Mermaid Circus online class with Teesha Moore and Jane Davenport

I was so excited to start this class. Teesha Moore and Jane Davenport are such wonderful and diverse artists from each other. What in the world was I in for? I shy away from lettering, I hate my handwriting. One of the most stressful stages in my paintings is signing my name! Mermaids and fanciful creatures....I need reference, realism, how in the world was I going to capture this world? I am just into week 4 so there is still so much more to go but what I have learned so far is the magic of markers. I knew nothing about markers. I just had the big black sharpie markers that never felt comfortable in my hands....now they are one of my new favorite tools. I especially like the watercolor markers because you can blend them. I love using watercolors anyways and adding the markers is just a brilliant touch. I am learning about color combinations that I never worked with before, like seagreens and aquas with corals and pinks....who knew...I didn't till now. Oh and the mermaid, I am loving discovering my mermaid. Haven't even reached the circus yet. That will be for next post. Oh, and the hand lettering, I am finding my way around that too and me thinks will be exploring that in my depth. Here is what I have so far.

My new online class

Painting and Composition-mixed media and fabric collage promo for class from Kate Thompson on Vimeo.

Here is the link to go to the class : http://thetroddenpath.ning.com/group/painting-and-composition-mixed-media-and-fabric-co

My new online class is starting today.

http://thetroddenpath.ning.com/group/painting-and-composition-mixed-media-and-fabric-co

Teaching at Random Arts, Saluda, NC. June 2013

I am so excited to be teaching at Random Arts in Saluda, NC. Jane Powell contacted me about teaching there on January 1, 2013! What a great start for the New Year!! I will be teaching my technique of working with plaster and layered fabrics (vintage of course) and then painting a figure or a portrait using watercolors, alcohol inks, pastels and gesso. I will be demonstrating how I create my faces with gesso and alcohol inks. Each student will have a completed mixed media art piece at the end of the workshop. I will be supplying a template of a face drawing that can be used as an image transfer if you are new to making portraits.
I recently took a trip up there to drop off samples and it is such a warm and stimulating environment. I loved the atmosphere and look forward to teaching more classes there.
Here is their website to check out http://randomartsnow.com/

March is just flying by...what I have been up to

This is a music cover I have been working on for a friend of mine. What happened during this process was something very magical. I was so concentrated on creating the figures in particular the muse and the artist that I had no idea that I created this face within the grim reaper form! It just appeared. I initially created this image more as a design element and never even approached painting a face there. As I was creating the folds of the cloak and the hood I saw the face! This is the miracle of art. I now have so much more respect and gratitude towards the power of my higher consciousness. Now the lesson is to tap into this power in every single aspect of my life!
This is a 16" x 16" painting on wood. I used acrylics and some pastels.

These are two journal spreads I am working on in Juliana Cole's Extreme Journaling class. Is this ever fun and addicting! I was never much of a writer and never really journaled before, but now this process is part of my creative ritual. What I really love about working in a journal is I can use all my cheap craft paints I bought from Michaels. There are so many colors so I can experiment with all of them. If there is a color I really like, I will get my Golden's out and mix that color using those paints for future fine art pieces, but in my journal...it is legal to use these paints! I love laying down lots of color and then  rubbing alot of it off. That can create great texture. I never really worked with colored pencils or watercolor pencils before but I did in these pieces and what fun they are. I like to take the pencils and scribble into the wet acrylic paint. Juliana has introduced me to the world of masking tape! Love using the tape and I even purchased som washy tape. I want to get better with my lettering. I never liked my hand writing. I am trying to let go of the judging and just play with lettering. This is hours of fun and frenzy and meditation!

Fabric Collage painting with pastels and acrylics.

I have been experimenting with pastels lately and love mixing them with gesso and acrylic paint. There are so many beautiful colors in pastels that I can't always find with paints so mixing them with paint or gesso has been a great experiment for me. Golden makes a great product, Acrylic Ground for Pastels which creates a great, gritty surface to apply the pastels and when you apply it with a pallete knife it creates texture and depth in your paintings. I love this stuff!

I really like painting over the fabric. I found, though that I had to do quite a bit of sanding to distress and imbed the fabric deeper in the work. Finding an old eyelet blouse of mine, I promptly ripped up to use in this piece, which you can see on the figure.

I filmed this whole process and will be teaching a class. Details coming soon. Thanks for visiting!

Here is the start of this painting. I used matte medium to collage papers and fabrics (vintage hankies and linens).

I apply soft pastels in different areas of the painting to block in colors.

I paint with both acrylic titanium white and gesso and mix the pastels to create tones.

I then concentrate on the face using acrylics and alcohol inks.

I have some reference of birds on a branch to create the linear image next to the figure.

I collage over some areas to pull the piece together.

The final painting.

Here is a close up of the side...lots of texture to look at.

Here is a close up of the figure.

A jack-in-the-box girl

Here is a painting I worked on while taking a class with Mindy Murphy Lacefield. I really love working with collage. Yes.......more rabbits! I love working abstractly but then I have to have some realistic form in the work. I finally figured out that my goal is not to make a realistic painting but on the other hand not abstract either. I seem to go back in forth with my process of allowing myself to  paint wildly without any thought of realism, but then I reel myself in with reference around me to create form that makes sense. I have a huge library of images I can refer to when that stage of the painting is called for. It's a wild unexpected ride!