Happy Memorial Day!

Just a quick post this morning, I am having a family BBQ, but it is last minute and the place is a mess! I spent the week happily puttering around in the garden and my studio, and completely ignored all else...I haven't been able to work on anything large, but I did finish my ATC's for this months Flygirl ATC Group exchange. The theme is "Mellow Yellow" and our hostess this month is Kelly Hoernig, go check out her lovely blog.

I showed these to Mr. How2 last night, and he really likes them, he is my biggest fan, but asked why I wasn't doing larger pieces to sell, and didn't these take up a lot of my time. My answer to him was, first, I AM painting larger pieces, and he would see them if he followed my blog...(he is strictly a computer solitaire kind of guy) and that these are not a waste of my time, for two main reasons.

  First, I get to communicate and exchange with a wonderful group of other artists online on a daily basis. With wonderful, heartfelt conversations, encouragements and commiseration. Not to mention the beautiful art, which has been an absolute joy to watch as styles are developed with time and practice. Which brings me to my second reason, I have learned so much about my own style/brand/technique over the last few months, and it is a direct result of my "playtime" making these ATC's. The size makes them a comfortable format for trying new methods, and there is never any fear of messing up an expensive canvas. I have instant feedback when I post them to our group, and learn what works, and what shouldn't be done again. With a theme chosen for each month, by someone else, I am challenged to stretch my abilities and my interpretations to entirely new levels, things I never would have thought of myself.

So there you have it, my tiny little art! Speaking of tiny art and challenging myself as an artist, here is my Every Inchie Monday creation for the theme "Number".

Numbers and I don't get along very well, there doesn't seem to be a lot of room left in my brain after all the creative stuff. As a result, I have to spend an inordinate amount of time making sure they are correct, which SO goes against my nature. I work better if I keep my calculations down to a very simplistic method, hence the "counting apples" concept. The kiss is a reminder to "Keep It Simple, Stupid"!

I hope you have a wonderful day with friends and loved ones. Until next time...enjoy!

Inspired by Life...

It is finally, truly Spring in the Highlands where I live. As usual she was slow to arrive, and rather tentative about fully participating this year. But she is here and fully committed to staying for awhile.

  I love this time of year, capricious as she can be, and welcome her with open arms. That being said, I will also add that it is a chaotic time as well. I have a huge yard and garden, and I have no control over my own impulses when it comes to planting. It seems every time I turn around, someone (me) has added yet another flower bed, constructed another fairy garden, or started a new variety of vegetable I cannot resist. I am surrounded by beauty and green and growing things, but it all takes maintenance. That would be me...

   I am no longer in my twenties, and I feel this most strongly at the end of a hard day weeding, seeding and crawling around on my hands and knees. A soak in a hot bath just makes me fall asleep faster, so my indoor chores are neglected, or outright ignored. But the thing I have found, the complete irony to this, is that the harder I work physically, the more inspired I become to create my art! My mind is full to the brim with ideas, schemes and plans, and I am a wrung out rag by the end of the day. This seems unfair to me, but apparently that is just how my brain works.

   I am painting many things nature related, what with all the visual stimulus, and I am driven to capture the amazing color that surrounds me. I am dreaming of a time when all the flowers are planted, the irrigation is running smoothly, and the veggis are growing, but not quite ripe. When I can take my paper and paints out to the garden and sit amongst Spring's bounty and breath again. Until next time...enjoy!

Today is Monday, so that means Every Inchie Monday! The theme this week is "labyrinth". In my research on this subject, prior to making my inchie, I discovered there is a difference between a labyrinth and a maze, though the two terms are often used interchangeably.

  A labyrinth has only one path, follow it where ever it twists and turns, but you cannot get lost, the path will lead you to the middle...

"A labyrinth is a single path or unicursal tool for personal, psychological and spiritual transformation. Labyrinths are thought to enhance right brain activity."


A maze, however, is designed with a challenge in mind, with many twists, turns, deadends and exits. 


"A maze is a tour puzzle and can be designed with various levels of difficulty and complexity."


As I read more about them, I discovered that the tradition of building a garden labyrinth is over 4000 years old, and plans and societies currently abound on the internet. 


   You know, I have an entire extra acre that is just in field, plenty of room for a garden labyrinth! Planting one really doesn't look that hard...

Developing a Style...

A little something to ponder...

  When I made the decision to focus more on my art, I really didn't have a particular style. You might say I was "all over the board". I tried many different techniques, and looked at piles of images online, read hundreds of tutorials. I truly feel that is the only way to find the style that suits you. Trial and error, waste some paper, waste some canvas and paint. Looking cloesely at the art that appeals to you, what calls to you, what inspires you...

