New Class, New Teacher, New Ideas

It's been a while since I took an online class, and I had forgotten how wonderful it is to learn new things and explore new techniques. I'm currently taking "Graffiti of my Life," offered by Dina Wakley at Get it Scrapped. If you haven't heard of Dina, she's a fabulous art journalist who I got acquainted with when I used to frequent the Scrap Book Addict community, run by Kathy Mancini. Dina's blog and Kathy's blog are both in my blog list. Get it Scrapped offers a whole variety of online classes. You can see them here: http://debbiehodge.squarespace.com/ So far, it's a pretty good site for taking classes.

The Graffiti of My Life class is an art journal class, and we start by making backgrounds using the technique of "color field washes." My two favorites are the ones pictured on my blog today. The technique of color field washes was invented by Helen Frankenthaler. You can read more about her on wikipedia, and here's the link to her images: http://images.google.com/images?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS343US343&sourceid=chrome&q=helen+frankenthaler&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=hE_oSvrECI_qsQPVwrysBQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBwQsAQwAA

You can also read an interesting discussion off her as the "female Matisse" here: http://www.albany.edu/museum/wwwmuseum/crossing/artist10.htm

I love learning new techniques, and I'm enjoying the class so far. It reminds me a little of a class I took at Big Picture Scrapbooking called "Got Paint" by Emily Falconbridge. Emily is another fabulous art journalist. Here's a link to her online art journal: http://embers.typepad.com/photos/mini_art_journal/index.html

I've also put a link to her blog in my blog list.

I'll definitely post some completed pages when my new art journal is done.