'"Jazzgoil Ink"

Alter Ego Patti Poop

2012-02-12T21:12:00.001-08:00

Ingrediants:

J.Herbin Marron Brown ink

Portfolio Oil Pastels

Canal Paper Montreal

Musical Inspiration

2012-02-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

I was and am always inspired by music. I love all kinds and one style I have been enjoying a lot lately is Gypsy Jazz like one of the originals Django Reinhart. I came across this video of Caravan Palace and it is just so fun and really gets your toes tapping. I love to listen to music while I create art and this cool tune inspired this art.

Ingredients:

Walnut ink (always!)

Fluid and heavy body acrylics

pencil and pen

Text paper

gel pen

tissue paper

iPad play GrungtasticHD

2012-02-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

All these images where edited with Grungtastic. Some photos are by me and some by my hubby Tim. I love the distressed look and as you can guess by the name there are tons of grungy filters in this app. I really like how easy it is to use too. I only wish there was an easier way to transfer files from my iPad to my iMac.

Maiden Hair Fern opening

My DH Tim

Jazz two weeks old

Gizelle and I

she is only one week old

Gitano and I

Gizelle's full brother at about 4 years old

Gizelle and I

Percolated Art

2012-01-31T23:02:00.000-08:00

I got this simple but really fun new app for my iPad called Percolator. These are either my photos or art that I imported and played with the filters in Percolator. So I call it "Percolated Art"

"Gillian" Original is Mixed media

This is a photo of an abandoned nest with my porcelain quail eggs.

This was a pencil drawing

A mixed media painting in my journal

an acrylic hand print

Mixed media in my journal

Professor Longhair

"The happy blue horse"

Me photographed with my iMac

ciao!

Inspired

2012-01-29T18:05:00.001-08:00

I have been enjoying Milliande's videos of her Seed Journals. Her day 7 inspired this face. I did a face in wet on wet watercolours and walnut ink after adding text with matte medium. I sprayed it too to make the colours blend as they would on their own with no help from me. Then I ripped the face in half and painted a new half responding to side one. Once it dried I went over it with a fine black pen, then I added a bit of highlights with a white oil pastel. Fun! Part of what inspired me was her spontaneity and part was her colour palette.

I am using the Strathmores new Mixed Media Pads, the 400 series. I really like the paper and it is really sturdy and takes a lot of wet media and collage and it is very reasonable. I am a happy customer. :)

Coming up Roses was inspired by Traci Bautista's free workshop through Strathmore. I say inspired because I got so excited that I kept going off on tangents from Traci's instructions. :) The fine lines in her hair are acrylic paint laid down with a pizza cutter. I also finished it off with the Portfolio oil pastels. The are so creamy and smooth.

"Coming up Roses"

"Tumbler" is inspired by the above and Traci's Lesson 4. Tumbler also has pizza cutter hair. In the background are stamps and letter stencils. He is also acrlyics finished with oil pastels. I love how saturated the colours are.

Inspired by Carla Sonheim's Picasso Dogs. Tons of fun.

The dog page is a work in progress there will be more added to the page when I'm done.

Happy arting!

I owe it all to Jazz

2012-01-14T10:15:00.000-08:00

Jazz

my mahogany boy, grazing at home

A small Combined event at Beaver Lake

One day old

My buddy

Jazz Braided for a show

Hello there, my camera is not working right now so apologies for not posting much lately. I love to share which is why I am motivated to blog and show my art. I do it for me.

Originally I tried selling my wares at craft shows and got into the Sooke Fine Arts show which I was so proud of and sold my piece. I was ecstatic! I have a great job with the government of BC in Avalanche and Weather programs and now I only have a couple of years left before I can retire so I didn't want to give that up. I decided a few years ago that I would stop selling my art as my paying job can be quite stressful and I needed to take better care of myself. It was a great decision and I started making art I wanted to make not what I thought other people would buy. Now isn't that what an artists is really supposed to do. Hell Yes, I say!!!

As a result I feel like I have really grown as an artist and I am so much more satisfied with what I create. I find it far more therapeutic too. It helps me cope with any challenges I have to deal with and I have had way more than my fair share of challenges in the last year! I don't think I would have survived if I didn't do art and art journalling.

I owe my artistic gift to Jazz. Jazz was my horse I bred and I was so proud of him. He was a great blend of both his mom and dad taking the best qualities of each. A breeders dream. I pulled him out of his mom, Personality on May 19 1986, cleared his nostrils and the first thing he saw was me. Mom? He had 2 moms me and his real mom :) He was a huge brat but very loveable, and a huge challenge to train. I discovered when he was about 4 years that he loved to jump and so I indulged this to assist with training and it worked very well. Dressage is what I really wanted to do but he found it so boring. Once we got the basics down and on to the more challenging movements his interest started to peak. He was elegant and athletic so when you got him engaged it was INCREDIBLE! He had just started to excel at Dressage when the unthinkable happened.

When he was 11 he ate some Yew tree branches and died. I was devastated. We were 2 peas in a pod. He was like my child and we shared a dressage and jumping career, we we best friends, I have never ever had such close relationship with another soul before. For 2 years I sunk into a deep depression I was obsessed with not forgetting any detail of him. I started writing about him, anything I could think of no detail too small. I also added any and all photos of him I could find but there was so many moments that there was no photo for and there was never going to be that opportunity. :(

I must learn to draw.

And so it started.

My gift of art is from him and now I can't imagine my life with out it.

I still miss him but he will be in my heart forever. Thank you Jazz!

Once in a Blue Horse

2012-01-04T22:37:00.001-08:00

I signed up for Strathmore's free online art workshops and first up is Traci Bautista with her offering of "Doodles Unleashed". I have admired Traci's art in magazines for some time, but never have taken a workshop from her. I have been enjoying watching the video which is organized, professional, well thought out. The only minor criticism is the audio fades in and out in places. But it is colourful, fun, inspiring, and gets me motivated to grab my supplies and play. Yahoo! I used some of her suggestions to create this spread in my journal. I already had the outline of the horse and was especially inspired by Traci's freedom to create by asking us to think of our approach as doodling with paint. I found this made it more fun and made me less inhibited with my paint brush. Cool! I love it when that happens.

My red paint swirls became birds as I further doodled little faces, beaks, plumes and feet. Then the horse seemed to boring so more doodling there too. Then I finished it off with some rubber word stamps.

And here is a detail of the horse.

I got so excited I only used a portion of Traci's techniques and I am looking forward to trying out some more. Check out Traci's "Doodles Unleashed" for an injection of inspiration. :) Only the first of the four lessons is posted so far.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year

Cubism

2011-12-22T16:36:00.001-08:00

I have been wanting to make an art cube for a while. I was inspired by Seth Apters that he posted about quite awhile ago now. I think his may have been a collaboration but not sure if my memory is accurate.

I used 5 inch square Clayboard panels to make my cube and laced them together with Irish linen thread. I wasn't planning to have it open but that just seemed like the natural thing to do. I had a few of these 5" squares painted for a while and last weekend when my good friend Kell was over she gifted me with a beautiful card made out of a deep panel with a card closure and that got me thinking about dimensional stuff again. So here is my first attempt at a cube. :)

There will likely be more cubes in my future. :)

My Big Project

2011-12-01T20:29:00.000-08:00

A NEW BARN!

