Modigliani Monday: Granny's Photo Album

The Gingersnap Creations blog has a challenge titled "Granny's Photo Album," and it inspired me to create this art journal page.  The journaling reads "Every little girl deserves to feel like a princess.  The image is a photo of my mom which I altered using this Modigliani painting as an inspiration:

It was a lot of fun to transform my mom's image and even more fun to create the collage. It's been a while since I messed around in my mixed media bin.  For this page, I used sewing patterns, napkins, flowers, Graphic 45 paper, a vintage dictionary page on which I had stamped/resisted a bee, and some other fun embellies. Lots of shades of acrylic paint, too! Thanks so much for the inspiration. Who knew there was a Modigliani waiting in Grandma's photo album?

Sketching Spring

I took out my sketchbook to draw some thumbnail sketches using the prompt "spring," and I came up with these images (which I water colored).  One of the exercises in the Art of Wild Abandonment class I'm taking is to make art journal pages using your sketches.  So, I took my chick idea and made this page:

It's water colors on a gessoed page with ink highlights.  The journaling reads "My two little chicks have grown up so fast . . . " I'm really enjoying this process.
The chicks remind me that Easter is just around the corner.  I'll be traveling that week with one of my little chicks to go tour colleges! We'll be seeing Oregon State, University of Oregon and Gonzaga University. Do you have plans for Easter?

Happy Mail

I participated in a "vintage" themed twinchie exchange sponsored by Gingersnap Creations.  You can see the little two by two inch pieces of art I sent out in this post.  Yesterday I received a wonderful envelope from hostess Ali Manning, filled with the wonderful pieces up top. Aren't they all lovely? It's hard to pick favorites, but I did especially love the button lady in the top row and the silvery red butterfly in the bottom row.  What about you? Is there one that catches your eye?

I also recently received these two lovely cards from two amazing card makers - Karen and Jacky.  If you like cards, you should definitely check out their blogs. Thanks Ladies!

PPF: Watercolored Sketches

I just started taking the online course, The Art of Wild Abandonment, taught by Junelle Jacobsen and Christy Tomlinson. The first week's lesson introduced me to the idea of working in a sketchbook.  I sketched some lavender sprigs and colored them with watercolor pencils and a waterbrush:

I'm really quite pleased with how they turned out because, before this year, I would have said that I couldn't draw!  Practice really pays off.  Working in a sketchbook is completely new to me.  Although I work in art journals often, the sketchbook feels different.  The sketchbook pages are done more quickly, and I feel even less concern about whether the drawings turn out "right."  It's a very freeing process.  And I'm really beginning to understand how my sketchbook will provide tons of ideas for things that will become art journal pages - or prayer flag samples, canvases and other works of art.  I think I'm hooked!  What about you? Do you work in a sketchbook?  How doe you see it as different from your art journal?
I'm sharing this as part of Paint Party Friday.  For more painterly goodness, check out the artists listed in this link.

Cards, Cards, Cards!

I occasionally say that I'm going to give up making cards.  

But . . . sometimes when painting or art journaling just seems like too much work; 

when I don't want to haul out all my scrapping stuff and figure out where my pictures are; when my wrist hurts too much to work on editing images; 

but . . .  I still want to create, then it's fun to pull out a stack of patterned paper and make a bunch of cards.

And it's good to have a stash of cards for the important events in life, including the sad times when someone needs a sympathy card:

Thanks to Ali Manning for sponsoring this de-stash challenge which encouraged me to use up some of my patterned paper.  Each of these cards used 3-4 different patterns, and it was fun to get them out of my stash and into my card bin.  And easy. And sometimes that just what an artist needs.  Is there something you turn to when you want to create but are low energy?

Signs of Spring

Just a simple art journal page, with a certain sign of spring around here.  Has spring arrived where you live? And what signals its arrival? 

Modigliani Monday

This month Ayala is hosting this challenge to paint pictures based upon the work of the artist Modigliani.  I started this week and have made pretty good progress.  The first one I completed was this watercolor:

based upon this painting:

It's a reasonably accurate representation, and I got some good experience working with my watercolors.  But. . .

it many ways, it didn't really feel like me.  So, I stared at this painting for a while:

And looked at an article called "Narrative Collage" by Anne E. Quinlan in the Jan./Feb. 2009 edition of Cloth Paper Scissors, and I came up with this:

Now that's much better!  Much more me! And very much where I want all this painting practice to be able to take me in my art journaling.  I've got a representational acrylic painting in the works and another narrative collage. Thanks Ayala for encouraging me to practice and for giving me the opportunity to find my muse.