won't abandon the quilt to get back to my paintings, and journal.

Well, I'm off to take a nap.

Final week 5- Shading

I've just downloaded the instructions for the shading. Looks interesting. Since I have been sick with a sinus infection for the past few days, I have only added color to new pages, but haven't worked on the previous pages. Hopefully I can do some work in them tomorrow. This was a wonderful class and if any one gets a chance to take a class from Pam, jump on it. Thanks to everyone for your comments.

I have still been busy meeting new people and joining groups on Facebook. I am having such fun...who knew!!

Week 4 Visual Journaling Class

Okay in this week of the class, we are to add journaling to the pages. I decided not to add any journaling to my pages. We had been encouraged to fill our pages with art, so there is little or no room for journaling. I love the art and can do without seeing my handwriting messing up the page. So I am being a bad girl and ignoring the assignment for this week. I must say that I really love the watercolor field journal I was introduced to in this class, it is great for acrylics and all the mediums we mixed media artists like to use. I have started on more pages, some only have a color background so far, but others are further in the process. Here are a few of the recent ones...