The Three Guardians - A Painting Journey

I decided to take a break from Link Love this week.  So today I am participating in Paint Party Friday. Check out all the artists who are participating here.


Many months ago I took a Canvas Create class with Donna Downey. The painting was of a lotus and in the style of Flora Bowley. I didn't try to paint what Donna did but followed my own path.

This was my first layer using cool colors.  It is just paint and was painted with my fingers.

The second layer had some stamping and spray inks. Images started to appear to me so I pulled them out of the background. I saw the one figure on the left so I started with her and added the others in.

I added warm colors in the background and worked on three figures. I wanted them to be faceless. They slowly began to take shape.

They could be sisters but I started calling them the guardians. It wasn't till I started painting the details like the tree that I began to use a brush.  Painting with your fingers can really be liberating.

I continued to add things to their clothing. My beloved raven had to show up. I kept thinking that the painting seemed to lack something. I asked a few people and got many ideas.  I thought there was a tree on the left side. So I decided to bring that out.

Here is the final version. I put them in a night time forest.  I think each of them has special gifts to offer the world.  I hope you enjoyed seeing how this painting evolved.

Saying Goodbye

I had to say goodbye to my boy Flynn on Tuesday. This is the last picture I took of him. He was the first dog that was just mine. He was my mothers day gift fourteen years ago. We spent so many great moments together. walked together, herded sheep together, traveled to many states, camped together, and so much more. He was my companion and my friend and he has left a huge hole in my life. I like to think he is off chasing sheep in a huge pasture in the sky.  So long Flynn you were the best dog ever.

The house has been so quiet, I have had a hard time getting used to it all. After a session with my coach where she suggested a memorial rock or something for my garden to remember Flynn. It being winter I thought of something else, an altar.  So I collected all my border collies and added Flynn's picture and a little sheep for him to chase.  It will do for now.

Then I turned to art which I have missed.  It felt great to be working on my journal again. I loved how this background turned out. I didn't quite know what I wanted to add to the page.  It has been awhile since I painted a face so it felt great to be painting again.

I played with this page some more. I am not sure what will come next but its fun to play with.

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?

Hoot Hoot, The Owls Are Back

We have been having some beautiful weather so we headed out to a favorite haunt to see if the owl's were nesting yet.

 


















This is the mom, I didn't have my big camera with me so the pictures are not the best but you should still be able to see those pointy ears.

The Dad always seems to be around so we kept looking until we found him too. Great Horned Owls are the most amazing birds.

This is one of those pages I really could not write over.  I need to order some new white gel pens.  I like the Uni-ball Signo broad pens the best. It looks like an order to jetpens.com is coming up. Its a dangerous place, I always spend too much there just so I can get free shipping.

I used some different colors in her face and it was an interesting exercise.  I often use burnt sienna but this time I used red oxide which is more orange in color. She seems pretty stern to me. Its interesting to watch other artists faces over time.  Some paint the same face over and and over again while other are very different but still see to have the same style. I don't think I have ever painted the same look twice although people often tell me my faces look like me. Sometimes I see it and other times I don't. I think the first face I showed on this post looks very young while the second looks older and more mature. The odd thing is I don't know how or why that happened.  I just go with the flow and whatever happens is what I end up with.  Art truly is a journey.

Visiting Jolene

I visited my friend Jolene the other day and she gave me these fun things.

This is a folder made out of Christmas themed paper and sewn together.  What a great idea.  I love it.



It was filled with papers and pictures and fun things that I will love to put into a Remains of the Day journal.  How perfect is that.

Plus this beauty, she is a plastic table cloth to use as a stencil.  I have been looking for one of these for ages.  Jolene is such the best kind of friend to have.  Thanks so much.

I took this page from the other day, addd some words and embellished with a brush pen, I like it now.

I was talking to a friend on Facebook all about oil pastels and so then I had to pull them out and use,  These are artist grade pastels made by Sennelier and they are really wonderful to work with.  The background was made earlier with WC crayons and the figure was drawn in pencil first and then I used the oil pastel.  These pastels are so creamy, I really like them.

Here is a collage I worked on over the last couple days. Sure is great to be doing some art again. I hope you ar finding time for it too.