This is Gizelle's new abode. I am so thrilled with it. I keep doing happy dances. It has enough room to store my hay and feed and tack too for one horse. I was very concerned about what I could afford and set myself a budget and have stuck to it fairly well and have a better barn that I ever dreamed of. I feel so blessed. :)

Gizelle is thrilled too. She has a bigger stall and paddock and its super clean . I used sand for the first time and so far it is working out really well. It was a bugger to use your power tools in though. I must thank my hubby Tim for all his help getting the project going to start as well as pitching in and working along side me. I also want to thank Niko, my contractor for all his work and suggestions. I love my red tin roof with its 3 foot overhang on all sides and the polycarbonate lets in so much light that I never need lights on during the day. It is still not completely finished but it is nice and dry and cozy inside.

This is the view from my house to the barn. Its a 10 second walk from my back door and I can gaze at Gizelle from my art studio and talk to her out the window too.

Here are a couple of shots that I played around with editing.

I love the ceiling and it is really high just like I wanted so bright and airy.

I used Mosaik for this one.

Happy December :)

What lies ahead

2011-11-14T00:51:00.001-08:00

Kell came out today and we had a lot of fun arting in my studio. I was playing and goofing around in my Handbook Journal. As usual I was mixing my media including but not limited to a hand carved stamp, a bunch of purchased rubber stamps, Pan Pastels, water soluble oil pastels, stamp pads, water colour crayons, a Pilot Parallel pen and gel pens.

I have not posted much lately because I have been distracted with a big new non art project. Here is a peek at it. I have to sort through my images and make a new post about what I have been up too really soon. More to come . . .

Keep on arting.

iPad play

2011-10-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

"Isn't She Lovely?"

Keiko edited with Pixlromatic. What can I say I am a total sucker for scrolly lines.

Seth Apter is the new proud owner of Mac gear and was asking for App recommendations. I have quite a few apps for my iPad now and thought I would post about them too. Enjoy . . .

"He's Blue"

I have entirely too much fun playing on my iPad. This one is drawn in an App called Harmonious and then framed in Pixlromatic, both really cool little apps.

This one is drawn in Art Studio also VERY COOL! and framed again with Pixlromatic.

Mr Big

2011-10-10T23:15:00.001-07:00

"Mr Big"

Walnut ink and Gold leaf on watercolour paper 20 x 9 inches

Money is thicker than blood

2011-10-10T18:01:00.001-07:00

More Mixed media collage in my Hand Book.

Family are so wonderful to have on the holidays.

Seeing and Listening

2011-10-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

"Walter"

Started with Pitt pens and then painted with Super Tooth Gesso, acrylics, gel pens and walnut ink. I love to finish with Walnut Ink!

These are the latest pages in my big Hand Book. It has a linen cover and watercolour paper. I like these very much.

Water colours

"mad"

Pentel Color Brush and blended with a wet brush

"Red's Portrait"

Pastels, watercolour crayons, acrylics, inkjet printout and walnut ink.

"Curves"

Fiber paste through oval stencil, hand made Goddess stencil, acrylic paint and Walnut Ink. :)

"Listening"

Glowing Edges filter in Photoshop

"Buds"

"Siskel and Ebert"

"Floating"

Waxed Handbook

2011-09-28T22:56:00.000-07:00

This is my waxed Handbook. I love the textures and colours that developed. :)

This is Murphy. You all know him. He really gets around.

Using Pan Pastels and Gel pens with cutouts and stitched with some nice thread.

I love wrens and walnut ink. This beautiful flower was carved by my great friend Kellie.

Just add red

2011-09-13T18:04:00.001-07:00

"Seeing Red"

I felt like it needed more colour so here it is again with the background. It was also done in my iPad app Art Studio. I really like the way they made use of the ipad touch interface.

"Admit One"

And on the flip side this is hands in paint using acrylic paint and

then a few tweaks with Photoshop.

Bits and Pieces

2011-09-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being so absent from blog land. Life has been packed with challenges as of late.

Here is a digital painting I did in "Art Studio" on my iPad. This is a great app for drawing in. It is capably of layers and blending your paint and is very intuitive to use. I think I will be using it a lot more. I don't use my iPad for surfing I love the apps you can get. I have a bunch of arty creative apps and I am surprised how much I am enjoying the apps with soothing sounds. They really can help me sleep listening to ocean waves, distant chimes or forest sounds.

The horse is DaVinci inspired.

"Gias the Time Lord" a journal page.

The face is painted entirely with my finger tip and acrylics.

"Cody aka Red"

Pitt pens and acrylics on mystery paper

Kellie gave me this interesting pad of paper and it is very cool. It looks like it wouldn't take wet media but it does very well and is surprisingly strong. Thanks Kell!

Summer is here at last. In Victoria we had such a wet winter, spring and even summer, until a month ago. Since then it has been awesome weather, warm and sunny with highs in the mid twentys typically. I have been doing tons of work on our yard. The 450 ft driveway is done and I am trying to smooth out the rough edges that heavy equipment leaves behind. Its starting to pay off. :)

Art Therapy and Digital Fun

2011-08-30T18:08:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been thinking of mom a lot and wearing the amber jewelry she wore to feel a little closer to her. There is something so special about the mother/daughter relationship. We had such a great and close relationship sharing many interests, horses, gardening, sewing to name a few. Gosh I miss her. Her wise council.

This is a picture of her from about 1970 wearing her favorite rust coloured suede jacket. I was experimenting with a new app I got Photo Effects Lite and tried out a bunch. Many of you may have seen some of these before but I was having fun and once I found the Kaleidoscope filter I got totally carried away. It actually rotates your image around and you can stop it and save the file at any point. How cool is that?

I created a ton of Kaleidoscopes from my art and it is fascinating how they turn out. Stay tuned for more.

The original image is very "soft" so somewhat difficult to do to much with. This is what made me experiment with it as I loved the colours in the photo, very Mom. Even if you can't see her I know she is there.

Luv ya mom!

New pathways

2011-08-25T00:38:00.001-07:00

We are having our driveway built. The photos start at the bottom of the hill at our street and go up and up and up. It's over 400ft long and will be a gravel surface.

I must say it is a good feeling to be doing it. So far on day 2 they have cleared and now scraped down the soil to the clay, then a rock base and the crush will go on top of that.
It is going to be quite picturesque when it grows back in. It is looking a bit raw at the moment.

My art studio is the first part of the house you see.

And then it circles around and joins the old driveway.

These last two are shot going back down the driveway.

I took my horse for a walk down it and she was so cute. She loved it and was fascinated by all the changes and fresh dirt smells.

Exciting new addition

2011-07-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

It finally came. I ordered it in January. It is actually designed to be a Hutch in a dining room but it is for storage in my art studio and a display for my funky journals. Bonus! I choose the ivory colour with the natural wood for the open shelves to go in my old part of the Studio. I love the distressed look of it!

Here is close up of the top and a detail as well to give you a better look.

Playing with negative space and texture

2011-07-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

Anonova and I traded journals and I have been having fun with hers. Reacting to the starts she had done and adding a few new pages as a result. I left the file size on this one bigger so you can see more details if you click on it. Kellie had done the background on this one and added the gel pen work on the left and I loved it! I wanted to try her technique but with a twist. I started to draw a horse and got the idea from a previous spread I recently did where the horse ended up being the background and I blotted out the negative space with a brush pen. After filling in the new background shadow with a blue brush pen around the horse I erased my white gel pen lines that were outlining making it more ghost like. After that I went about filling in the gel pen highlights on the underlying stamp to match the left side but only on the horse. Cool! eh?

