Saturday, August 26, 2017

Challenge 3 - Oceania!

Oceanic art or Oceanian art comprises the creative works made by the native peoples of the Pacific Islands and Australia, including areas as far apart as Hawaii and Easter Island. ... In more recent times, the people of Oceania have found a greater appreciation of their region's artistic heritage


Khadi journal

I used The Decorative Medallion Repeating Corner Stencil, designed by Gwen Lafleur to create a medallion in the middle of my page using dots like the Aboriginal art. Then used the Angel Circle stencil designed by Kate Thompson to create an Aboriginal person in the left corner.



I tried to find The Aboriginal written language and discovered this dictionary where I found the phrase written in the top of the circle which is the story that the Aborigine is telling. 
Wangga-gu, balarrin, ge-na nganung, burrhburr-ma nga-ya-nggi, wangga.
translated into
They painted me with white ochre for a corroboree, and I danced.


(corroboree is an Australian Aboriginal dance ceremony that may take the form of a sacred 
ritual or an informal gathering.)

After a lot of research, I used the symbol for meeting place in the center of my journal 
to signify a place to meet and dance.

ABORIGINAL-ART.pptx                                                                                                                                                     More


Entering my "Meeting Place" art journal page in:

  • Patterns inspired by traditional symbols (Maori tattoos, Dots/dashes of Aboriginal Arts…)👍
  • Think Monochromatic black and white or think colors of the Earth.👍
  • Some sort of organic or natural material(s) (earth, stone, bone, bark, wood, fibres…)
  • Shapes inspired by traditional or indigenous art👍

I really enjoyed all the research into making this, hope you did too.

Friday, August 25, 2017

Re-Capping the week

It has been Avery busy week, glad the weekend is approaching. It's the first time in awhile that I have absolutely nothing planned...I like it! lol

1.  I am totally crushing on my Khadi journal. 
Just love the deckled edges of handmade paper!!!!

 This page was done for the itac-17 challenge 2, Asia.

2. Began a new Vignette Art piece (WIP)


3. New toy

I got a refracting ball (80mm) and took it out to play with. We were up in the mountains for the solar eclipse and got there early to avoid the traffic so we had some time to enjoy the scenery.


and of course there was a lot of moss, these were my favorites

moss sporophytes

British Soldier Lichen


4. TIRED
Tired pretty much sums up the Eclipse experience, I didn't even know I had misspelled eclipse in my video of the day until it was pointed out to me, lol If you do decide to watch it, and it's pretty boring, I know, please give me  'thumbs-up" to make me feel better. lol
And an art journal page which pretty much sums up the day.

5. finished Vignette Art piece
#Hahnemühle #Leonardo paper
which I am entering in Paint Party Friday and in Illustration Friday

I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Om shanti


...Art as a form of meditation!
Not sure I meditate when I create art but I do talk to myself a lot, particularly as I grow older. 😛  Not sure that counts as meditation but it might be as close as I get, and I take "close to" more and more lately.

But this is how I began in my  Khadi journal...

First I began by collaging one of the Irresistible India Collage Cut-Outs on top of some paper that already had paint and stenciled patterns from the Decorative 6-Petal Flower Screen stencil by Gwen Lafleur which has a flower mandala pattern. 

I also continued the stenciling in a similar color paint as the background paper to tie in the collage material.
KHADI 100% cotton rag PAPERS are made in Karnataka, South India
I continued by adding mark making and splattering with white paint, some hand-made washi tape made out of peacock tissue paper and tape and then added some 14K gold leaf paper as an accent.

mark making and gold leaf
A happy accident occurred when a drop of water fell onto the paper showing me a way to bring out the stenciled design more like a relief. I then took some gel medium and washed over the edges in order to highlight the effect.

I then took out my bamboo pen used with India ink to draw (to the best of my ability) the symbol OM (described as the most important mantra for worship
Om is a mantra, or vibration, that is traditionally chanted at the beginning and end of yoga sessions. Coming from Hinduism and Yoga, the mantra is considered to have high spiritual and creative power but despite this, it is a mantra that can be recited by anyone.

...and then followed with a mantra for peace, which we desperately need these days. 

Om shanti shanti shanti



· Motifs inspired by mandalas👍
· Geometric shapes
· Tiles - ceramic, pantiles, glazed tiles, or their designs...
· Asiatic flowers, such as cherry blossom, chrysanthemum, orchids, lotus, Frangipani, lilies, hibiscus etc..
· Calligraphy or handwriting👍
· Fabric, faded or dyed👍
· Powdered pigments

Friday, August 18, 2017

weekly highlights

Some things that entertained me this week:


1. Painting tennis shoes for our upcoming trip to the Oz Festival
Will post more on them as I continue working on them.

2. Trying to photograph un-cooperative butterflies like this Silver Spotted Skipper.

and this more cooperative Tiger Swallowtail


3. Finished another piece of my Vignette Art with a picture of my grand-nephew and submitted it to Illustration Friday.

4. Tried to post daily on IG...
Slowly gaining followers!
5. ATC for the Grumbacher swap
Theme: Song Inspired
I made my ColourArte monthly video by the skin of my teeth. I had completely lost track of the days and even had to cancel a luncheon date with one of my good friends in order to get it done.
Refer back to #1 and see if you can guess which song is the inspiration. 😉
Video can be found here.

