Plaid and Transparent Muse

                                      

Well I had fun with this Muse prompt  - Plaid.  As soon as I saw it I knew I had to pull out the few little scraps of tartans that I have….from my wedding 30 years ago.  Annnnnyway - I fashioned little kilts/skirts and drew little people  - who are suppose to have their hands behind their backs!!

This prompt for Muse30 was Transparent.  I had fun with this one!  I sprayed some metallic inks onto the background and then added printed tissue papers, napkins and washi tape.  For the lettering I stamped the letters of the word with permanent ink onto clear window sheets and punched them out; adhering them to the page with Self Leveling Gel because I know for sure they will stay stuck.  Tons of fun.

Create something everyday.

Joan

"To be an artist is to believe in life"  Henry Moore

Colourful Collage

This is kinda a odd shot of a collage I completed a number of weeks ago.  It's done in my paper bag book - so each page measures 14x10.25".  I enjoyed doing this collage because I paid more attention to what was happening - it's sort of broken down into colour sections.

I love the flow of this page and especially the little paint gobs that you end up with when you open your tube of paint.  They can be so interesting that I have to keep them - and yes, I've been hoarding a bunch to be used - hopefully soon.

My collages are usually just a random collection of things in my stash box.  And it's fun to see how things can all meld together.

Be brave - create a collage of ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING

Joan

"The world is but a canvas to our imagination" Henry David Thoreau

Cats and Nats

This cat was done for one of the Tuesday Artists Gang.  I can't believe, really, how well this cat turned out.  I've never really tried drawing animals before and I love the doodling I've done on it.  The numbers were part of the background and I may do it differently if I were to do it again.

This weekend I worked in my show book to catchup on pages - AND get rid of the fodder out of my box. I can't believe it was 8 years ago that we saw this concert - it was wonderful.  Especially the part where she sang with her dad via a screen.  And that is what this particular "show book" is about - remembering all the fantastic shows I've gone to.

Create something everyday.

Joan

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Inspiration Wednesdays

I'm always excited for Wednesdays to see what new things we'll be doing with Donna Downey - and to watch her very entertaining videos.

I liked the layout for this page - brown paper along the bottom, "bleeding" tissue paper on top with the colour extended into the white area.  I also got to use some of my specialty paper to and text to collage a bit.  

The stencil we were using was about perception, so I found some big eyes in my stash to add to the ephemera.

It was fun "breaking up " the stencil - separating the words onto different areas of the page.  I had to work on other things in-between applications of the molding paste - I've learned for bad past experiences that it's better to be patient than to rush.

Once the molding paste was dry I added some acrylic paint mixed with a glaze medium to cover the words and help bring out their texture.

This portion of a spread was done prior to the one above.  I was happy to use the lotus stencil because I had used it on a canvas and wanted to see how Donna worked with it.  I like the gold on these pages, but I need work on the lotus!

Create something everyday,

Joan

"Art is never finished, only abandoned"  Leonardo daVinci

Canvas Pieces

I honestly don't know where the time goes.  One day I'm up to date with my blog posts and the next I'm two weeks behind….but I have been busy. 

Today I'm sharing two canvases I've created.  The top one has a background created with paper napkins which I painted over in the middle in order to create a working space.  I stencilled the leaves on with coloured molding paste and added some flowers that are left over from a Stampin'Up! product we had a number of years ago.  I just loved these little flowers.  Next I cut some butterflies out of a piece of scrapbook paper that had the same colour combinations and added the quote.

I so agree with this quote!  I loved Paris when we went there a number of years ago.  The background for this piece is tissue paper with a "french" theme.  I then covered it with some pieces from a piece of scrapbook paper, added some stamps and some a french script stamp.  The words of the quote are made out of chipboard which I distressed before attaching.  I love the monochromatic look to this piece too.

