New Poppy ACEOs

I just posted two new ACEOs with poppies to my Etsy store, DreamON. Have started to run out of them, so today was poppy day. These two have a teeny bit of collage with sheet music and bits of fibrous, old handmade paper that a fellow artist from Studio 1212 brought today. Had fun creating these! Things have been so busy lately, it was fun to actually sit down and paint with the group and not have to worry about all the things I had to do. Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot to get done, including lots of shopping, but I have gotten enuf done so that it's not making me CRAZY right now. So I had freedom to paint!

Black and White and Fun With Photochop

The Black & White Show in October, at Studio 1212 is going to be something special this year. It is the 40th anniversary of the group of artists who represent the longest lasting artist's cooperative in the Tampa Bay area. While there are none of us who have been there 40 years, it is an accomplishment for this type of endeavor to have that kind of longevity.

Among other things, we will have a wall of 40 works of art to be created on 12 x 12 inch canvases for $40 each. So I am starting to think of what to do this year for my two 12 x 12 paintings, as well as the regular size pieces for the show - all black and white.






My two kitties were last year's pieces I did for the show. I had to mail them back to the gallery, so they were on smaller 8 x 8 inch chunky canvases. I have just now put them on Etsy. Meet "Research," the white aloof kitty, and "Ambush" the dark, attack-planning cat.

I have listed them together, because they look cute that way, but also because the cost to ship them priority mail would be the same, whether they are together or separate. These canvases have wooden stretcher bars that are made of heavy wood.




After playing with Photoshop to come up with some way to show both paintings in one of my views on Etsy without having to photograph them again, I stumbled onto a couple of techniques that were new to me.


Now, I am completely self-taught in the art of Photoshop, and this may be kindergarten stuff to those who use Photoshop all the time, but I discovered this function of the paint bucket yesterday completely by accident by pressing the right mouse button when I was trying to do something else by pressing the left, and presto, my white cat turned pink. Thought it looked so cute, I used it in a poster.


Then I made another one that looks like the moths have eaten part of it away by finding out that Free Transform has some other interesting features associated with it.

Ah, if not to play and have silly fun with simple things, what would life be?

Fashion Diva Series Continues

I haven't posted any of my Fashion Divas lately, but just so you know, the series has been quite successful for me, and I just sold the original of Amanda last week at the Artists Guild Gallery on Anna Maria Island. There are no prints at this time. Here's what Amanda looks like (on the right).

The selling of Amanda has prompted me to create Molly. I had the song "Devil With The Blue Dress" running through my mind as I created this painting. Molly is the star in the lyrics of this old 60s (I think) song. It brings to mind a funny thing that happened when I was in college.

The memory that runs through my mind here is my freshman year in the dorm, a few of us who lived on my floor had a party one Saturday night. At that time it was totally illegal to have alcohol in the dorms. Some other girls had gotten caught smuggling beer into the dorm in a pitcher (dripping, I think) earlier in the year, so we knew we had to be smarter than that. One of my friends came up with the idea of getting our beer in by putting it into one of those year-supply size of Kotex boxes, and it worked like a charm. We had a great party, complete with dragging out someone's red dress and a wig hat to dress up in and dance in all decked out, when this other song with those lyrics was played on the radio. (I can't remember how that song's title or how it goes right now). We all had a fabulous time, didn't endanger anyone by driving, we didn't get caught, and nobody got hurt - except for my roomie who ended up with a big hangover.

Anyway, Molly is shown above on the left. She's going to make her debut at the end of this month at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, for our Studio1212 display there in March and April. She is an acrylic with tissue paper collaged on over magazine pictures and a recycled acrylic painting underneath. So there were many layers involved in the creation of Molly. The base is 140-lb Arches Cold Press Watercolor Paper.

Artist Workshop With Carol Frye

For the last two days I have been taking an art workshop which was called "Subtle and Sophisticated Collage Workshop," with Carol Frye of Lakeland, Florida (http://www.carolfrye.com ), an award-winning artist who holds signature memberships in six different well-known acrylic and watercolor societies. She has been featured in the " Ones To Watch" feature in the December 2007 Watercolor Magic and also published a few other times in this magazine and several other artist publications. Check out her website to see pictures of her wonderful artwork.

We prepared backgrounds for our collages using several different starting techniques and then prepared some artistic tissue papers to use in the collages which we then began by layering the three primary colors to produce dark but rich, colorful neutrals before laying on any collage materials. This in itself is so different for me, as I am wild for color.

