Valentine's Day Fun

 

I tried printing this Valentine Girl

with my printer.

 But the colors came out badly.

So I did a black & white version 

& added just a few colors by hand.

Valentine Girl's source was a small, 

super quick sketch 

I did last summer

when a woman zipped past me 

while I was sketching a church.

 

 I led our Library Art Group this week in making

non-adhesive, folded gift boxes. 

Valentine's Day has been a fun inspiration 

for me since childhood.

I used the January page from a 

beautiful letterpress calendar for this box.

I've had a lot of painted snippets around, 

great for adorning boxes.

Happy Valentine's Day!

More Watercolor Wandering

 I continue to explore my new watercolor tubes. 

I focus on not judging what I see happening 

but on watching closely how the water & paints react.

It's like watching raindrops on the windshield,

slow, careful observation of a drop as it morphs & changes.

I ponder: 

What is the difference between being influenced by 

& learning from an artist~ & copying them?

Artist Mattina Blue, in a brief workshop, had a big influence 

on my waterpaint experimenting. 

To see her work, click HERE.

 I loved her designs & motifs, 

but I knew I didn't want to copy them.  

What I got from her was a spirit of allowing the water 

to carry the paint,

of allowing the colors to respond to one another.

(Fun when working on a slanted surface.)

Mattina told me to work in series, 

each painting leading to the next.

What will be discovered along the way?

I think it is enjoying the evolution, 

rather than just a brief dabble of something new.

A spirit of "More will be revealed."

Motifs & designs emerge by themselves. 

All of us have our own.

One of mine: Light peeking from behind darker lines, 

In this season I see it in sun on thinning colored leaves,

behind dark branches & twigs.

These "plaids" have other meanings for me too,

which come to me after I'm done painting. 

They are grids, they are boxes, 

& even when I don't know what they mean,

they are pleasing to draw.

While painting (I try) to think of nothing 

but what I'm observing,

& this meditative focus calms me, fills me with serenity.

In My Own Town: Watercolor Workshop with Tony Van Hasselt

I'm assisting in a Coastal Maine Art Workshop all week long.

Our teacher, Tony Van Hasselt does a daily demo,

then he goes around to people while they are painting,

and then he does a critique at the end of each day.

 Because I run around tending to details some of the time,

I don't get the painting time the others do.

But at least on the first day I made 2 quick sketches.

I'm lucky: 

My town attracts artists & classes of this sort.

The very gracious students this time are from: 

Florida, Colorado, Minnesota, Maine, 

New Jersey, New York, Virginia, 

Massachusetts, & South Carolina!

I must say it is more than luck.

I worked hard to move here. 

I chose this town carefully.

It was hard to move. 

Hard to leave a longtime hometown

that I dearly loved. 

But, it's been so worth it and

it's fun to share it 

with artistic visitors from far away.

Boxes: My Key to Organization

The workshop that keeps on giving,

That was Beth's. I continue to play.

I notice my ongoing fascination with squares.

Squares. BOXES. Order. Symmetry. 

Containment which allows for freedom & chaos.

Ohhhh. I get it!

I learned about creative surface design,

but I also learned about how to organize materials

because Beth had 

So So Many!  

(Click on Sew Sew Art , 

Beth's website.)

I've been learning that my creative spirit can't flow without 

organizing my materials!

 That generous Beth lent me her BOX of metallic threads.

Sparkly. Shimmery. Oooooh! Thank you, generous Beth!

The BOX for raw material for my August Art Show.

 The BOX for hand sewing & little papers,

for book covers, for little collages. 

For now it has to wait for me in its BOX 

because I need to be into the Art Show BOX.

 Another BOX of Bookmaking stuff. 

Beth's Beads. Waxed threads. Buttons!

A BOX of travel journals from France voyages.

Also waiting for me.

Rita's saved BOXES, 

thrown in a corner of the spare room.

You never know when you'll need another BOX!

I'm remembering one of the first magical 

BOXES in my life:

Jenny's Mom's BOX of old clothes in the basement,

put there so we could play Dress-Up 

when we were wee kids!!

