More backgrounds--my favorite thing to do!

Calligraphy written with black gouache and Speedball nib.

These are actually two sheets of Bristol board spray painted and torn in half. As a whole they didn't work but torn in half it takes on a new life with possible places to write and add embellishments. Some always work out better than others but it is an exercise in problem solving and layout. Anytime I have something I have painted or spray painted and it's not quite right then it goes into problem solving mode. Usually I can save it with copic spray or stamps and writing---but....sometimes not. It's all fun though.

Digicollage with one of the girls

This is a really fun thing to do when those days come when I can't paint anything or calligraphy anything or sew anything but I can always click around while I am watching TV and create some digi-art. She is a pencil sketch placed over one of my digi collages in Photoshop. Really easy and kinda neat looking. Maybe I will paint tomorrow or maybe not.

The backrounds for a paper quilt

I am trying to do some larger backgrounds and tear them up and make a mosaic paper quilt. I don't know how it will turn out of course but I plan to sew the pieces together. It takes me quite a while to cover the whole pieces because they are quite large. The bottom one is 18x24 and the top ne is even larger. I know that when it is torn up or cut up--the top image is on Yupo) I might have some interesting pieces to mix and match with other backgrounds I have. I used all sorts of ways to get the color on the paper: Adirondack spray inks (which I love), acrylic with stencils and stamps and my copic air sprayer, free writing and ...I think that's it. I tried to make it colorful so it would be a colorful mosaic quilt. We'll see. If you do a close up they look better. In real life they are bright and colorful but in my monitor here it they look a bit muddy.

BIG Piece and a Poppy

My goal is to GO BIG! This is actually a fairly cheap canvas 24 x 36 on sale for 30% off at Hobby Lobby so I felt relatively safe to try something large. I used my spray paints and stencils and then took it inside and stared at it to see what it needed. Big is definitely a challenge and this is really not all that big. it is tiring to go larger because it involves moving around in all sorts of contorted positions to get the lettering and embellishments. I painted the sides black. I am still think about the "Art -rageous" show coming up so maybe I will put this in. I have to stare at it some more. And below is another Poppy.
This Poppy run is more of a Poppy explosion. These Poppies got a bit jumbled up in the excitement of my dash for the paints and I got a bit over-exuberant. I got some new Twinrocker 6x8 paper (yummy yummy!!!) so I am practicing to see if I can get up my courage to do some originals on this paper. I usually get the paper out and the sheet stares at me with those big blank white eyes and I start to do an "art start freak out". Ever had one of those? What is it about blank paper (with the most fabulous deckled edges you ever saw) that freaks me out? Oh yeah, I might mess it up! Well, anyway as Joyce Meyers always says, "Just do it afraid!"

So, we'll see if I can do it. If I don't get up the courage to use the paper then I have wasted it anyway so....go figure!!??

Red Shed

I have been doing some painting in my red shed but I think I will enjoy it much more now. Hopefully I can try and go bigger with my art which is something I have been wanting to do. We'll see if I can do it! I have no excuses anymore!

It's a Poppy Run

Well, sometimes I have to run and paint watercolor Poppies too. I haven't run for Poppies recently so it was nice to paint them again. They looked a little scarce just sitting there so I had to put some stamps, punchanella, splatter and write just a little bit on it. This is on 10x10 Quatro watercolor paper which I love love love!! Have a happy day!

Pear Impromptu

Sometimes don't you just have to run as fast as you can to your paints and paint a pear? No? Well, sometimes I do. I love pears--and I love to eat a juicy ripe pear. An aunt used to send us a whole box of pears for Christmas when I was a child and we had pears for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

As you see this is actually on cheap graph paper and I used some stamps and Caran de Ache for the shading. It gives a glazing effect which I like and will start to learn to do with my oils. I am way far away from that though. I have to do my value scale on the pot I drew first. Drawing the pot was the first hurdle! And it all comes back to the drawing...the hardest part.

Power to the Pear!

Birthday Girl!

30 years ago today this wonderful, precious daughter was born. Happy Birthday, sweet Macaulay!!! We love you!

Graffifi-Town

I painted this background the other day while enjoying Alisa's class and loving all of her fun and funky images. I really didn't know what to do with it, whether to write a big graffiti word on it or not. So today Mattie Lou muse suggested I paint Graffiti-town on it so ok, Mattie Lou is always wild and crazy so I followed her advice. It's a happy little Graffiti-town. Look closely over the door posts.

