Altered Book

I started this altered book with my friend Arlene in May 2013 and I am just now getting back to it. Yikes! The name of the book is "The A to Z Adventure Journal". The concept is to use one full spread per letter of the alphabet, do 2 or 3 spreads and send it around. I did the first two (Airplane and Boat) and Arlene did the following two (Compass and Desert). I decided to do EAST for the letter "e". Not sure what "f" will be yet, maybe FOG or FERRY or FOUNTAIN or even FORTUNE TELLER! Let's see what happens, it's an adventure, right?

Ornaments Gift Wrap Contest

I remember the silver tinsel Christmas tree we had when I was little. I would watch it glow at night and it would transport me to another world full of magic and fairy tales. I did believe firmly in Santa Clause and imagined the world he lived in to be all sparkly, all the time. To this day,  I love sparkly objects because they bring back that little girl in me and the magic feeling of that Christmas tree. I wish I could add a little glitter to this design for the Spoonflower Ornaments Gift Wrap contest, but if you squint a little, I bet you can see it sparkle! See all the entries for the contest and vote here!

Turn Over a New Leaf!

"Turn Over a New Leaf" is the title of my entry for the annual Spoonflower Tea Towel calendar Contest. A new year means new beginnings and is always so full of potential. To 2015, the best year ever! Vote in the contest here!

Les Parapluies de Sophie

Another Spoonflower entry, this time for the Umbrellas themed contest. I titled it "Les Parapluies de Sophie" because when I was naming my little illustrations in photoshop, they started to feel like characters: Para coeur, para fleur, para fraise, para pompom, para pois, para ligne, para froufrou and para sol. "Les malheurs de Sophie" by la comtesse de Ségur was one of my favorite books when I was young and I think Sophie would have like these cheerful little parapluies. Almost makes you wish for a rainy day! See all entries and vote here. Thank you for your vote!

Musical Chairs

Here's my entry for the latest "tables and chairs" Spoonflower contest. I drew a bunch of chairs and tables, scanned them and started playing with them to create a pattern. Somehow I couldn't fit the tables in, but I could probably fit it them in the collection somewhere on a different fabric. This design reminded me of playing musical chairs with its little row of mismatched chairs.  Are you ready to sit down when the music stops? See all entries and vote here.

Big Fat Art

Last week I took another workshop with Jane Davies at the Pacific Northwest Art School. The name of the class was "Big Fat Art" because we worked on large pieces of print making paper. I love working big because you can't get too precious about your work, you really have to use your whole arm to make wide gestures to cover the entire page, so you end up with interesting mark making techniques. We worked with color, line, shape, pattern and layering. Another super fun and inspiring class with an incredibly talented group of women! Jane is teaching again next year at the same school on Whidbey Island and I would recommend you register early if you are interested, her classes do sell out quickly.

Port Townsend Open Studio

This year, I decided to participate in the Port Townsend Studio Tour taking place this weekend, August 23rd and 24th, where 36 artists will open their studios for demonstrations and display of their work. For my demo, I will show how to do a monoprint using a gel plate with acrylic paints, masks and subtractive techniques to create a variety of interesting textures. It’s a fast, fun process and it’s all about layering and letting go!  My studio will be open from 10am to 4pm Saturday and Sunday and I will be also be selling paintings, greeting cards, wrapping paper, fabric and other items. Please stop by if you are in the area!

Thyme after Thyme

Here's my entry for the latest Spoonflower design contest. You can see all the entries and vote here. You can also order this design on fabric on Spoonflower or as a cell phone or iPad case on Keka. The original name was "Green Vines" but I renamed it "Thyme after Thyme" on Spoonflower to enter the Herb Garden contest…crafty, n'est-ce pas? And who doesn't need a little more thyme?

Le Pied Dansant

Le Pied Dansant | Mixed media on wood panel | 12 x 12

I was invited to be in a group show at the Edison Eye Gallery. The theme for this show is "DANCE" . I cut out the song titles about the right and left hand in an old "Pageants for Piano" music book I have. I also added some text from my favorite vintage french astronomy book that talks about the movements of the stars. The title of the piece was inspired by a song by Stefie Shock, a French Canadian singer song-writer. The opening reception is this Saturday, July 19 from 5 to 8pm. The show goes until August 3rd. Come and see it if you are in the area!

Cosmic Garden

I entered this design in the Fabric8 contest on Spoonflower and I am sorry to say I didn't make the first round (the top 100). But I guess I didn't really respect the theme which was Cosmic Voyage. I used a painting I had done a while ago and created a repeat in photoshop and called it Cosmic Garden but it does look more like an underwater garden… I did get a lot of positive comments on the Spoonflower site, Diane F of Kansas said: "This is one of the prettiest fabrics I've seen! Seriously, it's just gorgeous. I can't stop looking at it." So all in all, I feel pretty good about it and I ordered a yard in silk to make a scarf. Can't wait to see it printed!

