Snow 2010

January 29, 2010
It started snowing on Friday night
and continued for over 24 hours.
By the time it stopped, we had about
five inches. It was the largest snow
we had this season and stayed around
until the middle of the week.
It was a really pretty snow.


I did this scrapbook spread for a challenge. We had to do a double page spread using a certain sketch, glazed glitter technique and make it monochromatic. I think I accomplished that is this layout. Best of all, I got two pages done.
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Gelli Art prints

Had some fun with backgrounds made with Gelli Arts Printing plate. I'll use these either for art journal pages or cut up for other projects. You never know what you'll end up with but they are pure fun.




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Friday Paint

This is in honor of our wonderful 78 degree weather this weekend!



16 x 20 acrylic painting
This is view from Carrot Island looking towards Shackleford Banks. I painted this Friday night. It was foggy that night but the rest of the weekend was sunny and in the 70's. Not really that unusual except that it is mid January.
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Monochromatic Triangles Challenge

The challenge this month was to do a project using three triangles of any size BUT you also had to make your item monochromatic.
So there are three triangles in the crown and the wings and crown form a triangle shape.
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January tag

I didn't have all the things necessary to make the January 2013 tag inspired by Tim Holtz. So I decided to make a tag substituting the things I had in my stash. I was well pleased with the result.
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2013

New Year's Eve

It's New Year's Eve!  It's a time to reflect on the year just passed and plan for the year to come.  It's a time to take down all the Christmas decorations and get ready for the new.  I didn't post my wreath or tree pictures before Christmas but will post now since they are coming down and being put away for another year.   Just as with the decorations, the new year puts away the old and rings in the new.  Wishing peace and prosperity for 2013!  Happy New Year.                

Birthday

Today's my birthday.  Comes but once a year so I intend to enjoy it.  Got a card from my youngest grandchildren which said " A bunch of birthday wishes for a day that's really neat to a fun-to-be-with GRANDma who's a special kind of sweet!"  Made my day.

                           

AJ page

This is an Art Journal page in my altered book journal.  The bird is a watercolor I did of the Painted Bunting.  I used inktense blocks, inks, stencil and molding paste and tags.  On the tag on the left, I did a distressed techniques to age the edges.  It was a lot of fun to make.

Post Card Swap

I was in a postcard swap at PAO.  We had to make a postcard without using cardstock.  I used watercolor paper and inktense paint for the background.  Added sunflower printed on bookpaper.  The two flowers were made from deli paper, inks and charcoal pencil with metal charms in the center.  I added beads on wire and sheer fabric that was sewn onto the piece.

Christmas Ornament

 

Had so much fun making this Christmas ornament at our fall PAO retreat.

Mixed Media

What constitutes mixed-media art?  It is a work of art that uses more than one visual medium.  You can't categorize mixed-media art because it is art that is outside the box.  The rules don't apply and it can be anything you want it to be.  Hense, your imagination at work.

A mixed-media artist doesn't limit themselves to one type of medium.  I use anything I can get my hands on whether it is the traditional art medium or not.  I love making something out of nothing and improvising when I don't have what I want to use.

It is the characteristics of the artist that will often determine what is mixed-media art more than the techniques or the materials used.  Here are some reasons why I love mixed-media art.

1. I love variety.  I get bored very easily and can't limit myself to just one form of art.  I love to play with all kinds of techniques and explore new (to me) mediums.
2. I have a willingness to get messy.  I love to get my hands messy and I always say "the messier the better."  I use my fingers to paint and apply gel mediums.  I clean my brushes and organize my supplies but when I am creating, I can create a mess.
3. My favorite part is that there are no rules.  Tell me I'm not supposed to do that and I'll do it every time.
4. I love the sensory.  As an artist I love to touch, to feel the textures I create.  I'll scratch, reveal layers of paint, tear and apply layers of paper,  apply texture with anything I can get my hands on.  If I don't have what I want to create texture, I'll make it.  Nothing is safe from art.
5. I strive to keep an open mind.  There's no one way to create art.  I love to learn from others and share what I do.