Create something everyday,

Joan

"Painting transports me into another dimension which, quite literally, refreshes parts of the soul which other activities can't reach."  Prince Charles

Mission Inspiration

Here is another Mission Inspiration of 10 prompts.  One of the prompts was to turn the book upside down and then add paint drips - I did that, keeping the book upside down for a couple more prompts, but it wasn't' until I turned the book over again, that my treble and bass clefs were upside down - oh well - I covered them with a bit of music…..which I took artistic licence on, because the prompt was to add text from a book.  Well - I decided that the text from a music book is - music.  Tada.

Create Something Everyday,

Joan

"Painting is not a means of communication or even self-expression, but rather a process of discovering, or uncovering. "  Louis de Brocquy

Time...

I had a lot of fun working on this piece, although it took a while before I knew what was going to evolve.  The canvas sat for quite a while with the collage of watches on a white canvas.  I finally added a dark wash over the watches and the canvas and left the huge black watch out of the mix.  As soon as I stuck it in a "Rule of Threes" spot, things began coming together quite quickly.  I added the black molding paste of clock pieces and "punched out" the gold pieces.  Once I had picked out a quote and decided to use my Big Shot to cut out letters it was a done deal.  I used my Stampin'Up! gold foil paper for the word "Time" and for the gold pieces.  I'm very happy with the way this one turned out.

Create something everyday.

Joan

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."  Degas

Mission Inspiration for February

I've been enjoying doing these little missions with a list of 10 prompts to go through that need to be incorporated into the piece.  So far I've read the requirements and then watched Mike Deakin's video and I haven't veered much from what he's done.  So, I think for the next one I'm just going to read the prompts and go from there. It's always up to personal interpretation anyway - right!

Create Something Everyday.

Joan

" If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."  Vincent Van Gogh

Pros and Cons and Butterflies

This was fun spread to do for Muse30.  I tried going through my box of words - but couldn't come up with everything I wanted.  So I  just went to magazines and cut the prefixes of the words that went had "pro" or "con".  I also used my label maker to add words that were more difficult to find, but which I wanted to have added to the spread.  A stencil with sharpie was used for the headings and the "winning" banner was made with a piece of linen ribbon written on with sharpie.

This was another page that I had a lot of fun doing!  I follow Mike Deakin  on Youtube and decided to try one of his "Mission Inspiration" - what fun.  He gave a 10 point criteria that had to be completed on the journal spread - step by step.  However, I had the 1st and 10th criteria already in my journal waiting to be worked with - so I started from there.  It's fun to see all the different ways that people interpreted the list too. Tons of fun, and I really enjoy his other videos.   I will probably go back and do some of the other Mission Inspirations.

The butterflies on this spread are punched with our Stampin'Up! punch and the flowers were cut out of a seed magazine .  The greenery is stencilled and then outlined. Swishes of paint and credit card markings of paint also. 

Create something everyday.

Joan

Surrendering Fears

I completed this little page after reading the second chapter of "Taking Flight" which was entitled "Facing your fears".  Not really about life fear, but about the fears you have about doing your art.  Her dress is made out of a leftover paper towel from the Art after Dark I was at a couple weeks ago. The substrate is the cardboard from a discarded condensed Reader's Digest and I added gold foil to her wings.  I'm enjoying g working on these little boards.

Write down your own fears and then write down how you could surrender them or overcome them, because we should all try to….

Create something everyday.

Joan

Tuxedo Muse

Muse30 no. 3 was TUXEDO. Well, I automatically think of Fred Astaire and I found this other dapper gentleman in a 1960 MacClean's magazine. My talented daughter, Allison, helped me design the letters last night at dinner. She did an awesome job. I traced stencil letters and then copied her ideas, cut them out and voilà. The background is acrylic paint and the stamps around the edges are from Stampin'Up!

Create something everyday.

Joan

Muse30 prompts

Daisy Yellow has a new set of prompts that she's working on - Muse30 Prompts.  The first prompt was simply the word "Print".  I found some old writing book pages and created a collage around the page.  Using the Big Shot, I cut out the letters from different styles of print, adhered them to the page and then outlined and highlighted them.  On the lines I wrote synonyms for the word "print" using a thesaurus.  The ABC letters are chipboard and I found the old typewriter in Tim Holtz's "French Industrial Paper Stashes.

