Friday 31 August 2012

Week 2 - PLAY



This was week 2 of my online art course, and it was PLAY week.  As we age we tend not to play anymore or very little.  We get busy with life, get serious, or too busy to play.  Go back to being five and find a swing to swing on, a skipping rope to jump with, go splash water in a lake, go tag your neighbor.  You're it!

 The concept of playing is so important in art and the creative process.  The instructor reminded me not to get so serious about painting and not to worry so much about creating a master piece but concern myself with exploring new ways of painting and listening to my intuition.  Get rid of the should’s and the should not’s in your head.  Don’t worry if it’s not ‘right’.  Don’t try to impress others with your painting.  Your painting doesn’t need to make sense.

Everything that has happened on my canvas so far is supposed to be there.  I love how the instructor says “it is a part of the story that is your painting”. 

There was a lesson on color.  Something I didn’t really need to learn as I have taught art for seven years, and have personally taught this lesson.  But the idea was to try combinations of colors as you create the canvas.  To avoid mud, it’s important to keep your cools and warms separate. 

This week it was important to play, to build on the variation of marks, to become more comfortable in how to use the tools to paint on the canvas, and finally to incorporate all colors in the same layer avoiding mud.



On the fourth day it was important that I play with value.  Value is the lightness or darkness of a hue.  Value goes from light to dark and everything in between.  So we used black and white and played, sometimes moving the black flush with the white to see what would happen.  It was obvious that the light was coming forward and the dark was receding.  It was also amazing as to how much the canvas came alive with the sharp contrast of white and black.



The final day we took color, added some water and/or glaze to it, and with our fingers, glazed over the top of random areas of our canvas.  This I loved, and I found a new color which I love.  It’s a gold and when I put it on my canvas my canvas was smiling.   It was very cool.  I also liked to put one glaze over another.  The combination of the two glazes and the marks underneath was quite spectacular. 

I felt like playing some more so with my fingers I started making more marks of lines and swirls, and dots.  I really did feel like I was playing and yes it was freeing.



There are still three more weeks to go in this course and I am sure that my canvases will look a whole lot different when I am done.  I can hardly wait to see what I create!



Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good work makes him glad.

Proverbs 12:25

  

Saturday 25 August 2012

Painting Party at Art Dwellers


We had our second Painting Party last night.  It was a blast.

In preparation for this event, I marked the middle of each canvas so that my guests would know where to start making their stripes, then I cut out enough fleur de lis from paint-able wallpaper for everyone.

To begin with, I had everyone choose two acrylic paint colors that would go in their homes and use the lighter of the two to completely cover their canvas.  While that was drying, I asked that everyone paint the same light color on their fleur de lis.  

While the fleur de lis was drying they needed to start the stripes.  Each started with 1.5 inch painters tape down the center of the canvas using the marks I gave them for a guide.  After the first strip was put on, they lined up the next strip right along side of the first.  Then they lined up another strip beside the second making sure that the tape didn't overlap.  Then they pulled the second strip off.  They used the second strip they had just pulled off and placed it flush with the third strip and then placed another strip beside that one.  Again, the middle of the three strips was removed.  This continued on until there was no place left to make stripes.

A darker, deeper color was used to paint the second stripe color, and then immediately they pulled all of the tape off their canvas.  Now they had a striped canvas of their light and dark colors.  They went back to the fleur de lis and lightly brushed the top of the raised paper with the darker color they had chosen earlier.  Some even put a third color on. 

We went ahead and glued the fleur de lis to the striped canvas with mod podge and/or my favorite fabric glitter glue.  Then they dry brushed some colors over their stripes.  Once that was complete they outlined the outside of the fleur de lis with a dark color.  

Finally they glued, with E6000, the metal strips I had prepared for them. 

Everyone was so pleased with their piece, and some art has already been placed on my guests walls:) 

 I just need to say.  The art was good, but just hanging out with these women was the best!










