New Medium - PhotoShop Elements

I was so inspired by one of my art friend's work with Adobe Photoshop Elements 11, I bought it for myself.  So, I have been experimenting, making art and doing my March and April, Art Group projects, all at the same time.

In March the group was assigned to photograph and create a presentation of things they love in their city that they see every day, or go often to enjoy.  I modified the assignment and photographed bazaar and unusual lawn decoration in my neighborhood.

I had recently purchased Golden's white digital ground.  I used it on art paper and tore the edges before mounting it on very cool construction paper.

Here is an example-

These "Wizards" are the carved stump of a very large tree on a corner lot.  They each sport a santa hat during Christmas.  I was very pleased with the ground and will experiment with other Golden products in their 'mixed media' group.

"State of the Art"

I saw "The State of the Art" show today with two art friends.  There was quite a variety of styles and materials.  We spent a couple of hours covering both the downstairs and upstairs exhibit rooms. It also provided quite a starting point for discussion about our own work, art preferences and art appreciation between the three of us which continued through lunch.  Such a beautiful day to have been out and about.

The second session of the series class was earlier this week.  The piece I have been working on has not solidified.  I hope it goes better this weekend so I make the next deadline.  We critiqued five pieces and learned a lot. The jewelry piece would sell well in NY!  It was marvelous.  The other four pieces were fiber art. More later.

Unusual Things to Incorporate

As have written before, it has been fun to look through drawers and boxes, picking out things I haven't see for a while.  I save way too much, but I'm so glad.  Here are two daily art pieces putting some unusual items together.  I wonder what other unusual things I'll find.

"Mark Making"

 

Paper, markers, emery board, glue

 

 

 

"Veiled Planet"

 

Vinyl background, batik fabric, cloud stamp, organdy ribbon, glue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Series Class

A new series class started last night. It is a fairly large group with many types of art represented. The schedule will be fast paced with a target of 5 pieces completed in six months.  I have chosen to do studies of pine cones on dyed/painted, heavily quilted background.  I want to take you with me in this exploration.

Daily Art - so far I have been composing my daily art with items from the studio glued into place.  I may move into other mediums in the future.  However, I will catch you up with two more pieces that I have glued together.

 

"Unwrapped"

 

Yellow wrinkled tissue paper, candy wrapper, glue

 

This is very aptly named since it is the piece I did for January 1st, the unwrapping of a new year, and my birthday.

 

 

 

"Faux Weaving"

 

Corrugated paper, raffia and glue

 

 

I have seen several articles recently about thin stripped quilts.  Having been a weaver, I had considered doing a quilt using thin strips and other textured material that would simulate weaving.  I hope to give it a try sometime.



Flashing Past

This piece of daily art is called "Slices of Life".  It reminds me of the windows of a train flashing past in the night.  The titles convey the feeling of grasping or losing pieces of time and the concepts held within that period.  Each of us carries with us slices of remembrance, feelings of joy, sadness, satisfaction - not always connected to the situations which made them.  Sometimes life seems to rush past us so fast we are hard pressed to catch the important things and appreciate them.  So that's enough of that.  I like the piece.  It has the depth of the universe and the speed of thought.

Texture AND Color

This has been so nuch fun, using up scraps, combining texture, shine, color, odd pieces of STUFF.

And I knew there was a reason I kept all the various pieces and parts that I have never found a place to store.  My studio is full and probably always will be.  I have a very hard time throwing things away.  If I can't see the items, they don't get used.  So, they are all pretty much in view, which uses up working space. These daily pieces of art are small and the working space for them is small.  I'm having a blast trying things together that might not work in a large piece -or- trying to figure out how to recreate  a daily piece in a much larger size.

I have some projects I do need to get back to and will have to make some room on my table.  In the mean time, check out this new piece.

 

"Textured Analogous"

Knit fabric, hard vinyl sample, textured metal, glue



Good Inspiration

Daily art is a success in our small art group.  We shared our pieces at our Wednesday meeting and were all delighted with and inspired by what had been created.  Each artist had their own style; watercolor and drawing, small sandwich quilts, daily events captured in creative packages with words and images.  This is an idea that hopefully will become a habit, an opportunity to flex our creativity and explore a great many ideas, concepts and techniques with a small amount of time and not a whole lot of real estate.

Here are a couple more of my daily art pieces:

"Posts"

 

Fabric, Corrugated cardboard and colored metal scraps, glue

 

 

"Transformation"

(What was once a petal is now a fish)

 

Fabric, pen and paper zentangle, thread, glue

 

 

 

 

 

Our meeting included  receiving the pattern for our group challenge for the Nov/Dec show at the library.  We have a 42x30 inch rectangle with a flattened world globe to use for "Our World" whatever technique, material and concept of our choosing.  I am going to order some Lacey Stiff Stuff and begin to bead my world.  I'll keep you posted.  We are all excited and eager to see how everyone chooses to portray their world.