art, artwork, acrylic paintings, digital art, mixed media art, Socrates paintings,

“Book of Hours” is finished

2012-01-21T10:07:00.001-08:00

I have used a single page binding for this book, with a strip of burlap, to continue the theme of the Middle Ages.

The front cover is made of black velour, and the light catches it, it’s not so mottled in reality.

The brooch I made in order to complement the theme.

The book is made up of antique and vintage lace, silk ribbon,

reproduction of antique manuscript, printed on canvas

Hand painting, machine embroidery,

vintage laces, tassels

Hand painting on stencil design, silk ribbons and antique button

Hand embroidery

Hand painted Illuminated page

Original vintage church Gregorian chant

Extract from the Morte d’Arthur

Embroidered lace

Silk ribbon, lace, embroidered cotton, vintage buttons

Extract from Morte d’Arthur

Back cover with silk embellishment and lace

Side view

Top view

It is available for sale on Etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SocratesArtWorks

Layers of Memories

2012-01-20T12:57:00.001-08:00

I took the new fantastic online class from Serena Barton, Layers of Memories and Collage. She uses a lot of alcohol inks, with which I love to work.

Here are my early efforts:

Thank you Serena, for your inspiration.

Fabric journal Round Robin

2011-12-28T14:46:00.001-08:00

Here are my pages for the fabric journal Round Robin. The theme is Vintage lace. I picked “A young woman in Paris”.

My great-grand mother was a hat-maker in Paris around the turn of the century, and it seemed a fitting theme for this vintage lace.

Here is the front cover:

The inside front cover:

I made a tag to explain my theme, with a picture of my own great-grand-mother:

We were to make the covers, and one set of pages, front and back. Our journals will travel around the US and to Australia, so we didn’t bind our pages to keep the weight to a minimum. These are my pages:

This is the inside of the back cover:

This is the back cover.

Can you tell that this is going to be a gorgeous Round Robin. All the artists involved are amazing. I cannot wait to see what they’ll do in my book.

And I so look forward to working in their books. Some of the other themes are: “A stitch in time”, “Vintage Gypsy”, “couples”, and more.

Bead embroidery

2011-12-09T15:07:00.001-08:00

Here’s the latest. It was supposed to be a bracelet, but that was a bit too immense for my taste, so I stopped and turned it into… I’m not sure what it will be. Maybe a decoration for the flap of a hobo bag.

Another bracelet plus fabric book in progress

2011-12-06T13:42:00.001-08:00

I have just completed another bracelet. This one took a while, you can just see why. It’s a stunner though.

I mounted it on a brass cuff, I like it much better than with a hook and eye.

I also made a little pendant, very Renaissance. I’ve just been told I’m the epitomy of the Renaissance woman. So that seems fitting.

Speaking of Renaissance, I’m more involved with the Middle Ages at the moment, making a Book of Hours.

Here’s a preview. The book is not bound yet, I’m still working in it:

I’m going to do more embroidery. And who knows what else?

Thanks for visiting.

Fabric journal binding

2011-11-30T12:46:00.001-08:00

I showed yesterday the individual pages of my fabric journal. These are all single signatures. I saw this cool binding on someone’s blog, –sorry, I forget where- and it worked really well for the soft pages. Isn’t that yummy.

I’ve also made a fabric page as a little wall hanger for my sister. I found the gorgeous flower ribbon while in Portland, shopping with my friends at the Button Emporium. Definitely worth the trip if you’re in town.

Many projects

2011-11-29T14:26:00.001-08:00

I took my first ever embroidery class, where we were learning to make little samplers such as the one above.

I made a little embroidered purse, based on the online beading class I took at Joggles, based on a pdf. Not the best way to learn... I sent it to my sister for her birthday.

Following on the October beading class I took, I just finished a bracelet. It's based on a design by Sherry Serafini from her gorgeous book.

Here are some details. It took about 4 days.
Then I made a brooch. That was faster, being smaller. )

But one can’t be beading all day long.
I also made two pages (huh, couldn’t stop at 2, made 4…) in the Asia Round Robin I’m involved in. I played with my new sewing machine, embroidered the geisha’s hair. Endless fun!

This is the extra two pages, on the reverse side.
The gorgeous little girl is one of the Chinese unwanted girls who are sent to the orphanage, because they are girls. Wonder what will happen when all the remaining boys come of age, and there are no Chinese females around. Hummm…

Then I joined a tag swap, theme vintage dressform in Paris, I had so much fun with that one. There were 15 participants, and we traded tags, fabric and lace. Here is the front cover.

I decorated some of the pages without tags, because not all the participants had their tags ready by the due date.

To bead or not to bead

2011-09-24T15:56:00.001-07:00

I never thought that I’d ever be attracted to beading, but I saw some gorgeous beading in combination with Crazy Quilting, so I had to try.

And what do you know? I’m really enjoying it! I got myself a strong light with a magnifying glass, so I can see what I’m doing and thread a needle. I guess the process is slow and meticulous, and it settles me down.

Here’s a WIP:

I am taking an online class with Joggles. Learning beading from a PDF is NOT the way to go. But I’m also taking a real life class next month.

The colorful Klimt like beads are from Artist Cellars. Waving, Lisa…

In my travels, I also found this little crochet bag for $1.99, so I had to alter it, of course. Everything is recycled.

And inside, there was this tiny pouch with a 25c coin. For those emergencies when you need to get to the phone? My ex-mother-in-law used to travel with a Euro coin in her shirt pocket, enough to buy herself a Metro ticket if she ever lost her purse!!!! Funny memories.

I did paint too!

2011-09-13T09:23:00.001-07:00

I’ve worked on several paintings this past month too. Here they are.

This first one gave me a lot of trouble, and has many layers, a deep history.

This one I did while visiting with a friend in her studio. I think I was influenced by her style. (don’t I wish) I hadn’t painted for a while and it was a relief to start on something, even if under the influence.

This next one feels very galactic. I finished it with leveling gel. I’m not sure I’ll do that again. I find it very unlevel, for being levelling. Not worse the time or hassle. Or expense.

‘This one is the result of a demonstration of various techniques for a friend. These are very fun for me to make.

This one is possibly still in process. I’m not too happy with the left side, so dark. I started with random texture on the canvas, and went from there. Many, many layers here too.

And finally, an exercise, influenced by the work of Anne Bagby. I cut stencils, cut my own rubber stamps, stained tissue papers, and applied all (it seems) to create interesting surfaces. Then I repeated the process on canvas, with the help of a Botticelli reader.

Everything and the kitchen sink

2011-09-12T15:21:00.001-07:00

It’s true, I’ve been having so much fun this summer, I have not posted for a long time. But I certainly have been productive. So here goes:

First, I made a gorgeous book for my friend Lillian, with her fabric and choice of ribbon. It’s for our Asia RR.

I also made one for Sue. I use the french ribbon binding technique, so you can open the book flat when you’re working in it. Don’t you love Sue’s cover? It’s really beautiful in person:

I also took Mary Ann Moss’s new online class. Of course it’s fabulous, all sorts of new binding techniques, she’s a gem. Here’s one book I made for a present. I used an old german dictionary which I gutted, and I replaced the pages with vintage ledger paper and some pages from a 1829 book!!!! It was fun!

I also signed up for a Cabinet Card swap, where we decorated the cards on the theme of clocks and Time. We were to send 7 and receive 7 back, bound in a little book. Here’s my series:

I also entered a fabric journal swap where we were to decorate 15 tags on the theme of Paris and using a dress form. We’re sending our partners a fabric strip, 14x9 and a piece of lace, too, so they can vary the pages in their own book and I’ll receive 14 pieces to make a book. Here are some of my tags. They are larger than normal tags, made of fabric, but they will all fit on the 9x7 pages.

In Mary Ann’s new class, she uses old Victorian photo albums. I found my first one today. This will make a unique journal:

And finally, here’s to Teri, who forwarded an article from CPS, about what to do with what’s left (on your art table at the end of a project)! Fabulous project. It’s 9x12, and I like the way it looks:

Fall flowers

2011-08-21T12:53:00.001-07:00

The Marie Antoinette group I belong to has a Fall Flowers theme. We are to make 5 flowers in soft fabrics, with fall colors in mind. I will receive 5 flowers in return.

