Cloth and Clay art doll

I joined an online class a few weeks ago and learned to make a cloth doll with paper clay overlay on face on body. I had a bit of trouble with stuffing the doll and she popped her seams a few times. 8-) Instead of making new extremities, I continued on with the legs, that had popped their seams thinking that it would all work out in the end. I was able to complete the doll, but she has some real issues with her legs, hope she will forgive me. lol Really fun class. Inspired me to try another class making dolls using Sculpy clay. I haven't gotten very far with this one yet, but it should be fun as well. This is the cloth and clay doll with her odd legs....aside from her legs, she turned out okay for a first attempt. Hopefully her sister will have better legs.

Re-working the studio

I haven't done much art recently, because my Muse has gone on vacation. lol So whenever I have issues with art, I reorganize my studio, hoping to get inspiration. I took pictures today, and it is not made perfect for the photo. Oddly enough I got inspired to get to work....tomorrow. Here's the mess...

New Work and Great News!!

I've been painting on wood substrates since I returned from Art and Soul. I knew I loved this surface prior to taking classes using it, but after learning new techniques, I am sure this will be my surface of choice in the future. Here are two pieces I have painted on the wood substrate.

Now on to the great news... my work has been published!! I am over the moon. I received a free copy of Sew Somerset today and one of my small art quilts is featured in the gallery section of the magazine! This is my first time being featured in a magazine, and gives me courage to work harder and send in more artwork.

Photos from Art and Soul

As promised here are pictures of three of the classes I took. When I complete the two book I will post photos of them. I took this class from Lisa Kaus.

I took this class from Serena Barton. These were done from collaging magazine pages. The first one was made from small pieces of pictures of flowers, and the other was made from a piece of yellow cake with whipped cream frosting.

I took this class from Katie Kendrick. I know it doesn't look like my ususal paintings, the concept was to draw pictures with your non-dominant hand...

More later.

Back from Art and Soul

Okay, so I have been back for over a week, but it has taken me almost this long to recuperate from all the fun. I had a wonderful time and all the classes were great. This was my second year and the best so far. I have a few photos of my completed work, and will post them later today or tomorrow. The book I worked on in Misty Mawn's class is far from completed, but I will share a few pages tomorrow.

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.