Collage

Today I worked on making paper flowers inspired by Tim Holtz, and several mixed media collages.  The collage I am sharing today started several weeks ago as a painting of a face.  I didn't like where the painting was going, so I gessoed over it and started a collage.  The collage is one of many techniques that I learned from Chris Cozen and Julie Pritchard on the Land of the Lost Luggage network.  This one is similar to ones I have posted recently except this one has an image transfer as opposed to a tracing.  It really became mixed media with the addition of the buttons.  I plan to place a print of this and several other collages in my Etsy Shop over the next few days.  Hope you will stop by for a visit.  www.patc9195.etsy.com

New class from Norah's Art

Check out the new class offering from Sharon Tomlinson.  Should be really cool.   www.allnorahsart.ning.com.  Her classes are funs and she shares a lot of information.  There is a button on the left of this blog that will allow you to join her network.

Cool toys arrived today!

Woo hoo!  I finally received my Copic markers I purchase well over a week ago.  I got a good price on them, but the company's practices are questionable....  Any way, I haven't decided quite how I am going to use them.  I took a class a few weeks ago using them to make greeting cards.  Not sure I will be making any greeting cards, but I plan to use them in my journal and with my watercolors.  I may use them on fabric as well.  Tell me how you use them...

Hello Tuesday!

Hope you all had a great holiday weekend.  I spent mine being very productive.  My DH was out on his Harley paying tribute to the fallen, and since I don't ride (too scared) I stayed home and did some piecework.  I have three quilts that need to be quilted, and since I refuse to tackle a bed sized quilt anymore: I spent Memorial Day preparing them to send to the quilter.  Phew, so glad that's done.  
Working on the piecework made me realize how much I miss piecing a quilt top, so I think the next week or so will be spent in the sewing room.  Perhaps my fabric stash will go down a bit...one can hope! 8-)
Today I have no art to share, so I decided to share a bit of mother nature's beauty from our backyard.  Photo was taken a copy of weeks ago, but I plan to use it as inspiration for a watercolor painting some time soon.  Until next time....

Flower painting

I started the background on this painting over a month ago.  I didn't care too much for the coloring so I set it aside.  Yesterday, I painted over the background several times and finally got a color I liked.  As I did in the previous post, I traced a black and white picture of a flower from a Dover clip art book, and adhered it to the substrate (wood).   After painting the flower and adding embellishments of paint, stickers, and tape, I sat it aside to dry for a few hours.  I then covered it with the leveling gel and got the result I wanted with no puckering of the paper.  This photo was taken before the gel, because it is hard to photograph with the gel because of the glare.  I'm happy with the result.

Weekend work

Hope your weekend was fun and artful.  I took a short class on Copic markers on Saturday.  The class was fun, and informative.  I haven't used Copics in the past, so it will be fun to add another medium to my art.  I did another painting, in between cleaning/reorganizing my sewing room. The canvas is 11x14, very large for me, but I wanted to get out of my comfort zone.

The birds were done by tracing them from black and white enlarged images from a Dover clip art book.  Once traced, I adhered them to the painted canvas, and then painted them using acrylic paints.  I added more collage pieces and once dry covered the piece with Goldens' self leveling gel.  You may not be able to see it from the photo, but some of the collaged papers buckled under the leveling gel....UGH!  Perhaps next time I will wait a day or so after adding collage pieces to make sure the piece is totally dry before adding the leveling gel.  I really prefer a wood surface to canvas, and will use that surface next, hoping to avoid the buckling.  BTW the piece was painted with Goldens' Violet Magenta, but the photo makes it appear reddish.

Another painting

It has been raining a lot here in Maryland for the past few days...UGH!  Well since I might melt if I go outside...lol  I spent yesterday working on this painting.  I was talking to a friend last week about how daunting a blank canvas is and we both agreed that it is best to just lay down a color on all of them and come back to them when more inspiration comes.  My plan to to do just that, but I decided to try another collage instead.  It was such fun, that I started another one this morning.  Here is yesterdays' piece and hopefully I will have something to share tomorrow.  My not happen since it is warm and sunny here today, and I am getting out of here to enjoy the first nice day in almost a week.  Hope your day is bright and sunny as well.

