"Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent; with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play."~~Henri Matisse
Some time back I spent time playing with making patterns using Photoshop Elements. I used images of cloth I made and images of Citrasolve papers. These papers are a never ending source of collage papers. Here are a couple of those patterns made from Citrasolve papers. Enjoy.
Summer is winding down…it’s August already. It has gone by quickly.
Along with leaving town a couple of times, working to have items ready for the artisans/farmer’s market each weekend, and now produce coming in from the garden, a girl has to work hard at getting quality time making art. I have an exhibit to hang in October…!
I have been working on some new work and last week saw me spending a lot of time just doing art. “Composition” is a new series I am working on. It is mixed media work and I am enjoying it immensely. I am having loads of fun using paint, ink and pastels to create on paper and cloth.
Composition - collaged base of paper and cloth, gesso, acrylic paint, oil pastels, ink paper
There are more coming in this series and manner of working. These measure approximately 15″ square. Work is also proceeding on a larger piece using discharged black cotton sateen and a rust dyed cotton feed sack.
Scarlet and I have started working on Christmas ornaments for the gallery gift shop. Mine will mostly be mixed media and made of papers. They are started but there is much to be done before they are ready for display.
New journal covers I have been creating this summer are photos printed on cotton. Oh, look…one of them is the new artwork, Composition.
I have a couple of shows I will be working in September. See my events tab (above) to see where I will be. October will be the time I am finishing up everything for my exhibit in New Harmony, IN.
Well, I guess it’s time to get back to my other work now….
An artist friend of mine from Evansville wanted to come have a play day with me this week. So we decided to make paper cloth. Scarlet had not done that before and I had purchased some new tissue paper that I wanted to experiment with. We had a blast, of course.
This time, instead of just layering random pieces of paper, which would in the end, be covered with a layer of paint and stitch, I chose to make some that were deliberate and thoughtful, of color scheme and contrast in size and patterns. These really did not need paint when they were finished. The only thing I did to them was dry brush some Lumiere metallic paints on them which was caught by the high relief wrinkles from the tissue paper. And that was enough. I love them just as they are.
I’m very pleased with the outcome of both of these smaller pieces. They would make great journal covers, but would have to be mixed with other cloth because of their size. Since I scanned them into the computer, I have digital files…and cotton inkjet sheets to print on! I printed them out on cotton and made small journal covers. I also used a TAP transfer to jazz the covers up a bit.
Some of them have black linings with a black strap and some have brown linings with a brown strap.
If you want to learn how to make paper cloth, there is a tutorial on my sidebar that will give you all the directions for making it. Just scroll down to the Tutorials section.
Two more collages finished today.
Stories of New Harmony #8
Stories of New Harmony #9
I posted earlier some of the pages I painted with fluid acrylics as backgrounds for Roz Stendahl’s class I am taking online. Here is the Week 2 reveal. Since I’m not that much of a sketch-er, I decided to save time (at least at this point) and use cutouts from photography that I do.
Mum Garden
I recently ordered some of Lesley Riley’s TAP Transfer Artist Paper. I have been wanting to try this for some time. It is wonderful and I love it. It transfers beautifully.
Here is my first sample. There will be more. I used a little play on words…
This is a color transfer…I did not color it with pencils or anything.
I have some for sale…contact me if you are interested. There are 5 sheets in the pack for $13, full instructions and a sheet of silicone release paper.
In other news, I have been cleaning up my workspace in the garage, cleaning out the fridge and trying to use up dyes before they get too old. I dyed several yards of stuff and then discharged some designs on the black. I found out there was lots of green in that black dye. The big circle stamp is my new favorite thing to stamp with.
I discovered I could set the white balance on this camera according to the kind of light I am shooting in. Holly Knott has a great tutorial on her blog about shooting your own work. It is well worth reading, especially if you can’t take it to a photographer and need to photograph your own art. Read it here.
I couldn’t resist ordering wool roving in my last order and have been playing at felting beads. Aren’t they cute? Pretty easy and fun to make.
Tuesday is election day. I will be working as a judge doing my civic duty and guarding the integrity of our elections.
I have been packaging some photography that I have for sale. I thought it would be a good idea to trace over some interesting shapes and lines in these photos before I sealed them in their sleeves. With these pencil tracings on tracing paper, I can flip them over and RUB the tracing onto the very inexpensive product called Foamies. Now Foamies makes their own shapes and sells them complete with adhesive on the back so you can make stamps, but I prefer to be more original and adventurous so I made mine from the plain sheets of foam and cut out my own shapes from a drawing or the shapes from my photographs. The exciting thing about this type of stamp is that you can press into it with a pencil and create wonderful details…or not, as the case may be. Your image can be as basic and primitive as you like it or more detailed.
Who doesn’t from time to time need the image of part of an old building that looks like it is on a slope?
I take photographs of old barns and sheds with all of the lines of slats they have. For instance…
…from this photo, I made a tracing of the doorway in the lower right hand corner, pressed it onto the foam, cut it out, and made pencil marks on the lines of the slats…
…to make this stamp
Results?
More stamps from drawings.
Distress ink is too wet and doesn’t stamp really well unless you want that kind of look.
You can create positive or negative images. Foamies sheets are very useful tools.
One lonely flower on the tree seen at New Harmony, IN on June 19.
From one of my morning walks…the long wispy needles of pine trees always fascinate me. They look soft.
Peanut Butter Chews…my husband’s favorite drop cookie/candy. His birthday was yesterday and he requested these. Recipe follows.
Peanut Butter Chews
1 c. sugar
1 c. Karo light syrup
1/4 cu. oleo or butter
Heat all together to boiling. Then add:
1 cup peanut butter and stir.
Pour over 6 cups of corn flakes, mix and drop by spoonfuls onto a sheet of wax paper to set up. I think peanuts would be good in these too.
Interesting photo…to me. This caught my eye at the opening exhibit last Saturday. The contrast and the sharp lines are what I caught first and I snapped a picture. It will be inspiration for…something…step back from it…you’ll see what I mean.
And….here is the quilt I sold a few weeks ago. I am missing it a bit, but might make another one!
