"Color and Sound" 9 Panel

Here's yet another 9 panel ATC set. I combined my latest doodle obsession with a multi-layered acrylic background and came up with this. My only wish is that I had actually planned this piece from the beginning. I had been planning a doodle as the final layer of a painting, I just didn't expect it to be *this* painting. If I had I would have made the background trasition from yellow in the left hand corner to the red at the bottom so that those tendrils looked like they were reaching for the light.

As I've probably mentioned before, I name paintings depending on what I was thinking of while creating them because more often than not what I'm thinking about affects the paiting. This one is called "Color and Sound" because I had just watched "Blast", the PBS musical program with Star of Indiana. (All you other band geeks out there will probably know what I'm talking about here.) I watched it by myself while the kids were playing and then made my husband watch it when came home that evening while I was doing some of the doodles for this piece. Although it was unintentional, I can see the influence of "Blast" in this piece. The grid on the stage, the bells of the horns, the colors, the movements of the flags, the organic shapes from the "grass" parts...it's all in there, and when I look at this piece I'm instantly transported back to that night.

Venus 9 Panel

This is "Venus Emerges". She was a last minute addition to a 9 panel ATC swap. I did a quick watercolor beach scene and added the vintage image to it. It took me all of half an hour I think and I really thought that I would hate it, but I ended up loving it! I thought the idea was much too simple, but the final effect was...alluring. I think she turned out just beautiful. I especially love the way the hand tinted photo looks against the watercolor. It's a very different look and feel from the usual vintage images I see. Gotta' remember that combo in the future! I also need to make more multiple panel ATC sets. I had so much fun doing these and they were a nice change of pace from the single ones.

My Art Mess

We have been talking about our arting spaces on a couple of lists so I decided to snap a couple of quick pics of my art area in its working state. This used to be the dining room but I've taken it over since I started creating again. The table used to be the dining room table but hasn't been used for that in months. Not so bad when it's summer and we eat outside a lot, but it'll be a little harder to deal with in the winter. You can see how much space I leave for myself to actually work...not much! I'm always pulling out so many supplies that I have no where to put my painting or drawing. (Another good thing about ATCs...I don't have to clean off the art table to do them!) The drawing on the table is my daughter's. She was drawing with my markers while I was painting at the easel before I took this picture.

The other picture with the palettes and ruler on what looks like a table is actually my easel. I have an easel that tilts back flat for watercolor as well as upright for acrylic or oils and forward for pastels. In the picture it's in the flat watercolor position. I love that easel! Ipaid a nice chunk of change for it but it was worth every penny! I have my old heavy wooden drafting board on the easel with the painting side facing up. The other side of the drafting board I use for cutting so that I don't have to paint or draw over all those little xacto marks. I also have a collection of clip boards that you can't see in these pictures. (They are sitting on the bench between the table and the shelving units.) I use those as portable drawing/painting surfaces as well as for doing hemp jewelry. (I put the strands I'm working with under the clip to keep them still while I knot.) My jewelry stuff is in boxes on the bench and beside the shelving units.

The other picture is just the shelving unit where I keep some of my supplies, books, papers, etc. There are actually three shelving units but only one is for art supplies. One of the others holds the kids' art and craft supplies and games, the other one holds my son's science stuff.

And that's all there is folks. That's all the space I have for arting. This is all sitting in the middle of my townhouse where everyone who walks in the door can see it too. See why I need a studio again? My studio at the house we are working on is taking shape. It's still going to be a small space (until we build the larger studio above the garage), but at least it won't be taking over the dining room or any other part of our living space.

Doodles

I joined a brand new list for people who make doodles of all types. The owner calls the list "Inklin" and it instantly became one of my favorites. Because of that list I've started doing "morning doodles" to get the creative juices flowing before I start painting. On busy days those doodles may be all the artwork I get done for the day, but it's better than no art.

