Deli Paper

Faces in Places

16 X 20 Mixed Media/Acrylic

As a mixed media/collage artist I get excited about little things that I find and it becomes a springboard for a painting. It was deli paper from Publix that my sandwich was wrapped in for this painting. It had such an interesting design of black lines on white background that I knew I had to use it. There were little faces on it as well as lots of other stuff. So, there are 3 faces imbedded in there that I was very careful not to cover completely. If you click on it to zoom in you should be able to find them. If I don't get back to blogging this month, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for reading my blog and leaving a comment.

Art Projects

A Heart of Love

Watercolor 6.5 X 4.5

Every other week I teach an art class at Lifeline Family Center (lifelinefamilycenter.org). I need to have a project that can be finished in two hours and is easy enough for young women who may not have had much opportunity to use art materials. It's been a challenge. Collage and watercolor projects are good choices because they can be done fairly well with good instructions. This idea came from a book by Gina Lee King, Fast Fun Watercolors. I've used several ideas from her book. The background is scribbled with a white wax crayon leaving resist marks. Then the background color is painted and let dry. Next the heart is drawn with the love and bird. The heart is painted and sprinkled with Brusho Crystal Color and spritzed with a fine mister. After this dries the "love" is put in with gold gauche and the bird is painted. With the help of a hair dryer we were able to complete this and the students were happy with the results. Off they went and I didn't get a picture of their paintings, which often happens.

Windmill of My Mind

Windmill of My Mind

Acrylic on paper 15 X 22

This is from the abstract class I took earlier in the summer. The assignment was to work in shades of black and white. The windmill shape just sort of came together, I didn't have anything in particular in mind, I was just painting shapes. At the end, I liked the composition and I added the yellow accents, just because. It's so freeing to just put paint to paper and not follow a photo or a still life. I just concentrated on making shapes and marks that pleased me. 

I'll Fly Away

I'll Fly Away

Acrylic Mixed Media/Collage

15 X 22

I actually did fly away! I've been away for far too long. I've been doing a little painting and collage over the summer but life seems to get in the way of taking pictures of my work and posting them. I think I finished this one in June and have been living with it on an easel in my living room, deciding if it is "done". Some artist once said a painting is done when it is sold so, who knows? Between times I've been visiting family and got to do a cruise along the shore of Alaska. I must do a glacier collage! Keep checking back, I will reappear like the summer thunderstorms.

Back Home

Back Home

Watercolor and Charcoal 9 X 15

I can't remember if I posted this before but I couldn't find a picture for it in my files so I think maybe I didn't. It received an Honorable Mention in a local show this year and the judge said some interesting things about it. 

"Canvas divided in quarters for focal area, high marks for design, e.g. diagonal line leading the eye, variety of rectangular shapes, skill turning charcoal into watercolor, with much diversity of shapes, feeling of balance, lots of variety yet coherent movement of the eye in the work, excellent feeling of childlike execution in small areas. Picasso said, "It took me four years to learn how to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

I guess I can take that as a compliment! 

Painting on a charcoal pour is a technique I learned from Karen Knutson in a workshop a few years ago. I do it when I want to get some challenge and diversity in my paintings. 

Abstract Painting

Out On A Limb

Acrylic and collage on paper 22 X 30

Every once in awhile I have to challenge myself so I started taking an abstract class in April. The second challenge was to paint larger, so I started a full sheet of watercolor paper. With acrylics I use Fabriano Artistico II, 90#. It seems to hold up well to the scraping and multiple layers that I use in my process and doesn't buckle. I rarely start with an idea in mind, I just play with mark making and texture in the beginning; it's very intuitive. There is a lot of "what if" and "what would happen if..." going on. That's when I started adding my collage of ladies in old fashioned dresses. Finally I had to tie it together so I used a stencil to put in the large tree. It worked! Yay! I have other works in progress. The fun part about acrylics is that you can gesso over the whole thing and start over. In golf it would be a "mulligan". I may have to name one or two that! 

Artists of the Month

Nancy and I with our collage wall.

My Collage Wall

My friend and mentor, Nancy and I were asked to be artists of the month at our local art league. She taught me the heat sealed (John Talbot) method of collage and then we taught it to interested students. The most fun of the class is not that the collages are heat sealed but in all the different ways that we make our own collage papers. We use a lot of old National Geographic magazines because of the quality of the ink and paper. We hit these colorful photos with various chemicals, sandpaper, paint, ink, whatever we can find. We also paint our own papers from craft tissue, paper bags, maps, book pages, music, wrapping paper, etc so that each collage is unique and can't be copied. Our students become so free and creative we learn from them too. 

