Playing in Paint

                       

A visit last September to my niece in Oklahoma, who is an artist as well as a nursing instructor, led me to explore painting.  I had taken a class the previous November and had some pieces I liked, but after visiting Tricia, I wanted to do more. I had fun finishing up the class art and then going on.

The art above I did the last few days (I cannot account for the color discrepancy. The true color of the painting is more like the first three.)  I had tried for the look of an old wall using molding past in the aqua paint for texture which I think you can see in the 2nd picture.  In the end I added some magenta (3) and then more gold and azo gold (4).   I may still fuss with it, but it's on the wall for now.



This is very small and just on paper.  I used it as a gift enclosure.

  This one is really big is on a 5x4.5 ft canvas. It is finished and stretched. It started like this.

This one has a name.  It's titled "Two Black Cats."   It once looked like this.



No, it's true.  I went to a "paint night" at our local chocolate lounge. Annabelle's.  After looking at it for a week or two, I covered it in gesso and did "Two Cats".  It is at my daughter's house now.



About a year ago, I was trying to do something difficult (not art) for a month, so I took a 20x20 stretched canvas and some acrylic markers and decided to write the date every day.  Sometimes big (center) sometimes small and in Spanish. See below.



Eventually I painted over this one too, but first added torn paper and at the end some other paper pieces. This one may be titled, "Kite". 



Is that a kite?

Last and, perhaps, least is another canvas where I am definitely having fun playing in paint.  Lots of layers here.  Tissue underneath, Montana spray paints, Krylon, interior house paint, Golden bronze, magenta and gold.












I am having fun.

Montana, Krylon and Golden are brands of paint.  I'm not sure which brands of house paint I used.  It is interior semigloss.

Lest I forget whose work got me on the road to art bliss. Here are two of my niece's art.



Love it!



Pretty fabulous, eh?

                           Thank you, Lord. for art in all it's forms.

Nothing, but Wait

I feel rather badly that I have not written anything for over a month.  Possibly because I've not had anything of interest to say.. Even as I write this,  I'm wondering why as I still don't have anything fascinating to say.

Hey wait!   I could tell you about going to the Mendocino Art Center which I went to in November.  I went with my grandson, Charles.  He was given a jewelry making class as a graduation gift and  I decided to take class in art, Big Art.   The art center has rooms and apartments to rent right on the campus so we stayed in one of them.  So handy!  It took about a minute to walk to class.

This is view of our room. Full bed for me and a comfy twin for C.  It's behind the red chair.  There was a kitchen and of course a bathroom.  Both small, but big enough.



Charles' class was three days.  He was able to make 2 rings.  He had wanted to make rings for a couple of years.  He enjoyed it and would like to take more classes but closer to home.

Pretty great aren't they?  I wish I had been able to get a photo of him actually working on them.  I didn't, rats.




In my art class, I made two pieces.  One is about the size of a poster.  It's done with mixed media, old dictionary pages, some old sheet music,  tissue paper, paint, molding paste etc.  It is my finest work so far.  It is now hanging on my wall.  Maybe I will get it framed.  I love it.  You may not, but that's okay.

It's quite textural.  It makes me smile when I look at it. To my mind that's what one's art should do.













On the second day, our teacher gave us canvas that is 4 1/2 feet square.  We thumb-tacked them on a wall and set to coating them with white house paint, to seal the fabric.  Cynthia had brought all this interior house paint for us to use after the white.

Look at all those 
colors.  
Fabulous!




My "Big Art" turned out to be another abstract.  A really big abstract.  It's hanging out in the garage as I am hoping to do a bit more with it before I have it framed or at least attached to boards some how.   I have three photos of it as it progressed.

Some paint and some tissue paper.

The big fish I didn't like.

See the fish?   It's too dark now and although I don't hate it, it needs to be lighter.

I will fix it.







Thank you for stopping by.  I recommend art.  It's fun and it feels good.  Well, most of the time.

