Little Girl and her Bunny

I don't always paint large.  In fact, I rarely paint large.  But sometimes I just want to. This baby is 20" square on stretched canvas.  What I love to do most, is to just plunge in an make a background without any thought to what I'll put in it.  The first stage is collage....  For this I used maps, tissue paper, vintage music sheets, printed pages, printed pages for this piece. 

This step used to freak my out.  But now I know that it is going to get buried so no worries if it doesn't quite go.    Next I add a layer of paint.  Some is a paint wash so the print still shows and some places are more opaque blobs of paint  I'm going for pinks and turquoises and a bit of lime.   I'm liking it by now.

Next stage is to add more paint, some texture in the way of stamps and dots.  I use glitter waste,  bubble wrap in different sizes ( Love DOTS!) and some packing material that had a cool grid inside suitable for stamping.   It was bedtime, but I though I saw a little person and her pal showing up.  

The next day I painted the girl and her bunny.  Once I did this I felt the background was too busy, so I made spaces of "rest" in the way of more solid paint places.  It also seemed to need the black to break up all the light pastels.  I like that you can still see musical notes in her forehead and print in her dress.  

Yes, my painting is "different".  Since I've been taking an e-class by Mindy Lacefield, I've been having fun with this looser style which is very playful to do and to look at.  I reckon it belongs in a kids room.  

Today I made an 7"square print and put it in a frame and it is going up in this kid's room.  She makes me happy cuz she is sweet and likes bunnies.   

New Beginnings

 We're only two weeks into the New Year and my head is a-spinning with all the new intentions, thoughts, ideas, actions and plans I have begun.  Each new day is a New Beginning for me as I invent this new chapter of my life. I am learning that it is never too late to do what you want or learn what you need to.  While on Pinterest one day, I came across a picture of this lady who is my new inspiration and hero.  

                                                     

Her name is Beatrice Wood and she was an artist and a writer who lived to be 105.  What I was attracted to was her spirit.  She claimed her most productive years were the last twenty five of her life...which means from the age of 80 to 105!  Wow!

When asked what the secret of her long life, she said, "art books, chocolates and young men”. She was my kind of lady. 

Another thing I appreciated about her was her philosophy:

"Do be true to yourself, whether it's bad doesn't matter. The important thing - you have to copy while you're studying. And culture is - each of us - is like one pearl added to another to make a chain. We each contribute to the other. And that's all right. But once you're on your own, do that which comes from within. And I feel this very strongly."  

How reassuring it is to read and realize, while in your own learning stage, that even the masters "copied" each other.  That is why so many of us are taking these AMAZING online classes from other artists we admire.  Before last fall, I did not even realize they existed, this whole world of beautifully orchestrated do-at-your-own-pace classes and reasonably priced to boot.

I am currently enrolled in two classes.  One of them is a 5 week course by Mindy Lacefield, who has a whimsical style of painting that I admire.  I am learning to get away from realistic drawings and paint little urchins like these.  (just for a change)

Flower Girl with Attitude

Girl with the Cool Socks

I love to watch Mindy at work.  She has a calming teaching style that invites you in and inspires you to get busy. I have been a fan of her art work for a few months now.  Here is an example of her work.  

 So cute... I love her use of greens and blues in the faces.  

My other class is a year-long class called Life Book 2013.  organized by Australian artist Tamara LaPorte, this class has many guest artists who teach lessons throughout the year.  The lessons are all done as videos with PDFs to follow.  By the end of the year, we participants will have a couple dozen finished journal art pages that will be bound together in a book.  I am already learning so much. 
I'm not crazy about anything I've produced yet, but standby for some cool pages.  I plan to redo them, until I get it right.  I just watched a lesson by Christy Tomlinson,  another mixed media artist I have admired. I cannot wait to get started making a page from that lesson, soon to show up on this blog.  

My hopes with these classes and with the art retreat I will be going to in February is to feel freer and in my own style. Just as writers suffer writers block, artists face the same issues with a blank canvas. I want that to be a thing of the past.  

