Art Journal Page Video - Nasturtium

Work In Progress - Gate

Photos of old things -> old memories -> tiny paintings. 

Learning Through Seeing

It's better to draw from life, but sometimes I like to flip through my photo albums for appealing shapes. 

I really love the shape of a gate that was at my grandparents' house (probably gone now). It wasn't until I started drawing it that I realized how poorly constructed it was! At the risk of "ruining" the simple sketch, I ended up embellishing it a bit with these birds. Why not?

Journal Post 6/24/13

I've been watching a few videos on youtube of sketchbook flipthroughs because they are very inspiring and telling of how far I have to go. I need a creative challenge.

Art Journal Page - Change

Scrap Happy

Today, give yourself permission to not have breathtaking scrapbook layouts and just have fun with it.

Super Update

Oops, I totally skipped yesterday. First day back at work completely wiped me out I guess. But after so much awful sanding, priming and painting, our bedroom is now looking super classy in that grey. *Whistles*

 

 

Of course, not without a bit of drama in which a store employee had a mishap with the mixing machine which led us to paint dark patches on the wall, which led us to buy twice the paint we needed in order to fix it - *inhale, exhale* - but it's looking good now. I still want to try painting on a subtle pattern with the same colour but in gloss but that's probably not going to happen unless I want to buy more paint. 

noooo.

What else? Just a little journal play. I haven't been incorporating too much beyond acrylic paints at the moment as I've been working from the couch. It's also really relaxing to take an image that is already there and just... paint around it. Rotoscoping might be my calling.

Another thing that happened last week is I finally received my package from peachycheap which contained several sheets of beautimous stickers! So beautimous. These will make scrapping my few trip photos a load of fun! 

I'm not sure about the word stickers but I'm completely smitten over the date stickers which are just PERFECT for journaling! Aaahhh, I can't wait to play with them!

 

Art Journal Page - Feathers

Hummingbird Painting - Remember

This is the painting I started last week but didn't get to finish before leaving for my visit. I didn't know where I was going with it, and for a while, it felt like it was losing direction instead of gaining. 

I had more progress photos but accidentally deleted them! What happened is the pretty watercolour roses were eventually smeared and then covered. Layers of paper were added. Paint was pushed through a stencil. And when I came back, I wanted to paint one of the many hummingbirds I got to see during my visit! 

It says "Remember", because art is a memory, a feeling, an experience. Capture it! 

Available here. 

Journal Post 6-11-13

Yesterday I arrived home from my short stay in the mountains - four days of desert wildflowers, hummingbirds, donkey wails, cookies and zero responsibilities whatsoever. Saskatoons, ravens, well water. Fights, bad television, and too-long swimming sessions. A strange variety of bugs. 

It's been at least a week since my usual routine was screwed up and I'm feeling the effects! So detached, this feeling. Not sure if I'm even really here anymore! 

But I'm back home, at least, and with a renewed appreciation for city water! Yum. And I don't recognize any of the plants in my garden. Or my cats, really. I am two pieces of me in two different places, simultaneous-like.

Work In Progress - Fun with Absorbent Ground

Before I went on my little road trip, I started playing with another wood panel and absorbent ground. I didn't know what to paint so I just doodled some roses there.

A fun thing happened when I sprayed it afterward with coloured water. It got all speckly and watery looking! This will probably be covered up but it was pretty while it lasted.

Art Journal Page - Little Toes

Vacation & Garden

My workplace has closed down for a couple of weeks and so I have been given the lovely gift of time. Time is something I tend to waste if given lots of it. And yesterday we finally got the Netflix which will only allow me to waste more of it! This morning I watched Ghost Cat. 

No, really. 

I wonder how many embarrassing movies I will be able to stuff into today?

Today is the last chance for a little while for me to do anything creative before sending off into the mountains alone, to visit with family. Yesterday I practiced a little highway driving and nearly had a heart attack because the highway has changed significantly. But I survived the short trip and so did the car. When I came back, I found such delight in this year's balcony garden. This is the greenest it's ever been for such a black thumb like me. I only hope it isn't dust by the time I return home on monday - eep!

It's my goal to leave for a long weekend but not disrupt my blogging schedule too much! So today, if I get away from the Netflix, will be full of cleaning, videotaping and painting. Who am I kidding?

Look who has come back from the dead! Mini Rose #3 has tiny little mini leaves!  The one rose bloom is the only flower out there so far... but the young green is so revitalizing. I see small buds forming on the nasturtiums and I hope they survive my absense! 

Perhaps I am taking these photos before I leave in case something happens and they don't make it. Proof that once, my balcony was green and wonderful. Maggie has been spending very long days and evenings out there just watching the leaves sway back and forth. We plants are happy plants. 

Grey Journals

I was tidying up my deskspace and found enough leftover chipboard for two new journals! So I ran across the street and selected some gorgeous grey papers this time. I also wanted a bit of the old spray ink through the lace look. 

Available here.

Journal page - 5/31/13

Music: Chris Zabriskie's "Divider"

From my facebook update: 

Super quick one today.

Ha! So the camera is zoomed out just a little too far and for some strange reason I found the random items abandoned on the table to be hilarious. I don't know why. While editing, I couldn't stop laughing at the stapler.

What is wrong with me???