From the Art Table

I've been spending a little time painting these days, working on pet portraits, mostly. Rick says I should hang out my shingle and I'm thinking about it. I've done pet commissions before and sometimes they make me anxious because every pet has its own personality and it's not always easy to grab it. It's pretty easy when it's your own animal!

Molly's long loved dog, Rogan, moved on a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't get out to get a card and she was such a wonderful animal and good friend to Molly for so many years.

So, I thought I'd paint her. I was pretty happy with the result.

Here's Kate's Zeke. I call him Lizzie's intended. (Though they've yet to meet and knowing them, it's not likely!)

So, I had to do Zeke. I think one of his eyes is a little wonky and I need to do it over.

And just a butterfly. I'm not sure it's quite right but it's cheery! (It's actually a larger painting but I cropped it to the good part.

I've been working on the Covid-19 journal too. This has been a fun project and I hope we'll find it illuminating to review it in years to come.

It captures the little things of live during the pandemic. Somethings are just day-to-day life...

...some are special days, like our Mother's Day walk.

It wouldn't be a journal without a walk to the Ditch!

Groceries? Sure!

 

And the never ending saga of my garden. If you can call it that.

 

So there you have it. At least it keeps me off the streets!

Creating with Kristen Robinson, Part Two: The Journal

Yes, I know. I need another journal like a hole in the head. But the journal being taught by Kristen Robinson was different from others I'd done -- and besides, it was Kristen's class, which meant it would be tons of fun!



Kristen's upcycled journal will be featured on her upcoming DVD so don't look for instructions here, but ideas. And the big concept was to use what you have to build something beautiful. Trust me, for every step, she had a rapt audience!

We started with cereal bags. Yup. Empty cereal bags! After the crumbs were removed we arranged items of our story -- whatever that may be -- on one half of the bag, folded it over and press it to seal the bag into a page signature.

This was WAY easier said than done for me!



You need to be careful that elements don't slip out of place when you are pressing it and turning it over (or else you will have, say, a tea bag paper covering Greg's face! above left -- oops!)



But the technique is pretty cool and a great way to see elements yet protect them.

Kristen's kits had everything we needed to make the project -- papers, music, the cereal bag (of course), charms, fabirc, music and printed pages. But of course, we all brought things -- photos and fabric and paint and embellishments!

She demonstrated and gave us art to create a gel medium photo transfer...



...and showed us how to burn felt for an aged, vintage technique.

We incorporated paper bags...

And sewed muslin to paper to make pockets filled with journal cards.

The idea of the journal was to leave room to write. I decided to use mine for family connections, so I had pages with my parents (I can journal on the painted parts or on the journaling cards)...

And places and people I loved.

I finished mine a bit more when I returned home, adding some embellishments I hadn't brought to class and fleshing things out a bit. Here are a couple more pages.

I'm probably not going to make another journal -- not that I didn't like making this one. I did. A lot. But I'm a bit overjournaled and don't put nearly what I should in them.

 

That said, I learned a lot of techniques I will definitely use again -- the transfer, felt burning, the cloth flowers in the photo above, right, and the idea of fusing the papers together. All of these will come in very handy in the future.

I leave you with a technique Kristen shared with us -- painting a surface and then using a tool (end of your paintbrush works fine!) to inscribe the piece. This one was by Amy -- I wish I could take credit for it, because it is a wonderful page and wonderful words.

Words to remember, no matter what the case -- a blank page or canvas. Or, a new step forward in life.

Composition Journaling!

I love journals though I'm less inclined to use them in the same way as I used to.



Remember the days when everything went in there? All the highs and lows, the doomed romance, the glorious elation?

I think I was a little bit relieved a number of years ago when a flooded basement took my journals and turned them into smeared pages of dribbled flair pens, a mixed bag of colors now muddied and barely legible.

It's not that if anyone read them I would be mortified by evil deeds. My life was pretty routine.But it all seemed so dramatic at the time! And I fear the only thing more colorful than the smeared pages would have been the purple prose, the agonies of life!

Now I use my journals for other things -- lists, copying a quick recipe, writing a poem, logging the books I read, capturing a fragment of an idea.

All my composition book journals reflect the whimsy of The Marmelade Gypsy -- bright colors, a little bit girly, perhaps, pretty, vintage.

Each is collaged onto a standard composition book using a variety of papers, naturals, images and embellishments.

They, too, will be added to the Gypsy Caravan for the November sale.

For those in the mid-Michigan area, dates are November 20-22. Just in time for the Christmas rush!

I'm looking forward to hanging out with beautiful jewelry, lovely pottery, cozy mittens, cat toys, wooden pens, a wonderful calendar and all the people to make them!

Time is flying!

Creativity Journal with Jacqueline Sullivan

Jacqueline Sullivan has always been one of my favorite teachers. Her instructions and demonstrations are clear, she is very generous with her time and supplies and I always end up with something I enjoy when all is done.

The Creativity Journal class was no exception. The goal was to create a journal from watercolor paper that we would bind together, having used some interesting painting techniques and tools to create the journal and papers we would include.

Our group was large and one of the delightful things about the end result was that everyone's book looked very different! Below are some of Jacqueline's deli papers.

We began by using gesso and stencils on a large piece of watercolor paper -- both sides.

The stencils had a number of patterns -- curlicues, leaves, starbursts, squares. Later we would see a little magic with these!

After they were dry and we started painting we discovered they acted as a partial resist medium and the stencil patterns showed through! Such fun! You can see it here in the upper right most clearly.

Then we painted a number of deli paper pages, again with the acrylics, to use later.

I have to say, I just loved the ones I came up with! For that matter, I loved everyone's. It's such a great surface to work on. (I discovered this in my gelli workshop, but there we were printing rather than direct painting.)

The we started working on our watercolor sheet, painting over the gesso with diluted walnut ink, sumi ink and some color when desired. We used a variety of tools for a very abstract look. Jacqueline is an officially certified Golden teacher and it was a pleasure to use the Golden paints she provided.

This was Jacqueline's...

...and this is one of mine. Notice how the stencils held the resist when painted over. You can see it in the leaves and in that brown part in the lower right corner.

We also painted a contrast sheet we could cut into pieces and use when desired. we used a variety of tools for this -- paint brush ends, corks, wallpaper brushes and more.

 

When all the painting was done, we started cutting apart our large watercolor sheet. The sections were folded into pages that were carefully stitched together.

As you can see, some of the pages had "flaps" which you could either glue down  to make a pocket (I haven't done that yet and not sure I will) or to serve as another page.

Then we began adding quotes and the painted papers, along with embellishments.

Of course, Jacqueline was there if we were stumped, had questions or needed an opinion.

Soon it was show and tell time. Everyone's was different!

Here are a few pages from mine.

I'm still not done, but added things after I returned home from the workshop, like beads in the front and some stamping and embellishment inside.

There are pages I'm not that fond of -- I think I filled the page too much with color and stencil and it needed more white space. I'm OK with that -- it was a class and I'm there to learn.

Next time I'll try some different things.

When all was said and done, I was thrilled with the results, enough so that I know this isn't my last journal -- it is the first of many.

(After I did this one, I did another with my friend Kate. Still learning the technique and a few pages drive me nuts -- but I'm learning! Look for more soon!)