So...this is blog circle Thursday, where you can follow the links to other artist blogs who are all blogging on a common theme, this month "Beginnings".  Make sure you connect to Chandra Merod at Juniper Goods HERE. 

Thank you for visiting.  Have some cookies and leave me a note.  ;+) 

THe Stunningly Strange Gallery in Edmonds, Washington

This week I took myself on an "Artist Date" to a little gallery in Edmonds.  This gallery is owned by a fellow "flyer" from an online class I took,  Kaitlin Phillips Goodey.  Look at her gorgeous store!  Everything in there was made by her!

After introducing myself I got to go "backstage" where she has her studio.

Kaitlin's Workspace.  YUM!

Here are some of her cuties she is working on.

In her gallery she has a series of these encaustics.
I love the muted tones and the texture that only wax can create.

Kaitlin also features a lot of her sculpted art forms.  She uses paper clay as her sculpting medium.

More sculpted dollies. 

And some sewn dollies. 

She makes jewelry

and little hand painted pictures in frames. 

Look how cute the little pearl bikini is!  

 I was so impressed by all the different types of art that were displayed.  The shop is definitely unusual and quite fresh.  I loved my visit and came home inspired to get to work!

Very Inspiring Blogger Award!! Me?

Thanks to the amazing  Wendy Poling at http://wendypoling.typepad.com for nominating me!  

Rules for Accepting the Very Inspiring Blogger Award

1.  Display the award logo on your blog.        

2.  Link back to the person who nominated you.      

3.  State 7 things about yourself. (see below)

4.  Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them. (see below)

5.  Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements.     

7 Things about Me you Might not Know...

1.   My only pet when I was growing up was a rooster named Archie.

2.   When I was a kid I would rather be up in a tree than stuck to the ground.

3.   I need an equal balance of being alone and with people.

4.   I like pink..

5.   I am happiest when I am creating something.

6.   Or when I am  with my family.

7.  I am going to Paris for 3 weeks in May and I cannot wait!!

My nominations for the Very Inspiring Blogger award ( in no particular order):

1.  LalyBlue  Mixed Media Artista and Dreamer    http://www.lalyblue.com

2.  Danita Art    http://danitaart.blogspot.com

3.  Sleep and Her Sisters  http://katherineq.blogspot.com

4.  Katie Kendrick  Joyously Becoming  http://joyouslybecoming.typepad.com

5.  Kristal Norton  http://kristalnorton.com/blog/

6.  Jenny Rotruck   http://www.sewfabulousquiltshop.blogspot.com

7.  Ginger Deverell   http://redpearcreative.blogspot.ca

8.  Kaitlin Goodey     http://www.stunninglystrange.com/blog

9.  JoAnn Stevens-Flores  Doodle Paint Draw  http://doodlepaintdraw.typepad.com

10.  Kerry Estey Keith  Woman on Wild Mountain  http://www.womanwild.org

I was supposed to nominate 15, but I could only come up with 10 for now.  Many blogs I visited have not updated in months (tut tut)!  I will add to my list as I am inspired to do so ;+)

Anyway,  I think it is cool to be noticed.

Happy New Year!!

Christmas Creativity Past and Present

I have always been a little bit crazy about  making things, and Christmas time has always brought this out in me in full force.  Some times I was over-the -top in a creating frenzy, so much so that I vowed to spread the fun out year round instead of all during the month of December. I never kept that promise.  Making Christmas crafts is only fun for me at Christmas time.

                         

            

Over the years I tried different things,  For awhile it was dough ornaments,  hand sculpted out of flour,  salt and water, then bake for hours, painted with acrylics and sprayed or dipped in varethane. I made hundreds, giving them away as gifts and keeping a ton for my own tree.  I tried a different version too, dipping these into paraffin to seal..  I loved the muted look it gave and amazingly they last.  It has been 20 years since I made them.

Along with making doll clothes for my girls, I sewed a few things like this crèche and this holiday girl.

Mary and Joseph are about 12' tall, sheep are about 4 inches.