Our work will be hanging in the studio for the month of April.   

Hope of Spring

Collage, 8 X 8

It maybe looks wintery, but it's that period of time in the snow belt when most of the snow is gone, there are signs of life and color but the trees are still bare. Some  are going through that right now and some places the blossoms have already opened. I saw the cherry blossoms in Washington D. C. on television and they looked glorious! We have spring in Florida, too, we even have bare trees! The weather is warm and dry and there are certain trees that blossom only this time of year. My early mango has set fruit that are the size of large walnuts. 

This piece was made from faded tissue, tissue with script, painted paper with marbling spray, printed paper and an acrylic transfer. All papers are coated with polymer gloss medium and heat sealed to a paper backing. It's coated with UV varnish. 

I Love Dragonflies

Flight of the Dragonfly

Collage, 6.5 X 11.5

Dragonflies are wonderful creatures! They eat mosquitoes for one thing and that makes them very useful; they are fun to watch and they have such varied bodies, from large to small and every color of the rainbow, often iridescent. One time, up north after a rainy day, the sun came out and there were literally thousands of dragonflies. It was magical! How and why they appeared after the rain I don't know. 

This collage was done in the traditional manner by gluing (with matte medium) paper onto a backing which was mat board. The papers were hand painted craft tissue, the dragonfly was an acrylic transfer which I applied using the heat method. The "flight path" is an acrylic string. Acrylic string is made by squirting a fine stream of acrylic paint onto a nonstick surface like oven parchment. It is allowed to dry and is fastened to the desired surface with matte or gloss medium. Please put in a comment if you have any questions about the process. 

Dreaming of Paris

Old Paris

Mixed Media 15 X 15

Using old postcard pictures of Paris as an inspiration I started layering pictures and paint, along with old clock faces and script. Finally I finished it with a stylized Eiffel Tower. At least I think I'm finished. We will see, it's not in a frame yet. If you click on it to make it bigger you can see all the texture and details. 

Painting With a Celebrity

Leoma's Seahorse

Acrylic, 12 X 16

Yes, this is quite a departure for me but it made for a fun afternoon. We have a local celebrity artist whose name is Leoma Lovegrove (yes, that's her real name).  She has quite a following and is known all over the world for her colorful, tropical paintings. She was commissioned to have her paintings on clothing, accessories, household items like pillows, dishes, and you name it, for a Florida department store, Bealls. She graciously has been helping our art league to raise money to pay for our new, very expensive roof by attending an afternoon painting party. We choose one of her designs, invite the public, offer wine and snacks for a fee of course, and have an afternoon paint-along party. Afterwards, she signs the back of every painting. She is so generous! Here's the link to our art league, click on events to see the pictures from our fund raiser. capecoralartleague.org Also you can find Leoma on Facebook and   at leomalovegrove.com.

Circular Connections

Circular Connections

Collage 8 X 8

This collage is from the second day of the workshop that was led by Kathleen Conover. Some of the papers I made in the workshop, some were papers I had made before. I like using circles in  my work, they have a feeling of completeness and familiarity. I put circles on some papers that I make, some I add in the process of building the collage, some appear randomly while the paper is being made. When that happens I try to incorporate it into the collage. It's all connected!

Zing

Zing!

Collage on mat board 8 X 8

I've finally returned to my blog after a wonderful collage workshop and following that, a bout of shingles. (Yes, I had the old shot, it's only 30% effective). The workshop was taught by Kathleen Conover, an artist who splits her time between Michigan and Florida. She also teaches watercolor workshops so I would like to take more classes from her. Workshops give an artist a period of 3 days to a week to concentrate on their art and to stretch their creative spirit to learn some new techniques and to practice and share the old ones. 

Kathleen uses all papers that she has painted herself and does not use magazine images. She will use her own photograph which she will often distress and alter somewhat with paint. Our first day was spent making paper, then we cut our papers in half and shared with the others in class. That way we got a good variety of paper. The craft tissue we used was coated with a mixture of acrylic paint and matte medium. We planned our collages and fixed the tissue to mat board with thinned matte medium. Zing! is the first collage I finished on the second day made with the papers we made the first day. 

A Meditation

Be Still and Listen

Acrylic on paper mounted on gallery canvas

16 X 20

This painting puts me in a meditative mood. It's very peaceful to look at, the colors are calm and soothing. It's coated with an iridescent medium which adds a sheen and makes it very difficult to photograph well. You know how your blood pressure seems to drop and your cares fall away when you are at a place where you can look at a body of water? That is the feeling I tried to capture in this painting. All you need to do is be still and listen; listen to that inner voice that is drowned out by the hustle of life.