I am sharing three of my projects here. The first one on canvas is largely a prepared background (above), just to show here how much preparation has already gone into the painting before any detail is ever added. This is the result of quite a few layers of paint on the textured canvas. I took my first photos after dark last night using an overhead light and a flash - probably the worst conditions to take photos, but I wanted to do my blog, and I intended to replace them today when the light is much better, which I have now done.

You will notice also, in addition to better pictures, that I have now finished the two last paintings.

Paradise Input Decoder Devices

This acrylic painting of Birds of Paradise flowers has a "Space Invaders" look to it. I intentionally wanted it to have an abstract nature and kept from using true colors and utilized a gradated, textured background to further promote this effect. First I did some thumbnail sketches and chose one with a Papa, Mama, Baby bear composition (that is a large shape, a medium shape and a small-sized shape). Then I used two layers of gradated White Gesso, Hansa Yellow and Cadmium Red Medium to get a nice thick background before starting on the drawing for the "birds."

Once I started on the "birds" I found I needed a couple coats of the White Gesso to get a thick enough layer. The next step was to pick up the colors in the background and use them in defining the "birds." I had left the medium "bird" all white until almost the very end when I decided to use a little bit of the brown on it.

I had printed out on 8 1/2" x 11 paper, some red-brown Photoshop effects of my digital photograph of the real Birds of Paradise photo taken at Pinellas County, Florida's Botanical Gardens as well as some other photos. This effect was so cool looking that I decided use it in my painting by collaging some of it onto my canvas using Acrylic Matte Medium.

The final steps involved using some textures to blend in the collaged parts with the painting and also to achieve the darkest of the dark colors. The result seems other-worldly, and I began to think of the "birds" as other-worldly devices coming to Planet Earth to check it out and report back to the other-world, in this case picking up the paradise from the "birds." That's how the name came about. WoooooOOOOHHHHHH!

This painting is large: 40 x 30 inches on gallery-wrapped canvas which has been painted on the sides, thus eliminating the need for a frame. It has been protected with a layer of Glossy Acrylic Medium and Varnish. It will be on display at Studio1212 Gallery in Clearwater, Florida from June 1st to June 25th in the "Canvas and Then Some" exhibit. I'm also showing it in my Etsy shop, DreamON. For more information, click here.

Pears and Squares Revisited

This was my day to paint with my artist girlfriends at Studio 1212. It's one of those times when you don't remember what was talked about, but you do remember the giggles, smiles and raucous laughter. Yesterday we had our last business meeting and lunch at the beautiful home of one of our members and were treated to a relaxing and gorgeous view of the Gulf of Mexico complete with signs for the boating channel leading straight out to daydreams at sea.

Today I reworked Pears and Squares. It took a lot more effort than I had previously thought it would, because it just didn't look right to me. It might be fun to compare the first one that I posted a couple of days ago with this one. Anyway this is the result of the revision. I now have it up in my Etsy shop where you can find purchase information about it. Click here.

Tonight's American Idol results could be interesting. The cut will narrow the number down to the Top 3. Jason seems to have dropped out already, or that's the way it appears to me. He's such a dreamy-looking guy that he might just have a bucket-load of teeny-bopper fans to keep him alive, but from the last few weeks' performances, I just get the feeling that in his mind, he's already gone. That said, the battle of the Davids (David Cook and David Archuleta) who both are outstanding, has been made much more interesting by the rapid and profound development of Syesha Mercado and her obvious Broadway-bound vocal stylings. How's that for a totally uninformed commentary?

Workshop: Something Else To Do With Yupo

Today at Studio 1212 Gallery we were treated to a workshop featuring Carole Rosefelt's Yupo Creations. This very creative artist showed us some of the things she has done with acrylic paint on Yupo paper. The imagination is the sole barrier, it seems, to what can be created using this versatile medium.

According to www.TreeHugger.com, Yupo is a synthetic paper which was originally developed in Japan, is produced in Chesapeake, Virginia in the U.S. The company touts the eco-effectiveness of YUPO, saying that synthetic paper enters the waste stream at a far slower rate than conventional paper. They point out that, since it is polypropylene (PP) plastic film, it is fully recyclable."

Yupo is thought of as a slippery canvas, but artists who paint on it regularly have learned to use its characteristics in developing their own style. However, today we weren't particularly interested in the composition on our papers, but in the colors and textures that we had painted on the papers.

We were using a heat gun to melt the pieces of Yupo we had cut from our "paintings" into objects that we could combine and make into wall hangings, pins, earrings, angels, and a couple came up with pieces which could be collaged onto paintings. These are a few of the ones I made today.