We've already had a couple of challenges on the Inklin list. The orange doodle and pink on with the bird were the results of the first two challenges. Can you tell from looking at them that I was heavily influenced by mehndi? I had a lot of trouble putting pen to paper for these at first until I saw the connection between purposeful doodling (as opposed to the kind I do while I'm on the phone) and making freeform mehndi designs.

The pink circle one was the first doodle I did. I was waiting for my son to get out of his drama camp and traced a series of rings around a quarter then just started filling in the spaces with different designs and when I was about half way done it was like something just opened up inside me. The second one (the yellow one) was much better. I think I'm getting the hang of this!

Puzzle Pieces

These were some of pieces that I sent off for a puzzle swap this week. I loved working on these particular pieces because they were wooden and such a joy to work on. I didn't have to worry about them warping on me and the edges were so much easier to get smooth.

The piece with the paper doll, the bronze colored one with the triangles, and the gold/brown ones are my favorites from this set. I have already started a larger painting with the same elements as the gold and brown one. It was created by spreading on a layer of modeling paste and pressing plastic canvas into it for the gridlike texture. The bronze one was made with an underlayer of fine pumice gel and painted with several layers of color, the final one being a bronze metallic. I cut up an old painting to create the triangles. The one with the paper doll, which I called "Wallflower" was made with a primarily orange underpainting, rice paper, and then a layer of green into which I pressed crumpled plastic wrap to create an even more mottled effect. (In reality the colors are much more similar and the doll blends more into the background, hence the name.)

Hemp Happy Part 2

Here is a pic of the bracelet that started it all for me and the necklace that I made about 10 years ago. I thought I had some of the soleless beach sandals I made too, but they must be packed away with all the macrame stuff somewhere.

Unfortunately, just within the last week or so my bracelet has started to fray on one of the cords that wraps around the main bead, so I have been forced to retire it :-( It is just a simple square knot sinnet with spaces and a bead closure, made of waxed linen I believe, but I'm rather attached to it. The necklace is macrame cord in an alternating square knot sinnet and triple pretzel knot design with lots of space in between each motif. When I first made it it was very lacy looking and pretty, but the cotton was too soft and after a few wearings it lost it's shape.

Hemp Happy

I've been making hemp jewelry again. How to make the knots came back to me pretty quickly, but it took me a while to get the tension right again. (Having a toddler pulling on the strands as I'm working doesn't help, I'm sure! LOL) These are a few of the first pieces that I made. Well, *this* time anyway. I've made macramé jewelry in the past. I actually first learned some of the knots when I was just a kid - around 8 or so. I should take a pic of the first macramé bracelet that I still have and wear! The thing is close to 30 years old and still going strong. I started making macramé stuff again about 10 years ago but all of my stuff got packed away when we were selling our old house and it is still sitting in a storage box somewhere. I decided to make a hemp necklace for myself because I joined a bead swap on the OddArts list (we're making sets of beads to swap) and wanted to be able to make some jewelry with some of those yummy beads I'm going to get. I had only planned on refreshing my memory in order to make a little something for myself, but I enjoyed doing it so much that I just kept playing. The "new" colored hemp (new to me anyway) is so nice! When I was doing this before I was pretty much limited to natural colors. If I wanted to do a colored piece, I usually used cotton macramé cord. It never turned out as defined though. (I still have one of those necklaces lying around somewhere. I think it's in my daughter's dress up box.) These were all test pieces and have certain flaws that keep me from selling them, mostly tension issues or measurement inaccuracies, but I am currently making some stuff to sell at fests as well.

She Sells Seashells - updated FLB

I know I haven't updated my blog lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything! It just means that I haven't had any computer time.

I just took these horrid pics of an updated FLB (Funky Little Bag) that I did today. I still have no idea what I'll do with this bag, but it has been crying out for some sort of seacreature-like embellishments since I bought the yarn. These beads were a little smaller than I had in mind but they had the right feel. Since I wasn't finding anything closer to what I had in mind I finally used them. It's okay, but I sure wish those little critters were bigger!