Author Archives: Old as Dirt & Proud of It!

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About Old as Dirt & Proud of It!

Welcome to Old As Dirt, and Proud of It by Karen Samenow. I named my blog Old As Dirt And Proud of It because that's where I am in life. You may find art or music, or inspiration included because, I'm an artist, a spiritual medium, and I'm always learning more and exploring. I hope you find us interesting. My focus for this blog is to bring a little levity to well seasoned women. Sometimes it actually may help!
Mar24

Holly, Moley

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Exactly!

I am over the purse thing.  After helping some of the girls with purses, figuring out my own design, and all the chaos that goes with a room full of purse painters…….I’m over it!

I painted two purses….one to small for me to use, a little  leather travel bag I purchased on Cedros St. years ago to travel with.  Turns out,  it’s so small it won’t hold my sunglasses, or much of my wallet.  So of course, I had to paint it.

Paint on leather

The other a canvas travel bag that should eliminate my wallet, but hold my sunglasses.  The thing is,  I got over it before I finished, and that is not good!  When that happens, I start making mistakes, and mistakes I made.  Dripping paint where is shouldn’t have been.  Smearing from the side of my hand, things like that.  So I did exactly the same thing I’d do in a painting.  There are no mistakes, only opportunities to be creative!  Well, I don’t know about that.  In this case I’m not so sure that worked.  Line work was used to pull it together and poka-dots were used to cover other opportunities.

“I should have stopped here!”

All in all…..

I meant to do that!

 

Mar14

Backgrounds…

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I found this demo on YouTube, and if you want to check out more of Betty’s art, go to Betty Frank Krause/Betty Krause Art.  There is so much really easy information here.  Some of us might know all about it, but some will find it helpful.

Everytime I watch something, or take a class, I find there is always something I’d forgotten, or didn’t know at all.  Always I walk away with something helpful.  I hope you do the same.

Again Betty is all about art, different kinds of art, and if you look at her website, you are sure to find something you can use.

Mar10

Oh What A Beautiful Morning!

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Good morning everyone.  I awakened this morning with the sun shinning in my bedroom window.   Bouncing out of bed all I could think of was,  how blessed I am to be living in beautiful Southern California.  The weather is moderate, temperatures are mostly perfect, and we have a roof over our heads.  Schmaltzy I know, but my heart is filled with joy at the prospects of the day.

With a cup of coffee by my side, and some Nora Jones singing in the background I’m thinking of all of you and the creativity each of you have to offer.  Many of us don’t feel like we have anything to offer, and creating anything is just not worth it.  My feeling is that everything we do is worth something.  If we create for the love of creating anything, that’s a good thing.  I have to remember, “It’s the journey, not the destination!”

Wednesday some of my friends and myself were playing with our iPads.  We were trying to find an app that allowed us even more options for creativity, and then learn to use that app.    That’s where the picture came from.  It’s an old picture of my old self with red hair,  feathers for earrings, and glasses.   An abstract watercolor from Sketch Master, one  the apps I’ve collected.  Just a start in the world of iPads, something my friends and I are just learning, and  It’s fun and different for me, but even though it’s something I don’t want to get involved in, there is something to experimentation.

I do love to experiment! 

This is pretty cool also!  A negative of a picture.  Maybe this would help with learning to negative shape paint, or sketch.  It would be a great exercise for learning to draw.  Can you see how this might be helpful?  I always try new things, it never hurts.

Have a great weekend. and look at your surroundings as if there is information to be used in your creativity!

Mar7

Whats Next?

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Our Daisy dog

Cats, dogs, flowers, houses, trees,  what does one tackle next as a creative endeavor? We all want to do something different, but we’re probably subconsciously attracted to the thing that works the best.  On the other hand, don’t we like the challenge?  I do.

Even if it doesn’t turn out perfect, and we all know perfect is not probable!   I don’t even like perfection,  that is for cameras, not artists!  I uploaded a sketch of Daisy, our dog to  work on, and with a little effort it could be just a little wonky.  I love wonky, it makes me happy and creative.  It takes me to a place I was never allowed to go as a child.  So the wonkier the better…

There are other subjects I could paint, but while I’m finishing up the painting of my purse……

I’ll form a plan for Daisy.

