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..... 

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.

GERANIUM

I took this photo perhaps a year ago or more....it's taken from inside the church I attend.  I love the look of the glass and the light....wonder if I could capture this in paint....it's peaceful...you know how some things just "speak to you?"  This speaks to me....

I haven't created the art to go with this Sunday morning reflection....it's always been the other way around, but here goes....

If I knew where I was going

I would be there by now

I started down the path so long ago

and yet, it seems like yesterday

I've taken some paths that

haven't quite worked out...

Is it my internal compass, 

my sense of direction?

If I knew where I was going,

shouldn't I be there by now?

I started down the path so long ago

I'm still searching..... 

There are a lot of ideas that spring to mind that might look good on paper, when I get to it....

It's Not Always About The Art

 Red, White & Blue Art Journal

"Good Night Moon"

 I'm not sure what brought this inspiration to the forefront, but I think it's actually the fact that my son is now officially a grown-up and out on his own.

I was standing in the yard on a recent evening, letting Boomer out for his last opportunity of the evening...and the moon was just a spectacular "beam" in the darkness of night....so I've had that vision on my mind, and these two pages are the result of that.  The art itself is actually minimal.  But here is what I wrote....

I see the MOON...

...and the MOON sees me...

and when you were little

we would look at

the moon and stars together

and then you outgrew

"Good Night, Moon"

and you went away to

college and I looked at the moon alone...

it was still the same moon

 shining down on you...and then

you went away and served in a war...

and I took comfort in knowing that

the same moon shined down on us....

and you came home to see

many more MOONs.

 

La Femme

Inside book cover

Every Woman Is Unique

 Acrylics, watercolor, metallic pencils, rubber stamp, collage.  I found the quote in the dress shape on Pinterest...works beautifully for my La Femme altered book.

La Femme

Altered Book

This is the cover of my altered book that I refer to as "La Femme"...all about women...the actual book itself is called Winning by Jack Welch....wonder what he would think about my turning it into a book about women!  

The..."Parsley - much more than a garnish" quote is something I ripped out of a newspaper years ago...before I even started art journals and altered books.  It used to reside on my refrigerator for quite awhile.  And now it has a permanent home.  You'll note that the female form has no embellishments on this cover except a heart.  Women are...much more than a garnish.

My Red, White & Blue journal is running out of pages...what next?

 I do think of a Bluebird as being slightly....red, white and blue....a variation of and totally deserving of being in this book.  Actually, I've done other pages in this journal featuring a Bluebird.  What can i say....I love Bluebirds.  The right hand page, while not being a typical red, white & blue in this book that I would include on Memorial Day weekend, i.e., not the American flag....I still love this doorway...a photo I Googled and knew it had to be in this book.  More...

 And I found a great photo to go behind the open doors...love that it too has the arched doorway inside, in keeping in the theme of this architecture.
Here's a more close-up of this page....

 And a close-up of the Bluebird page...

 

Red & White & Blue Journal

"The best way to find yourself is to

lose yourself in the service of others."
---Ghandi

When you see a veteran this weekend, please remember

to thank him for his service.

Thank you, son, for your service.  

You make me proud.

This one's for you!

Home & Garden Altered Book

Alternating Doors Technique

When you open the door....

...there are more doors

A very cool technique with endless possibilities.

What goes on behind closed doors...stays behind closed doors.