Monoprint Collage Workshop

Last weekend I took another workshop with Jane Davies at the Pacific Northwest Art School on Whidbey Island. It was a Monoprint Collage class using the gelli plate. I highly recommend any of her workshops but you have to sign up early because she sells out really fast, online and onsite. I made 14 paintings in 2 days, some of them unfinished, some of them I will probably just leave as is or add a little collage here and there. This was such a fun class that it inspired me to sign up for the Port Townsend Studio Tour on August 23rd and 24th and open my studio to demo this technique. Stay tuned for more info as it gets closer to the date.

Recipe Tea Towel Contest

This is my entry for the Recipe Tea Towel Contest on Spoonflower. Here's the contest guidelines: "No matter where you live in the world, nothing spells comfort like a home cooked meal from your mom or grandmother. Celebrate the important culinary women in your life this Mother's Day by designing a lovely recipe just like mom used to make." I decided to use my grandmother's recipe because she was such an inspiration to me, not only was she an amazing cook, she was also an incredibly talented seamstress. This is a french canadian version of a "trifle' that she called "bagatelle". You can vote here! Thank you for your support!

Grand-maman Lucile

Floral Coloring Book Wallpaper

And on to another Spoonflower contest! This time the theme is Floral Coloring Book Wallpaper. We had to create a black and white design that is ready for crayons, pencils, and markers to go wild! See all of them and vote here.

I made the top 10!

YAY! I made the top ten in the Spoonflower contest. This is the picture of the printed fabric they posted on the Spoonflower site with this very handsome gentlemen holding it, what a nice touch! I want this guy showcasing all of my fabrics, he would make anything look good! Thank you again for your votes!

Cut & Sew Reusable Shopping Bag

Here's my entry for the latest Spoonflower contest. We had to design a reusable shopping bag to fit on one yard of fabric. I used one of my original acrylic paintings on canvas as artwork since I didn't really have time to design anything new (I just decided to enter this contest at the last minute, there is nothing like a deadline!) You can vote and see all the entries here. Thank you for your vote!

Working in Series

For the last lesson in Jane's online class, we worked on a modular piece. We had to use one of our piece from a previous lesson and explore it further. I decided to use my grid collage as a starting point and create a series. Each piece in a modular piece is supposed to stand on its own. So I worked on 9 paintings at the same time and just started rolling paint on all of them first.

Then I added some collage elements with transparent tissue and deli wrap and other kind of papers.

Then I added paint, stamping and more collage on top until I was happy with each of them.

I could also use just these four pieces as a modular piece. I really liked working in a series because I wasn't getting too precious about them, I was just trying some stuff and using as much variety as I could using the same colors and design elements. I figured that if I ended up with 2 or 3 paintings that I liked, I would feel pretty good about it. Turns out I like all of them, even though some of them are not quite finished yet. That was a very fun class, I highly recommend it when she runs it again next year.

Working the Grid

This next lesson was about variety and connection and how to put it all together in a grid format. I had a lot of fun doing these because I love patchwork, texture and pattern, and because the graphic designer in me loves grids and the artist in me loves to break out of them. We used transparent collage paper to bring it all together which reminds me of working with beeswax and adds another dimension to the whole thing. I really need to do more of these...

Color and Texture

Lesson 3 of my online composition class was all about color and texture. We had to create oversize swatches and play with different textures. I think they look so good together like colorful italian tiles. I particularly like the feel and look of the matte medium applied over paint and then painted over again. I have to remember to use that technique in my paintings, it gives it a lot of depth. Then we had to create a simple layout with 3 colors only. It was very interesting to start with a color with the intention of painting over it and just let it peak through. Gave me some good ideas to do some faux finishes too!

Jane Davies Extreme Composition Class

I am taking an awesome online class with Jane Davies and I am way behind. I just finished lesson 2 and she is already at lesson 6 which is the last one of a 6 week class. I will see if I can catch up because she is an excellent teacher and gives amazing feedback so that would really be a shame to miss out on that. The class is called "Extreme Composition" and in this lesson we had to play with shapes and lines. That was pretty fun and it's good to be painting again. On to lesson 3!

I Believe in Circles!

I was in Santa Barbara last week to visit my husband's family and I remembered that I promised a painting to a friend of mine when her house burned down a year ago. She had all this beautiful art from her mom who was a wonderful artist and she lost everything in the fire, the things you can't replace with money. I have been meaning to do a painting for her but I wanted to know more about her color palette in her new rebuilt home. She told me she had a large 5x4 feet canvas at home and that I was welcome to just paint it while I was there. I went to the art store, got some paint and in 3 hours created this painting incorporating all the colors from her walls! She loves it! And it got me painting again, a win-win!