it's been a long LONG while...

 

So it's been over a year since my last blog post.  Guess I've been a bit busy! :)  Our newest member, Kenai (pronounced KEEN-eye) is now a year old and walking around and playing with toys and driving us crazy with his screams and giving us lots of love, hugs and laughs!  It's tough being a mom to three and trying to find time to make art and homeschool and do housework and cook and clean (ok, cleaning pretty much falls off the list of priorities!) but now that the little one is a bit bigger, I've been finding more time to do the things that recharge my soul.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a mom and I LOVE my babies to the max, but it sure does feel good to paint uninterrupted and have complete thoughts that don't revolve around diapers, breaking up fights, and managing homework. :)

I've been painting lately.  Big, juicy backgrounds full of color.  Lots of experimenting.  Trying to find my voice.  Having a LOT of fun.  I like to take photos of the paintings in their various stages.  It's fun to see how they transform and evolve over time.  The above photo shows the first layer.  Below is what it looks like now after some more layers.

The color pallet was inspired by my daughter's outfit.  I loved the mix of purple, lavender, red violet, red and turquoise!

Proof that you can find inspiration just about anywhere! 

 Another painting in progress...This one started out kind of "ugly" and then it transformed into something I'm really liking.  Not sure where to go from here.  We will see what happens in time.  I'm really into the color combo of midnight blue, turquoise, red and neon pink!  I even started a pinterest board just for those colors alone.

Colors just make me super happy!  What can I say?  I am taking an e-course with Mati Rose right now called "Daring Adventures in Paint" and it has been the perfect thing to re-start my ART!  I find myself sneaking over to the studio throughout the day to add bits of paint or collage to the several canvases I have spread out on the floor.  The canvas above is completely different now.  I will have to post some before and after shots!

A lot has happened in the last year since I've last blogged.  Our oldest daughter, Brielle, graduated high school and is now in the Army!  She just graduated boot camp this winter and is now in training.  We couldn't be more proud!  Our oldest son, Zach, is also in the Army and stationed in South Korea.  We haven't seen him in over a year.  He has yet to meet his youngest sibling in person.  It's hard having a member of your family in the military--especially a child!  But they are hardly "children" anymore--they are both growing into such beautiful and amazing adults!  Thank goodness for letters, phone calls and Skype!  I can't wait to hug both of them in person, though.  And Raul's dream (and mine) is to have all five kids together at once.  Some day! :)

So that's it for now.  Hoping to post at least a few times a week.  My goal is to get into some kind of regular art-making schedule.  And post the updates here on the blog.  

Ww Watermelon

this was the last week of the online workshop "pages and paint."  above is a painting i made based on a sketchbook idea (shown in the previous post).  i had a lot of fun drawing colors, images and textures from the original sketch.  that's a new thing for me.  i usually just go into a project without a clue as to what i'm going to do.  maybe i'll have some color in mind.  but it's nice to have some kind of theme to play with.

just a few more sketchbook pages...playing with color and inspiration (above).

this was the result of a prompt from the course instructor.  she mailed us goodie bags filled with fun little bits and prompts and ideas to get us going on our paintings.  the above was a game where we had to take whatever words she had given us and incorporate them into our sketchbooks or a painting.  my words were: "bubble gum pink, seaside, lines & dots, joy."  and that's what i came up with.

i hope to continue with the sketchbooks. i think they're a great place to play and try out ideas without the pressure of an entire blank canvas.  what kinds of activities do you do before a big project?  do you use an inspiration board?  a sketchbook?  or do you just dive in and see what happens?

having fun with paint and a sketchbook

i'm having a nice time this week playing with paint and sketchbooks.  i'm taking sarah ahearn's online class "pages and paint" and it's just been nice to have time to paint and play.  i even signed up my two daughters for summer day camp and preschool this week so i could have a whole 3 hours to myself just to enjoy the quite house and my bright studio.  wish i could do this every day! :)

the above two paintings came from a fun game that we played where we took a handful of prompts, but them in a bucket, and blindly picked one at a time.  we had two minutes for each prompt and the prompts ranged from simple ("add collage bits to your canvas") to scary ("paint and scribble with your eyes closed")!  i love the results.  i found that my paintings were more free and interesting this way.  it's a great exercise in letting go.  try it sometime!

