Syd and Blue 2

Syd and Blue 2

I have been out of touch with this blog for a couple of weeks, not because I haven't done any art,  I have, but I have been working testing first graders for the Everett SD gifted program.  I tested about 550 students and working full time for those eight days did me in.  I also caught a cold.  I have been away from school germs for awhile now and being back around them....well  I caught what is going around.

Several months ago I did my first Syd and Blue piece.  I have a strong attachment to this horse and bird. Several people have suggested that a children's book could evolve from the horse and bird relationship. Perhaps?  I did try something new for the final finish.  An art friend told me about Dorland's Wax Medium. It is mainly for oil painting but I thought I would give it a try to see how it works with mixed media.  I am hopeful that it will solve the problem of signature pages sticking together.

Altered Book

Two weeks ago I started taking an altered book class in Edmonds with the instructor Mary Peterson.  What a fun class it is!  We were asked to bring a book to class that was at least 300 pages.  Mine was an old school dictionary.  At the first class we cut out about 1/3 of the pages in the book and we used glue sticks to glue together the remaining pages one page after another in groups of five.  We left a huge section in the back of the book where our niches will go.  It took almost two and one-half hours to cut out pages and glue the remaining pages.

 

 

 

I have been on a Renaissance kick lately and so I decided to create an altered book with a Renaissance theme.  I made preliminary drawings of what I wanted and then began the cutouts for the first page which was painted.  Ivy was added.

 



 

 The second page was an inkjet transfer and cutouts were made to match the outline of the woman.

I had found a great photo of the cathedral in Florence which I added to the third page.  The background is a CitraSolv paper which was lightly sanded.  It looks like lightning is striking.

Here is the fourth page and you can see the cutouts easily.  I have a Tuscan house for this page.

Here it is standing up.

The back of the book is where the niches will go.  I first used gel medium on the three ends of the remaining book.  It glues all the pages together.  When dry I used an X-acto knife to cut out all three niches.  This took an enormous amount of time.  Altoid cans will go in two of the holes and the third (round) hole will get a mint container.

This is a huge long term project.  I will share the results in a few months, not weeks.

Playing with Resin

 

Sunday I was invited to an art party at Amy Duncan's house.  Amy was having a give-away of art supplies and books that she did not want anymore.  I scored big time and brought home a cardboard box full of treasures.

After my shopping spree Amy shared her experience with creating collage assemblages in jar caps.  The cap that I selected was from a Maille mayonnaise jar.  Amy has a wealth and I mean a wealth of assemblage ephemera to choose from and so we began.  Once the ephemera was in place we poured resin over what we had created.  Here is my first attempt at this process.  It was great fun!  I am thinking it would be a perfect way to create ornaments for a Christmas tree.

It is well worth it to go to Amy's blog for some exploration into her art world..... http://fourcornersdesign.blogspot.com/

Coyote and Crow

Coyote and Crow

In October 2012 my partner and I made a 7,000 mile journey throughout the southwest.  While in New Mexico we experienced some of the most beautiful countryside of our trip.  The background of Coyote and Crow is the landscape to the west of Taos between the mountains and the Rio Grande River.  The land looks flat but it is anything but.  There are gullies and a gradual slope to the land as you head out of the mountains heading east where you encounter more mountains near Taos. 

With that said, upon our return home, I discovered the art of Holly Roberts.... http://hollyrobertsonepaintingatatime.blogspot.co.uk/ .  Holly lives in New Mexico and collages using her own photographs.  The writing that accompanies each piece that she uploads to her blog is about life that she has experienced mostly in New Mexico.  Holly's tales of life captivate me each week. (I like her politics as well.)

