Brimming With Excitement

Have you heard about Sketchbook Revival? I got the link from artist Chris Lally Thanks so much, Chris! Well, I got hooked even though I am quite overwhelmed. Each day there are 2 artists with loads of tips and gifts, it's very hard to keep up and digest all the material. I signed up rather late so I have finished watching just day 5. Today was with Irish artist Amanda Grace and I instantly connected with her philosophy and technique, in short scribbles and chaos! I worked along with her as she demonstrated 3 journal pages. Never felt so FREE! Didn't care what came out! I just had to share!
They aren't really finished, who cares, I see now as I edited the photos that I can go back and tweak, Its just a sketchbook and only for me and you! No titles here.

Art Journal Page 1

8.75 x 12"

Canson Sketch Book 65lb

Mixed Media

About 3 layers of what Amanda calls "stream of consciousness" writing. Each with different drawing tools of various widths and strength. Veiled with either gesso or white paint, I used paint. Scribbles with watercolor crayons and puddled with water to drip. Added collage papers, figures, and just plain book pages. Scribbles around the figures. When pasting the figure collage it was face down on the wet so the face of the boy got a little paint. Those are what Amanda calls art making itself.

Art Journal Page 2

8.75 x 12"

Canson Sketch Book 65lb

Mixed Media

 This started out with heavy scribbling various colors and crayons. Veiled and then scratched writing!
I AM HERE! More watercolor crayons with water. Started some ballpoint marks which I do not like.
I will probably tweak this because I feel it lacks contrast,

Art Journal Page3

8.75 x 12"

Canson Sketch Book 65lb

Mixed Media

This one is my favorite. Amanda started hers on a page that already had scribbles so I made some light scribbles and then started with transparent collage pieces, cut up a print of one of my works. Book pages traced figure, which you can hardly make out. More watercolor crayon scribbles.  Have to take another photo because I veiled some of that heavy blue. 

Really had a ball today!

Trying to Get Good Thoughts

This past month has been a sort of whirlpool. My daughter Yael and family are off on what I call The Grand Trip. They decided to take a half year "time off"! So my thoughts are with them, and thanks to good WiFi we get daily updates.

Also taking care of their 2 house cats! Quite a balancing act with Lily my dog!

Not to talk about what's happening on our Southern border and Northern border. I really need just good thoughts!

Nepal Annapurna Circuit

Reminder about how small we are

Sunset in the Philippines

As for my artwork, well it's been dragging. Haven't really been able to give myself that big PUSH.

I had started a few canvases a few weeks ago and wanted to work on them at home but just didn't get to them except to veil them with a light color. Wanted to make a new start on them and then felt that I completely ruined them. On one I did make a few marks which made it worse. I could give lessons on how to ruin paintings.

WIP

Start 

After this start, I veiled with a very light yellow and white. Made some marks, mainly dark. Forgeot  to take a photo before work yesterday!

WIP

20 x 28 " cut canvas mounted on cardboard

oils  cold wax collage

How I got here I have no idea. Covered it with black, not really black but a mix. Scraping and adding. Collage pieces. Think I will run some filters in Topaz Studio to see a new direction. I like their abstraction filter to simplify shapes. Their conceptual filter sometimes adds a punch of some color outside the range. Have to find a better solution for the righthand side. That was thin nylon with some blue scribbles. and it's peeling off. Critique and suggestions welcome!

Mythology a Modern Take

Our monthly challenge is a sort of mashup based on any mythological story. Sort of a modern-day interpretation. Decided on the story of Perseus and Madusa. My mashup, interpretation, is based on the fact that Perseus had to use a magic shield in order not to look at Medusa's face. Wonder Woman is my hero in the fight against domestic violence! I used domestic violence as an example of any social issue, it could be violence against animals, environmental, racial etc. On the shield, I placed some images over the face of Medusa. Well, the moral of the story is that we shouldn't hide issues in a mirror but face them head-on. A little far-fetched!

For this project, I made a digital composite in Photoshop and really enjoyed the process!

Don't hide behind a Mirror

Digital Composite

11 5/8 x 16 5/8 "

A3