A new canvas from the last couple days, seems to be romantic. I’ve done three others with basically the same palette so it looks like a new series is born. Paper foundation with Mod Podge™, acrylic paint, buttons, tag stamped and journaled, then a whirl of charcoal with a stamped birdy. A little charcoal was used to define the hair. Found objects are sewn on, not glued, that way I know they are on there for good. I may make greeting cards from her, I think she’s sweet.
Archive for the ‘New Mixed Media art’ Category
Sees the world spinning around
Posted: January 4, 2012 in New Mixed Media artTags: found, journaling, mixed media, new art work, painted canvas, painting
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My artwork at Artpool Gallery, St. Pete, FL
Posted: December 31, 2011 in New Mixed Media artTags: art journaling, found, mixed media, new art work, painted canvas, stencils
My work has been juried into Artpool Gallery in St. Petersburg and may be seen as of today. I will be showing six pieces in my romantic fantasy series (My Love appears above), and my 4×6 pieces recently printed by styrofoam plate. Artpool recently reopened in a large building on Central Avenue across from Haslams book store, for those living in the area. Please come by and see this great gallery space and visit my work! The piece above is canvas surface embellished with paper, paint, stenciling, found object hankie, bird, spoon and roses from my husband that I dried myself. The objects are sewn on and the final touch was journaling with a white Sharpie Poster Paint™ pen.
Guadalupe print, recycled styrofoam
Posted: December 29, 2011 in New Mixed Media artTags: found, guadalupe, print, recycled, stamp, styrofoam
I got froggy yesterday and made several printing plates from recycled styrofoam. It is one of my favorite ways to make an image, especially if you want a folk art look. I happen to be reading the new release from Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD, “Untie the Strong Woman”, which is about the sacred mother archetype. It’s a fabulous book! It inspired me to draw this Our Lady Guadalupe with a pen onto the styrofoam. I then “inked” the plate by smoothing gesso across it with a credit card, leaving a thin layer. I had already prepped a found plaque with white gesso and simply pressed the plate on top with medium pressure. Voila! I discovered as I was adding some pencil details that I could scratch through the white gesso down to the original photo on the plaque, thus creating a sgraffito look that I think enhances the folk art quality. The last step was a thin layer of beeswax to protect and deepen the layers. Save that styrofoam from the market!
Funny Bunny box
Posted: December 21, 2011 in New Mixed Media artTags: art journaling, found images, mixed media, new art work, wood box
This small glass topped box is hard to see in it’s entirety in a blog format. The picture is a found photograph someone took of a bunny at a drainage ditch. The bunny is tiny compared to the enormity of the area it was in and the rest of the picture so I took a good bit off one side of the photo. Then to bring the attention more to the bunny goodness I smeared some white gesso (it looks blue IRL too) around the edge and made a little bunnyhead drawing on the lower left side. On the bottom of the box I wrote Funny Bunny over and over again in pencil. There is some journaling about the photo and what appealed to me about it along the front edges of the box and the sides. I found an old fashioned looking bunny illustration in an old Compton’s Encyclopedia that I cut out and glued to the outside bottom of the box, completing it. These pieces are actually little thought experiments for me. Why did somebunny take this bunny picture? Why did they keep it? Is it their bunny or a wild bunny? Why were they at a drainage ditch? Pick a thought and build a box around it, that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
The Specific Gravity of His Sigh
Posted: December 20, 2011 in New Mixed Media artTags: art journaling, painted canvas, painting, Poster Paint markers
The second canvas I’ve blogged in the series of obsessive love and compulsive thinking. This is Persephone with her six pomegranate seeds that were eaten in the underworld and brought six months of winter to the above world. The title of this piece is The Specific Gravity of His Sigh. The base is gesso, paper napkins, paint, the original photo, handmade paper and the top layer of embellishment is pencil, gel stick and the (by now) infamous on this blog Sharpie Poster Paint™ marker in white.
I added the second picture so that you could see the obsessive pencil writing in her hair and on her face. The writing just repeats the title of the piece over and over. She’s really worried about that sigh…haven’t we all?
She likes her men off the rack
Posted: December 14, 2011 in New Mixed Media artTags: art journaling, journal canvas, journaling, painting, photography, stencils
This is a 12×12 journal canvas that is one of five in a theme of obsessive love and compulsive thoughts. The title is “Off the Rack” and is composed from two original photographs, a background of tissue paper, heavy stenciling, working back in with acrylics and brush and then journaling on her face with pencil and on the canvas with white Sharpie™ poster paint marker. When these pieces appeared in a show, I was surprised that men were as interested in them as women.
Praying by Amethyst River
Posted: December 13, 2011 in New Mixed Media artTags: painting, self-portrait
This mixed media painting was completed a couple years ago and I would consider it a self portrait. Tissue and handmade papers were used, as well as a book with Asian calligraphy that became the tree trunks. The striated nature of the composition was intentional. The hair is seashell. I’ve been asked many times why the figure has one eye closed and one eye wide open. I have no answer for that, except an affinity for owls and perhaps the idea that our vision is really incomplete, as if seeing with one eye only.
Map of the Hand
Posted: December 11, 2011 in New Mixed Media artTags: art journaling, journaling, mapmaking, maps, mixed media
In my art journaling workshop for seniors we make a map, and often choose to map our own hands. I made this map several weeks ago on white 12×12 scrapbook paper and included junk mail cut outs, drawing, watercolors and random journaling for that day. The frame around the earth image was rubbed with crayon. I find maps relaxing and fun to do and try to map something several times a month. Personal Geographies, the new mixed media book by Jill K. Berry is quite an inspiration to those who love maps or want to experience making their own. Check it out!
Meet McDreamy. I based his coloring on a boyfriend from high school and he is worked on a 4×12″ canvas in Caran d’Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons. On top of the canvas and under his chin are pieces of painted masking tape from another project. His name is scrawled in pencil. I have five other boy canvases made to balance out the estrogen of the girls who appeared in my first blog post.
Camera shy guy
Posted: December 9, 2011 in New Mixed Media artTags: found images, mixed media, new art work, stencils
Camera shy guy originally was a found photograph from the ’50s of a man in what seems to be his new TV/electronics store. I loved his big old hand trying (nearly successfully) to block his face, with all his retro equipment in the background. I bought a cool book of stencils just for the telephone poles and was jones-ing to use them. The photo was shopped a little in Elements, affixed to a canvas board, stenciled and painted (Golden’s Micaceous Iron Oxide was one paint I used). I then put lines on his big old hand and drew him a pocket for the pocket protector you KNOW was waiting on his desk. Leslie Curran bought this piece for her cool store, Interior Motives, 1110 Central Avenue, St. Pete, FL. He accepts visitors but remember, he’s shy…
Crickyn 