Love Seeing Others Create

I LOVE to see other Artists (and those who say "I'm not an Artist!) create spectacular artworks when shown painting techniques and let loose with a huge supply to paint-at-will. Take a peek here at artwork made by Michael's Arts & Crafts store employees and several professional Artists at Pebeo paints' North American warehouse...

 Playing with Pebeo Texture Gels and Metallic Acrylics.

 Pouring Pebeo Resin paints in a Liquid Art Panel and sprinkling with dry Glitter.

 Look at that COLOR!!!

Pouring paint in the Liquid Art Panels is so much FUN!

 Annamarie Oke pouring Pebeo's colored Resin paints into a Liquid Art Panel.

Artist Chantal StPierre enjoying her Resin pour in a Liquid Art Panel.

Adding Fantasy Prisme paint to a masterpiece.

Milton Stevenson filling in his Cerne Relief design with Pebeo liquid oil paints in a Liquid Art Panel.

 Vancouver Artist Deb Chaney pouring a panel of FANTASY with Pebeo's liquid oil paints.

Proud of her Cerne Relief design painted results.

And here are some of the completed artworks: 

Looking forward to seeing what fabulous artworks my next group of students come up with! Until then...  HAPPY  ARTING!   Tristina

On the Bench - Sample Mania

I LOVE it when Art Supply companies provide generous sizes and quantities for their sampler packs. Case in point, today I am experimenting with archival quality acid free Art and Mounting Boards from a 5in x 7in pack generously given me last week by the Crescent paper company representative Milton Stevenson. Thanks Milton!

Btw, Milton's an artist as well at www.MiltonStevenson.com. In Atlanta last year I saw him beating up on a Crescent artist grade Illustration Board on which he had built up layers of acrylic paints and scraped and sanded away on the surface to create his beautiful distressed artworks.

Now, I'm putting Crescent's different sampler surfaces to the test with my brand of mixed media mania! So far, my favorite surfaces are the 1/8th inch thick Art Board 114, Art Board 99 (Illustration Board), Art Board 215 (Marker Board), and Mounting Board 8 (Ultra Black).

What are your favorite mixed media painting surfaces? Leave a comment below to share your experiences. Thanks!

HAPPY ARTING!  Tristina :D

Live from Frankfurt, Germany... CreativeWorld

From the Pebeo booth at the International PaperWorld and CreativeWorld show Feb 1 to Feb 3, 2015, British Artist Jenny Muncaster and I painted our hearts out LIVE to the delight of show attendees from countries across the globe - guests at the booth were from North America, South America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. During the show, i-Blio.com of France were filming, interviewing, programming and uploading Pebeo's Mixed Media magazine Inspiration No.2 LIVE. It was so exciting! To see the eZine, click HERE for tons of ideas, hints and tips for Mixed Media painting.

Jenny Muncaster and I at the CreativeWorld Pebeo booth.

My worktable with art in process!

 With Patricia, head of Marketing Communications for Pebeo.

 My mixed media peacock feather on canvas.

 Working on a "She Wondered" painting in a Liquid Art Panel.

 Jenny Muncaster being filmed live! See this in the Inspiration eZine.

Some of Jenny's artwork made live at the CreativeWorld show.

Hope you see some inspiring images and pick up a pencil, paint brush, palette knife, pipette, etc. yourself soon...  HAPPY  ARTING!  Tristina  :D 

Just Published My First Book - Artistic Calligraphy

Wow, I didn't know how exciting it was to create an online book from my artwork until my art coach, Brainard Carey (www.theartworlddemystified.com), advised me to create a Blurb book. Now I'm hooked! Just in time for the holidays, a unique gift. 28 pages of stunning colorful Asian inspired artworks with beautiful Haiku poetry to accompany each painting; and if you're in South Florida, we can meet up and I'll sign the book for you! Check out the preview below and order the book online at Blurb.com by following the link under the preview. Thanks for your support of living artists! :-D

Artistic Calligraphy by Tristina Dietz Elmes | Make Your Own Book

On The Bench - Finishing Touch on Gallery Wrap Canvas

As painters, we quite often look for economical and innovative ways to present our artwork so that it looks finished and polished, yet we do not incur the cost of framing. To this end, I often wait untill stretched canvases go on sale at my favorite art stores, then buy up as many as I can afford at the time, all Gallery Wrapped with at least 1 1/2 inches depth on the sides.

