Monday, April 30, 2012

Art Journaling Again



This is great, I am not sure I want that much drama in my life.




















I have been trying to get back to the art journal again. This one was made using panpastels. I hadn't used them for a face before, only backgrounds.  I love how instant the color is. I wish I had more colors though. That always seems to be the way. I always want a large color range and art supplies are so pricey that it is hard to do. I wish the art supply fairy would rain some dust down upon me.




















In this page I ended up covering most of the background which was pretty cool on its own. I made it by layering 3 colors of paint, then placing a stencil down and rubbing off areas with a water/vinegar solution.  It made great patterns. I felt like collage this morning so I just went through my scrap box to find some fun stuff for this page. I usually post most of the things I do in my journals the exception was yesterday.  I did a Sunday Sketches drawing in colored pencil and when I looked at it that afternoon I thought yuck its awful.  I even ripped it out of the book and threw it away.  Do you ever do that?

My trigger finger problem has been giving me fits and couldn't afford another surgery so today I had a cortisone shot to deal with the pain. So my hand is pretty sore right now but it will feel better soon.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Finished Painting























I thought I would show more work in progress shots on this painting I have been making. To see the beginnings of this see the previous post.























Sometimes the differences are hard to see but other times I think you will be able to see changes that I have made.























I tried making a movie of all the shots but it didn't work and I am not sure why so we are stuck with stills for this project,























Here is my finished version. I hadn't started out attempting a self portrait but she seems like one to me.  The raven is a totem animal of mine so you will see her often in my work.  In addition she may be the beginnings of character in one of the books I wrote for Nanowrimo. Or at least a sign to work on that story. For now she will be called Branwen although that character is a cross between a raven and a woman so she will look different when I really do paint her.

It interesting how art evolves.  When I started this canvas I wanted to do a woman and a bird. Then I gave up the idea and just started with a background and decided to see what developed and here I now have what was my original idea. I decided that its part of my process when I create.  I do this in writing too, I can't have it all planned out or I shut down.  I need to be able to just have it flow and let it evolve into what it will be. She was painted on and 11 X 14 gallery wrapped canvas. I used acrylics, spray inks, stencils and masks, WC crayons and a stablio pencil for final details.

Do you find that your art tells you something about yourselves?

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Work in Progress

I haven't been feeling well as you know and have had the hardest time with this piece. My advice don't use spray ink over acrylic on canvas. When I tried to add the face the reddish ink popped through. I added several layer of titanium white paint. I sprayed on a workable fixative, used a heat gun, then tried gesso and zinc white paint. Nothing made any difference. I finally added old book pages over it and started over.



















I started with the sketch from last year as a reference photo. I don't try to make it exact but use the sketch as just a guide.



















This is an underpainting using just titanium white and paynes grey. A technique I am trying from Gritty Jane's class in Life Book.



















Here is step 2, where I add color, there will be many more steps to come.  I had to stop for a bit.  I am headed to the hospital for my pre-op appointment. I will update this later.

Fantastic Video

Check out this fabulous video Sorry it wouldn't let me embed it so you'll will have to click on the link. A fabulous artwork in process using just pens and markers.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

In the Studio and More

I won't talk about not blogging or when I will be back to it.  Or maybe I will. My church is having another art show this year.  Its next week.  I kept putting off working on thing for it and now I am almost out of time. So I will be in the studio working when I can with nothing to show here.

I also have been attending The Wealthy Thought Leader Teleseminar .  Its for 3 days on Livestream.  I got a seat because I am a premium member of the Right Brainers in Business Summit. Its for three days so I am trying to do art on the breaks and so forth. I don't know how well that is working but I'll do what I can. The content of this is conference is fabulous and I wish I was there in Vancouver.  Maybe next year.   
My surgery is scheduled for May 3rd, so this gives me time to make some art and participate in the show too so that is working out ok.

