Putterful

Dotty just described this season as calm, bright, joyful, putterful!  Putterful! I have a new favorite word! 

During this past month of reflection I've also been dabbling with a few things in the studio. So I thought I would do a little catch up on some of my other putterful things.

I was inspired by Dotty's scribbly painting play I saw on her blog.....and I did a quick scribble experiment of my own with Stabilo Woody Pencils....and acrylic paint.

I started by scribbling circles with the water soluble pencils...

then I painted a swirl with white paint in a fineline applicator on top.

Once the white paint was completely dry I used a damp brush to activate and soften some of the pencil lines. That's the magic of water soluble pencils.

I didn't want the lines to disappear completely....I wanted the texture of the scribbles....and also wanted to blend some of the colors.  I also added a bit of gold watercolor and transparent white paint in a few spots. 

I think this circle will end up in my art journal....I have a handful of pages/spreads left to fill in...and I think there's a spot for it.

I can see all kinds of other ways I can spin this technique...pun intended. 

Back in early November....Becky, Tracie, Brenda and I started working on a creative project we called the Anchor Image Exchange. Working on this project was probably the most putterful thing I've been quietly doing.

Each of chose an image....and digitally sent it to the others over a period of three weeks in November.  Our anchor image could have been a photo, an art piece, or an image from a magazine or other any other source. Our task was to do some sort of a rendering/art piece of each image....using any media we wanted as long as we honored the image in some way.   We also completed one for our own image....so we all ended up with four versions of our anchor image. It sounds more confusing than it was....we all had fun with it.

We sent our finished pieces back to the person who sent the image to us....and opened and shared them during a Zoom reveal party this last Saturday. 

Over the next four days I'll share the results.

I also finished up the Terry Runyan inspired 2023 calendar for Becky with this blob bird wreath.  It was better in my head....but it's bright and putterful....and maybe that's what counts.

For 2024 I've declared Becky's calendar theme as "whatever is on my table."  In other words...I get to do whatever I want.  As part of her Christmas gift...I sent the January page with a piece of the doodle blob flower I did a while back.  I had cut it up....so pieces and parts have been hanging out on the table.