The second prompt for Muse30 was "space".  Honestly I first thought of outer space and then I thought of lines and spaces of the music staff.  So - I delved into my box of coloured markers, which rarely get used, and started writing the word "lines" five times in each section and the four spaces I "highlighted" with a different colour.  I like how they're woven together!

Don't be afraid to to literary sources to help you spark your imagination.

Create something everyday.

Joan

Collages

Wow!!!! I guess I've caught a bit of collage mojo the past number of days - I do actually enjoy creating them because they help use up those little bits and big bits that are hanging around.  They can have a theme, or not, it doesn't matter.  This one is a Prompt 60 - Mail Ephemera.  I created a background with the corners of the envelopes that I soaked stamps off of, added a variety of stamps and then used watercolour crayons in matching colours around the stamps to add a bit of extra colour.

Release is my word for the year  - so for Prompt #58 - definition or encyclopedia excerpt - I found the definition and centred the collage around that.  I created the background with watercolour crayons and the big flower on the left actually flips open and I have a list of the things I would like to be released from this year.  I find release in dance, music, nature, so those are depicted within the collage.

I found a fantastic antique market in Edmonton and decided if I'm going to spend money on buying ephemera - then I darn well better use it and not "horde" it.  I used to do a lot of sewing and I love vintage things - so this little booklet of 1945 patterns  was perfect.  The buttons are from Tim Holtz ideology called "Crowded Attic."

Have fun with stuff you have around the house and create something everyday.

Joan

Releasing…twice

One of our projects for the Novel Approach workshop was to create a grudgy background using NeocolorII crayons and covering it with bits of acrylic paint - you can see the scribbles in the background.  Release is my word for the year - so I decided to doodle it onto the page.  I ended up misspelling it - but I was able to sneak the A in and incorporate it into the doodle.  Yay.

I quite enjoy doing these grids with the little pictures I am forever cutting out and keeping.  This was an exercise for our Novel Approach workshop, but instead of just leaving the painted background, which was green in this case, I did a favourite zentangle over top and I quite like the effect.

Try something new from time to time when you create something everyday.

Joan

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have been doing a number of pages or projects in the past little while and apologize for not having posted them in a timely fashion!

On the above piece I painted the background with  a variety of different colours.  After the paint was dry I drew circles all over the pages and then took Payne's Grey to cover the background except where the circles were drawn.  Because the background was drawn beforehand, I could choose where I wanted the circles to be based on how the paint looked; thus choosing my favourite spots to highlight.

               

I'm really not sure how I feel about this one - I like the process, just now how my bird turned out.  I created the background with yellows, pinks and greens.  The bird was created using a stencil, but only colouring in the sections that would create the birds wings and body.  You wouldn't be able to do this with a stamp - getting the reverse image for the two wings.  I then drew around the stencil to get the image of the bird, highlighting it with more paint.  The words were added with molding paste and a stencil.  A stencil was used for the white squares in the background, and I used the edge of an old gift card for the blue stripes.

These are the pages I did for my last "Inspiration Wednesday" with Donna Downey.  There is always a little "page" included in each spread which makes it interesting when building the spread. I used spray paint for the random numbers on the page - that was a first and sort of fun because you get the "faded" look to some of them.

This is not a page I'm completely pleased with.  I attached the little tags onto the pages a long time ago, then  I covered them with blue paint after highlighting some words on the adjacent page….which  then covered lightly with orange.  Finally I decided to do a zentangle in each of the tags and multi-crossthatching in the background.

Prompt 59 was mail ephemera so I covered the background with corners of envelopes I ended up with after soaking off stamps. I then covered the page with old postage stamps and added a bit of colour around each on in the end.