Sorry that this is such a boring post.  Ok I will add a video, I think I could watch this every day.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Painting BIG




















My inner mermaid 48" X 36" or 3ft x 4ft, it sounds even bigger when measured in feet.  To get the paper this big I taped 4 pieces of 18 x 24 paper together.  When I took the paper off the wall where I painted it I really had no where to put it. I ended up putting it on a different wall in my studio, just so I could look at it more.  All the other paintings I did fit right into a portfoilio I made with poster board. She was fun to do and it took a long time and a lot of paint.

This is my last week in BIG and I may go even bigger.  Some of the artists in the past have done painting as tall as they are so I think I want to try that. So I have 6 pieces of paper ready to be taped together. i have loved taking this class. Connie Hozvika is just amazing, being a professional teacher she really knows her stuff and how to run a class. I have to say that I have taken a lot of online classes and my favorites so far are Mystele's Gut Art and BIG.

Now the reason these are my favorites is because they did not show me how to paint like they did in a step by step way.  Don't get me wrong there is value in those kind of classes when you want to learn how to paint something in particular. I think the problem is you end up with a lot of paintings who look like the teachers work. Not enough emphasis is put on using the ideas but doing it your own way.

These classes broadened my view of myself as an artist, they gave me confidence to explore in my own way. I am not the same person I was before taking them. BIG has really opened the world of art in ways that I have never had before. When I stood to paint my first painting in class the thought running through my head was I feel like a real artist. Going through all the process and exercises and inspirations in BIG really has changed how I view my own art. I now see no limitations. Look out world this artist has been unleashed.

The other thing about BIG is its not just about the painting, it is about so much more.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Sunday Sketches - InkTense




















I thought I would do today's sketch with Inktense pencils, so I grabbed my set and a waterbrush and tossed them into my bag for church.  I made one cardinal error when using a waterbrush.  I forgot to clean it when I was putting on the rosy cheeks, oops, once there is black mark its hard to get rid of it.

To see more sketches check out Sophia's blog,

Friday, April 13, 2012

Some Pages to Share




















I have not been feeling well on and off for the past month and now I know why.  My gallbladder is full of gallstones so out it will be coming. I will have surgery probably sometime next week. I don't like having surgery so this is something I really don't want to do but I can't function the way I have been so I will have the surgery. This Angel appeared on my morning art page today. I think she is saying that everything will be alright. This is soft pastel over gesso.





















I didn't do a page yesterday but this was the day before. I was looking forward to working on editing the e-book I am working on. Alas I haven't felt good enough to do even that. I used oil pastel here.




















This was a couple days ago I wasn't really inspired so I just did some shapes. This is distress stain on mixed media paper. Some days if I can do a little something it does help me. Just slathering paint on a page can be very therapeutic.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Ladies in Red





















I had this two page spread that I wasn't sure what to do with so I treated them separately.  The first one was found art. I think the page need something more so I will let it sit for awhile. I see she has a purpose that she is running to but its not clear to me yet. Or perhaps she needs to have something in her hand. Ideas anyone?




















This second page I was stumped and so I just drew a face.  I like how her shading came out.  I used titan buff instead of titanium white and found it to be really different. I may use that as a start for flesh tones more often. I am not sure I like her eyes though, I may play with them a bit more.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012




















I have been feeling crappy the last few days so instead of a lot of effort in today's post I will pull out one I started awhile ago and just forgot about.

Kim over at the Queen of Arts tagged me in this post

I have done so many of these that I wasn't going to play along but I maybe one last time.

These were Kim's Questions for me.

1. What color do you imagine is inside your head ?
Purple sparklers.

2. What artist would you most like to spend the day with ?
Misty Mawn.

3. Cupcake, apple pie or chocolate éclair ?
apple pie I make the best on the planet

4. If you were to suddenly get wings, where would you fly to first ?
to the place where magic resides.

5. What superpower would you most like to have ?
Time Travel.

6. Watercolor, acrylic, pastel, or finger paint ?
Acrylic.

7. What song most reminds you of your mother ?
Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof.  She sang it at my brothers wedding years ago and I always remember her singing it.

