On The Bench - CPS Inspiration

There's so much to be inspired by in the latest Jan/Feb 2014 Cloth Paper Scissors mixed media magazine!

Joanne Sharpe's article "Embrace Your Own Handwriting" MADE me do it; get out my pencil and markers to see what 'inner fonts' I would express. She says, "A journal is a must! Practice is essential in making letter art and it's important that you have a comfortable place to play, invent, and explore."

There are quite a few great creative and interview articles in this magazine issue, but the other how-to that made me get out my art supplies and start to play was "Graffiti Doodle Houses" by Jodi Ohl. I love Jodi's bright colors and mixed up imagery, so the artwork I created below is an ode to both her work and trying my hand at Joanne's personalized lettering technique.

Oops! Now I see I misspelled courageous. No spell check in journal land...

And the last excellent article to share with you from the magazine is from one of my favorite artists, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, about finding balance when working for yourself from a home-studio. She says people, "seem to think that working from home might tempt me to lie on the couch all day. In reality, I have the opposite problem: I find it difficult to set limits and end the workday." Me too! It's so hard for me sometimes to pull away from the art bubble zone... then I hear my daughters whine they are hungry for dinner and I have to snap out of it! Julie gives some great hints about working with to-do lists and how to manage your cyber-life so it doesn't encroach on your much needed create time. That's my cue! Gotta run... ;)

Happy Arting!   Tristina

Fun With Charcoal Drawing

Thank goodness for Holiday Weekends! I have started and stopped Dynamic Charcoal Drawing with Chris Wynter on my computer several times in days gone by. Today I went for it, got out all my charcoal drawing supplies (fat charcoal, skinny charcoal, charcoal pencils, white 'charcoal', blending stump and charcoal/pastel paper) and sat down to spend 2 hours following along with Chris on the video. I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed an uninterrupted 2 hours of bliss, but stayed with it until I was done!

I enjoyed Chris's relaxed style, and he kept talking about what he was doing even when you could not see his hand on the paper. His insights were very helpful. I recognize after having watched the video that it would be even more helpful the next time I sit down to draw a charcoal still life to set up a table with real objects in front of me so I can better see the light and texture in the objects. Here's my finished drawing...

Here is the link to the preview for Chris' video by Interweave: http://youtu.be/uZled4lnSR4

And, I always have to take the investigation of my projects to the next level, so here is a link to an artist who uses charcoal, white gesso and black gesso to make her abstract paintings. Stunning, and looks like a blast to do too! Will definitely try one of these. Enjoy... http://youtu.be/b3xqQ3bZjC0

Hope you have had the opportunity this holiday weekend to create something! Happy Arting,

Tristina  :)

Create from the heART

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been maniacally inspired lately to create my most fun pieces to-date by Mary Beth Shaw's latest book, "Flavor for Mixed Media". Here is one of the paintings on paper created over the past few days incorporating white Gesso, liquid Matte Medium, Rowney and Faber-Castell Dry Pastels, Pan Pastels, DecoColor acrylic paint pens, Sakura Gelly Roll pens, Speedball Calligraphy inks, Koh-I-Noor Trans-Mix acrylic inks, Sakura Micron and Graphic #1 pens, Sennelier Oil Pastels, and ephemera (re-purposed paper) - truly a "mixed-media" piece:

The unusual shape of the paper you see above is from some fabulous watercolor blocks that I found at Pearl's; I am so excited by the long, skinniness of it! The paper is called Fluid Watercolor Paper and comes in the interesting sizes of 4x8, 6x12, 6x18, 8x20 and 8x24, as well as others. What I really appreciate about the blocks is that they are only glued on the long sides, so the advantage of not having to size the paper (wet the paper and allow it to dry) before painting is great and yet they are super easy to separate from the block when you are done by shoving a palate knife in one of the short ends and running along the long side.

I went in Pearl's again this past weekend and inquired how best to do-it-yourself frame these paper works of art (I usually paint on Artist Panels or Gallery Wrap canvases, so those are easy to wire up for hanging). I collected the materials needed and will show you what I do to mount these latest paper works when I figure it out! There are several Art Competitions coming up in the next few months that I am choosing to submit these paintings to, so making this happen is now a priority. :)

Here are a couple pictures of the process I have been in lately:

I'm working on about the 6th / 7th painting in this series and found today I was getting a little "stuck" in my design elements rather than having the ideas flow. Do you ever find yourself staring at a begun painting and wonder what to do next? I like to take a break when this happens and flip through art books for shape/color/concept ideas to move me along. Today I was reading from the art book, "Mixed Mania -  Recipes for delicious mixed-media creations" by Debbi Crane and Cheryl Prater, and found a spot-on quote  from famous artist Marc Chagall, "If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing." When I find myself thinking too much about a painting, I have to take a break, grab a snack or cup of coffee, refer to the thousands of photographs I have taken that are safely archived on my computer ready at my whim, read an art book with lots of pictures (we are working in a visual medium after all!) and come back to the work with a clear & fresh enthusiasm to be fearless in trying ANYTHING! When I hesitate to act, I remind myself that what I am doing is not so precious and I can always work OVER it or tear up the result and use pieces in other works if I'm not happy with the results...

Here's a glimpse of my work table as I was finishing up the above painting... messy, huh?

I love it when my working on art-making inspires my daughters to break out a journal or canvas and do their own work (one advantage to working on the kitchen table)! I buy hard canvas boards and artist panels when they are on sale at Michael's and Utrecht so they are always on-hand to grab when the inspiration strikes. In my home, none of my supplies are off limits; I want the girls to experiment and discover the joy of working with student and professional grade products and tools so they can see and appreciate the differences, giving them the knowing as they walk into the future of exactly what to use to get their desired creative outcome. Here is what they have done in the past week:

Devon (age 13) Oil Pastel

Samantha (age 16) Acrylic

I hope this article inspires you to pick up an art book, peruse the pictures, experiment with new materials and jump-start your next creative project. Please link to the art you create in the comments below so that we (myself and other followers in the art community) see your unique expression. Remember to share your art; I guarantee it will inspire others to joy in many ways!

Happy art-making!!! :D  Tristina

Bitten by the Bug!

It doesn't happen to me very often...I've read the gambit of art how-to books. Interesting, fun, a few ah ha moments here and there... But, I've become obsessed with the projects in the new book I just got in Michael's last week called, "Flavor for Mixed Media" by Mary Beth Shaw.

Below are the 3 pieces I created from Mary's first project in the book, "Painting Without Paint" (all on 12x12 Clayboard done together in a left to right series):

There's something about drippy drips that totally turns me on!

This book is filled with so many new techniques I haven't thought of using before, although I have all the supplies in my studio already. Mary Beth has me digging up my dusty dry pastels, slopping on the gesso, re-pumping my DecoColor paint markers, and using my luscious acrylic/alcohol inks in whole new ways! Her illustrations of the steps involved with creating her ethereal abstract paintings are spot-on and really have stretched my creative muscle. I have been painting almost non-stop (except for the trip to Pearl Paint and Utrecht to buy more supplies) for the past 4 days. HEAVEN!!!

Even though I have heard taught to me before (as I'm sure you have, too) to lay FAT  OVER  LEAN when painting with multiple painting mediums, I never really got it until Mary Beth showed and explained it to me in her book. She gave me cause to break out my fancy silky Sennelier oil pastels and dry highly-pigmented Pan Pastels and smoodge them all over the top layer of my new (paint-less) paintings...Fascinating.

I will have more paintings to show you from later projects in Mary Beth Shaw's book when I put the finishing touches on them. Happy Painting!  Tristina