The purse, well…after painting two, I’m getting over it.  Purses no longer intrigue me, and I’ll be lucky to finish this.  The cat has given me more trouble than I could imagine, as cats tend to do.   Whiskers…no whiskers?  Stripes, or no stripes?  Polka dots, or not?   Whatever I do seems to not be the way I had imagined it to look, consequently the cat has more layers of paint than my kitchen.    It’s all good, and it’s all in the name of experimentation.

The end result of the purse is yet to come, so  for good or bad, it will be finished!

Mar5

Craggy Crow

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Cragy Crow

Craggy Crow

Last week the weather was so nasty I stayed inside and made the most of being cooped up by painting, experimenting, and just plain having fun in my studio.  The rain was coming down so hard the yard and the patio were flooded, and you couldn’t see in front of your nose if you went out.

Opportunity!

Being stuck in one place gives us opportunity.   To curl up and read, bake cookies, watch a movie, or Paint are just some of the possibilitiess     So paint I did.

I played with colors, sketched out possibilities, played with different papers, and much more.  In my mind, I try to  play like a 3-year-old.  Just like my grandson use to do when he’d play in my studio.  I think letting him play in my studio was the beginning of me letting go, and not taking myself so seriously.  I’d give him a huge pad of paper, and he picked his own brush, and watercolors.  (After all I could wipe them up when he was finished.)   He’d pick the longest brush he could find and make a huge puddle of blue watercolor, he loved blue.   After he went home, I’d find blue paint all over my studio, the kitchen, and into the garage.  How can you ever get mad at one of your grandchildren? He loved blue, and he loved the way it looked on everything.  He is now twelve going on thirteen, he still loves blue, but fortunately doesn’t find the need to splatter it all over the house.  He’s a great kid, and is very creative.

The crow, well  crows speaks to me.  I love them, and can’t find enough places to put them in my art.  This time I just thought I’d make a big crow,  wet him all down like a watercolor, and drip blue ink into him.  This is how you get craggy!  Of course, once he’s big as life on a sheet of paper, he needs something to complement him.  Journal style seemed to work for me on a cold, wet, rainy day.  This is my version on playing in my studio this winter.

Mar4

Making a Sharp Left!

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Paint on leather

Paint on leather

One thing I can tell you for sure…I get bored easily. Most of the artists I know, create in many different ways. We all love to try something new. New colors, new paper, new techniques and the list goes on and on.  A few weeks ago my critique group decided we’d do a together project and see what turns out.  We decided to paint purses.  So off we all went to find a purse we each felt was worthy of painting.  I choose canvas, others choose leather, some genuine PVC.

While I was struggling with what to put on my canvas/dacron purse, a small leather travel purse called my name at the top of the shelf in my bedroom closet.  It was used one time, I’ve had it for twenty plus years, and I paid a fortune for it in the Cedros District of Solana Beach.   A trendy part of Southern California you only shop at if you feel like spending lots of money.    I wanted something I could travel with that was small enough to eliminate a regular handbag with all the stuff we carry in it.  The purse was so small that I couldn’t get sunglasses into it.

Perfect Guinea Pig for an art project!

Why not paint something on this little purse?  After all I never use it, and it’s been up there for twenty or so years.

So for some reason it seemed right to paint a dragon-fly on it, and well… flowers seemed right too!  It’s the first purse I’ve ever painted, and as you can see it won’t be the last!

Gesso on canvas

Gesso on canvas

Now that the small purse is finished, I’m working on an abstract design for the canvas bag.  I wanted it a little wonky because, well I’m a little wonky and my style is a little wonky.  It all fits don’t you think?

The colors will come next, and who knows what they will be?  I just know that I have red, orange, and gold gesso to work with and anything else I’ll just have to work out with what I have.

Wish me luck.  Painting on a black surface like this is tricky, and it takes a lot of gesso and a love of wonky!