Artists I Appreciate

Art Journal

The Omo People

Acrylics/Collage/Stamps

 If you're not familiar with the Omo people....then you should Google them....

They use nature's bounty to decorate themselves.  They are amazing.  I would like to paint a picture of one of them...but I'm not ready yet.  If I were a doll maker, I would be making dolls from their images. Isn't the face above incredible?  True artists.

 On this page, I used a piece from my GelliArt monoprint stash.  It adds some texture and color but I've painted over some of it as well and added the floral rubber stamps.   I've added the quote "Here everything has a story"....writers do it with words....artists do it with images.  The true meaning to a painting may only be evident to the artist, but, hopefully, the viewer has an experience, their own experience, when they look at the art.  Happy Sunday.

THE MATADOR

I'm home this morning, waiting for a plumber.  Is there anything more annoying?  So I pulled out some of the GelliArt papers I had done and chose this one done on card stock.

I was going to glue it into my art journal and alter it in some way.  I kept turning it this way and that.  I really liked the way it looked just as it was...but I kept looking at it.  Halfway down the paper, I saw a horizontal blue line and it made me think of shoulders....and the patterns below that line were many and some rather elaborate.  To me it looked like the jacket a matador wears.  As I looked at it some more, those circles....I could find the matador's hat in them.  And so the painting began.

 I think he's going to go in a frame.  He's about 7 x 8.  Matadors have very fancy coats so he's got a lot of gold on him.  I didn't see a plumber in the page....The Matador provided a nice distraction while I wait....and...he's kind of cute!

In The Beginning

Deli Paper/GelliArt

 Art Journal

I started playing with this journal page last weekend after I finished the "October" trees on the page opposite it.  Usually, I do a 2-page spread and the pages are "connected"; but not this time.  This is torn pieces of deli paper that I printed while on vacation in August.  I started at the bottom of the page and then I added the star paper at the top.  In the middle, I was having trouble.  At one point, I thought of covering the whole thing with gesso and starting something else.  But I persevered, and ended up with what you see here.  The stars had a paler blue around them which I didn't like as much, so I added a darker shade.  There's a lot of texture with the deli paper that is hard to capture with the camera, but I like to run my hand over the page.  And as I kept looking at this....perhaps trying to make sense of it....I thought of the beginning, creation...Genesis.  Is this how it started?

PEARS

I pulled out an old journal (2011) last night that was only half filled.  It's a journal that I was practicing techniques in.  The last two pages that I had done anything to were these.  I had done some technique to the background and never did anything more with them.  You can see some kind of stencil activity if you look closely.  At any rate....do you think I remember now what that technique was to replicate?!  

I decided to sketch a pear from a wire pear I have in my kitchen.  It's about 7-8" tall and I love the whimsical quality of it.  On the opposite page I was going to do a "pair of pears"....it's all about the pear, pair, pare!  But, as you see, I got carried away...and there are lots of pears here. The page already had the blue background and I painted the golden colors and rubber stamped with a couple of cool pear stamps that I just love.  I could do a whole little journal just on pears.  I have no idea why...just love their shapes.

FALL COLORS

Art Journal

Acrylics/Pen

The latest page in my art journal.  This is what today looks like here in Connecticut...the sky is that amazing shade of blue and the trees are all turning...I enjoyed doing these trees....without actually drawing leaves, just spreading color.  I don't have the opposite page completed yet....a work in progress.  Maybe doing a journal of nothing but trees would be interesting.

CLEANING THE ATTIC

Art Journal

Acrylic with sequin embellishments

The weather here in New England has been spectacular.  I didn't paint a fall scene...maybe I'm not ready for all of the leaves to drop!  But on the beautiful day that it was yesterday....I spent 3 hours in my attic.  It's crunch time!  My attic was in disarray and it needed some attention before it's too cold to go in there.  There's that window of opportunity between when it's too hot in the summer in the attic....and too frigid once winter sets in.  So I feel like I got lots accomplished.  Nothing like throwing stuff out....great therapy.  Christmas stuff is all together;  my son's collection, ready for him and my own things....still more to pitch but it feels so good to get things done.  And I still had time to paint.  I painted this house scene....makes me think about how important your home is to you, no matter the size or the location. I didn't add any creatures...the only sign of life are the footprints on the lawn.  All of the life is going on inside.  Day and night.  The colorful swirls in the night sky are sequins.  I love to look at the night sky while I'm waiting for my dog during his last "out" of the evening.  The sky is a jewel box! 

Day

Night

Paint & Wine Class

Trying to see the forest for the trees....

Inspired by the late Canadian Artist

Tom Thomson 1877 - 1917

I think this has been the most challenging painting of the Paint & Wine classes I've attended thus far....trying to capture someone else's  vision of the forest...and it's quite abstract which is not something I'm used to doing.  

I love painting trees, but I've never painted trees like this...perhaps they are some Canadian tree I'm not familiar with.  There is a lot going on in this painting...lots of color!  I did tweak it a bit this morning...2 hours isn't a lot of time for an entire painting...for me anyway.  Overall, I think I like it.  I friend attended last night's class....her first attempt at painting...I love what she did and I hope she loves her painting as well.  As always, everyone's painting was different which is what makes it all so interesting.  Your handwriting isn't the same as anyone else's....so why should your painting be either.  We are all unique!