Going to School

 Rio Tinto,Spain ( from Bing)


Did I  tell you I was going to school?  Of course I did. Don't I tell you everything?  I was taking two classes. Art: Design Principles Color Theory and Art History: An Introduction to Art.  I really wanted to take both of them, but I forgot about school in the 15 years since I last went.  (I got my RN degree in 1999.) I missed the second day of Art History because I went to Arizona. It turns out the class was cancelled, but she assigned a library project due the following Thursday.  She did that on the internet at something called D2L.(Desire to Learn)  So I knew about the project while still in AZ.

The assignment said to to the college library look at 3 different art magazines and write about them.  To make this story short, let me say, the library had only one art magazine and it was for artists not about art.  I tried to buy an art magazine at both the stores in our small city alas all about painting not art.  Public library had one.  So  I thought,  why am I stressing, taking art is not supposed to be stressful over 60.  Really.  The second assignment was the topper. Online again.  She told us to follow the rules in week four folder, but week four folder would not open. 

That's it.  I dropped the class.  Ahhhhhhhhh the relief.  I'm still doing the color class which is a different kind of stress.  But first more Rio Tinto.

 

Can you believe that river?  What color!
(Also from Bing)












There is homework.  Most people who do homework want to do it correctly.  I'm sure I'm right about this. Particularly the over 60 crowd.
So yesterday I prepared to do mine.  That is not wine. Honest. Ice water.

It looks like I'm ready.

I'm using water color and I'm going to make a color wheel using glazing technique and also an intensity chart and a color chart.

Dear Readers, I have suddenly realized how uninteresting this may be. So I'm skipping ahead.  I had taken about four hours and several restarts to do these things.

The color chart, glazing. Still need to do another in mixing technique.

This is the intensity one. I'm not absolutely sure that's the correct name.

My color wheel.  And there's a shadow in the photo. It's me.  Anyway.  This is far from well done, but after 3 tries I said. . .

"Remember this is for Fun and not for a grade."   There will be grades, but they won't matter in the long run.  It is fun.

Started my sister's vest at last and will post some photos about sewing soon.  

Have a colorful day.

About Color

I love color.  Many people do.  You do don't you?



What's not to  love about a rainbow?

This is  rather pale, but all the colors are there and it's has colored the clouds too.







Some people go crazy with color.   Like painting their house red.

This is, of course, my house. Painted "wowza" red aka Seattle red.

This is just nifty. What ever it is.

Some people are bright as a tropical bird with their clothing.  Do you just love her pizazz?

Wow is right.  I think this is so  . .
   . . well,  colorful.











Color does brighten up the day.  And knowing ways to use color, how to mix color to get a shade that precisely fits is something I'd like to know about.

So I started an art class at our local community college.  It's Art Design: Color Theory.   I'm also taking Introduction to Art, an art history class.

That's my blog for today.  Oh,  I'm soon heading out to Arizona (day after tomorrow) to visit second daughter, Alex.  YippeeYi Yo Kiyay.

Joy to you all.

Costumes finished

Just stopping by to say I'll soon be writing a real post.  The costumes are finished, that is, my part of  it.   I am relieved.  I have taken my poor hard working machine to the shop for tender care and fixing the reverse.    I have my other older machine which is a wonderful one though in doesn't have as many decorative stitches as the newer one.

I was thinking about getting a serger.  I'm not thinking about it any more.  The one I thought would work for me was the BabyLock Imagine.  Oh, goodness it's $2900 and I'm just not going there.  I realize there are less expensive sergers but they are not self-threading.  At my age with my vision I would need the self-threading type.

 Sometimes I do some mixed-media fun projects.

This a piece I did for my daughter.  On the From side there's a map of the area I live in as the base while on the To side the base is a map if her town.


It was meant as a tag, but also some that could be hung on a plant or hook.  Fun

I made some other labels to stick into the holder on the front.

Please come on back and see what I'm up to next.  Remember January I'll return to my challenge.  Ta Ta.