The Space Below

This was a creative challenge on my network the Queen of Creativity Castle.  We used this poem for inspiraiton.

the space below 

“ there was a whole world inside of her

 filled with stars and caves and  

demons and gold. 

she tinkered and played in that world

 - but it was in the space below

 - in the depths of deep

 - that the real stuff was. 

and it was there she needed to go. ”

-terri st.cloud

Terri from Bone Sigh Arts sends out daily poems.  If you would like to recieve them go here 

The piece was done on an 11 x 14 gallery wrapped canvas. I used golden heavy bodied and fluid acrylics, stamping, pastels. watercolor crayons,  and charcoal.

I really like what this poem says, I think I tend to stay in the play faze and not dig deep into the space below. I can see that in my life and my art.  I had really wanted to go wild with this but its a pretty safe piece. Maybe my next challenge will be to go wild with your art.  If you are inclined to play with this challenge or others, head over to my network by using the button on the sidebar.

Tell me do you go to that space below or do you like to play it safe?

Wishcasting Wednesday - How do you wish to come out of your shell

I wasn't going to play along with the Wishcrafters today but changed my mind as I often do.  Today Jamie asks the question.

 How do you wish to come out of your shell?

My first thoughts were well I think I am pretty much out of my shell but perhaps not as much as I think.

In my work with the Creative Awakenings Book my intention for this  month is to  be a fearless artist. I think that coming out of my shell really relates to this also.  I think I have pigeon holed myself into this one space, where I play at art but am not really serious about it. I want to break out of my self imposed view of who I am as an artist. I want to be bolder, to take more risks, be more confident.

On that note here is my latest painting. This was done on canvas board and was an old painting I never finished. She started out as a blond and then a redhead before she became a brunette. Its amazing how much a painting could change.  When I would get frustrated with it I just tried to remember what my friend Zorana said in one of her videos. Its all about playing with paint and having fun and that is what really happened with this piece.

To see what other wishes are being cast today go here

Painting on Black

My friend Janet just did a couple ladies painted on black after seeing Pam Carriker's article in the latest Art Journaling magazine.  I had seen the article too but I had just not tried it yet.  Thanks for the nudge Janet.

I started by painted the page with black gesso and drew a face over it.  The dress is scrapbook paper with a wash of golden's quinacridone crimson on top.  The paper was too white and the wash made it just right.














This one I used paper for the dress again. In the background I used paynes grey and some white gesso.  I kept the black gesso for the hair but added carbon black and some watercolor crayons for highlights. I found it really interesting starting with a black background. If you need a change of pace give it a try.

Over the last couple of years I have taken quite a few classes and for some of them I either bought the videos or still have access to them.  I have been watching them again and getting new insights.  If you have not taking classes like me then there is a world of great videos on YouTube.  Just do a search on your topic and you will be amazed at what you will find.

Ups and Downs

This morning I woke up to rain and cool weather. I have not been sleeping well and I am finding myself getting up early which is unusual for me. I had planned to make some shredded beef in the crock pot today and was out of some of the things I needed so I knew a trip to the store was in order. So I hopped out of bed and decided I would do one other thing I had been planning but just have not done yet. I took my gym bag and went the the club.. They have a warm therapy pool that is nice to just sit in. I figured to walk in the pool and just enjoy the warm water. It felt really good I am glad I went.

I came home and made the beef and took out the blackberries I had bought on Saturday and made 8 jars of freezer jam. Of course now I am pretty tired and don't have much oompf.

I have tended to over do it lately and am suffering for it today. Healing is such a long process and so frustrating at times. I was hoping to show a bunch of art today but alas what I hope to accomplish and what I end up doing are often miles apart.

I had this tag and it was already colored with some of Tim Holtz Distress ink and then I added a little face on it. I have been inspired by my friend Mystele. She is always saying that you have to play. I have tags and coaster and a slew of small inexpensive canvasses that I plan to paint faces on.













This was a coaster that I got at Chili's. Its pretty small. I found another pack of coasters at Michaels, 8 in a package for a dollar. Those ones are bigger and I have primed them and done backgrounds on some of them but no faces yet. I figure I will play with all these small items and when I am finished I should be able to see improvement.  I want to try all sort of different things with them, I think it will be fun to see them all together when I am done. I am also finding small projects easier to accomplish. 
What are you creating today?

Finally Some Art

I finally have some art to show, these pages and painting have been done over the last couple weeks. It feels great to be able to sit long enough to paint. When you can't do artistic things you crave doing them even more.

