Purple Pride

I was inspired by this adorable photo Patty sent me....

her Proud Purple Pig was her caption.

And here's a little purple a the pond.

So in honor of the Purple Pride Pig...I painted purple between my squiggle lines....

...and colored in my day 16 ICAD (I painted the acrylic swirl last evening) while enjoying a beautiful afternoon on the patio. 

A while back Christine had asked why I sometimes use gesso on my index cards. It's works as primer for the surface so certain media will stick better. Today I tried to watercolor on right on the manilla card ...and it just beaded up. That's why I use gesso. So I switched to markers and colored pencils.

ICAD # 16...celebrating purple pride! ✔

I've mentioned several times that another creative daily practice for me is trading photographs with my sister-in-law Alyson every evening. It's a great way for us to connect and celebrate the beauty of the seasons.

Just a few days ago she commented on my Instagram posts where I used the Unfold App....so I hooked her up. So now we're creating Unfold montages for each other that capture our moments of the day...often including a little video. 

It's such a simple app...and we're both having a good time with is.

Here's a montage for today celebrating purple pride!

Rounding the Corner

I'm heading out for the evening....so I'm posting early.  Dinner and cards with Jay and Janice is just what I need today!

hope whispers. 
quietly. 
slowly replacing doubt with the courage of possibility.

Rachel Marie Martin

We have rounded the corner between spring and summer....and I feel like I'm in a bit transition too.....and feeling a little unsteady in the in-between. 

We've had a couple of days in the 80's...and I've been dead heading the last of the spring blooms.  It was a good year for bulbs....and I am grateful for all the color and joy they gave me.

But this one captured my heart....I think it might have been my favorite spring bloom.

The first photo was a few days ago....the second was another stem in its prime back in mid May. I love both stages.

 

I brought the tiny faded bloom inside and it will remain on my window sill while it continues to dry and transform into wabi-sabi wonderfulness. It will also be a good reminder that transitions are part of the circle of life.

I started a little tidying up in the studio and came across this colored pencil coloring page.....it seems I was practicing blending.

I stopped everything....drew some squiggly lines and did some neurographic drawing. There is something about rounding all these corners and angles that seemed especially soothing today.

I glued it into my art journal....and look forward to finding a quote for the opposite page to keep practicing my hand lettering. And maybe I'll keep fiddling with the coloring page too. A little something colorful and creative is good for the soul....while I'm rounding some corners.

Back To Mud

I've been doing a little hand lettering practice almost every day.  It doesn't matter what I write...because it's just for me. So I've been using versions of a passage from Broken for You, by Stephanie Kallos, a book I read many years ago that still resonates with me. I'll put a photo of the actual passage I've been using at the bottom of this post if anyone is interested.  

I am taking some liberties with the passage...changing or eliminating words here and there....but the idea of Wanda and her studio belongs to Stephanie Kallos. And I guarantee....there are errors. 

Here I used colored pencil again to fill in most of the negative spaces blending the colors as I went along. There's something visually soothing about blues and greens.....it looks like summer.

Then I switched to watercolor.  

I started with just three colors: blue yellow and pink....made some mud in the middle...and mixed all my own colors. The magic is in the mud.  These are old tubes of paint from Connie...and they seemed to be just fine.

I was reminded how rich hand mixed colors can be and how well they 

can all go together when they are mixed from each other.  It's good to get back to mud....and I need to remember to do it more often.

I actually stitched the black lines on the paper before I did the writing....you can only tell if you look closely.  I wrote out the quote in light pencil first and erased the lines after the black pen was good and dry.  I still made a mistake I had to fix. I think it's inevitable...so I'm embracing the imperfection.

Then I painted. I watercolored just the bottom half of each line...and after it was dry I went in with a damp brush and softened some of those lines creating almost an ombre effect going up in some places.  I think the white spaces at the top add a lot of interest.  

The rainbow joy part of me always wants to use the bright vivid colors.  But when I actually mix my own colors....I am reminded how beautiful and bright they can be while also being a bit muted.  And I love adding in the neutrals.

Wanda's way....is my way too.

The enormous bulletin board on the other side of my studio...the side of my room that hasn't really been organized and cleaned yet. I'll get there eventually.

Daisy Mask

A stencil blocks out the background leaving the focal image exposed for paint or whatever.  A mask blocks out the image leaving the background exposed.  I really have to think about the difference when I'm printing on the gelli plate. 

For my round eleven 4 x 6 card exchange I used this daisy mask as my inspiration. I wanted something simple this round because I'd been focusing on my class....and my first experiment took about 5 minutes. I traced the negative space around the daisies on a book page and filled them in with colored pencil.  It didn't look like ANYTHING at first....maybe bats flying around in the air.

It was hard to even make out that there were daisies....like one of those illusions you have to squint to see the hidden image. That's the funny things about a mask....and negative space.

 

But once I outlined the edges of the daisies...it all became clear. This was just a quick practice run several weeks ago....but I circled back to it and finished it up as my keeper card this week.  It's not all that bad.

