February 30 in 30 Days- Day 17

Orange and Blue # 7 Strata

A collage from hand painted tissue.

hand made string paper, acrylic transfer

and ink heat fused to watercolor paper.

9 X 12 ready to be matted and framed.

I'm trying to stretch myself during this 30 days and that means working bigger and in different formats. I love making my collages in a square so to try a portrait format is not easy for me. I can paint that way, why not collage? I'm trying to balance color, horizontal lines, warm and cool, straight and curved lines. I think this one will take some tweaking but it's a pleasing start.

February 30 in 30 Days, Day 16

Blue and Orange # 6 Landscape

Hand painted tissue and stamped 

rice paper heat sealed onto watercolor

paper and coated with gloss medium.

6 X 6 ready to mount or frame.

This simple collage has a feeling of trees in the foreground and mountains receding into the distance. It has a warm autumn day at sunset vibe. Sometimes it's just better to leave something simple alone and let it tell it's story.

February 30 in 30 Days- Day 15

A Happy Heart

Collage made with hand painted brown bag, tissue, 

sheet music, envelope and magazine pages with 

acrylic transfer, heat sealed and coated with 

gloss medium on 8 X 8 watercolor paper.

It's ready to be framed or mounted on a wooden

cradled panel.

I came across this Bible verse one day and I knew I had to put it on a collage. It's for any day, not just Valentine's day. How true that a person with a happy heart, which to me says one with an cheerful outlook on life, has a celebration of life every day. There are people who always look for the best even when things are at their worst. They will find a feast even if it's soup and bread. That's the kind of person I want to be; it's the kind of person I want to be with.

February 30 in 30 Days- Day 14

 

Little Gem Valentine #3

3 X 3 Collage mounted on a 4 X 4

canvas panel. The collage is made with

hand painted papers, manufactured papers.

and foil paper. It is heat fused to watercolor

paper and coated with acrylic gloss medium.

This Little Gem is going to a very cute couple, the wife has been my art mentor for years and her husband, a musician, often comes with her to class. It will sit on a small wooden easel. They are symbolized by the two hearts and the notes are because they make beautiful music together.

February 30 in 30 Days- Day13

Little Gem Valentine #2

Heat fused collage made with hand 

painted  and manufactured paper.

3 X 3

My second valentine is the perfect size to fasten to a note card. It looks great on a red card and is on it's way to some special people. 

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.