6. Artist Tribe
We got to make the new team announcement for Gwen Lafleur. I'm very excited to be working with her and all my tribe members!

7. Supplies
Then my Artist Tribe package arrived. You can see my goodies HERE!

Posting this week to
Paint Party Friday

And, wow, loved seeing my painting featured on your site!
What a nice surprise!
💕

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Gwen Lafleur Artist Tribe!

Pinch me!


I'm very excited to announce that I am now in the artist tribe! You can read about everyone HERE!



 You really need to check out all the funky global-eclectic supplies that Gwen collects and sells, very unique items! You can also check out her stencil designs HERE over at StencilGirl where she is a designer.

And look at how everything arrives from her store! I don't know about you, but my first thought was "How pretty, like getting an early birthday present!"...followed closely with "ooooh, collage materials!" Actually in hindsight, I'm not sure which thought came first!

And I'll give you a sneak peek into the contents, you will be seeing more of this as I truly explore all my goodies!

I hope you visit Gwen's store and also welcome the new team!

Friday, August 11, 2017

Artist insomnia


So...the story goes like this...one day ( a couple of years ago ) I was trying to make a canvas based on Typography, and it was a big heaping pile of... failure. So there...that's out in the open!
 I don't even remember what the bottom letters spelled out, but it was some kind of message about love...blah,blah...

I hauled it out a couple of weeks and did an acrylic pour over it hoping to cover everything up and well,
 that turned out so bad I didn't even take a photograph of it, lol 
Yeah...there's that out in the open too.

7pm
Then last Saturday night I decided to just add paint... and basically anything else I could get my hands on. I even used a die cut flower that was on the floor under my desk...yep, slapped that puppy on and added more paint, more stenciling, and more mark marking. ( I was trying to channel Mary Beth Shaw )...


Now if you are looking at the face...well...truth be told I actually used the actual stencil itself. Yep, it was that kind of day, I glued that sucker right on the canvas.
Woman of Mystery stencil by Pam Carriker

8-ish pm
Now I've decided to start work on bringing the woman out a little, decided she can't be shy hiding in all those layers of paint! I'm thinking I need one large scribbly word next to her...must sleep on that one and see what tomorrow brings.


2am-ish
Now, I always have best intentions to wait...to sit on a piece and really think about it but sometimes I can't even sleep overnight on it and I find myself crawling out of bed to go work on it. That's what happened last night!


The next morning I always worry about seeing what I did when I "sleep paint"...that's what I call it when I get out of bed, groggy but determined to put an idea to use. After looking at the above picture I knew I had to knock back to white lines around her face, but otherwise I was very happy with how it turned out. Now to see if she sells....lol
In the meantime, I am entering this in
Paint Party Friday
"Divine Messenger" 
And some close of shots of the texture 💕my favs!






CHALLENGE 1 – EUROPE
Image may contain: text

  • A face 👍
  • Papers (newspaper, printed paper, rice paper…etc.) 👍
  • Letters, numbers 👍
  • Blue for the colour of the European Union, Union Jack... 👍
  • Ribbon, twine, string or lace…
  • Textures – take inspiration from history from ancient civilizations to the fall of the Berlin Wall 👍
  • Something both vintage and modern

Friday, August 4, 2017

One door closes and another one opens

As sad as it is to say that July's watercolor month has come to end I am happy to report a new adventure begins for me. I have received a couple of commissions to do my Vingette Art from a couple of people and that really excites me! I was only doing "Pierson's Great Adventures" to write and illustrate a small book for my grand-nephew to give to him at Christmas but I get to continue on working away at what I love!
How lucky am I?

day 29
Currently the last of Pierson's adventures BUT I am hoping to write that book
( just for him ) so hopefully, you will see more of that in the future

"I am 3! Hear me Roar!"
day 30
starts the work on my commissioned piece


day 31
Pen work rates as one my favorite things to do! I love how it really brings out the details and makes everything pop!


August
As #WorldWatercolorMonth is over, I've decided I'll be continuing on with my weekly posting of art instead of blogging every day...
and so this begins August
 😘

day 1
Finished "The Little Mermaid" and I love how it turned out.
I swear I could keep this for myself it's so darn cute!
Hahnemühle #Leonardo paper
"Little Mermaid"

day 2
Started on the next one...
it's too dark right now so I'll work on lightening it up some.

day 3
much better and I've decided she will be a fairy in this one!


day 4
And the second one is completed...not sure which one I like the most, but I can say this, I'm pretty darn happy with them both!
"Moon Child"
Oh and I finally got a proper phone and now have an Instagram account. Talk about teaching an old dog some new tricks, whew! I never knew hashtagging was like an Olympic sport! lol
#WhoKnew
😜
#IdoNow