Art at Snus Hill Winery on April 30th

I've been making some new earrings to prepare for the upcoming art sale at Snus Hill Winery this coming Saturday.  The event is part of a multi-community celebration in honor of the High Trestle Trail.  Read more here.
This grouping features different stones and sterling silver.  I've been shaping and hammering sterling wire.  That's lots of fun.
So is hanging out with fellow art lovers.  I hope you'll come out this Saturday and see us at Snus Hill Winery.
We'll be there from 10-5.


Turquoise and Sterling Silver Earrings



African Chrysocolla and Sterling Silver Earrings



Just a few of my earring creations.

Hope Rewarded

Digital art from my painting and photography

My computer is operating again.  Hooray!  I need help from Hubby to tweak a few things, but I very happily played with Photoshop Elements this evening.  I really missed using it very much!

I combined a face that I painted following Sharon Thomlinson's class last year and a photo of daisies that I captured last summer.   Over the past several months, my computer was behaving very badly and I quit manipulating images on it.  Most recent pictures that I've posted here were edited on my smart phone using PicSay Pro.

Now I'm happy to say that my hope of having a faster running computer has come true.  I created several layers and many adjustments to my images.  There was no slowing down.  That is why this post is titled Hope Rewarded.  Thanks Hubby! xo

Triple Galaxy Painting

Painting image taken Saturday under partly sunny skies.

 Do you ever wonder when enough is enough on a painting?  I have found that taking a quick digital image often helps me see the weaknesses in a painting.  There have been times when I thought I was done and was preparing my images to post a blog entry when I saw flaws that I knew I couldn't live with. Back to the easel...

Saturday was a good day to go outside and spatter paint.

 This is a painting I started several months ago and set aside while I contemplated what else to do with it.  It began with gesso resist monoprints and layers of blue-violet and red-violet.

This past week I added glazes of transparent color to give the painting more depth.  Some were sprayed on with a mister bottle and some were dry brushed on.  I added a bit of spattered gesso.  More glazes were added, but I knew I needed to put more energy onto the canvas.  That can get messy.

Fortunately the weather was calm and mild this past Saturday.  I laid the canvas board on the ground and shielded some of the areas with torn paper and the canvas circles you see on the above image.  Then I aggressively spattered gesso across the painting.  I followed that with some spritzes of glaze color.

Detail from the painting.

I liked the way the canvas appeared.  I like the digital images even better.

Inside my house is another matter.  The lighting is diffused, and the white areas are not distinct like they are on the digital imagery. The painting seemed dark and didn't have the visual movement that I could see outdoors.

This morning I put a thin layer of gloss medium/varnish on the painting.  That helps bring out the whites and gives the painting a bit more depth.  I hesitated to take this step because I wasn't sure I was done adding glaze layers.  The gloss layer isolates any new layers from the previous ones and any subsequent painting will go down differently.

It's time to step back and wait.   Again.

GPP Crusade No. 49 - Journaling Forensic Self Portrait

Journal spread featuring a tea I like.

 Let me start by saying that I am very happy to be getting a post up today.  My lap top died last week. The hard drive is kaput.  The new hard drive that Hubby purchased turned out to be defective.  We are waiting for the replacement to come in the mail.  Now I'm using my computer that is operating on a Linux operating system from a disk!  My husband is a genius!

This post features a couple journal spreads I created earlier this month.  They are my entries for this month's Green Pepper Press Street Team Crusade.  Follow the link to learn more.

The above journal spread was built on pages that were prepped with leftover paint during a painting session.  I roughed in the face at the same time.  I decided to use this spread for the challenge when I opened a bag of Awake Tea and the color coordinated with my spread.  I've been drinking a lot of tea lately and enjoy a good black tea.
The page was embellished with tea bag ephemera, rubber stamping (clocks), chalk pencils and stenciled ink.

Layers of paint, ink and ephemera on one half.  The right side started with scrapbook paper.

 I've been following Strathmore's art journal free online workshops.  In a prompt to journal about favorite sounds, I remembered the sound that the rows of flags make snapping in the breeze on Memorial Day.  I created this spread to remind myself of that sound and to show my patriotic side.

The completed spread.

