Tea With Alice

Home & Garden Altered Book

Yesterday I had my monthly Altered Book class.  I and 4 other women meet and share our love of working on altered books.  We did a little bit of Alice in Wonderland.  On the left I have a gold envelope and in the envelope are a handful of cards with characters from the story that I have held together on a ring with ribbons.  On the right, we cut out a niche.  I found this amazing clock cake on the internet and had to use it.  I also have a clock and an invitation.  Alice in Wonderland is a great story to journal about, but not one of my favorite childhood stories.

 The left side

 The right side

And the cards on the ring

Let The Fun Begin

Strathmore Art Journal Cover

I decided to switch gears a little bit, and pulled out a Strathmore Art Journal....and started right in on doing the cover.  As I often find, with me anyway...I didn't want to "over think" what I was going to put there. I went to one of my favorite sources of inspiration...napkins!  I started this picture from the bottom up.  Once I had glued some of the napkin on the bottom half of the cover...an idea formed!  The napkin became the bottom of a light and airy gown on this young, red-headed woman.  I like the little bit of texture that a napkin adds to a page.  Once the painting was done....and it is the cover, after all....I struggled with what words to add...it needed words.  She looks like she's going to be doing something...fun....thus, a good theme for a blank art journal....Let The Fun Begin!!!!  (I also put a coat of decoupage on the cover to protect the wear and tear on the napkin)

Time for Tea - Home & Garden Altered Book

 
I was inspired by a photo of the Victorian wicker chairs in a lovely garden setting and I wanted to print that photo and work it into my own "garden setting"....the painted one.  Looking at those chairs reminded me of when life had a little more ....gentility?  Not sure that's the word I'm looking for.  When I look at those chairs....I can hear the birds and the water rippling in a pond somewhere out of the picture.   Perhaps  the sound of a piano being played in the house nearby. Maybe a wonderful letter from a old friend, rests on the table.  I hear life.  Life without electronics.  

A peaceful summer day in the garden

The Victorian wicker chairs

And tea in a china cup

Paint, stencils, rubber stamps, collage

LAST POST UPDATED

The last post of the woman....kept bothering me.  I was trying to do a casual, quick painting with not much detail.. being very free.  But in the end....I couldn't be.  Originally I wanted a flat face with the window that opened for the eye.  The flat face wasn't working for me...I felt her face looked more like it was from the painting The Scream!  So I started playing with it again last night.  Since it's done in water soluble crayon, I took a wet brush and kept removing some of the color.  I wasn't sure what was going to happen.  At first, I made her jaw lighter so it didn't blend into the neck....gave it more dimension.  And that was working except now I could almost see a nose forming from the way the brush had moved some of the color around...and I did not want to do a nose!!!  A nose is a challenge.  In the end, she has a chin and a nose and overall....I think it looks better.  See what you think.

Feeling the heat??

La Femme Altered Book

Well, this is a complete switch from the Still Life Study I did yesterday....it must be the heat!  I just decided to go crazy with color today, using my water soluble crayons which I love.  And the whole basis for these pages, especially the woman, is a little piece called an "inchie" which I got at an art workshop...4 summers ago???  Not sure.  But there was a very creative woman there who had made lots of "inchies" and she gave each of us one.  The inchie is what I have placed where the eye goes.....

 and I should have taken a close up of it because it has one word one on it....arouse.  So thus the sort of exotic woman here....

....looking back at you here when you open the "window."

 and this is what she looked like before I started moving the crayon around with my paintbrush.  A sassy woman of color. 

A Still Life Study - Home & Garden Altered Book

Below left is a photo I took of a window box taken from inside my church.  On the right is my interpretation of it....with a couple of notes to self...."perspective is off" and cross bars on windows are not correct".  I could have put more but then....you might not see the picture at all! 

...and the individual photos...

 

Land of the Free...Home of the Brave

I paint what I think....this isn't what I would call my usual July 4 art....I just went a little deeper today.  The painting on the left...a favorite pastime enjoyed by many.  Top left it says "the best things in life are free"...and at the very last moment, I added the question mark.  
The right hand page depicts Arlington National Cemetery...what I call...the "home of the brave"...you can't deny it...it's true.  So you get a little bit of everything July 4 in these two pages...the fun, the fireworks, the flags, and the price we pay for it all.  

A closer view

It occurred to me after I had finished this bottom piece, of course, that the headstones might have had more impact had I used my thumb and dipped it in white paint to create those....

Red, White & Blue Journal

The top picture....I'm not sure if I'm adding to it or not.  I used water soluble crayons to do the background...I love the rich color they provide...different from acrylics or watercolors.  

The Windsurfer is my "getting into the 4th of July mode"....that's my son, Tom, enjoying windsurfing on the L.I. Sound.  The back of his t-shirt has USMC on it.  We live in a great country....where we can enjoy leisure activities like...windsurfing.  This was painted with acrylics.