I have been trying to explore red but this page came out a bit too orange.  The face came out really sad and depressing so I repainted the whole face and she still looked sad so at that point I gave up thinking well perhaps she is what she is and I just let it be.














I was trying to use the Pam Carriker technique from the video I posted last week.  Alas this was the wrong  kind of paper to use. The paper started to fall apart with all the water.  I think that technique would work well with watercolor paper but not a manila folder journal.

 Do you remember me showing this background? Well I finally got around to painting something on it. This was pulled art, I saw the image on the left first and then it seemed another woman wanted to be there too.


 












 This was a challenge because the background was so rich that I didn't want to cover it up. I added white to the background to lighten it up a little.  Then I used some transparent golden fluids on their cloaks so that the background would show through. I am not sure if its done yet so I am going to just let it sit for awhile.  I could add a poem or words to their dresses but I am not sure if I want to.  What do you think?

I have been wanting to step out of the Art Journal and do some paintings either on canvas or wood.  Hopefully this will be the first of many.

Friday's play

This is the art I did on Friday.  This was not what I had intended to paint at all.  Funny how that happens. I think her features are a little wonky because I kept changing things.  I was also trying to do blond hair and although its not perfect I do think she is blond so I consider this a success. I am going to keep on painting faces till I get them right. I signed up to take Sharon's aka All Norah's Art class on face painting. She does beautiful work so I am sure I will be learning something from her. I've been learning a lot from watching Zorana's videos. She has done a series of 3 so far on red rosin paper and they are pretty great.

It snowed again today, some spring we are having.  the good thing is it always melts fairly quickly. Hope you are having a great  weekend.

My new banner

I have been wanting a new banner for my blog for ometime. I toyed with many ideas and then decided to just paint my own. Finally I got the banner finished and uploaded. I thought I would share a little of my process.

Here is my first sketch on paper.

Then I drew a sketch on the canvas board I chose to paint on. It was a rectangular size so I thought it would work great for a banner.








This is after the first painting session. I added tissue paper for the garden.

In my second session, I painted over the tissue paper and added painted flowers. Then I added the gate on the left and a little fine tuning on the crows and hair.

Now here is the final painting. I added the birds in flight, words on the flags and some more fine tuning on everything else. I really like the way this turned out. I want to thank my friend Kate for all her suggestions while I was working on this painting.

A song and some paintings

I saw this video on my friend Kelley's blog and just loved the song.I really like the message.

Here are some more portraits from Misty's class.

















This one was started with a transfer and then painted in two colors Burnt umber and Titanium white. I added the blue background later using Magnasese Blue hue. I found this exercise to be lots of fun and easier than painting a face from scratch.

















This is a self portrait and I also transferred the face on to paper and then painted it.If you look close you may recognize it as my profile picture. I am not very good at transferring images yet. I don't seem to get the entire thing so its really textured in some spots. I mean that is not a bad thing but it make for a challenge trying to paint it cohesively.

My 100th Post

Its my 100th post as the Queen.... Time for celebrating so her royal majesty is going to give away a collage packet of some of my favorite things. Scrapbook papers, paste paper, spray painted scraps, embossed wallpaper, red rosin paper,collage images, ribbon and whatever else I can think of. I will also include a little book and paint the first page so you'll have some of my art in a book you decorate for yourself.

How to enter, Just leave a comment on this post I'll choose the winner on December 1st.
















Here are a couple faces for a little project I am involved in. They are painted on cardboard from a granola bar box.











After my idyllic winter post I had to laugh since things went considerably downhill after that. I went to go to a write-in that evening and ended up in the ditch about 3/4 of a mile from my house. I almost got out but not quite. Called my husband 4 times and he never picked up. So I grabbed my purse and started walking home on the icy road. Silly me, I left my gloves in the car, so it was cold and slow going and then I fell on the ice. So I ended up limping my way home.

Is there a happy ending to this story. Well we got the car out, it has no damage, I am fine and I did not kill my husband. He tells me the phone never rang. I never did get to the write in, just stayed home. I had swerved from one side of the road and back again several times and did a 360 before I ended in the ditch. So at that point I was scared to drive again. All is well now but I am surely not looking forward to driving this winter. I just hope this is my only incident and it will be smooth safe driving out there. Be careful everyone.