Here it is where the horse ended up being the background and I blotted out the negative space with a brush pen. I then some days later added the face silhouette and days later again the gel pen. I like the whimsical quality of the family picture of DH Tim, Cody and Keiko and I.

This is the newly altered cover of my green Handbook. I had the metal frame on already but after I had spilled something on the journal I figured I would disguise it. I added my initials with white acrylic paint to start and then added some text paper and the dried flower with wax and once I started with the the wax I couldn't stop. :) Bees wax smells so beautiful!!! I adde a little crayons for colour and while it was drying I stamped a crackle stamp for extra texture. And to finish some walnut ink in the cracks. Nearly everything I do ends up with walnut ink at some stage. It is such a rich colour and ages things so beautifully.

Page in progress. Pencil crayons, gel pen lettering and dry brush over heron. Cleaning my brush out. :)

more progress on Handbook pages. Pan pastels, brush pen, Acrylics, pencil.

Working in Kells book again here. Added the wax/stamp/ crayon on the pocket. Cut out the page edges to create tabs and peeks of pages below. Used sewing machine to make the pocket and add texture. Lots of walnut ink on this journal spread. Kellie is King in my world! and she is Key. Key to my artists support and growth as she is a Kindred Spirit. K words for Kellie!!!

Carved into wax around Kindred.

Ready for words or ???

I don't add too much writing to my pages I used to feel that pages were incomplete if I didn't finish them off with lots of journaling. But now I am ok with it. After all isn't your visual interpretation your artistic voice speaking?

I do love to play with lettering. And I love to experiment with lettering too just like media I love to play around with styles and materials.

This spread is inspired by Michelle Wards work in the latest article in Somerset's Art Journaling magazine. Wink often. Sounds like great advice to me.

I read this the other day and it also sounded like great advice.

Loved

I am feeling strong today.

Know why ?

Because I feel really loved.

Isn’t that why we are here ?

And when we feel Loved, we radiate more Love back out and keep the whole thing constantly a-flowing…

Like I said, Powerful Stuff.

I am going to use my Powers for good today.

And fill some more people up.

It doesn’t cost me anything at all.

In fact, I get paid back for giving it all away…

Ten-fold.

by Kim Mailhot

Since I read this I have been experimenting again, only this time with smiles. When I ride my bike to work and when I walk around in town and in the office I have been smiling at people. Yes, that is my evil plan to smile. :) and its working! People are smiling back.

Smiles all around :)))

Artistic Style

2011-07-05T20:29:00.001-07:00

What does artistic style mean to you? Is it the subject you always draw? The media you always use? Or is it something more intangible? Hmmmm

Like success there are many different interpretations.

The fascination with faces

2011-06-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

But first I couldn't resist sharing some treasure I found while cleaning up. Pictures of Cody and Keiko when we first brought her home. Cody was so gentle with her getting down on her level to wrestle, letting her think she has a chance in a tug of war and resting up for the next bout. They were so adorable together.

Went for a great bike ride this morning and feel so great because of it. Energized, Ya baby!

I also got in some art time on Saturday and drew a bunch more faces.

Most of the inspiration came from "Art Revolution" by Lisa Cyr Wow talk about eye candy. I never get tired of looking at this book.

I am listening to Roger Cicero a German Jazz singer the track is Das Experiment and man it gets my toes tapping and sometimes I just have to dance.

Happy arting

Joy Pocket

2011-06-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

What brings you joy?

For me it is living in the moment, small moments of discovery.

Taking note of the simple things.

Noticing nature's miracles

The fascination of faces

family keepsakes

the beauty of spring flowers and their intoxicating aromas

Painting with your fingers

Time spent laughing with Friends

I got this wonderful idea from Monica of Bohemian Twilight

Happy Fathers Day

2011-06-18T23:43:00.000-07:00

Pages in my 9 x 12 Strathmore Mixed Media Journal

He has slipped the surly bonds of earth

And now dances in the skies

with his loves arms about him once again;

Sunward they climb in the tumbling mirth

They have done a hundred things

In a life full of love that you could have only dreamed of.

Things will never be the same

And all though it hurts so bad

We will smile whenever we hear your name

And be proud you were our Dad.

Hand Book

2011-06-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

Lots of journal pages from my cute little 5 1/2" square Hand Book.

To be honest I wasn't very optimistic about my liking the paper in this journal but it was cheap enough I was willing to risk it. I must say I am quite impressed! Here are a bunch of pages where I have used lots of different media.

Watercolours

Horse inspired by Carla Sonheim

Her book Drawing Lab is Fab!

Inkjet Tranfer after a bit of Photoshop fun

My Mom and Dad enjoying a picnic.

Pencil and watercolour and stamps

Tanya is done in watercolours with a few stamps thrown in.

I have a new Scanner/Printer which prints beautifully but I am not thrilled with the shallow depth of field for the scanner. My old one was great I used to scan flowers picked fresh from the garden by leaving the top open. This new one has to have the journal squished flat to the surface to come out half decently. Grrrr!

Testing out my new colours of Gouache

WIP Inkjet transfer of Keiko and then drawn on.

Playing with family photos

My parents with my mom's mom and on New Years 1958 and 2 months pregnant with me!

My mom made her dress out of chocolate silk velvet ( I have the fabric) and gold taffeta.

Acrylic paint and walnut ink background to start then drew dove and used pencil crayons in the negative space around the bird. Pilot parallel pen highlighted with gel pens

A mish mash of media

Hand carved stamp of the face using walnut ink

Acrylic background and then used a deep blue Pentel Color Brush

Keiko, Me, Cody and Tim

Mt Doug Park

2011-06-12T03:04:00.000-07:00

These were the first wild roses I have seen this spring and they smelled intoxicating!
You get a 360 degree view from the top of Mt Doug and this is the view towards the farm I used to board my Appy Copper at, the farm land just below the trees. My old stomping ground was from there and up Mt Doug park and down to the ocean to ride on the beach. I have a lot of fond memories tearing around on the trails in the area.

Stonecrop is flowering all over.

Playing with filters on this rock picture

Moss covered Oaks

More digital fun with wildflower picture

I looked these up and they are Menzies Larkspur

Roz has infiltrated my journal :)

2011-06-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

Roz with kissing pigs ;)

I started with a page off with gouache as I was inspired by Roz Stendahl talk on her blog of how much she liked it. I only had white for calligraphy up to this point and was curious to give gouache a bit of a test to see how I liked it. I like it! And reading the fun post about Roz getting new glasses made me giggle, I thought what a get picture she has wearing the kissing pig glasses, (your really curious yourself now, no? ;) So that was my model for "Project Journal Infiltration" I know I am not following the rules of sketching in person, but hey I am not going to be in the Minneapolis area anytime soon. So I guess I can't enter the contest, I am a rebel. (grinning)

Here is my door again with gel doodling play. Yehaa!

Misty Mawn made a recommendation for The Lost Fingers and I ended up with the whole album and I am enjoying it so much. I love Gypsy Jazz and they have such a great sense of whimsy too. Thanks Misty!

Moving on

2011-06-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

The last month has been very challenging for me and I want to return to a more relaxed and normal(???) routine. Thanks for all of your supportive comments. It is so quiet in the house and on the property now. I look forward to new beginnings. So I am shaking off and trying to carry on and get back into my art.

