I haven't...

I haven't posted in a while because I've been away. Last week I went to the SF bay area to visit with my sister. We had a good time and hitting every scrap booking stores we could find. Michael's and Joann's still seems to be the best price for the tools. Also we spent a day visiting China Town in SF looking for Chinese Brush supplies but only found student grade material, so China Town was a bust.

I discovered a cool scrap booking store in Santa Clarita which is about 30 minutes from my house. This store seems to have a lot of the latest scrap booking supplies. On Sunday I took a card making class where I did some embroidery and bead work on the card. Very time consuming and rather tight working with the seed beads.

Lately I just seem to be bouncing off the walls artistically. I really need to get back into just painting and choose a medium...watercolor,colored pencil, or acrylics. I guess I could view this period as a growth period since I'm trying to expand my bag of tools and refining the skills I already have as an artist.

More flowers

I have a tendency to save up my WIP drawings and paintings and take photo's in batches. I wish I had a better system to be able to draw,paint,photograph, and then add to my blog.

I was going through all my photos that I took from Butchard Gardens in Victoria,BC about 3 years ago. The images were just as fresh as when I was standing in front of them snapping the picture. Butchard Gardens...I wish I'd live closer to visit as often as I did when I lived in Washington State.

I want to start selling prints, so I'm looking at various sites to do so. My prints will be 5 x 7 and can be slipped into a 8 x 10 mat.

Once I have all the mechanics of selling...I'll let you know how you can own one too.

Elephants running...

OK, this might not look like elephants to you, but hey...this is what I see. What about you????

Koi Pond

I love the symbolism of abstracts...this reminds me of Koi fish swimming...what about you?

Red,White,and Blue

New abstract..reminds me of water.

Moving through depression

I sometimes think that this is what depression could look like. I like the colors on this abstract...very mellow.

Parrots anyone?

As I continue to work on my series of abstracts, I'm getting braver with each one to add more and more layers.

Chinese Harbor

New painting. With each abstract, I'm paying more attention to detail and texture.

Dolphin at sea

My latest...Dolphin at Sea...I really love the symbolism of abstracts.

Chinese birds in flight

All my abstracts remind me of birds...so I'm thinking I need to figure out the symbolism that I'm conveying. I really like this painting...I love the bright warm colors of red,orange, and yellow with hints of gold. I used a palette knife to lay in the color.

When eagles fly

If anyone ever tells you that painting abstract is a piece of cake...they are wrong! With this painting I started out with a black background. Then I started dropping in color. I didn't like the effect so I decided to add crackle paste to see if that would give the painting more texture. Since this was the first time I've used crackle paste, no where on the tube did it say add color to paste before you apply to painting. When the crackle paint dried I had lost all my color, so I had to go back in and re-apply color. Once I did that, I could see the cracks and the texture I was aiming for. When I first started painting this abstract I figure it would take me about an hour to finish. I spent most of yesterday working on this painting. I had to wait while various layers dried before going on to the next.

Some things are never easier than I expect.

A swan

Watercolor paper 8" x 8", acrylic paints, and molding paste

A dragon and birds

I love doing abstracts!!! I've always been such a realistic traditional painter, so this style of painting is new for me. I now understand how abstract artist tell a story with their work. I plan to do a series of 12, 8" x 8" abstracts all on a black background which will hang as a collection. I'm also doing a series of smaller abstracts 12, 4" x 8.5" that can be displayed as a collection or individually.


"The dragon"

"Birds in flight"

Poodles in the mist

After 11 years of painting I'm still trying to find my niche. I love working in watercolors because it makes me really think about each detail and ways to push and pull the colors in the painting to get them to work. I've also have explored colored pencils, oil pastels, and now acrylic.

I want to paint intuitively...letting the paint guide me to the next stroke, color,and design. I want to challenge myself to work without a detailed plan. I guess I don't want to play it safe anymore.

So the journey should be interesting ....

