Weekend Journal

It's been a busy couple weeks!  After just one week of vacation from the usual daily grind, Keith and I both found ourselves struggling to get back into the "groove" of things.  It felt as if we'd taken off more like a month!  I think we're finally back on track.

I spent a little more time playing with my new watercolors.  I gessoed the page and then poured and splattered blue and green watercolors wet-into-wet, wet-into-dry, and everything in between.  What I could see was this tree and landscape, so I enhanced what was there.  I added violet and yellow to liven things up a bit.

I had torn the top Blue Jay image out of a magazine, and it kept falling out of my journal.  What was I to do except create a page around it?  One of my students saw I was working with it, and as it turned out, she had the mate to it and happily gave it to me.  This is a mixture of acrylic washes, Mod Podged magazine images and text that I assembled in the "intuitive playing" method.

This is another intuitive playing spread, created in much the same fashion as the spread above.  I'm surprised to see myself using so much green and yellow.  I guess I needed the change.

This spread was also created in an intuitive fashion, only this time, I didn't use any magazine images.  I started this page with a dip pen and black India ink.  I drew a random pattern of squares and it evolved into this.  It's mostly craft acrylic.

Here's the latest addition to my journal, a WIP begun in my journaling class last night.  The lesson was using your hand as a self portrait.  I may have to detail that in a Tuesday Tips and Techniques in the near future.

WOMEN'S  CENTER


I can't believe it's that time of year again - my art workshop with the women of the SMART (Single Mothers Achieving Real Triumph) program!  We had our workshop last Friday, and I met a terrific group of women in the final days of the quarter.  I'll write more about this after next week's graduating ceremonies.

NEW VIDEO


I've been on a roll with the videos lately.  Thanks to my "tech guy's" help, I've been able to get Windows Movie Maker to cooperate with me!  The real test will come when I try to record and publish actual video footage as opposed to stills.  Here's my newest video, "Inside Out".  Please enjoy and check out my other videos if you haven't seen them yet.  You can watch them on YouTube by clicking on their icon in the lower right of the video screen.

Everyone  have a wonderfully restful and creative weekend.  Pamper yourself, ok?  I took my own adivce.  I used this wonderful coffee cup that Nadia brought me all the way back from the Kiltrea Bridge Pottery Company in Ireland.  The photo doesn't do justice to the beautiful glaze on this mug.  She also brought us into the current century with this awesome electric teapot, and dark chocolate from See's in California.  YUUUUUUMMMMMM!

 I had been savoring one piece of chocolate a day, but yep, I ate all three of these with my favorite cup of Chai.  Now I have to go walk!  I'll see you back here on Monday with some more of my musings.

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE

Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Glazes Part 2

I decided to do some more experimenting with glazes before I completed last weeks journal spread.  I added some black sharpie and colored pencil to the spread but it's not finished yet.  Maybe later this week. I began another spread and decided I would experiment with torn papers and charcoal.

I save the paper towel that I use to blot paint and wipe brushes, so I selected some dry paper towel covered with blue and green.  I tore some printed pages from a magazine and applied all of them to the journal pages with Mod Podge in no particular fashion.  I applied the Mod Podge liberally to both the pages and torn paper.

After the Mod Podge dried (didn't take too long), I made three glazes - purple, blue and pink.  I used the Plaid wall glaze and craft acrylics.  I applied them randomly to both pages with a brush, and then I took paper towel, dabbing and swirling the glazes into each other in places.  I rubbed some of the glaze off.  The white areas are the dried Mod Podge that acted as a mask.  The glazes dry fine on top of the Mod Podge, but I liked the effect.

After the glaze dried, I took an old credit card and using it as a mask, I dabbed paper towel into the glazes dabbing the pages around the credit card.  I used my number 3 stencil and and made random circles with my paint brush.

After that glaze application dried, I pulled out the charcoal.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, so as I often do, I let my muse out to play.  I ended up sketching in three faces.

I had no idea how the charcoal would react with the glaze so I just continued to play.  I used the blue glaze and applied horizontal strokes across the faces using light pressure.  The glaze acted as a seal over the charcoal with "just enough" smearing.  I rather like the way it turned out.

As I studied the pages to figure out what I would do next, I began to see a curve so I decided to darken it in with charcoal.  I'm liking the results.  I reminds me of the "man in the moon" or some type of bizarre clock.  I know I'm not finished with these pages either, but I plan on finishing both spreads by the end of the week.

