I don't know much about cats.

Except for me, all the members of my family (of origin) are allergic to cats.  Understandably, there were never any of these critters in our house.  Dogs, parakeets, hamsters - all okay - but cats brought on the sneezing, tearing, watery eyes, and rashes for everyone but me.

Therefore, if I consider cats, I have to admit that because I was never around them, their behavior baffles me.

Meow.

This collage encapsulates the truth about my experience of cats; they are a complete mystery to me :-)

Never Forget

I finally completed this canvas.   The idea of painting it had been noodling around in my head for a few weeks:

mixed media with collage, 8" x 8" x 1-1/2"

I wanted to share a thought that I always find comforting :-)

Smartphone monotype collages -

the most recent Year of the Spark lesson from Carla.

I used Golden OPEN acrylic paint for the first time and it was a happy experience, yay!  Because the working time is much longer than regular acrylic paint, my frustration of painting an image, refining it, and then pulling the print was greatly alleviated.

birds on a branch

two ladybugs in the flowers

Mr. Bunny's Back

play

Printing was done on tracing paper (the other option was vellum) hence the overall gray-ness.

Recording the images with a smartphone has its limitations... at least the way I do it :-)  However, I appreciate the spontaneity of finishing the piece, taking the photo, and then calling it done.

Abstract Shape

More "Elements" (Karine Swenson's online class) work - this time the focus is on shape:

Mixed media collage

Paper collage

Paper collage

Collage and Paint on Plexi

Lynn Whipple ( Year of the Spark, Lesson 3 ) shared her experience of collage and reverse oil painting on Plexiglas®.

I used acrylic paint instead of oils mainly because acrylics dry quickly.  Painting on the reverse side is a slow process because there is a lot of turning back to front to check how the painting is progressing.

"1 2 3 Change" on non-glare acrylic panel

Having completed one of these acrylic panels I have to say that this technique is very messy - at least the way I do it - which gave me another reason to be happy that I chose acrylics.  Cleanup is much faster than with oils.

I like the technique a lot...messiness notwithstanding :-)

Collage...cards?

From the January lesson from Lynn Whipple for Year of the Spark – select a “hero” image and combine it with other design elements to create cards.

Oy, I have a suspicion that I may not have done the specific assignment as I was not thinking “card” or event e.g. birthday.  I did create these, though:

"Life is a Twirl"

elements: "flower girl" image, my hand lettering - colored and cut out, monoprint I liked but had not taken to completion

"dispersal of the keys"

elements: a "Pulcinella" image, metal keys, torn pieces from my slush pile, gold paint pen, black paper

 The process was thought-provoking and enjoyable :-)

More Mixed Media Horses

Horses for 2014: Year of the Fairy Tale.

I had never used washi tape before except in creating a few greeting cards to send to friends.  However, I had seen several instances of its use in collage and I liked them a lot.  So-o-o, combine washi with paper collage... et voici, more horses :-)

 

And then just washi tapes:

If you'd like to see more from before, click here for yesterday's post :-)

Mixed Media Horses

In  Carla's  2014: Year of the Fairy Tale class, we are on our seventh fairy tale - and our prep work involves horses literally drawn from one's own imagination  :-)

After finishing the suggested 60 line drawings of horses, I was looking for another way to create twenty more.  I used a simple technique from another of Carla's online classes, Blobimal Artists Books, random collage pieces adhered to the paper and from there "finding" and defining the horse with line work.

These are some of my favorite horses created this way:

 

The random collage elements get my creative juices flowing :-)

Painted a little painting...

using techniques I learned from Diane Culhane's online class, "Between Speech and Silence". I enjoy painting this way; it's very liberating and forgiving :-)

"Meeting"

Assignments done, yay!

The base paintings from a few days ago now look like this:
Yellow red base:

Funny birds, huh.

Blue red base:

This would have to be Romy and Remy with me!

"Between Speech & Silence" assignment

Diane Culhane's "Between Speech and Silence" online class ended last Friday (!) and I have the final two paintings to complete. I tend to do either controlled graphicky things or large, non-objective swashy pieces, but this final assignment is somewhere in the only recently explored "middle". I am thoroughly enjoying this class - it's so freeing to experiment.
So, here is the first base painting:

Light

And here is the second:

Dark

I have some collage elements to add and then I get out the brushes, pens and acrylics. Hm-m-m, I have no idea what will happen :-)

Collage, sticky but true

I can't help it; when I "collage" I become a collage. I have paper bits stuck to my fingers, elbows (really, elbows!), clothing, scissors, brush pens, whatever I have close by. It's fortunate that Remy isn't under my work table or he'd have sticky bits all over his fur!
I'm  in my fourth day of Diane Culhane's online class (a lot of collaging) and I am enjoying it very, very much and also coming to terms with being in the "state of glue" :-)
This is my random placement collage painting class assignment:

I see dogs (a lot) in random elements...

That Carla Sonheim...

what a creative teacher.  Yesterday's drawing assignment was so simple...but brilliantly done! Use really "awkward" [my term] collage scraps to create three creatures. It was so funny because the scraps she used were ones she picked up from her studio floor (yes, the scraps I always toss).
I really enjoyed the the exercise; here's my take on it:

Rescued collage fodder :-)

An unplanned stop

I had planned to continue working on this piece but something said, "Stop", so I did.

More Planet flora

Close up:

Getting lost...

in the details:

Color/ texture

Texture

Translucency

Step back a bit and...

The "garden"

From negative beginnings, a surprise!

The challenge: create a painting using collage - for me, not a favored technique - and collage elements that I don't like.
Here it is:

I am pleasantly surprised :-)