part of the classwork is to keep a small sketchbook and to take it out with you into the world and capture just every day life.

i made the above two sketchbook spreads while i was at a water park with my daughter (a park with a tiny water feature-like fountain...no way would i take my eyes off of her in a pool!)  i wanted to capture just the essence of color, shapes and sounds.

and summer is not complete without fresh fruit! especially cherries, watermelon, plums and nectarines for me.  so many childhood memories trapped inside the juicy flesh.  i just need to take one bite and i'm transported back in time to endless summers of the mid-1980s!

and this was just a fun exercise in using up all the scraps and tiny bits of paper left over from bigger projects that i was just going to throw away.  sometimes inspiration can come from the trash! :)  i love the colors here on the left.  i used them as inspiration for the page on the right.

happy summer, everyone!  i'm still hanging onto the last bits.  school starts again soon.  but we will be enjoying summer-like weather well through october (i hope!  it's actually been quite a chilly summer so far!)

collage painting step by step

well, i guess it's a backwards kind of step by step, but i think you can figure it out. ;) i recently took a class at Big Picture Classes with Emily Falconbridge called, "Got Paint?" and this painting was our final project.

Here is my crazy, messy dining room table (turned art studio for the moment!)

and a close-up of the first phase. here i've just placed random pieces of somewhat-coordinated scraps of paper (i knew that keeping those little pieces would come in handy! ha!)

a little gesso (or white paint) dry-brushed and wiped away here and there to hide/reveal parts of the canvas. the middle design is made with vintage sewing paper. i traced my design from an old calendar. you can trace any image you can think of. i thought about just leaving the collage like this. i really like the look of the antiqued paper against the colorful background. but, i decided to keep pushing it. (always scary, always fun!)

oh, this is just a close up of my cute little bowl i've had since i was a kid! it was on the craft table filled with midnight snacks (chocolate ice cream treats from Trader Joe's!) the bowl used to have a mug and a plate and if you piled them all up, you'd have a 3-D girl! (the plate had a printed image of shoes and the mug was her "body" with a cute little dress.)

this was the fun part...adding all the paint splotches and drips and texture with all sorts of fun painting tools (bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard, pizza cutter, shaped sponge brushes, stencils, etc--most things you have at home!) i just picked a few (ok, a lot) of my favorite colors and that's how my color scheme was born. i'm really gravitating toward these bright colors lately. and a few pastels for balance. i love red, aqua, sky, pink, sea foam, and rose.

so, it's not a very detailed step-by-step. i don't want to take away from the amazing class i just experienced. if you're looking for a fun, laid-back, go-at-your-own-pace kind of class or you just need a little boost of inspiration, i HIGHLY recommend this class. tons of fun.

i would love to see what everyone is up to these days. now that spring is upon us, what colors are inspiring you lately?

painting scrapbook pages

just wanted to share some scrapbook pages i've done lately. i'm taking a class with emily falconbridge called "got paint?" over at big picture classes. i met emily at a class i took with anahata katkin in september of 2008 (wow, was it that long ago?). i've been following her blog ever since. and when i found out she was teaching an online course, well, i just had to sign up!

it feels REALLY good to finally be getting these photos onto pages and into albums. i've never been much of a scrapbooker, but when i saw how artistic you could get with pages and all the "non-traditonal" styles and methods, i couldn't resist. these techniques are simple and they get me motivated to get my photos out and get those pages into an album. once i started one, i couldn't stop.

it's super easy. i painted the pages with some quick background colors and when they were dry, i added some stamps in contrasting color paint. i spread the pages all out in front of me and started laying down my photos (this was kind of random, but sometimes i'd place a photo down on a page if it looked really good with the colors). then it was time to add the embellishments. i'm really loving boarder stickers! i can't get enough. especially the ones by k & company. the brigher the better! :)

so, that's about all. it's been too cold and windy to get outside to do spraypainting in my journal (and i still need the right mask!). so i'll wait til it warms up a bit. spring is lovely and all, but it can be so temperamental! warm and sunny one day and cold and windy the next! (can't wait til summer! that's my favorite season!!)

hope you are all up to your elbows in paint and paper and crafty goodness!