Painting A Day = Feline X 3

New Math rule is Painting A Day = Feline X 3. Oh, I forgot to mention this is Feline Math. You have to have gone to Feline School to understand.
Having not gone to Feline School, you simply need to enjoy CATS. Ever since I touched my first baby kitten, I have been a cat person. I just love kitties.

I've been painting all day at Studio 1212 working on a couple of new paintings and enjoying the company of other painters. Our opening reception for the Designing Women show on Sunday was well-attended and a great success. Thanks to everyone who attended, and a special thank you to everyone who bought from me.

Everyone loved the Shooz assemblage that we all created on 5 x 7 canvases. My Red High Heels painting is just one of the bunch that have been bolted into a wonderful piece of art which we are raffling off on June 1st at our next show and reception. Every one of us would love to win this, but hopefully we'll be selling lots of raffle tickets, and the lucky winner will be thrilled to add this piece to their collection. (I blogged about this once before a few days ago, and showed the poster with the Shooz).

This painting has been created with many layers of acrylic paints. There are textures below the surface to explore. The photo doesn't do it justice, because once again it was too dark to shoot without the camera's flash going off. The title of this 10 x 14-inch painting is Feline X 3. (THIS PAINTING HAS BEEN SOLD IN MY ETSY SHOP.)

Fashion Diva Cards

No new painting today. Instead I'm going to show you some of the Fashion Diva cards that I've been making. Have to create a new supply, because they've been a hot item around here. So I thought I would create a few more for tomorrow's Studio 1212 opening reception.

These are all hand-drawn and handcrafted images. The ladies are stylin in their chic, new chapeaux. (Don't know the plural of chapeau.) So I guess I should just say, "hats."

Studio 1212 Opening Reception for Designing Women Show

Sunday, April 3rd from 2 to 5 pm. will be the opening of our Designing Women show. Today we were there hanging the show and noticed many more brightly-colored paintings will be hanging in this show than in recent shows. This gallery of some 20+ women exhibit a large number of abstract paintings, but recent newer members are adding more representational work to the shows. There are a number of florals and even some human forms in this exhibit.


The exhibit runs until the end of May and features an assemblage of paintings on 5 x 7-inch canvases of shoes which will be raffled off and will be a real coup for the winner to be announced June 1st at the opening of our next show, Canvas and Some More. Raffle tickets sell for a mere $2.00 apiece, and the assemblage is stunning.

Members were given a 5 x 7 inch canvas and were told we were each painting shoes. Not everyone complied, but we ended up with an amazing variety of little paintings which have now been joined together and are hanging as one assemblage at Studio 1212.

The assemblage to be won is shown in the center section of the poster at left. We also will be selling posters like the one at left, without the raffle ticket information.

Studio 1212 is located at 1405 Cleveland Street in Clearwater, Florida.

Catch us also at http://www.studio1212.org/ .

Painting of the Day: Reclamation Project

Today was painting day for a group I belong to, Studio1212 Gallery, which I thoroughly enjoy. I brought along some old paintings, thinking I might either paint on the backs of them, or add some collage materials to them. Once there, one of my fellow painters came up with the suggestion of combining paintings together. That's a very good reason I paint with other artists -- the exchange of ideas and helpful critiques. The other obvious benefit is that painting with others is a social event in the otherwise solitary, painting life of an artist.

Going from there I cut one painting roughly in half, deciding it might make two nice little paintings or a good card and a painting. The first one was a mountain scene which I tore into two pieces, thinking each would make a pretty nice little painting or perhaps a card. Then I put them aside.

The other one was a painting of a rooster I had cropped at some point. The chicken's head was clearly too close to the edge of the painting. I placed it on top of a couple of other old paintings that were primarily abstract background pieces, one after the other, to decide which one I would glue it onto. When I had made the decision, I tore the edges of the watercolor paper to give a deckled edge effect. Then I glued the one with torn edges to the background painting. Then I put it aside while it dried and worked on the mountain painting. Later I worked with a brayer and acrylic gold and purple, and then I added additional brushwork to get the two paintings to mesh.

To prepare for the mountain painting , I painted with acrylic paints on some textured materials to be used as stamps on a clean sheet of watercolor paper. After drying, I mounted the second painting onto the now textured paper. This project didn't require as much blending, but needed something to interrupt the straight line of the tree as it went straight up, so I put a little texture on that too.

I still have the other portion of the mountain painting to use.

Try it sometime. You might be surprised at the results.