"Oceans", 4in x 12in x 3panels, Acrylic

Why this type of canvas? For 3 reasons: 1) there are no staples in the sides of a gallery wrapped canvas - they are on the bottom (art show submission guidelines and galleries generally will not accept artwork with side staples showing), 2) having paintable sides for your artwork increases the "real estate" available for your work, and 3) by finishing the sides of the painting, the artwork appears "finished" and can be hung on the wall straight away without having to invest in framing, but rather leaving framing options open to the purchaser of the art.

"Lonely Tree", 9in x 12 in, Encaustic Wax & India Ink

I know many artists, myself included, who actually continue the painting from the front of the gallery wrapped canvas onto the sides, which gives added interest to the work. However, often the front of the painting can be best enhanced by adding a dramatic solid dark color to the sides.

"Us", 30in x 40in, Acrylic & Encaustic Wax on Paper 

While I often see artists paint the sides of their gallery wrapped canvas with flat black paint, I prefer to use a dark dramatic COLOR instead. Most of the time I reach for Payne's Gray, which has a lovely dark blue hue. Sometimes, though, I like to match my painting colors more closely and mix the Payne's Gray in with another transparent color, such as the example below where I used mostly Alizarin Crimson with a touch of Payne's Gray to darken.

By using Payne's Gray as my darkening color instead of Black, I find the resulting colors not only have the dark drama I'm going for, but they also have a depth and interest that comes from light going through and bouncing out of the color.

I hope you will give this finishing technique a try, and let me know how you finish your paintings in the comments below.

Happy Arting!  Tristina :D

No Paint Left Behind Play - Purple

After laying out some gorgeous Violet acrylic paint on canvas, I couldn't bear the thought of throwing the remaining paint water down the sink, so... grabbed some sample papers and an acrylic paper pad and went to town sloshing on washes. Then, I pulled out my favorite box of NeoColor II water soluble wax crayons and played with color combinations to see which were pleasing together.

Loving the light green Jade wax crayon on the purple background. What unexpectely beautiful combinations have you discovered while playing with color?

HAPPY (purple - teehee!) ARTING!  Tristina :D

On The Bench - Bullseye On Liquid Art Panel

Having fun experimenting with my Bullseye paintings on Pebeo's new Liquid Art Panels. Thank you Pebeo for the panels, paint and other supplies to play with! :)

You can find all the fun mixed media Pebeo supplies on Dick Blick's website HERE. And, Pebeo has some fantastic how-to videos on their YouTube channel HERE. Enjoy!

Happy Arting!  :D  Tristina

Acrylic Techniques In Mixed Media Book Review

Just finished reading "Acrylic Techniques in Mixed Media" by Roxanne Padgett today. This book is total EYE CANDY for mixed-media junkies! An exercise in EXTREME LAYERING...

I adore how Roxanne started off with a simple explanation and practice of Color Wheel Basics, which is a great primer for newbies and an excellent reminder for experienced crafters/painters as well. I help my students put these ideas into practice when teaching my "Finding Your Visual Voice" acrylic color painting workshop.

The book's colorful chapters give tons of ways to print, copy, stamp, rub, stencil, paint, collage, grid your way to covering the blank paper page or canvas fabric. My favorite techniques from what she shared are making simple collograph printing plates with manila folders and creating your own stamps from craft foam. One of my favorite tools she shared is the simple cosmetic sponge wedge; wow, what a great tool for painting on the face and in the studio!

The book's section about stenciling and printing with found objects inspired me to take out a deconstructed computer keyboard acetate sheet with brilliant circle and rectangle holes in it (that I've been hoarding for years) to my art journal and use it! Yay, love to get inspired to use stuff from my stash.

Can't wait to make the "artist" business cards Roxanne shows how to create in the Projects section of the book. A sewn painted canvas zippered bag project will be the next on my hit list to hold the business cards in. Other innovative and practical book/journal making projects follow. She also includes projects with whimsy, like her colorful "paper birds".

I highly recommend this book for beginner and accomplished artists alike. Definitely great to get the creative juices pumping. You can find additional information, reviews and buy the book with the link below.

HAPPY  ARTING!  Tristina

On The Bench - Asian Inspired Art

Here's what's on my art table today. In process for an article I'm working on to submit to my favorite mixed-media magazine. What's on your art table?

Mulberry Paper Experiment

Today was another picture-perfect Florida day! Just the right amount of sun and breeze (not too much) to make more colored paper outside. I decided to experiment with a rough surface Mulberry paper; I love the texture of the surface and the tattered edges of this hand-made paper. It took the watered down acrylic colors beautifully! Here are pictures...

Happy Painting :)

Tristina