Now For Something Really Big...

Welcome to day three of Blogtoberfest, and thanks for following along. 

If you have been visiting here for any length of time, you may have noticed one thing about my art. I work small. My most common canvas size is 8"x10", then 5"x7", 4"x4", ATCs at 31/2"x21/2" and all the way down to inchies, at 1"x1". I am most comfortable with these small sizes for a number of reasons, including their portability and my ability to scan them using my own home equipment. 

Here are two more small pieces of digital collage, completed yesterday...

  But the other day, I got a hankering to do something big, I mean BIG! So I dragged out the easel I bought a full year ago at a yard sale for $10, and set it up...

 This is meant to be a travel easel, and has a very complicated series of knobs and hinges that took me a while to figure out. But I love the brass lined drawer and compartments...

Then I went rummaging around in my basement storage, looking for the larger canvas panels I purchased years ago, and never used. This one is 22" X 28"...

I love how the upper bar of this easel can slide down and lock tight, holding the canvas firmly in a couple of grooves designed for that purpose. Now I can really go to town, scrubbing and smooshing the paint without it falling off! 

  I think this will be the perfect surface for my Athena painting, with an olive tree and some mountains in the background, and an owl on her shoulder. I think it will be a fun experience, working with bolder strokes and more detail. Come back for a visit to see it as it progresses. 

Until next time...enjoy!

Layered Background Canvases...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am working on another 50 blocks for the Art-o-mat Project . Somewhere about block 29, I realized I was going to need a larger variety of backgrounds to work with. I really don't like the idea of sending in 50, or even 10 exact same pieces of art. So this week , besides harvesting more veggies from the garden, battling a swarm of hornets at the cabin and cleaning out yet another rental, I decided to focus on background canvases. The plan is to scan these into my computer and assemble collages digitally, using my own art work and some elements from my collection of purchased royalty free clipart. I kept the colors compatible with the MDF blocks that I already painted, and am pleased with the diversity.

  Deciding it would be more convenient to keep the originals small, for purposes of resizing, I dove into my stash of 5" x 7" canvas panels. These are very economical, and make a sturdy piece that is flat enough to scan beautifully on my flatbed scanner. I could have also used the 4" x 6" panels. The 4" x 4" are nice, but being square, I end up cutting off much of the fun detail in order to get them to the finished size of 2 1/8" x 3 1/4" required to fit the blocks. I also made a couple of the backgrounds on heavy watercolor paper, and even though they curled just a bit, they still scan just fine.

I watched the movie Clash of the Titans this week, and that got me reading my Greek Mythology again. I had the idea for a larger canvas, featuring the Greek Goddess, Athena. After all, she was in charge of not only wisdom, but also creativity, art and handcrafts. Here is my initial sketch, which will eventually be transferred to a layered canvas and painted. The sketch will change drastically, but you got to start somewhere, right?

The theme for Every Inchie Monday is "wind", and I found it a difficult challenge. I mean, how do you paint something you cannot see? Then I realized that, though you don't see the wind, you do see it's effect on objects. Since the wind singing through the trees is on my list of favorite things, that is what I painted.

Until next time...enjoy!

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!

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!

Collage Chic...

This is a new 8" X 10" canvas panel I just finished. It is a mixed media collage, with an acrylic encaustic finish. It is my first piece of art that I am listing for sale, hopefully soon to be followed by many more!

Thanks for looking, until next time...enjoy!

Gadabout Artist: Playing in the Sunshine...

Well, we are firmly ensconced in sunny Yuma, AZ, and enjoying days of 70+ degree weather. I have no real complaints, we are hooked up to power and water, so no more batteries or sponge baths, very nice after dry camping in the desert for so long. There are many wonderful snow-birds to meet and I spent a lovely evening playing bingo with 253 of them! No beginners luck for me, though...too bad, it would have helped pay for all the extra beads and art supplies I bought in Quartzsite!

There are not a lot of art supplies available there, but a store appropriately named,  "Addicted To Deals" seems to be a clearing house for just about anything under the sun, and they had a wonderful assortment of scrapbooking supplies. The large rubber stamps were only 3 for $5 and the sets were under $2. I think they will be great for my ATCs and the art I am working on for Art-o-mat. Speaking of which, one of our new neighbors here is a wood worker, I am going to ask him later today if he might be willing to cut out the little blocks of MDF that I need for my first shipment to Art-o-mat. I have been working on the art, and had planned to affix them to the blocks once we returned home, but this would allow me to ship much earlier. There is a lot of trading of skills back and forth down here, and I thought I might join in...

