Stencilry and a Tribute

 

This week I started a stencil class with Mary Ann Moss of Dispatch from LA called PURE EXPERIMENTATION: Stencilry. Ever since I first visited Mary Ann’s blog I have been in awe of her stencil work.  So when I learned she was giving a class in using stencils to create art, I signed up.  The stencil class is an online class with…and get this…7 videos  and a 20+ page PDF for the first lesson alone. The videos show at least 6 different pages and the depth and texture of the work is simply amazing. I can’t wait to see the rest. 

These two images are some of my first experiments. They are the covers of a portfolio that will hold our fun experiments.  

Before I decide which will be the front cover, I want to see how the other sides will look.  I’ve wanted to continue to work on the them but the weather is not cooperating with me. It’s been over a hundred the last few days and the sweltering heat is not conducing to spraying painting with a mask on.  But I’m having loads of fun.  Can’t wait to do more.

 

Last week was a crazy week with the death of so many people that have been a part of our lives for so long. I can’t believe we’ve lost Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.  From the continuing news on Michael Jackson, I guess more people were affected by his death than the others. I loved MJ’s music but I loss felt the most for Farrah Fawcett.  I’d heard of her on going struggles with cancer and it always touched me how strong she really was. So her death was very sad. So on the day of her death, I created this simple tribute to her:

Rest in peace Farrah, Michael and ED.

Expired, Tired and Wired

See this page?  That’s how I felt when I was creating it.  I haven’t slept well in weeks and it’s making me expired, tired and wired.  Sad thing is I gave up my caffeine and it hasn’t helped. Where is my coffee?

Today My Guy and I were talking about what we would do if we won the lottery.  One of my hearts desires, after helping our family, is to visit Europe.  I want to spend weeks photographing Italy, in particular.  We had to laugh because in order to win the lottery, you have to play and we rarely do. 

What would you do if you won the lottery?

New Journal Pages

I really enjoyed creating this page.  However, my husband now thinks I’m a little bizarre.  I think that’s a compliment. :)

I found these new papers at a fantastic paper store in Albuquerque when I was there last.  This page could be me to a tee, if I didn’t have to cook for my husband. Lucky for me, we take turns cooking.

The last painting in the 30 Day Challenge

This is the last painting done for the 30 day challenge.  I didn’t create 30 paintings in 30 days but I was very happy with the 17 I did paint.  That is the most I’ve ever done in 30 days and I think my skills increased somewhat. (if I do say so myself, haha)  

However, the biggest lesson was to paint and not worry too much about mistakes.  Knowing that paper can be thrown away and canvas can be painted over with gesso is very freeing. It allowed me to let go knowing that I could cover all the mistakes with gesso if I wanted to get rid of  incriminating evidence of my painting ineptitude.  :-)

The second lesson was to learning to like abstract paintings, mine and others.  I learned when some are done and when they need more work.  A few of the 17 do need more work but I was working with the rules of the 30 day challenge, which was one painting a day, no going back to finish it.  OK, I admit that I broke that same rule a few times when the painting was going well but I didn’t have time to finish in one sitting.

If you ever have the opportunity to try a challenge like this, I recommend it.  I admit that it was hard trying to paint every day  especially when I wasn’t particularly inspired.  Some days I just sat there with paint brush in hand wondering where to start.  But all in all I enjoyed it and will do it again sometime.

Thanks again to Gary Reef for the 30 day challenge.  If you haven’t been to his site yet, I wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s now called Art from the Heart. He keeps changing the site’s name but I adore him anyway.

Feeling Exposed!

 

I joined Facebook a few years ago and didn’t do much with it until recently.  Being separated by distance, my art life is not usually shared with my family and my family life is usually not shared on my art site.   Lately the two have been converging and it feels weird. All of a sudden friends and family are seeing my art and my art friends are seeing my family conversations and I’m feeling a little exposed.  

But I do enjoy Facebook and if you’d like me to add you as a friend, I’ll do it if I know your Facebook name.