Here are my creations.

Maitri book

2011-08-11T14:09:00.001-07:00

Another book I was quite interested in making is a very personal one. A Maitri book. It’s a devotional book for Buddhist people. It contains the Maitri prayer, as well as quotes worth remembering from Buddhist teachers and thinkers.

I had saved some gorgeous silks from India. I’ve used mostly images of my trip to India. I’m aware that I have Hindu images as well, mixing my religions.

Well, for one, Buddhism is not a religion, and next, when one is in India, it’s hard to avoid the influence of Hindu images.

The Maitri prayer?

_{May I be happy}

_{And free from the sources of suffering.}

_{May you be happy}

_{And free from the sources of suffering.}

_{May we all be happy}

_{And free from the sources of suffering.}

The prayer to cultivate detachment.

Paris lace book

2011-08-11T13:48:00.001-07:00

I had in the back of my mind to make a vintage lace book dedicated to Paris. Who best to do that than a Parisian!!!!

There are lots of blank spaces for journaling. I have included vintage images, old laces and buttons. I also got to practice my crazy quilting, inspired by the superb work Suzy Quaif keeps creating. Thank you, Suzy for pushing me to excell.

This book has 3 signatures of 4 pages each, each signature is fabric wrapped.

I stenciled the blank pages, as well as aged them.

You will also find below one of my original watercolors. Not a photocopy…

My Asia RR book

2011-08-11T13:35:00.001-07:00

I made my own book for this RR, with a ribbon binding that is clearly explained in LK Ludwig’s Creative Wildfire book.

It’s a nifty binding in that the book opens flat, which is really handy when artists are going to work in my book.

I have made double page spreads with watercolor paper, and wrapped each page with pretty japanese papers, to take advantage of the spines showing in the binding edge.

And… drum roll, I painted the Geisha on the front cover, since I’ve been teaching myself watercolors. Why, is definitely the question, since this has to be the hardest, most meticulous form of painting I’ve encountered so far.

First page and inside cover

Left page only has one small strip, the right page has a full wrap.

Both pages only have a strip of colored paper.

Two precious books

2011-08-05T18:29:00.001-07:00

These two little books are 8x4. They are based on a Marie Antoinette theme, which allows for lots of lace and ribbons.

Front and back:

Sample pages:

And the next one: front and inside first page:

They both already have a new owner.

Purses, purses galore

2011-07-19T11:56:00.001-07:00

Yes, it’s true, I’m making excuses for using my gorgeous laces. I do love working with vintage lace, ribbons, silks. Yummy.

I made two small drawstring purses. It would really have helped if I’d had a pattern. Through my mistakes, I can see how it needs to be built. I’m getting there.

This second one is made with a beautiful yellow raw silk, being a dress that I found in the $1 rack at the thrift store. I used a doily, dyed another one, and painted some pearl lace from a wedding gown. The pin at the front and the yellow button at the back are recycled from the thrift store too.

This is my carpet bag, or hobo bag. It’s a drawstring closure, probably not the most useful way to close it! I use doilies around the opening, and a build up of doilies and silky fabric, all recycled for decoration. The big plaque in the middle is a Michael’s special at $2.99. Looks rich, doesn’t it?

And finally, my faithful sidekick, Mr Paul lounging in the middle of the sweet peas, looking mighty serious.

Provence, toujours Provence

2011-07-09T09:22:00.001-07:00

I made a Provence book for my friend who went to spend 2 weeks there.

I used reproductions of Cezanne art that I printed on canvas, then repainted. It was much fun. I didn’t have any of the very typical fabrics from Provence, so I just printed them on fabrics… Voila!

Two new books are out

2011-07-03T10:19:00.001-07:00

It sounds like I just got published… I’ve actually finished two journal type books. Those are more journals than usual, since they have quite a few blank pages destined for journaling or scrapbooking.

The first book, very lacey:

The next book is made around original canvas paintings. It’s quite colorful, and it too has many blank pages for journaling:

Lots of Exquisiteness

2011-07-03T09:56:00.001-07:00

It seems Mother Nature doesn’t care that it’s been below normal temperatures here in Western Canada, or that Spring never did arrive. She still goes about her business and produces exquisiteness…

Can you tell I adore roses?

Now to my watercolors…

A steampunk lace book

2011-06-19T09:38:00.001-07:00

Haaa, I feel better. I had this book nagging me to be made. I love the ‘steampunk’ theme, but I’m never too sure how to approach it.

It seems that lace and steampunk would go well.

I am grateful to all the people who allowed me to use their ideas or their artwork images in my book:

-Ingrid Dijkers for the fabulous gear page, and the beads page

-I took the floating girl page from Lynne Perella’s book, Artists Journal

- I used two small domino images from Artchix, and bigger images from Deviant

-I used, at last, my Tim Holtz masks. )

- I used my own cabinet cards, as well as lace paper, antique jewelry, vintage lace and ribbons,

This right page was an accident. I used a tissu paper that completely disappeared under the gel medium, so I ended up covering it with gold paint from Kroma in Vancouver, and it looks rather amazing now.

There are more photos of it on my Etsy site.

Now back to painting, but I really want to make another book on Paris, then one on Provence, then…

So much fun, so little time!

Another lace book

2011-06-05T10:20:00.001-07:00

Here is my latest. You can drool, but don’t covet, it’s already found a home. It’s going to France, where all the cabinet cards come from.

I just discovered that it’s not that easy to photograph lace, because it doesn’t have much contrast.

When I started this book, I worried it wouldn’t be ‘thick enough’. I had 3 signatures of 4 double pages each. They look like nothing on my studio table. But after a week of painting and filling up with lace, I had to remove one of the signatures, because the book was becoming really outrageous. It’s still 3 inches thick, and full of lusciousness.

You be the judge!

Missing Paris– grunge paintings

2011-05-23T15:38:00.001-07:00

My wonderful friend –you know who you are- shared with me her techniques for grunging up a painting. This was great fun. They are both very urban. Here is the Paris interior, one of those ‘hotels particuliers’, meaning mansion, not a resting place for tourists…

I”ve seen many walls like this when I lived there.

Don’t you just smell that musty smell of old castles and Paris apartments? It measures 11x14 on stretched canvas.

This next one is “Urban grunge”. Could be any town, really. Paris too.

The textures are really fabulous. I hope Blogger makes the painting justice. It is on stretched canvas, 16x20.

Beeswax paintings

2011-05-21T13:20:00.001-07:00

I’m really enjoying the process of these beeswax paintings.

It doesn’t compare with the ‘traditional' encaustic paintings, in that the layers are not fused together, but glued with gel medium and painted. It’s only the last layer of the painting which is sealed with beeswax.

Either way, I love the process, and enjoy not having to breathe the encaustic fumes, nor having to start of new inventory of encaustic products. Here are my latest creations. Of course, there’d had to be a ‘steampunk’, since I delight in t he theme. This one measures 9.5 x 13.5 on hardboard. For some reason, beeswax and steampunk seems made for each other. Great combination.

This painting is available on Etsy.

Loving this painting with wax

2011-05-19T10:12:00.001-07:00

I guess it’s more a finish than a way to paint, but I’m enjoying the process tremendously. This one again has collage papers and script, fibers for texture, gel medium to hold things down, modeling paste around the Buddha’s head for the corolla. I used normal Golden paints, but highlighted with gold flakes and Stewart Gill alabaster flakes from ArtistCellar.

It measures 8.5 x 11, on hard board.

I just bought a mini iron to melt the wax, but I find it’s a very slow process that way, so I went back to the normal iron for setting the wax down, then used the mini iron for distributing it in the way I wanted and smoothing it out.

This is fun!

Beeswax painting

2011-05-16T14:50:00.001-07:00

Funny about the ‘never say never’. Here I am, having said ‘never’ to covering a painting with beeswax, and I did do that exact thing today after a fantastic tutorial by Cristina Zinner Gallaher.

