She regretted

- available on etsy -

Because of your comments my journal page stayed the same... Thank you. It makes sense that is should stay like it to represent how I was feeling at the time. Instead of painting over the page, I used a canvas board and this lady showed up. I hope you are enjoying the weekend. I am. Not quite healthy yet, but fighting it and loving the unusually hot weather we have.

New journal

I started a new journal with this sickly looking page. Maybe it's because I am sick... I have a stupid cold and feel like a bus ran over me. I'm not sure that I'll be able to look at this page, I might change it completely. That's the beauty of gesso and paints... maybe a rabbit will live on it before the days ends, and not the girl. Maybe I should take some fever reducing medicine before I paint or type or do anything. Hugs to all......

Getting arboreal: A Nature collection

Alone with myself
The trees bend to caress me
The shade hugs my heart.
~Candy Polgar

Julie and JeriAnne are documenting changes in a single tree over seasons and inviting everyone to join. I couldn't miss that. Trees are my friends. My daughter laughs when I comment how 'this' three is my favorite - she says that all of them are my favorites. My husband is a tree hugger. Actually, the whole family has been seen hugging tress and talking to them. Of all of the favorite trees, I chose the one closest to me - the one in my backyard. I picked an unfortunate time to photograph it, when the sun was too bright so everything looks washed out. I will add a a good photo on Saturday, when I have the chance to see it in the morning and when the shade really "hugs my heart".

One of the things I love about this tree is the fact that every new leaf is born as a pinkish red and then gradually changes the color to green. I love that!

And since I mentioned Julie of Lost Luggage, this seems like a perfect opportunity to mention that her new class Art Journaling Super Nova (I love that name!) is starting soon. It will be informative and fun - you can see the promo video here. One more thing - visit her blog for a chance to win one of the classes for free.

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Satruday. Added the shade picture. I have been enjoying this shade all summer. I'm glad that this made me take a photo of it.

I should have wrote that I love shadows, not shades on the next one...

Feeling free

Feeling free. That's the only thing I can think about when I look at this painting. That is how I felt when I carved 3 hours of "me time" yesterday afternoon. A piece of cardboard, tons of color, felt beads, scrap of fabric and linen thread... and pure freedom to allow the hands to create whatever they want. Loved it! Couldn't help but miss the days when I didn't work and got to 'feel free' the whole day long. 

I always enjoy playing with the cropped pieces from the painting in Photoshop. Makes me think that I would probably enjoy abstract art. The problem is - I don't know how to create an abstract painting without making it look like a background that is missing the focal point. I'll stick with Photoshop for now.

Carry your childhood with you

A black & white day...No, not really.... Lots of colors in my day and on my painting.
Thinking about my childhood...
My parents...
The "little me"...

She remembered goose-bumps she felt as a nine-year-old.
- sold -

Re-working the pages

I am nearing the end of my journal and it's fun to look back and turn pages from the beginning. While I enjoy most of them, there are several that I just couldn't stand... at all. There is no rule that you cannot change your journal pages, so that's what I did - took a paintbrush and added more paint. This lady had a kerchief on her head (or something that was supposed to look like it). It looked wrong... I added meaningless colors around her head and found the words that were expressing what she (I) is trying to say and now I'm much happier.

The second one is a total disaster! I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure that I was looking at someone else's work... don't remember whose. I'm sure that I admire the work of that artist, but my version simply doesn't look right (to me).  I was tempted to just gesso her over, but before that decided to express what I feel about her. That was enough. Now I can look at the page and smile - it shows  exactly what I feel.

Friday already? Weekend again? How wonderful!

Need a good laugh?

If you do - take a look at my pitiful garden. Funny? Or sad? I don't have a green thumb obviously... Want another look? Look at this:
And to think that 3-4 months ago I was writing that I want to be a farmer... My garden looked much better then.  My dh is more successful (he takes care of all the other plants). We planted a grape wine this year and were rewarded with grapes! How cool is that? Can you see me in this photo?
We quickly produced wine from our grapes... Not really, but they were a nice compliment to the wine we bought. 
I will not give up... I am going to plant a fall garden and hope that it will look better. It's all a learning process, right?

Weekend pages

It was her night....
I had three things on the list for the weekend.

1. Clean the garage (with help)

2. Go see a movie (Julie&Julia)

3. Play art

Happy to report that I did all three! The garage is smiling at me, the movie was fun, and the art was fun too. I couldn't paint a nose on this poor girl.... tried but it wouldn't work, so I decided to leave it as is and add a laughing bird. Why not? Of course, now I see that my arrows look like whiskers.... so she maybe wanted to be a cat girl. I might go back to her later.