12 Tags of Christmas

I've been taking a break in between the Painting Layers class with Misty Mawn to make some Christmas tags a la Tim Holtz. Each day Tim posts a new tag with step-by-step instructions. These are my versions, inspired by his tags. They're a lot of fun and quite addicting. The one above has a little mini charm/ornament/pin attached to it. I think it would make a cute and quick stocking stuffer or gift topper.

Still working on my collage paintings for the Painted Layers class. This painting is almost done, just have to paint in the face. Or maybe I'll just leave it like it is. We'll see...


It's nice to have several projects going at once...keeps my art brain more balanced, I think. ;) And it's easier to start and stop the tag projects in between late-night feedings and soothing a teething baby back to sleep!

More painting...this one needs a little stamping and texture added, I think. Not quite finished. Chirstmas is quickly approaching. We're cleaning up the house this weekend so we can bring in our tree and get out the decorations and get this holiday into full swing!

Thankful

so very thankful for this little evening break when the house is quiet, the kids are asleep and i can just breathe and be and not be needed for anything.

i'm thankful for art and inspiration and just the everyday beauty the world has to offer.

i'm thankful for my family and my friends and for the love and joy they bring to my life.

i'm thankful for yummy art supplies and thankful for the desire and need to make art.

i am thankful for technology and the way it merges so wonderfully with art and our human need to communicate and share ideas.

i am taking the most awesomely awesome online art class with misty mawn right now and i cannot even begin to explain in words how i love it so! i am a slow and visual learner so this is a perfect class for me. not to mention that misty is a talented artist and wonderful teacher.

what are you thankful for? make a list, you will be plesantly surprised at how much there is to be thankful for and how most of it is intangible and immesurable.

File under M for Miscellaneous

I had a blast at Anahata Katkin's two-class retreat in Cardiff (near San Diego, CA). I learned so much and really pushed myself creatively. I feel like I walked away with some great ideas and new techniques. Raul went with me, so I didn't have to drive the 18 hours (round trip!) alone. He was stuck at the hotel with no internet connection the first day--poor guy! But that night, we went out for dinner at a lovely Thai restauraunt in Encinitas and strolled around the artsy and touristy shops before heading back to the hotel.


The next day, we ran into another dilemma--check out was at noon, so where was the poor guy to go all day? We got up early, took an early AM stroll on the beach and had breakfast at a cute little diner in Encinitas. Then he hung around the town all day while I attended the second workshop with Anahata (Funky Wall Paper People!). Between the book store and the coffee shop (with wireless connection!), he was all set. I left class a little early on Sunday so we could get back home at a relatively reasonable time. So it all worked out! I met some amazing women at the retreat and saw some wonderful art. It was fun walking around to get ideas from others and to just admire the work of my fellow artists!

Maya and I have been walking around the neighborhood in the evenings. It is the best time to go for a little stroll. Great light for photos, and every one else is out and about walking their dogs or watering their yards.


It's mid-fall now, but some days it still feels like SUMMER. (And some folks STILL think global warming is just something liberals made up for just for the heck of it?) It is cooler at night which is a great reason to break out the flannel sheets and warm blankets, so at least in some way it kinda, sorta feels like fall. But I'm still wearing flip flops during the day...crunching on fall leaves in flip flops--it's weird. ;)


I'm getting excited for Halloween now that it is, indeed, October (and not mid-summer! See previous post!). I made these cards for a tag swap with my Bay Area Art Sisters--a group of ladies from the Bay Area who met at Artfest and decided to continue getting together once a month to make art.


I'll be missing our next meet-up which will be at the Book Arts Jam at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, Ca--I'm so sad I'll miss it! But I look forward to our November meet-up. These gals are an inspiration and a lot of fun. It's nice to know there are artsy women that are in the area that I can meet with in real life. I love the internet for it's instant interconnectivity and convenience, but NOTHING beats meeting with folks face to face and that essential human interaction we all need.

I'm ready for crunchy leaves, rainy days, the smell of decay, pumpkin carving, and cold, smoky, moonlit nights. I'll even start wearing regular shoes if Fall finally decides to show up!