I’m very happy with the results. The painting is 9x14. I’ve added some details with the lace and the buttons.

My latest lace book

2011-05-04T11:55:00.000-07:00

This book is made with all original vintage photos, and old laces I have gathered in my travels.

And if you fall in love with it, not to worry, it is for sale.

Digital collages

2011-04-26T14:22:00.001-07:00

I’ve been busy making digital collages. Those are so much fun!

Update

2011-04-26T13:46:00.001-07:00

Thank you to all you beautiful people who expressed concern after not seeing any updates on my blog since March 10th!

I have not fallen off the face of the earth, and nothing catastrophic has happened to me.

I have:

returned to Canada
re-organized my studio
prepared for the Art in the City show in Vancouver, May 7th and 8th, and
painted, started new gorgeous vintage books and…
caught up with my wonderful friends and all the artists on the island.

Life is good.

Here are some new paintings from the holiday weekend and the mini art retreat with my gorgeous artist ladies.

Composition

2011-03-10T12:14:00.001-08:00

I’ve been studying composition, and making collages to that end. I work with the Golden Mean, outlining it.

The first two are painted on canvas boards, 16x20. The last one is canvas, 18x24

This last one just doesn’t work. Not sure why. I should try it upside down.

Five Buddhas

2011-03-07T08:20:00.001-08:00

I have been reading Lorne Ladner’s “The Lost Art of Compassion”, as well as “Taming The Mind” by Thubten Chodron. The two books inspired me to paint Buddhas.

This first one is 28x36, on paper. It has some collage, and gold paint.

There are actually only 3 more, the 4th one, I don’t like at all. Here they are.

These are projects that I’ve been wanting to work on for months. I’m glad I finally got to experiment.

Next, I’ll be working on composition, with collage. Taking myself through my own art school, I guess.

Another kind of technique

2011-03-01T16:14:00.001-08:00

This one is based on enlarging a photo many times, then incorporating it into a painting.

I had a picture of the boy and half the hand, so …. here it is. I added the rest, and painted it, with the earth under him, and colors I love. I’m thinking of adding a small text.

It’s quite tall, 44x18. I just received my stretcher bar from Dick Blick today, so I’ll be stretching it next.

The next two paintings are left over for the weekend, they were out drying.

I like this last one. Organic. Like a rock face.

Paintings with new techniques

2011-02-28T15:40:00.001-08:00

I’ve been inspired by a wonderful book I just found at the library, Maxine Masterfield’s “Paint The Spirit of Nature”. She uses acrylic inks, which are so vibrant, and combines them on thick watercolor paper.

Here are my results for the weekend. I don’t usually paint landscapes, and I can’t say that these started out as such, but this is what some of them look like.

Lately

2011-02-19T16:41:00.001-08:00

These first three paintings are the result of my studying the work of Barnett Newman through an online class I’m taking with the Museum of Modern Art. I totally get Newman. I just love his work. His ‘stations of the cross’ are awesome. His work is very sparse, but intensely spiritual and very inspiring to me.

So talking of spirituality, I gave myself ‘permission’ to do one from the heart.

This

last one if from last week. Very soft. Hard to photograph again. I love my winter studio with its perfectly white walls. I can hang all my paintings side by side, and… get a general impression of the inside of my head, I think. Very interesting.

Fun in the sun

2011-02-10T11:00:00.001-08:00

It’s been a while since I’ve uploaded some photos. Here is my latest work.

Another oyster.

This one reminds me of Australia. Go figure.

I call this one “Conversation”.

This is in “Untitled”

And finally this one, which I am still trying to photograph. The colors on it are amazing. But it has a lot of texture and it’s just too hard to capture.

Painting abstracts in Florida

2011-01-19T07:41:00.001-08:00

After settling in Palm Springs for moments, I flew to Boca Raton for a painting workshop with the inimitable Eydi Lampasona. She teaches through the Boca Raton Museum School of Arts and she is a fabulous teacher. She is relentless, she is funny, she is loud and outrageous and the 3 days were filled with laughs, great instructions, experiments, diving in Golden products which she represents, and all in all, a very worthwhile trip.

It would be a bit hard and boring to get into why I went there, let us just say that I followed my intuition, and it turned out that it was a great move.

I learned to focus on design and construction in my paintings, rather than my usual ‘stream of consciousness’ of painting all over the place with wild abandon. The operative word here is ‘wild’!!!

She introduced us to the pleasures of tar gel, which makes these lovely thick and gooey lines when handled properly. I love it and will use it, discriminately, again.

Being in Florida, it was a thrill to be able to paint outside, although it did get TOO WARM rather rapidly!!!! Love that… Golden products were available galore for us to play with. What a treat!

This last one really needs to be stretched. I was painting on canvas just taped to a piece of board, the easy solution for taking my work home on the plane. This one shows the ‘traditional’ composition, which I accentuated with dressmaker tissue paper. I HAVE to make it obvious for me to follow the instructions, I’m not so good at following formats and structures.

I did learn to blend my colors better, and to mix them directly on the canvas, which is great fun.

As always, it was truly inspiring to paint with others, and although the styles were immensely varied, seeing or witnessing the direction of their work helped direct my own.

The pieces below are from Jane, a view of our studio, a piece I love from beautiful lady and generous chauffeur Dee. I could have taken each of her pieces home, I love her style. The last one is from my easel partner Susan, who was going way out of her comfort zone for the duration.

A most gorgeous workshop

2011-01-12T08:47:00.001-08:00

DJ Pettit certainly put on the ritz for her workshop in Jacksonville, OR, last weekend. You be the judge:

This is what the room looked like and our work table when we came in. She had also prepared class kits in the utterly gorgeous little packages you see at the forefront. Below are some candid shots of the class and my new friends.

Back cover

Part of the secret for a yummy book is to find luscious lace. Since the workshop was taking place in the back room of an antique store, finding lacey treasures was not so hard. Although one is always on the lookout for more finds, and if your closets are overflowing, think of me!

This book is not for sale as it is my prototype and contains images generously given to us by DJ. However, others are available. They will contain original paintings. Contact me by email: imagine.her@gmail.com

More oysters

2010-12-22T17:18:00.001-08:00

It’s becoming an obsession probably. Using oysters as a starting point for paintings.

Art on holidays

2010-12-13T06:20:00.001-08:00

I am basking in the beautiful sun in Cancun. While it’s 6C at home, and pouring rain, the Mexicans here are complaining because it’s only 15C in the morning!!!! Hahaha. I hear it’s below 0F in Chicago. Yikes.
I’ve been painting alebrijes, after Teri mentioned them. What a gorgeous and colorful design those animals have. Here is my inspiration card for the exchange on Sketchbook Yahoo group. It’s going to Australia….

I’ve also been painting shells to go in my “Oyster” book, which I’m making in the style inspired by Gina Armfield, in her online class called "Song of the Sea". You pick a theme, then paint in a large accounting book, decorate it with poems, paintings, line drawings, anything related, and lots of pages tipped in with that marvelous washi tape. I just got a large shipment from Happy Tape, waiting for me at home when I get back. I use my acrylic paints as watercolors.
I also painted a small abstract picture. I just understood something that Robert Ryman was explaining: using white paint to make the other colors pop. It’s probably obvious, but since I’m completely self taught, I had not thought of that. I did the painting from an exercise I did in Steve Aimone workshop, abstracting from the environment. Unfortunately, I ran out of white paint half way through. So I’ll call this painting Work In Progress…

Next are pictures of Cancun where I”m staying, so for everyone freezing under tons of snow in North America, you may leave the blog at this stage, I’ll understand. ;-))

Abstract paintings

2010-12-02T11:34:00.001-08:00

22x30, Paper

22x30 on stretched canvas.

This one is the reincarnation of the white one. 22x30 on paper

22.30 on paper. Acrylic and acrylic inks

This one is the reincarnation of the blue one. 22x30 on stretched canvas, acrylic and acrylic inks.

