WHERE AM I GOING WITH THIS???

Abstract imagery isn't my usual starting point when it comes to making art but several recent experiences have encouraged me to take a closer look. First, I took a design class from Kelly Hoernig and one of the class exercises was to cut out different shapes and arrange them into a painting layout. For some reason that was really hard! Static shapes really did nothing for me and I realized that the actual object informed my design choices more than I thought. Still, designing with shape intrigued me. The second experience was taking my first stained glass class. Choosing glass and placing the pattern pieces was more challenging than I thought! Again, there was that line/shape connection. Third - Carol Spohn's class came up in Art Play Date. Carol is a great watercolor/mixed media artist and she had some really interesting techniques for adding line & color in her paintings. And what is this charcoal business? Gotta try that!! Watching her play with lines within the design was really intriguing. Could I do something with that? Next came lots of time spent on Pinterest wasting time researching line & shape & color - oh my! So I pulled out some watercolor paper and tried the charcoal treatment on several. Got one that I liked and set it aside. The others are experiment surfaces. I drew on some lines and a circle, tossed on some paint (& salt), tossed on some more paint. Decided I didn't like using every color in the rainbow so moved into Paynes Grey. OK - this is harder than it looks!! More paint & more salt. And now most of the paper is really dark! Not what I was going for. Wait - I have bags of watercolor batik scraps! Skinny little colored strips torn & glued on might help. OK, bigger pieces might help too! Still needs more texture/pattern. Stencils to the rescue! A bit more shine/sparkle was needed. Pulled out my 1/4" double sided tape and placed one line in the empty space through the circle. Varigated leaf pulled in a bit more blue & copper with the gold. This definitely needs to be cropped to rebalance the weight though! Lessons learned??? Working this way is harder than it looks. Balancing line & color is not easy in the abstract as there are no recognizable objects to inform the viewer. Cropping is my friend. And I definitely want to do more!!!

A Different Way of Seeing

I have been taking a design class called Concept 2 Completion created by Kelly Hoernig. Kelly is one of the most innovative and creative people I know and she is incredibly fun to take shopping when searching for "art" treasures! The whole class was about challenging yourself to step outside the box and approach design in a whole new way. Such fun!

Spring Fling 2015

This is what I have been up to lately! My painting chapter had the annual Spring Fling luncheon a couple of weeks ago and this was one of the tables. This is my Rose Romance table. It featured mixed media rose sketchbooks for everyone and the centerpiece was a custom made footed tray with vintage glass handles. Roses for all!!

Fast Trip to Cali

Even though I spent 15 years living in LA, somehow we never made it up to San Francisco to see the sights. Larry was attending a conference in the city and I flew out to meet him for a long weekend of sightseeing & visiting some northern friends & family. The weather was postcard perfect - clear blue skies & warmish weather - certainly not the norm for SF! We rode the cable car from downtown, toured Ghiradelli & ate chocolate, walked Fisherman's Wharf & had crab & chowder & sourdough bread. Then we took the cable car back as far as we could. It stopped short of its usual destination because of the annual Chinese new year parade. Found the Chinese version of Zoltar and didn't realize until the next night that Zoltar was just across the street! We found a sidewalk perch and watched the parade go by - quite the spectacle! The next day we picked up a rental car and started our journey north toward Napa. Crossed the Golden Gate bridge. Visited one of Larry's gradeshool friends in Benicia and had a lovely brunch on the water up there. The rock heart was from there - found it at low tide during a stretch of the legs. Then on up to Napa for a couple of days of wine "therapy." Thanks to friends for some great winery suggestions! This being the off season, most of the wineries weren't very busy and we were able to chat with most of the wine peeps. We ended up trying extra wines we probably wouldn't have been offered - big bonus! Met up with one of Larry's long lost cousins who lives in Napa. Got an In N Out fix - so good! Napa really is an incredibly lovely place - looking forward to returning some day!

Coming up Roses!

My workshop on painting acrylic stroke roses is ready to launch in just a few weeks at Acrylic Painting Club. Not only do you get my workshop but lots of other fun classes from some really great teachers. Don't miss out!!

Acrylic Painting Club is Coming Soon!

I will be participating in another online painting class for 2015! The Acrylic Painting Club is modeled after Art Play Date and has a few of the same teachers as well as some new favorites - come join us for lots of fun & learning!! I will be teaching stroke rose construction and will have color variations on different background colors as well.

Fall Decorating

Halloween is one of my absolute favorite times of the year! When it is time to pull out all the witches, pumpkins & other decorations I get a bit giddy around the edges. Some of my decorations date back to my first months of decorative painting. One pumpkin was the third thing I painted as I was learning. There is always a bit of editing from year to year and I try to change the position of some things. This year I added some darling hand made white pumpkins from Dawn Edmonson. They have fat little bodies with real pumpkin stems and will fit in with the Thanksgiving decorations as well. Dawn's package was a real surprise when it arrived. The entire box was filled with old tissue patterns as packing material for the pumpkins! To a mixed media artist, this stuff is like gold!! I was so excited when I first opened the box and saw all the tissue, I almost forgot about the pumpkins.

This Little Light of Mine

I had the great good fortune to paint with Mary Jo Leisure in Atlanta back in April! It was the first time I was able to get into one of her classes and I jumped at the chance to watch her in action!! Mary Jo is known for her incredibly beautiful paintings and her roses are magical. I must say, I didn't get a lot of painting done that weekend. What I did was watch what she was doing and listening as hard as I could. Watching and having the chance to talk with her and ask questions really helped me understand the structure of her roses. I still need more practice but am really happy with my results so far. I love painting stroke roses and hers are definitely a challenge - and in oils no less.

Bloomin' Glass

YAY!! The kiln gods were merciful and my test piece came out better than I hoped for! Best of all - my screens worked with the new product the way I was hoping. There will be a bit more testing to go. I am working on getting a mixed media/layering look on glass and this new product is promising. Will keep working and experimenting. Check back soon!

NEW WORK WITH SCREENS

There are lots of new pieces started! Some I can show off and others are for upcoming deadlines. Here is one piece I can show off since I am really playing and testing some new product. And I wanted a chance to combine this new product with my screens to see what would happen. This is a combination of fired glass color, MUD and a top secret product - all from Unique Glass Colors. Here is a bit of snippet for what is to come. All of the layers are currently drying overnight and it will go into the kiln in the morning. Stay tuned and cross your fingers that the kiln gods look favorably on me!