Art du Jour 87

This canvas sat on my easel for weeks, faceless lady in monster hat, making me sad and wanting to watch murder mysteries rather than finish what I started.  Then I chucked her in with a stack of other stuff I still don’t know what to do with, except to keep it all in a stack under my paint shelves.

Yesterday I decided to at least fill in her face, and the rest just flowed from there.  This no longer makes me sad and I don’t hate it.  Yay!  Mission accomplished.  I love the purple and the turquoise but I have no idea what that hat is supposed to be made of.  Let’s just chalk this one up to January boredom and blues, waiting for the sunshine.

Happy Sunday!

Art du Jour 85

A 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 80

One thing you can say for sure about this kind of art is that it would be hard to duplicate.  Impossible to do the same thing twice.

I love these colours, how the green compliments the deep purple, the layers and the depth and all the weird things you can see if you stare at it long enough.  There was no plan.  The process is much like my writing.  Start somewhere and off you go and who knows where it might all end up.

My gawd I just described my life.

Hope you are having a perfectly delightful Saturday!

Art du Jour 72

Previously I mentioned somewhere that it was too hot to breathe. I like breathing and don’t want to stop anytime soon, so I’m thinking a fierce and crazy thunderstorm might help to disperse some of this heat which appears to be happily settled in for the duration.

“For the duration” is an expression my mom used a lot about many things. It’s a good one and I like it. It means for the whole time that something continues; for the entire period of time required for something to be completed; for as long as something takes.

This 16 x 20 inch (40.6 x 50.8 cm.) work of art on canvas took me about three days to complete. Here is a breakdown of actual time spent on it.
1. Ripping up paper and map pieces – 20 minutes.
2. Pasting stuff everywhere, including on canvas, desk and fingertips – 30 minutes.
3. Spritzing on ink and colour and water and letting it meander – 10 minutes
4. Staring at unfinished piece during drying time while thoughtfully contemplating next step – 2.5 days.
5. Adding final touches and sealer – most of this morning in fits and starts while doing many other things.

I don’t know how to speed up the staring time. There is a lovely ghost-like dementor shape floating across the canvas and I didn’t want to obliterate it. But it did fade into the background. Perhaps I’m the only one who will ever notice that. Excessive staring has its perks.

My plan for the duration of this heat wave is to keep the ice-cube trays full and the fans on high. And listen for the distant rumble of thunder bringing cooling summer rain.

Art du Jour 70

Could be an understatement to say this is mixed media, because I think I used everything within reach once I got going. It’s like cooking, where you start adding whatever strange thing is hanging around in the fridge or the cupboard to your concoction. Or perhaps that’s just me, and the reason why nothing ever turns out the same twice in a row.

In the beginning I was simply experimenting doing a face with gelatos. She was supposed to look sinister and mysterious and that stuff around her head was meant to be representative of hair. So much for that plan.  I don’t know what the hell it represents now.  These things just take on a life of their own. My muse has not so much a sense of the dramatic as a sense of humour.

We’ve had a couple of lovely cool cloudy rainy overcast days, but today the sun is back and the heat is on. Canada Day, with its celebrations and fireworks has come and gone for another year. And we’re off and running into July.

Make hay while the sun shines.

Art du Jour 67

“Don’t you know that everybody’s got a Fairyland of their own?”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“Let us proceed under the assumption that the fairy folk do exist, and that I am not a gibbering moron.”
― Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl

Whoa, I’m on a roll with the quote thing.  But I made no promises yesterday to stop, so there’s yet another broken rule.

Where do fairies take cover in a thunder storm?  There are no kids here to ask, but I’m sure they must know.  Amazing the things adults forget.

In this little work of art I was aiming for whimsy.  And then it turned in to a sort of butterfly garden. With spider webs.  And fairies tucked safely out of sight. I like that the colours are soft and hazy.

Cheers to us all on this fairy fine Thursday in June.

Art du Jour 66

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.

This morning I sat down to doodle some space creatures and maps of imaginary continents.

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 57

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 56

 

Test results for a quiz I took on Facebook this morning told me I’m flexibly focused.

I complete these things because I like to answer questions and make choices as if the outcome might be illuminating.  I mean who would not want to know what Greek God they are, or which type of pie they most resemble, right?  Most of the time I don’t share the final analysis because it’s pretty stupid.  But this one sounds interesting.

“Structured free time is your favorite. You enjoy having freedom in your life, but can appreciate the stability a good routine provides.”

Of course I can appreciate routine , but that doesn’t mean I have one.

This little piece of art took me five days to finish.  It started off looking like this.

A few days later it had morphed into this.

Finally this morning I coloured in the mushrooms and messed about with the rest of the picture until there was no canvas left to mess about with.  And that’s it for my flexible mushroom focus.  I don’t even like mushrooms.

Other things I have been focused on this first week of the summer living on my own include watching the final season of Fringe and the first season of Schitt’s Creek.  They are both strange television shows, but at opposite ends of the bizarre spectrum.

I have been staying up too late and getting up too early and forgetting to finish things, like laundry and dishes.  And paintings.  A structured routine would be helpful, but I’m so adverse to rules that I don’t even follow my own.  Assuming of course I happen to make any.

I did learn a few things this week though.  Gelatos are wonderful to work with, but next time I will buy a few non-metallic non-shiny ones.  When I look at this picture from the side it is almost glittery.  The best time to buy stretched canvas is when it’s 40% off and you also have a coupon for 20% off your entire purchase including sale items.  WOOT!!  It always rains on the May long weekend.  (I already knew this, but campers always forget).  Good weather for growing mushrooms.  If you leave your paint brush in dirty paint water for two days it kind of ruins it.  Yeah, I knew that too, but gave it another test just to be sure.

Here’s to magic mushrooms and rainy days and bad TV!  And having a flexibly focused weekend without any rules.

Art du Jour 55

It’s another random composition experimenting with colours and maps and stamps.

I would love to say there’s some rhyme or reason to these things, but there really isn’t, so they’re open to interpretation. The key and the little pocket watch stamps are new, and make me think of Alice and the White Rabbit. He unfortunately did not make it into the picture, probably because he was running around being late for something.

I’ve been feeling a little like that lately as the days zip by and I wonder at the end of them what the hell I did all day.

W leaves for Ontario tomorrow where he will spend most of the summer at his island fishing camp, and the rest of the time doing things with his elderly parents. So I have four or five months to myself to do whatever I want. Ha. As if that’s not how it is all the time anyway.

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms and everyone who ever had one! That should cover pretty much everybody I think. Hope you’re having a randomly stamp happy day.