February 30 in 30 Days-Day 12

Little Gem Valentine 1

Collage on paper 3 X 3

Valentine's Day is almost here so I'm posting a few Valentines that I have made for the occasion. These will be fastened to cards to be mailed to my favorite people (family). They were made with hand painted tissue paper, heat bonded to paper and sealed with gloss medium acrylic.

February 30 in 30 Days- Day 11

Orange and Blue series # 5 Abstract 

Painted tissue, art paper, acrylic transfer, 

watercolor crayon, gloss acrylic, on paper. 8 X 8

I'm still continuing to explore putting shades of orange and blue together. The papers are random pieces I made last year. Some days I just make papers of different types in different colors for future use with no particular artwork in mind. It comes in handy for a stretch of work like this because it takes several days and lots of space to paint and gloss papers for use in my collages. It's like having the ingredients for cookies in the pantry. It's nice to have a choice of flavors.

February 30 in 30 Days- Day 10

Orange and Blue # 4

Birds on a Wire

Mixed Media Collage Tissue, Art paper,

Acrylic transfer heat fused on paper 

mounted on black card stock. 4 X 4

This is another "Little Gem" in my orange and blue series. All but one little bird is watching the sunset over the water, perhaps the nonconformist is watching the reflections. I'm 1/3rd through the 30 Days, I hope I make it to the end and that my friends who are painting the 30 in 30 will make it too.

February 30 in 30 Days- Day 9

Orange and Blue #3, Butterfly

Panted deli paper, tissue, collage 

paper, acrylic transfer, and ink on 

paper mounted on black background.

4 X 4

I call these little collage paintings "Little Gems". I try to keep the design simple with something recognizable in it to mount on a little canvas or put in a small table frame. They make attractive hostess gifts or souvenirs. 

February 30 in 30 Days- Day 8

Orange and Blue Series #2 Dragonflies 

Painted tissue, altered magazine pages, 

acrylic, and ink on heat fused on paper. 6 X 6

Late posting today; I'm having fun keeping up with the painting and posting every day. It will be a true challenge this month, my busiest time of the year, to keep up. Good luck to us all!

February 30 in 30 Days- Day 7

Cat Series # 3 Sits Silently

Mixed media collage,  5 X 5

Acrylic, altered magazine pages, ink, gloss medium

There's a poem I learned as a child about the fog coming on little cat's feet. It sits silently looking over the city. I always thought it was a very charming metaphor. Thanks to google I can attribute the poem to Carl Sandburg. This little collage reminded me of that poem. 

February 30 in 30 Days- Day 6

Cat Collage #2, Stretching

Altered magazine pages, stencils,

and acrylic. 6.5 X 4.5

Another one for the cat lovers. I've always admired the flexibility and agility of cats and wonder if we all wouldn't be more that way if we got up from rest leisurely and stretched instead of hitting the ground running. This is one of those difficult works where I think, "Is it too much?", "Not enough?". Then I give up and just let it be. I can't hit the bull's eye all the time but I can enjoy the practice. 

February 30 in 30 Days-Day 5

Cat Collage Series #1

Hand painted papers, altered magazine pages,

book pages, acrylic and ink on paper sealed 

with acrylic gloss medium. 6 X 8

I'm drawn to paintings with blue and orange for dominant colors. I wanted to work more of that into my collages and paintings. It's another area of exploration for me because I haven't used those colors together very much in my work. Painting every day gives me the freedom to stretch myself and try new things. Why does life get in the way of doing that all the time? 

February 30 in 30 Days, Day 4

Together

Liquid Watercolor on Yupo

13.5 X 10.5

Now I have really ventured into the unknown. I have worked with regular watercolor and also acrylic ink on Yupo synthetic paper, but I had not tried the liquid pigments. I knew I wanted to put some impressionistic figures in the painting but I had never done that before either. This is how I learn, by trying. The wonderful thing about Yupo is that if you don't like the first results you can wash it off and have a "do-over". I did this until I got something that was at least acceptable to me. I discovered the more I played with it, the more messed up it got so I quit and let it dry, then sprayed it several times with fixative so that I couldn't keep trying to "fix" it. I will revisit this technique in the future, it's fun to do something different. There's something about the 30 in 30 Days that gives me the freedom to try a new thing.

February 30 in 30 Days Day 3

Bloomin'

Liquid Watercolor on paper 10.5 X 7

The third try in my wet in wet liquid watercolor experiment sort of ran together. After it dried I did some quick outlining with pen and ink and I like the effect for this piece. Just another way to make it work. The liquid yellow that I used for the centers is more opaque so that it didn't run. I was very pleased with the result because I had put the purple centers in first and I thought that maybe I'd be making mud by adding yellow on top. Since it was opaque, it just sat there and didn't mix with the purple at all. I call that a happy accident. 

February 30 in 30, Day 2

Autumn Reflections

Liquid watercolor on paper

This painting almost painted itself. I misted some clean water onto my paper and started dropping in color and let it run. All I needed to do was wait patiently for the paint to settle and begin to dry, while it was still damp I added the shore line. I love the vivid colors from the liquid watercolor. 

February 30 Paintings in 30 Days Day 1

Orchid Tree Blooms

Liquid Watercolor on tinted paper

Here we go again with a 30 day challenge. It's good to have the holidays behind me, the decorations all stowed away and now I have time to paint and collage to my heart's content. 

I have a collection of Dr Martins liquid watercolor that I hadn't played with. I got them out and got a couple of paintings that are fun. The liquid colors are very concentrated and bright. I painted with them in a wet on wet manner to begin with, I may try a more traditional approach later in the month. We'll see where the muse takes me. I'm being nudged to collage again so I'm sure there will be those, too. Here's a link to the web page. http://www.saetastudio.com/february30-in-30-blog

See you tomorrow!

