Matisse

I've been working on my Matisse "Geraniums" piece. This is the undercoating stage. Sketched in the basic shapes, put the dark areas in with charcoal and then began the under painting. I did this mostly with three Adirondak re-inkers and two colors Golden fluid acrylics. This limits my color palette and allows me to mix my colors.

I am very pleased with it so far. Leaving it alone for awhile to dry and cure. I'm excited to continue. Tried some new techniques for me and am so please with the results.








The Matisse is the top picture in this first photo. I actually found the print in a thrift shop. It was already matted and framed. So i made a copy to work from. I left the original in the frame. It gave me a great reference for my attempt to create it.








This is a close up of my under painting.

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Abstract - See the eye?

This weeks Journal52 challenge is abstract. I don't do abstract very well but I guess this qualifies. I was going to cut it up for pieces but once finished I like it so I'll probably slap it in my journal.

The most surprising element of this piece is the appearance of the eye.



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Documented Life week three

January 12 Challenge (Week Three) - Add an envelope from your mailbox. Get creative and add the whole envelope or parts of the envelope. Journal on it, write notes on it or use it as a pocket!








This is the final page. The orchid watercolor is a tag. It pulls out from the top. I inserted it into an envelope that had a clear place for an address. Then I used mixed media to make mail art out of the envelope.






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Journal52 Project

Week one was Up, Up and Away.


I made this journal page for the Journal52 project. The first week was Up, up and away. I started out with intentions of just doing a background for later use. Then all of a sudden it began to come together using this theme. Before I finished, I ended up using nine stamps that I'd never used until today. Some were ones I'd had for along time and a couple were fairly new but hadn't used yet.

The quote is "the journey awakens the soul". It is one of TH stamps.

She's dreaming of a journey. She wants to go somewhere where she feels as free as the birds she watches fly away.







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Challenge Week One of Documented Life

I am participating in a challenge by five artists called Documented Life. Since I journal everyday and keep several art journals at a time, it was a perfect challenge for me to participate in.

Week one challenge is to portray your front door. You can do this anyway you want. Since we use our back door more than our front door, I chose to do it. Here's my page and the reason what the door signifies to me.







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Experience each day

I didn't set out to do another thankful page but it just happened so I thought I'd share. I did this watercolor earlier in the month but knew the page wasn't finished. I hadn't found a quote that I felt fit this page. But this morning I saw this quote and felt it was perfect for what I wanted. Now the page is finished and I am happy with it.




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Thankful

I've done quite a few things lately but I just haven't posted. This art journal page was a result of a challenge. I love fall and all the beautiful colors of fall. The challenge was to do something about being thankful. I have so much to be thankful for in my life, I just wanted to express that thankfulness.




I used alcohol inks on parchment paper to make the leaves. The bigger background leaves were inspired by some real leaves I found in a store parking lot. They were drawn, painted and cut out to collage on the background. After collaging I added some more color with pan pastels. The three oak leaves were die cut on some book paper and paper towels used in cleanup from another project. I used my black stabilo pen to give depth to the leaves.
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Fly

Time to spread your wings and fly




Inspired by a challenge to use three diecuts.


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Door Challenge

I was challenged to do a door, any door, any medium. I chose a rust door done in watercolor and some mixed mediums elements thrown in. Just playing and having fun.




I decided to take this piece and make a journal page. I love to use created background pages to enhance the artwork.




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Colorful Tag

Challenge for this was to make something colorful. Use the neons if possible. I love birds so I decided on this colorful little tag.




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Mail Art Swap

Joined a mailart swap. The theme was use one color. So I decided on pink. You could use white and black also. Mailed off my little pig today. I hope the recipient enjoys her.




This is the comment from the girl that received her mail art. "Hi! I received my mail art today, too! Well, actually, it may have arrived sooner, but I just went to get the mail today, so it was a great surprise! It's so colorful, and I love the texture! Thanks for all of your hard work. Yes, it's funny we both chose pink! Great minds think alike! Haha!".

Of all the colors to choose from in the color palette, we both chose pink. Thought that was kinda funny.

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Day at the Beach

This AJ page was inspired by a background page I did earlier this summer on book paper with paint swirls. Sorry I didn't remember to take a picture before I got started. Today when I looked at the background it reminded me of water. Using a picture I took of my daughter earlier this summer at the beach as my inspiration I created this page. I was sitting behind her on the beach and thought this would be a cool angle for a photo. I did change her hat to something from my imagination. It was done with more book paper pieces and painted with heavy body acrylics. I love my little seagull. He has such dimension I feel like he's going to fly off the page.




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Findings and Trinkets Challenge

Marianne from PAO inspired me to try a Finnabair technique. So I looked at her tag video again and attempted to make a tag sort of like hers. Learned a few things that would make it better next time. First picture is how it looked before the spray, spray, spray process. I should have let the spray layers dry a little more before adding more. Oh well.







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Indian Princess

Did another two pages in the journal. Drying time again. Just couldn't get the shine out of the picture but will be gone once it's dry. I'm really liking the journal. The background started out as a gelli print. This is in the challenge journal.




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Challenge Journal

I did this little journal to practice one of the binding techniques. It is the Coptic binding technique. This binding is done with dental floss. It was a little slick but I wanted to try the technique. I have some heavier and better binding thread for the next journal. This one began as a practice journal, but is coming together very nicely.

The cover was gelli printed and then I used the same stencil with some tinted molding paste for texture. Every page is gelli printed. There are 18 pages so I'm not taking pictures of all of those pages.





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Front and back of challenge journal

Here's the back and front covers of the journal. The whole journal is gelli printed. The cover is on the right side of picture. It is opened out for drying. I may go back later and add a quote. Haven't decided yet.




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Altered box

I was cleaning the other day and came across my Gypsy box. I needed another straight edged box to hold inks and thought this would be perfect. The bottom has a divider. I altered the bottom with gelli printed deli and tissue printed papers. Covered with gloss medium. I will do the top the same way and use for something else. Recycle and reuse!

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AJ journal challenge

Ok, so this is my first attempt at a page following the directions in our PAO challenge. You just can't hurry the drying. I probably would get a very different effect I had waited between stages for the drying. But a gal has got do to go what a gal has to do. I don't have much time to play so I just went for it. Pam said if we like it then it's alright. I am satisfied with the result. BTW, the background started as gelli prints.

The paper across the bottom is from a color copied letter my dad wrote to his mom during WWII while he was in the Pacific.




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Altered Tin

I altered a tiny altoid tin. I used the alcohol inks on the tin, the wooden flower and bird. I added lace from an old pillow case my grandmother made when I was young. Inside I lined the bottom with fabric. It's a perfect size for rings or earrings.







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Washi Tape

Art Journal page using washi Tape as part of a challenge.
I love the quote "Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander".




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