48 x48 canvas

Medieval book

2010-11-28T12:48:00.001-08:00

One of my books had these gorgeous images from the Middle Ages, and it inspired me to make a book, as a class journal for the upcoming DJ Pettitt workshop in Jacksonville, OR, in January.

I admire DJ’s work no end and I am thrilled to be taking a workshop with her. I had to have a journal that would do her justice.

Yes, I do like John Waterhouse. To a point. His images seemed fitting for the theme.

And yes, I did buy a wedding gown at my favorite thriftstore, to salvage the lace.

Travel book

2010-11-28T12:31:00.001-08:00

My beautiful friend is away to Hawaii for 4 (or 5) months.

How could I let her go without a journal of her own, with lots of watercolor paper and pages to record her thoughts.

It had to have a travel bag, to survive the many moves.

This book is a combination of various techniques I learned, or have just seen and yearned to experiment with. I stand on the shoulders of such giants at Mary Ann Moss, DJ Pettitt, whom I will meet in January, and with whom I will take a class, Albie Smith, and my own craziness.

I’ve included bits of failed paintings, found lace and jewelry from my favorite thriftstore, and recently, bits of a wedding gown.

Tiny Treasures

2010-11-28T11:35:00.001-08:00

At the last Art & Soul Retreat, I took a wonderful class from Albie Smith, where she taught how to make those gorgeous little books.

They ARE little: 2x5 x 3.

The binding is called French Ribbon Stitching.

Painting on a snowy day

2010-11-20T19:23:00.001-08:00

What else is there to do? No electricity for most of the day, no phone, no internet. But a woodstove in my studio. Easy conclusion right? That’s what I said too.

I played with my FW acrylic inks, and Tim Holtz distress reinkers. I was curious if I could pull a large painting with the same technique I use on smaller formats. It was a great day!

The first one is 30x20 and on top of a previous acrylic painting that I didn’t like. I had obliterated so much, there was mainly a pale gesso background left over. So off I went with lots of texture and inks. A new life!

The next three are smaller, small canvases that I had and was not happy with. It must have been a day to recycle. Fiery colors on a blank snowy day on Vancouver Island.

I’ll keep working on this last one. It will end up with some trees and an asian person from the back. It has that sort of feel.

A wonderful day!

Post Aimone Workshop

2010-11-20T19:06:00.001-08:00

Here are some abstract paintings I have been working on since I completed the recent Steve Aimone workshop on Vancouver Island.

Abstract expressionism is not a description of my paintings, which is what the workshop was about. Having a lot of fun painting them does apply though.

The next two are older canvases that I didn’t like. Before cutting them up to use them in one of my books, I gave them (and myself) a last chance. I really had nothing to lose.

Comments from the Steve Aimone workshop on Vancouver Island, October 2010

2010-11-06T11:52:00.001-07:00

These two I had painted before the start of the abstract workshop, as a way to get into painting again. Little did I know….

This next one happened early on in the workshop. It was an automatic drawing. Mine are usually round and closed loops, so I thought I’d try something else. Hummm, as we say, it’s a good underpainting! We then did an exercise where we painted our workshop environment, under Steve’s directions: paint the floor in front of you; 30seconds later: paint what’s above your head; 30 seconds later: paint what’s to your right, change paint color, etc you get the idea.

So my next one was particularly ugly and disjointed, and I covered it with ‘pretty’ colors. Well, that made for another nice underpainting!!!! I was getting pretty desperate, so I took a drastic step.

Here’s what resulted:

Thankfully, the others will not see the light of day, they’ve been exposed enough on my easel for a week. Some have found a new life as pages for my altered books. Yeah!

This one is 48x48, and is a colored representation of a dancing model. Nice starting point for something else.

The biggest learning for me is that a painting doesn’t stop at the first step, when it starts coming together and looks pretty. That’s just a better underpainting. The real work starts when the white paint or the black paint start obliterating the ‘underpainting’ to start another painting, but that still retains the spirit of the first layer. For some of the workshop participants, a final painting will have 10 or 15 layers. My easel partner, the lady with whom I shared the table where we lay all our paints out, would do as many as 25 layers. There were some truly gorgeous paintings, and up she would cover them with a thick layer of pale brown. I took it upon myself to interrupt her concentration and acknowledge the beauty of the layers I loved, otherwise, these layers would never have been acknowledge.

I do admit that her final paintings were stunning, some very disturbing, but it was an incredible work and I have been humbled to watch her process and learn so much: not stop at the first satisfactory step, but let the process unfold, and dig deeper and deeper.

After all, the workshop was called: The Spiritual Language of Art. One really had to dig deep to uncover the gem. Fortunately, we had wonderful organizers, thank you Mary Stewart, and beautiful friend, Donna B,, Jill, Eve, Susan, Jean, you know who you are.

This last one happened on the last day, that was my representation of a beautiful oyster shell we were given. Abstracted, definitely.

Steve Aimone workshop on Vancouver Island

2010-11-04T17:34:00.001-07:00

I’m only going to post some photos without too much explanations, my brain is not quite functioning yet, after 5 intense days of abstract painting with amazing artist Steve Aimone.

It was pretty intense, and when a workshop is called “The Spiritual Language of Art” one have to expect that stuff comes up, yours or someone else’s. What a week that was!

Here’s a sample. There are mostly 48x48 (inches) except for the first one, which is 22x30. That one was done under ‘directions’: put an orange triangle in the right corner, but a black bar going through it, put 3 loops on the right end sige, etc. Then we had an hour to finish it.

All very different, depending on the nature of the exercises. The last one is based on abstracting from an oyster shell.

Now I go rest so I can write more fully later.

And a special thanks to my ‘froup’ for seeing me through the hurdles. You know who you are and I love you all. You make my heart sing.

Halloween

2010-10-28T16:09:00.001-07:00

I don’t celebrate Halloween, yet this digital collage happened. I was drawn by the castle gates, and one thing led to the other.

My dragon friend, this one is for you.

Encaustic

2010-10-17T10:19:00.001-07:00

I took a night class in encaustic in Portland. Now I know that it is not my medium. Messy, very caustic and noxious fumes, and I feel that if I need the thick coat over a collage or painting, I can obtain the same effect with some heavy gel medium. Hey, that’s just me.

Here are my collages:

Tricks I learned at the Art and Soul retreat

2010-10-15T17:44:00.001-07:00

Some of the tricks that make life easier might be old hat for you, but they were old brand new to me, so I thought I’d share them here.

I had found out earlier that there is life beyond the silly tiny plastic palettes with the holes. Those are sooooo limiting, unless you’re making postage stamps, I guess. My friend Jill shared with me that she uses a sheet of glass. Plain and simple glass. The beauty of it is that once your acrylic paints dry on top of it, it’s easy to clean it up with a window scraper that you buy at the hardware store for a couple dollars, and you always have a brand new clean palette.

But what do you do when you travel to a workshop? You can’t really bring your glass with you. Thanks to Traci Bunkers, here’s a clever idea. She uses plastic placemats!!!! The sturdy ones are better. She cleans them up regularly with a baby wipe, but I found out they scrap off pretty easy too.

The next wonder is baby wipes. I’m sure everyone has been using them forever. Well, we didn’t have baby wipes in France when I lived there, and maybe because I don’t have kids, but the magic of baby wipes had completely escaped me. THEY ARE WONDERFUL!!!!! They take the drying paint off my hands, they can be used to clean the above mentioned placemat. They can be used to rub on paint or extend the acrylic on a canvas. Wow!!!! Great stuff.

Another trick I learned over there is the magic of freezer paper. I’d been recycling my deli paper from the grocery store, but this stuff is so cheap, why wait?

The next wonder is part of a class I took. Sandwich paper. It is not waxed like freezer paper, and it comes under various names. It’s basically freezer paper WITHOUT the tacky part. You can get it for a really low price at stores like Costco. Sorry, it’s really yummy , but pretty hard to photograph….

