Sunday, March 24, 2013

Spreading the Love!


I love my San Francisco Art Group and they are gracious enough to let me participate in their projects even though I don't live there anymore. For this one, we are going to exchange little hearts and create artwork out of them. The finished piece will have a little bit of everybody in it. Another great idea from Diane. On this heart collection I used acrylic paint for the background, then added tissue paper, beeswax, buttons, brads, waxed polyester cord, copper leafing pen and paint pens. I could just do these all day...

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Beeswax Postcard


I was inspired by my friend Arlene who has been doing a lot of beeswax collage lately and decided to fire up the beeswax crock pot and do another postcard for Jane Davie's little Post office. I am a little rusty but it's slowly coming back. I sure enjoy the whole sensorial aspect of it and the smell of honey! What's not to love?

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Rub and Buff Technique


This exercise was to create our background and texture with gesso first, then paint watercolor layers on top. The next step was to rub and buff with a damp cloth to make the texture in the gesso more apparent. Then I finished it by rubbing some oil pastels around the edge with my finger and then some white acrylic ink for highlights. These are really fun to do. I am thinking of making a series of greeting cards with this technique.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Gesso Flowers


Week 2 of the "Flower Crazy" online class, we are playing with watercolors, markers and gesso. This one looks line an underwater garden.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Imaginary Flower Garden

Welcome to my imaginary flower garden, where whimsical ideas bloom all year round! This time triggered by week one exercises in Carla's class. This is almost a form of meditation for me. When I am tired of working on the computer, I just go to my art studio and start doodling with watercolors, water soluble markers and white acrylic ink. It's just an exercise in mark making and I never know what it's going to look like. I usually work on several paintings at a time. I really like this one, could it be the start of my new collection?

Friday, March 1, 2013

Flower Crazy Workshop


I took this online workshop last year with Carla Sonheim. She is quite an amazing teacher and this class was my inspiration to my Sea Garden fabric collection that got me in the top 8 at the Fabric8 Spoonflower contest. You will learn so many different and fun techniques and will get to share with people in the flickr group. I loved it so much, I am going to do it again. And the great thing about Carla's online workshops is that once you pay for the workshop you get access to it FOREVER! And when she runs the class live again, you are welcome to join in for free! The class runs from March 4th-April 6th. The cost is $100 for 5 weeks! That's only $20 a week and well worth it. You can sign up for it here. I'll see you on the Flickr group!