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.

When Your Art Looks UGLY

I was playing with some spray ink and really overdid all the colors and use of stencils and I really didn't like it. All I could think is what am I going to do with this background. Nothing came to me besides cover it up with collage. But what a waste that seemed of the ink. So I went online for inspiration but no one posts their ugly pages.  I wish I had taken a picture of it so you could see what I mean.

So what did I do get to this portrait.  First I put some gesso on the page.  The ink always comes through gesso but I thought it could tone down the intense bright colors. So then I decided to paint a face and see what came next. I started with pencil and then marker. Then I painted the background pink several times but if you look close you can see the stencils underneath the color. Then I did the dress, and of course now I like this piece so much more.  So what do you do when you feel what you have created is ugly.  Just push on through, jump out of the box, try something new. Once I was ready to let go of my initial ideas, and be open to what it could be, then things began to flow again.

So what do you do when you don't like what you created?  Do you have a process you go through?Tell me in the comments.

Using Pinterest For Inspiration

I went to  one of my Pinterest boards this morning for inspiration. I knew I wanted to draw something in church today.

I loved this image, it is actually a quilt and not a painting. It's called the Ravens of Angel Crest by Thom Atkins. Isn't it gorgeous.

For my version I separated the birds, made the trees a little less developed, added birds to the second tree and added a mountain.  I like my little drawing, it was fun to make. I find Pinterest is fun for collecting images but its also great to use all that collecting for something. I think I may use this image again in the future. Maybe elaborate on the image, or tackle the idea in acrylic, or even on canvas. Or even make the one tree recede further into the background, or make the bird bigger and more of a focal point. There are lots of different things you can do with an initial idea to make it your own.

Linking to Sunday Sketches today.

How do you use images for inspiration? Tell me in the comments.

Kate

Release for Paint Party Friday

This is my journal page for Release, a subject in the Spectrum course.  I have painting in strictly cool colors lately, so I thought I would mix it up with some warm colors this time.  I used liquid watercolors that got away from me a bit.  Then I drew some mandalas on the page.  It seemed more personal to do my own drawing from my intuition.  The blob on the top looked like an octopus to me, so I chose to write words of release on the tentacles.  That was a fun module.

You can check out what others are doing for Paint Party Friday here.

What kind of colors do you like to paint with?  Do you mix it up once in a while?

Kate

Mandalas and Moons

Today I have some miscellaneous art to share. The first one was for the bloom true bootcamp with Flora Bowley. Every day this month there has been a prompt to share, and this day's prompt involved doing some art. It was all about mandalas today.  Have you ever wondered how everyone makes these wonderful images and they look fabulous all the time.  Well I have never been that confident about my mandalas and this one was surely a trial.

 

With this mandala I started with a stencil in the center. Then I drew the outer circle and added some triangles, painted them and hated it.  So I covered it with paint and then gesso. I could still see them and so can you if you look close.  So then I drew the leaf shapes, painted them and started to like it again.  So you see any art disaster can be fixed.

Last night the full moon looked pretty awesome.  I was happy to get this shot before the clouds covered her up.

I also painted under the full moon last night.  The moon always has such good energy about it.  I have not decided what this really is.  What are your impressions? Tell me in the comments.

Kate

Revisiting A Journal

When I was preparing my class for 21 Secrets Fall I created a video of some of my journal pages involving animals. This led to looking through all of my old journals. I found quite a few pages that could have more work done on them. I guess that I am a more complete journaler now. I did find a 2 page spread where all I had done was a background.  I set that journal aside to work on the pages.

For one side of the two page background I saw a figure in the background, I rendered the figure in pencil first and then painted the background with black gesso.  I like how it really makes the image stand out.

On the next page I decided to keep more of the background intact.  I drew the woman in pencil and then marker and then painted her dress and face.  It's a great an example of taking a similar background and doing 2 different things with it.

Have you had any fun surprises in your journal lately?

Tell me about them in the comments,

Kate

Bookstores I Have Known And Loved

After a conversation with my friend Claire, where she mention there are no bookstores in her town where she can go browse the aisles. She misses that. I thought it was incredibly sad, but its probably the sign of the times. It made me think of some of my favorite bookstores over the years.   The first I remember was when I was in college in East Lansing Michigan. Jocundry's bookstore was an amazing place. Wood interiors, music being played, a real ambiance about it. It was the first bookstore to have comfy chairs and nooks where you could sit and read a book. There were wonderful sections set up with different genre's and you could sit and have a cup of tea. I loved the place. It closed in 2001, destroyed by Barnes and Noble and Borders.

Photo credit - Amy - The Wherever Writer

This is the Book Peddler  in West Yellowstone Montana, thankfully this store is still open. Probably because their is a coffee shop inside.  It has a lot of regional authors and a western feel about it. There was another bookstore in West but I just discovered it closed. It was called the Bookworm and was one of those old bookstores with lots of volumes and old books. It was so much fun finding a treasure hidden in the stacks. I am sad that it is now closed, what a loss to the community.

When we first moved to Idaho Falls there were 4 bookstores here, now we have two. The Blue Unicorn was an independent New Age bookstore. At one time it was the only place to find anything alternative. There was a local bookstore downtown which I can't remember its name. It was owned by a woman named Grace Hardin. She carried local and regional work.  It was a little oasis in town that had calm music and a charming owner. She retired and closed the store a long time ago. The local mall had both a Walden Books and B Dalton both stores are now defunct now replaced by Barnes and Noble. We do have a Hastings which is a chain that also sells, music and games. They have a good book selection and a coffee shop, but its not like being in a real bookstore. We do have bookstores that just sell used paperbacks, but they are in a different category.  Just recently we had another one of them close. We do have a nice bookstore that sells used hardbacks and paperbacks, but once again it doesn't have the ambiance of the stores of old.

image source

This is Moose Rack Books in Big Sky Montana, I happened on this bookstore traveling to Bozeman, Montana. Its pretty small but has great charm and local and regional authors. Its a nice place to stop.

These are steps in the only Big Bookstore I'll share in todays post.

In case you guessed yes its Powell's in Portland as the sign show you.

Nice clean aisle, nooks and cranny to look at books, lots of nice amenties. They have lots of used books too.  A really nice place and you don't feel like they are trying to put everyone else out of business. I admit that I am guilty as the next person in buying online but I still think bookstores are a must and they will all go away if we don't start supporting them better.

Tell me,  do you have any great bookstore that you have been to, or remember fondly. Tell me in the comments.

Kate

Bloom By Moon

I had the background of this page painted and waiting for whatever was to come next.  I also had a painting I thought I would cut up for collage elements.

I hadn't decided yet how to cut it up, I mean which parts I wanted to focus on so I ended up just cutting off 2 inches so the painting would fit into a cardboard sleeve I have to store papers.  I took the scrap into my studio and it blended in really well with this page. After added the collage elements a couple images appeared and the rest flowed. I'll still take apart this painting but at a later date.

I have been reading Amy Palko's Bloom by Moon ebook and exploring this new full moon.  In the Celtic tradition its the Vine Moon and in the Native American tradition its the Harvest Moon.  I really loved the phrase "What Seed Dreams will You" so I added it to my page.  I think I'll be doing some further writing on the idea.

Then I finished this page which was waiting for some words of wisdom.  Its seemed right to continue with the moon theme.

On Friday I was featured on Dirty Footprints Studio, go here to have a look. It all part of all the fun for 2 Secrets Falls coming up on October 1st.