I love how Holly uses poured acrylic paint so effectively in her mixed-media pieces.  For months I have been trying to master this poured paint technique.  Last week thanks to Jane Davies and a reminder on her blog about a book, Rethinking Acrylic by Patti Brady, I discovered how to pour acrylic paint effectively.  It is difficult to see in the scan of Coyote and Crow, but I used fluid matte medium and transparent acrylic paint which allows much of the background to be seen through the paint.  A big thank you to both Holly and Jane for the inspiration for this piece.  Holly has a wonderful coyote piece which you may view at.... http://hollyrobertsonepaintingatatime.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/coyote-with-thistles-2012.html

One more November ATC

I found the last November ATC.  This is it. No more for this month, I promise. 

Wolves

Crow Trio

Crow Trio

This piece which is in a signature that I am working on evolved over the week.  This signature and one that I completed in Orly Avineri's class during the summer will be bound with an RR signature in January to create a three signature journal. 

I started with paint and crackle paint.  Then I went to some shiny transparent cloth that came in a box of supplies ordered online.  I tried out a technique using an oiler boiler that Jane Davies demonstrated on her blog.  I stenciled gesso "flowers" and then painted them.  I hated the painted flowers so I glazed the whole background and solved the "hate" problem.  Finally I added the crows.  These crows obviously have a mission.  I love the way they are either bent forward heading toward something or watching something very intensely.

The Mixed Media Artist - Step-By-Step-Old and New Friends Meet

Today on Seth Apter's blog the fourteen gallery artists from section three of The Mixed-Media Artist, Seth's latest book, are being introduced.  I have three pieces in this book and I thought it would be fun to show you the steps that I took to create Old and New Friends Meet, the piece that I created for the book.  The prompt for Friends was Imaginary Worlds.  I am so very pleased to have been asked to be included in Seth's book.  If you have not seen it yet, it is a treat!  Thanks Seth for asking me to contribute.

 

 

 



I used matte medium to adhere pieces of newspaper to the substrate in the first step.  Then I brayered a layer of gesso over the substrate.

step 1

In step 2, I added paint using rainbow colors.  As you can see texture is now coming through from step 1.

step 2

Since I was honoring four great 20th century artists I wanted to give a flavor of their work in my piece.  I create gel skins transfers using gloss gel medium.

 

step 3

After four gloss gel medium coats and once the skin is dry, I submerged the skin in water to wet the paper fibers.

step 4

 In step 5 the rubbing off of the paper fibers begins.

step 5

Step 6 is a completed gel skin for the background.  I completed several different gel skins to represent four artists' work: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Keith Haring and Andy Warhol.

step 6

 In step 7, I adhered the gel skins to the painted background.

step 7

 Another layer of gesso was added to the work in step 8.

step 8



I added a glaze over the gessoed layer and then added the decapitated bodies of Rauschenberg, Johns, Haring, and Warhol.

 

step 9

Because Donatello, Caravaggio, Michelangelo and da Vinci are using time travel to visit the 20th century artists their heads were added to the bodies of the other artists.  Finally, I sprayed slide covers with a black gloss and attached the covers to the artists.

step 10

More November ATC scans from Terry

Thanks Terry for sending me scans of my November 2013 ATCs.  I think I have one more to find and then they are captured in blog history! :-)

 

Pigs

Cow

More November ATCs

Thanks to my friend Brian in the gentlemen's ATC group and his scanner I can show you more November ATCs.

November 2013 ATC

 

Welcome to November!  For this month I made a series of ATCs that included animals....birds, wolves, pigs, cows and the like.  I was way ahead of myself and had sealed the cards to be mailed to members of my gentlemen's group before I remembered I had not scanned them.  So unfortunately this is the only one that will surface on this blog.  Maybe I can get Terry and Brian to scan them for me once they arrive at their homes.

 



Bullseye

Bullseye

This was an experiment and I rather like the result.  I collaged it digitally in Photoshop....the house, the car, the men and the stamp.  Then I did a horizontal adjustment (flip) so that I could do an inkjet transfer on 140 watercolor paper.  I added the bullseye after the transfer.  I printed the stamp, bug, dove, and the guys again, collaging each.  I added the tree and the washi tape postage mark.  That is it.  I am thinking of entering it in the NW Collage Society postcard competition this month.  Maybe I might do more first.  Time will tell.