If you dilute your leftover acrylic paints, and apply them to your sandwich paper, you get this amazing translucent paper. If you mix them with some metallic paints, you get the most amazing, rich effects. If you want to go one step further, and cover THE BACK SIDE of the paper with gel medium, you will have the most gorgeous looking translucent paper, to put between your pages in your journals, or to use in your collages. Try it at least once to see what it looks like. It’s to die for.

And about this getting ideas from other people. I did a Wabi Sabi workshop with Serena Barton. She’s a hoot. Very fun to be around. I did 8 paintings during the 6 and 1/2 workshop, so after a while, I didn’t know what new color combination to play with. I walked around, looking at what others were doing. I found one painting that I adored, and loved the color combination. I went back to my table and started to paint. Was I copying her? Probably. Yet the end result was nothing like what my muse friend was painting, and it got me unstuck. I think it’s worth remembering as a neat way to get inspiration.

So… did I have a great time at the Art and Soul retreat? You bet! Did I learn something new? Tons of new skills. Do I recommend it? Absolutely. There is one Art and Soul retreat near you in the US at least once a year. I say it’s well worth the money.

Portland 2010

2010-10-14T09:27:00.001-07:00

What a wonderful conference! The classes I took were really amazing, and I come home full of new techniques, some beautiful books I made, and a list of new friends.

My first class was with Gina Armfield, who is a great teacher. She has a few online classes that I strongly recommend: www,sweetsistergina.typepad.com

My evening classes confirmed that I am not interested in encaustic, and it turns out that the fumes from that stuff are very dangerous to breathe.

On the other hand, I discovered a beautiful technique for making paste paper. I thought it was going to be on how to make the paper itself, but it is not that at all. It consists of a mixture of acrylic paint and paste to dilute the paint without losing the color. The resulting papers are gloriously bright.

We stamped the papers with real leaves for our Fallen Leaves theme in Albie Smith class. We then bound our pages in an accordion book with black pages. Gorgeous!

I took a class in Wabi Sabi with Serena Barton. It was great fun and we were mostly left to our own devices. I did learn some fantastic techniques, for instance to add Titan Buff on top of the acrylic inks to mute them and give them that aged look. I made 7 paintings during the class.

I took a class with Traci Bunkers on stamping with everything that doesn’t move, and we bound our pages in a delightful book.

My last class of the week was with Albie Smith again, this time, we were making Tiny Treasures. And little jewels they did turn out to be. They fit in the palm of the hand, and they have an exposed spine with a French stitch. Watch your Christmas stockings, there will me a few of those coming up in the next few weeks.

Yes, the pages inside are also decorated. Here are some samples from the class:

Last, but not least, I got to spend an entire day with 3 of my internet friends whom I had never met. I have shared Round Robin journals with them and seen their art, but never their great smiling faces. They came to the conference to pick me up, then we drove through all the treasure troves in Portland, for the art addicts: Scrap, Knittnkitten, the amazing Alberta Street district, and finally a lunch at La Petite Provence. Those days are rare and so precious. Thank you ladies, I loved my day with you. It was so awesome being with you.

My much admired friend Tracy Kaufman, who’s art is outstanding.

Marita, who is lucky I really liked her, otherwise, I would have posted another picture, and you know what I mean. lol

And wonderful Gina, who drove us, parked, navigated, and introduced us to all manner of great places.

What a day that was! And what a fantastic week.

Now to work and create more treasures.

Breast cancer awareness digital challenge

2010-10-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

I have posted my entry for the breast cancer awareness challenge offered by Kimmie at Digital Whispers.

Here is the original image:

And this is what I manipulated:

The crouching man is a sculpture by Kevin Petelle.
The sculpture is on top of an enlarged picture of an ovary.
The Venus with the drawers is from dalivenus.com
The hummingbird is from Dover publications.
The background fabric was gleaned last year when I was not keeping track of my sources. Humble apologies to the owner. Please contact me so I can give you credit.

I am pleased with myself

2010-10-02T14:38:00.001-07:00

I had a few hours this afternoon, so I decided to tackle a painting that has been on my mind. It’s 48 x 30.

I must have been inspired, I really like it a lot. Sorry for tooting my own horn, but I didn’t expect what happened inside of the blue, and I’m quite thrilled with it.

This next little one is from yesterday. It took quite a while and went through several transformations. I think I’ll call it finished. It’s hard to photograph, because of the texture and the muted colors. I’ve included some close ups. This one is 36x30.

Back to abstract

2010-09-30T18:54:00.001-07:00

How can I stay away from painting abstracts, I have so much fun. Thank you, Mary Stewart, for prompting me. And thank you to my gorgeous friend Eve to introduce me to Zao Wou Ki, where I was reminded that I can do what makes me happy, that lots of texture is totally ok, and if outrageous or loud is me, then so be that.

This one is 48x36, and yes, I did have fun!!!! As you can tell, I’m sure….

Bantock look alike mail art

2010-09-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

I’ve been practicing making mail art, hopefully in a vague Nick Bantock fashion, although I would not even venture to imagine my puny efforts get anywhere close to his amazing art work.

So I just be me, and do my own artwork.

Now seeing all my images together, I detect a vague tendency toward the Cadmium Yellow Hue saturation. Hummm, maybe time to find other colors to play with…

Accordeon book

2010-09-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

I've been taking this online class on Roses on my table and each month, she teaches a new technique.This month was this lovely accordeon book that I proceeded to make.

I am not very satisfied with my ribbons, I think they need to be smaller. Other than that, this was loads of fun. I can see making a few more on a variety of themes certainly a steampunk one in the new future.

I had these marvelous images that I had gathered from a now defunct British magazine: Victoria. They now have a home.

Photoshop

2010-09-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with photoshop, making 2 cards. They look relatively simple but they each have a dozen layers. Complex program indeed, but well worth the time to learn it, if you're going to use it regularly.

Next is this one: it's very versatile, because I can add anything I want on that armchair and it fits all sorts of themes. I'm sending it next for our Inspiration cards in my art group, as the theme: finding money in your pocket. I'll put a stash of dollar bills on the armchair.

Marie Antoinette goes grunge

2010-09-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

I have worked in the Marie Antoinette Round Robin book. Elena's theme is Marie's diary when she's in prison waiting for Mr Guillotine and reminiscing.

I couldn't imagine Marie being all that chirpy so my pages ended up all grunged up.
This is the left page. It has an old book where she wrote; It's not my fault. Stop looking at me! I didn't spend all the money. It was Louis with his stupid war in America. Don't look at me like that.

The right page is first seen through a window, all foggy.

And the window opens:

I owe the wonderful face with the outrageous make up to my friend Tracy Chapman who sent me a bunch of amazing files. Thanks Tracy. I can't go wrong with your help....

***Amendment, thank you Elena, yes, of course, I meant our own inimitable Tracy Kaufman!!!!*****

Nick Bantock ATC swap

2010-09-09T10:34:00.000-07:00

I can't resist a Nick Bantock theme, so I entered an ATC swap with vintageATCUK, even though I really don't like ATCs. I find them too small to really be able to do a good job. But I keep trying.

Here are my 4 entries. The first two are made with my own photos shot in India.

The next two are made with photos from National Geographic.

Creating inspiration cards

2010-09-02T16:56:00.000-07:00

My Yahoo group is involved in creating Inspiration cards from each other. We have prompts that we can choose from, and every other week, we send a home made card to someone on the list. Since I was hosting it, I could make the rules, so I put in there that the cards could be digital, since I always have so much fun making digital montages.

My first one is based on the theme: "this too shall pass"

This next one is based on those moments "when you lose track of time because we're involved in something"
Here's my interpretation.

Publish Post

I combined grunge and mail art, adding a postage stamp to the card after I printed it.

Nick Bantock mail art challenge

2010-09-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

I've been making so many different styles of art, I was starting to lose focus. I've been painting large abstract canvases, I've been making smaller collages in the Nick Bantock style, I've been attending to my commitments with various Round Robins, altered books, and Fat Book pages.

I decided I would focus on the Nick Bantock style of painting, since I so adore his style and I got so much from the workshop in July on Salt Springs.