New Collages

I have been working on two collage paintings, one on wood and one on canvas.  I dind't start the paintings at the same time, so I was surprised to see that I had used the same color both times.  They both are a bit darker than I usually paint, but I think they came out fairly well.  These two paintings are a result of the Complex Collage class offered by Julie Pritchard and Chris Cozen on Lost Luggage Network.

Beautiful surprise from wonderful neighbors

A lot of people believe in karma, and I guess I am one of them.  While checking out of my local AC Moore yesterday, a woman in line behind me wanted to know where I got my AC Moore coupon.  I told her that it had been in the Sunday paper.  I told her that if I didn't use it (turns out all of my items were on sale) I would give it to her.  When I gave it to her she was very appreciative and said something good was going to happen to me for being so kind to her.  I smiled and said that would be nice.  Well later in the evening, our door bell rang and it was the sweet young girl from next door holding a hand full of beautiful Peonies.  She was beaming and said they were from her garden and she wanted to share some with us.  I told her she had made my day, and they were sooo beautiful!  I wanted to share the loveliness with you as well!

Zentangle Coasters

If your art stash is anything like mine, you have things you have purchased and forgot that you have.   Or worse still you have items that you have lost interest in until you have an Aha moment.  The Stampbord coasters were a"find" while I was doing some spring cleaning.  Stampbord is a great surface for Tangles!  I did a set of four coasters and I also have a Stampbord box for them.  I posted the box top several weeks ago, but held off on sharing the coasters because there were a few uh oh moments.  Once the Tangles were completed, I sprayed them with a fixative.  My error on one of them was not giving it time to dry before picking it up, thus the smear on the bottom left.  Then I decided I wanted to color them with Stampbord ink.  I tried the ink on the one that was already a bit messed up, and didn't like the color so much, so I decided to stick with the originals.
 

See the Birdie?

I have been working on quite a few things lately, but I am trying to post every few days, so I did a few more Tangles last night and decided to share this one.  As with everything, I hope to get better with practice.

Zentangles anyone?

I wanted to share two books I purchased recently, as well as a few Tangles I created from inspiration in these two books.  Zentangle 2 by Design Originals is wonderful and a great book for a beginner.  Totally Tangles by Sandy Steen Bartholomew is also a wonderful book, but a bit much more challenging.  Zentangles are very relaxing and quite a lot of fun.  Here are a few Tangles I created recently.... I used the standard 3.5 x 3.5 size here, but I have also done a full page Tangle, and that is a lot of fun as well.

What I've neglected for Watercolor

My past few posts have been about my newfound love of watercolors.  If you have read my blog in the past, this emotion was also given to acrylic paints.  I guess you could say I am a bit fickle when it comes to art..lol  Anyway, I have spent a few hours in my sewing room the past few days, weeding out old scraps, you see I believed that I should save all scraps , no matter how small, because I could find a use for them.  Ha!  Over time I accumulated a large "stash" of scraps.  Since my taste for fabrics change almost as often as my love of art mediums, some of the fabrics made me wonder what I was thinking when I purchased them.   So the past day or so was spent purging and (gasp) throwing away bits of fabric.  Wow, did it feel good to see the trash man take away those bags of scraps, that I knew in my heart I would never use.

Well, the whole time I spent cleaning and purging my sewing room, there was something haunting me on the wall...a big UFO (unfinished object).  Can't quite remember when started this quilt, I think it was January.  I have viewed it from afar, (my art studio is adjacent to the sewing room), but it never nagged me unit a few days ago.  May have to stop painting for a day or so and get her done....or not!

Luckily for me, the blocks are not sewn together just yet, because once I took this picture, I think I want to shuffle the blocks around a little bit.   Just think, this UFO has been waiting for me on the design wall all this time while I pursued acrylics, watercolor, journals, drawing, pastels, calligraphy, and Zentangles.  How awful of me to neglect this cheery quilt!  Bad girl!  Oh well, at least it makes the room colorful and happy....

Pan Pastel Storage

Wanted to share a great new way to store your pan pastels, in case you didn't know.  The storage trays come in two sizes..storage for 10 or 20 pastel pans.  Before buying the trays, I had mine stacked on top of each other which was great for storage but not so great when it was time to use them.  With the trays, now I can see them easier.  Love these creamy pastels.  Have a great weekend everyone!

More watercolor painting

I am so in love with the watercolor book I purchased last week.  I am feeling more confident with this medium each day, although I know these are baby steps.