Gooeyness, Stickiness, Rippage

In case you can't tell from the title, I've been up to my elbows in gesso, glue, gel medium, and stacks of paper. I am working in my altered book and have been prepping pages and then waiting for the gesso to dry before playing with image transfers, paints and collage. I've been spending my Tiger baseball watching with a magazine and scissors cutting out words that might come in handy in my art.


One really problematic thing is that my waxed paper is sticking to the pages and sometimes pulling off some of the things I've put onto the pages. Have you ever had that problem? Is it product? I'm using Golden Gel Medium as my main "glue", Liquitex Gesso, and a variety of paint products including Neocolor II crayons, Golden acrylic paints, watercolor paints and many pens. Could it be that I am reusing the waxed paper too much? Is there some kind of contaminant on it that is sticking to the pages instead of keeping them from sticking to each other? Help! Help! I'm afraid much of the fun disappears if my pages begin to disintegrate when I pull the waxed paper off.


Here is a pile of torn papers that compelled me to include "rippage" in the title.

Much of this is from "art starts" that I bought at a warehouse sale at USArtQuest.

 

I am happy with some of the pages and will share them here.

Obviously Neocolor IIs bleed when PPA is brushed over it. The pear is cut from wallpaper.

The pear and apple were drawn with Neocolor II crayons.

See the damage beneath the lady image transfer?

This is the facing page of the trees below.

Long wrinkles in this page suggested trees and so.....

Both the backwards text and the stamp in the corner are image transfers.

I also spent a little time doing some quick sketching in my everyday sketchbook.

And what blog post would be complete without a picture of a guest artist at work? This is my youngest guest artist. I predict you will be seeing a lot of her and her work here in the future.

I am happy to report that I ran a 5K on the treadmill yesterday. I am a bit sore today, but then I haven't been jogging since I hurt my back last weekend. I am just about to get ready for my fitness/conditioning class this morning and am hoping the stretching will help with the soreness.

I hope to spend more time collaging today and am tempted to pull out a small canvas and try that as my substrate to see how that works out.

What are you planning for today? Are you making time for yourself and your creative spirit? I hope so. Do share your art online - there is such a warm, supportive community in cyberspace, which is so helpful especially for those of us who work primarily alone. 

xoxo

Busy Weekend and A Guest Artist

Miss M stayed overnight with me on Saturday and was here until mid afternoon on Sunday. She was a great motivator as she wanted to do art. I have so many photos to share today, I hardly know where to begin. I suppose I should begin with a photo of the artist herself. I liked both pix so well, I decided to put them together.

And it seems logical to then segue into showing you her art. These are two renditions of her still life. She really did a good job, don't you think.

We set up a couple of still life arrangements that included a lunchbox, a wood block, and a stuffed leopard.

We drew on 8.5 x 11 printer paper which I folded "hamburger" style to begin so we would have a chance to try the sketch twice. I actually wanted to rearrange the items, but Miss M wanted them to remain the same, so I just moved to the other side of her.

Here are my sketches.

I wanted to leave the lunch box and block unadorned, but Miss M didn't think it would be complete unless I did it all.

Later that afternoon we set up  a couple of angels that I received from the bride at my nephew's wedding as a token of thanks for doing a reading during the ceremony. Miss M has sketched these many times and did again, but she took the journal home before I had a chance to take a photo of hers.

Needless to say, I had a lovely, busy weekend, which included a visit to the talent show that Miss M's big sister (Miss P) sang in, but that is another post. I also spent a bit of time trying to paint on some hand made Khadi paper and had mixed results. That, too, will be in the next post.

So today I have my conditioning class at 9:30 and my Zunba class at 6:30 pm. I hope to get a chance to do some more art in between. I sure hope you are doing fine and that you are finding time for yourself and your art - don't forget your loved ones. Maybe they would like to be your guest artist.

xoxo

Photo of the Day and A Favorite Guest Artist

Today's photo is of a sunflower that is just beginning to open. It is so fun to see the random placement and the amazing number of these flowers. I am guessing that birds are either really gluttonous trying to carry too many and drop them as they fly, or (perhaps more likely) they are dropping them from their "exhaust" system almost continuously.

At any rate, here is one in its beginning stages. I really like the greenness and the fuzzies, and the out of focus color behind it.

I had an unexpected guest artist yesterday and she began asking about "bainting" almost as soon as she was in the door. Before long we (actually she) was doing "awrt" and looking like an old pro. I love her attitude and her complete freedom to choose color without thinking about it too much.

Needless to say, I didn't get any art done yesterday, but I had a great day with this one and then with her 2nd grade sister after the bus dropped her off. Their Mom came around dinner time to pick them up and they stayed for BLTs and then by the time the kitchen was cleaned, the Tigers were on. I went to bed really early last night and slept in until almost 8 am. Perhaps I've caught up a little on the sleep I didn't get the last couple of nights.

I am planning to do more with the heron. Since I can't lighten it up very easily, I will try darker in the background and around the heron's head and some darker color in the water in the foreground and around him. Thank you so much for your lovely comments and suggestions, but for today's class I am planning to sketch some kind of waterway through trees with a lone fisherman in the water. At least, I think that is what I am going to draw. I'll share both the drawing and the first stages of painting tomorrow.

For now, I hear the treadmill calling. And while I am walking perhaps the "fishing in the river" idea will begin to take a more definite shape in my head so that when I am ready to sketch it out I'll know what it is I am trying to accomplish.

xoxo

Guest Artist and My Zendoodle

When my little artist arrived I got out the elephant picture and a plain sheet of paper for her and showed it to her. She said, "Do I have to draw the same picture? Do I have to draw an elephant?" Of course I told her no that it was just a project idea. She immediately began her picture. I think you can see some of the elements from my elephant picture, but she wanted to draw a lion instead.

Here is her picture. I think I like it better than my elephant.

And while she was drawing her masterpiece, I worked on my current zendoodle. Here it is. I think it is done:

I am writing this Friday evening as I finish up my packing and I am trying for the first time to have this scheduled to show up on Monday morning, by which time I will be up  north at my Mom's house. It will be interesting to see if it gets posted as scheduled.

I will try to stay in touch and will try to get some art done.

xoxo

Groundhog Day and Another Birthday

It is groundhog day and that means the hubster is celebrating another birthday. Dana and the girls are coming out for dinner and I have promised to make her favorite Flu Chaser Chicken Soup. I made the stock last evening, so the next step is to get a head of garlic sprinkled with olive oil and into the oven.

Meanwhile, I have a guest artist in the studio this morning. She is new to the art scene and at this time is mostly concerned with drawing around her hand and what we call "sticker art". Here are pictures of her progress this morning:

As you can see, she takes her art pretty seriously. There are already three finished canvases (read colored card stock) being held up with magnets on the refrigerator. I am now happy to announce that I non longer have two young artists sharing my studio, I now have three.

I'm pretty sure my only art to get done today will be the making of soup and the caring for the little artist who will be with me all day. Right now I am being serenaded by the little one and she is asking for me to find Barney on YouTube so that she can watch it on my computer.

I hope to see you tomorrow.

xoxo