  

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Enlightened






This is the first of five weeks of the online class I wanted to share with you.  Please try these ideas in your journal pages if you are keeping up with your journal, or use them in creating a piece of art.  This week was a lot of fun.  I did some yoga, something I haven’t done in years.  It was basically 5 minutes of stretches, breathing, and shaking it out.  All it took was 5 minutes for me to feel relaxed.  I am going to write that down for future use!  Anyways, the purpose obviously is to relax enough to approach the painting without care.  It worked!

Now feeling relaxed I put on some music that I loved, dabbed my canvas with warm colored acrylic paints and with a foam brush, rag, and spray bottle started moving the paint around the canvas.  The intent was to fill the white of the canvas with color and to just let my intuition tell me what was next.  There was no need to worry about what it looked like, I won’t see much of it in the final layer.  What I found was that I needed to remind myself that I don’t need to make anything in particular, just do want feels right.  It was fun to see how the paint dripped and moved after I sprayed the canvas with water.





In the second canvas, the instructor suggested that I blindfold myself.  So blindfolded with a palette full of warm colors, I started swaying to the music and marking up the canvas with long, short, broken, etc. marks.  It was even more freeing than the exercise on the first canvas.  I couldn’t see where to go, I just opened my senses to the sound of the music, the feel of the canvas and paint, and the movement of my body.  As you can see, the result was quite different.

  
The instructor had some insights worth sharing.  She said, “what you choose to believe about yourself and about life often becomes what is true”.  If you change your thoughts you change your life.  She suggested that you could change your life story just by what you think.

She suggested asking these questions of yourself:  “how do you perceive yourself as an artist”, “what is your relationship to your intuition”, “what is the most challenging thing about making art for you”, and “how do you perceive yourself as part of a creative community”.  If your answers to any of these hold negative remarks transform your answers into positive ones.  She suggested that you write your affirmations down and say things like:  “I embrace the creative process with patience and trust”, instead of,  “I will embrace the creative process with patience and trust” .  Catch yourself and begin to reprogram how you talk to yourself and the world around you. 

On another day, cool colors were used in the second layer.  It is really important to wait until the first layer is dry before starting the second layer.  If the first layer is wet, the colors on your canvas will turn to mud.  After doing some more yoga, and going about painting without expectations, I used a foam brush, a bristle brush, my fingers, a rag, etchers, random objects for stamping, and a spray bottle.   She gave two pages of ideas on possible ways to use these tools, but in the end it is up to you what you want to do.


This has certainly been a new experience for me and I certainly would not have gone about making art this way in the past.  I can hardly wait to see what is on the agenda for next week.  I’ll keep you posted…


And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.
Isaiah 58:12

To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24




Friday 17 August 2012

Third Layer - Louise Nevelson




 
Louise Nevelson, 1899-1988, is a favorite artist of mine.  She created abstract wooden environments, or sculptures, out of found objects.  Her work is especially appealing to me as I love working with wood and I love architectural pieces.   What I also love is the texture and her ability to show depth through layering and shadows.  I have long wanted to do a gigantic piece to hang on my wall.  I have started collecting objects and intend to get to as soon as I can. 

 

She is my inspiration this week.  First, I searched around the house for objects that I could use in this project because I wanted to make sure that my sectioned off page would fit my objects.  Sectioning off of the page was done by hot gluing popsicle sticks directly to it.  You can use whatever you want or whatever you have available, even simply, strips of paper.


I started hot gluing objects to the top of the page and worked downwards.  Once I had the objects laid I boxed them in with the popsicle sticks.  Be mindful of balance, and variety.  You want your page to look interesting.  It doesn’t matter about color obviously as, in Nevelson style, you will paint over the whole piece with one color.  Her colors used were white, black, and gold.  As this is a journal page, white works nicely as a background for words and thoughts.



I took my page outside and spray painted it white, you can also just use a paint brush and paint it.



When the paint is dry, use a sharpie and start writing.  Very cool.

PROMPT:

Being envious of someone is a lousy feeling.  Why is it that we want what others have.  The new clothes, the new car, the house, spouse, etc. etc.  I  believe it's because we have been conditioned to believe that these things will make us happy.