I hope you've enjoyed playing with glazes - or at least watching me play!  Happy March, and remember to make time to "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"

Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Acrylic Glazes

Part One

Using acrylic glazes gives depth to your work.  Each translucent layer of paint shines through the next.  I used acrylic glazes in the bird journal spread that I completed last week.  I began with a glaze of yellow, followed by 2 greens.  I used both darker and lighter green glazes to apply the leaf stencil.  That is how I achieved such depth in the background.

I have been using two different glazing mediums.  I've had both of them for years, so I'm not sure of the availability of either product in today's market.  The first is Windsor & Newton Acrylic Gloss Medium.  I'm relatively sure you can still buy that even though the packaging may have changed.  The second is a product made by Plaid, Neutral Wall Glaze (For Decorative and Faux Finish Effects)  I bought it at Michaels craft store probably ten years ago.  I used  that to transform our white kitchen cabinets to wood grain.  (That's another blog post!)  Once again, this product may still be available, but I can't say for sure.  It has a nice consistency and is a bit more liquid than the gloss medium. With either product, a little goes a long, long way!

Today, I began with a rich yellow artist acrylic and mixed it 50/50 with the wall glaze.  I left some areas of the page white. 

While the yellow was still wet, I mixed a 50/50 solution of the wall glaze with orange artist acrylic.  I applied this glaze in heavy, impasto style with a brush over some of the yellow and some of the white paper.

I took a wad of used, dried paper towel and daubed, sponged and lifted some of the orange glaze.  I took my brush and sprinkled drops of water over the glaze and let water sit for a few minutes.  Then I blotted off the water with the same paper towel.

Using the same 50/50 mix, I made a glaze from Brilliant Red artist acrylic and applied it to the page in the same way as the orange.

Here, you can see the nice effects created by lifting the paint and spraying or dropping water into the glaze.  It makes the background very textural and detailed with barely any effort.

I used a Pilot VBall XFine pen to add a design on the left side of the spread.  I reused my leaf stencil from the bird pages and some of the orange glaze randomly applied leaves across both pages.  Then, I added some curvy lines across both pages and filled them in with orange glaze.

I'm not sure where these pages are headed - I really don't have anything in mind for them.  We'll have to see which of my creative muses takes over and where she heads.  Come back next week for Part 2. Right now, I'm feeling a party!

Try working with some acrylic glazes in your journal.  Your pages will be rich in color and full of depth.  Wherever your muse directs you, remember: "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"

A Little Art, A Lot of Play

Hello, dear friends! There was art last week, but there was even more play.  This winter has  been particularly rough as the past few winters have been on the mild side.  The weather finally broke and we were treated to 3 consecutive days of 50 degree plus days and sunshine.  You know I had to make my pilgrimage to the beach!

It felt so good to be out of the house and walking the beach in sand instead of snow.  I even found a few pieces of beach glass!  It was still chilly, but there were no winds and the warmth of the sun was enough to keep me from getting cold.

I mostly worked in my journal at night, and since the lighting in my house is pretty low and I had new pens to play with, I decided to work on a zendoodle hand mandala.  It took me a couple nights to complete.

I didn't make it to the beach on Thursday, but my son and I went on Friday afternoon.  The road I live on runs along the river, and we had quite the surprise on our return trip home.  It got warm enough for the ice to start melting and break apart and begin floating.  It jammed right down the road from where I live so I parked and Mike got some great pics of the jam and resulting flooding.

Photo by Mike Thompson

Photo by Mike Thompson

It was pretty amazing to see so much ice jammed  on the Grand River.  I haven't been back to take a look, but they were supposed to bring one of the ice cutters to the area on Saturday.  It turned bitter cold again yesterday, and we've got a fresh coast of 4 or 5 inches of snow again.  I knew we'd get more, I just wasn't expecting it so soon.

I did find some time to play in my journal on Friday morning before we went to the beach.  I played with acrylic glazes, collage and oil pastels.  It was extremely windy on Friday and our beloved terracotta thermometer was blown off the house and shattered into bits.  Being the type to make lemonade out of lemons, I brought the pieces in and immediately did rubbings of the numbers and floral design.  The numbers you see on the right side are those rubbings.  I've written "We are at the mercy of nature. We are at the mercy of time."

Yesterday, I was in a quiet, reflective mood watching the movie "Dragonfly" with Kevin Costner.  I wrote down all the things I was thinking about and covered the writing with acrylic glazes.  I painted in the flowers and Queen Anne's Lace with artist acrylic.  I drew the dragonflies from magazine print and glued them to the page with a glue stick. 

It's cold and snowy again, but I saw my iris beginning to peek through the ground last week.  I saw glimpses of water on Lake Erie, and I heard the birds singing as they prepare their nests for spring.  I know that soon the snow will be gone for good, but while I wait, I'll remember to "Celebrate, LOVE and Create!"