Thank you Jenny's Mom! 

How do YOU organize your materials?

Beth's Maine Coast Surface Design Class-2

Beth's Midsummer Surface Design Workshop.

I got to go for 2 days this time! 

(see previous posts.)

 I made a little book for Beth last year,

inspired by all of the wonderful design work

that I always see in her studio when I visit her.

Now, not just a visit, but an official class!

We made cover designs using plastic credit type cards

swooshing around paint on large sheets of paper.

 I also printed with the edges. 

On top of that I "pounced" and swirled circles

with a small round sponge gizmo.

Another student had discovered the swirling technique.

 Some of us "copied". 

I found myself cutting out circles,

& then began cutting them into spirals. 

It gave me a delicious bunch of small

snail-fiddlehead-brussel sprout-y creatures. 

I pasted them down & hung metallic thread.

How fun! The process was doing its own thing.

All I had to do was to let it!

 

We used our covers for coptic stitched journals.

I experimented on my top cover,
sort of ruining it (no photo of that!), 

so eventually I pasted a collage design over it. 

It's called Rita's Book of Progress & Imperfection

One of the biggest things that happened

at this workshop is that my perfectionism,

the crippling kind, began to be lifted. 

Beth models & teaches that: 
"You try things,

if something doesn't work, no problem. 

You just keep trying things, & having fun!"

 With a 1 1/2 " hole punch 

I've been continuing to punch circles

from my sheets of painted paper. 

These are on watercolored squares that I'd had made.
They remind me of one of those color theory exercises
that you see in books on painting.

I'd seen Beth's hand-dyed cloth beads several years ago,

& in fact she'd gifted me with some.

I finally got to make my own!!! Total joy!

Above, the cover of a small accordion book.

 Embellishing one of Beth's tags. 
I made the bead,

The rest was from 

her big box of printed papers & ribbons.

"Cloth Paper Scissors", there's a magazine by that name. 

I haven't found the magazine yet, but Marcella,

Beth's assistant shared some wonderful books. 

Austin Kleon in Steal Like an Artist says that

side projects 

inbetween work on your major project

are valuable. 

"Productive Procrastination".

"Just play. That's where the magic happens."

Now, I'm back working on my exhibit at the library.

I'll be showing sketches that were all done

"Not Far From Home" .

Which happens to be the name of the show.

Beth's Wildly Creative Design Workshop

 

A blissful visit to friend Beth's 

Maine Coast Surface Design Workshops.

(Click Here) 

where students, an assortment of 

accomplished quilt & paper artists from various states,

explored multi-media design techniques on paper.

That's Beth, the most prolific & free flowing, & generous 

creative fabric & paper design artist I've ever met!

I couldn't attend the full 3 days, 

but stepping in to her "Art Greenhouse" on Sunday was Color Heaven,

including seeing participants' finished work! 

Beth will probably post some of photos 

on her blog, Sew Sew Art.

Buttons, ribbons, printing inks, oil pastels, thread,

gel prints, rubber stamps, decorated papers, 

a bounty of art making materials!!!!!

I was overwhelmed, so I started by doing a sketch 

with my own materials. 

Starting in my comfort zone.

Then I made some collages, growing a little bolder.

Beth says, it's all a beginning. You can keep adding,

changing things, "Go wild! Let things happen, play!"

Some combinations...I used 

a few rubber stamps that Beth had made

& some papers she'd printed up.

Clearly, my process would have evolved

if I'd attended the full 3 days...
(couldn't due to my work schedule.)
And I would have made some books to take home!

 At one point I got overwhelmed by the visual & creative

stimulation, so I sat out on the front porch of the 

little Art House, sketching as a form of meditation,
on a sunny, breezy Maine summer day. 
It worked. 

I went back refreshed.

She's running a 2nd session on the July 21 weekend,

so if anyone is interested in coming to the

gorgeous Maine coast for 3 days to have wild art fun,

do go to her blog & sign up! 

I plan to take her Spirit Dolls workshop in October!
This is one of Beth's dolls.