Show & Tell

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Judy

Here is my newly consolidated and organized workspace:

My work surface is an interior flush door (80″ x 32″) sitting atop an unused computer desk. The pullout keyboard shelf holds a sketchbook and a drawer containing miscellaneous scraps of paper and die cuts I haven’t filed. On top of the desk are my most used things like laptop, brushes, scissors, pens, brayer, paper towels, and baby wipes.

I built shelves from styrofoam packing material to fit between the windows:

My rubber stamps and stamp pads fit nicely. [Thank goodness I don't have too many!]

To the left of the desk is an Iris Mini Chest containing my tubes of acrylic paint, tissue paper and two empty drawers(!). My journal/sketchbooks sit on top.

To the right of the desk are two rolling carts: one is a ten drawer unit containing my watercolor crayons, pencils and tubes, Neocolor IIs, Pitt pens, Derwent Inktense pencils & blocks, craft acrylics, acrylic inks, unmounted stamps, adhesives, brushes, ribbons, wallpaper, lace and other miscellaneous ephemera. The other cart holds my paper (trying to keep “like with like”).

On the top sits two holders I made from chipboard my friend Tom gave me:

I love my workspace. xxooxx Much happiness!

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Busy, Busy, Busy

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Judy

“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” – Dalai Lama

My 2012 words, “Creative focus” are working well for me. I’m rearranging, reorganzing and creating. I picked up some new stamps, spray inks and stencils on sale or with a coupon. But I really need to stop buying stuff and put what I have to use. I did score some freebies from my friends, Tom & Jane (thanks guys!)

Here is one I posted the other day and decided a butterfly would be a nice touch:

The colors are more vibrant than what is showing on this blog. The butterfly’s wings are off the canvas which gives the piece dimension. This is one of my favorites!

This

plus

this

give you this:

doesn’t quite “feel” finished yet….we’ll see.

Added some ephemera and paint to this one; not sure if it’s finished or not.

Here’s another of my favorites. This was sitting on my desk with just the papers glued on the canvas. I added the butterfly at some point. Recently, I added the white highlights on the wings, and yesterday I applied the black. I’m calling this one done!

Here’s another one I like a lot:

and, another:

I guess I wouldn’t post them if I didn’t like them. Right????

This piece is one of those “happy accidents”. I didn’t want to waste the excess black gesso, so I laid it down in my journal. It was a big blob of darkness. I needed to lighten it ’cause it was depressing me. So I scraped white onto it. Then I came across a cardboard roll and used it to stamp red circles on top. I like it! It also gives me an idea for a future project….stayed tuned!

Here is what I’m working on now:

Got ideas, now to implement them….much happiness!

Did I bore you????

TOUGH

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Step 1: Creating Collage Backgrounds

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Judy

My interest is leaning towards collage/mixed media ’cause you get to use EVERYTHING and ANYTHING in your artwork. What fun.

After three night shifts and some time to recover, I’m back to being a daytime person for a few days. Knowing today was going to be an art day I woke early. After doing some necessary chores, I decided today would be an image transfer day. After choosing some interesting papers, gel medium was applied to gessoed chipboard. After the pieces dried, water was spritzed onto the paper and the peeling began. Here are the results:

I also found some paint stained paper towels and decided to attach them to chipboard for use as backgrounds.

Taking a little break now. CJ is visually pleading with me to go for a walk….nag, nag, nag.

Can’t wait to put these pieces to work. Much HaPpInEsS<3

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Day 4 of 366: Discoveries

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Judy

Creative Focus: the words I want to concentrate on this year.

I need an organized work space, but it tends to get messy quickly. I try to live by the motto “a place for everything and everything in its place”, and most of my stuff has a place.

Today, I found a space for cutting, a place for ‘little bits’ and ‘don’t quite know what to do with’, a system to downsize the number of brushes occupying my desktop, a place for my finished pieces (not enough wall space to display), and an idea to use excess paint on magazine pages to later use in collage.

I also discovered I really like a turquoise/teal, light green, and cream color palette (dominate in my ‘favorites’ book).

It’s not even noon….it’s a creative focus kinda day!

Much happiness!

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Happy New Year!

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Judy

Wishing you all the best year yet.

As for me, rather than making resolutions or setting goals I’m going to keep it simple. I’m taking a online workshop, Book of Days and one of the suggestions is choosing a word to work on. As Effy writes: “The point is simple: rather than a resolution (which we tend to break), we gently and lovingly tend a word. We plant it in the early part of the year and nurture it all year long with our attention. How this word will manifest in your life may surprise you, but whatever your individual results, they will be worthwhile.”

I wrote a list of words taking suggestions from what others were doing. A magazine ad that represented one of the words popped into my life (a sign?). I reviewed my 2011 and 2012 resolutions/goals/to do list. I narrowed the list the best I could which left TWO words. I couldn’t decide between them. I started agonizing over them and decided two words would be okay. When I started to prepare my 2012 Book of Days I found another bit of text in my ‘word drawer’ that said it all. It validated my choice. So you ask what did I choose? “Creative Focus”. 2012 will be my year to focus on creating, on making art!

So to achieve this I hope to spend less time on Facebook (a big waste of time) and less time on the internet researching supplies and techniques. Let the creating begin!

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