Lone Turtle

Lone Turtle

Watercolor 16 X 20

I've been enjoying painting these underwater turtle scenes . I start out with a background painting using a lot of texture techniques especially on the bottom. These give me a starting point for the scene I have in mind. I will lay pieces of wax paper, plastic wrap, gauze, tissue paper, rice paper, bubble wrap, or netting into the wet wash and let it dry. This gives me a foundation for all the coral and rocks in the bottom of the painting. The trick is to not do too much or too little. 

The 30 in 30 Challenge starts in February this year. I've signed up for it but it's a very busy month for me with multiple art shows and workshops.  It's time to get organized and have an idea for what I want to work on. Endless possibilities have to be narrowed down. I think the word for the month will be "Focus".

Merry Christmas!

The Holy Family

Watercolor

May you all have a wonderful holiday and time to reflect on what this time of year is all about.

Many times in history

a baby has become a king.

Only once in history

has a King become a baby.

Watercolor Without Glass

Undersea Turtle

7.5 X 7.5 Watercolor

Waxed and mounted on 8 X 8 Board

I visited a gallery in Salem Oregon and saw some amazing watercolors that were displayed without being under glass. The gallery owner said the artist sealed them with wax. They looked so nice without the reflection of glass that I knew I had to try it. The neat thing about living in this modern time is that anything can be researched on the internet. I found out that artists can use Dorlands Wax Medium to permanently seal their watercolors. It stays clear and does not yellow. This is my first attempt at it and so far it's looking good. I first sprayed the watercolor with workable fixative, let it dry and and applied a coat of wax. I will apply another coat of wax and see if it's sealed sufficiently to hang. I think it would be good to use a UVA spray before applying the wax so next time I will try that. If anyone has tried this, I'd like to know how it worked out for them.

Four, Maybe More

Watercolor on 300# Paper

15 X 22 

On my last post a comment was made to make my image larger. I don't know why I haven't been doing that. So, thanks for the comment and suggestion, Paris Breakfasts! By the way, she is my favorite blogger and one of the reasons I started to blog. She made it look like fun, and it is! 

This painting just started as a random background, I did have an underwater theme in mind but with backgrounds you never know what is going to show up. I was inspired to do turtles, rather fanciful turtles in glorious color. It was a fun painting to do.

I found I loved working this way on 300# paper! It is so forgiving and easy to change and rework. It's funny how you get stuck in doing things the same way just because that's the way you were originally taught or have done it. I've always done these backgrounds on 140# paper in the past and still have some to finish but in the future I think I'll work this way on 300# paper.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow bloggers and readers. Keep on creating! 

Sharing

Morning Has Broken 

Mixed media collage, 7.5 X 7.5
Mounted on a cradled 8 X 8 wood panel

A friend asked me to show her how to make acrylic transfers like I do on my collages. There are several methods to do transfers on other kinds of artwork, but the heat sealed transfers are unique to the heat sealed collage. I needed something to demonstrate on so I found this collage that I always felt needed something. My initial thought is always to "put a bird on it". What can I say? I needed to do something! So out came the birds, I found the right size and direction. Once that was on my friend wanted to see how to add a word, so I found the word "Breathe" in my supply box and we added that. Then she tried some on her own piece and was thrilled with the process even though there are quite a few steps to the finished product. As I looked at my piece I decided to add the tree like branch. As I looked at it, I thought it looked like dawn breaking and the lovely hymn, Morning Has Broken.

Christmas Cards, Already!

Holiday Nest

Watercolor 5 X 7

Holiday Decorating

Watercolor 5 X 7

Holiday Lights

Watercolor 5 X 7

There's nothing like a deadline to make you get down to business. Our local art group is having a holiday card contest with a deadline the end of this month. I put my ideas on paper the last couple of weeks but I can only enter one. The consensus has been for the top painting, Holiday Nest. I rather like the Flamingo card, Holiday Decorating, because it's so colorful. If you have a favorite, let me know. I will probably offer them all on Fine Art America if I have the time to get them posted, and also at my local art gallery, so even if I don't get chosen in the contest, it won't be a wasted effort. I usually paint a Nativity card for my personal card sending. I still have that yet to come, although it is started. 

More Pouring

 Rolling Tide

Acrylic on canvas 8 X 8

Blue Wave

Acrylic on canvas 8 X 8

These were done on the same day as the last one I posted. I contacted the artist who had demonstrated the process and found out I had missed a key ingredient for getting the "cells". I still haven't purchased it so I guess I'm on hold until I find some or order some on line. Since I have plenty of other art to work to complete, pouring is on the back burner for now, but I will be doing it again. It's way to much fun not to. I'd like to do some bigger canvases now that I've gotten the hang of it. I just need a bigger container to catch the excess paint when I pour. Where am I going to put this extra equipment? There are always things to consider when you jump into something new. 

Trying Something New

Green Wave

Acrylic on  gallery wrapped canvas 12 X 12

I've wanted to try pouring acrylic for a long time but didn't know the process and didn't have the courage to really go for it. While I was in Eden Prairie, Minnesota in September I was able to go on an Art Studio Tour with a friend. At one of the stops we made an artist was doing a demonstration of an acrylic pour and she got a lovely bubbly effect. They are called "cells". I didn't get as much cell effect with my pour, I need to adjust my recipe of ingredients, but I like what I did get anyway. It was very messy but lots of fun. I will try it again in the future.