Tiny Canvases

When in a slump . . . start small?

For a week, I've been wandering into my art room,

staring at my unfinished pieces,

and not getting a bit of inspiration. nada. nothing.

So I dug out some little 4x4 canvases and just started covering them with paint.

I think that's just what you have to do when your muse has gone on vacation.

I don't think she's happy that I've hauled, er, ‘enticed’ her back 

from where-ever-she-was (she always takes better vacations than I do), 

but I think she's warming up to the idea of being back :-)

I'm having fun with these. I'll have to move on to something larger

since I am running out of mini canvases, but I think I'm ready!

I'm joining Paint Party Friday this week.

Please visit over there to see what fabulous art everyone has been doing!

I've been thinking about an art sales concept 

I've heard people discussing called "Pay What You Want".

It does seem a bit crazy because you do not put a price on the piece

and invite buyers to pay what it is worth to them. 

(Maybe charge for shipping and materials cost, or not even that)

Really nuts, you say ~ you might as well just give it away, right?

But plenty of people have said it works for them!

They say people are inherently generous.

I think this is probably true, especially of people who collect art.

Has anyone tried this or know of someone who has?

I'd love to know your thoughts on it!

I'm thinking it might work on something like these.

I'm no good at pricing anyway, and these are so small...

Easter is coming! 

This crazy chick already has a little bunny tail.

I think he needs some fake bunny ears to go with.

Don't forget to visit PPF!

Have a great weekend!

Channeling Georgia O’Keeffe

The first month of our art journal swap!

Going in our usual order, I have Gemma's book first. 

We've each selected artists for our books and Gemma's artist is Georgia O'Keeffe.

Panic!! I was (am!) very intimidated by Georgia O'Keeffe. Her style is so precise.

And perfect. Perfectly precise and gorgeous.
The exact opposite of my style, whatever that is :-)

The O'Keeffe paintings I'm most familiar with are all

landscapes, flowers, or abstracts.

So I did one of each in Gemma's book...

There is a place in New Mexico called Shiprock.

I don't know that Georgia O'Keeffe ever painted Shiprock (maybe too touristy for her),

at least I gather it's a bit of a tourist attraction...I've never been there.

Sadly I've only driven through New Mexico, and never got to stop.

 The foreground drove me nuts, and I wondered how in the world I would be able
to fill the rest of the page before March was out! That's when I got the brilliant idea
to create the rock out of tissue paper and paint. The process sped up considerably!

And I found in my stash some incredible green paper with gold fibers in it.

LOVE the way it tore to look like dry desert plants!
I received something wrapped in it and saved it for the perfect use.
I think it may have been Kat who sent it?
 
Georgia's quote, which proves how different she must have been to me:

“You know I never feel at home in the east like I do out here ~ 
and finally feeling in the right place again ~ I feel like myself and I like it.”

The desert has never welcomed me...I feel uneasy in the desert
and miss the lush greens of the east.

But once I started putting these pages together,
I could see that there is much beauty in the desert. I know Gemma loves it,
and posts the most awesomely beautiful photos of the landscape!

So on to the next page...
I have posted this before when it was a WIP.
Hasn't changed too much except for the quote
and a bit more done on the green parts.

And last...but should have been first lol ...
my portion of the front cover of Gemma's book.

We have 8 artists total, and the first 4 will collaborate on the front cover
and the last 4 will work on the back cover. My portion of the front
is in the lower right corner. I rather copied one of Georgia's abstracts.
I originally thought to use the design and maybe change the colors.

Then I realized that the colors she chose
and the placement of them were perfection.
What a genius she was!
Changing colors would have thrown the whole thing off in my eyes.
So I used her colors for the most part.

Georgia O'Keeffe's painting.

Mine is flat and hers has so much more depth
and shading. Maybe someone will add a bit more
to make mine look better...?

So, I'm looking forward to receiving the next journal,
which is Stephanie's. Her artist is Chagall.
More challenges! I feel more comfortable with Chagall.
But I may be surprised just like I was with O'Keeffe...

Weekly Art Challenge

The challenge at Inspiration Avenue this week 

is brought to us by Kim. It's a fun one called

Inner Child Art

I made a quick slideshow of the progression of

my childlike artwork

(This was only my second video, and while I was making it, 

I think I said a few words my inner child had not heard of :-)

But no matter, here is the finished product.

