Translucent Layers

Wednesday I taught a demo at Stampadoodle and the Paper Cafe on Translucent Layers. My favorite translucent layers are created with beeswax. It melds things so well!

Here are some of the results taken immediately after the demo. These are in the display case at Stampadoodle, if you're local and want to check them out. 

Final demo piece with 1897 ledger page and Owl image, melded with beeswax

Demo piece made with a stamped on script background (Stazon ink) and paper towel! My son had these in his kitchen so I borrowed a few to play with.

Showing the difference between muting old text pages with a light coating of off white acrylic paoint. You can see the text, but it doesn' overpower a piece like the one on top. That's Grandpa George at his high school graduation 1912-ish.

It was great fun, and of course I ran out of time. Perhaps I'll teach a class on this sometime soon.


Sharing with the artists at Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin.

What's in my Studio... Translucent Layers

Working on a demo I'm teaching tomorrow at Stampadoodle and the Paper Cafe . What you see are beginning "translucent layers"...

The hearts are beeswax coated music pages, cut using my Big Kick. The yellowish page is a text page coated with beeswax. There are playing cards with dictionary pages glued on to demo the different between gel medium and beeswax, and a dictionary page on heavy art paper with a coat of warm white acrylic paint to muffle the text.  You can also see the beeswax hunk on the plate I use to keep it from dripping on the table.

I promise to show more after the demo tomorrow, but don't want to give everything away. :)

And on another note, I could not resist this "reflection" shot, next to a trail that is most likely a bit drier when it hasn't been raining for several days. :) The word play will probably make sense to those in the USA. Here's a hint for those who are not.

Happy Hump Day!

Sharing with Julia at What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday 

Reflections III

A red barn reflected in the pond that usually is a cornfield... with ducks swimming near the shore.

A closer view of the ducks in the red reflection. 

Thinking of Spring

Spring Trees Abstract

Reflections II

Reflections of a flooded cornfield on the Lummi Flats. The stalks reflected look a bit like hieroglyphics to me. 

I've become enamored with the reflections I've seen in our rainy winter... and blessed with a few days without precipitation to get out and photos (while walking or bird watching).  

And so began my reflection series... 

First in the series is here. 

Reflections

A random stop at Blodel Donovan Park on Lake Whatcom last week when the sun made an appearance. The reflections were stunning. I love how the mist seems to flow into the lake.

What is not clear in this photo is the amount of cormorants that were sunning themselves on the pilings. It was magical... and there was no one else was around to disturb them or me.

This was shot with the cell phone. Oh for my camera with zoom lens!

Happy Sunday!

Quirky Birds

So... our Spark lesson was to do one liners (a whole bunch!) and begin to expand on one of our favorites. These are some I've "expanded". The brown and gray bird is my favorite so far, using my Rembrandt sketch pastels in neutral tones. I haven't used those for some time and had forgotten how much I enjoy playing with them. 

The blue bird uses an Inktense block. I drew first, and then used my water brush. Not too happy with it so far, but it's all a process.  

And the sketched white bird on the black background is acrylic ink applied with the dropper. This was part of using mark making process... and it started getting me to loosen up. 

That is the whole idea... to loosen up and let go of your preconceived ideas of how a drawing should look... and just let it happen. I need to work on that a bit more. Which is one of the reasons I like taking classes with Carla Sonheim. She's fabulous at bringing the inner child who likes to draw out to play. :) 

Sharing today with Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin. 

Sparkly Me

Okay, I am so NOT into selfies. Not.At.All  

However, that was our first little assignment, along with a statement about what we want to get from "2015 The Year of the Spark". 

What I want to get out of the class are my overall goals for the year, and it's amazing how this class ties in. Which is, by the way, why I splurged and treated myself.

My goals for this year are to reignite the joy I had in art when I rediscovered it several years ago, and to surround myself with kindred souls who also live to create. 

And that is what it's all about! 

Cheers!

Charming Gardeners

"Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy. 

They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."

Marcel Proust



Sharing this bit of art with

Sparky New Year!

My gift to myself for the upcoming year ... The Year of the Spark! I've taken very excited and will be sharing some of the "assignments" as we go along. 

Happy New Year, everyone!