I'm Baaaack and it's Fall

No I did not fall off the face of the earth. I just had a very busy summer, involving a home improvement project that we tackled ourselves. It involved demolishing a bathroom down to the studs. Installing drywall, tile, a vanity, a toilet, baseboards, and painting. And as always when you start one project it inevitably leads to another... so I decided to repaint the lining room as well. All this while shuttling the kids between swim class and art camp. Needless to say I got no crafty stuff done all summer.

Now that the dust has settled and the kiddos are back at school, I've been looking around for some inspiration and I stumbled on some great stuff!

This Butterfly Album is one of the coolest books I have seen

This Plastic Bag Album is a great way to recycle those ubiquitous plastic bags, see the completed one here

There was also a tutorial on making canvas covers for paper bag albums. Loved the idea of painting canvas for the cover so I started working on a fall themed album and painted some canvas. Planning on embellishing the cover with some flowers and these great copper leaves.

4 season girls

6x12 wood panel

burned 

painted 

layered 

collaged

waxed

based on techniques learned in 

Les Petites Dolls with Suzi Blu

Muse

I don't know why I but I'm always working on several projects/paintings at the same time.  I currently have at least 6 different paintings in various stages of completion and this week I worked on yet another piece. The Muse...

It's for my friend Barbara, it's her birthday next week and she's been having a bad week, not to mention feeling uncreative lately, muse-less one would say.  So here she is, a Muse to hopefully tempt her to come out and play, Happy Birthday Barbara! 

I recently had a little discussion with a fellow Workshop student about multiple projects going on at the same time and basically, it boils down to this: 

1. I like to have several pieces to work on because I don't always have large blocks of time to work (I still have lots of mommy duties) so I like to do things in batches, sketch out several boards, burn the outlines, color wash the first layers etc. Working in batches is great for stuff like wood burning or waxing  because once I pull out all the tools involved I might as well do more than one, before putting it all away again.

2. I sometimes get anxious about the later stages or the finishing, it's sometimes easier to start an new project than to work out all the challenges of finishing an old, half done project, so I just start a new one. 

3. I also like to start new projects  because I fear running out of ideas (I don't know what to paint) or I think my current ideas are not good enough (this panting is so lame!) so I keep trying with a new project.

But in the end, the fact that I actually do finish some of stuff I start, makes me feel like I'm not giving in to these fears but challenging myself to work through them. When I have an excessive number of unfinished projects, I challenge/force myself to finish at least one of them. It also helps to have a specific goal and deadline in mind, like the painting I made for my friend. Sometimes I make a list of the unfinished projects and get satisfaction in crossing them off the list when I'm done. There is much to be said for the feeling of accomplishment of getting something done that doesn't get undone (like laundry or washing dishes...)

So here's to finding your Muse and being brave enough to let her into your studio.  

me and the boys and kitty too!

I just wanted to post a few pictures of the board I've been working on this week.

It was inspired by a painting Suzi showed in the class review video. It was a commision she did for a woman and her daughter.  It made me think of of doing a portrait of me and the boys. Of course this is a challenge because we were mainly making pretty pretty girls, and making handsome young boys is hard without making them look too girly.  So I made a few sketches and decided that the boys, look less girly if you shade only the upper lip, keep the lower lip more neutral and for older boys, making the jaw line more square seems to work well.

It is 12x24 birch plywood. A picture of me, my two boys, and of course Beauty, our kitty.

dreams of home

here's another one i'm working on. it needs lots more layers but i'm loving the idea of putting words in the hair, it adds another texture and point of interest in the overall picture. can't wait to put beeswax on these paintings to finish them up, perhaps next week, in between my chauffeur duties ha ha ha...

tissue collage

here's my latest work in progress

a little experimentation with tissue paper collage

lot os layers of panted tissue paper and printed tissue

10x10 stretched canvas