A girl and her butterflies

The one thing I love about doing mix media art is that you can put layers,upon layers to give the painting substance. On this piece I first colleagued the background with pages from a dictionary,scrap book pieces,and tissue napkins. Then I did a light wash of antique white over the collage. When the paint was dry I used gesso to do an outline of my girl. After that dried I went back in to do the detail work on the girl. I also used a new product...texture paste that I used with a stencil of butterflies. This texture paste gave a raised effect of the butterflies. I went back in a added more detail to the girl, painted the butterflies, used my french word stamp, and added more paint to tie the piece together.

Angels

I'm really getting into this mix media art. Finally I can use all my art supplies. A bit messy, but fun. This piece was done on birch plywood 6" x 12", using acrylic paint,watercolor pencils,rubber stamps,oil pastels,and glitter.

I'm back....

After a much needed break, I'm back. I've been ill with Lupus, fibermyalgia, and chronic fatigue. So each day is one-day-at-a-time. Some days it takes so much effort to do anything. My only saving grace has been to draw and paint. Each afternoon, I'd take my supplies and create art in bed.

I've been enrolled in an online mix media class with Suzi Blu. It's a eight week course on Petite Dolls. This class has been amazing. Suzi shows how to create mix media creations, layer by layer. I've learned how to draw on wood, wood burn the image, and then start shading and adding layers on layers. Each week she has a video and pdf files to download and use. This class has been well worth the $55 tuition.
So here are my finished pieces that I've created on 6" x 12" birch plywood boards.

Sad day in the Prior household

It's a sad day in the Prior household. Our precious Chloe died in my arms this afternoon, after a short undetermined illness. She was eleven years old. I'm thankful that she graced our life with her unconditional love and faith fullness. She will be missed, but not forgotten.

Chloe was a bit of a clown and loved to dress up in scarves. Here she's lounging in her favorite lounge chair wearing sun glasses to protect her eyes from the bright high desert sun.

Chloe was my first Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, which began my love affair with the breed. She was so happy-go-lucky, loved going for rides, playing with her toys, and loved going through the drive-thru at McDonald's.

Les Petite Girls

I'm taking an 8 week online mix media class with Suzi Blu. These two images I first wood burned an out line of my girls. Then I applied watercolor pencil and non water color pencil for shading. When I thought she was shaded enough I used napkin pieces to decoupage the background. If you ever seem Suzi Blu's videos on YouTube...she makes wood burning look so easy...it's not. But like anything else...it will take practice to get it right. The 2ND girl I was less intimidated by the wood burning tool. Something about hot tips scares me, so I'm being really careful. Over all I really love the class.

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View my page on Mixed Media With Suzi Blu

Taking a break for the summer

I thought I'd just let you all know...I'm still alive, but just taking a break from blogging for the summer. I wanted to explore other avenues of being creative and have tons of stuff to photograph to share. Also, health wise it's been up/down for the past year with rounds of doctor visits and hospital visits too. I'm doing better, just trying to focus on getting my energy back and feeling good.

So...I'll be back soon.

Irena

Look what I found!!!

I was looking for some art supplies, I came across my very first watercolors that I did 10 years ago. These were done with cheap student grade watercolor paint and cheap watercolor paper. I couldn't believe where I've been and how much progress I've made in those 10 years. I remember when I first painted these how up tight I was about applying the wc to the paper.

I'm glad I had saved my early work because it's a reminder to me that with patience and practice, I can achieve anything I want to do.

Father's day card

My husband always waits to the last minute to send cards out, so I made him a card that he could send. My father-in-law is a diabetic and has an awful sweet tooth. Whenever you go to his house we always find open boxes of hostess cup cakes that he's not suppose to eat.



back view of card on left; front view of card on right.
When the card is open left side says "Cup Cakes" right side of card has good wishes.

Paper dogs

Remember when you were a kid and spent hours playing with paper dolls? I know I did! I've been experimenting with different ways to put my love of dogs and watercolors together. I thought wouldn't it be cool to have a 12" paper doll of dogs I would love to own? I figure making them was so much cheaper and there's no maintenance required.

I first started out with a sketch on tracing paper. Then I transferred the sketch to watercolor paper, making sure I separated the head from the body. Once that was done I used Derwent Aquatone watercolor pencils to lay in color and used a damp watercolor brush to blend the color in. When the paper was dry, I cut out the head and then the body. I played around with the placement of the head and once I got the right angle, I used my tiny whole punch and punched a whole and then added mini brads.