This is another view of my page extension with a bit more done to it. It is likely going to be worked on more. I am thinking gel pens right now as I already was playing with them. I like the peep hole showing the eye of the horse underneath. and for some reason I added the (magazine) face that I gel penned over. I do like where its going but I have no idea where it will end. :)

"Clowy"

is done on a Gouache/gel pen background and has walnut ink hair

Another face. I don't know why I like faces so much now, they used to terrify me. I am surprised how many I do from my imagination. I don't have a vision of what the face will look like when I start, I just begin. Usually the eyes are first. I love drawing eyes and I always seem to make them too big as well as the lips too. My faces usually spill off the page which I am totally ok with. I find it so facinating to let your imagination loose and see what happens if you just let it.

Keiko

2011-06-04T20:47:00.001-07:00

Keiko 1998 - 2011

She chose us. We took Cody with us to the breeder so he could pick out a puppy but it became clear that she had already done the picking and that she was going home with us. Fortunately we listened and never regretted one minute. She never missed her litter mates and stood on my lap in the car all the way home ready for her new family. She was the best! So loyal and loving and smart as a whip. She was a piece of cake to train and she and Cody were two peas in a pod. They would even eat out of the same dish and never ever bickered. My heart is broken, the house so quiet. We love you Keiko.

Tour de Victoria

2011-05-28T17:31:00.001-07:00

It was pretty cool to be apart of the first ever Tour de Victoria. To have such an awesome organized event in my own home town how could I not. The logistics to pull this off must have been incredible. We had a road lane to ourselves for almost the whole ride. What a joy to ride under those conditions.

I wanted to train better for the event but since I didn't I opted for the shorter less hilly 90 km route as opposed to the 140 km route. I still feel proud of myself for doing it. My average was 26.8 km per hour which I thought was respectable. I came in 395th out of nearly a thousand riders in the timed portion for the last 12.5 km after already riding almost 80km's.

Ex Canuck Trevor Linden chats with Ryder Hesjedal before heading out on the 140 km route. This event is the brain child of Ryder and big props to him and his team for making it so well organized. Next year I hope to do the 140 km route.

Ryder Hesjedal (left) and Pro City rider Jamie Cameron come to the finish line

see more pictures here

http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/Photos+Tour+Victoria+brings+local+sports+celebrities+good+vibes/4857307/story.html#ixzz1NhKdU5xY

I wish I had a picture of myself but I didn't even take a camera

The elite riders riding with Ryder

Thanks to all who worked so hard to put this on, the many volunteers and also for all those who came out to cheer us on. I think I even heard my name once or twice.

Tour de Victoria Rocked!!!

Strathmore Workshop with Roz

2011-05-22T22:06:00.001-07:00

I signed up for the free online workshops that Strathmore put on and I am sadly taking the last one. This Month it has been Roz Stendahl teaching us "building your visual journal from the page up" Roz is full of great information and my favourite thing I learned was adding a page extension but in a unique way. I found a page that I had already sketched a horse and cut out 3/4 of the page on the right but leaving the horses head. Then I glued in the extension but first I lined up some complementary decorative paper. I love the effect. I am going to experiment with different ways of interpreting this idea. I already saw some different ways by seeing what other artists doing.

I added a fancy brad for a knob and pumped it up with a couple of washers. I haven't figured out what I will put on the back of the "door" yet.

The backside is already getting interesting. I used Roz's sugestion to continue the colours on to the next spread.

Its been really a great class to get inspired and get moving onto my pages. You gotta love that!

Thanks ROz :)

A Man of Distinction

2011-05-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Peter Moffatt Sandham 1922 - 2011

Dad, I was fortunate to spend a lot of time with you the last few days. We had some great talks and just being together was so comforting. You were such a sweet guy.

He had a wonderful life and was hardly ever sick. He got to stay home till the end. We don't know exactly what he died of other than his body said that it was finished the ride and it was time to go. He didn't have any pain and his last morning he was even joking around with me.

No regrets but of course we will miss him dearly.

One generation is now gone from our lives but not our hearts.

He was a proud Canadian

Peter and Shyrle were totally smitten and spent over 62 years showing their love for one another.

A class act from start to finish.

We love you Dad and will miss you so much. :(

big hugs Patti

I've got a secret to share

2011-05-13T20:49:00.000-07:00

Its my new journal constructed by Jonna Barnett

Isn't it cool! It's leather bound with copper covers and hot pressed watercolour pages (my favourite) and its a small gem 3 1/2 inches square.

I lucked out and just bought some keys from the Tim Holtz line and found this copper one with Secret on it. How perfect!

I decided to give the book a big head start and went through all the pages and painted them with walnut ink. This is the inside front cover and I pressed my fingers in the still wet walnut ink to get great finger prints.

Friend or Foe???

Pictures of my fur kids as youngsters. :)

Keiko and Cody on the left and Gatsby and Jazz on the right.

Jazz is having fun, Gatsby not so much.

Just playing around.

It is so interesting what pops out at you after you slap some walnut ink on.

Some pan pastels and tape added here.

What do you see?

I see horses. :)

Red Queens and Great mail

2011-05-05T00:04:00.000-07:00

Working in my Strathmore watercolour Journal. I really like them. This is the large format one. I started with a transfer from the local newspaper of a show in town and then I drew and painted over it with gouche, gel pens, oil pastels, stamps, Grunge letters, light modeling paste and some decorative paper. Phew! and I probably forgot something. This was a really fun page to do.

Oh boy great mail!

Here is a snippet of Andrea's work.

I am delighted with my special treat in todays mail. Andrea Joseph has been drawing up a storm and I love her work. So when I saw on her blog that she was creating zines, I checked out her Etsy Store and purchased a few. They are wonderful! Great quality printing showing off her detailed work to best advantage. If you don't believe me go check it out yourself ;) I am going to save some time Saturday morning to sit and browse through them with my morning coffee.

Thanks Andrea!

Much needed giggling

2011-05-01T22:53:00.001-07:00

Or super hero's with the power to laugh!

Nothing better than . . .

The Healing power of good friends. :)

Icons and faces

2011-04-17T22:46:00.000-07:00

Transfer with Gel medium from newspaper, stamps and stencil

Hand carved eyes, nose and mouth

Trying out Gouache

Watercolours, pastel, crayon circles and fiber hair. Ps and Qs in Acrylics.

Cody

2011-04-15T17:00:00.001-07:00

Cody 1997 - 2011

A handsome devil!

With the kindest heart

He loved his little sister

Poodle means puddle in German

A Water Baby for sure.

We sure miss you. :(

Playing with stencils

2011-03-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

I was quite inspired by Linda Blinn's workshop on adding colour to your journal pages through the Strathmore free online workshop. I already had a face in profile stencil I made and I have been really focusing on faces lately so I just decided to go for it. She used watercolour crayons, pencils and I added in walnut ink because I just can't resist it. :)

I use Ginko leaves for hair? on the right and fibres on the left character.

Linda was using circle templates and all sorts of things to make designs with that I had not thought of using in that way. Cool! I love finding new ways to use existing tools in your studio.

I don't think these pages are finished but I like where they are going.

Really excited about springtime. Its just around the corner.

More Janelle!

2011-03-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

I have been listening to and drawing Janelle Monae.

She is an amazing dancer as well as singer.

Tightrope is my fave. :)

More Journal pages with faces

2011-03-05T19:59:00.000-08:00

This first face is inspired by Paul Klee, Lynne Hoppe posted a painting on her Tumblr site that really resonated with me. I loved the way he did the hair and the lines although my painting is completely different the scroll line work is similar.