Here are just a few of the beads I bought, there are hundreds of tents and stores selling them in Quartzsite, and you can find everything imaginable for jewelry making. I haven't been in the jewelry business for a very long time, but I just could not resist, old habits die hard. So when I finally get around to opening that Etsy shop, you will likely find a collection of jewelry as well as art. My sweet daughter has recently started making jewelry, so she will receive some as well. She likes the more ethnic/hippy style, so these pendants and wood and coral beads were purchased for her. Until next time, enjoy...

Gadabout Artist: Day 3

We had a somewhat restless night at the truck stop. There was a lot of traffic, and the truckers parked next to us got up at midnight, and, I kid you not, pulled out at 1am! He didn't make a lot of noise, but we were sleeping pretty light, just trying to adjust to life in the RV, and every little sound woke us up.

 I spent part of the evening working on these little pieces, the larger one, a 5" x 7" already had the gears and the Davinci sketch, I just wasn't sure which way I wanted to go with it. As I was working on the other, little cards, I realized I was unhappy with the canvas because it was so dark. So I added the same bright papers, and much more pleased with the piece. I am not done with any of these, but I am close.

Today, after leaving The Dalles, and driving along I-84 we ended up going into Portland. This was not the plan. We should have stayed on I-84 until we hit I-205, then around the south of Portland, and up I-405 to the exit towards the coast. But I had set the gps for "shortest" route earlier in our trip, and forgot to change it back. So "Jack", (that's what we call our gps, as in, "shut up, Jack!") led us astray...The shortest route, was NOT the easiest route, and we ended up driving through downtown Portland! Help! It was very bad! It would have been tough in a car, but in a 26' RV? A very bad idea...Mr. How2 was pretty stressed out. It was such a relief to clear all the traffic and start climbing up into the green forest again. We headed straight for the coastline, and into Tillamook, in time to have a little lunch and tour the Cheese Factory. Yum! We dropped by Debbie D's for cured meats. Very good, small batch smoked meats, and a perfect compliment to the variety of cheeses we bought at the factory. Can you guess what we had for dinner? :)
 We then headed west on highway 6 towards the actual coastline, and we got our first view of the ocean this trip. It is beautiful!

 Now, I am a flat-lander, born and raised in Minnesota, so the thrill of seeing the ocean never ceases for me. Mr. How2 grew up over here, so he is a little less awed than I...which is a good thing, since he was driving and these are narrow, twisty roads indeed...
We are parked now for the night, at Cape Lookout Campgrounds, and I can still hear the roar of the ocean, even tucked up here near the RV hookups. I cannot wait to explore it more in daylight, we only had a brief time on the beach before darkness fell, about 4:30, for crying out load...
As for the hook ups, this is kinda nice. This is the first time we have been at an official campground, and the cost of a dry camp was $15 and one with water, sewer and electricity was only $5 more, so we went for it. So we have hot showers, lots of lights and all the power we need for my computer and printer. . Nice to do it this way now and again, feels more like home. I almost wish we brought a movie to watch, it would be like date night! Here are a couple more pics...

I can't wait to use these new images in my art, I wonder what I will come up with? Enjoy...

*Thing I miss: A bathroom that I can turn around in. The one in our little RV is just big enough to sit down in and have my knees touch the wall...

*Things I love: The sound of the surf as I lie cozy in our bed...

Art Every Day Month Day 19: My canvas order has arrived!

Today I thought I would share my early Christmas present with you. I decided to order a batch of canvas boards from Dick Blick. I found their Econo Canvas Panel 24 packs, and the prices seemed too good to be true. So I went ahead and ordered a couple in small sizes, just to see their quality. I am pleasantly surprised! They seem just as nice as any of the others, maybe the canvas is a little courser but with my collages, that isn't a problem. I ordered the 4" x 4", the 5" x 7", and the 8" x 10". The prices per bundle of 24 were respectively,  $ 2.87, $5.93 and $14.84. That is a whole lot of working surface for not much money! I will keep you posted on how well they hold up to water and glue...I also wanted to try a few landscape size boards, 4" x 8", and 6" x 12", which are not offered in the econo bundles, and came individually wrapped for $.43 and $.72. Still very reasonable prices. I replaced my long lost rubber brayer and am looking forward to playing with my new set of water soluble oil pastels! Not trying to make an ad for DB, but I think as artists we need to share our sources and experiences with each other! Enjoy...