   Eventually you will find that perfect combination that sets you free and allows you to continue your creative journey along a path that is uniquely your own. Keeping in mind that every journey, even into uncharted regions, begins with preparation, planning, practice and on paved roads... Until next time, enjoy!

This weeks Every Inchie Monday theme is "Dragon" and here she is...

Find other artists inchies at the Every Inchie Monday Blog!

Painting While the Sun Shines...

This time of year it is so difficult to stay indoors and work in my studio. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the weeds are growing... but I am so driven to continue exploring this new style of art, that I am afraid much of my outdoor work is being neglected. I did stop long enough to combine these two passions, and created some flower baskets to sell at our local nursery...

  I collect vintage and unusual containers through out the year, 
and make them up in time for spring...

But I am still drawn back into my studio to pursue my first love...

This is a series of four Artist Trading Cards I made for our
Flygirls ATC Group trade this month, "May Flowers"

I will just have to figure out a way to better mange my time... until then, enjoy!

Finding Your Muchness...

Sometimes it seems like making art is all about the journey. I am constantly being inspired and influenced by some new style or technique. I am all over the board, trying to find a look that I can grow with. I realize that, as I mature as an artist, I will need to settle into something that works for me. Something that gives me the chance to create the impression I want, to invoke the feelings I want, yet still have the essential ME for all to see. This is difficult to do, as a new artist. Learning is copying, to some extent, it must be at first. But after you learn, you must go on to find the YOU inside the new style or technique.

                                     “You used to be much more..."muchier." You've lost your muchness.” 

― Lewis Carroll 

Sometimes life gets in the way of this discovery. It is a rare person indeed, who can spend their days discovering their unique self and doing nothing else. There are children, jobs, housework, gardens and other responsibilities. They draw us away from the search, and use up our passions and creativity. I am trying to stop that, trying to rearrange my life to make my art a priority. It isn't easy, and it would help if I could be more than one person. But I am just me and this isn't Wonderland. Time keeps moving along at a steady pace, pretty much in a forward motion, with no sympathy for my inability to organize my day.

“The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” 

― Lewis Carroll

I have never been good with schedules, and it seems my life is chock full of parallel priorities. But I am working on it, and I am finding my muchness again...and this time, I'm not letting it go...

The art work above is a new technique for me. It is a page from the play Romeo and Juliet printed in German. This I bonded to a sheet of watercolor paper, then applied acrylic paint with a brayer. After this was dry, I sketched the details, then painted them in with more acrylic paints. I highlighted the sketching using a permanent pen...I think I love this new look! I used a snippet of this background to create my twig inchie as well...

The theme for Every Inchie Monday this week is "twig";

to see the others, please click here!

 

Outside My Comfort Zone...

When my daughter started designing her new living room, she took a walk on the wild side by going with an African theme. She surprised me by asking me to create a piece of art that would work in the room, but also had some personal imagery. This sort of request is way outside my comfort zone. More painting than collage, custom theme, not really cutesy...But I decided to give it a try.

I started with a 14"x18" canvas panel, and layered it with papers and ephemera. I found magazine photos of elephants and giraffe, a map of Africa, and a great line on cardstock called Safari Chic, by DCWV. I gave it all a really good coat of gel medium and used my brayer to smooth it out as best I could. The magazine pages gave me some real fits, right from the start and even after they were down flat as can be, when I started adding paint, they lifted right up again, and made bubbles, which I don't like, but have to live with...
I added washes of color, and used the brayer to added thicker, grungy layers of acrylic paint. Then painted the mountains and background, working my way forward to the tree.

My daughter is a redhead and became the warrior in the piece. She is very fond of her cat, so I made him a bit larger, more of a panther sized, to be a companion in her wanderings. I was pretty nervous about painting the two figures, so I created them on a scrap of paper first, using a sketch and watered down acrylics, then cut them out and collaged them to the painting. I left the foreground mostly untouched, so that more of the collage papers would show through. I can't seem to do anything about the wrinkles in the lower right corner, and I am trying to accept them as a "textural element"...

I added a coat of acrylic encaustic, which did help smooth the pieces out a bit, and blended the figures into the background, so they didn't seem so "cut and paste". So here it is, my finished mixed media canvas; "Forever Fierce". I hope she likes it...

This weeks Every Inchie Monday theme is "makeup", you can see the others in this challenge right here!