Then it occurred to me that I could kill 2 stones with one bird (intended) and fill my mailbox which is usually very empty, and start a mail art challenge. This all happened Saturday, and by Monday, the competition was up.

The complete text of the challenge is here. No fees to enter, no return of your artwork. There are prizes and all the entries will be displayed in a book. That book will be available for purchase as well. It's a chance for everyone to see their artwork in print. A win-win, I think.

Above is the piece I had created during the workshop. Now I can focus on generating more and entering them in the challenge too. ;-))

Hawaii Round Robin

2010-09-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

I have been working ahead on this fabulous Round Robin I'm involved in. I send pages that will be tipped-in to the owners' books, so I can work as I fit it in my schedule.

The next theme I had to work on is Joy. I always find such a broad and generic theme difficult to work with. Also the artists involved are immensely talented and I am terribly intimidated by their level of expertise. I'm definitely working on lifting my game up. I'm studying the wonderful Altered 101, 102, 103, Special Effects series. Here's to hoping...

So here's what I created for Joy: what makes me really happy is a warm sunny day by the ocean. So I painted a beach using lots of gel for texture, as well as the wonderful Golden glass beads. and alcohol inks. I hid little inside the 'sand' to show what else creates Joy.

And here are the notes in the sand. They read and represent: eccentric art, meditation, travel, being alive, books, Cirque du Soleil, sunshine on the beach.

The next theme I had to work with is Mandalas. I'm not sure how it came about, but one thought led to the other, I wanted to include something 'interesting', and all in a sudden, I'm making mandalas in fabric on top of watercolor paper, with silk fibers and free motion sewing!

Why not, I guess.

This one is a bit hard to see, since it's made of white fabric and white fibers on top of gold and white paper. The paper itself has a lot of texture, which I spray painted gold.

In this one, I've inserted silk threads, and there are 3 little glass hearts.

Portland 2010 Art and Soul retreat - Fat Book

2010-09-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

Here I come! It's already September, which means that the next Art and Soul retreat is not that far away..

As per tradition, there is a Fat Book being created, in which I participated. The theme is still Alice in Wonderland, just like in the previous retreats. This time, it was Alice and her Friends, Weird and Wacky.

Hummmmm, what do you do with a theme like this? Create 24 pages.... I researched images in my stash and found these sources of inspiration.

Finally the mad hatter from deviantart.com started my wheel going and this is the result:

I painted them with the glorious Stewart Gill glossy paints from Artistcellar. I added a few watch parts and some Lewis Carol quotes, et voila.

I'll pick up my own book in Portland from the 10th of October. Those retreats are always amazing and I'm taking a ton of fabulous classes. Yeah, can hardly wait.

My weekend with Nick Bantock

2010-07-31T10:42:00.000-07:00

What can I say?
Supercalifragilistisexpialidocious!!!!!

Or something like that. Yep, to me, it was truly amazing.

I did get to stay in their cottage, feet from their house, so my time on Salt Spring island was total Nick Bantock immersion.

I never bargained that I would be invited to a gallery opening with them, and onward to dinner, with just Nick and his wonderful wife Joyce! My hero. For hours!!!!

What can I say?

Of course, he's a 'normal' man, not god-like. LOL, although those dark bushy eyebrows give him a Puck-ish look and you suspect he could be a practical joker. He is certainly very funny, which for some reason, I didn't expect.

Truly, the whole weekend was amazing. Not the least seeing the famous painting of the cover of "The Artful Dodger", with THAT rabbit. What a shock it was that the painting is actually 3D and the flipping rabbit is pretty much jumping out of the picture, it's a full head! Geeeez...

What can I say? Wonderful conversations, wonderful time, wonderful workshop! I know, what a pathetic writer I am!!! Is that all I can say? But one runs out of adjectives to describe Bliss.

I did have an awesome time. The workshop itself was brilliant. It was not so much a 'techniques' workshop, as a process to free the inner artist. Still, Nick promised to explain any technique he uses that we'd want to know, and I did learn some fantastic new ways.This one below I produced during the class, under directions from Nick, who called out what steps to do.... It was great fun. Until we had to give it to someone else to work on!!! Talk about an exercise in letting go.... Then you get a totally foreign piece to work on. Geeeez. That sure stretches the boundaries of intimacy!!!!

I posted more photos of the workshop on Flicker:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21854397@N02/

And here is one that I did since the workshop. The one above is only 9x12. This one is 24x30.

Altered books on three different themes

2010-07-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

I am catchign up on my round robin commitments.

I completed one Marie Antoinette theme, "the queen's designer". I was looking for a fashion parade, then one thing led to another, here's the results. The left page is the invitation to the defile de mode.

The little purses are actually erasers, which I have decorated.

The next RR book I completed is another Marie Antoinette, this one for my Sketchbook project RR. Carol;s theme was 'Sensual Pleasures". Since I am the last one to work in the book, many 'pleasures' had already be included. I wanted to remain in the realm of decency, so I got the idea that being in Queen and adored by her public (for a while) would have been quite a (physical) sensation:

Marie and Louis in all their finery.

Finally, the last RR is finished for now is on Friday Kahlo, the mexican painter. The theme is broad: just include Frida. Her pages were already covered in gesso, so I just painted the background. On the left page, I used a rubber stamp with a mexican theme, and an ear-ring that seemed to echo the outrageous jewelry Frida fancied.

On the right page, I found a photogragh of her which I mounted on a letter that she wrote to a lover, some mexican colored fabrics and a bit of coffee-stained cheesecloth.

I added some hanging beads, because I love that look. The stencil is my sign in card.

Abstract paintings

2010-07-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent paintings I`ve just completed.

This first one is an exercise on paper 48x48.

This one is smaller. Just for me and just for fun!

Post Nick Bantock workshop

2010-07-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

This is a painting I`ve made over the week since the Nick Bantock workshop. It`s 24x30. The picture of the little boy sitting in the window with his bright smile called out to me, and the rest evolved around him. I`m not sure if the colors really came out on Blogger. They are pretty rich in person.

Art House Project Mini Canvas

2010-07-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

The three words I had to illustrate for the Visual Encyclopedia Project were:

Spinner. After almost 20 years in Australia, the name of the famous novel is what comes to mind....

Jollification (whatever that means),something like making happy, or making beautiful...

and finally.....Unreal. First thing that came to mind was the Valley Girl.

Marie Fat Pages

2010-07-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

I have just made 6 pages for a Marie Fat Book exchange. The pages are 4x4, and they have to be really Fat and Chunky so that the final book will be full and hard to close.

And here are the back, decorated with a watercolor background, and a white spray paint stencil.

I got rhythm

2010-07-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

Well, actually, I'm not sure I do. One of the exercises in the Steve Aimone workshop was to paint rhythm. I had a terrible time with that exercise.

So I keep trying it. I can recognize rhythm in another's painting, but short of copying it, I just can't seem to come up with my own interpretation.

I think this one has more to do with a grid, and balance, than with rhythm.

Playing with watercolors

2010-07-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

I took a class a while back with Carla Sonheim, on recycling junk mail. She taught this beautiful technique with watercolors.

Here are my results from the weekend:

Love, love, love them. Now I have to try these on a bigger canvas. I make a 24x30 that's drying. It does change when it's dry, so stay tuned.

Gothic arches

2010-07-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

It's true, I'm an addict. I'm addicted to swapping art and small pieces of artwork with my internet friends.
Hi, my name is Sox, and I'm a swap addict.

I just signed up with the TreasureArtTrend group to make some gothic arches. We are 14 in the group, so we make 14, send them off and will receive 14 back! The format is 4x4, to make a chunky Fat Book.

Here is mine. We were to incorporate a woman and a bird. And an arch!

Here is the back. It's always nice to make the back pretty as well, since it will be visible in the Fat Book. I used a stencil and spray paint. Love it! Thanks, Mary Ann Moss, for turning me on to spray paint.

Now, that's a mandala

2010-06-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

The buddhist monks make mandalas out of sand to celebrate the Buddha and to acknowledge that everything we do is ephemeral.

