Cherish

6 x 8 inches Mixed Media on cradled wood panel

Just wanted to take a moment to mention that Mystele is opening up a new piece to her ning site called community hubs. She'll be offering free 2 week classes. You can head over there for the details.


I've been quite busy today and have several paintings to share this week. I love productive days like today. We had a work holiday today as my employer observes Lincoln's Birthday rather than President's Day for whatever reason. 




I tried out painting hair in a more detailed way. I think I like it, but I'm still trying to work out the colors. I spend as much time on the hair as I do the rest of the painting, lol.

This background was actually going to be for more she art, but I decided to paint instead.  The background is collaged with sheet music, dictionary pages and some Bible pages. I found the Bible at the dollar store. Can you believe you can buy an entire Bible for a dollar? 


One of the things that I learned from Mystele in Gut Art was to use things in your art that is deeply meaningful to you. There's nothing more meaningful to me than basing a piece of artwork with scripture. So, I was wondering what you all use in your art that really gets you going? Colors, ideas, words, items?


These are up in my Etsy Shop.

8 x 8 inches Mixed Media on canvas panel (1/4 inch deep)

I'm linking up this week to:

She Chose Love & She Danced

Today I worked on a couple more girls from  Christy Tomlinson's She Art 1 workshop. These are just so fun to make. I love messing with the backgrounds.

This first one has lots of texture. She's made from sheet music and the background is based with dictionary pages. Her skirt is made with strips of dictionary pages dipped in fluid matte medium and crumpled on the canvas. Loved getting my hands so messy with this. It just brings out the kindergartner in me. You can see some better shots of the texture below. The text says "She Chose Love".

7 x 14 Stretched Canvas

This next one has a sheet music background. I managed to mix up a blue paint color that matched her the patterned paper in her dress, which is a first for me. Always fun to experiment. Her collar is a piece of cotton lace.

7 x 14 Stretched Canvas

These are both up in my  Etsy Shop.

I'm linking these up to:

A Couple More Girls...

Here's a couple of new one's I've created over the last week or so. Just continuing to experiment and practice. I really enjoyed painting on these wood panels. A little different than just using paper.

These are both up in my Etsy store.

5 x 7 original mixed media on cradled wood panel

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I didn't like the original painting I had on this one... it was way overworked. I wished I had stopped sooner. So, I covered her up with some old book pages and started over.

6 x 8 original mixed media on cradled wood panel

I'm linking this up over at Paint Party Friday.

Life Book Week 1

First off, you'll want to hop over to Listening to the Squeak Inside because Kristen is giving away a little original piece of art. All you have to do is comment on her post to enter.

I'm taking a year-long workshop online   called Life Book. It is by Tamara Laporte who is joined by 14 other art teachers. This first lesson was taught by Tam on how to draw a 3/4 face and we were to focus on our positive qualities. She is so good at teaching how to draw a face. I cannot believe I drew this to be honest.

This was my first time using watercolor paper and it was a very different experience. I expected the color to move around like it does on other surfaces I've used, but this paper soaks it in and keeps it somewhat in place. I really liked it and am looking forward to more practice.

Clothed in Strength and Dignity

I've been taking Christy Tomlinson's She Art 1 which is just wonderful. Lots of great tips that can be used for more than just creating girls. The background on this one is made with pages from a Bible that I got from the dollar store and some sheet music I found at a used book sale at our local library. This one is up in my Etsy shop.

I'm a little late, but I'm linking up to Paint Party Friday and Artists in Blogland Show and Tell Saturday.

This girl was actually my first one. I love how the bottom left corner turned out. It started out very ugly! I just kept working it and it became my favorite part. This one I made with a friend in mind who is starting her own creative journey. It's been so important to me to be on this path with a friend even if we're not creating in the same way. We still both have good taste. :-)

Handmade Journal

Hi all! I wanted to share the journal I made for my daughter for Christmas. I picked out a few of my favorites, but you can check out the rest on my Flikr or view the slideshow below. I must warn you, there are about 50 images!

This was a really enjoyable project. The techniques are mostly from a workshop I took called Mixed Media Mayhem from Roben-Marie Smith. Wonderful class... great for me as a newbie just to get my feet wet. Then after the project I made in the class, my creating morphed into this. I don't think I will make it quite so large if I make another one. This one is about 100 pages and has 5 signatures. It's difficult to see in the photos, but the backgrounds on all the pages are shimmery. I added some of my favorite quotes and scripture. I have tutorials for the flowers on my other blog Kurly-Q.

Thanks for stopping by!

Be You

Here's a little project I made this weekend. I continue to experiment with style and practice drawing. So, with this girl, there are parts I like and parts I don't. The overall look and feel don't sit well with me. I can't really pinpoint it, but I think I can chalk this experiment up as a direction I don't want to go. I think that maybe there's not enough depth there. Maybe it just needs to be worked more... more layers. It's definitely not one of my pieces that I am proud of as far as the finished design. But, it is a stepping stone in the journey.

I recently read a blog post over at Listening to the Squeak Inside about walking to the beat of your own drum. Throughout my life, I've always been such a people pleaser. Over the last few years, I've worked toward breaking free of this.

Now that have begun this journey into art, I really want to find my own style from the start. I took Mystele's Gut Art class in November and it couldn't have been a better start. Exploring, playing, and finding your own voice is what it's all about. I am so thankful to Mystele and all my classmates for encouraging me at the beginning of this journey. If you ever get the chance to take Gut Art... do not hesitate. It is a wonderful experience and I hope to take the next one she offers. You can find Mystele on YouTube, her website, her etsy and she offers a couple of free classes at her Ning site so you can get a taste of her process. I have found it very freeing.

6 in. x 12 in. canvas panel collaged and painted with mostly Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Water Soluble Crayons. Also used: Faber-Castell Big Brush Pens, Dr. Ph. Martin's Bombay India Inks, acrylics, liquid watercolors stamps, stencils & rub-ons.





I'm entering this over at Paint Party Friday. :~)

Scarlet

This lady is the first I've done on something other than paper. I love the way it came out, but the colors here are not true. They are close, but it has so much more depth in person.


Click on the image for the large version. Acrylic on 5 x 7 cradled wood panel.

I've linked this up at:

Sketching

I've been taking a basic course on drawing faces from the fabulous Tamara Laporte of willowing.org called Fabulous Faces. She does a wonderful job explaining and showing. You can try out one of her free courses called Art, Heart and Healing where in the first lesson she teaches a front facing portrait. You have to sign up for her Ning site, but don't worry, you don't get lots of junk email. It is certainly well worth your time. I have seriously never drawn a face without tracing before August or September of 2011. I can't believe I drew this at all! Makes me excited to practice more to see what else I can learn to do.

Let God...

Painted with Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Artists' Crayons and acrylics on 6 x 6 Mixed Media paper.

Contemplate

Painted with Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Artists' Crayons and acrylics on 6 x 6 Mixed Media paper.

Dignity

Front


Double-sided. Painted with Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Artists' Crayons and acrylics on 3 x 6 Mixed Media paper.

Back

Passion

Painted with Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Artists' Crayons, watercolors and acrylics on 6 x 6 Mixed Media paper.