Face Painting

The latest incarnation of this painting I've been working on for a while now. I've added more shading to the face, layered glazes, papers and transfers to the background and redone the nose, mouth and eyes. Every time I add or subtract something the work becomes less flat and more expressive. Like a good stew, the more you blend the ingredients, the richer the whole becomes!

Blech!

This is how I feel about getting up at 630 am on a freezing Saturday morning. Blech! But, my son has Boy Scout can duty this morn, where they sort all the returnables that've been donated to the Troop to help fund camping trips. So, awake I am. The mask is a hand carved and painted one from a tribe in Peru. Even at this icky hour I can still focus on cool art!

Cooking As Art

   Art comes in many forms and I for one believe cooking is an art! Especially when it's done with love and enthusiasm, the way all things in life should be done.   My son loves to cook and is becoming quite accomplished in the kitchen.

    This Monkey Bread, which isn't your run of the mill, easy to make type of Monkey Bread, we made together. It was a great way to keep our minds off of Jimmy, the love of my life, being in the ER while we waited to find out what was wrong. Waiting's never easy, but that type of waiting's torture!

   Anyhow, always remember to make life's moments count. Something as simple as making Monkey Bread can be a "moment" when it's done with love and enthusiasm.

Painting

I added some more paint to this face. I know most people would do the underpainting of flesh tones first, but I've never done things like most people! I'm more of a fly by the seat of your pants, running amok type. Just ask anyone who knows me. Anyhow, the addition of layered acrylics adds more depth and definition. The more of this your achieve, the less "flat" the face becomes.

Mixed Media Work

I've been working on several mixed media pieces the past week. This one's inspiration is 'The Visitant' by Theodore Roethke, a poem I came across in a library discard. The image of the woman at center is a packing tape transfer. Love the ethereal quality of tape transfers! At right is a face done with fluid acrylics, Neocolor II crayons and gel pens. She started out as a stencil called Eva by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Love how you can use her stencils as a jumping off point for creating fabulous painterly portraits! I don't feel quite finished yet, definitely needs more layers to tie it all together.

Journal Pages

  As usual it's been too long since I blogged. Not going into the boring, medical details of what's been keeping me from doing so. Who wants to hear that? Certainly not me!

  I'd uploaded these journal page photos back in August, with every intention of posting them right away. But, it didn't work out the way I'd planned!  

  All these pages are from the journal made out of old file folders, scrap paper and heavyweight paper. The pages are staggered, with varying sizes,  lots of folds, creases and pockets. It makes for a much more interesting journal, both to work in and visually!

  Most of the border images on these pages are created from copies of previous pages I've done. I print them on the laser printer and cut into strips. I think it makes my pages unique and clearly reflects my style!

 The spread above contains transfers. On the left I did a gesso transfer. On the right a gel medium transfer. Both backgrounds are painted using gouache and watercolor. I typically use acrylic paint on my pages, but decided to try something different this time. 

The page below was painted with gouache also.I love the vibrant colors with a hint of softness.

Here you can see how the various page sizes offer a peek into what came before and after. I think it makes the journal more interesting and visually striking. It also makes you want to peek just around the corner to find what comes next!

A close up of one small page, which is actually a flap. 

This one has a fold in it and has been stapled into the journal with decorative metal staples. When folded you can only see the imagery, not the writing.

Another section where you can see how the different size pages reveal bits and pieces of what's contained within. Again, I love the vibrant colors of the gouache, especially the greens! The file folder edge is covered in decorative tape. It looks great and adds stability.

A combo of watercolor and gouache was used for this page. I like the goofy image at the top coupled with the vintage advertising image. The right hand side border is a portion of an older page I photocopied.

Get Lost!

  One of the workshops in the 21 Secrets online classes is titled Get Lost. The course is hosted by Aimee Myers Dolich and, in my opinion, is great fun! The entire course is journal prompts, which I always love. These two pages were done from course prompts. There's a great spread I did, but I used one of my largest journals so getting a decent photo of it is tough. It doesn't fit on the scanner bed and the phone camera doesn't capture enough detail. I'll try to get it with my nice digital camera because it's a spread I'd love to share!

 I spent a good 45 minutes scanning in journal pages this afternoon so there will be lots to feast your eyes upon soon! 

  I've been riding the icky health roller coaster these past few months. On top of the usual Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome I've loads of neurological problems, still undiagnosed. Loads of speculation, but no firm conclusions yet. I'm grateful for the love of my life, Jim, for his support and strong arms. Without him this amusement ride from hell would be a whole lot rougher.  Love that man and thank my guardians for bringing him  into my life when they did. Life may be handing us a bunch of Jokers, but I just keep drawing crowns on them and turning them to Kings and queens. That's what any artist would do, right?

  

Journal Painting

I call these paintings on masonite 'Journal Paintings'. They're mixed media, many, many layers of paint, images, writing, ink, papers, whatever... Essentially a journal page in larger, framable format. This one was started months ago. The upper, final layer of text was just added.

Framed Art

A few months ago I'd gotten this mail art post card from one of my nearest and dearest friends. It's been displayed on a shelf since, but today I came across this awesome frame and thought the two would look perfect together! I love how the silver frame corners accentuate the details of the art. In my eyes, you don't need to spend a lot on art to make a statement. Here, an inexpensive frame and a mail art postcard create a stunning work of art. P.S. Thanks Raine for the postcard xoxo

Nature's Beauty

I love these insects. They are one of the coolest ones Mother Nature designed. Part hummingbird, part flying lobster, at least to my eyes.The Hummingbird Moth or Hawk Moth is pretty special. They come around constantly and especially love the purple butterfly bushes. At times there'll be 10 or more of them at a time. I happened to capture this one digitally while it feasted upon the nectar in my goose neck loosestrife.