Painted Tee Shirts

My new favorite online teacher is Alisa Burke. This is from her Graffiti Chic 2 class where she goes into all sorts of WAY FUN stuff. I have no idea if this tee shirt will even wash well but it should. I used Adirondack Spray inks and it says that it is for fabric. I need to heat set it first but these are the two I painted day before yesterday. I cut the neck out of them to make them look less tee shirtie. It really was fun and I plan to paint some more. On the top one I put the plum color on it with one stamp and then hated it-- but I had to go with it and it actually turned out ok. Motto for the day for me...don't give up too quickly, it might just turn out ok.

Surprise find in the cheap journal

When I am "throwing paint around" and it's time to quit because it's 12:00 am and I know that I have to stop my brain so I can sleep I throw all the leftover paint into a cheap Walgreens sketch pad. These take acrylic paint very nicely because actually the paper is sturdy. I also had some crackle on this one that I was wondering if it would still crackle because it was about all dried up. So I find that sometimes in cleaning up my pallet I make things that are better than the thing I was making. It's that "no think-no pressure" thing again. I am thinking that sometimes it's not what you paint but the colors in the painting that make the painting. It's pretty much all about color anyway. Color is alive. God uses it all the time very successfully!

Think Big!

Sometimes The Donald does say some note worthy things. This one looks kinda similar to the one the other day but it must have been on the same large sheet. I use large sheets of Bristol board and spray the whole sheet front and back and cut it down. Maybe at some point I will put these into a book. I start my oil painting class tomorrow so I might not be able to post something. Maybe I will take pictures of my oil painting process. Well, let's see how I do first!

...doing the IMPOSSIBLE

Actually this should say "also BELIEVE" rather than "only believe" but I wrote the wrong word....arrrg! It happens all the time when you are concentrating on the calligraphy. Makes me mad but what can you do? Nothing....just say..."c'est la vie!
Well, at least I didn't mess up on this one! I hate it when I do that. More tomorrow---hopefully...

Imagine---progression

These two above and below are just the closeups of the Golden crackle paste. I added some darker glaze and wiped it off so the crackle would show. I think it kinda got lost in the final one but you can still see it if you look closely.

Now for the first layer of writing. I did this quickly (as you can see!) with a brush.

Then (----time passes...) more layers and stencils. Maybe I should have stopped here...but it doesn't have a focal word element as I had planned.

But here it is...I think it is finished. If I did anything else to it I would probably paint over some elements to tone it down. Hummm...the challenge is--when to call it finished. I guess if I did many of these I would get to know that but I am not sure how long this journey will stay in graffiti-town. It sure is fun though.

The quote says:
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will get you everywhere." -Albert Einstein

Whew! I'm tired now. Time for chocolate!
And here is my thought for the day:
"If anything is worth doing, it's worth overdoing." That might be appropriate for me today. I will look at this piece tomorrow and see if this thought really is true. If they don't sell then I can always paint over them and pretend like it never happened! What happens in Graffiti town stays in Graffiti town.

Dream Graffiti on Wood

This is on a 24 x 24 piece of Birch wood. I have always wanted to work larger and this is the largest graffiti-like painting that I have done. It really was fun and it actually took several hours to create the layers. You have to walk away and look and think --or just walk away completely for a while. As you might notice on the top picture I decided to put that great quote by Thoreau since I already had the word,"DREAM". I am thinking that I might put this into an upcoming show in July called "Art-rageous." I think this would classify as artrageous. I am planning to paint another one and I have some crackle paste drying on that one. We'll see how it turns out. You never know until it's finished. And Bucky did his pose for you. He likes his summer hair cut.

A little bit of calligraphy

I like to take some of the paste paper pieces and some of the other stenciled papers in the stash and do a little calligraphy on them. I like to just add a quote or some words. It's mainly just an exercise in layout and design and where to put the lettering as well as writing it without lining it. I can't seem to do much lining up with my calligraphy anymore. I like it more free looking. SO, with that being said, for the next few days I will just do a few little quotes on some of the paper and post them. I will start my oil painting class on the 20th so I didn't want to start anything new. I think I am going to need all my focus for that! YIKES! I kinda nervous.

Faith..Hope...Love

These are actually not very big (4x12) but these three canvases have been hanging around so I thought I would break them out of the package. It really is fun to sling paint but make sure where you sing it. You'll be surprises where it turns up! I actually did this in my little home studio---not a good idea. But a good time was had by all (me and Mattie Lou Muse that is!)

