Fishing

I remember fishing with my family as a young child.  When we went in my dad’s boat on the lake, we would sit for hours (or so it seemed) without the fish taking a bite… talk about BORING!!  🙄

When I was a teenager, we started creek fishing which was much more EXCITING!  😃  We could actually SEE the fish swimming in the creek water.  And we caught fish!  Hooray!!  I recall how wonderful they tasted knowing I caught them! 👍

Two of my sweet friends from Germany and I are going on our own CREATIVE, fishing expedition starting September 1st and you are welcome to join us if you’d like!  🐡

My goal is to create 50 mixed media fish and post mainly on Instagram.  However, a fish or two may swim onto a blog post! 😮

I started experimenting with materials and here is a fish appetizer for you:

I will show you my fish finding tools on Friday.  I hope you join me!

Cheers!  🙂

Face It

OK, it was not easy to come up with a title for today’s post… if I must “face it!”

How do I describe these silly faces?!

They were created from my faces I did on Tuesday and then cut them up and mixed them up to create these new wacky faces!

It kind of reminded me of a meeting I had yesterday with a group of people where I felt totally out of place…  Not because they made me feel this way but because I realized that I didn’t fit into this group.  Have you ever felt this way?

They were all “left brains” and I’m more of a “right brain” thinker…

I realized that it was OK that we are different – we don’t have to ALL think alike…

Or look alike!

Or create art alike!!

Cheers to being different!  🙂

Bird Sox

Weird Bird Wednesday meets Bird Brain Inventions…

Don’t be out on a limb without your bird sox!  Lol!

I hope you have a happy day, whatever socks you like to wear!  🙂

Hot Pink Hippos

I loved the hot pink Bougainvillea growing in Oaxaca!  And I found a bright pink wall too…

Hot Pink!  What comes to your mind when you think of this color?  I’d love to hear from you!

As far as hot pink hippos… one of our drawing assignments was to draw a contour of a stuffed animal in Oaxaca.  I kind of fell in love with the hot pink hippo:

Carla Sonheim taught us how to take our drawings a step further and create a colorful animal – a fun way to doodle!  Here is my hippo:

Hip Hip Hoorah, it’s Saturday!  🙂

Enjoy your day!

A Mixed Media Experiment

I remember when I was a young girl, I tried to make soap.  It didn’t exactly turn out but it was so fun to explore the possibilities!  😉

Now I enjoy experimenting with different art materials – even if it doesn’t turn out exactly as planned.

I like painting my own papers for collage yet I wanted to try different materials.  For this yellow fellow below, I glued scraps of my Gelli-printed papers to a 9×12 inch sheet of 90 lb hot press paper.  I added yellow marker and color pencils.  It was very meditative to do while watching TV.  I am going to try scanning it and make copies from it.

For “In the Loop,” below – I used Canson 9×12 inch gray toned pastel paper.  I drew the loops with a white gel pen and added color and patterns with Prismacolor pencils.  I got out an orange crayon and created a resist with a mint green Tombow marker.  So fun!

I can’t wait to add these two experiments to my collages!

Happy Experimenting!  🙂

A Happy Celebration

I started this still life a few days ago hoping to add some collage papers to it:

It looked too symmetrical so I decided to add some orange marker:

I like it better now.  It reminds me of the day after a party like on New Year’s.

Do you have plans to bring in the New Year?  I’d love to hear from you!

Happy Celebrating!  🙂

A List of Likes

I don’t know about you but I’m a “List Maker.”  I like creating lists because a) I have a poor memory and b) I like crossing things off my lists – as a feeling of accomplishing something – even if it is rather small.

The list I created here was a different kind of LIST.  It was an art form!

I created a list of what gives me JOY in an old book of names:

Sorry the light isn’t very good…

Here is a better photo:

I started with while chalk paint and wrote into the wet paint with a pencil.  After it dried I added a dab of this and that to complete my list:

Of course I have more likes than what is on this list!  Perhaps I will have to make another “painted” list…

This was a lesson in the Word Play Painting online art class with the fabulous, Lynn Whipple!

I would love to hear what brings you JOY!  🙂

Happy List Making!

What Do You Love?!

I finally got a few moments to START Lynn Whipple’s new online class, WORD PLAY!  I love playing with words so I know this class will be a so FUN!

I created this in an old dictionary using white chalk paint, water soluble wax pastels, Tombow markers and pencil:

If you could choose one or two WORDS, what do you love?

I would love to hear from you!  🙂

Happy Saturday!

Is My Monster Mash A Smash?!

“I was working in the (art) lab late one night….”  And finished coloring my monster doodles that I started in my art journal:

I colored with Copic Markers and Prismacolor pencils.  I had a “smashing” good time.  LOL!

I had fun watching the Monster Mash You Tube video:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2PoSljk8cE

I hope you will too!  🙂

Happy Doodling!

S is for Sunflower

Today I will show you how I made my Sunflower on my wood block:

I started by making some sketches in my journal:

Next, I sealed my wood block with a coat of gesso.  After it dried, I drew my image on with a fine point black Sharpie marker:

Mixing Golden Fluid acrylics and Liquitex Gloss Medium, I painted my block yellow and then added some colors on my sunflower:

I wasn’t liking my colors real well, so I decided to paint it red and sand it:

I then added more paint:

And sanded it again:

I liked how it looked kind of old or vintage.  So I finished the back side by gluing a piece of scrap paper and a quote I typed on the computer.  I painted it so it looked old:

Next, I nailed small nails into my sunflower on the front and painted the nail heads yellow:

I also added an “S” sticker to the bottom left corner.

I finished it by attaching eye hooks to the edges and stringing a wire with a few beads for it to hang:

I will probably add a coat of varnish before I hang it outdoors…

I really like how the sunlight reflects the nail heads!

Hope you enjoyed seeing how I created my sunflower!

Happy Creating!  🙂