Art Is.... continued

While at the Art Is...retreat last autumn, my friend Cate and I also took a mini-class during the evening on embellishing a beautiful piece of handmade felt. Well, it really wasn't a "class" since we didn't learn anything new--it was more like a "let's play" gathering. We each received a large ziploc bag that contained a thick, yummy piece of handmade felt, along with assorted art papers, fabric scraps, beads, wire, etc. We brought our own images, rubber stamps, thread, etc. and proceeded to play. My piece was inspired by the wispy image that Cate cut out of a newspaper.

I call it, "We are all thin Within"

En-Grose-d

Back in October, my friend Cate and I spent a fun weekend at the ARt Is... Retreat in Cromwell, CT. I took a painting class with the very talented Aussie artist, Pam Grose. We played around with some acrylic paint, inks & water droplets on canvas board which was fun. Here is my finished faerie painting---I didn't intend to make her a faerie but I wanted to try painting wings. Then I decided I wanted some texture to her dress, so I placed some crumpled tissue paper over the painted area with matte medium, then applied some silver Rub'N Buff over it. The added texture is great so will definitely play around with that some more.

Looking Back -- Going Forward

I've decided that instead of trying to explain away my deplorable lack of communicating for the past 6 months--which would bore both of us-- I'm just going to post some pics of the stuff I've created during that time.

As you may remember, I started taking art classes a year ago and have been learning to paint with soft pastels. As with anything that is challenging, I have days that I'm in love with the medium--everything makes sense and just works----and then there are days that I just want to flush my pastels down the toilet, run screaming from the room and hide in a corner somewhere and suck my thumb. It's definitely a hair-ripping challenge but I'm determined to persevere....

This portrait of our class model--I think her name was Marie--took me about 9 hours of class time. It is done with soft pastel on Wallis sanded paper. Portraits are my favorite thing to paint.

We also did a still life in the class but it was far from inspiring and I just couldn't get into it, so I came home, grabbed some stuff from my kitchen and set up my own in my studio. I like painting small still-life set-ups so I can really study the light & form of the objects without getting too overwhelmed.









I really struggle with backgrounds--but the ceramic vase was fun to do here.

The final assignment for the semester was to do a painting from a photo--or several photos and include at least two figures in the composition. I decided to use several photos taken during our vacation in Scotland last summer as my inspiration. There was no castle near the beach where we stayed, but since our family loves to peruse old castles, I took the artists perogative and put one in along with my family. I had it matted & framed and gave it to my hubby for Christmas. It now hangs in his office. He loves it. (ignore the bright white spots---just light reflection on the glass) Soft pastels on Wallis sanded paper. I tried something new here--started with an under-painting using watered-down pastel in bright tones and I love the vibrancy it gave it!

Now on to other stuff...