Mixed Media Lotus Minis

Ok, back to showing you more from the 30 Paintings in 30 Days I did last year. This piece above, "Content" is number SIX. I had actually worked on another piece that night for hours but it was not cooperating. Or I wasn't. Either way I wanted to toss it to the coyotes. I gave up and cleaned up because it was late, and I was tired. I was bummed that I didn't finish one. As I was cleaning up I saw my little 4"x4" canvases. I grabbed one and went for it. I returned to a favorite subject and colors and the next thing I know this lil' happy piece was done! Yay! I felt so much better!

This next one, "Transparent",  is number SEVEN. I was trying out different colors than I normally use and a different style. I like how it turned out!

"Absorb" is number EIGHT. Absorb and learn what you need to from this beautiful life so you can nurture yourself and those who surround you.

These were all done in a similar way. I started by glueing down antique French book pages then painting and drawing over them. On this last one above I also glued down blue hand-painted paper and a strip of natural fiber. 

Ok, you know what... even though it's not part of the 30in30, I'm going to add one more mixed media lotus to this post because it was done around the same time and has a similar feel.

This is "Silent Beauty", because often silence can be a beautiful thing. 

Ok, that's enough for now. These are all done on small 4" x 4" x 1.5" gallery-wrapped canvases and are all available for purchase.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a creative day!

xoE

Flower paintings

Hi there!

I know in my last post I said that I would share more from the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge, but I wanted to share these with you first. This pretty little (5" x 5") piece was a commissioned by one of my good friends ( a brilliant wedding photog) as a gift for another friend of hers. What a special gift, right? 

She told me her friend loves these colors and Chrysanthemums, then we figured out what size to make it. I loved doing this and I think it turned out great! If it wasn't for this commission I might not have ever made a painting that was mostly yellow, green. and white, but I'm sure I will again! And my friend and I decided this was a win-win situation. She didn't have to stress about the perfect gift, she just gave me me the specifics and I took care of the rest.. and then I get paid instead of some store where she'd buy something she wasn't sure about. Total win all around! :-) Yay for smart friends! 

This fun collage above is how I started the mixed media painting. I love doing fun backgrounds, even if you hardly see it when it's done. The photo below is how it looked in phase two as I was starting to paint in the flower. I really like how you can still see the book page through the flower. Maybe I'll do another piece and let it show through more like this.

Now I just want to share one more painted flower with you. I did this over another piece that never felt quite right, so it has great texture from the layers underneath. Taking the old and making it new again can be so rewarding. This one sold on Facebook. It's only 4" x 4" and it's called "Rebirth".

Thanks for stopping by! Have a creative day :-)

xoE

Sail Away Collage

Come, let's sail away.

9x12 inch mixed media collage on watercolor paper that I did a couple of weeks ago.  I started by gluing down various papers as a background and painted over them so they wouldn't be too distracting, but would still add visual interest, texture, and depth.  Then I painted the water and the boat and drew the details with a water-soluable pencil.  Lastly I added the two bits of my hand-painted papers and voilà... a sweet lil' finished collage!

I've been painting and drawing boats more and more the past 7-8 months.  I think it has something to do with the freeing feeling of floating... and/or the thought sailing away to escape all the craziness that is life.  Or just the thought of peacefully floating in the middle of a still lake with just the sounds of nature and your own breath.  Or all of the above.  Yeah, that sounds about right.  Ahh...

For sale $55.  Leave a comment or email me at emakesart@gmail if interested

** Edit: SOLD!  Thank you!!

Two More Water Lily Paintings!

Hiya!  

In the last post I told you I started an "accidental" series of water lilies/lotuses.  I wasn't kidding!  Here's 2 more paintings that I did a few months ago.  Both of these paintings came together fairly quickly and easily.  I love when that happens. 

 I started this first one on a day when I wasn't feeling well, but I had a few hours to myself so I was bent on painting... at least for a few minutes.  So I decided that I would just "start a background" then call it a day.  I grabbed some papers and started to glue them down, and next thing I knew, I was painting over them before the glue even had a chance to dry!  