Golden Poppies

“Through the dancing poppies stole A breeze most softly  lulling to my soul.” 
-- John Keats

This was done with Derwent's Inktense Blocks.  They are a watersoluble ink block.  The color is so much more intense than watercolor.   Once they are dry, they become permanent.  I've wanted to try them and so finally broke down and purchased a set.  I love, love using them.

Joy and Peace

Collage of pictures taken of a beautiful sunset at Myrtle Beach this winter.  Played with them digitally to alter them.  I love to take original photos and just play with them.

Winter

Digital collage of some of my altered bird photos.

Doily and She Art

I'm always on the hunt for a new stencil.  I had this thick crocheted doily that was badly stained.  I decided to prep it for use as a stencil.  I had to put several layers of gel medium on it and then a layer of gesso.  As we all know if you spray paint or ink on the cotton it will only absorb and I needed it to become more plastic like.  Above her head is how it looks when I sprayed it with ink.  After spraying the background, I decided I'd make a She Art Angel.  I hadn't done one in awhile.  I wanted the colors to be light and airy.

Wings of Love

My friend Deb sent me a package with her She Art girl.  I loved her She Art girl and it inspired this art journal page.  She loves Paris so I thought that would be just the right theme to show off her art.

This was fun to do.  I used her girl, a tag I'd made with left over inks, an Eiffel Tower stencil, some stamps,  some rick rack I got last year at a retreat and some 3D butterflies.   I wanted to try melting wax over parts of the page using a technique I saw on a video. I used a small craft iron with no holes (that's very important - no holes) and wax pellets.  It was much easier to do than when I used the melting pot.

Nature

I love this page.  I used several different techniques on it.  I printed the bug on book paper.  My ink was running out so the color is different from the original image.  I really liked it and worked my page around the colors.  The flower is drawn on a piece of parchment/deli paper that comes in between cheese slices.  It is thicker than my other deli papers.  I saw where another artist uses these in her work.  At first I thought, "how crazy".  But while getting cheese for breakfast this morning, I took a look at the paper and said "Why NOT!"  I love the way it turned out.   After I did the background on the deli paper, I saw in the colors a shape that could be made into a flower.  Hence the flower!  I used charcoal pencil to make the flower shape.  Was very pleased with the way it turned out.  I used more inks, paint and a phrase that I thought applied to what I was creating in this page.

Miracle of a Flower

 "If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change."  Gautama Siddharta

I just love the colors in this page.  It has great texture and appeals to my senses.  It makes me smile!

quote

“What would it be like if you lived each day, each breath, as a work of art in progress? Imagine that you are a Masterpiece unfolding every second of every day, a work of art taking form with every breath.” —Thomas Crum

I think these are wonderful words for artists, but imagine if we all lived this way.

Found this picture on FB and thought it worked perfectly with my quote. 

I love you to the moon

Fun little AJ page using gel medium in the inks.  It gives a really glossy texture.  Keeps the texture from being so flat.

quote

So I had this quote but wasn't sure how I wanted to use it.  Discussion on the PAO thread about mediums made me pull out my black gesso.  It gave the piece an almost chalkboard like texture where I could write the quote.  I like the black/white theme with a punch of color in the background.  I was very happy with the final page.

Ocean Pier

Here's a 6x10 watercolor of my favorite childhood pier, sadly no longer there.  I've submitted this for a PAO lottery challenge.  Some lucky winner gets to take all, sure hope it's me!!!

Life's A Beach

Here's the first version of this palm theme.  This is on an  8x10 canvas.  I used watercolor undercoating, acrylics, pan pastels, beads and shells I collected last summer.  Instead of using the Golden molding paste, I used Smart non-shrink wall fix from the hardware store.  It gives a different texture than the Golden molding paste which is smoother.  The wall fix is much rougher.  I like using both of these depending on what texture I an trying to achieve.  In "Palm at Sunset", I wanted a much smoother texture because I was using a smaller base.

Palm at Sunset

This palm is done on wood using shells I collected on the beach.  I used acrylics, pan pastels, Golden's molding paste and beads.  This is a second version on this theme.