I also bought myself a scroll saw and started woodcrafting ornaments. Some of them are huge, so I always have a Noble tree to hold the weight.  After cutting out the figures the process of painting and sealing are similar to the dough ornaments. 

  

It has been years since I last made dough or wood ornaments.  For one thing, you only need so many ornaments. I was reflecting today on that time period in my life. My children were young and would often join me in making the ornaments. I loved our  creative times together but think I, more than that, NEEDED to be creative as an outlet for things going on inside and around me. Simply put, it brought me joy to make something out of little bits of nothing.  


I had a renewal of those joyful feelings today when I spent the whole day making decorative paper cones. I got the idea from a magazine and over the past week I gathered supplies. Some I had in my craft bins, but others I purchased to make these.  I made them to give as gifts, seven in all.  I took loads of pictures along the way in case I decide to do a tutorial.  Do you think I should?  
The cones are about 12" tall from tip to top. 

Today's post is part of my monthly artist blog circle.  Our common theme this month is on reflections.  I thought a lot about what to share because that topic is quite broad.  My decision to share my handmade ornaments with you is all part of my thoughts about creative evolution.  When I was teaching, I had only snatches of time to create.  At times it became a habit to Not create.  But.. I keep coming back to it because it fills me up.  

Tomorrow I will grocery shop and put out the trash. 

Oh!  One more thing...I found this project on Pinterest, just in time. I had a sheet wrapped around the base of my tree.  Now it is decked out with burlap and lace.  How cool is that?.  

Mosey on to Kelli Watcherson's blog here and then keep on going to check out the circle.  Love this creative, smart, fascinating group of women!

Feels Good!

My first sale of an original is on its way to its new owner.  There is something very lovely about having your art appreciated to the extent that someone would purchase it!  I feel like I have arrived.  Woot!

ATC's

Up to about a month ago, I couldn't have told you what an ATC was.   But ATC's in the art world are as common as  MSP, ESL, SLP and PTA are for teachers.  An ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards.  They are 2 1/2" x 3 1/2 " in size and are little bitty pieces of original art.  The front side is a piece of art, the backside has artist info on it.

I signed up to be part of a group of artists from around the globe who want to trade art.  On a specific day every month we send by snail mail our little treasure to our assigned partner artist.  Each time you have a different person to send to.  This month will be my first time to do this and as I was reading through my Facebook threads tonight , I discovered the first one  to be sent on Monday!  Oops, I forgot it was coming up so fast.

So... I cut up watercolor paper to the right size.  I ended up with 12 little ATC size pieces.  I covered them each with Gesso, an art medium that prepares the surface for paint.  I soon found that it was so much easier to just go ahead and work on several at once.  I had a piece of paper that I had tried a new technique on.  It was a large pink flower torn from a magazine.  I put a piece of corrugated cardboard behind it and then I taken a product called wadding polish (used for cleaning silver) and rubbed it across the flower.  The polish removed the ink form the picture in the raised parts of the cardboard giving the paper a striped effect.   I took strips of this and glued them to the watercolor page.  One side of the magazine page was pink and the other had a blue floral pattern so I ended up with some blue and some pink.  ( I sure wish I had taken photographs along the way.)

My next step was to use spray inks and glimmer mists to add color.

Here is a pix of how they looked at this point.  I had NO IDEA whatsoever what my end product would be, but will let the backgrounds dictate where I end up.

I was kind of excited at this point because they looked so pretty and though I had done them pretty much simultaneously, they were all so different. Kind of amazing that all of them were done from one tear out from a magazine.

I choose the pink one in the back row to work on as my first.
Usually there is a theme for the month's ATCs but for this time there was no theme.  Since it is Christmas time, I am rather into angels.  I also wanted to use the words Fly Girl on the ATC because this group of women are called the  Soaring ATCs.  (longer story)  Anyway, that is how I came to painting my ATC.  This ATC used prepared magazine paper (as described above, acrylics, silver, white and black pens,  button brads, diamond embellishments, and a little WISH tag add-on.  The tiny ATC is really cuter than the picture, but I am sure you are pins and needles to see it, so TA-DA!

