Play Time

Palm Tree on Molding Paste

Acrylic on 6 X 8 cardboard

If you ever get a chance to go to a workshop offered by a Golden Paint artist, try it, it's really fun. I went to one offered at my local art league and had a great time playing with a lot of the Golden products. All the materials are provided and when the workshop is over the samples are divided among the attendees so you continue to play when you get home. One of the products that we played with was molding pastes of varying thickness. This was heavy molding paste spread on a piece of cardboard. While it was still wet I made a palm tree shape in it. The texture was like heavy,smooth frosting for a cake. I used thinned acrylics to tint it when it was dry. I also embellished the tree with a little shiny metallic copper. We also did some image transfer, faux encaustic, and experimented with lots of different products. Well worth the time and money.

One More Valentine

Valentine 2015

Collage 3.5 X 3.5

I have one more Valentine for my collection but it won't go in with the triptych, obviously, since it's the fourth one. 

I've had to do some housekeeping since the 30 in 30 Days Challenge. I'm organizing my supplies for a class in collage that I'll be teaching with another artist. Lugging all the papers, acrylics and everything else you need for this process is a chore but it's so much fun to share it with other artists and see how excited they get about it. I'm also preparing for the Pine Island Show and Sale which is always the second week end in February. I have a workshop with Teresa Kirk scheduled for the same week end so I think I'll be overloaded until the 12th. I'll need a week of nothing!

I hope to have some nice things to post from the workshop by then. 

Thanks again for all the wonderful comments during the Challenge. 

Day 30- I Made It!

Heron's Glen

Collage, 10 X 10

Day 30 has finally come and I can say that I have enjoyed the 30 in 30 Days Challenge. It has been frustrating and stressful at times but I was able to press through and get something finished. It wasn't always my best work but I don't think it was ever meant to be that. To me the idea was to get into the studio and make art; stop procrastinating and get going. That I did. For my last piece I wanted something larger so I worked on this heron over a couple of days and finished it yesterday. It has a lot of things going on in it so I think it entertains the viewer. It's made with altered National Geographic pages, painted tissue, painted papers and manufactured papers. The heron started out as a hand cut stencil on a piece of altered N. G. paper, some of it was painted with acrylic some of it is collage. All of it was heat fused to watercolor paper and coated with acrylic gloss medium. To finish, it will be coated with UV varnish. 

Day 29- We're Almost Finished

Valentine Triptych 3

Collage, 3 X 3

Finally the relationship blossoms into LOVE; the stony places of life are shared and because of that, they decrease. The walls are pushed aside, the lace is still there but on the sidelines. The love is in a field of gold because it's solid and true. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Ha! It was fun to imagine a meaning behind the composition, they all look splendid together since they were all made from the same papers. They are framed vertically in black and have a white mat . I'll try to get a good picture of them all together but it's pretty hard with the glass covering them.

I have just completed my grand finale piece for tomorrow. I hope to get it posted much earlier in the day. 

Day 28- Second Installment

Valentine Triptych 2

Collage, 3 X 3

By second installment I mean the second in a series of three in my Valentine Triptych. The colored papers are the same but arranged in a different composition. I have placed a little gold heart on this one. 

The first one in the triptych symbolized the beginnings of a relationship. The lace shows that we are trying to make an impression. The red strip going down the whole piece is the way we block the other person from seeing the stony places in our lives. In all the pieces there are words because words communicate our thoughts and feelings. In this second piece there is still some blocking of the stony places but our hearts are receptive. Tomorrow you'll get the rest of the story.

Day 27 Counting Down the Days

Valentine Triptych 1

Collage 3 X 3

I'm putting together another triptych for a little frame I bought. It  is black and has a mat with 3 openings that are 3 X 3. I thought it might be a good item for our local up coming art show and sale. This is the first one which is to be in the top opening. I used altered N. G. pages and printed art papers all coated with gloss acrylic medium and heat fused to watercolor paper.

Day 26-We're on the home stretch

Lend Me A Hand

Collage/Mixed Media

5.5 X 7.5

Well, we're almost finished with the 30 day challenge, only 4 more days left. Whew! I thought at the beginning that I'd miss a few days and feel OK with it but I just had to keep pushing. As it is, it's 9 PM and I've just finished this collage for today. Knowing there are only 4 days left just makes me more determined than ever to get something accomplished each remaining day. Thanks for all the great comments, I know how hard that can be, too. It really encouraged me to keep going. 

This collage is made from altered magazine pages, hand painted tissue, book pages, and acrylic on 140 # watercolor paper.

Day 25- I'm Underwater

 

Underwater Seahorse

Acrylic Ink on Yupo, 4.5 X 5.5

I'm feeling a bit underwater and swimming hard! I'm trying to stay caught up so that I can post everyday. Life has a way of getting in the way, my week-end has not been a relaxing one. But here we are! In turning this piece around after the ink had dried from it's wandering and doing it's thing I saw a seahorse hiding in the sea weeds. That is what is so much fun about doing these, you never know what is going to come of it. You may see something else, let me know if you do. 

Day 24-Time March On

Time Marches On

Acrylic on Masonite 8 X 10

This is another experimental piece. I put gesso on a Masonite board. Then I used molding paste smoothed over a stencil to make the raised texture areas. After that I began layering acrylic paint. The final layer was a gold acrylic that was thinly applied with cloth over the clock faces and different areas around the painting. Then I put the line work in with Caran D'arche which is then sprayed with fixative since it is water soluble.

