Quiet Day to Play

Today is really quiet, after the hectic, nearly manic pace of the last 6 weeks.  I have been frustrated in not having time to do anything creative.  So when I finally have a quiet, rainy day with no demands on my time, I ran wild. 

First, I did a bunch of Suminagashi prints using Sumi ink on rice paper to create some wonderfully swirling black and white images.  Then, I cut them into smaller pieces, mounted them on black cardstock and then white cardstock to create 25 postcards from the group.  Here are a couple of the group:

Then, I wanted to work in bright color for a while, so I did more postcards in some shiny acrylics - Maya Golds -- and stenciled some black dots on them.

The next two also used Maya Gold paints, but in this case, I first texturized the background using gesso through a piece of plastic grid from a bag of Stump Chunks. 

While I had the gesso out and a messy palette knife, I applied some gesso to two watercolor paper pieces, and let it dry, then used watercolors over the top and spritzed black watercolor through a stencil.  I then turned the ink-covered stencil upside down and printed the excess watercolor on the other card. 

The next two are totally abstract color studies using watercolors and the little bit of black Sumi ink still remaining in my cup.  I rather like the odd, ink-blot images that happened.

Two more, this time from some new sprays that I just got and wanted to see how they looked on paper.  Some of the color formed pools, which I then moved around a bit, and finally accented with a bit of Stickles glitter glue.

I took the very last of the Sumi ink and covered a final piece of watercolor paper.  I then did some "subtractive" stenciling (lifting color back off the paper through the stencil) painted the revealed areas a lime green in sort of a haphazard way, and finally created fireworks with some rose-colored Stickles glitter glue. 

Sum:  36 postcards ready to go.  Whew!  And it is amazing how quickly the day passed here in the studio. 

Catching Up - February flew by

February is always the shortest month, but this year it really flew by in many ways.  Having been incapacitated with some broken bones, I slept a lot and read a lot, and watched our endless snow fall, and fall, and fall, and fall. 

I've finally uploaded all of my February Journal52 pages. Yes, I forged ahead and did all of them, and finished 4 days early.

Feb 1, Iris

Feb 2, Checkered Flag

Feb 8, Explore

Feb 20, Breakthrough

These are a few of the pages; you can see all of them on my Flickr page -- they are in the set called Art Journal52

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/bertnparker/

Art Every Day, January 14

It is hard to believe that the January Art Every Day challenge is almost half completed!

Connie K. put in two items.  The first one (http://cwkalina.blogspot.com/2014/01/day-14-cutting-linen.html) found her cutting linen for a project. The second one was a day spent playing with her stash.  She posted many photos of some fantastic embroidered ciggy silks on her blog at this entry:  http://cwkalina.blogspot.com/2014/01/day-15-art-every-day-played-with-stash.html

Genevieve T. make a lot of progress on her CQ block.  It is looking wonderful!

Susan (http://susanstudioarts.blogspot.com/2014/01/woven-message.html) played with Lutradur to make today's ATC.  What a fun experiment!

Barbara K. started working on a portrait of her daughter, working from the inspiration of an old photograph.

And me?  Well, I spent most of my day doing Medicaid paperwork on behalf of my mother, who is in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.   So other than some studio cleaning, I only had time to finish my Journal52 page. 

Until tomorrow...

Art Every Day, Jan 11

We are starting the second part of January, and there has been a lot of great work posted.  Congratulations to those who have persisted, day-by-day in creating beautiful things!


Susan (http://susanstudioarts.blogspot.com/2014/01/i-see-trilobites.html)

Nina (http://mytimedisappears.blogspot.com/2014/01/art-every-day-ha.html) submitted these two images.

Lisa D. has been busy, too:

Barbara K.:

And I've been a little busy, too.  I completed the watercolor of the birch tree that I showed you the draft version of a couple of days ago. 

And, of course, completed my submission for Journal52.

Until tomorrow....

Art Every Day, Day 10

 Here are the submissions for Day 10: 


Susan (http://susanstudioarts.blogspot.com/2014/01/day-6-make-art-every-day.html) is staying busy!

I have been busy today, first up is the background and rough draft watercolor on yupo.

I also finished my Journal52 page for today.  This one starts with a bit of Suminagashi that I did using rice paper and Sumi ink. I cropped it and backed it with plain black cardstock, then put that on a piece of printed cardstock (Madeline collection from Prima) that I had in my stash. I then glued down some fabric leaves which I had on hand, and added a pure white flower from Prima. The flower was too stark in pure white, so I used some watercolor paint in a pale pink to add definition. I was trying to make the Suminagashi piece look like a window with snowy, swirling winds blowing all around it.

That's it for today!

Journal52, Day 8

This is my Journal52 page for today, January 8th. The background is a paper towel which I used as a mop-up rag and when I unfolded it, loved the distribution of colors so I kept it. I used Scor tape to mount it to a piece of cardstock, then added some torn pieces of Tim Holtz's tissue wrap. I used Golden Soft Gel medium as a glue, then gave the entire piece a coat of the gel for strength. I wanted to use something at least semi-transparent so that the decorative elements would not obscure the colors on the paper towel.

Art Every Day, January 5

Day 5 of the Art Every Day - January 2014 challenge results:

Lisa D. had a really productive weekend, it seems. She played with some hexagon quilt piecing.

She  started a baby blanket.

And she worked on this afghan.

Stephanie joined us and has three entries.  The first is a cowl, made for and modeled by her brother.

And then she created a 3D rose on her own fingernail.

Barbara K. worked on this Hanky Panky piece.  She stated:  "The hanky was bought in Paris by my mother. I feel that its energy is complimented by having the surrounding hankies with their points out."

I had some other commitments, but was able to complete this journal layout:

and, of course, my Journal52 page

You can see more of the Art Every Day work, and of course, a large amount of my own work, on my Flickr page:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/bertnparker/

Journal52, Day 3

Here is my journal page for today, Jan 3.   This starated as a scrap of non-woven fabric stiffener.  I used my sewing machine and some metallic thread to freehand stitch some firework bursts here and there on the surface.  I then added some watercolors to the piece.  It was fun, and although it doesn't measure the full 6x6 to fit my journal, I will insert it anyway.  Hope you like it.

Sylvester

 

 

Journal52, Jan 2

Today, I finished two pages for inclusion in my art journal for 2014.

You may see more of my work on my Flickr Page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bertnparker/sets/72157639280560284/