Getting Acrylic Paint Out of Your clothes

I've got a video to share today. I found this while perusing another video on YouTube.  I wish I had known about this a long time ago.  I know we all get paint on our clothes one time or another no matter how careful we are. I love the simplicity of this technique.

Trying New Things in My Journals

This week in my journal I have been exploring backgrounds of a different sort.  By this I mean I have been using different materials and trying not to do the same thing I do everytime. I didn't want to jump to stencils and stamps like I usually do. I wanted some more abstract looks.

This one was created with a brayer, using red, yellow and orange paints.

A brayer is a tool that looks like this. I squirted  3 colors of paint on the page and rolled it all around the page. Its made by Speedball and I got it from Dick Blick.

This one was created the same way. I used the same paints but added blue at the last minute.  I like how the blue is so irregular.

This one had journaling and gesso underneath. I was looking for more of an abstract look.  I used green yellow and brown paint and a soft rubber brayer.

This is left over paint on the brayer from the page before. It is kind of like a ghost print from a gelli plate.

Then I moved to a different journal and liquid watercolors. These are Dr.Ph Martin's Hydrus fine art liquid watercolor. I dropped them on a page I had sprayed with water and they really ran. Actually a bit too much. I scooped up some of the extra paint with scraps of watercolor paper.

This time I dropped the watercolor on a dry page and then sprayed it with water. I love how both of these look.  Now the hard part, what to do next on all these pages.

How often do you try and mix it up? Its easy to get in a rut. What is your go to way to spark a new practice in your own art?

Kate

FLOW

This is from Spectrum class on Flow

Its a simple piece, I had on soothing music and picked out watery colors and just painted. Nothing complex, no unlimited supplies. Just a brush some paint and letting it all be. Sometimes its as simple as that, and that is enough. My wish for you today is that you flow effortlessly through your day.

Speaking of flow, things have been a little too intense and overwhelming lately so I am going to take a little blogging break.  I try to do it all in November but alas its not possible. Something has to give. So I am stepping back from a few things, changing my expectations of others and navigating my way in the world in a different way.  See you in December.

Kate

Lots Of Work In Progress

I am headed out of town tomorrow so there will be a little blogging break happening here. I started working on some new paintings or I should say continued with them. They are both works in progress as I have nothing else to show you today.

I started to work on the painting of red trees. I had a few minutes before I needed to go to the dentist this morning so I laid in the trees. At least it is a beginning.

This canvas has been the one where I put excess paint from my pallette.  I have been adding to it for months. Today I decided to work on it some more. I made several big mistakes and it ended up quite muddy.  So now I'll let it all dry before I tackle it again.  I should have know better to mix warm and cool colors without letting one of them dry. The next time you see this I am sure it will be totally different.

Here is that lily pad painting I was working on. It needed some more work so I tackled that today.

I think it looks a little better but to make it more like the photo I would have to change so much. Really didn't feel like spending that much more time on it. I hate when you think its just a little change you need to make, when it turns into a major redo. To do it properly I would be better off to start over.

See you back here on Monday,

Kate

Connecting Writing And Art

I have these odd silhouettes that were given to me years ago.  I often pull them out to use and then decide I don't want to use them.  So this one was lying around my desk. I liked it over this background. Doesn't that blob on the left look like Africa? I see now I could have made a map out of this page.  Sometimes it seems like I don't see things in my pieces until a photo is taken.  I wonder why that is?

This is the second half of the ugly spray ink exploration I talked about in yesterday post. On this side I muted the page with gesso before I drew and painted the trees.  The stencils in the background look like a ghost image. I think I like it.  Happy accidents are fun to discover in your work. I am really loving these trees.

Wouldn't it be awesome to walk into a forest that had trees this color. It reminds me of something I am adding to my novel.  I have no title yet but I thought I might start sharing some little tidbits here on the blog. It's the idea of a feminine forest. One where men have a hard time traveling through and women gain something special from being there. I haven't decided how this forest will look yet, but this is a pretty good start. I like the idea of exploring some things I am writing about in my art journal.  It gives my ideas a little more life, to see them on the page.

Do you have more than one hobby?  Have you found a way to work on them at the same time like a collaboration?  I'd love to hear about it? Leave me a comment about it.

Angels Among Us

If you haven't entered my 21 Secrets giveaway tomorrow is your last chance.    Go see this post for details.


A group of Angels on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland. I spent a lot of time on this street, it was a great central location.

I didn't think I would miss Dublin that much, but I would love to be exploring on O'Connell street once more.

Working With Activate

One of the modules for Spectrum was on the word Activate.  First we painted a intuitive style painting and then we ripped it up and used bits of it for collage.

This is the painting and I hated it, I was so happy to be able to tear it up.  I should have just painted over it or something but I didn't. Ripping it up gave great satisfaction.

I used pieces from the painting as collage elements and then added more. Its a great way to use something you don't like.  Just recycle it into more art.

Nourish Is The Idea

This past week I worked in Spectrum with Tracy Verdugo's offering for Nourish. I loved working on this piece.

I took some work in progress pictures to share here.

These shot shows all the collage elements and the little feminine contour drawings I did.  I had just thrown on drops of paint to begin the fun.

Here I have spread the paint and pulled out  some images and highlighted others.

Some more details.

Here I found some faces to accentuate which I later ended up painting over.

Here is the finished page again. For the lady on the right I was channeling Elen, the Reindeer Goddess.  After reading Elen of the Ways, I have been drawn to paint a version of her. I haven't gotten around to doing that yet so she came out in this spread. I like how that happened.

What do you find that Nourishes you?