Everything Will Be Ok

I painted this girl for my cousin.  She’s been going through a very stressful time in her life.  She has always been so complimentary of my art and has a number of my girl paintings.  When I first started doing art and showed it to her, she was so excited about what I had created.  Her compliments and excitement gave me the confidence to keep moving forward with creating art.  I am so grateful to her for that.

As I was finishing up the painting, I wasn’t sure what words I wanted to add.  I keep small scraps of papers and other ephemera that have inspiring words, phrases and quotes stuck in a little flower frog on my art counter.  I went over to thumb through those scraps and found a card that read “Everything will be ok”.  I knew that was just what needed to go on the painting and I know that everything will work out for her and it will be ok.

 

 

You Get a Line…

I am taking an on-line mixed media workshop called Layers of Light by Laly Mille.  I have only had time to create one piece from the first lesson but enjoyed it so much!  I am looking forward to working on the next lesson, which is with plaster and encaustic.

I’m calling this piece You Get a Line because, after adding the image of the boys going fishing, I kept singing that Little Big Town song, Boondocks.  The three little round pieces are crinoid fossils from a lake in southern Indiana.  I almost didn’t add them because I thought they kind of looked like Cheerios.  I showed the piece to my daughter after I had finished it.  She asked me what the little circles were.  I told her and she said “Oh, I thought they were Cheerios!”  🙂

 

Mixed Media Girl & Dragonfly

I came across a canvas that I had created background on a few years ago but never finished.

I started with collage using scrapbook and other papers.  I added very little paint at the time I created the background and just decided to keep it that way.

I scanned and enlarged a sketch of a girl I had done on a legal pad.

I used carbon paper to transfer the sketch to the canvas.

I then painted in the girl using acrylics, watercolor crayons, Pit pens and a Stabilo pencil.

I finished it off by adding a little dragonfly embellishment.

Now I’m off to the next painting adventure.  Happy Sunday everyone!

Tag Art

I had a bit of fun collaging, sketching and painting on a couple of tags.  These were inspired by watching youtube videos of Mystele Kirkeeng.  She adds so many layers to her art, especially her faces.  I love watching her create her wonder infused paintings.

I had been working on a Life Book 2016 lesson that I was enjoying immensely but I got stuck on what I wanted to do with the background.  Watching Mystele’s videos and painting the tags were just the diversion I needed.   I have now decided how I want to finish up the Life Book lesson and hope to complete it soon.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Inner Wizard

This painting was created based on a Life Book 2016 lesson called Inner Wizard given by Jenny Grant.  I had created the background on a canvas panel quite some time ago.  Not knowing what I wanted to do with it, I had put it away.   The colors in Jenny’s painting reminded me of the canvas so I decided to use it as a start to the painting.

Below are pictures I took through the process of Jenny’s lesson, beginning with the background.

I enjoyed this lesson so much and learned a lot by watching Jenny’s techniques!

 

 

Gettin Crafty

I was in need of something I could hang on the wall in my office that would hold bills, folders, etc.  I couldn’t find anything that I really liked so i decided to revamp something  I had found in a store.

Here is what it originally looked like when I bought it.

First I painted on a light layer of gesso (lightly so the original design showed through) and then adhered some papers using Collage Pauge.  I also put a layer of the Collage Pauge over everything and let it dry.

Next I added some washi tape, acrylic paint and Gelatos.  I did a little stenciling through some drywall tape and added some rub-on numbers from 7 Gypsies.  After this picture was taken, I felt it still needed something to pull the colors together so I did a little more stamping with some bubble wrap using white acrylic paint.

Now I just need to hang it on the wall and then I am off to enjoy this beautiful day we are having here in Central Illinois!

Primary Colors

My husband recently updated our small bathroom and, once the walls were painted, neither of us were liking the color.  It is a pale blue and the color just looked blah.  Why is it that the paint color always looks so much better on that small paint chip then it does on a wall? We thought maybe once the new vanity was in, along with the towel bars and other accessories, it would look better.  But, because I really wanted one of those white waffle weave shower curtains, the room was going to need a pop of color.

I decided to see if I could paint something with color that might make a nice distraction from those blue walls.  I started with a bit of collage from a vintage bookkeeping journal.   Next, using an old store card, I randomly scrapped on acrylic paint in reds, blues and yellows and white.  I scratched into the paint in some areas.  I used a mini bubble wrap (love the mini ones!) to pick up some of the yellow paint and then stamped it onto a few places in the painting.  Using a textured foam roller, I lightly rolled some red paint over a few areas.  I love that this came together so quickly!

The lighting isn’t good enough in the bathroom to get a good picture of it on the wall.  This is a picture I took of it laying on a white poster board.  I do love how it looks on the wall though, and it really does break up all that light blue paint and adds a nice punch of color.

Collage and Paint

This painting is on a 12″ x 12″ canvas and has been through many, many, stages.  I never could seem to get it to where I liked it – not even a little.  I finally covered it with gesso and started over.

I added torn pieces of a map in random places on both the top and sides of the canvas.   Next I added some blue, coral and small amounts of yellow paint around and over parts of the map pieces.  The third layer was created by spreading molding paste randomly over the canvas, including the sides.  I stamped into the paste in some areas using bubble wrap and drywall tape.  Once the molding paste dried, I added more blue and coral paint.  I ran around the edges with a light gray Pitt big brush marker and smudged it in before it dried.

I’m glad I finally got it to where like it.  Have a great week!

Book Inspired II

Here are a couple of paintings I just completed that ended up being inspired by another vintage children’s book.  Initially, I was working on making a pair of black and white paintings based on a Life Book 2016 lesson.  I had started by collaging on pieces of magazine imagines that were black and white.  Next I drew in vases with rose buds and painted using only black and white paint.  I just couldn’t get them to where I liked them.  I needed color!

I looked through my vintage children’s book collection and found one that had some lovely line work in the drawings along with hints of soft pastel colors for inspiration.

I adhered some of the torn book pages over the previous paintings and then painted sections using colors inspired by the colors in illustrations.  I added paint by lightly sponging on various colors.  I then covered some of the color by lightly rolling gesso over the pieces using a brayer.  Next I added in more color until I liked the way it looked.   I also did a little stenciling through some drywall tape using black paint.  I wanted the pieces to have somewhat of a shiny surface and decided to use some Golden tar gel.  I put a layer of the tar gel on the paintings but they came out too shiny so I added a couple of layers of Collage Pauge in matte to tone down some of the shine.

Each piece measures 6 x 12 inches and are on cradled wood panels.  The sides are painted black.

Girl on Fire

This painting was inspired by Mindy Lacefield’s painting on the cover of the Jan/Feb/Mar 2016 Somerset Studio Art Journaling magazine.  I was working on a piece of mixed media paper and just putting some paint down, not really knowing where it was going.  As I started to grab another paint color, I noticed the magazine laying nearby.  I decided that it would be my inspiration.   I sketched in the girl using a charcoal pencil.  I’m not sure where that wild pink hair came from!  I just felt like making marks with a pink water soluble oil pastel and so that is what I did.  My sister told me that her hair looked like it was on fire.  I had to laugh because I did notice myself singing that song “Girl on Fire”, by Alicia Keys, while finishing her up.

I mounted the painting to a wood panel and was going to paint the sides black, but I ended up liking the look of the gesso layers I had prepped the wood with.   It had a white washed look similar to the painting.  I did run around the edges with a dark grey big brush marker to frame it a bit.