Art du Beacoup Jours

IMG_2065Oh yeah, I forgot, I’m a self-declared artist, taking a long break from it all and then coming up with some very bad French.  The title is supposed to translate to “art of many days” because I’m pretty sure this creation could pass for art and it certainly was many days in the making.  But none of it can in any way be blamed on the French.  Just so that’s clear.

This is melted crayon on an old denuded clock face.  On an opposite wall the delightful mirror below, which survived the garage sale because I could not bring myself to part with it,  has been photographed to include the reflection of the above round shaped thing awaiting inspiration.  It hung there all white and boring for a very long time.  Weeks I guess, but eventually I got tired of looking at it and the reflection of it too.

IMG_2985Now I’m going to show you a photo of a big bucket/waste basket full of markers and crayons.  Only demented grandmas have such things, never mind the ones who pause to take pictures of them.

IMG_2982The plastic bag on top is one of those large freezer zip lock ones, (so a LOT of crayons in there) and when my granddaughters were here looking for something to do I suggested peeling the paper off some of them.  One of the girls wisely wandered off to watch tv, but the other one was wildly enthusiastic about the idea and stripped the paper off every last one of them. You never know with kids, so don’t be afraid to suggest totally bizarre and tedious activités to them which you don’t want to do yourself.

Then we messed around melting wax with an iron and a blow dryer.  This is my favourite result on paper.

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If you heat and mix the colours too much they just get muddy but we saved this one with a lot of white on top.

Okay! One more snapshot in the series “ways I have been messing about for months”.
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Another crayon creation on canvas, and below it three little, quite possibly completely useless, books I made.

You start off with a cereal box,  use the thin side for the spine of the book and cut out whatever book shape you want.  Then you cover them inside and out with glued on paper, complete with decor.  I had a couple of jewelry pieces left over from a failed jewelry making stage of my life and the playing cards are from a miniature deck which was a prize from one of our Christmas cracker snapper things.  I’m sure that’s not an accurate name.  Too bad I don’t know what they’re called in French.  The pages are arranged in bunches and sewn in using a needle and thread, after punching aligned holes with a push-pin in the paper and the spines .  It was pretty labour intensive especially once the novelty wore off and I was questioning my sanity for thinking three of the damned things was a good idea.  Probably won’t try that again.  So these should one day be ridiculously valuable because they are rare.  Remember that when you see them in a garage sale.

Enough sharing for one day.  Thanks for looking.  Now get back to whatever important thing you were up to on this beautiful sunny April Sunday.

Art du Jour 90

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What do you think? Too wild? Would you want to live in this chaotic little city?

I don’t know whether or not this is finished yet. It’s one of the biggest canvases I’ve ever worked on so all that work makes me feel like I should be done.

And then I frown at it for a while trying to decide what’s missing.  But whatever is missing, there’s no room for it!  So I’m finished, right?

Anyway, letting it hang for a bit.  I used up a LOT of paper scraps creating my little village on crack.

Art du Jour 85

imageA couple of days ago I made a coffee cup template and then spent half an afternoon going through my paper jumble cutting out the mug shapes with scissors and an exacto blade.  I also had these two little canvases started with cut up pages of print glued on to them and covered in inky dabs as an experiment with colour.  In a burst of maniacal creativity I decided to pair them up.

And thus we have the result of plan as you go.  Or don’t have any plan and then critique your colour choices after the fact.  These either go with anything, or (more likely) nothing at all.

The good news is, the next one will be better!  Because I have about a thousand paper cups needing a place to shine.  Yes, a thousand is a gross exaggeration.  I have maybe a dozen more, and an actual idea in my head.  And then I think I will be done with stacked coffee cups for a bit.

Art du Jour 84

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This is me attempting to be more disciplined and methodical. Let it never be said there was no method to my madness. Well not within my hearing at least. Sometimes it’s good to be less random and impulsive and end up with a piece that’s not bordering on crazy. Although I’m sure I’ll get back to those soon enough.

It’s terrible trying to finish these things in the cold and dark of January. They have to be sprayed with an acrylic sealer that smells toxic so I don’t like to use it inside. And outside it would rather freeze than dry these days so I bring sprayed things inside before the odor has dissipated and then the basement smells like insect repellant. My son said that long after the smell should have gone away. Or maybe our basement just generally smells weird. That’s also possible.

I have more coffee themed creations in the works. Stay tuned.  And have a happy Sunday.

Art du Jur 83

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Or maybe I should say “art du réveillon de Nouvel an,” which might mean New Year’s Eve art in French, but to be safe, don’t quote me.  These are footprint pictures I did for one of K and C’s bathrooms for Christmas, because my son admired the ones hanging in mine that I did for myself.  Don’t ever admire something in my house unless you really mean it.

The photo was taken at night in not very bright light, so the colours are a little weird, but there’s never a lot of natural light in bathrooms anyway so maybe this is what they’ll look like, except less blurry.  Also I think they would look better hung side by side.

Okay!  My year in review!

Ha ha, sorry to scare you, I’m just kidding.  I survived it and that’s what counts.  If I don’t feel like looking backwards at the things I lived through, I can’t imagine why anyone else would want to.  My life is just not that damned interesting.  Onward and upward to another new start on the road paved with good intentions.  That doesn’t always lead to hell, does it?