Brenda's only took a few minutes too and she got hers the first week. Just the daisy mask and some colored pencil on a page from one of my manuscript books....which by the way....was the best score ever at the Lexington Library sale: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-good-score.html

For Becky's card I used the same technique.....the mask and colored pencil.  For hers I collaged a background using punched squares of different text and music giving it a little more interest. I think it creates a great effect and I'm quite pleased with this one.

Here are the cards I received from round 11.  Becky used distress oxides on watercolor paper.....and I can't even really tell you what that is. She has a wide variety of media and is experimenting with it all!  

And...she added her signature dimensional component. 

I love the texture of this flower on the back.  Nice job Becky!

Brenda was inspired by graphic designs on dinnerware....and used copic markers and posca pens. It's very effective!  Round 11 is a wrap!  Time to start thinking about round 12.

Red

This sign pretty much covers it!

Paul and I were out early for our walk as the sun coming up...these patchy clouds were so lovely in the morning light. This particular street is nice because it meanders a bit and at the top of the hill there is wonderful view of distant trees.

Every time we turned a corner we were stopped in our tracks by the morning sun is shining on the trees.

Then we turned down back into our condo complex....and it's like we were seeing it again for the first time....again.  This stretch along our main drive has all the fall colors covered.

I just can't stop taking photos of the pond.  We walk around it every morning and evening and this morning it was still and clear and the reflection in the pond was almost more clear than the actual trees.

We've been keeping an eye on this particular red tree....and my red headed, red hatted husband in his red hoodie coordinated nicely.

And speaking of red....my round three card from Becky came today.  She and David have a red cardinal they have named Ekern who visits their feeder every day....and she created a portrait of their friend for me with colored pencil.  

I love it!  

Thanks Becky!

Overjoyed with Overlay

My first card from round two of our 4 x 6 exchange came from Brenda....and I love it!  The minute I saw it I reminded me of an artist I admire...turns out that's who inspired it....more on that in a minute.  For now it's all about Brenda's card!

She used permanent markers, colored pencils and velum.  One drawing is on top of the vellum as an overlay.....

....and the second drawing is underneath.  

Brenda took an online mixed media workshop with Jane LaFazio....who I've been a fan of for quite some time. I love her work with vellum overlays and Jane would be quite proud of Brenda's art piece!  And I'm quite inspired!

The translucence of the vellum reminds me of the pink cosmos photos I took yesterday in the morning light.

I follow Jane LaFazio on Instagram and love when one of her creations comes across my feed:

https://www.instagram.com/janelafazio/

I've especially enjoying her recent work with succulents and enjoyed this youtube video where she shares a succulent covid journal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1EuD7NX8m0

Here's another video on one of her journals on "everyday things she's grateful for"....it was so full of joy.

Thanks Brenda and Jane....I'm overjoyed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPb46_ZBxAw

Improvised

Brenda got my card today so I can share my first 4x6 project. It only took 4 days to travel from the mail slot at my condo....to her mailbox in Wisconsin.  I think that's pretty impressive.  

Although I had to improvise....this card was absolutely inspired by the art of Sally Brandl who I follow on Instagram.   Sally does amazing geometric patterns and designs that combine stitching and watercolor....worth checking out.

https://www.instagram.com/sallybrandlwatercolors/ 

I had prepared a little basket of supplies to take to Lexington to make this first card last weekend but I left it in Maine. And like I mentioned in a previous post I was really itching to get started so that's when I wrestled up a few supplies and improvised....then finished it up when I got back in my studio last week.

To get started I pierced some holes in the cardstock to creating the chevron pattern.  Although I did some measuring I didn't want it to be perfect....so I intentionally made it a little wonky.

I didn't have watercolors in Lexington...but I did have colored pencils.  I stitched a little...then randomly colored a little.  It may have looked better to have a little planning with the colors...but this is what I did. At first I thought it was just going to be an experiment....but then I realized that's what these card exchanges are for.....so Brenda gets my improvised experiment.

I wanted to leave a couple of spaces blank....but I kept forgetting so I placed a scrap of fabric on top while I was coloring.

One of the problems with using colored pencil is that I got a "rubbing" of the threads from the back....which wouldn't happen with watercolor.   This is how the colored pencil looked before I blended.

This is how it looked after I used a tiny bit of baby oil on the end of a Q-tip to smooth out the color.

The back is messy and chaotic.....kind of like the pandemic.  I didn't even think about the back at first....then realized I could stitch so I wasn't crossing over coloring spaces.  But then I kept forgetting to do that. Oy! I also didn't want any lumpy knots so every time I started and stopped a piece of thread I taped it down.  I couldn't find my scotch tape....so I used little pieces of packaging tape....I improvised supplies all along the way with this piece. 

I do like how the chevron pattern looks a little dimensional.  After taking this photo I tried to add a little shading to emphasise the hills and valleys....but that was a mistake. So it goes.

I've already finished and mailed my second card to Becky.  I used the same technique but with watercolors this time and a different pattern and I'll be able to share it later in the week. 

We're off and running with our 4x6 exchange....and it's going to be a fun journey.