On Holidays...

I've been negligent posting again, and I'm now on holiday - and this is the first time I've pulled out my computer. I'm just going to share, today, the index cards I completed in order to catch up - and I'm still behind by two.

Anyway - the above mandala is one I did over breakfast this morning at the hotel I'm at in Montreal.  I don't usually do things in pencil, but the paint doesn't work well with Sharpie - so this was the easiest alternative.

The prompt for this card was "longitude and latitude".  I used the top of my modpodge bottle to draw the circles and then drew in the lines.  The card has been coloured with water-colour pencil crayons.

Ya use what ya have available on holidays - the prompt is Yellow and I went through the hotel brochure cutting out everything I could find that was yellow - not really an easy task this time.

That's it for now -I'm having a good time keeping up with my trip journal -including the journaling and arting, so I'll share that sometime soon.

Create something everyday

Joan

3rd Week of ICAD

Prompt 15- Bouquet - I painted a small bouquet on watercolour paper with watercolour paints.  I'm not to good with flowers yet, so I kept them as simple as possible.

Prompt 16 - Wallpaper - I found the ugliest scraps of wallpaper that I had and layered them on top of one another and stapled them to the index card.  It seemed true to form to have layers of wallpaper, since in the days these babies were used, you would slap one layer of wallpaper on top of another.

Prompt 17 - landscape.  I came across an index card that had a stroke of gold paint on it, a wee bit of blue and a blob of yellow and orange at the top; so I decided to create a dessert scene - complete with oasis.

Prompt 18 - Orange - I love doing monochromatic anything. So it was fun to find orange  bits and pieces in  my stash.

Prompt 19 - Snow.  I used one of my Stampin'Up! snowflake stamps and embossed it in silver on a paper I had added some turquoise toned alcohol ink to.  Then I added some glue and sprinkled some micro flakes on top - voila.

Prompt 21 - 1960's.  When I think of the 60's I think of the Peter Max posters that were big at the time and Flower Power.   I copied this dove poster and wrote the icad in bubble letters - which was kind of a new thing.  The background is suppose to have a hot pink stripe in the middle - but it didn't come out very well.

Prompt 21 - Create your Own Prompt - Black and White.  I said I love monochromatic!  I took a piece of black card stock measured to index card size and drew a mandala with white water based paint Sharpie.

Create something any size everyday.

Joan

f art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. 

John F. Kennedy

Mandala beginning and end

I thought I'd share the beginning and ending of this particular mandala.  I don't always start with a skeleton, but sometimes I just don't stop making lines.

I don't always work in colour either - but I'm loving this paper in this mixed media journal.  It takes the sharpie really well - although I'll have to paint the backsides because the sharpies do bleed through.

Here's another printer's tray I put together.  It took quite a number of weeks before I finally decided what was going to go into each section.  I had fun doing it though.

Create something everyday.

Joan

The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has. 

Michelangelo

More Zentangles and hot glue

I'll tell ya - I had a bit of a hard time remembering how to use a compass properly from math class!….but I finally got the hang of it again.  I had fun filling in all the sections and learned to do a new sort of flower and leaves.

For Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday this time round we used hot glue guns to create our own stencils.  What fun!  I will be making more of these for sure.

Especially when the pages turn out like this.  I put gesso on the pages as a bottom coat, put down the stencils (once they were hard and dry) and then painted with watercolours, letting the stencils stay where they were while the paint dried.

You can't tell from the picture, but the paper sort of rippled into the stencils too - probably because it wasn't water-colour paper.

I will definitely be doing this again.  Tons of fun!

Create Something everyday.

Joan

My paintings are not about what is seen. They are about what is known forever in the mind.

 Agnes Martin

Journal Pages

I have this stencil of eye glasses that I just couldn't pass up for some reason.  Here I paired it with a pair of wooden glasses that I painted bright green and added rhinestones to.   And staying curious is an important thing to do - especially in anything artistic. What will happen if I do ….this…?  Music, painting, dance, acting, are all open for curious minds.

I did follow an "Artist Gang" tutorial for this journal page and I'm glad I did.  Creating a background and then using the "Mask" portion of this stencil was a new process and a good one to remember.