 

I'm calling her "Teacher".

I always loved a teacher who made learning fun.

Stop over at Inspiration Avenue to see 

the other Inner Child creations!

Mixed Media?

 A layered background ready for some finishing touches . . .

This has caught the corner of my eye every time I've walked past it 

in the basement for years. I always think ~ hmmmmm, so grungy . . . 

but I kind of like it!

Maybe it's the touches of pink and blue reminding me of a sunset . . .

Today I hauled it out and snapped a picture.

Can you tell what it is?

Right!

an old skateboard.

Probably took Jesse only 2-3 months to reach this level of destruction.

He used to skate every day.

Finally the board snapped and that was that.

I always wondered why skateboards had such elaborate graphics 

on the bottom when the very first thing that happened to them was obliteration.

Not sure why it was hanging around the basement, but

there's lots of stuff like that down there.

Even some more defunct skateboards, which I will check out.

Have you ever walked by something totally unrelated to art

and immediately had creative thoughts about it?

I've been doing that a lot lately . . .

Happy Monday, and Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Hope you have a good week!

Show and Tell at Inspiration Avenue

A couple of pages for Journal52.

I'm a bit behind, on just 2 weekly prompts:

Week 5, Abstract Art

and Week 6, The Art of Love Letters

Both will be fun...I'll do them early this week.

Would you know he's the baddest cat in the world?

He looks so innocent here.

 

He does stuff like this.

And fights with his sister. I don't have a picture of that.

Visit Inspiration Avenue for Show and Tell Week!

Join in with something you are working on,

you have til Sunday February 16.

Where in the World. . .?

This week at Inspiration Avenue, the prompt was the inspiration of Niina:

Around the World

There are so many places I'd like to visit that I was stumped for an idea.

Luckily, Niina told us she was playing a game on her blog where she

would give us three words, and the challenge was to create something

using those words. I couldn't resist!

Here are my 3 words, supplied by Niina:

Egypt  •  Bird  •  Stripes

Okay! I especially had to do some research on Egypt,

a place I sadly don't know much about.

I didn't get much farther than Edward Poynter's paintings. 

Poynter painted scenes of Egypt and places nearby.

His classical paintings are breathtaking. But I was struck by 

this etching of two slave girls carrying water.

I wondered what they are thinking, especially the

girl on the right.

Here is my painting based on the inspiration of the etching:

I don't know what these girls are thinking either.

The one on the right may be wondering if her friend 

knows there is an ibis on her head.

I wouldn't mind giving this another go, 

since I'm not entirely happy with it.

Last day for "Around the World" though...so it is what it is!

Hop over to Inspiration Avenue to see the 

other interpretations of Around the World.

Another prompt this week 

had to do with places also so I'll include it here.

At Journal52, the theme was 

Somewhere, a Simple Place

Any place with warm sunshine filtering through the trees is my Happy Place!

I hope you are enjoying your happy place today,

whether in reality, or in your imagination...

Happy Sunday!

Magical Journal Journeys

2013

The Magical Journals have come full circle and returned home!

I'm happy to say we are gearing up to start our third journal collaboration.

But for now, here are the fabulous pages in my

yellow, orange, and gray journal.

Thanks to all my sisters for working in my colors even though

they may not have been your first choice.

As you will see, the orange, yellow and gray pages

are fabulous all together. And I love the way the warm colors along

with the gray create a pushing-and-pulling effect.

Many pages have equated the colors with opposites like

sunshine and rain, joy and pain.

But the overall feeling of the pages is pure happiness I think!

I didn't include my own pages in the slideshow.

I'd like to say it's because I've shown them already 

in another post (I have) but actually, I forgot!

This is my first-ever video, and to say I was tense and had 

tunnel vision all day would be, well, pretty accurate.

I didn't photograph my own pages because I already had them done

and then I just forgot to include them.  And, I tried,

but I couldn't get Cat Stevens to make his song longer either. lol.

Here are the artists in order of appearance

(sort of in the order the books traveled 

but the middle is mixed up):

Priti Lisa of Priti Studio

Angie of Art Angel

Lisa (the Wright One) of The Wright Stuff

Tammy of Art and Inspirations

Kim of IMGirl

Kat of Wright Story

Stephanie of Dragonfly Design Studios

Gemma of Gemma's House

Click the links to visit each artist where you'll see all of the pages 

that were created from March to October.