So this is my brand new dog George. I love the look of bull dogs...they're so ugly that they are really cute. I would love to own one,but after doing a lot of research on the breed, I discovered that they have too many health issues and living in the high desert would probably be too hot for them.

Now George keeps me company in my studio over seeing all my works in progress. A funny thing happened when my dog Sophie noticed George. Sophie thought George was real and kept on using her deep voice bark. Even after re-assuring Sophie that she was my favorite, she still wouldn't stop barking at poor George.

Then I decided to make a paper dog for my sister Linda. She lost her two Cocker Spaniels last year and has been dog-less. She would like to own a Pug,but plans to wait until her husband retires.

I named him Baxter.

manila folders books

I discovered the other day on you tube Jana of 2worlds. www.2worldswings.blogspot.com She has about 41 videos. After viewing her 3 part video on making a book using a manila folder, I decided to give it a try. It took me 3 books to figure out the mechanics of the book.

Rosemary's book was my last book that I got the look I was trying to achieve. I got to use rubber stamps,punches,ribbons,watercolor, oil pastels, and various complimentary scrap book pages that I've collected. Also I finally put my Cricut to good use. With my Cricut I was able to electronically cut the tag and the letter "R".

This book was made for my friend Mryna in Washington.

This book was made for my sister Linda. Her book was the first one I attempted.

Chinese Brush paintings

At my last Chinese brush class I worked on the following: Peony and ducks.

Once I got the over all shape of the ducks, it was fun to paint the same duck but with different color of feathers. As for the Peony...my teacher Nan showed me how I could achieve a more uniform Peony. I had been practicing Peonies on my own and was rather frustrated with my attempts. When I mentioned this to my teacher, she held my hand and gave me some tips on how I could paint my favorite flower.

Botanical Series Himalyan Poppy

I had finished this watercolor a month ago, just realized I hadn't added to my blog. Arches watercolor block, Daniel Smith watercolors. 12 x 16.

Faces of three ladies

I rarely have done portraits because I never can get the portions right, so I thought I start a collage of portraits of ladies. These are all made up from my imagination. I did each piece in my moleskin book and then used photo shop photo merge to stitch them together. I pulled out my neocrayons to add color and then used a tissue to blend.

Angel mix media art journal

I just love YOU TUBE because one can find all of these cool tutorials on line. I happen to come across a mix media artist ...Suzi Blu http://www.suziblue.blogspot.com/.
Suzi's blog should have her link to her you tube videos.

Suzi has 68 videos to watch and I have spent the last 2 days watching all of them. Her videos are full of information about creating mix media art, sprinkled with humor and her cute animals...Lulu her puppy and cat...can' remember the cat's name, but I think it's Poo Poo.

I've always have admired the work of mix media artist, but for my own work it's been just one medium at a time...mostly watercolors,or oil pastels, or colored pencils, or Chinese Brush painting. So after viewing all of Suzi's 68 videos, I decided to take the plunge and start my very first mix media art journal.

My inspiration has been my baby girl Sophie.

Angel Dog...gesso,oil pastels,acrylic paint, and glitter.

Angels everywhere...gesso,oil pastels,acrylic paint and glitter.

Sophie my Angel Dog...gesso,acrylic paint, watercolors, and oil pastels.
It's been rather freeing to work this way, finally able to use my assortment of art supplies that I've collected over the years. So now my days will include working on my Angel Dog mix media art journal.

Little bird Chinese Brush

I have been having fun this month practicing my Chinese Brush painting skills. Things I've learned...porcelain palettes and mixing trays are the best. To control water in brush, tap brush a few times to release the water; mix paint onto brush, dab paper towel to get excess, and then apply to watercolor paper. Now if I can remember this when I go to my class.

Goldfish chinese brush

Lately I seem to be practicing a lot of my Chinese brush strokes. I recently got a box of Chinese watercolor paints from China. Wow what a difference in pigment and shades of color. So here is my take on Goldfish!

More Chinese brush

Last night I did a couple small Chinese Brush paintings on watercolor paper.

A Crocker Spaniel

Gold fish swimming

Butterflies and bees.