Afternoon journal fun

Yesterday afternoon I wanted to paint outside. To make things easy I just picked a yellow, blue, red, white and umber, two brushes, water and pencil and sat in the afternoon sun. Then I painted with no plan, no reference photo or anything. This is still a new process for me. I used to have to look at something. Now I don't want to (most of the time). I am learning to trust the brush and just allow myself to follow it. So relaxing.Then I heard some unpleasant news and decided to go inside and work on another page. I'm not happy with the writing (on this page and some others). I would like to have a pen/pencil that will not be too visible and yet - more visible than what you see on this page. I tried different things but I just can't get the effect I'm looking for. Maybe I'm asking for too much. Oh well.... looking for it is part of the fun.
Happy weekend!

She hoped

I remember that I painted this sweet face once before... I'll have to look through my journals and find her and see how much she changed. My new love is painting on cardboard. Just ripped sides from a cardboard box. Very fun! For some reason this one needed a "frame", so I stitched it to a piece of watercolor paper and very thick and richly textured art paper. Adding a little glass bird made me happy. And, yes Sharon, I look at it now and see that (yet again) I forgot to sign it (I hear your voice telling me that all the time). Still thinking about Elinor... that's where where the words came from (and also the paper - it is from her stack).

- available on etsy -

Thinking about Elinor

I never had a chance to meet Elinor.
Her son is my neighbor and he said that he knows that his mother would like for me to have her art supplies, so he gave me boxes and boxes filled with 'stuff'. It was very overwhelming, as he was emotional.. and I was too. I thanked him, cooked him a soup and baked him a chocolate cake. I also told him that I would take good care of his mother's things.

I spent the afternoon getting to know Elinor through her choices of art books, looking at the amazing supply of thick, white watercolor paper, touching her brushes... I was even lucky enough to receive several of her paintings.

It made me sad. It also made me look around my own art room, my books and supplies and wonder who will be thinking about me one day. I sat to my journal and painted this lady. For some reason I think she looks better when she's upside down. Don't you?

...he said into the silence.

What a wonderful weekend! As always, at least a day too short. I vote for a three day weekend. We need one day to finish all the chores we can't get to over the week, one day to relax from it all and then one day to just have fun. I really shouldn't complain... I did it all in two days - worked around the house, played with my paints and had fun with the family. And I did say 'thank you' several times into the silence.

Expecting light

Silly page

I had such a stressful day that at the end of it I was left with a very nervous/aggressive/sad energy and decided to go to my art room and see what comes out of it. I thought that I will be working in dark reds and blacks and make something angry and scary, but instead - this silly face came out. And the words.... they are in my head very often anyway. It really is complicated being an adult. Sometimes I wish I could just step out... and go to a happy, chld-like place.
But I don't.
Because I am responsible.
I just create silly pages.
Speaking of it - here is another page that I created while my friend Connie was visiting the other day. I introduced her to rosin paper and it was love at first sight. I think Connie might have stopped at Home Depot on her way home. :-)

Red Rosin Paper

I received several questions about red rosin paper, so I thought it would be the best if I answered them here.
I first heard about this paper several years ago. I can't remember which artist used it and did I read about it in a blog or a magazine, but I remember the enthusiasm she had while describing it.
First time I tried it was in Katie Kendricks workshop. There was a big roll of it and we could cut as much as we needed. It was love at first sight! I admit that I didn't fall in love with the color it has... this kind of dirty pink doesn't really inspire me much.
What I loved was the fact that I could collage, paint, scratch, collage some more, paint over it, scrub, sand, paint etc. etc. and the paper would handle it beautifully. It is absolutely perfect for my newly found "I enjoy the process and don't care that much about the final look" thing.
Red rosin paper is used as a construction material. Not to be confused with construction paper (although it does look a little bit like it before it's transformed into something else). You buy it in big rolls in places like Home Depot and Lowes (in the section where they have paint, glues and stuff like that). It is heavy weight and wonderful.
After all the layers of paint and collage material I sewed through sometimes three papers and it handled it without a tear. What's not to love?

In case that you are willing to try it, and not buy the whole roll, you might be interested in the blank journals I made from it. They are just waiting for colorful spreads of your imagination. Or - if not - I am sure that I will fill them all before this year is over. The journals are listed in my etsy shop (here).
If you have any other questions - let me know and I'll try to answer them as quickly as I can.
Happy creating!

Almost finished

Almost finished, but not quite... I'm making journals from red rosin paper. It was challenging the cut a huge roll into workable pieces, but I managed without cutting my fingers off...

Snippets

I had seven (7!!!!!) hours of uninterrupted art time yesterday! It was sooooo good! I didn't notice the time pass by. I didn't have time to finish, so I'm showing only snippets (I love snippets the most anyway). I feel like I was on vacation. :-) Happy August everyone!

Witness

Together. In their world. Happy.

-8"x10" on wood, available on etsy-

It seems that whenever my husband goes on a business trip I paint two birds. They just show up, without much thinking. This is the 'erased' painting. It is painted on plaster. I found it interesting that after many layers of paint and gesso I could still 'feel' the plaster. It seemed to absorb the paint differently than what I'm used to. It's very matte, textured, different. I liked scratching through it and unveiling previous layers.