Art du Jour 89

Even though this is not my art, it is the product of my art class, so it qualifies for the art du jour category.  My two amazing students (granddaughters O and M) when given free rein in the art corner always come up with some creative, artistic and interesting results.

They have done a lot of stickers and stamps and drawing and painting on paper, but this weekend graduated to mixed media on canvas.  I think I’ve got them hooked.

They had some help with the ink splashes (it’s pretty messy) and the addition of texture, but the rest – collage and colour choices – it’s all theirs.  I got to hang them on my wall for a day, but now the art and the artists are headed home.

I hope whenever they look at them they remember what fun we had putting them together.

Art du Jour 86

This might win the prize for most minimalist thing I’ve ever done in mixed media, supposing I stop now and leave it alone.  There is no sealer on it yet.  Like that would stop me if I decided to go nuts with the ink sprayers.

Nope, gonna control myself and start something else instead.

The page a day calendars which were supposed to motivate the hell out of me in the form of inspirational blog fodder have been disappointing.  Or maybe I’m just unmotivatable and it’s not their fault.

Take these, for instance, and judge for yourself.

When a guest, don’t be the first to arrive or the last to leave.

Stupid advice if everybody invited takes it seriously.  No one will show up at your door until they see someone else go through it.  Or, towards the end of the evening there will be a mad rush for the exit with no one wanting to be the last one out.  This is why I don’t throw parties.

A little attitude goes a long way.

What does that even mean??  Attitude comes in different sizes?  And where is it headed?

Here’s another funny thing, or maybe I haven’t said anything funny yet, but here’s something else anyway.  I have been blogging for SO long that sometimes people will like an answer to a  Wordpress Prompt that I wrote two or three years ago, because the prompts are being recycled and my post somehow pops up in a search.  And nobody pays attention to dates.  Or however that works.  The more I write today the more confused I appear to be.

So I will leave this alone too and go finish the laundry.  One of these days I will have something astounding to say and something brilliant to show you.  You will just have to wait for it.

 

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 64

This is how it begins. A blank canvas, an idea in my head, and some scraps of coloured or printed tissue paper.

To start with something more balanced than random, I arrange the initial colours by corner, corner and opposite side.

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Then I fill in the empty spaces with incredibly random bits and pieces.  Overlapping creates different colours and lots of wrinkles. Because this is a stretched canvas the paper is brought around to cover all the edges.

It’s drying balanced on one corner on my easel so it doesn’t end up stuck to the desk.

Now I’ve added texture paste with a little pallet knife and stencils.  My idea was “circles” but I don’t think you could have guessed that yet.  Unless you’re psychic.

This is where the process gets away on me and I forget to take photos.  I used W’s coffee cup (hey, I don’t want paint on MINE) by dipping the rim in different colours of acrylic paint and stamping circles.  They didn’t show up very well, so I glued some circular pieces of yellow tissue paper on some of them.  And stamped some small black circles in ink, and spritzed some spots with ink spray.

What the heck did I add here?  It looks like the same photo.  But I know after this I used the coffee cup rim again, this time with white paint and went nuts with the circles.  I also used W’s shot glass to make small white circles to tie the big ones together. He’s away, he’ll never know.  This is now your coffee table after a party without coasters.

To prove I went outside today, here is the finished circle picture sprayed with matte varnish and drying in the sun.

I forgot to mention a few more ink spritzes and white splatter with a toothbrush.  Taadaa!

And finally,SIDEWAYS because there is no wrong way to look at this thing,  and a beautiful quote for even more inspiration.  Happy Friday.

“Drinking the energy of the universe
Breathing along with the Cosmos
With each breath
I am reborn
Into a brand new existence.”

― Ilchi Lee, Songs of Enlightenment

Art du Jour 62

A map of Edmonton is under all of this, for those of you who like to get to the bottom of things.

After that there was tissue and texture and spritzes of colour.

I just keep going until I like what I see.

 

“I tell of hearts and souls and dances…

Butterflies and second chances;

Desperate ones and dreamers bound,

Seeking life from barren ground….”

― Karen Kingsbury, Oceans Apart

 

Have a fabulous Friday.

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 52

The verdict is still out on this one but its growing on me.  I think with the right frame I might like it better.  I have love/hate relationships with my art.  What a luxury it is to have the time to let them hang around unfinished while I determine their fate.

We have had a busy week doing spring things, and enjoying a visit with good friends on their way home to northern Ontario after wintering in B.C.  We were able to sit outside in the sunshine, go out for dinner, stay up too late, sleep in, shop and barbecue.  We are just a bunch of old retired people living it up.

It’s Thursday, and garbage day, and the end of another week already!  Time just keeps slipping away whether you’re paying attention or not.  And that’s probably the most brilliant thing I’ll say today.  I like to keep my expectations low.

Have a great Thursday!

 

Art du Jour 51

Bird with Balloons to brighten up the start to your weekend!

Which probably doesn’t need any help, because SATURDAY!  Yay!

This was another background I became enamoured of…..with….whatever, and didn’t want to cover up.  But after an expensive trip to Michael’s I got all fired up and finished it.

Before I went through the check out I looked through my cart and removed six items I can probably survive without for the time being, in the interests of not spending a fortune all at once.  And no, I didn’t run around putting them back exactly where they belong.  That’s my secret confession for today.

The secret to the balloons being transparent is tissue paper!  Isn’t that brilliant?  I now have a lifetime supply of it in many colours.

Okay, that’s enough secrets revealed for one day.  Have a great weekend!

Art du Jour 48

 

Bird bird bird, bird is the word. 

This is another mixed media practice creation with perhaps a little too much going on and a lot of tissue paper in the background.  And some indifferent but colorful birds not found in nature.

I’m learning to dry things thoroughly between layers so that my cheap canvases don’t warp, and now I know why permanent ink stamp pads are necessary.  It’s no fun when some lovely effect gets washed away by the next lovely effect.

And the best thing about this endeavour….it made me remember a truly awful song (and an even worse dance) from the sixties by the Trashmen.  I would write out the lyrics for you, but as long as you remember the first and last lines of this post and add a few repetitions of “papa ow mow mow” you should be good to go to sing along now, and for the rest of the day, in your head.

Yeah.  The sixties were something else.  They do not write songs like Surfin’ Bird anymore.

Have you heard about the bird?  Everybody knows that bird is the word.