Many layers of paint and ink went on the left half.  A patriotic themed scrapbook paper was adhered to the right side.  Distress inks helped to unify the color of the two pages.  Stenciling with a doily gave the pages a common texture.  I collected canceled stamps for the borders.  The photos were taken at my home town Memorial Day observance.  I put the top left photo on a flap so I could journal more personal thoughts under it.

High Trestle Trail Grand Celebrations

On April 30th, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation is celebrating the grand opening of the High Trestle Trail.  This trail features one of the largest pedestrian bridges in the world!  The bridge is over 1/2 mile long and 13 stories tall.  The trail is part of a 670 mile trail system that connects Des Moines and several Central Iowa communities.  Get out you bike or walking shoes!

Several area communities are hosting festivities to mark the occasion. One event is being held at Snus Hill Winery where 20 artists will have their work for sale.  A new artists group, the High Trail Trestle Artists, is organizing the event at Snus Hill.  Their members have invited other local artists to join them.  I'm blessed to be one of them.

There will be something for everyone at Snus Hill, including some great wine tastings.  The winery is set in the country where you can enjoy the rural Iowa scenery.  The artists will be set up indoors, so the weather is not a factor.

I hope to see you on Saturday, April 30th.

GPP Crusade No. 48 - More Evidence Journaling

Evidence page featuring a symphony concert we attended.

 The February prompt for the GPP Street Team is to create another evidence page in our art journals.  The theme is to come from an event attended last year, so Michelle Ward cleverly named the crusade: "Been There, Done That."  Read more at the GPP blog.

I've just completed half of my spread that you can see above.  Hubby and I attended a very special concert where the Central Iowa Symphony and Fort Dodge Symphony joined together.  Mahler's 1st Symphony was performed during the second half of the concert.  Near the conclusion of the performance, the French horn section is featured.  At the conclusion, the French horn players all stand as their fanfare fills the air.  It was a moving experience that I won't forget.  And it was so meaningful...



Beginning stages of the journal spread.

 A dear friend who had been a French horn player lost her battle with cancer the day before.  Her daughter, who is also a superb musician, was playing the French horn in the first chair position in the concert.

My friend was also an artist. We became good friends at the pool where we both did our workouts.  We quickly learned that we had so much in common.  Working out was more fun when we discussed the latest "Watercolor Artists Magazine" or the projects we were working on.

For this journal spread, I chose aqua and gold acrylic paint and gesso to prep the pages.  Aqua is for the pool and gold for the French horn.  The spiral stamp reminded me of the shape of the horn.

I adhered ephemera from the concert on my page with soft matte gel.  Chalk and oil pastel were added for more color.  I also spritzed the page with walnut ink and wiped off the excess.  Journaling was added with a Sharpie marker.
As for the right hand page, I plan to put a memorial to my friend on it.

Strathmore Visual Journal Page - Snow Birds

Detail from journal page

We had quite a snow storm earlier this week. I had filled all the bird feeders in anticipation of the bad weather on Sunday. I was rewarded with the sight of juncos, aka "snowbirds" feeding in my back yard.

Inspired by all the activity, I pulled out my new Strathmore Visual Journal with watercolor paper and jotted down some thoughts with a Sharpie pen.  Then I put a wash over gesso over the page. I sketched the birds with a soft charcoal pencil.  Then I worked the page altering between the gesso and charcoal.  A light spray of walnut ink that was mostly blotted off added some warmth to the page.  A bit of Prussian Blue oil pastel was added to the birds and a bit of the background which was followed up with more gesso wash.
Graphite details sketched back in.  A colored pencil gave the page a title.  I used Souffle matte ink pen to outline "snowbirds" and write over the journaling that was done in graphite.
A few details were added with Sharpie poster markers. The snowflakes were stamped on using Lagoon-colored Chalk Ink.


Strathmore Visual Journal with Watercolor Paper

 The colors are very somber in comparison to my usual project, but they reflect what I have been seeing out my window most of the week.  We had some sunshine for a while today.  Now the colors are returning to what you see on this page.

I am very pleased with the quality of the new Strathmore Visual Journal.  It has stood up well to the wet layers I put down with minimal distortion of the page.  Most media that I've drawn with have gone on easily.  I have only been able to get the smaller sized (5.5 x 8 inch) journals at the local Hobby Lobby.  I think I may put together my own journal with their tablet paper that is available.  It's easy to fill the smaller format, but sometimes my ideas are bigger than that.