Millions of dollars a year are spent on advertising what you 'need' to have to be happy.  I've got to tell you, many of my happy times were when I had barely any possessions at all.  While being a student, and single mom, I lived in a basement apartment that had leaks in the ceiling, the power would go off every time I plugged in two things at the same time, and I dealt with bugs and bats.  Despite my living conditions, what made my life wonderful were the friends that I had, and the son I loved and still love so much.

Going back even further, I grew up in a family of eight children.  I had to share my room until I was late into my teens, I received hand me down clothes, presents consisted of one or two items, and certainly doing any activity that cost anything was out of the question.  At no time did I think my life stunk because I didn't have the material things others had.  What made my live great then was that I had wonderful friends that I was able to hang out with and share my life with.

Having oodles of money and possessions does not guarantee happiness, that is for sure.  Simply look to Hollywood lives of the rich and famous.  There is a lot of unhappiness evidenced there.  This condition is not exclusive to Hollywood as I am sure you are aware.  No, happiness, I believe comes from having people around you that care about you, and that you believe that you matter in this world.

Let me encourage you to take a look around and appreciate the non-material things that are important.  Your friends, family, and relationships.  Less time at the mall, more time visiting and sharing with people who matter.

***********


But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

1 Timothy 6:9




  

Sunday 12 August 2012

Third Layer - Contact Paper



 
Here is a simple tool to use in your artwork.  Contact paper is available at Target, Walmart, some Grocery Stores, etc.  What’s nice about contact paper as a stencil is that you can stick it onto your art piece and paint right over the top of it with no concern about the stencil shifting.
 
You may remember this background from a previous blog.


I still wanted to see some of the background so using contact paper was a good option.  I started by drawing a tree scene on the contact paper and then cutting it out.  I peeled the white paper off of the clear plastic then stuck the plastic onto the artwork.



With a little bit of blue and black paint I applied a light coat over everything, including the plastic.  Then I peeled the plastic off.


To achieve the leaves I cut a few out of the white of the contact paper with a box cutter.  I then used a muted green and stenciled the leaves around the trees giving the illusion that there were leaves behind the trees.  When the leaves were dry I stenciled some brighter ones on top of the trees.




I needed some moons, so I cut out a circle within a circle.  I put the large circle down then put the center circle back into the center of the large one.  Then I stenciled it a few times on the art piece.   I then took the center circle and painted around the edges.  This resulted in the area where the circle was placed untouched and just the area around it painted.


I wanted stars so I punched some holes in a piece of paper and stenciled the stars onto the background of the piece.  Then cut out a bird and stenciled it a few times.


I stenciled some letters onto the piece which certainly changed the look.


Another thing you can do with contact paper is 'photo transfer'. Basically you take a photocopied image, place it on the clear contact paper, burnish the image on the contact paper making sure that you don't have any air bubbles, place it into water, wait for about 20 minutes, then remove the white paper.  You can use a credit card, on end of a knife, the end of scissors, or whatever to burnish the photo onto the contact paper.  This method is good when you want to put on image over top of another image that you still want to see.  For example, you can put words over a painted flower.  Note, the photocopy should be best quality.






I placed the transferred image onto my artwork but I was unable to see it very well due to the darkness of my artwork.  I went ahead and cut out a lighter tree to put the image onto.  Cool.


PROMPT

Peace.  Oh yes peace.  There are people who are constantly going, talking, partying, and on and on.  They never seem to have a minute of peace. 

I was one of those people who felt like I needed to ‘do’ all of the time.  Always going places, entertaining people, making things, etc. etc.  I still have a high energy level but I have finally recognized my limit.

I am a people pleaser and feel drawn to do for people even though I am tired.  In the past, I never seemed to get enough rest.  Then one day I said ‘no’.  That’s a foreign word of mine.  I don’t want to let people down or disappoint.  I find much joy in giving.

You know what, the sky didn’t fall that day I said ‘no’.  Nothing exploded.  The world didn’t disappear.  The truth is, I was able to refresh, rejuvenate, and start again with more energy and a happier heart.  All I need is one day.  It just takes one day for me to re-energize.  No noise, no people, no internet, nothing.  It’s amazing what a difference it has made for me.

