I visited the Art House today. The Art House belongs to my friend, Ann and she graciously allows me to come and play with all of her goodies. I raided the stamps today and found so many wonderful images. She also had a wonderful set of Neocolor II watercolor crayons. I've never used the Neocolor II so I decided I needed collage images that I could paint.
The Neocolor IIs are very vibrant and a little goes a long way. It took me a while to get the hang of them. I have very little water color experience so this page was an experiment for me. This page reminded of how much I've grown in the last year. I began this page with the thought... if I really screw this up... I can just gesso over it. A year ago that thought would not have been acceptable. I probably wouldn't have worked in a favorite journal for fear of messing it up. Today... my thought was... it's an experiment. I'll learn something if I attempt it and I won't learn anything if I don't. I started this page at 11:30 am and worked on it until 5 pm. The time flew by for me. It was fun and I learned a lot about watercolor crayons. My favorite parts of this piece are the two wooden ruler on either side and the quote. I think the quote framed in the cheese cloth weave really turned out well.
The stamps were made by Cornish Heritage Farm, Club Stamp, Stamper's Anonymous, Stampington, Hampton Art Stamps and Art Impressions. The black ink is made by Pallet.
Link to: Paint Party Friday, Art Everyday Month, Artist's Play Room
Sometimes my muse takes a few days to get it together. This page was like that. Once I had the background, I couldn't decide what to do with it. I finally decided between a page from a Dick and Jane reader from my childhood and these silhouettes. I liked the reader page but it was too small for this page.
Art and Reading are two of my favorite past times. A perfect vacation for me is going to the beach with my friends, a few good books and some art supplies. This page reminds me of those good times.
I have traveled to outer space, watched dragons fly and learned about things I be too chicken to try in real life. I've meet many brave men and women and traveled all over the world... all through books.
Learning to read is one of the greatest gifts of my life. It wasn't always easy for me. Comprehension was a problem for me as a child. I wasn't that "A" student in reading in elementary school. Today they would say I had a learning disability and I'd have had some special training to help with that. I was lucky. My SIL told me that I learned to compensate and I guess she is correct. I read strictly for pleasure and I only read fiction. Non fiction usually puts me to sleep in about 10 minutes. The one non-fiction book I remember reading and not falling asleep was, Happiness Is An Inside Job by John Powell. It's an excellent book and I recommend you read it.
The tree was free handed by me. After I'd cut it out I realized that using deckle scissors makes it look more real so I trimmed what I could with them. The girl and boy images come from an online catalog called Northern Trading Company. They are metal yard art silhouettes.
I used a brown Montana marker to shade the squares and navy craft paint for the edges of the page. The words are written with a blue Sharpie Paint Pen and the doodling around the edge was done with a permanent Marvy black pen.
Thank you, Carol, for your doodle suggestion. I think that was the final touch it needed.
Link: Art Everyday Month, Paint Party Friday, Artist Play Room
Now what? I have no clue where I want to go with this page. It's not finished that's for sure. I was inspired by a YouTube video by Vicky Papaioannou. I loved her background with the squares. I also seem to obsessed with letters and numbers these days so I went with what was calling me. Now I have this really busy background and not clue about a focal point.
I do plan to shade the edges and probably put a wash over the whole page to blend it all together a bit. When I sat down to work, I hear the alphabet song in my head. I told you I was obsessed with letters! The letters are stamps from Post Modern Design, Anna Griffin and I don't have the name of the third company. The ink is Archival by Ranger. I love all the colors of Archival Ink!
I'm going with an unfinished project for my post tonight. I've been thinking about the process again. I like finished projects and so I have to remind myself that the process is more important most of the time. Why? The process is very calming for me. Submerging in the process removes the stress of work and life from me mentally and physically. Anxiety goes away, aches and pains fade into the background and a wonderful peace descends upon me. That may sound like mumbo jumbo to some of you but for me, it's the truth. My truth. I can not begin to tell you how blessed I feel because I have this peace in my life. I wish each of you the same.
Link: Art Everyday Month
I spent two hours this afternoon embossing cereal boxes and painting the embossed pieces. I recently became aware of the effect painting has on me. I was a stamper/card maker for 13 years. I loved it. This fall I was asked to make Halloween cards for a friend. I've done this in the past and thoroughly enjoyed it. This year I found that I wanted to get them finished so I could go on to something else. The process was not as fun this year.
Lori, a friend, commented on it at our Tennessee Stamper retreat. She told me that my entire being changed, relaxed and settled when I picked up the paint brush. All I was doing was paint gesso on an Art Journal page.
Usually when I sit down to work on a page, I want to complete that page in one sitting. Today, I realized how content I was to simply paint the pieces. I might work on the page later today or I might not. The process, the painting was more important than the finished piece. I find it amazing that I keep learning things about myself. Creating is about the process and I really enjoy that process. The process is a calming and a centering activity for me.
Link: Art Everyday Month, Paint Party Friday, Just Add Water Silly
I haven't posted much this week. I had so much fun last weekend that it took me a few days to rest up. I visited my artsy friend, Ann, at her Art House. The Art House is nestled in a cozy neighborhood in Nashville. Every room in the house except the bathroom has art goodies in it. It's a dream house. Rooms full of paper, ink, paint, ephemera, stencils, die cutting machines, stamps, gelli plates AND Scooter, my dog, was welcome. It is the perfect dream house for an artist and her 12 pound dog.
Our friend, Lori, stopped by on Saturday evening and we had the best time. This page is in my Things That Fly Altered Book. The background is made of gelli prints and a stencil cut from a Tim Holtz die and a few background papers from Ann's stash. I used a Claudine Hellmuth stamp for the birds. As I worked on this page I kept hearing that old song, Bird's The Word, in my head. I guess I was singing the refrain because Lori finally said, you have to put those words on your page. So I did!
I started this page last weekend and finished it this evening. It's the first of my Art Everyday for a Month posts. November is Art Everyday Month. I hope you'll play along with us. Read more about by clicking the link in the line above
Link to
November Colorful Gelli Print Party