Day 23- The End Is In Sight

Landscape Tile

Alcohol Ink on tile, 6 X 6

Putting the alcohol ink on white ceramic tile that you can buy at a home improvement store is a good way to experiment. It is easy to manipulate the inks and to completely wipe them off with alcohol if you want to do something different. When you get a design that you like, you let it dry and then coat it with epoxy to make it permanent. This tile has 3 shades of brown ink and silver. The silver tends to float on top of the other ink and makes interesting patterns.

Day 22- Squeaking By

Gold Arch

Collage, 5.5 X 4.25

It was a rough day with nothing working out as I had hoped it would. I was ready to give up on a posting for today and went into my studio to tidy up. I came across an unfinished collage that I started for an entry into an up coming art show. All it needed was a recognizable object in it to qualify for the Small World category.  I decided to find a bird to fly into my strange little composition. So here it is. I guess, when in doubt, put a bird in it! I hope things go better for the rest of the Challenge; 8 days and 8 paintings left!

Day 21- Many Layers

Finding Joy

Mixed Media on gallery wrap canvas

12 X 12

I was so inspired by all the great abstract art on the Challenge web page that I decided to go all out and have some fun. This canvas has been painted over so many times, it must have at least 3 maybe 4 layers on it. The last layer was a collage with a tissue paper background. I covered it with gesso and made texture marks in it. I knew I wanted to put some corrugated cardboard on it and words. I chose "Finding joy" in my word collection and went from there to the finished painting. This took me 3 days so I'm needing to do catch up for tomorrow but this was so much fun, it was worth it.

Day 20- We're On A Roll

Day at the Beach

6.5 X 6.5

Acrylic Ink and Acrylic on Yupo

We are in the last 10 days of the 30 Day Challenge and rolling on to the finish line. Today I did a more controlled acrylic ink painting. It is possible to control the inks on Yupo if you allow the layers to dry. Since they are so wet and juicy, especially if you use water with them, allowing some drying time between the colors helps if you want to do a more controlled painting. In this case I put in the blue first, let it dry and then put in the beach. After that dried I painted the palm trees in layers, allowing each layer to dry. Finally, I used fluid acrylic to paint in the figure. Not quite as much fun as going with the flow. It just depends on what you want in your painting.

Day 19- An Old Love

Blue Grotto

Acrylic Ink on Yupo, 5 X 7

After working and struggling with Alcohol Ink I decided to go back to an old love of mine, Acrylic Ink on Yupo. I used to do a lot of these just for the fun of watching the ink move around on the slick Yupo. I add water to the surface first, drop in the ink, move it around, spray it, drip it, and then just let it do it's thing. After a big piece dries, I find the things I like in it and just cut that section out. Or, working on a small piece, limit the colors and watch it develop. If I'm feeling less adventurous, I allow layers to dry and then can paint one on top of the other. I think I prefer it to the alcohol inks because it dries more slowly and I can manipulate it more. 

Day 18- Tangled Woods

Tangled Woods

collage. ink, and acrylic 5.5 X 7.5

This one was a struggle. I started it as a collage on Thursday,I was not happy with the result so I covered it, partially at first, with acrylic, then I tried some stenciling and finally ended up with the negative trees stencil. At that point I needed something to focus on so I put my stand-by bird stamp in it. I still don't like the pink on the lower left but have decided to move on. I'm hoping for better results for tomorrow's post.  

Day 17- Alcohol Ink Note Card

Wish I Were Here

Alcohol Ink Notecard

It's one of those days where I wish I were somewhere warm and sunny on the beach. It's a little cool for me today but I'm sure there are plenty of tourists who are loving the beach today. 

This alcohol ink painting was done on transparent/translucent Yupo so you can see the color of the card through the painting. It's fun to try them on different colors to see which one enhances the painting the best. 

Day 16- Drama Queen

Drama Queen

Acrylic on paper, 9 X 12

I was working on a collage and I didn't like the direction it was going or the results I was having. This morning I saw a picture in the Wall Street Journal that just inspired me to get out the acrylics and see what I could do with it. This isn't even close to the detail in the original picture but I was just going for the shapes and the colors which were so dramatic. I think I'll try it again, usually that doesn't work for me but I'll do it anyway, just to see what happens. It was really fun to paint and though you can't see it there is iridescent gold in the yellows and oranges. 

Day 15-Butterfly Kisses

Butterfly Kisses

Collage, 5.5 X 7.5

Now we're half-way through the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge. I think we're getting into the swing of painting everyday, but getting them posted everyday seems to be the hardest part of it. 

This collage is altered magazine pages, painted papers, printed papers, acrylic transfer and acrylic paint and medium on 140# watercolor paper.

Day 14-Balance

Balance

Collage, 3.5 X 5.5

We were at a beach in Maine last year where there were many stacked rocks. Some people do them as a type of meditation. The rocks are irregular in shape and it takes concentration to get them to balance. You need to breathe and be patient. Not unlike balancing life; breathe, be patient, put things in order, the big stuff first then add the smaller stuff. Some days the pile is short, some days it's tall. 

This collage was made from altered magazine pages, art paper, hand painted paper, acrylic paint and medium on watercolor paper.

Day 13- Upper Level Disturbance

Upper Level Disturbance

Alcohol Ink on Yupo 4 X 5.5

I think this is a weather term, or, I made it up! But on days when the weather doesn't turn out exactly as promised and it rains (or snows) on your picnic or parade, it seems like the forecasters like to use the these weather terms that sound really good. "It rained because  of an upper level disturbance over Montana." So this is my version of what an upper level disturbance would look like. What appears to be white and light gray is really a metallic silver ink that doesn't show up in a picture very well.