Yummy paste papers

I needed a color fix so I decided to do some paste papers and see if I could make the pre-made wallpaper paste work.
I added some stamps after it was dry. Most of these are painted on the other side too so I can use them for book pages. If you want to see a great Youtube on making paste paper look at this from Eliza Holliday. Eliza is a fabulous artist and calligrapher and lives in Fernandina, FL which is very close to Jacksonville but unfortunately I don't see her that much but I so admire her beautiful art. So, Eliza, if you, by any chance, see this post, thanks for the tutorial!!! It's great!

Oh, and thanks so much for everyone's kind comments and for signing up for the giveaway. Love you all!!!

Graffiti-Town

I love to travel but i don't like to be away from home so here is a riddle for you that I just made up: How can you travel and still sleep in your own bed? You travel the art world that's how!! And the way I do that is through all the wonderful blogs and online classes from fabulous people that makes it possible to journey and explore new art techniques. As you see here I am traveling through Graffiti town right now and loving creating these fun and free pieces on scrap paper and cardboard. One is the top of a pizza box from our dinner the other night. I think the reason I love to explore all different kinds of techniques is just to find new ways to use color and paint. AND this is probably one of the most fun ways. This is from Alisa Burke online class "Graffiti Chic."
I'm not sure how long I will camp in this town but for now---it's way fun!

AND THE WINNER IS......

JULIE BAGAMARY !!!!!!

Congratulations Julie!!! Send me your address and the little list book is yours!!!

Mother's Day Giveaway

Happy Mother's Day! I thought I would do a quick giveaway so if you would like this little 3x5 list book then leave a comment and Mr. Random.org will do his thing on Tuesday at 8:00 pm EST. This little list book is bound with the Rubicoil and the cover is hand collaged and painted and the first page has a little sewn folder for receipts. SO if you are living in the US (only) then I will send it on to you when Mr. Random picks your number!

Prints on wood

An artist that I have always admired is Jane DesRosier. She has a class tutorial for $10(!!!worth so much more than that) about the process of adhering prints successfully to wood. There are several steps and I ordered exactly what she suggested. They look wonderful after you get it on and it's really fun. You probably wouldn't know that it was a print unless specified. So I have been working with a few prints with some birch wood that I have here at the studio and I decided to list a few.

Doodle Flowers in Greenville

I drew these out after the baby, Macaulay and Baby Daddy had gone to bed. I know that I needed to color it in quickly then I could sit around and doodle with the Sharpie and white paint pen. I am admiring Alisa Burke right now so these are similar to her wonderful and fabulous doodles---actually she is quite fabulous herself. I am thinking about taking an online class from her next...Graffiti Chic. I am in a messy splattery mood these days.

Quick! Run for the Paints!

While Macaulay went to her Bible Study I kept Baby Marc and just when I put him down for a nap I dashed for my paints! I had drawn this out the night before as we were watching TV and knew that when I got the chance I would paint it. So I knew that I had about an hour and a help give or take an hour!---so I painted this yellow pot of Hydrandeas. It looked rather hokey at first but after grunging it up a bit with some script stamps and background stamps---and some swipes of Distress Inks I called it finished. Whew...he was still asleep! Tomorrow I have a some doodle flowers that I worked on also while I was there but I could doodle easier without getting out everything. More tomorrow.

Ain't Life Grand!?

We are having such a wonderful time here in sunny and hot Greenville. Baby Marc, I think, is officially walking although not everywhere yet. I will be sad to leave tomorrow. What fun!

Here's the Birthday Boy!

It's so good to be here with my little sweetie!!!

Palm Tree Fun class

I went to a 3 hour painting class where you paint a painting start to finish. The instructor was wonderful, very sweet and very talented and we all went through the steps together and everyone created a beautiful Palm tree. We used craft paints straight out of the bottle...no mixing and she provided everything. You just walk in, paint and leave with a beautiful painting. It was son interesting to see how different everyone's painting was and everybody did really well! This is the Scripture she read to us. Very fitting I think.

AND..today is a very special day. Baby Marc is 1 year old! Can't believe it's been a year. We are driving up today to Greenville for the birthday party tomorrow. I will try to post some pictures of him eating his cake. I will be back Wednesday so I probably won't be able to create any art but I will resume with Art du jour when I get back!