Then I glued more stuff down and painted straight over it, then painted more, scraped, drew with charcoal, dripped, painted some more...etc....  Then once I stopped and took a step back, the day was almost gone and I had a mostly finished painting (I finished it a few days later) AND I was feeling much better too.  Art therapy!! 

A bit of a different style and different colors for me, and that's I love about it... I was more loose and free with it.  That's one of the things I've been trying to work on with my art is to loosen up more and get more messy and free.  That's hard for a perfectionist, but I'm working on it!

My next painting was started soon after.  This one was modeled after my art journal cover that I showed you a few posts back... right HERE.

For this one I used my beloved Heavy Gel Medium to create all the texture, then added layers of paint and glazes, and gold-leafed the outside edges.

Hopefully you're not sick of waterlilies yet, because more are coming!   I do also have a door painting to finish up, among others too, if I feel a need to change things up, BUT I really am enjoying exploring the beauty and peacefulness of waterlilies.  Heck, if it was good enough for Monet... then why not?

So what subjects are you exploring lately?  Do tell!

Where Do I Start?

Where do I start? 

How many times have you asked yourself this when you're faced with a daunting task at hand? Or many tasks?  Where do I start?  It's often enough to freeze us dead in our tracks.  We don't know where to begin... there's just too much to do.  Overwhelm happens and what often happens next?  Nothing.  We do nothing... and stay stuck.

Yup.  I know this well.  That's one of the many reasons that I disappeared from my blog for so long.  There was so much going on that I just didn't have the time or energy, and when I finally wanted to get back to it... I froze.  Where the heck do I start?  So what did I do?  I would piddle around for a bit, then would freeze up, overwhelmed.  Where do I start?  How do I explain my absence?  Then I finally did what I should've done months ago.  I brought out my art journal.




Now mind you, during most of this time I hadn't made any art either.  I felt rusty and out of practice, but I had to get back to it.  I told myself to just start.  So I shuffled through my art papers and my folder of collage bits, and I pulled out a few things that spoke to me and started gluing them down into the journal before I could over think it. 

He who hesitates is lost.

Proverb 

Then out came the paints... 

I had to get paint on my hands... and quick.  Oh how I missed you... paint covered hands (deja vu, I think I've said this before!).  Ahh... I could breath again.  I'm me again.  

The background was done, so now what?  OK, just journal about what's on my mind a lot lately... in many ways about many things.  "Where do I start?"  How do I write a blog post after disappearing for so long?  How do I get back to my art?  I don't even know where to begin.  So back to the art journal... the answers came easy while working in my journal.  Where do you start?  At the beginning of course! Or wherever you want, wherever you are.  Start right here, there, anywhere... JUST START.  Dive in, stop over thinking it, there's no wrong answer here.

The only wrong move is to not make one, and stay stuck (man, I need to pin that to my wall... or forehead).

Easier said than done, right?  But reminding ourselves of this really can help from time to time. 

 And for those of us who finally do get started (like I did on this post), but then get tripped up by perfectionism and get stuck again...tonight my husband reminded me to "Keep it simple".  Forget perfection, etc... just get it done!

Ok, I have a lot to share with you all, but to keep this from turning to the longest post ever (isn't it already?)... and to keep me from freezing up while trying to write this, again... I will give you a very short-hand version of what I've been up to lately and fill you in with PHOTOS and whatnot in upcoming posts.  Deal?

OK...

*Had an art show.  Yay!!

*Went camping up in Kern River 

*Went on a month long trip to South Australia to visit dearly missed family

*While we were over in Australia, my Mom wound up in the hospital over here for about a week and hasn't been the same since, so since we've been back I've been over there helping her out as much as I can.  I've also been researching non-stop... healing foods, recipes, etc..  This has been my main focus since getting back from our trip.  She is doing way better these past few weeks, but still has a long way to go.

Ok, so those are the main things that I've been up to.
Oh, and Pinterest.  Darn Pinterest sucks me in, but I love it for keeping all the wonderful recipes (and art) that I'm finding all in one place! Then there's Facebook... I have been updating my FB art page more often then my blog.  


So what did I NOT do this whole time?  Art, blogging, and yoga.  How did I feel?  Crappy.  