One of my new favourite musicians! Janelle Monae.

Taking the bus because it was too windy to ride my bicycle. One perk is I get to sketch on the way to work. :)

Penciled this one on the bus too and then later added watercolours.

Playing with ways to make frames in pages of a new journal. I ripped holes and painted with acrylics, stamped in gold ink and then added some of my new printed masking tape.

Its a Madd Hatters theme and here is a pocket spread. I used text pages in squares to cover the first two levels and then painted the background with red watercolours and acrylics. I stamped the Alice in Wonderland characters and coloured with watercolours.

Here's hoping March goes out like a lamb because it came in like a lion. Roarrrrrr!

We got Snow!

2011-02-27T11:50:00.000-08:00

And we got quite a bit too, about 25 cm or 10 inches. It came last Wednesday and is disappearing fast now as it has warmed up and it raining. It stayed fluffy for quite a few days which doesn't happen often here in Victoria. It was nice and sunny on Friday and I went around the yard taking a few pictures. This is the snowberry bushes in our back yard. Doesn't it look like popcorn?
I have been drawing and painting lots of faces. This one is from a photo reference. First I did the colour one and then went back and did the pencil sketch and took more time. Its amazing how you can get such different results from the same model.

All the rest are faces just from my imagination. On the left is an ink sketch with my non dominant hand and on the right is done with one continuous line and then I watercoloured and also added pan pastel.

Java Joe started off with coffee rings, then I wrote Java Joe in walnut in and then sprayed the page with water and added the teal watercolour and let it dry. Next I drew the face and then added the Java Joe lettering back on the top this time and highlighted some areas with walnut ink.

She is watercolours and pan pastels.

The cool dude is now in a magical forest.

Ink dauber faces.

I don't know where she came from but she doesn't look very happy. Pen and Acrylic ink.

Jack and Jill started off as ink dauber faces and then had all sorts of transformations. Black gesso, bottle circles of acrylic paint, crayon, pan pastels, watercolours, gel pen.

The artist is a copy of a little comic strip guy. Then he needed a reason so say Sacreblue! :) She is stamped and her hair inked and the rest watercoloured.

A few more shots around the yard. My wind chimes weren't making any noise as they were frozen together.

The woodpeckers have been finding lots of bugs in this old fir tree.

An angel with a big heart has visited.

As I ride off into the sun I wish everyone Adieu.

Journal Pages

2011-02-19T20:05:00.001-08:00

This character is very inspired by Lynne Hoppe's art. Did the pencil sketch on the bus to work and the watercolour at home.

The Mad Hatter

watercolours, pastel and fibers.

Strathmore journal cover

Cool Dude

I sketched the orange on coffee break at the office.

"The Celtic Goddess" on clayboard

Carved the clayboard then used watercolours, a celtic stamp, then beeswax.

The cover of my new medium Strathmore watercolour journal.

"FACES" done in acrylics and walnut ink.

Spring is in the air

done in pencil and watercolours

Off or On with her Head!

2011-02-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

Alice in Wonderland is such an awesome theme to explore. A friends daughter is getting married and the theme of the wedding is The Mad Hatters Tea Party . . . Burlesque style. What fun! And she asked me to make a guest album in Reds, Black and White. I am totally stoked!!!

I have been playing around with ideas ever since she mentioned it.

Here are a couple of spreads with Alice in mind. :)

Happy Year of the Rabbit

2011-01-29T16:47:00.000-08:00

This flying bunny is done in watercolours in my Hand book.

Chinese New Year is Feb 3 and it will be Year of the Rabbit.

Black Gesso with chalk stamped designs, masking tape and acrylic paints and Year of the Rabbit postage from Canada Post

Seth Apter has a wonderful blog with lot of collaborative art. I participated in "The Pulse" in which he solicited a large group of artists to find out what they were up to and in to. The latest addition is Collections and I am in the latest group shown here. Thanks Seth for all your inspirations to make a community for mixed media artists. :)

I have been playing around with lots of techniques and ideas and having a blast in my journals.

Background is done in acrylics the girl drawn with ink dropper, then I coloured her with Pan Pastels.

Revisited journal cover adding lots of textures.

Used paper towels, bees wax, ripped text pages and a stencil.

Blue Buster

Tracing over images pressing really hard to de-boss my journal page underneath and then using Pan Pastels to highlight the lines. FUN!

EarthGirl

The Whimsy of Drawing Lab

2011-01-23T22:15:00.000-08:00

Say What!

I have been wanting to draw more and there is lots of inspiration out there if you are open to it. I got a couple of new drawing books. One is "Drawing Lab for the mixed media artist" by Carla Sonheim. In it she has 52 very fun filled exercises to do to get you drawing. I am having a blast with it and these little drawings are the result.

The Hot Dog

Both animals were painted first with watercolours and then I added the pen work.

The Rorschach Twins

The twins were drawn with a dropper from an ink bottle. Since I did them in my journal I couldn't seem to resist closing the book and mooshing the pages together. LOL!

Lessons from Pam

2011-01-22T22:55:00.000-08:00

This is after Lesson 4

This is after Lesson 3

Highly Prized

2011-01-16T17:06:00.000-08:00

My Art Studio is one of my most prized possessions and I just found a new addition to add more storage and workspace. It is an island for a kitchen but built as a stand alone piece. I put all my canvas in one of the baskets and all my painting bits and pieces in the other. There are also narrow shelves on each end and the doors and drawers work from both sides.

How cool is that? :)

My Baby girl Gizelle from a photo of her when she was only one week old. I sketched this in watercolours with no pencil and I think that this is a better way for me to work. I am not sure exactly why that is. Maybe that I render the shading better in colours than with a pencil. I have been practicing this method for a few weeks now and I am really enjoying it. This sketch spans the gutter and I couldn't get the lighting on the top of the page very well.

Gizelle looked like a fawn when she was a baby. She is 24 years old and doing great!

Professor Pepper Head

2011-01-09T19:22:00.001-08:00

It all started in 2002 when I took a watercolour class. We were painting botanicals, flowers, fruit and vegetables. Like for example a pepper. Fast forward to 2011 and suddenly inspiration strikes and the lonely pepper develops a face and then the next thing you know he sprouts a body.

He is a child of the 60's in spirit however barefoot with his floral bell bottom pants and psychedelic shirt and he is here to save the planet one bee at a time. :)

Go Professor go!

Making January Fun

2011-01-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

Wow there is lots going on this January. I joined in the free journal workshop that Strathmore is hosting. There is a link top left. The first one is featuring Pam Carricker and it has really got me creating a lot of pages. Sweet! It is 4 lessons, one a week and this spread is after week 2.

This is the next spread showing how the cut out displays the back side of the envelope I painted. I left room on the right for words.

One of the artists gave me the idea to dig out my old watercolours and draw faces on them. This is a fun idea.

Meet Perry. LOL!

And here is Professor Pepperhead. I think he needs a body with a suit and tie, a bow tie.

Here are Zee Cool Cats? No wait those are Zeebras. :)

Here is a Zentangle I did and coloured with watercolours and the background is my favorite walnut ink.

Journal Workshop off to a good start

2011-01-02T01:30:00.000-08:00

Ok I am a keener, what can I say? When it comes to art, I want to absorb as much as I can in this life. And its all about the process.

I am processing. :)

On holidays till Jan 10th and want to cram it in while I can.

This horsey spread is bordered with Copper hair. Copper was my Appaloosa and he had the most interesting colours and patterns in his hair so I took some pics and blew them up. I ripped strips for the border.

