Tag Archives: inspiration

Oct27

“3 of 3”

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Inspired by all the fall colors, and the fact that we are getting ready to take a vacation to Northern California, I decided to paint another watercolor….in fall colors!

For some reason the watercolors I was sick of working with many years ago, seem to be what brings me joy today.  The mixing  of paint; watercolors, acrylic and even ink seem to be calming to me at a time when everyone is agitated about politics.  Boy, will I be glad when the election is over, the ads will be off the TV, and we can get back to talking about the  small stuff.

One of the reasons I stopped working in watercolors was the  length of drying time.  My creative self  started demanding instant gratification, and working on a painting that somehow was finished in a day or two was more than enticing.  Each piece was so different, as is the acrylic,  the time spent on just one petal or leaf seemed like forever, time spent on an acrylic petal, or leaf was oh so quick.  The fact that a watercolor has to be treated differently to hang it in a room, is surly a downside, but hey I’m up for a challenge.  Why not seal it, and mount it to a canvas.  It’s been done before, and it will be done again!

I’m an experimental artist, so let’s experiment!

Les and I are headed to Lake Tahoe later this week, and I expect to come home so revitalized, refreshed and once again grounded.  The air and trees always inspire me, and I don’t expect this time to be any different.  Nature is so amazing…..

Temperatures up North have dropped, from what we are use to  that is.  It’s cold up there and I expect we pansys are going to feel like it’s freezing.  We feel like it’s freezing when it get to the 60’s here.  We will moan, and groan, and rush from one place to another.  We aren’t going up there to gamble, just to be refreshed, and have a change of pace.  To regain an appreciation for all that we don’t have in Southern California.

There will be no hunkering down to keep warm at the expense of adventure!

Our plan is to visit some friends while up there, and let them tease us about how light weight we are for thinking it’s cold.  After all, they’re use to it, and I’m sure it won’t be as cold as it will be later in the winter.  They’ll have every right to tease us!   It will be a treat to have people we know to share dinner with, and maybe even a fire in the fireplace!

I’m hoping to do a little sketching… so my sketch book, and  pens are ready to go.  We are both looking forward to our little adventure before the holidays.

Happy Halloween everyone…..

Oct27

Trick or Treet

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img_0192That’s what they say!   Some kids even say thank you when given candy!   Some don’t!   Weather they haven’t been taught, or they are just to excited to remember, I can’t say.  On the behalf of all kids, they could just be so excited they want to get to the next house in hopes of scoring loads of good candy!  Do homes even give out good candy?  Or….are the houses that give out the good stuff friends of the parents whose kids are at the door?

These are questions I’ve always wondered about.

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When my kids were little, there would be certain people in the neighborhood we knew that would reserve good candy for our kids.  We just gave out decent candy to everyone.  Most of the time one of us would have a Halloween Party for the kids that played together so they wouldn’t be out trick-or-treating many blocks away.  Bad things were happening then too!

As my kids grew up, and started having kids of their own, I started making cards to celebrate Halloween for each of them.  For years I would work on ATC’s, this year it’s tags. I still have more to make, and when their finished, I pick the ones that best fit each of my grandchildren.

The ATC’s at the bottom are from years past.  Maybe it will give you some new ideas, or maybe you could email me with your ideas. Either way I’m happy to share.

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Happy Halloween everyone…..

Oct21

What’s An Artist To Do?

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Abstract Tiger Lilly

 

Lately I’ve been working with watercolor, and acrylics, and my subject is usually abstract.  This time I decided to dig through all my supplies and find a small sample kit of Aqua-Oils to try.  I’ve had them for a few years, and never even opened the box to look.  This time it seemed appropriate to try a new medium.  So off came their lids, out came the brushes, and the only thing that came to mind were more abstract flowers!

After painting with these oils for a while, I realized that I had a learning curve.  The paints didn’t seem creamy like oils, and not as workable as acrylics, I felt like I needed to build the color to get the results I was looking for.  Maybe they were a slight bit dried out, although they didn’t seem that way.  but hey they were inexpensive and I’m trying something new.

When the whole thing was said and done, I think I just like  plain old oils better.  Many artists love Aqua-Oils, and don’t have any trouble with them.  For some reason I didn’t find them as forgiving as oils, or acrylics.  My purchase was small, and I certainly haven’t lost anything, so I’m happy I had the opportunity to use them.  That being said, I still have quite a lot of those little tubes left, some of them without ever having  had their tops off!   So I will use them until they are finished, and keep trying to get  them working for me.

After all….what is an artist  to do?

Oct7

Back to Work….

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Mermaid

Mermaid

My studio is humming, and I am working until I start to think about what I’m doing…..Then I STOP!  I stop because I start to second guess myself, and slip out of my right brain.  It works for me to think of myself as playing like a three-year old, and the minute I grow up,  it’s death to my creativity!

The Mermaid painting is a perfect example of me as a three-year old, spreading molding paste, gesso, and paint all around.  Pushing, and pulling, adding and subtracting, until it is just right.  I decided to stop before she started going in another direction.

Sep20

Abstract Faces

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As most of you know from watching my blog, Bob Burridge is one of my favorite artists!  He is loose, and fun to take a class from.  But, most of all his method really works.  I have taken many classes from Bob, and have never been disappointed…not even once.  I have however, left his class dragging, unable to do much else for the remainder of the day.  If the class is a week long class, be prepared to take a week to recuperate.  He has that much energy, and isn’t afraid to share it with all the students!

For me, it isn’t as easy as it looks, or maybe I’m trying too hard, regardless of the reason, I keep trying.  While I finish up the last two abstracts, I thought you might like to watch this video.  Even Bob doesn’t get it right the first time!  By the way, he had a great website with all kinds of information.  Check it out, and sign up for his newsletters…it’s free!

 

 

Sep13

Experiments

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Sunset in the Mountains 6"X 6" on wood.

Sunset in the Mountains
6″X 6″ on wood.

Over the holiday weekend I decided to experiment a little.  I grabbed a small 6″X 6″ art board, and covered it with a weathered, crumpled brown bag.  As I continued, tearing up painted brown bags, and cardboard seemed the right direction.  After struggling for it seemed like hours, I dragged out the copper……copper sheets, coper bebes,  copper paint.  The list went on.

Why is something so small such a big deal.  Keeping busy is not easy!

Finally….it came to me!   The coffee pot just sat there, coffee grounds drying out, coffee getting stale, and too weak to call out to me.

Sooooo, what would happen if I mixed coffee grounds with acrylic medium?  Would it just be another big mess? a mistake I would regret? or, would I like the results vowing to try that again?  On the way to the trash, I just hd to drop off a small pile of grounds, and the medium just happened to tip over onto the plate of grounds.   I really had no choice than to mix them up.  I thought it would be really a mess, but it stuck together about like sour cream with dip mix.

Now what?

As I began sliding this coffee smelling mixture off my pallet knife, it just seemed to go in the way of a landscape.  Not my intention, but I love being intuitive and not knowing where the piece will take me.

One thing led to another, and before I knew it, everything was sitting there drying on this little piece of my wood.  It takes with it a piece of my heart and soul.  Hours have gone by just watching it, talking to it, hoping it would let me know what I need to do, and the last thing it said was, “I need a blue bird in my sky, and so it is!”