I do apologize for my long, unintentional blog break, but the thing is, I want my blog to be a place of inspiration, but to possibly be inspiring you have to be/feel inspired... and that's hard to do when your mind is on other things.  Its also hard to do when you're not doing the things that inspire you... like art, blogging, and yoga.  It's very much a catch 22!  So now I'm jumping in and getting started again, with all three of those.  I've been "warming up" my art by working in my art journal lately, but I can't wait for some time to work on my canvases again.  This is my 2nd blog post in the past 2 weeks... I could do better than that, but hey... it's a start!  And tomorrow I'm meeting with my amazing yoga instructor again to get me back to it... which to me is a huge inspiration in itself!  Yay!  Progress... and hopefully tons of inspiration to come!

Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.
Johann Gottfried Von Herder

Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.

Samuel Smiles

 Is there anything that you've been stuck with lately, and you don't know where to start?  Try to remind yourself that the only wrong move is to not make one, and stay stuck!  Now get started!  You'll feel so much better when you do!

Be Daring Journal Pages

...and now for something a bit different than you usually see from me.  What?  Is there actually a person...err...bird....err... woman who's very fond of birds, in some art of mine?  You betcha.

I started this art journal spread several years ago, but it never felt finished, so I doodled on it a bit more.  Still not done.  I added the words "Be daring.  Be unique.  Just be you".

It still wasn't quite done.

Finally I gave in to the idea that was wanting to be manifest every time I'd look at her... she wanted a feathered collar so very badly but I kept ignoring her thinking ... yeah right... but finally after hearing her plea with me over the past few years (!!) I gave in. 

 And she was right.  It was just what she needed to complete her statement.

I admire her style... her confidence... her passion.

Her bird

She's definitely daring and unique.

She's not afraid of being herself.  Not afraid of what others might think.

I want to be just like her when I grow up ;-)

Turquoise Crackle Bird Collage

Hi there.  I've got a fun little collage to show you.  It has tons of texture, turquoise, AND a bird.  How could you go wrong with that combo?!

It was a gift for my blog friend Mandy.  She won a drawing I had a little while back and I was so happy that she won.  She was with me from the very beginning of my blog and ever since then she's been one of my biggest cheerleaders.  I wanted to reward her with more than just the 4 greeting cards that she won, so I made this little birdie collage especially for her.  

I had enlarged and then printed out parts of my "Branching Out" painting onto watercolor paper for another project and had some left over.  I thought that it would be the perfect base to start a collage.  I glued down a small strip of a vintage dictionary page across the background.  I then drew out the bird silhouette onto paper and cut it out, then brushed Distress crackle paint onto it and set it aside to dry.  

What is that pretty strip of scalloped goodness going across the center you ask?  Sometimes I wipe excess paint from brush onto an index card, and if I like how it looks when it's all covered in paint I keep it to use in a collage.  Quite a while back after one was all covered and gritty with dark metallic grey and turquoise paint I used it to test out a new border punch that I bought.  I loved how it looked with the paint splotches so I put it aside in my scrap box to use later on a project.  I knew it would be perfect for this.

After that was glued down, I tinted heavy gel medium a dark metallic grey, then I troweled it through a stencil. The photo below was taken with my iphone while the gel was still wet to see where to place the bird.  It was a bit too busy so I wiped some of the stenciled gel away before it dried.  Then I glued down the bird, added a bit of paint here and there over the back ground bits and outlined the bird to make it stand out more.  Phew.  Done!

I'm linking up with Paint Party Friday for the first time!!  I've been wanting to join in the fun but haven't been able to until now.  Whatever shall I wear? ;-)  If you'd like to join in with your own paint projects or just see what everyone's doing what click on the link above.  See you there!

Vintage Barber Card

What's this?  Yup, I made a man card.  I don't make cards for men often, so I was nervous about this one.

I had to make a thank you card for a cool guy named Frank who went out of his way to do something nice.  Oh, and in case you couldn't already tell (really?!) he works with hair.  He's a hair stylist or more accurately a hair artiste at Casa De Bellini.

