Finally Back to Creating Art

I got inspired last week after viewing an email update from Sweet Repeats blog.  If you've read previous post I really enjoy this artist style and would someday love to be able to some day go to one of the art retreats I see listed on her blog.  I viewed her video of creating art outside one of her friends stores on site one day.  I finally felt the strong pull again to create art not just craft.

I texted a friend right away and asked if she wanted to come over that Saturday and paint/create outside since it was suppose to be a perfect weather day here in Rochester.  We started our day by going to Craft Bits & Pieces where I quickly used up my gift card I'd been saving since Christmas. My most exciting purchases that day were some plastic stencils and some good paintbrushes. We stopped by the Fairport Farmers Market and I treated myself to a homemade Amish molasses cookie which is my favorite. And then headed back to my house where we pulled all the materials outside on the patio, put some music on and created for a few hours.

I choose a large canvas that I got at Savers last fall for 4 dollars. It had a painting on it already but I had previously gessoed over it so it was ready to go.  I went wild just creating layers and textures using stencils, stamps, spray paint and acrylic paints. I also used a spray bottle with water and would sometimes stand the painting up and spray it down. I did some splatter painting, used some random everyday materials like a coffee cup cardboard holder, a sea sponge, and so on to create lines and patterns.  This was so much fun and I liked the result that I almost didn't want to put anything else on the painting. But in the end I stuck with my whimsical theme of late and lightly added in an abstract hill, tree, flower, and house/or tower. Can you see it?

This was a perfect day! I love creating and need to bring it make more into my life. It's been sliding for the few months and I need to make it a priority again.  I had enough energy after creating on my hands and knees on pavement for 4 hours to go run 7.5 miles! That a testament to the rejuvenating properties of creating for me.

Here's my friend's piece. She seemed to enjoy the day and creating. She purchased this canvas from Craft Bits and Pieces for 1.50 and decided to work on creating a jewelry holder like mine. She's really good at collage and has way more patients than I would have using that medium of art.  She took some nails home with her and hopefully I will see the finished product soon.

Here's my friend's finished piece. It turned out awesome!

Whimsical Acrylic Painting for Art Show

I completely forgot about the faculty/staff annual art exhibit and for the past 2 years I've participated in it. So here I was with less than 2 weeks to figure out what I wanted to create and submit into the show. I actually narrowed it down to only 1 weekend this past weekend as work was about to get crazy including a weekend conference out of state.

I took a co-worker and couple of 40% off coupons to Michaels Craft store on a lunch break last week and with my co-workers help I purchased two 12"x24" canvasses for a total of 15 dollars.  This was a bit pricey for me but hey when your working on a time crunch sometimes you gotta pay the price.

I thought I'd create a couple of mixed media paintings using owls as a main focus. This was because my sister likes owls and I thought she may want the paintings to hang in her house when they were completed. (I Facetimed her when they were completed and asked but while she liked them they weren't "her colors".)  I went on the internet and searched mixed media owl images and came across this woman's blog called Sweet Repeats (actually I may have misspoke- I may have found her by looking up owl images on Pinterest and a painting came up and provided a link to her blog).  I really enjoyed looking at her artwork, style and technique in general. http://sweetrepeats.blogspot.com/  I saw that she even offered a course/workshop on how to create whimsical owls. After researching the net for some inspiration I got down on the floor (literally) with newspapers, paint and canvasses to start to create.

I ended up creating my own backgrounds on the canvasses by layering a few different shades of paint after first applying one color to each background. I used different materials around the house to create different textures and patterns, including a pick/comb, an old credit card, the paper holders around coffee cups from a cafe hot cocoa purchase, a body wash luffa sponge, a couple of paint rollers, and stamps.  This was a fun process. I must say that a blow dryer that I got just for craft purposes was the best investment and idea ever! Up until a year and a half ago for some reason I never thought to use a blow dryer when layering paints. I have no idea why since I'm soooo impatient. Any how the blow dryer (which was purchased at a thrift store for $4) came in very handy since I made so many layers.  The first canvas was easy to get to a place where I was satisfied with the background. The second canvas not so much. There's probably about 20 different layers on it until I got to a point where I was satisfied with it. I then referenced different images of owls and created one on each canvas. I put a tree and flowers on one and a moon, stars and branch on the other. I drew the images on with pencil charcoal lightly then repeated when I had firmed up my image. I watered down the paint colors and proceeded to paint the image and followed up with another layer of charcoal outline.

Overall I created both paintings in about 6 hours. Oh my let's just say I was sore from sitting on the floor that long even with an occasional break. Boy must be a sign of how old I'm getting.  I was really pleased with the outcome as I focused on not being perfect and just had fun experimenting with layers and colors. It came together well and the charcoal pencil was an added dimension that was different and brought interest to the pieces.

 It ended up being worth the pain as my co-workers response to the paintings were very positive and when I turned them in to the exhibit coordinator she and another woman commented on how great they were. A couple of people even mentioned how they would like them hanging in their homes. To bad we can't sell are artwork at the exhibit!  Now I'll have to decide what I'll do with them!

Whimsical "wish" Sticks

Here's another idea I saw at our local Clothesline Festival; http://mag.rochester.edu/clothesline/ this past weekend and decided to try out because I had all of the materials handy at home.  The vendor I saw that had created these decorations had a ton of them in a vase for sale for $5 each. The base was made out of a store boughten bamboo or cinnamon stick type of look.  I ended up using sticks I found all over the backyard.

This project is easy and is a good idea to help you use up all of your miscellaneous yarns, ribbons, raffia, even beads could be attached.  You simply take your left over yarn and wrap around the top portion of your base (my sticks from the back yard). You keep layering using different materials until you have the desired look you're going for.  I thought about other ideas that you could also incorporate such as attaching inspirational quotes or daily affirmations to each one. I also think kids would love these fun whimsical sticks. Some might even call them "make a wish sticks". The sky is the limit on this project.  Total time per stick about 10 minutes (it gets faster the more you create). Total cost; FREE using recycled materials.

Saturday Afternoon Art: I Wish I May, I Wish I Might...

 I finally made it back to saturday afternoon art at Leslie's. It's been a while because the weekends have been busy.

She had these great watercolors that looked expensive but created vibrant colors. I decided to test them out. I'm not really good at watercolor but I like to really wet the paper, put the ink down and then rotate the paper to just see what kind of magic happens.  I then played with some iridescent acrylic paints and stamps for some added texture. I've been wanting to create a fairy of sorts for a while but as you can see I've been more into abstract art and since it's been a while since I've actually created an actual image I was nervous. I used watercolor pencils and started forming the fairy. I ended up using a fine tip permanent black marker to make her stand out more.  You can tell I was insecure at first while creating her because she is so small compared to the large paper. In the end I wish I would have created her larger. Perhaps next time. I added some already created wooden circles and star to the image for some additional dimension.  Then for some reason the Star Light Star Bright words popped into my head.  Maybe because I've been wishing for something for a while now and wish it would come true... Again, I'm amazed at the unconscious that comes out freely while I'm creating. Most of the time I don't recognize what my art means until I'm done and sit back and reflect on it. Then I'm like, "oh yeah that makes since...that's where I'm at emotionally right now."

I'm pretty happy with the outcome. It was really fun, I got into the zone while creating and as an added bonus I don't dislike what I created!