I started off with Ochre and then the red and it just seemed destined to have an Asian theme, which I adore.

This is from the first day of the Strathmore Journal Workshop.

Uncovering

2010-12-29T14:03:00.000-08:00

More Journal pages.

This was done as a background with acrylic paint and bubble wrap an then I added umber paint. Later when I went back and looked at it I saw this horse and painting in the negative space I uncovered the horse so others could also see.

Playing with Zentangles. I painted in the background with walnut ink.

Destiny

2010-12-26T19:25:00.001-08:00

destiny

what does it hold for me?

walnut ink in strathmore watercolour journal using a squirrel mop brush

Visual Journals

2010-12-21T02:05:00.000-08:00

I signed up for a free journal class sponsored by Strathmore, featuring their new line of journals with four different options for paper and at a very reasonable price. This is me playing around with the Watercolour one and the Mixed media one as well. I'll write more tomorrow to tell you what I did but for now here are the pictures. :) enjoy!

Oh Mr Fig Newton is in a different journal.

Recycling

2010-12-07T20:52:00.001-08:00

I can't stop doing faces so I am making a few Christmas cards with yes of course . . . faces

I decided I would like a new art table but found one close to home and the price was right. FREE! This is the isle of my dad's barn and if you open this door you go into the feed room. In the feed room is a table that was my mom and dad's first kitchen table . I am not sure exactly what year they bought it, but it has been used well its entire life. I decided to give it a higher purpose and cleaned it up and brought it into my art studio. So this is what it looked like before and I will take some more pictures to show you the after.

And here it is in a previous life with me in 1962 with my best friend Pogo. He is obviously tasked with holding onto some very important paper. LOL!

And here is one more Christmas card. They were both done with watercolours and a white gel pen. Ho Ho Ho

Lightbox Phrenology

2010-11-27T15:45:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist this ceramic Phrenology Head. I went shopping for a chair to sit at my bar height counter yesterday and finally decided on one. It's awesome to finally have a seat. While I was there I found the head. ;) It's about 10" tall and is right at home in my art studio.

I used my light box again to take these shots. The first one I added a faux tin tile in the background and the next couple are with the canvas that my light-box is draped in.

And in this final shot I pulled back so you can see my set up. For those that may not have seen my previous post about this, it's a wing chair with rigid plastic walls cut to fit and draped with canvas. Really simple but works great.

More JP's

2010-11-20T19:12:00.000-08:00

"Dynamic Man"

More portrait practice done with watercolours.

These next images are journal pages in my small Moleskine.

Background is masking tape with acrylic paint and my photo of Buddha edited in Photoshop.

Horse sketched with a Pentel Brush Pen and tinted with Pan Pastels.

New fun printed tape framing "Beth" mounted on graph paper. I love walnut ink it makes everything look 100 years old.

Sense of sight, sense of smell. Wax pocket holding essential oils for the Brow Chakra. Patchouli, Myrrh and Frankincense. Also more tape. :)

Painting with string, Pan pastel, acrylics, Stencil, tape cut out hands, flower and fairy to create a pop out effect.

More string painting and Pan pastels.

Found this wee Oak branch on my driveway after a stormy night covered in beautiful Lichens and fungus. This is a close up with my macro lens and the section of branch is about 2 inches long. I took all these shots in my new light box. I will have to take a picture of the light box to show you my set up.

We have snow in Victoria! Not much thank goodness and it doesn't happen too often here. It is supposed to get even colder going down to -8 C. Eeek! I may not be riding my bike to work on Monday. :(

Red Green Journals

2010-11-17T20:47:00.000-08:00

"Flashdance"

I picked up some new journals yesterday and tried 2 of them out last night. The two I tried are called Hand Books and have drawing paper pages but they take wet media not too bad. "Flashdance" is done in watercolours with no preliminary pencil sketch. I am quite happy with it. The nice thing about stitched books is you can easily painted over the gutter.

"Requiem for a V"

This ephemera (ballet image) is from the local newspaper of a ballet called "Requiem for a Vampire" the backbground is done with acrylics and I have the see thru pocket holding an face on the right that I did on my iPad.

Here is the two new journals sporting some new embellishments. They have nice fabric covers with earthy colours. So far I am pretty impressed.

Lightbox and more Faces

2010-11-14T18:53:00.000-08:00

"Martin" (when open 11 x 8")

Ingredients: Acrylic paint, masking tape eyebrows, gel pen, sequence waste.

Working intuitively with paint from a rough sketch.

These are all journal pages from different size journals taken in my studio in my newly created lightbox. I made it out of things I already had. I used a wing chair some rigid plastic board, medium weight canvas and my standing lamp with the natural spectrum bulb. I like that you can see the texture of the canvas in the background. I took me less than an hour to set it up and take these first 3 pictures. I am very pleased how natural the lighting is in these shots.

"Strut" (open is 18 x 11")

Ingredients: Acrylic paint, wine label, Pan Pastels, oil pastel, rake shaped palette knife, sand paper, decorative paper,

"LUV" (Moleskine open 7 x 5 1/2)

Ingredients: Letters used as mask, decorative tape, acrylic paint, Pentel color brush (red), sketched with Pentel Brush Pen, Pan Pastels, Dragonfly punch

My old scanner doesn't work with my new Mac so I need to get a new one sometime. But now at least I can take pictures of my art even in the dark with nice lighting. Hopefully this will help me get more regular posts up on my blog. :)

My Back Yard

2010-11-06T20:03:00.000-07:00

This first one is natural

This one is edited in iPhoto

The rest in Photoshop. This is a radial blur

Trying for a painterly look

Poster Edge filter

It was a dull day last weekend when I took this shot of my horse Gizelle at the back of the barn from the field. I have had my horses in this barn since 1975. Lots of great memories. :)

All Hallows Eve

2010-10-31T17:04:00.001-07:00

This is the counter where I do my art work as it looked today. Kell, visited and brought the squash and we made a pile of Halloweenie stuff and I took a bunch of shots of it. We had a blast and I got to see Bean all grown up. He loves to play ball! Went for a walk around the property and visited the fairy tree. What fun.

Happy Halloween Everyone! :)

No hoof, No horse!

2010-10-25T22:56:00.000-07:00

Such was almost the fate for my sweet girl Gizelle. She was diagnosed with founder Sept 2009. It takes a full year for a horse to grow a new hoof so it is not something you find the results for quickly. Gizelle is 24 years old and I was wondering if she would be able to recover or if I was sentencing her to a lot of pain for nothing. Tough decision. Well I couldn't give up on her too quickly so I steeled myself for the long road to recovery or so I hoped. There was a point a few months in where she was in so much pain I called the Vet to come put her down. It was all too much for her and for me it was torture to see her suffer like that. The Vet came and found an abscess and relieved the pressure and she was able to continue on. That was the hardest and lowest point and I am so happy to say she has made a complete recovery! It is so hard when our animal friends get sick! I pulled her out of her mother for goodness sake. She is a part of the family.

Gizelles feet in bad shape Feb 2010, you can see the line especially on her far dark foot where it is actually coming apart. And her closer white foot is misshaped with her toe cut back. I had to lock her in her stall for months because she could only walk on very soft ground and she even had a hard time with that. The photo below shows her foot closer where the new part is growing in from the top and the line and the mess below.