Prompt 56 - Fortune or Horoscope - well, I guess I actually opted out for using Zodiac since I'm an Aquarian.  I had fun using inks and alcohol inks on the left page  to create the different waves/drips of blue to write the characteristics of an Aquarian.

Prompt 60 was simply - Scribble.  Children scribble all the time as they learn to hold writing/drawing tools and before they learn to control the tool to create a straight line.  I think once we've learned to control the tools, it then becomes a bit difficult to let loose with the tools and just scribble.  It took me a while .  I kept doing "repeated designs" until I just let go and scribbled.  The circles were done on purpose with the different pen colours.

This is a mandala I did in a new little book.  It's a bit different than then other mandalas I've done because I alternated designs within a "round".  I like the way it turned out - except if I was to do it again, I would not add the swirls around the edge…..sort of took away the effect of the rest of the mandala.   Try and learn.

Well, back to work….

Create something everyday.

Joan

Rich Dark to Shiney

Prompt #55 for Prompt60 (I can't believe it's almost over) was Shine.  I did this last Thursday and it wasn't that great a day - so that's why I have a lot of faces with their eyes blacked out and the dark colours work down to the wonderful gold foil paper from Stampin'Up!  The pictures were also picked to go with the lyrics to the song "Disaster" by the Newsboys which are on the adjacent page.

I used Gelatos for colouring the top of the page and I really like how rich they turned out.  They're a little bit creamier than Neocolour Crayons.

Like I've said before - collages are easy - pick a theme and tear some magazines or catalogues apart.  If you don't have magazines yourself, you can find them easily at second hand stores, Value Village and such.

Create something everyday.

Joan

A Collage sort of Day!

I was busy looking through magazines these past few days!    The "Novel Approach" prompt was to create a collage on one subject - not sure why I picked perfume with a few noses thrown in….but I'm happy with the way it turned out.  I'll be reinforcing the little lid that hangs over the edge.

I'm preparing some canvases for music themed pieces to sell at an upcoming Orff workshop….so one background is filled with music scraps.

Lastly is the first spread in a new book that I will only be using for lyrics of songs that mean something to me.  The title of this song is "Next Five Minutes" by Steven Curtis Chapman.  So….I went through magazines looking for watches and added an insert in the middle (held with watch piece washi tape!) with the lyrics of the song.

Try collaging a colour or a single topic…or even just a page full of words.

Create something everyday.

Joan

Think and Play

I had a pretty busy day yesterday in my craft room!  I finished this collage for Novel Approach - a Grunge background, the word THINK along with other pictures, and a spot to do some writing if I wanted.  Our trees yesterday were completely laden with snow, and with no wind, they stayed that way throughout the day - so I decided to write that on the little photo of a dark bare tree.  The pictures were initially outlined in black that was quite sharp looking, so I decided to smudge the edges.

For the rest of the day I moved back and forth between five other projects as various parts or layers dried.  It was a very productive day!

Create something everyday.

Joan

Café Collage

This was a prompt from the Novel Approach workshop I'm doing with Tammy Garcia (DaisyYellow)  It took a couple days for me to figure out what I was going to do, but once I got started….and found some furniture I got on a role.  My daughter said the walls should be purple, so I used one of the acrylic paint techniques I learned from Tammy in another workshop I've done with her.  The floor is made from some wonderful packing paper I got….kind of sorry it makes my cup of coffee lumpy - but you don't notice so much in real life. Tons of fun!

Create something everyday.

Joan

Art Journal Page Insert

Last night I worked on a collage and added an insert - just a little extra piece of paper that is adhered to the centre of the page spread with washi tape or any sort of tape you like.  It helps fatten up your book and adds interest as you're going through too.  This spread has oh so many layers of stuff..paint, rub-ons, paper, napkins, paint chips (actual - not the ones you use to decide paint colour, Washi tape, and sewing patterns.  Just a little bit of this and that thrown together.

Try not to become a paper hoarder - but also - keep little things that interest you to add to your collages and help to make them part of you.

Create something everyday.

Joan