Whatever.  I have a plan.  It may sound as if it’s made up of very vague resolutions. Because it is.

  1.  Try to blog something every day, even if it’s just a picture or a quote or a weather report.  And once you are disciplined enough to do that, hopefully some of your posts will turn into something better.
  2. Share your world fifty-two times!
  3. Use your page-a-day calendars for inspiration!
  4. Answer some WordPress prompts!  Maybe lay off the exclamation marks!
  5. Creating art every day is a pretty lofty goal, so try for twice a week.  And if there’s more than that, well yay!  I mean just yay, with less excitement.

Have you ever been so overwhelmed with all the things you want to do that you just sit down and don’t do anything?  Wow, I hope it’s not just me who does that.  And I hope I’ve gotten that bad habit out of my system for a while with such a slack assed December. Pardon my French.

January, my least favourite month ever, with 31 dreary days, is coming right up.  I would like to fill it with fun.  I have two half bottles of red wine in the fridge to finish up (in five ounce increments per day because that’s what diabetics are allowed) so I need to get right on that before it all goes bad.  I have several art projects on the go, and several more in my head.  Chapters had their calendars on for half price today so I walked down there and bought three of them.

PREPARED is what I am.  Bring it on, 2016, I’m ready for you.

Happy New Year everyone.

Art du Jour 68

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This is what happens when you take a photo in low light at the end of the day and your pencils cast shadows on the white page. As if you would ever wonder about that. Just saying, now you don’t have to.

This morning I went grocery shopping. On my return, I immediately made myself a very creamy cup of coffee with my stockpile of coffee cream.  Running out of cream was more brutal than anticipated.  This is how you learn how addicted you are to something.  Shopping before coffee sure speeds up the process but doesn’t necessarily make it pleasant.

The day turned out to be very hot and I turned out to be very lethargic. But it finally cooled off enough for me to draw something once the light was more or less useless for art.

Considering how little time I spent on this, I’m very happy with it.  My mind might change with the daylight.

This is the start of Canada Day long weekend!   Flags are flying.  Hope you have a good one.

Art du Jour 66

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Here are some serious Saturday morning doodles. Inspiration comes from Jill at Jill’s Art Journal (My Head In The Clouds Part 1 and Part 2).

Started off last night with random watercolours on watercolour paper, a few ink spritzes, some salt, some alcohol….(on the paper, not consumed). Although consumed might have added something. I find wetting the paper on both sides keeps it from curling as it dries. But drying time is no doubt longer.  Overnight works well.

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This morning I sat down to doodle some space creatures and maps of imaginary continents.
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And finally, because I don’t know when to stop, I tried out my new ink stamps on the boring blank bits and added a purple gelato border.

I had a job once as a receptionist at a woodworking place where I answered the phone and wrote up orders, processed time cards and looked after payroll. The other 95% of my time was spent doodling. It was either doodle or die of boredom. Anyway, I’d forgotten how easily amused I can be by my own ink scribbles on paper.

Just like Jill promised, this was fun! Why is being lost in the moment doing something relatively unimportant so damned much fun? One of life’s mysteries I guess.  Have a doodle happy day.

Art du Jour 60

For the big six-O I am calling this Adventures in Watercolour.  Whether I will ever revisit this place is up in the air for now. image This is what I accomplished by paying attention to a little watercolour tutorial and using the wet on wet technique. Up to a point, of course and then did too many embellishments, but over all I think it’s not bad. The crooked border was an impulsive afterthought. image And this one I’m happy with simply because it is recognizable as an elephant. So, Happy Middle of the Week Wednesday! I’m drinking that midnight eclipse coffee again and planning on getting many, many things done. Just have to decide what. Perhaps some pseudo LSD hallucination-like wet on wet abstract watercolour blended creations. Whoa. Brace yourself.

Art du Jour 57

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Today I experimented with distress ink on paper, and then pasted the results on to a canvas on which I had previously experimented with something else. I can’t remember what. Or why. Like a mad scientist. Although they probably keep better notes.

So, distress ink is not at all distressing unless you expect it to dry on a surface where it can’t sink in.  It’s great to splat on and blow around with a hair dryer.  Don’t worry, I saw that on YouTube so it’s not a new kind of crazy.  And I was originally going for subtle, but maybe it’s just not in my nature.

It’s a beautiful holiday Monday here, sunny and warm and breezy.  I am loving my quiet house and my artistic messes.  Some days it takes me longer to clean up after making something than it does to put it together in the first place.  This will be one of those days where I put off the inevitable until later, because sunshine.  Yay!

I have a sudden urge to fill the bird feeder.

Art du Jour 38

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I wonder if I should tell you how many times this portrait came close to being crumpled up and chucked.  Halfway done I began to dislike her intensely.

But today I scrubbed her eyes out and redid them not so wide set,  put her in a window and declared her finished.

Or maybe it’s me that’s finished.

I suppose being critical is a good thing and will make me better.

Happy Sunday!

Well, now it is.  Earlier I wasn’t so sure.  It’s not every day you scrub somebody’s eyes out.