In the actual piece the layers show up better.  Anyway is turned out to be a fun project.  I have a pile of others to work on.   My next one is due to send on the 20th.
Here are some of my Works in Progress at this point.

Just little bitty bits of art.  

Any of my readers learn something new today or was I the only one in the dark about ATC's?d

Excuses

 My excuse for NOT doing my art lately:

This....

 And this......

A bit of this......

and this....

Just excuses, but who can argue?  My babies are so dang cute.  

This weekend, this little twerp went Christmas tree shopping with me.  He claimed I was "picky" and his feet were full of mud but look what kind of help he was giving me!  

But I ended up with a perfect one for my corner and once the MESS is cleaned up, maybe I'll get back to work.  

PS:  Those "excuses" were 5 of my seven grandchildren.  Just sayin...

A Personal Note of Gratitude

The theme for this months blog circle is gratitude. This is so easy for me to relate to.   I have so much to be thankful for.  This is usually a blog about my creative pursuits but because it is Thanksgiving I am taking time out to reflect upon what is golden in my life.

 (pretty sad that I have so few pictures of my three together as adults.  This one was taken 6 years ago at my oldest, beautiful daughter's wedding).  

My family means everything to me.  I have three amazing children, (above), all grown and productive,   Anyone who has had children know there were certainly trials and sacrifices along the way but the outcome is hugely satisfactory.  I LOVE them with a fierceness that surprises me.   In the past six years those three have produced 7 children which, of course, are  grandchildren to me.  I LOVE them.

I have so much to be thankful for, but for this post want to focus on how I got to where I am now as an artist.

I really had No Idea  how much I yearned to explore this side of me. For thirty years I have dedicated my life to  raising and educating kids. I have been a school teacher in 2nd through 9th grades and have given 100% to that endeavor. 

Here are a couple of pictures showing you how goofy my life as a elementary school teacher could be.  








About a year ago, I knew that I was at the top of my game in teaching, but I was feeling it was time to move on.  I had other things I was aching to do.  I retired in June and by August I had renovated a spare room, turning it into my creative space.

My journey has been documented in this blog.  I am only three months into my (official) life as an artist but in that time I have taken three e-classes, joined a large artist community, signed up for an art retreat out of state, read countless art books,  explored, experimented and plunged into painting on a regular basis.  I have created an artist Facebook page, an Etsy shop and this blog. I am serious and  I am so thankful for the opportunity.

Since I was a little kid, I have always been happiest creating.  I learned to use a sewing machine at the age of 8, and by the following year I was sewing clothes for myself and my dolls.  I lived on acreage where there were woods to explore, claybanks to scavenge, chicken houses to renovate into a playhouse and  camps in the forest.  We did not own a TV and I was never bored.

(This picture is of me, in the middle, with my two sisters,  my mother, aunt and father.   I love the innocence of those days in the 50's. 

I love everything about that time of my life. )


When I was in high school, I decided that I wanted to be an interior designer. I took extra Home Ec classes and art classes. When I got to college I wasn't as committed to that idea and ended up with a major in Clothing, Textiles and Art. I did not have the resources to plunge into Fashion Design in Seattle in the 60's, and I needed to support a husband going through law school, so I ended up going back to college to get  a teaching degree.

I am SO thankful for my career as a teacher. It was rewarding on many levels, and most certainly, never dull.  What that experience is providing me now is a bit of retirement security while I explore this next phase in my life. Now that I am retired, I am so thankful to have something that intrigues me, causes me to learn, and is always there to turn to when I have some time. which is pretty much whenever I want.   And that is the way it should be.  I put in my time, as a parent and as a teacher, and now I get to play.
It is just so right and I am so thankful that this is my life right now.

  Here is some recent "fun" art to share with you.

And now, (after you leave me a sweet gratitude comment (<3 ), circle round to my friend, Kelli  Watcherson's blog to continue our personal thoughts on being thankful.