Now, when people ask me what I want for a gift, I tell them one night, by myself, in a nice hotel. There is nothing quite like it.

How can we be effective if we don’t take time to re-evaluate, think, and contemplate?  I believe that we sell ourselves short when we don’t take time to just be quiet.

What is your limit? Take the time to rejuvenate and refresh.   You are so worth it.

Believe it or not.  We really do care about you.

 

 

 Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.  For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

 

Mark 6:31




  

     

Sunday 5 August 2012

Third Layer - Owl Journal Page







This week I thought that I would tackle the metal owl that I started way back at the beginning of this blog.  I have been struggling as to what I was going to do with it, but today, I thought, is the day.  So off I went and collected metal objects around the house to add/embellish the owl. 


Overall, I just wanted to build on what I had already.  I found washers, nails, metal buttons, tacks, wire, strip of metal with holes punched into it (not sure what my husband uses it for), metallic looking cd’s, metallic looking circles used for crafts, foil, and mesh wiring.  Not knowing where to start I just started with the eyes.  That was easy considering owl eyes are round.  I put a circle of gold foil underneath them to accent them.

With regards to the washers, cd’s, and anything else metal, you can decorate them using, nail polish, embossing powder, and enamel paints.  All of which I just happen to have at my disposal.  You do not need to prepare the metal for nail polish or enamel paint, but when you use embossing powders, you will use a embossing stamp pad prior to the powders.  Rub the embossing stamp pad on the metal, shake the powder on top, then heat with a heat gun.  When you see the powder melting, you are done.  You can blend colors with all of the above.  You are limited by your imagination.
 





Cutting metal is easy.  All that you need is a metal cutter available at any hardware store.  I put the mesh wire on top of the owl and used a sharpie to outline the shape of the owl’s tummy.  I then simply cut out the shape and attached it to the page.





As for glue, you can use E6000 on metal.  I used ‘kids choice glue’ on my page.  It worked really well.

Wire is versatile.  I wound a beak for the owl using a 24 gauge wire available at the hardware store.  You can use anything for the armature.  I used a piece of cardboard that I shaped into the beak and just wrapped the wire around it.  I’ve seen some pretty spectacular art pieces made out of wire that is for sure.

I just happened to have some foil that was gold on one side and silver on the other, so I cut out some circles, halved them, and alternated them starting at the bottom of the wings and working my way upward.

The word ‘breath’ was made with another piece of foil that was black on one side and silver on the other.  I turned the piece over on the silver side, used a pointy object to write the word BACKWARDS, then turned it back to the black side, and used some sandpaper to enhance the word ‘breath.’  Rub the sandpaper gently over the word.

The tail of the owl is a cd which is very easily cut into whatever shape you want, using a utility knife or metal cutters, and then I painted it with nail polish.

PROMPT

Lying.  Can’t stand it.  I am pretty sure that no one has been able to get through life without lying about something.  It is soooooooo destructive!

Not surprising, I have been a victim of being lied to.    Someone I knew was such a liar that he would tell a lie even if the truth would have been less damaging.  He lied just because that’s what he did.  Some would call him a compulsive liar.  The problem with telling lies is that more than likely, sooner or later the truth comes out which is immediately followed by a lack of trust towards anything that person says to you in the future.  It takes a very long time before you can trust that other person again…if ever!

I don’t want to be that person that isn’t trusted.  It is so much easier to just say the truth, be dealt the consequences, and move forward.  Why live in a lie.  How can you be true to yourself or others if you lie even a little white lie.  How can you become who you are suppose to become if you are not real.

Ask yourself…what is the worst that can happen if you tell the truth?  Then ask yourself, what if your lie is uncovered?  Are the people affected by the lie not worthy of the truth?  Do you want others to think negatively of you?

You think that your lies won’t affect others, but even if you are not found out, you know what you have done and is that really who you want to be?  A liar?

Don’t think that you are protecting others if you lie.  The simple truth is that you degrade people by lying to them.

I so want to encourage you to be truthful.  You owe it to yourself and to others...Embrace yourself.

Believe it or not, we really do care about you.

 
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers.

Ephesians 4:29