I attended one of the Urban Scrapbook journal nights and this is the page we created.  Imagine how happy I was when I saw we'd be including zentangles!  Right up my alley.  I also liked the process we used for adding the text.  I adhered sticky letters of various fonts onto the bare page and then covered it with gesso.  Once all the layers of colour were on, I outlined the letters in sharpie to make them pop off the page.  Too Cool.

Create something everyday.

Joan

Draw your pleasure, paint your pleasure, and express your pleasure strongly.

 Pierre Bonnard

Doodling...

I was at an event a week ago and I brought along one of my doodling books that I can carry in my (big) purse.  Over the course of the evening I worked on this mandala…I don't usually make them so intricate, but I like how this one turned out.

I'm trying my best to work with zentangles that are not "contained", but rather flow around the page…..and to use colour rather than just black sharpie.  This particular book is bound with Mixed Media paper by Canson - boy what a difference paper makes.  I'm usually doing my doodles in my found paper books, which are fantastic, and work perfectly.  But the flow of the sharpie on this paper is wonderful. Now - what would happen if I changed to a "good" pen.

Create something everyday.

Joan

The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person. Abraham Lincoln

Former Dancers?

A few months ago I was in the scrapbook store I go to to take classes and buy products.  I spotted three "old lady dancers" stencils and asked my daughter which one I should get - being a former (and now old lady) dancer myself)  She told me to buy them all, so I did and two of them are posted today.

The above page is inspired by a tutorial from the Art Gang attached to Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesdays.  I used a different image, but the theme of balance and the round circles were part of the "lesson".

I absolutely love the tissue paper that Aritzia uses in their packaging when you purchase something from their store - these huge feathers are wonderful…..so I knew I had to include one with this second dancer as she lept across the page.  Not much leaping in my life anymore, but it's fun to imagine.  The funky circles are from the same thinlits set I used the other day - "Swirly Scribbles".  I cut the pieces out of gelliprint paper that I'd made previously and matched my colour scheme.

Create something everyday.

Joan

Art cannot be modern. Art is primordially eternal. 

Egon Schiele

Busy days with Canvas

I have a "job" creating canvases for a realtor who gives them to his clients when they purchase a home. It's quite an honour and lots of fun coming up with different pieces.  He wanted to see a selection to pick from so I got busy over a two day period.

When I'm making a music themed piece, I like using old music torn up for the background.  In the above piece I was also able to us one of Stampin'Up!'s new thinlits (Swirly Scribbles).  The lines worked perfectly as a funky sort of staff.  I'll be using them a lot for this I'm sure!

I had done a journal page, a week or so ago, similar to this.  I thought the muted tones would work well as a house gift.  The fun part of this piece was creating the wrinkly texture in the background with a piece of tissue paper.

When I put the black, silver and white paint onto this canvas I really wasn't sure where I was going to go with it.  I ended up with a lot of stuff pulled onto my workspace before deciding on punching out squares of different matching papers and embossing some of them.

I was thankful the creative juices were flowing those two days…..and all the pieces were chosen, so that made it even better.

Create something everyday.

Joan

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable. 

George Bernard Shaw

Week 2 of Icad

Prompt #8 - Island.  This card had a bit of painted paper towel glued onto the bottom already, so since it looked like a little island, I added some waves and trees and then listed the different islands that I could think of.

Prompt #9 - Compass.  I was away from home when I did this - so I had to look through some hotel magazines for items to use.  I was able to find one "North" symbol - but that was it for any sort of compass - so since compasses help you get places, I cut out words.

Prompt #10 - Cobalt Blue - I know not all of the blues on this card are cobalt, but it was fun finding all the textures of blue in my stash of magazine clippings.

Prompt #11 - Baseball.  It was convenient that I found a prepainted index card with this curve on it that reminded me of how the baseball fields always have fancy designs "cut" into them - and of course the infield is sorta shaped like this.  So I added little bases, the pitchers mound and a piece of ephemera from when we went to a Jays game a couple years ago.

Prompt #12 - TV - couldn't think of what to do for this - so since I had scraps of watercolour stripes on my workspace, I created a little collage with them.  That's the nice thing about the "rules" for ICAD, you don't have to stick to the prompts each day.

Prompt #13 - playground.  I made a playground of zentangles.