I started the card by gluing down vintage dictionary pages, then painted over them with cream paint.  I found this vintage photo of a man with a fantastic mustache, and glued it down along with a scrap of striped paper.  I also painted over those a bit to blend them in.  I googled vintage barber scissors and drew them out and added some extra doodles around the edges of the card.  Oh and inside I wrote something like "Frank knew a thing or two about hair", which I originally wanted to be the caption on the front of the card, but ended up liking it without it.

So there it is... a man card!  And Frank?  He loved it!  Yay!

Breathe Journal Pages

Hi there.

Ok, so last time I posted I was on an art making roll and had no intention of slowing down... but then what happened?  Yup...life got in the way... as it usually does.  This time the result was a badly hurt foot, last Sunday... my right heel.  Argh!  Not sure exactly what's wrong yet, but it might be a partially torn achilles... or something.

  Yeah...ouch.

  And what this means is NO walking on it... no pole vaulting....no swashbuckling... and definitely no chorus line high kicking.   What this also means is no getting into my studio for who knows how long?!  At least a few more weeks.  After a week of frustration I finally realized that I could work in my art journal while I'm stuck on the couch.  

Ahh... that's better.  

I already have a bag full of art journal supplies that I keep at the ready, in case I get the chance to run off to a coffee shop and work on some art on the go (hasn't happened in quite a while, but darn it, I'm gonna be ready if the opportunity presents itself!). 

 In this bag I have:

my art journals,

glues, 

pens/pencils,

a few brushes, 

a small bottle of titan buff fluid acrylic by Golden, 

a few random papers (vintage dictionary and scrapbook), 

and my water-soluable crayons.  

I like working only out of this bag... limited supplies are always a nice challenge.

First I glued the dictionary pages down, then added some scrapbook papers over the top... oh and this cool bird label I got from a booklet thing (?) full of tons of amazing collagy bits, which I bought from Anahata/Papaya years ago (sold out and discontinued as far as I know).  After gluing all that stuff down the pages got a nice sloppy, uneven coat of Titan Buff paint to tone it all down and blend it in.  Then I drew out the design with a water-soluable pencil and painted it in with the water-soluable crayons.

I wrote "And... breathe" as a reminder to myself to....uh..... breathe...and just relax and go with the flow. A reminder I very much need lately while I'm stuck on the couch.

The other page is all ready to go whenever I get the desire to write.

I mentioned in the last post that as soon as I finished a certain painting I would have a give away and one of you lucky peeps would win it.  Well, I was completely serious, it will still happen, but is temporarily on hold.  I need to finish the painting first and it's SO darn close, but until I can work in my studio it has to wait.  Sorry....so maybe if you pray for quicker healing, you can win the painting sooner ;-) 

 But until then I'll try to continue working in my art journal ...

and just try to remember to breathe.

Lovely Lavender

Last week's color (yes I'm behind!) for The Summer of Color was purple.   I needed to make a thank you card.  So what do you think happened?  Yup, I made a purple thank you card.  Actually we'll call it lavender, since that's the shade that I used and the plant that was part of my inspiration. 

I took this photo (below) last year up in Oregon in my sister's front yard.  I love the image and have been wanting to use it for something, so this was the perfect time.

I started by collaging pieces of paper onto a card, then painted over them to make a nice background.  I transferred the image onto the card by experimenting with Transfer Artist Paper (TAP).   I then layered on more paint and added a few embellishments.  

There's just something soothing about lavender, isn't there?  Even when you can't smell it.  Hmm.. maybe I should scent the card.

Nah...probably not.

With each of my Summer of Color posts I've tried to add a few extra photos that feature the color of the week .

So... here's a couple more photos that were also taken up in Oregon.

I love anything "thistle-y"

Lavender field against a white barn... heavenly.

And while digging through my photos I came across this painting that I had in an old post, that I did for another color challenge.  This was the first time I used the color lavender in my art and loved it. 

 That's why I love doing these challenges.  It makes you step out of your box and try out a new color or technique that you might not normally use.  So a big THANK YOU goes out to my friend Kristin for taking the time and energy to do this for us!!  There's still time to join us and maybe even win a prize from Kristin!  This weeks color is Orange... I'm excited about this one!!

So...what are you doing to challenge yourself?