8. Luxury cruise or canoe/backpacking ?
I'd take my kayak and cruise down a river or lake and then camp. I do love the outdoors.


9. Do you have a tidy organized workspace or messy, chaotic workspace ? Which works best for your creative process ? 
My studio is organized a little but tends to chaos most often.

10.What was your favorite candy as a child ?
Slo poke suckers, smartees.

11. What is the one thing you love most about yourself ?
 My ability to come back to regroup after a disappointment.

 The Rules
…you must post the rules
…answer 11 questions the tagger posted for you
…create 11 questions to ask the people you tag
…tag 11 people
…let them know you’ve tagged them

but this time around I really am going to be a rebel.  Anyone who reads this is tagged. Play only if you want to.

Here are my eleven questions.

1. What is the color of your dreams?
2. How do you spend your mornings?
3. What is your favorite book, movie?
4. Do you have a song that most represents who you are?
5. What is the one art supply you wish you had?
6. If you were a modern day muse what would be your super power be?
7. What does rain make you feel?
8.  What person who is no longer alive would you like to spend the day with?
9.  If you could live over another day what day would it be?
10. Where do you go when you're sad?
11. If you could live anywhere in the world where would that be?














I posted the tutorial for this earlier last week but here it is again. It's called Geopaper   This was my first try at this technique.  I didn't have the paper or ink she used  but it still turned out ok. I used water color paper, india ink and Twinkling H2O's. It was a lot of fun to do.  

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Signs of Spring (Sunday Sketches)

Happy Easter Everyone. I am seeing signs of Spring everywhere I look. Tulips that I planted last fall are coming up in the back garden so that delights me.




















For Sunday Sketches today I thought I would do my backyard. Its a nice day so I could hang my sheets outside.   I love to do that because the fresh air makes them smell so good. To see other sketches go here

Friday, April 6, 2012

Blind Contour Paintings

Its been a busy week with lots of projects going on. Some writing, some art, some planning. These are some of my art morning pages. I am really enjoying doing these every day.





















In Big we have been doing blind contour drawings and then painting them. These are drawings where you look in a mirror and draw on the page without looking. They can be really wacky and I used wild colors, its a real interesting exercise.




















I am loving the wacky looks that come out.




















I am in love with that lime green color.




















I think this one looks like a man to me.




















I think this one is my favorite so far. I am enjoying painting these in such non-traditional colors. I also can't seem to stop painting them. Its always interesting to see what the next one will look like. I love the unpredictability of it all.  

Here is a fascinating technique from Jill Berry author of Personal Geographies called  Geopapers and Projects. It makes a fascinating paper.  I hope try this out soon.  Have a great weekend everyone.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

My Mother Never Drove A Car

I was enthralled with this post, so I felt like I had to do my own. In a sense its a gift to my daughter who did not know her well.




















My mother never drove a car. When she did go out to shop she was always dressed well, hair done and makeup on.  Sometimes she walked to a local grocery store, she'd bring her groceries home in one of those carts on wheels.

My mother liked her beer, but not out of the bottle, it was poured into a Pilsner glass. Whiskey touched her lips too along with occasional wine.  She would add Chianti to her spaghetti sauce, which took six hours to cook. There was always fun in our kitchen.

Her name was Rita and I was named after her in a sense.  She was Rita Catherine and I was named Kathleen Rita. I always liked that. She raised six children, three boys and three girls.

As child of Irish immigrants she felt tragedy at a young age. Two brothers and a sister died very young from tuberculosis, only her older sister Margaret remained.  She spent 3 years in the hospital with an ulcer in her eye. She had limited vision her whole life but it never stopped her.

She played the piano and sang beautifully, that was her gift. She had the notion that men were more important so she never pursued a professional career as a singer.  She once told me if she had been a man she would have.  I thought that was sort of sad. I will always remember her singing Sunrise Sunset at my brothers wedding.

