That Sunday, That Summer

I was out driving yesterday and had a local classical station playing on my radio.  On Saturdays at 4pm, they do something called "American Jukebox" and they were featuring music from the 50's and 60's.  Now, I was a little kid in the '50's....but not too young to appreciate the music of Nat King Cole.  He was one of a kind.  He had so many hit records, and some you might associate more with "summer", but I think most of us can relate at some point in our lives.... to the lyrics in this song... as we only have one more Sunday before Labor Day...take a listen....hope you enjoy your Sunday. 

The Star Book

The "Star" Book

Monthly Art Workshop

This little book, the Olde Curiosity Shoppe, is what we created yesterday in our monthly class.  It's a rather labor intensive little book, but I suppose once you've made a few of them, it might not seem so.  I always struggle a little bit in a class because I don't like to rush the project and this book had my left and right brain in opposition.  On the one half, the part I don't like, is the measuring and cutting....(there's that math :( ) and the other half, wanting to take my time with the creative aspect....here's the overhead view.  Pretty, huh?

   

...and here's a little bit of what the inside looks like.  

 

I'd love to make more...we'll see.

The Sea

Free To Enjoy The Sea

Red, White & Blue Journal

It must be the hot and steamy weather we're having that made me want to do these underwater pages in soothing colors of blues and greens.  I love the ocean.  There are "lake" people and there are "ocean" people and my summer vacations growing up always revolved around going to the beach, packing junk food snacks for the ride in the station wagon and to yelling out "I see the ocean", first, before anyone else in the car as we approached the seashore.      

I finger painted the background, and I added bits of a napkin with shell images and other sea life; the long skinny strips of paper are actually from a very large photograph of a blue lobster; and the circles remind me of bubbles; and the little brass sand dollar just because I liked it.  I titled it "Free To Enjoy The Sea"....because we can...that's my little patriotic inference to this spread.  Below are more photos....

 

Lazy Days of Summer

This past weekend was muggy and hot...not my kind of weather.  So I loved having the excuse of staying indoors and doing some more art work.  The pages above are in my Strathmore Journal.  I did the background pages first using the Caran d' Aches water soluble crayons.  These crayons put the richest colors on the paper and then with my water color brush....just moving the color around....it's so much fun.  On the left I painted.  I didn't have a picture to look at, no lemons in my fridge, but I put together a still life... I kind of like the page....I love the colors and am of pleased with being able to create the transparency of glass...without looking at a glass pitcher.   
The picture on the right...I loved how the crayon background came out and I collaged the butterfly, frog and the bird.  I am anxious to keep working in this journal....and experiment with being more "free" with my art.   Is there a rainy day coming up next weekend????  I was going to show the individual pages...but my computer is giving me trouble so this is what you get.

CHERRIES!

It's a HOT day here in CT and when I same home from running some errands, I was hungry.  One of my favorite summer treats...aside from ice cream....is CHERRIES.  I love cherries.  As you can see, they were my inspiration for getting these two pages going.  I love Black-eyed Susans too....  I ate the cherries and saved some stems and literally glued them to the page.  And there are a bunch of tiny seeds glued there as well that came out of the seed packet....why waste.  

I've been motivated this week by some YouTube videos I've been watching of Donna Downey doing her Inspiration Wednesdays.  So much fun!  She glues and sprays and finger paints and more....on her pages and they are amazing.  Now these two pages aren't quite as "free" as she does...it takes practice to be "free"...to bring back that inner child we left behind.  My water spray bottle actually wasn't working so I grabbed the next nearest spray bottle I could find and it was Windex with vinegar ...this was when I was doing the background color...but it didn't seem to hurt the picture so I continued. 

I had one more inspiration for my "cherry" painting....a glass fruit plate

I have a set of eight glass fruit plates that I found a year ago at a consignment shop....can't believe someone parted with them....wish you could see the glass itself with the tiny bubbles in it and the artist etched her signature on the right....maybe you can see it on the black.  Of course, what really drew me to the plates is the border....I love the black border.  There are eight plates, each with a different fruit.  As I'm looking at this photo I took with a kitchen towel underneath....this might just be an inspiration for another painting!  We'll see.  I bet you're hungry for cherries now.....