Well worth watching:

It makes me proud to be a buddhist.

A painting a day

2010-06-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

Here's my painting for yesterday, in my One Painting A day till October 29, when I attend the next workshop with Steve Aimone.

Since I'm pretty much starting from scratch in that painting game, I figured I'd learn a thing or two if I made a painting every day. I was so right. I've learned heaps already.

I like yellow, can you tell? I'm going to keep using that color, it keeps me happy. And since I was making circles for Ingrid's Round robin book yesterday, I'm going to make circles today.

Or at least that's the plan, depending on what else the Muse has in mind.

Circles Round Robin

2010-06-24T16:08:00.000-07:00

I am doing a Round Robin with some mighty talented ladies, and of course, the first pages I get to make are for wonderful Ingrid Dijkers. I spent a lot of time last year studying her tunnel books, they just blew me away. You can see them on her website: www.ingriddijkers.com.

Her theme for this Round Robin is "Circles".
For some reason, Circle crops popped into my mind and off I went:

The text reads: If you eat Circle crop foods, and on the next page, ... will you see Martians?
So here is the next page:

The painting is based on an aboriginal design. I guess after 16 years in Australia, I really developed a taste for that style.

I did a cutout as well, to give it depth. You pull on the black button, to reveal the depth within. Or something like that. lol

We were to decorate the front and back of the page, so I used a circle stencil, what else!

And we had to explain the method we used, so I made a little card:

With psychedelic bangles... (No comments!)

Ingrid also made a fantastic page for me. My book is the "Imaginary journey with Nick Bantock", which you can see here.
Here is the page she made for my book, on her blog.

I'm really happy with my book. Two years before it comes back to me, as 20 artists will be working in it over that time!!!!

New to Facebook

2010-06-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

I have just joined Facebook. Katherine Aimone told me it was a great thing to do to find fellow artists and abstract painters.

I'm finding the learning curve is huge, and the whole setup is not very intuitive to MY way of thinking. But already, I've been in touch and exchanged messages with people I never dreamed of talking to, like Anne LeToux at Bulles Dorees, or Steven Aimone who commented on one of my paintings, and his wife Katherine who accepted to be friends. Yeah! Life is good.

Today is another day I'm not painting. I'm making another Remains of the Day book, 4x4, black and white, as a present for a friend. Random Act of Kindness. Love it!

What I do when I'm not painting

2010-06-21T16:51:00.000-07:00

I've taken a few days off painting so I can attend to some Round Robin journals I have to decorate.

This first one is a Marie round robin. The theme was Marie's inbox in her gmail account. I chose to copy a spam message I had received, one of those where you will get 60% of the 6500000000000000000 Million dollars if you just.... etc from Mr Bazgonla Bonzo.
His scheme was about the poor Queen's necklace, to help her avoid the scandal. I reproduced the necklace, with tons of bling and little crystals, white bows, etc.

The next one is a mini cloth and paper book I made on the system taught by Mary Ann Moss of Remains of the Day. Best online class I ever took. I saw a model from Susie Lafont where the book was 2.5: X 4. This is what I made the book too, it's just adorable.

I also made a bigger one, based on a Marie Antoinette theme. This one is 5x8. It's more manageable. Here are the front and back.

And some of the pages.

They are just a ton of fun. You get rid of a lot of small pieces of paper and fabrics, lace. It's all good.

My favorite abstract so far

2010-06-17T08:35:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite painting so far. This one has quite a history. I already had a second-hand canvas that had a 60's type very modern painting on it (not mine). It was brown, with oranges and blue, you get the picture. I covered the whole thing with white gesso, but I couldn't get that blue out.

So I covered the whole think in dark blue, and did an automatic painting in black. One thing let to another, I covered most of the dark blue with paler shades and... let her rip, as Steve Aimone told us to do.

I really like this one.

My latest paintings - June 2010

2010-06-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

Here are more of the abstract paintings I've been working on.

This first one is based on the Julie Prichard Layer Love class 2. It worked really beautifully, then I had this huge central area, very light and lovely and.... I couldn't think of what to do with it. The bright yellow area is actually a map. It's 38x30, and it has a lot of texture on canvas. It proved to me that it could be done. And that I could do it.

The next one is 48x30 again, an exercise with lots of color and just paint textures.

And finally, a pure color exercise. This is canvas as well.

A little gem

2010-06-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

I participated in the Art and Soul Fat Book for the Hampton retreat. We were to make 4x4 pages. There were 18 participants. I received my little gem a few days ago, and I am completely enthralled. I didn't think 4x4 would be a format that I would like, and it was a challenge to work on something that small.

But the end result is spectacular and everyone did an awesome job..

Round robin books

2010-06-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

In the middle of my "painting a day' project, I've also been making Round Robin journals.
The first one is for Lisa, in the Round Robin on my Sketchbook Yahoo group. Her theme is 'things with wings". The caption is: Grrrls who want to fly.
Having a bit of fun with the theme, I guess.
The butterfly wings on the left page are actually a belt closure. I had to ask the neighbor to grind the hooks so that the metal would lay flat. Yeah for E2000 glue!

The lady on the right is levitating (I think) with a bit of help from a couple of bugs. I thought that was funny! It's just me. I hope Lisa likes it too.

The little tag above is the library card that Lisa used to identify the participants. I decorated mine.

The next book I worked in is also for the Sketchbook Round Robin. I guess I just have not posted for a while. This one is for Janet's book, and her theme is the Feminine Goddess. It is already a beautiful book. Other participants had already covered some of the ideas that I had, so I had to come up with something else. I hit on the idea of Sheherazade.

On the left page, we have the Sultan, and on the right page, the lady herself. She's actually covered with a lace veil, but it was easier to take the picture without it. lol
I used some earrings that I had to decorate her, and I put an arabic portal decoration around her. I'm going to add calendar pages counting off the 1001 nights.

Lots of new work

2010-05-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, let's get something straight, right at the outset. I AM a maniac. When I discover something new, I jump right in and explore it from all sides and aspects.

So today, I'm posting paintings that I've made since yesterday afternoon. (It's frightening)
I started this one yesterday. It was all going well, but in the afternoon, I had the crazy idea to cover the whole thing with a background color, and it turned into a mess. So I abandoned and revisited it this morning. The wash of white paint helps a little bit. I did learn a few things, so it's good.

Next today, I made another one, but for some reason, it never worked as smoothly as the one yesterday. Copying myself just doens't work.

So I switched to a smaller format, to continue my exercises from Van Vliet book. This is an exercise about monotones, blending directly on the painting.

I remade this one yesterday and forgot to take a picture, so here it is. If you've been following my posts, it's the colorful 'cityscape' with gold and glues. I like it much better that way!

This one is really just a loosening up exercise, with a background made with the left over paints from the monochrome exercise. Very lively, I like it.

This one is painted over a cloud exercise that didn't succeed. My Jackson Pollock period. I think it looks awesome, but that's my taste.

Since I was at it, I also reworked this one. It had turned into an ugly background, so there was really nothing to lose. I sorta wish I hadn't added the gold, but here it is.

And the last one:

I really like this one. It's very soft. No, it's not gold, just raw yellow. It's supposed to look like beach flotsam. Whatever. I have another one I made, but it's drying, couldn't take a picture of it.

I should rest tomorrow. But then I have all these images swirling in my head in the middle of the night, and I usually end up with at least one that demands to be made.
I'm sure I'll slow down eventually, once I get it out of my system. I'd better. I'm already painting over older paintings, or mishaps, but I'm going to run out of room! :-))

Two for today in the 30 for 30 challenge

2010-05-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

...and it's only midday on my island...

This first one started as an automatic drawing, as I learned last week in the Steve Aimone workshop. Then I just played with it. It will probably evolve into something else through the day. It's on paper, 48x48.

The next one is the transformation or evolution of yesterday's red horizontal landscape, which was really doing nothing for me. It went through several stages this morning. I like it as it is, so I'm calling it finished.I just wish it were bigger, it's only 13x19. But so it is.