I am so happy to say she has healthy beautiful feet now. Gizelle is actually so healthy that she is getting bored so I have started riding her again! Here is what her healthy beautiful foot looks like as of Sept 9th and they look even better now. :)))) I would like to thank my Vet and Farrier for all your help. Thanks Danica and Trevor!

Wow, time is flying by and I haven't posted and art for ages!

"The Gypsy Ghost"

I have been doing art but not photographing it. Here is a journal spread that turned out kind of funky. And I have been trying to sketch and draw more and more. Roz Stendal always posting great stuff about journaling and sketching and she has inspired me to get out my Pental Brush pen and use it for sketching. And she is so right it is fun! I'll post some of these later.

"September Moon"

My hubby Tim Zurowski took this great shot of the moon on Sept 21st. I love all the details of the craters and stuff.

We had wonderful weather most of September and into October but it has been raining now for 24 hours and here in the Pacific Northwest it feels like its not going to stop anytime soon. :(

Experimenting

2010-10-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

I love experimenting with different media and combining different media. I just got some plastercloth and used it on these ATC size cards. It has a fabulous texture. I want to use it again and carve into it next time. They are a part of my Inspiration Deck that I can go to for ideas. I collaged a single watercolour sheet all over and cut it up for the set. I ended up with about 64 cards if I recall correctly. I have almost 2/3's of them done. Done is relative though as I often like to go back and add to journal pages or whatever I work on.

This guy was done on my iPad using the Harmonious App and drawing with my finger. I hope they make a tablet with the same touch screen as the iPad. It is so cool to draw that way. It feels so organic for a digital device.

I also like doing faces in every media to see how they transform. Play is so good for your expression for a visual artist. :)

Old Movie starlet done with Pan Pastels in my new Sabrina Ward Harrison journal it has bristol pages and is wonderful to work in.

Going wild on the iPad still using Harmonious.

Very mixed media here! Pizza cutter lines (acrylic paint) Pan Pastels, some conti crayons, rubber stamps, pigma pens, pencil and I think thats it. This is my big beautiful leather journal with hot press watercolour pages, yummy!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Oh I guess that is just to my Canadian friends.

Cheers

Practicing always practicing

2010-09-28T06:19:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest face. I don't know why I want to draw faces so much. I find them very challenging.

September is her name

2010-09-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

New journal page

Sister talk

2010-09-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

I changed my desktop to this photo and I thought I would share it with you. They are sisters Rodlechien and Personality (the bay). I bought Personality from Ms Eva Maria Boerschmann way back about 1980.

For a short time Rodlechien was boarded at my barn. I trained Personality in dressage and then Bred her to a black Trakehner stallion Gaillard and she had a beautiful colt Jazzman who I kept and trained in dressage and jumping. I loved dressage! So technical and yet so beautiful. The partnership to me was the best of all, having your best friend with whom you can spend hours practicing and perfecting your craft and also trail riding, playing and relaxing with. They don't use words but they can sure talk if you listen. What are these two saying? "You move over", "No, YOU move over", "NO, YOU MOVE OVER!!!" Sisters, geesh! :)

The general state of affairs

2010-09-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

This watercolour set is from elementary school. The quality of the paint is not great but I thought I could use it for an assemblage project. With that in mind I spread the paint about.

The start of a new page.

Cool ephemera from Boulevard magazine.

A big canvas I am playing with.

This is a Mergasus

2010-09-01T18:30:00.001-07:00

A Mergasus is from the Land of Inbetween. They are able to fly in the sky but also the sea which makes them bi-worldly.

Anonova's journal

2010-09-01T17:57:00.000-07:00

Meet Fiona

My good friend Kell and I swapped journals and I have been having a blast playing in hers. Here is a little tease for you. Fiona I started from scratch.

This next spread I worked on I used her background as a starting point. The fiery colours inspired me. Here are some details.

To tame the blue painters tape I added a bunch of layers of acrylic paints, pan pastels and oil pastels. Also added a filter for fun.
Kellie and I always have a blast when we get together and art up a storm. :)

Leona

2010-08-27T19:23:00.001-07:00

Leona is inspired by Kellie and Kelly. My good friend Kellie is very talented with faces and she loaned me Kelly Rae Roberts's new book, which is wonderful!

New work on 8 x 10" composite board. It is has many layers to add texture and interest. Paper towel impressions, tickets, postage stamps, text in various languages, wallpaper, tape, acrylics, walnut ink, oil pastels, pen, pencil and I have probably forgotten one or two.

Self Portraits

2010-08-20T17:41:00.001-07:00

She has the Bike Bug. LOL!

PaaaaaPer!

I don't like pictures of myself but I am a very willing model. :)

Yeehaw!

I love hats.

It is a lot of fun with all the effects in Photobooth.

My first Youtube movie

2010-08-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

Starring Gizelle!

I made my first movie on my iMac with iMovie. It is myself and my horse Gizelle doing dressage in the backyard. I am not sure exactly the year but somewhere around 1996. Lizard was kind enough to transfer my old VHS tape to dvd and then I could import it into iMoive. I have only have my iMac a few weeks and it is taking some getting used to, to be able to move about and find everything after being a PC person for my whole life. I plan to transfer some other fun videos that I have of my dogs and horses. It will be great to see the old stuff we filmed.

Just click on Gizelle's name to watch the video.

Cheers

My first post using my iMac

2010-07-31T14:56:00.000-07:00

My Chakra cards are a work in progress. Here is the flip side of them.

ZenTerra ~ The Land of Inbetween

2010-07-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

This is my new accordion book in the making. Over all size is 5 x7 inches and an inch thick. Its made of two strips of 140lb cold press watercolour paper with one seam in it. It is attached to the front cover like the Accordion Moleskine and the cover is heavy canvas painted with acrylics and stamped on with some words and spirals and a baroque design. I have left lots of room for it to expand with art and I have created 4 small signatures of 90lb watercolour paper to insert in some of the valley folds. I will leave it temporarily with the clips so I can take it apart to paint the backgrounds to the pages. I am really liking the format of the accordion fold and this should be fun to see how the signatures will work for this design. So far I am really pleased with how it is shaping up. :)

The cover held with bulldog clips temporarily

opening spread in pen and watercolour with a tad of light molding paste

Spread 2 with more pen and watercolour

Canada Post has featured some unsung female artists in Canadian History.

Prudence Heward's art looks amazing!

In another Journal a collage of many layers with bees wax. I love the smell!

IDEA

We have finally had more than a couple of days of nice weather and I have been out enjoying it on my road bike. Wahoo!

Learning about Chakras

2010-07-18T20:51:00.001-07:00

I like to study up on things that I draw it is so interesting sometimes what you end up finding out about your subject. I didn't know much about the Chakras before this project. I am making 5 x7" cards using book board as the base. They are really nice and sturdy. Mostly I have been working on what I am calling the backs. I have incorporated the associated symbol and colour for each particular Chakra.

In some cases I put the name of the Chakra on the back too.

Here is the flip side of the 6th Chakra the 3rd Eye. I have lots more to do on these but this is the show so far.

Sorry for the absence from my blog. I seem to be busy with life! :)

I have sucumbed! LOL!

2010-06-18T17:49:00.001-07:00

I did it, I got an iPad. This is drawn right on the screen with Harmonious very fun and organic feeling way to create.

Then I opened it in Silhouettes and saved it.

This is with Photogene

Silhouettes again.

A combo of Photogene and Silhouettes

This is Photoeffects

TypeDrawing

Sketch Mee is very cool!

