A Perk of Flower Crazy and a Thank You

I love doing class assignments as they provide specific focus and prescribed boundaries.  Each assignment is an opportunity to use new materials and techniques or to further explore seemingly familiar ones.  I have taken away something positive every time.

"Flower Crazy" (online class from Carla) was fun and full of play and color.  I loved making several mixed media canvases and boards.  One of the assignments yielded this:

"Flower Swirls in Pink and Yellow"

And the perk?  Recently someone liked it and purchased it :-)  I appreciate everyone who supports art and artists by attending events, spreading the word and buying art.

I am fortunate to have some paintings and prints at Studio Three in Fort Collins, CO.  Meeting and chatting with people at the Holiday Open House a few weeks ago was a pleasure.  Thank you so much Evelina - Studio Three owner and incredibly supportive friend.

Something cheerful :-)

Inspired by my dogs.

at least for the present :-)

Scandalous - Word Art

I love writing on black paper.  With the variety of gels, paints, inks available in pens and markers well, I find doodling irresistible.  So here is the word:

Fun stuff :-)

It's Still Life :-)

A bit tardy, the final painting for Table Top: Drawing and Painting is finished.  Class was so enjoyable and I explored still life painting, a subject that never caught my fancy before.

Here's the still life:

"The Oval Table"

This is how it began:

Whoa, something is different...

The table changed, the flowers changed and some of the veggies became fruit.  How did that happen?  As I think back, I was focused on the paint and I let go of the power of the "line"; the application of paint and the colors indicated the direction of the painting.

As odd as it sounds, relinquishing control is empowering :-)

Fairy tales' end

Carla's online class, 2014: Year of the Fairy Tale drew to a close this month.  A great experience, I enjoyed the class structure where there is a research period followed by drawing, painting and mixed media work.

Final fairy tale art: adding some color to the title page.

Graphite, ink and colored pencil.

I benefited from this year-long class through exploration of techniques (new, old, experimental) so much so that I am eagerly awaiting "2015: Year of the...???"

Miss You, mixed media journal page

The feelings reside in my heart and at some point crystallize into words:

My sweet Romeo.

I appreciate that creating art around the memory and emotion helps me in some indefinable way.

Table Top Paintings

More still life work from Diane Culhane's online class, Table Top: Drawing and Painting.  I am finishing up the painting assignment.

The emphasis again is on laying down transparent layers and then building more layers, both transparent and opaque, on top.  I became so involved with the technique, I let my improvising slide (see this post).  I figure I will get better with practice :-)

Beginning with a graphite drawing (on a birch panel), transparent layers of primary colors are quickly applied, a nice way to get the paint brush moving and paint on the panel:

Initially two green peppers and a pear...

However, after laying down more and more paint, I decided that apples were calling me more than peppers, hence:

"Pear of Apples"