Prompt #14 - Venn Diagram.  I couldn't decide what two things I wanted to compare in a Venn diagram, so I just created a bunch of different sized diagrams on watercolour paper and painted them in.

Create something everyday.

Joan

A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind. 

Eugene Ionesco

May Mandalas

Thought I'd share some of the mandalas I created during the latter part of May - some big, some small, some ready for sale, some in journals.  The above vibrant orange one is on a square piece of cardboard - I'm not sure what I'm doing with them yet, but it will come to me eventually.

Another done on a square piece of cardboard - 12x12.  It's actually the support piece of cardboard for our Stampin'Up! Designer paper - I don't throw anything out!

I had this background painted on a square canvas and decided to draw a mandala on it.  I like the final set of triangles and the 3-D look I gave them.  I'll be selling this one at the farmer's market this month; so I added a quote to it.  It's put on with molding past so it adds some texture to the whole piece.

There are those times when I'm out for dinner with friends and they're used to me having a doodle book in my purse.  I can't say I'm entirely pleased with the way this one turned out - but it is interesting and you're not going to produce art that you love every single day - that would just be crazy!

I'm pretty sure this is on a 12x12 piece of cardboard again, but I used some spraying through a stencil before doing the design.

This is a favourite journal spread. I like the open-ness of it and the colours that I added.  I have this mindset that zentangles and mandalas are done in black - but I know that is not true - AT ALL - and I do like when I've added colour to the mandala, not just drawn it on a coloured background.

This one is a bit different what I've done before because it's turned out square.

Finally, another done on a piece of support cardboard.  I couldn't continue the mandala into the one corner because of the writing - I wanted it to be clean.

Create something everyday - practise practise!

Joan

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. 

Oscar Wilde

Mission Inspiration & Artist Gang

I haven't only been doing Icad cards - I've been doing other stuff too.  The above journal spread is the May Mission Inspiration.  The first thing we were to do was to use three colours to create drips on the page.  I used three shades of green and used them as the stems for the daises.  The daisies are created with molding paste which I outlined and coloured.  The butterflies are "collage elements".  I had to add some glitter or gems, so it was quite convenient that the yellow cut out butterfly already had gems on it in the photo - so I just took some gold gems and added them on top.  I love this challenge because the outcomes from everyone who participates are all so different.  So much fun!

This spread is from one of the Artist Gang from this year's Inspiration Wednesday.  I don't mind this page, but I am not one for leaving this much empty space - which is why I added so many speckles.  I do like how the right side of the page turned out though!

Create something everyday.

Joan

The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web. 

Pablo Picasso

Icad's First Week

Here are my index cards for the first week of Icad 2016

Prompt #1 - Mix Tape.  I began by putting on the wide, black and white, tape on because I discovered that it can be pleated quite easily.  I then added the gold tapes and the blingy purple.

Prompt #2 - Pyramid.  I live outside of Edmonton and one of the attractions of the city is the Muttart Conservatory which is 4 glass pyramids 3 of which are filled with a different biome and the fourth is used for seasonal displays.

Prompt #3 - Snoopy.  Snoopy is pretty much the only dog I know how to draw so I just seethed  him snooping inside a box

.

Prompt #4 - Typewriter - I had a Tim  Holtz sticker of a typewriter and and old StampinUp! alphabet block for the background.  I made a little slit in the typewriter to thread the paper through and then wrote the details of the day.

Day #5 - I didn't go with the prompt of the day - just drew a mandala on a repainted card.

Prompt #6 - Top Ten List - I have a very difficult time coming up with list of things; favourite foods, music, movies, things to do.  I just come up blank.  So it took me awhile to figure out what to do with this card.  Even after I stacked the numbers, I had to decide what I was going to make a list of.  And I don't really think that this is a very accurate list of what I enjoy doing from 10 - 1…….I left out my grandson for pete's sake.

Prompt #7 - Pinball or bowling.  I drew the ball and pin and some lightening "strikes" and zentangled inside the ball and pin.

Mandalas and zentangles are my go-tos when I'm not sure what to do.  Keeping to the prompts is not the most important thing- it's creating something everyday.  So……

Create something everyday.

Joan

Art distills sensations and embodies it with enhanced meaning. 

Miguel de Unamuno