Try It You’ll Like It!

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If you haven’t discovered Shirley Trevena yet, she is an interesting artist.  In this video, she is pretty much starting in the beginning talking about the paper to use, and how water reacts with different types of paper.   Watch it and see what you think.  Can you learn something you didn’t know, or had forgotten about.  Can you use any of the information she is sharing?

My hope is that this video will kickstart your new year with new ideas, or an idea that triggers something you had forgotten.

Enjoy!

Experimenting With Ink!

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My plan is to do a whole lot of experimenting with all types of medium this year.
What about you?  Are you set on the same medium?  Maybe you are really successful, or maybe your stuck!   Either way I always think there is something to be learned by just about everything we see or read.

I get bored with the same thing all the time, some people don’t.  They love doing what has worked for them, I can relate to that, but my comfort with doing the samething still runs out after a while.  I’m ready to learn, or grow, sometimes even just stop and refill my reserves.

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As far as I’m concerned, if I’m not pushing myself, I’m not growing and learning.   I love to learn and I always loved going to school and learning.  I’m always amazed at how diverse my community can be.  I’m facinated with people from different cultures;  how they love different colors, have different ways of living.   I have always loved people and their diversity.

The little painting above was created with  Acrylic Ink.  After painting three or four with watercolor, and experiencing the excitement of using watercolor, I decided to use something a bit different…like acrylic ink.  Ink works much like watercolor, and I love how it bleeds.  I make a real effort to incorporate each medium with other mediums like tissue, or stamps.  Who knows what will end up, as always?

Since this is Thursday, and that means it’s “Time out for Art!”  Check out Zebra Designs & Destinations and see what thay are doing in the New Year…

Happy New Year

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A year of creativity, good health, prosperity, love, patience, tolerance, and much more.   For me, I’m going to have a wonderful year.  I have around me very supportive family and some dear friends that always guide me and support my endeavours.  What more can a girl have?

With so much energy from a fun and blessed day with family, I painted this little floral the day after Christmas.  Once I started it I couldn’t stop, and had to incorporate tissue into this one.  It was new for me to try, and I intend to keep pushing myself all 2017.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday, and a safe and special New Year.

Keep Creating!

Last Painting of 2016

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As we look to the end of the year, I wrap up the last painting for 2016.  This is a watercolor painting I collages, and did a little zentangle on. When I finished I coated it with mat medium.  The experiments keep coming, but it’s time now to finish up my shopping, and wrapping. I only have a few gifts to get which consist mostly  of money. As time goes on that will be the only thing the kids want, and Papa and myself will no longer be able to bring in the surprises by way of a letter to the North Pole!

Tuesday night kicked off Christmas celebration with a family dinner at my son, and daughter-in-law’s home. All the cousins, brothers, and sisters, and the parental units (that’s us)!

Everything will move fast now, we are so close to Christmas Eve. The Eve is really my favorite because of the magic. Kids are always good, and usually anxious to go to bed at a decent hour. After all, the sooner you get to bed, the sooner you can get up.

 

It’s uncertain if I will get to post another blog prior to the new year, so I want to take this time to wish everyone a wonderful Holiday filled with love, and a safe and fun New Year’s Eve.   May you all go into the New Year feeling full of love and hope for the year 2017.

The Worst Mistake

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This video is really important to those of us who paint with acrylics.  I have slowed way down with the water I use while painting with acrylics, and  have been using a glazing medium, or a retarder instead of water.  Mixing the fluid acrylics for me is the most fun,  since seeing them run, and drip is the highlight of my painting day.  Remember for me,  when you drip, and pour the results are unexpected and that takes the problem of perfection……there isn’t any!  I painted with watercolors for years, and pouring was the most fun one could have with paints.  When I started using acrylics, I first used them very thick like impasto, later I learned to thin them out, and now I’m glazing, and pouring.   What a journey!

Yes I thinned them out, but I used water to do so.

Experimentation is the friend of the acrylic painter.  That’s how we grow as artists, and when you can stop worrying about how it will turn out, and let everything go,  all those experimentations will be not just fun, but you might be able to use to results as well…

Artists Hacks…..

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I actually got a couple of things out of this little video. You know how things get forgotten over time? Well, This was just a little reminder about a few hacks I’d totally set aside and forgotten.

Robin Clonts is a cute young painter with ideas, take a look.  Maybe you can get something out of this video too!