My mom

My horse Gizelle photo before

And after with Sketch Mee

Inspiration Deck

2010-06-08T00:44:00.001-07:00

I have been wanting to make an inspiration deck for quite some time and I finally got it started. I took a standard sheet of watercolour paper and marked off my cards on one side trimmed off the excess, then flipped it over and started painting. It has many layers of paint, text papers, stamps and more painted layers using lots of different tools. This is the final result just before I chopped it all up into 64 cards that are ATC sized (2.5 x 3.5") Below is a close up detail. It shows the pizza cutter lines and the sequins waste dots as well as some cheese cloth. I am very happy with the results and now I have to get busy and customize the fronts of my cards. :)

Iluminating

2010-06-06T09:56:00.000-07:00

This just makes me giggle.

This is mounted on the wall in my studio and the eyes are 8 x 24" and the nose is 8 x 10"

I have been wanting to do some lettering on canvas or muslin, illuminated and Blackletter so I combined them for my initial on muslin.

Oh no! I went and looked at Teesha Moores post on the ipad and I already wanted one and now I see there is a bunch of cool apps to play with for your art. I think I'm a goner now!

I see faces

2010-06-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

Acrylics and pilot pen

6" wire bound journal
graphite and pan pastels and conte crayon

Charcoal face

Pan pastels and conte crayons

Accordion Journal with watercolours

and conte crayons and cheese cloth and pan pastels

looking down on me

8 x24" acrylic on canvas not finished yet

Strawberry Dapples

2010-05-21T09:56:00.001-07:00

Art in the garden

Still playing around with this canvas. I love horses with dapples. My mare is a liver chestnut and in the spring she has dapples. Hers are very subtle almost like it is the way the hairs lay rather than actual colour. They say it is a good sign of health. I'm not sure if this is a Merhorse now. He seems to be flying to me rather than swimming. I think he must be from the Zenterra ~ the land of inbetween. :)

Blue Green

2010-05-17T23:54:00.000-07:00

Feeling blue green. Trying out muslin to letter and paint on.

Made a pocket size accordion fold journal. Used 90lb watercolour paper.

MerHorse

2010-05-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

Probably not finished yet but I am liking it. :)

I don't know the name of this fern. It was one I bought at the nursery ages ago. It seems kind of prehistoric. Very cool!

Bleedingheart

Cornflower

Sunshine and heat at last!

2010-05-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

I am trying to inspire myself up to work on canvases. I love to work in my journals but I get very unsure of what to do after I get one or two layers on a canvas and I can't seem to get unstuck. I need to cure myself of this. I am try to push through and let go and just keep on moving forward.

Here are some of my potted plants sprouting forth on my patio. My art studio is just to the left of this shot.

I used the keys hanging by my door and some other images to make this digital collage.

Happy Mothers Day

2010-05-09T07:27:00.001-07:00

Mom and I and Pogo

The Tree Peony Mom gave me is flourishing. It has 5 flowers this year and they are all open today. They are spectacular! Each flower is 8 or nine inches across when fully open.
Big hugs!!!

Gillian

2010-05-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

Playing in my scribble journal and liked the idea for this face.

So then I went for it in my new Japanese pocket size accordion style Moleskine in acrylics and pilot pen. Inspired my Modigliani yet again. :)

Still Moleskine Crazy

2010-05-02T18:06:00.000-07:00

I am having so much fun with Moleskines. I nearly have one of every type. I am altering the covers as well as working inside them and here you can see Queen BB hold up a gaggle of moleskines.

For my new fabric journal I decided to go small and make it the same size as the Moleskines.

I am not crazy about the lighting here. I was experimenting using the room lighting and my tripod to see if it would look more natural but it looks so golden.

Here are a few pages inside my fabric journal.

The devil made me do it. Ha!

Yard walk

2010-04-27T22:54:00.000-07:00

Walked around our yard with my camera and found a big Peony bud.

Skunk Cabbage which seems so prehistoric it is huge. Each leaf is 3 feet long.

It is so cool!

Bracken fiddles

And I couldn't resist buying some fresh faced pansies. :)

To hand or machine stitch???

2010-04-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong I love my sewing machine but it doesn't even do zig-zag stitches! I have been thinking of investing in a new machine. I have been so out of touch with the sewing world that I don't know where to even shop for one in town anymore. Can you help make a suggestion? I would love to be able to sew regular weight fabrics as well as canvas and use heavier thread. I am curious as to what a new machine could do for me. I hear there are lots that can program some cool embroidery but I don't know if I would use this feature much. Any recommendations very appreciated!

Thanks

Fabric Journal to be

2010-04-23T21:22:00.001-07:00

Having fun following Teesha Moore's instructions for building a fabric journal. This is my very first square well actually rectangle. I was very inspired to try after seeing Teesha's 4 part video that she posted on her blog. Thanks Teesha you made it so easy that I couldn't resist trying it. I drew on the face with a Coptic marker and then painted with watered down fluid acrylics and then some pan pastels. I did this first and then sewed it as per Teesha's instructions. This was fun and I am looking forward to making a whole journal.

Happy Earth Day Everyone

2010-04-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

Tree of life journal page

Wild flowers ~ Chocolate Lilies

My Ginko Tree

Be kind to the Earth today and always. :)

Introducing Violet Pansee the Garden Goddess

2010-04-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

She came into this world as a blob. It's the cliche story of the ugly duckling turning into the beautiful swan. LOL! She is painted with acrylics and has lots of leaf adornments and a big heart. She has two green thumbs and can grow sunshine, helping hands and warm hearts. :)

I made her flower out of bits of painted muslin and used a pin to hold it on.

The watering can is pouring silk yarn and here she is with her crop of friends.

Kindly hearted Violet

Growing more love

Insightful Ms Pansee

In honor of Lynne Hoppe and Peg :)

2010-04-13T23:31:00.001-07:00

It is hard to tell from the picture but this tree is huge! If I was standing in front with my arms outstretched I wouldn't even make it half way across this view. This is three pictures knitted together. This tree lives in my neighbourhood over at my girlfriends place and it has 2 other sister trees nearly as big very close to it forming this amazing triangle of grace and wisdom. It is a very magical place.

This next image is of the right side of the tree mirrored. Look at all the creatures that pop out. I left the file size bigger so if you click on it you can see lots of detail.

Lucky Me!

2010-04-11T11:11:00.001-07:00

Its official! I am now the new proud owner of Peg by Lynne Hoppe.

Peg is done on plaster cloth, muslin, acrylic paint, collage elements, coloured pencils, matte gel medium and oil pastels.

Lynne is mailing it out to me tomorrow. I am so excited to see it in person, to see her art in person. I am such a fan of her work and her blog posts are so wonderful! I am also getting a muslin journal from Lynne and I am looking forward to working in that when it arrives. Thank you Lynne for your beautiful work.

Something I'm working on

2010-04-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

This canvas is 12 x 24 and I used 2 different decorative papers and fluid acrylics. Not sure where it is going from here. Trying to be braver using a big format and just letting go . . . . . :)

Sunday Morning Nest

2010-04-05T13:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! Here is my nest where I can snuggle up with my Zines, journals and coffee on Weekend mornings. It is super comfy and I often take a break and plunk down and doodle or read. It is a great stress reliever!

This spread is in my big black leather journal by Keith. I love the way it ended up. I cut out a bunch of different papers in pear shapes. I had done the background of watercolours and rubber stamps ages ago. I added a bit of pan pastels for shadowing around the pears.