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!!

Hand-Painted Papers for "Artistic Mother"

The first project for The Artistic Mother is to make your own art papers.  Most of these were painted and stamped on plain computer paper,  but a few were done on junk mail.  It was so much fun!  I had a blast!  I already want to make more.  I ended up making 13 of them!

The ones above are some of my favorite colors right now;  peacock blue, light and dark teal, and shades of brown.

Here's a close up of a few of my favorites.  I love the subtle dots on the left one, and the sprays of flowers on the other two.  These will be great backgrounds for collages.

Then I made a few with stronger colors, patterns and contrast.  The brick colored one was actually inspired by Trudy, the host of the Artistic Mother Art Group.  I saw one of her painted background papers on her blog, that was red with a strong pattern stamped along the outside, and fell in love with it.  It inspired me to make my own version.  Thanks Trudy!  Click here to go to her blog and see her artwork.  She also has the complete list of participants in the group if you want to see what everyone else is up to.

Like I said, I had so much fun making these.  I used to paint faux finishes and murals for 15 years, and it all came rushing back, giving me confidence to have fun and play, along with a surge of creative energy.

It reminded me of painting samples for clients and experimenting with different finishes and color combinations.  And the best thing with painting like this is, if you don't like it, just squirt on more paint and go over it!

I've always loved getting my hands full of paint.  I love the feel.  Most of my years of painting I never wore gloves.  Oops!   Maybe it takes me back to finger-painting as a kid.  While doing this project, time seemed to stand still and I was so happy, and I realized something:  If I have paint on my hands , then all is right  in my world.  I need to do this more often.