Ode to Orange

Here is my completed orange piece.  After I outlined all the pieces, I went in a wrote how I felt about orange.  It is not a colour that I use very often in art, but I do like it in nature.  And, to be honest, most of the pieces I have done with orange have been ones that I don't mind.

The writing is in sentences, but the words jump around from piece to piece  so it takes a bit to make some sense of it.

Create something everyday.

Joan

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

Oscar Wilde

One Finished, Three works in progress

I created another set of houses on a mint background.  I made my own mint paint so that the trees didn't clash.  I like these wonky little villages.

I came in close to take a picture of this mandala; which is  on a canvas.  I have a bit more to do on it before I add a quote or word of some sort.

I always take an altered book to a doctor's office so I can pas the time creating.  I'm bling to outline all the dark pieces and then write words inside of them…..I think.

Finally  here s another neighbourhood underway - this time a neutral background and I will be keeping the houses sort of neutral too.

Create something everyday.

Joan

"An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way."

 Charles Bukowski

Journal Work

I worked in three different journals one day over the weekend.  This page is in my Lyrics Book and is the lyrics to a song by Mercy Me called Flawless.  I didn't intend the title to be the focal point - it's just the main part of the chorus.  I do like how this page turned out especially the gold leaf on the sides of the cross.

I know that I want to put some writing on this page - but I'm not sure yet what I want to say about these ladies in relation to me.  I love how the spiral just to the right of the middle of the page came into being.  I didn't notice it until I had posted the picture and was looking at it.  There are a lot of layers on this spread - spray ink, paint and molding paste.  Lots of fun.

Create something everyday

Joan

"Art is the most intense form of individualism that the world has known.

Show Book Pages

I've been spending a bit of time lately cleaning out my ephemera/fodder box and emptied some space by doing a number of pages in my Show Book - a book where I put all the covers from musical programs we've seen, the ticket, etc.

For the Natalie Cole page I'm going back 8 years - it's hard to believe.  I remember it being a very good concert.

Matilda was a musical my husband and I saw one November break when we were in New York.  The staging was incredible- it's amazing what people can come up with!  What I generally do with these musical pages is to write the songs that were sung around the edges.

Seeing Katharine Hepburn in a production certainly was an event.  It was 1977, in Chicago.  She was a bit of a hero to me - a woman who spoke her mind and did what she felt was right despite what others thought.  I'm glad I was able to get a fairly okay picture of her on stage at the end….in the days of little instamatic cameras with flashes.

Create something (with your memories) everyday,

Joan

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others."

Jonathan Swift

Yellow and Orange

I don't work with yellow or red very often - and there's a reason….I'm not very pleased with this.  The word Spring started out white, then a bright yellow - which I eventually tried to tone down with a bit of orange….which is another colour I don't use very much.   But, I guess I should work more with them because the world is not all blue and green.

The flowers are a current Stampin'Up! stamp which I made a masked string of.  The pink dots are molding paste and a stencil which I painted over in the pinks.

You're not going to like everything you create - but create something everyday.

Joan

"The world today doesn't make sense, so why should my paint pictures that do."

Pablo Piccaso

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

Muse30 Prompts

I think I skipped posting this Muse30 prompt - which was Disco.  I drew the staffs onto the black paper and then filled in the first line of some disco songs onto the lines.  Then  I surrounded the staffs with names of disco groups added a couple of "disco balls" and some other bling……one of which was caught in the light of the shot.

This prompt was pebbles, and I just happened to have some napkins with pebbles printed on them.  I love using napkins in my art because they become so transparent.  I ended up just putting more pebbles inside the pebbles for this one.

This Jetsons prompt was a bit of a loss for me.   Yes I watched the cartoon, but I had no idea how to go about it so I had to think for a few days.  Finally, I pulled out my "circuit board" stencil by Donna Downey and sponged metallic paint on. Then I connected the lines with marker and drew little tiny robots.  It was kinda fun actually.

Create something everyday.

Joan

"The primary benefit of practicing art, whether well or badly, is that it enables one's soul to grow."

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Mint

The next Muse30 prompt I had to do was "mint".   I thought of the whole mint gum thing...but then my brain went down another road...the Royal (crowns) "Canadian" ( flag) MINT. Then I covered the page with "coins" because our mint has produced commemorative coins for over 73 countries since 1908. And because this page has to do with the Mint - either in Ottawa or Winnipeg - I am dedicating it to my friend, Amy.  Who is a Canamaniac!!!!!!

Create something Everyday!

Joan

Frida for a friend

The woman who got me started with all this art journaling and mixed media really likes the artwork of Frida Kohlo. I found a tiny self portrait of Frida in one of my magazines and thought of Emily right away - so I dedicated this page to her.

The background was already complete in my journal and had been done with leftover spray inks.  I added the little portrait and then embossed the ivy design around it; then doodled the leaves on the adjourning page.  I usually doodle in-between the leaves, but I didn't want to cover up this lushes background.

Create something everyday.

Joan

"Children, like animals, use all their senses to discover the world.  Then artists come along and discover it the same way all over again."  Eudora Welty

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

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

Listen to your Heart

This is my rendition of the Artist Gang exercise this past week.  I didn't have exactly the same paint colours that Jennifer Engle used, but they were close.  I did have the same Donna Downey stencil for the circles but not for the script.  I didn't have the butterfly stencil that she used, but I have tons of butterfly stuff in my Stampin'Up! stash.  

Finally, for the circle, I didn't have the same acetate sheets, so I used the Big Shot to cut out a circle from one of my window sheets, stitched around it with the pink thread, and then covered it with the Candy Dots that I still have, but are retired from Stampin'Up!.  I did have the Tim Holtz Small Talk stickers.

For the butterflies, I used the Swallowtail, which I cut out by hand, and Papillon Potpourri so I could use the punches that matched the stamps. I added little pieces of wire for their antennae and for the body of the Swallowtail, I strung some beads onto a wire along with a pearl for it's head.

So don't be afraid to do a project just because you don't have EVERYTHING the artist has used.  When you use your imagination and use what you have on hand, it truly becomes your piece of art.

Create something everyday.

Round, and Round, and Round…

I've noticed I've been working with a lot of circular shapes lately - not sure why.  The above is Prompt #59 - Textured Stamp.  I took a retired Stampin'Up! stamp and chose pieces out of magazines that had a lot of texture.  Some were stamped in black and the others were embossing in white.  I'm a bit sorry that I made the circles so close in size to the medallion because the texture in the photograph is lost.

I saw a similar painting done with spheres, so I thought I'd give it a try.  Some of the circles have texture added to them with either molding paste, glass bead paste, fiber paste or crackling paste.  The crackling paste didn't work well at all - the surface wasn't hard enough for it to do it's thing.  It was fun to do and I found the painting very calming.

Create something everyday.

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

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

Reference Sketch

Prompt #53 for Prompt 60 was to find a picture to use as a reference for a sketch and to only focus on on portion of the picture.  I love old suitcases and this stack caught my eye.  The only complaint I have is when sketching, I didn't make the bottom suitcase deep enough - therefor the size proportion on the rest of them is a bit off.  They all look like little trunks rather than little suitcases.  But Tammy didn't want us to erase any lines - just to go over them, but by the time I realized  my lack of depth, it was too late and I had to continue going.  No problem - everything you create is not going to be perfect.  Practice, Practice!

Create something everyday.

Joan