Mixed media dog

I thought I'd try something new, using all my art supplies. I started with a 5 x 7 piece of pastel paper. I layered the following items...words rubber stamp using watermark ink, flowers, and then I drew an outline of what was suppose to be a French bull dog. Then I tried my gouache to add color to the dog and flowers. I forgot how opaque gouache can be and really didn't like how flat the color looked, so I went back in with my neocolor crayons dry, then using a wet paint brush to exploded the color. I continued to fine tune the piece until I did all that I could do. Didn't want to spend a lot of time working on this piece. Total time to create about 1 hour.

IF -- wrapped

Life is like presents...all pretty and wrapped in beautiful paper and ribbons.

Yorkie illustration that I'm working on

Here's what I'm currently working on...first draft for illustration that I'm working on for children's book.

The well was dry for a while....

The well was dry for a while. I've been taking the last couple of months to re-charge...dabbling in making cards, going to scrapbook expo's, reading, trying different mediums, going back to my first love of watercolor and working in colored pencil; so yes, I've been creating art. Some good, some bad, some experimentation, a lot not worth showing. I've also have taken an online portrait class and hope to take more.

In October I'm to going to Paris, France for 10 days of fun. Plan to take lots of pictures, do some plein air sketching, visit some of my favorite haunts, and of course go shopping!!!!

I've been toying with the idea of going to art school to study illustration, but not sure if I want to get into debt with hefty tuition...it's not like I need another degree...have plenty of those.

It wasn't until the other day when I was blog surfing I came across a blog called "Virtual Art Date" www.virtualsketchdate.blogspot.com which each month artist band together and sketch from the same reference photo supplied by a participant. As I viewed some of the entries, I got excited about wanting to participate. Not that I'd join, but just attempt to sketch reference photos that interested me. The first reference photo I choose was as Rhododendron bud submitted by Jeanette Jobson. I got out my treasured color pencils and have spent the last day and half working on this drawing. It felt good to draw and just be in the moment of art. So I hope to do more sketches from the site. I find it interesting to see other artists take on the same reference photo.

In the meantime, I was offered an opportunity to illustrate a children's book. I'm looking forward to working on the illustrations. So at the moment I feel happy and content and glad I took a much needed break from blogging...but it's sure good to be back!!

Hydrangia Oil Pastels

Lately I've been wanting to try to paint in an impressionistic style. You'd think it would be rather easy, but it's not. I guess all my years of painting realistic has helped knowing what rules to break and determining different shades of value. I'm practicing small 8 x 8 and eventually will work towards a larger canvas.

Experimenting with neo-crayons

For the past twelve years I've lived with a chronic illness. I have lupus, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue. So I draw or paint when I'm feeling OK. I'm always looking for a way to create when I can't get out of bed. My preferred medium is watercolors, but becomes a little tricky trying to paint sitting up in bed and not spilling water all over the bed. I do use watercolor pencils and neo-crayons using a Aqua-flow brush--it's not a perfect solution, but at least it allows me to be creative.

So today is one of those stay in bed days...I wanted to go for an impressionistic painting, using only 2 complimentary colors...yellow and purple. I used my Neo-crayons on 140 lb watercolor paper. Size 8.5 x 11.

IF - Celebration

A celebration wouldn't be complete without tons of balloons!

Introducing.....Coco

Never take your spouse to the animal shelter because you could end up with a new dog!!!

Right after Xmas, my husband and I took a donation box to the local shelter. At my suggestion I told my husband, let's go see the dogs....Big Mistake!!!! The smell in the kennel was so bad that I turned around and went back to my car. A few minutes later my husband comes back with 2 dog numbers. With tears in his eyes, he said we needed to send some money to extend these dogs lives.

When I called the shelter to make a cash donation they told me that they didn't have the capability to take cash donations, but said I could adopt. One of the dogs was already on hold and also had tags. This little guy was scheduled to be put down the next day.
My husband said we could adopt and he would train,then find him a good home.

Well you know where he found a good home! Yup you guessed it...US...
Coco suffers from separation anxiety, but for the most part he is a sweet little dog and rather smart. He's learned how to use the doggie door; he knows sit, come, and stay; and he's bilingual...Spanish being his second language.

What I learned from this experience is that pound puppies are costly...what should of been $52 to adopt...translated into $500 in vet bills. Needless-to-say, he has wormed his way into our hearts and the biggest surprise is that he favors me instead my husband!!! LOL

Add carving rubber stamps

A new hobby...carving rubber stamps. This is addictive. I ran out of all my soft rubber to carve my own stamps. I guess that means a trip to Dick Blick!!!! I would really love to take a class on print making.

Purple Irises ink drawing

I'm really getting the hang of working with acrylic ink and using a dip pen to draw these irises. I used white Bristol paper and FW acrylic purple ink.

Rubber Stamps

Last night I was up til 1:30am carving these stamps. Once I got the hang of carving the birdie, there was no stopping me.

If -- Time

There is nothing like Time to take a nap with your favorite blanket.

Magnolia Ink drawing

I've always loved the way pen and ink drawings look. Trying to achieve depth and values in one color. So I decided to do a series of pen and ink botanical drawings that once I get my brand new Epson Stylus Photo R1900 Printer, I will be selling prints in my Etsy shop.

Dogs in Chinese brush painting

This was a fun classing painting dogs in Chinese brush. So much easier and carefree. The brush just jumped off the page and I was amazed how quickly dogs could be painted.

Tiger Lillies

In my Chinese brush class in January we did Tiger Lillie's...

Chinese brush work of birds

Over the last few months I've painted these birds in my Chinese Brush class.

I'm Back...

To Kick the month off...a western meadow lark....

I'm back...for the past several months I've been exploring other mediums and trying to figure my artistic voice. I've been making greeting cards, book binding little books of my watercolors and Chinese brush paintings, and working on botanical watercolors. I needed this time just for me, without the pressure to post daily...to just create. Needless-to-say, I've acquired more art supplies and tools. So I'm slowing going through my studio and weeding out art stuff I really don't use.

I've also re-discovered sewing. For Christmas I got a fabulous embroidery sewing machine and have been taking classes on how to use it. I've made a Xmas quilt,dog collars, and table runners. I'm even thinking about making slip covers for my living room furniture. Yes I know a little ambitious, so I might start small...like my ottoman.

I'm looking forward to the coming months to share all my creations.

IF - - Flawed

If everything in life was perfect, I wouldn't have flawed clothes.

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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