3 more abstract paintings for today

2010-05-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

I started the day with a large, 48x48 automatic painting. It's now gone through various iterations.
I feel there is a design starting to come out.

The next two are smaller canvases, I'm playing with the sense of structure in the middle, and adding texture.

ON this gold and blue one, there is a lot of gel medium making up the texture, then the white paint was applied with a spackle knife, a technique I really enjoy.

Abstract painting, contained

2010-05-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

Today's exercise from Rolina Van Vliet. It is more constrained than yesterday's. Maybe because I did it at the end of the day. It is, of course, completely my interpretation of the book exercise. I do not hold the author responsible for any of these results. ;-))

I'm happy with it. It's good practice of color juxtaposition. I want to do the next one in black, white and grey. Stay tuned.

**** a few hours later***

Well, for some reason, it was not black, white and grey, but gold, white and some non-descript color. I guess painting is like that. It has a mind of its own. I'm not sure where I got the idea. I'm pretty sure it's not original. I don't think I followed an exercise in the abstract book, I'll have to check back if someone did something similar during the course like week. Nothing original here, just fun!

Abstract paintings

2010-05-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

I have been following an abstract painting book, and my first painting this morning is below. Of course, it's nothing like the example, and hers was full of boxes and compartments. Funnily enough, if you know me, I just can't fit into compartments. So mine resulted more into an explosion of colors, even though I started on a black background. Wear your sunglasses. It's supposed to be an exploration of colors, so I think I really succeeded here.

I next did an automatic painting, on a paper I had covered with gel medium, on the recommendation of my friend Jill, who also attended the Steve Aimone workshop. The paper didn't desintegrate, so that works for me. I then turned the automatic drawing into a rendition of a flower outside my window, blowing in the wind. Probably still too literal.

I went to the Post Office to send off 2 journals I've completed in 2 different RRs I'm in. I mentioned to the attendant that I'd been at a painting workshop last week. She asked if it was the same one another customer had been to. I said yes. She said, it must have been something, the other customer was just so high and excited. Yep: that's the same workshop!!!!

I then did more work on my 'Nick Bantock" painting. I'm getting quite happy with it.

It's getting quite dark and intense, like some of Nick's paintings, and I like it. I have to decide now if I'm going to go the whole Bantock distance and add collages: stamps, exotic figures or animals. TBA.

Round Robins, Steve Aimone, Nick Bantock and multi-tasking

2010-05-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy day! You be the judge...

First I had to get on with some commitments I have with various Round Robin journals. I completed a double-page spread in Lori's book for the Round Robin on my Yahoo group, the Sketchbook Project. Her theme is: 'The texture of time". I found the book extremely challenging as the pages were pre-painted a glimmery purple.
But onward we go, facing the challenges we meet, with resolution and creativity. I glued some extremely old pages I have from a French book. It's a Moliere comedy, and time is a comedy isn't it? An illusion at best.Here is the double spread, complete with old lace, several transfers, and a super scotch tape, since I know Lori loves tape.

And here are some close ups. I added some tassels to give it the taste of old France in the xviith century. I'd like to add some words, but I'm afraid my handwriting will mess it up. I have till tomorrow's post to decide.

Next, I worked in Janet's book in our Marie Antoinette exchange. Her theme is 'Anything Marie" which is really broad. I tried to render the opulence and the richness that I associate with Marie Antoinette era.

On the left, I have shopping labels, and on the right, I have Marie's corset, all decorated with lace and dooh dahs. Here's the girl who has everything, so she can't choose what to wear. As a background, I used some really beautiful vintage wallpaper I received in an exchange. What fun!

Then onward to my first automatic drawing of the day! Here goes.

I then worked on a new painting from an exercise I found in Rolina Van Vliet book on Abstract Painting. I'm not anywhere near her suggestions, but it was still good practice. The paper is now dripping wet, particularly the bottom part, and it's drying.

And finally, I went and rescued a painting I did a while back that was a giant mess. I had already covered most of it in white, so I got a chance to work on it today. It will be a Nick Bantock style painting when it grows up. Or when it dries up, whichever comes first.

It has a lot of texture, and I am now struggling to incorporate it with what I've learned at the Steve Aimone's workshop last week on the Spiritual Language of Art. I had created this painting in 'another life' and now I have to relearn to use fluid acrylics. This one is a large painting (for me) on canvas, 22x30. It will keep evolving.

Stay tuned.

So all in all, I think I'm doing pretty well for the 30 for 30 challenge. I bought myself a few days of rest, or...

30 art pieces over 30 days

2010-05-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

See my new logo on the right? It was created by wonderful Lisa Cousineau for our challenge on my Yahoo group, the Sketchbook project.

One artist was asking how one finds her voice? I had read somewhere that in one University, the students were told to create 80 pieces over 60 days. The intensity of the experiment would bring out your 'true' self.

We just happened to think it would make a fun challenge, and voila!

We started Saturday, May 15th, since I was involved all week in an intensive and marvelous workshop with Steve Aimone. (More on this in a very soon post...) Since we were painting at least 5 pieces each day, it was best to start the challenge when I wasn't so productive already in a class environment.

I painted this late yesterday afternoon, after I set up my new easel, moved all the furniture around my studio so I could reclaim the beautiful Northeastern light in my studio, dragged around a monstruous 3-seater sofa bed that came with the house.

It's painted on paper that we used for the class. I really didn't like the painting underneath, and Steve taught us: when you're not happy with a painting, make big changes. I only kept the middle top part and covered the rest in white. How's that for big changes, Steve? That is ONE thing I can say about my own artistic journey, I am not attached or precious about what I create. Off it goes if it doesn't work.

I think I learned that through sending my altered journals around the world, trusting my little gems to the vagaries of the Post Office and the moods of participants.

This is the original painting done early on in the workshop. Steve was calling out directions, paint a triangle in the top right corner. Of course, I put it in the left. There's always one in the class, isn't there? Put some angry marks in the bottom left corner, cover them with a yukky mixture of paint. I don't remember the rest, then eventually, we had to 'make' a painting out of it. Yep. it was ugly. I like the new version better..

Mini art quilt

2010-05-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

I am taking an online class with Lenna Andrews to learn to make mini art quilts. Since I've always sewn, I thought it would be interesting to combine the two, art and sewing.

I also signed up for a mini Chunky book with a Vintage theme. I thought it would be great to practice my newly acquired skills by making a mini quilt page. Those pages are 4x4 inches!!!! Small... Minus 1/4" for the binding.

I have a lot of lace for my Marie Antoinette projects, so it wasn't hard to find something to fill the pages. The little pictures are simply sewn on . I've used a lace background, lace strips, and on some of them, I've added some cheesecloth that I'd previously dyed in coffee. Very vintage!

Thankfully in lesson one, Lenna was showing how to attach various embellishments without sewing. That worked for me, since I had decided to include several buttons, and multiply that by about 20 people that have signed for the chunky book so far, I didn't feel up to the tasks.
Yes, all these pearls and buttons are simply glued on.

é4

I had to leave a 1/4" tab with a piece of card on the left, so my pages can be included in the finished book with everyone`s pages, and wire bound.

Here's the whole pile of them, with variations on the theme. I will now add some pearls and beads off the side so it hangs and adds to the chunkiness, since it IS after all, a chunky book.

On the back is my signature, and we were advised to finish it as well.

Very fun indeed!

My other Marie RR

2010-05-06T17:23:00.000-07:00

I am also member of a large Marie Antoinette RR with 15 other talented ladies.

I have just worked in Marita's book. Her theme is 'anything Marie' which really gives us a lot of latitude.

I started with choosing a pair of gloves for the Queen. She should not leave the house without them.

I made a fabric flower for her cuff as well. Ribbon, lace, pearls, glam galore.

After all this frou frou extravaganza, I found myself quite empty. I made an aged old background, with lots of gold and texture, then I just didn't know where to go with it.

I built it up slowly always thinking: this is not enough. It needs more. What a stretch.

I think I'm getting close.....

All that gold and organza, and glitter, and ribbons, and.... very Maire, I'd say....