Don't miss Stephanie Brockway's Circus Puppet Theater- Curiosities in Wood at the Guardino Gallery now through May 22nd.
She hand carved these puppets, named them and created stories for each character. She's published all in a book. It's a wonderful exhibit of her artwork.
The sun shone for three days at our beach art retreat in Seaside- glorious sun, full of warmth and energy like the friendships formed and renewed.
Friday night, we made 'magic paper'. We painted a large sheet of paper that covered the kitchen island with different colors, added more paint with stamps, stencils, marks and collage. It dried overnight and we each received a couple large sheets of this wonderful, decorated paper.
When we finished, I went to put my wedding ring back on my finger and could not find it. I thought I'd put it in my pocket. I don't like to wear it when painting. My heart sank. Everyone looked for it. I went through the area where I'd taken it off- art supplies, bags, the floor.
This week sketching, we used magazine photo images for inspiration. Laying down the watercolor paints first...
...then adding more detail with watercolor and colored pencils. It's a different look for me to get away from pen and ink drawings filled with watercolor- a softer, looser look. I liked working with the layers of paint and pencil and kept adding layer after layer.
Here are the magazine photos used for inspiration. This exercise makes me want to play more and experiment- be freer.
Comment HERE to win a Laurie Weiss wine journal. A book artist, Laurie makes a variety of journals that she sells at local art fairs and online. She owns a small vineyard and is a wine connoisseur. Visit her Black Dog Studio to see more of her journals.
Good luck and hope you win her wine journal.
Orly Avineri taught my second ArtFest class. As she explains it, "Diptychs are where two become one, looking at the duality of ourselves- how we are beautiful walking contradictions. Our past roots and future shoots come together in the present or now. Art helps us to connect all these things and to unite our opposites.
I liked how we worked on our canvases taped together in the beginning. Then we worked on each half of the diptych separately- intuitively adding collage, paint or line.
In the end, we had to decide which represented our roots and which our shoots.
How did the diptych fit together? What I thought was my roots became my shoots- all united into one piece. Both sections are stronger when seen together. It amazed me how each diptych created in the class represented the beauty and individuality of each artist. I want to explore this process more. It's very powerful.
Thank you to all of my blog readers who said hello at ArtFest. It means a lot to know that you actually read my blog. It's fun to be apart of an artist community to share artwork and support one another. This year, I stayed in one of the Officer's Houses at Fort Worden with some of my Portland Art Collective friends- Tory, Dayna, Steph, Suzanne and Debi. Maggie joined us from Olympia. With all of the laughter and creative stimulation, I sure didn't get much sleep.
Orly Avineri taught my first class called The Deck of Roses. She gave us each a rose for inspiration and rose water to paint our abstract rose that covered the whole 18x24 inch piece of watercolor paper. The fragrance lingered in the room and on the cards. I highly recommend Orly's workshops. She's a good teacher, well organized, starts with layers of abstraction and free form exercises. Then, each artist adds her own style in other layers.
Here is my abstract, rose water rose. We turned this over and worked on the other side using several different techniques. Afterwards we tore the paper into cards. On the rose side, I collaged copies of my sketches.
-made roses out of decorative paper
-added another one of my rose sketches
-used a white gel pen to highlight the center rose and dried rose petals fragments.
-drew more roses inspired by the shape of my orange beauty.
The color of my class rose gave me the enthusiasm, excitement and desire to create this deck of roses. My next post will show the diptych created in Orly's second class called Roots & Shoots.
This week, I'm off to ArtFest, one of my favorite art retreats at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, Washington. I decided to make a few trades for my housemates and other friends. Collecting lots of trades over the years, I wanted to make something practical and useful- thus these metal bookmarks or paper clips. The idea came from Jess at Lost Button Studio. Martha Stewart's paper clip charms inspired her.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's book quote is on one side, "The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, and all the sweet serenity of books." As a collector of books and avid reader, I love this quotation.
On the back is a list of some of my recent favorite books. You can also check my book-list in the sidebar from my Library Thing.
We hope to pass Dayna and Tory on their way North on I5 with their 'ArtFest or Bust' trailer. What's more fun than sharing a creative weekend with friends.
It's been a while since I've posted from my sketchbook. We've sketched at Monticello Antiques all winter and are ready to move outdoors. Above, I drew the grape clusters with both dominant and non-dominant hands.
The orchids are from this week's sketch date with a little watercolor play.
The faces were drawn with dominant and non-dominant hands, too. I really like the freer form of the smaller non-dominant hand sketches. There's a lesson here. Getting away from left brain thinking leads to a looser right brain images.