Just Leaf It

I love looking at leaves in the Fall.  I am always fascinated by their shape, color and design like this one that has a few holes in it that I found at the lake:

And here is its backside – isn’t it funky?  Its pattern is what attracted me to it in the first place!

I enjoy playing with leaf patterns from my memory and imagination too – like I recently did with an Elegant Writer pen in a 9×12 inch watercolor sketchbook:

I’m in love with this pen!  🙂  It is so fun to add water to it and watch it change!  A lot like leaves “magically” change color in the fall.

Yet, I wondered what would happen if I added “fall” color to my leaves?  So I added my Neocolor water soluble crayons and a little water…

And they MAGICALLY came to life!!  May color add a little MAGIC to your day…

Cheers Friends!!  🙂

Birch Tree Inspired

I remember the big white Paper Birch tree that my parents planted in their front yard.  As kids, we took its lovely shade and beautiful white bark for granted.  It was a shame when it became diseased and had to be chopped down.

I planted a River Birch in my yard a few years ago.  It is supposed to be more resistant to disease.  It has a light pink bark that peels.  I love how it dances in the wind like yesterday when I snapped this photo.  It’s leaves are starting to change from green to gold and look dazzling against this brilliant blue sky:

It was my inspiration to play with patterns in one of my sketchbooks.

I started with loose sketches of leaves in Neocolors (water soluble crayons) and then painted yellow india ink over the leaves.  I also added a blue background with the india ink – using Dr. Ph. Martin’s colored ink.  I have never “painted” ink on before – how fun!

I finished it by gluing some of my Gelli-printed deli paper on top with a glue stick:

It was very relaxing to just “play” and I encourage you to give it a try!  🙂

Did you have a favorite tree when you were a child?  I’d love to hear about it!

Happy Experimenting!  🙂

Flowers In Her Hair

I painted these flowers in memory of a friend who recently lost her battle with cancer.

I painted them with fluid acrylics on canvas board.  I stamped into the paint with bubble wrap to create the flower centers.

I think many of us have been touched by the lives of people who die from cancer too soon.

I glued some of my gelli-printed deli paper onto the flowers with Matte medium.

My friend was courageous in her fight.  Although we only knew each other online through art classes, I will miss her gentle spirit.

I added Neocolors to finish my painting.

I’d like to think that she is now wearing flowers in her hair like this haiku I wrote:

Flowers in her hair,

Dancing in a meadow free,

Cancer’s chains released.

Peace!

Gelli-Printing Experiments

I enjoyed doing these acrylic printing experiments on the Gelli-plate while at the lake last week.

Here are some of my results…

Printing on deli paper, I added some metallic paint that I hadn’t done before – not sure you can see it in my photos but it gives an interesting sparkle to them:

I tried drawing patterns with a permanent black pen first before adding several layers of acrylics on the Gelli-plate.  The watercolor paper on the left is hot-press and the right is cold-press.  I found that the cold-pressed paper added a nice texture to my design.

I made various marks using Neocolors and Tombow markers first.  I used 90-lb hot-press watercolor paper on both of these:

I like how the water-soluble marks bled or softened depending how much water I used with the acrylic paints.

I added some watercolor or gouache paints to the background of these first.  Can you see the negative print of a leaf (red outline) on the print on the left?

And for this last one, I painted my circles with gouache first on 140-lb cold-pressed watercolor paper.  I was careful to allow some of the gouache to show through my acrylic paint layers.  I really liked this one:

I’m curious to hear what you think!

Happy experimenting!  🙂

Moose On The Loose!

On our way to the lake a couple of weeks ago, a large female moose trotted out on the highway in front of us.  Luckily, it was further away than this close call that I recorded in my art journal last year, here.

I decided to create a mixed media page in one of my larger watercolor journals.  I started by gluing a page from an old book on trees to my page.  I then painted it in watercolors.  I added a stencil to create a pattern.  (Excuse the rocks weights in the photo…it was a windy day!)