In her early twenties she was on the equivalent to American Idol.  She traveled to NewYork City and performed on the Major Bowes radio show.  Alas she lost to a dog act.  I wonder how must that have felt. She never told any of us kids about it.  

My mother never went swimming with us kids because she always said that her bathing suit had a hole in the knee. She would say comical things like that. When we went out for ice cream as a kid, she would take our cones when they were dripping too much and when we got them back they were considerably smaller.  She did love her ice scream.

She played pinochle with a group of women I called the card club ladies. When it was her turn to host, we cleaned the  house and bought treats including bridge mix.  Seven ladies came over and we had to stay in our rooms. Sometimes I would sneak out to see what they were doing.  Just playing and talking, it was not that interesting for a young girl. I just wanted some of the special treats.

She made all her clothes from Vogue patterns. She always had a style about her.  She loved the color red and wore it a lot. She wore hats and she looked great in them. She seemed to be made for a different life than the one she lived.

Pavarotti was her favorite singer at her death, but our childhood was filled with Mario Lanza.  Be My Love is a song we sang and sang.  She loved musicals too. Carousel and the King and I were performed along with the housework.  To this day my sisters and I can sing all the songs from Carousel by heart.  She wore a dress and an apron to clean in the early years.  When pants became the fashion she embraced them and was also excited to throw out her girdle.

My mother had a nervous breakdown and all her hair fell out. She wore a wig for years and then it all grew back.  She was allergic to the Sun or at least she thought so. It turned out to be caused by the medicine she was taking.  In the summer she would wear long pants and a long sleeve Nehru type shirt.  It was the 60's after all.   She went down to the YMCA and took Yoga lessons and studied Edgar Cayce and Ruth Montgomery, I saw it as her search for a spirituality that might fit her. 

My mother had long black hair with a streak of white at the top.  For Halloween she would dress up as a witch and scare the little kids. She went round the neighborhood, and would stop in and visit our neighbors and get a drink instead of candy. She stopped doing it when kids thought she was a real witch and became mean to her.

My memories of her also include tea time, it was a daily ritual.  We’d have tea after dinner. In her blue danube china she’d pour us a cup or two and sometimes even read our tea leaves. She taught me how to prime the pot and have a pot of proper Irish tea.

I miss her greatly,  I would love to have another cup of tea with her and share what my life is like now. It would be a great tale to tell, but she was always a good listener.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Lots of colorful rocks here
















I ordered some rocks from the Rock Fairy aka Kim at the Queen of Arts. I am going to be using these for my clients at Safe Harbor Coaching.  Don't they look inviting in this abalone shell.


















I also had her custom make some for the Nine Modern Day Muses and a Bodyguard.  I'll be using these in the Muse Group workshops I am going to be teaching locally. I love being able to partner with Kim in offering this select group of rocks for my clients and students. What a great collaboration this is going to be.





















This fearless painting was the result of being curious about my last painting.  I just started with a color from the last painting and began with no preconceived idea.  Its an interesting process.

In BIG we did something today that I just love.  Most of you have heard of morning pages, those 3 pages of writing that Julia Cameron suggests you do daily.  I have done them on and off for years, participated in an online group with them and more. In Connie's class we are doing Art Morning Pages.  Here is my first one. You do the same thing as in regular morning pages, take about 20 minutes and put whatever out on the page.  We got snow and I had a tummy ache all night so that is what came out today. Its all done in oil pastel, except the snow is acrylic paint.  The idea is also to use supplies that are quick and uncomplicated.  I'll be using oil pastels, gelatos, wc crayons, markers etc. Quick and easy.  I so love this process. I don't know why I never thought of this before.




















It is so easy to get some symbolism about what you are feeling out onto the page. Try this, I am sure you are going to love it.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Sunday Sketches




















Todays Sunday sketch is fairly simple, just a figure and words.  To see more sketches check out Sophia's blog,