Two Journals and a Goddess

After taking Connie Hozvika"s course BIG I put a huge piece of paper on my painting wall. 6 sheets of 18 x 24 paper. I found it so intimidating that I just couldn't begin to paint on it. The other day I thought this is silly and told myself to paint on part of it. So that is what I did. This little goddess came out. She is 18 x 48. It feels great to have overcome that white paper and just paint again.

 Here is a little video showing a couple journals I just finished.

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.

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.

Under the Weather

We have a little stomach flu going around here so I have not accomplished much this week. Its one of those low grade things where half the time you feel ok and the other half you are pretty miserable.

I wanted to let you all know since I removed the captcha requirement from the commentsI have had some spam issues. I hate that new captcha, half the time I can't read what they are asking me to type in so it is so annoying to me that I did not want to put you dear readers through that.  So I am going to have cut off anonymus commenters.  The best choice seemed to set this up for google accounts.  So if you don't have a google account you won't be able to comment.  I am sorry if that inconveniences anyone but it was the easiest solution to the problem.

We need a little art in the post so here is an exercise from BIG, on shape.  Circles are one of my favorite shapes.  I am off to a Gyno appointment today and a book discussion on a Wrinkle in Time by Madelaine L'Engle.  It should be a good day as long the stomach chooses to cooperate.  Do you have any fun plans today?

A Peek Into My Studio

I signed up to take BIG with Connie at Dirty Footprints Studio. One of things we will be doing is journaling. So I got a simple composition book, but I had to art it up a little. It was black speckled so I got out my stash of black and white tapes and decorated the cover. It was also an opportunity to use my set of big foam stamps.

When my daughter left home for good a few weeks ago my plan was to take over the bedroom and make it into my office and sewing room.  This gave me the opportunity to take the sewing stuff out of the art room and have more room for art.  Besides the sewing machine and table and fabrics and such out went books too.  This container above used to hold colored pencils and markers and then I found a better solution for them, so it sat idle.  In my redecoration I pulled it out and thought to put it on its side so I could use it for markers. Then I started adding more stuff.  Its all a part of having my supplies so I can see them and hence use them more often.

I took the Neocolor II watercolor crayons out of their tin.  I love looking at all the colors just sitting in this jar.

The Faber-castel gelatos were in a tin on a shelf but now I can see all their pretty goodness.

The Shiva Paintstick's have a place too.  I think I will use them more often now.

I have had the pencils in this little carousel for awhile now but now I have the colors and types separate and controlled with rubber bands.

I only have a few of the Sennelier oil pastels but they look yummy don't they.  Now every time I sit at the desk I see this riot of color and am inspired to begin.

Sometimes just moving things around in your studio makes everything look new and inviting and you can't wait to play.

BIG Will Be Next

This is the last painting for Total alignment.  You may wonder, did I plan an angel, no I did not.  I had forgotten the neck so I had to paint over a section.  So when I painted over the dark blue with white the area looked like a wing. So the muse said it looks like you are supposed to paint an angel so I did.

So does this mean its the end of painting like this.  Well in fact no.  I signed up to take BIG next month.  Its a course I have wanted to take for some time now.  I think doing total alignment cemented this for me. I knew it was the next step in my artistic journey.  If you want to know more about BIG just check out the highlighted link above. I know that I will be painting more of these even before my next class starts, basically because they are fun and I think fun is really a good thing.