Next, I drew a pine tree branch with needles using Tombow markers, Neocolors and color pencils.  I also drew a pinecone:

I glued a few pieces of my gelli-printed paper to the page and added a little more watercolor:

Then I drew my moose and an upside down owl with Neocolors:

I like the look of watercolor on the paper but when I applied the collage papers, I lost some of the watercolor.  I’m still happy with my finished page.

May your Sunday be sunny without any moose sightings…  🙂

Loose Landscapes

Letter “L” is for loose landscapes at the lake!

As a warm-up exercise for my online class, Y is for Yellow with Carla Sonheim; I did some quick sketches on leftover watercolor paper scraps with a gray and black Neocolor crayon:

I painted several pieces of  watercolor paper with house paint samples that I had leftover from Lynn Whipple’s Big Bold Flower Painting class.  Once dry, I used Dick Blick’s Economy “Blickrylic” acrylic paints to paint landscapes based loosely on my sketches:

It was lots of fun!  🙂  This assignment inspired me to paint landscapes in colors I would not normally use such as these colors:

As you can see, I have them ready to put in my old “ledger” that I showed you in my post yesterday.

Now, I want to try large and loose landscapes on canvas!

I encourage you try painting loosely and boldly today!  It may give you a new perspective on life!

Happy Painting!  🙂

Paint Outside The Lines

I remember trying to color “inside” the lines as a child.  It wasn’t always easy.  So I found it very freeing to allow my paint to drip outside the lines on this abstract:

If you recall, I started this painting as a rose on Aquabord.  You can see it below on the left.  I wasn’t happy with it so I decided to rinse off the watercolor which left a faint under painting that I kind of liked:

I then drew a grid pattern onto it with a pencil and started coloring it in with Neocolors.

It was fun to add water to the Neocolors and allow it to drip outside the grid lines.  At first it reminded me of a map of a countryside.  I was thinking of humorously naming it, “Turn Right At The Red Barn.”

I next decided to add some of my gelli-printed collage papers to it with Matte Medium:

I was very pleased with how it looked on the Aquabord.  I felt like it was almost done but it needed a little something, something…lol!  So I sparingly added red collage paper that had a very subtle circle pattern on it.  I am please with my results:

Now, I will seal it and frame it.  One of the nice things about Aquabord is you don’t have to frame it under glass once it is sealed.  I kind of like that concept!

I see myself doing more paintings with Aquabord.  Would love to know what you think!

Happy Experimenting!  🙂

The Flapjack Bird

A friend made us cottage cheese pancakes at the lake this weekend which gave me the idea for today’s Weird Bird Wednesday…

The amazing Flapjack can condense its body almost as flat as a pancake when it senses the flying Frypan close by:

When I was a child, my dad used to pour the pancake batter into creative shapes.  I don’t remember any birds however.  Lol!

I hope this gives you a smile today!  🙂

Pass the syrup, please!!

Pizzazza

Sometimes it is fun to add a little color pizzazz to objects that are not very colorful.

I added a little “pizzazza” to this bouquet of white lilies:

I started with a watercolor background.  Next, I created a sketch of the vase with a brown Inktense color pencil, added some of my green watercolor painted collage paper to the vase with a glue stick and then dazzled it up with Neocolor water soluble crayons.

It kind of makes your eyeballs go, WOWZA, huh?!  😉

I also did a study of seashells in my own colors:

These shells were done in watercolor, Neocolors and Prismacolor pencils using REAL shells for my reference.

Wishing you a fabulous day with a little pizzazza!  🙂

An Abstract View

In May, we start packing up our car and heading to the lake on the weekends.  I thought you might enjoy seeing some of our views from our drive to the lake – in an abstract way!

In the Spring, the wild Lupines grow in the meadows in shades of blue and purple:

As the days get longer and summer arrives, so do fields of daisies and purple wild flowers:

In the fall, the cattails appear growing in a marsh area next to the highway:

I hope you enjoyed the drive!  I’d like to explore these small abstracts in greater detail.  These were done on 6 x 4.5 inch hot press watercolor paper with Neocolor water-soluble crayons.

Happy Exploring!  🙂