Somerset Digital Studio Spring Edition !

I am so excited and honored to have two technique articles published in Somerset Digital Studio!  It is THE mag for digital artists!  

I have contributed one article titled "Fun With Faces"  where I share my inspiration and techniques for using face sketches to create cool layered digital pieces.  In "Mystery of the Moon"  I talk about my love of the moon and my techniques for using some really cool apps to add the moon to digital landscapes.  

The issue is on newsstands now!  Or you can order a copy online at Stampington.  

Click HERE to get your copy!

Breakthrough

"her"

mixed media on 12x12 birch wood panel

Another piece I created inspired by Mindy Lacefield's Primitive Portraits class!  I am so loving her style of teaching as well as her inspiration to create loose, free, and intuitive.  I have long struggled with being able to do just that.  

Just the other day I tried to start a piece on this wood panel (which btw is becoming my favorite surface to work on!)  and really struggled.  I added some random color, started scraping and brushing it around only to feel as if I ruined it all.  Just a moment when my mind was truly not focused.  So I walked away.  Hours later I went back to it and dumped gesso all over it.  (thank goodness for gesso!)  and soon enough had another blank white space to work on.  

For this piece all I used was a Ranger distress ink pad, black stabilo pencil, and some water.  I had no idea what the ink would do but I loved the result.  I got lost in the moment unexpectedly and tried not to overthink it, just added, taking away, scribbling till it felt done.  Actually I had to walk away before I continued to overwork it.  

As I stood back looking at it I got chills.  That has never happened before in the past 4 years I have been creating art.  I feel as if I have stumbled upon a surface and supplies I really vibed to.  Who knows, I may stray from this as I tend to do but what I do know is that something in this broke something open in me that I have been longing to see within my art.  Possibly a piece of me . . . 

Sharing with Paint Party Friday !

xo

Playing With Quirky Faces . . .

I have been so enjoying my digital art that sometimes I forget where the paint is!  The past couple of days I have brought out the canvas boards, a surface I loved to paint on, the paints, and some watercolor crayons.  

Its been awhile since I have created faces and backgrounds this way.  I even got out the stamps!  On this piece I collaged pieces of one of my photographs on the left and top right.  Not sure if you can see it but the word scratched into her shirt says "Trust".  Something I continue to try and do daily . . . 

xo

Full Circle With Misty . . .

I cannot remember the last time I took pencil to paper.  I used to sit with my drawing pad and graphite for hours, always keeping it close by.  That was quite a while ago.  I am talking maybe 2 years.  Since I got an iPad last summer that has been replaced with digital drawing.  

I signed up for my 3rd class with Misty Mawn, an artist who inspires with her amazing, raw, soulful artwork.  If you have not yet experienced a workshop with Misty it is definitely worth it!  There is always something for everyone from drawing to painting to photography to writing and more.  I am always amazed at how much she packs into a class!  Check out her latest class HERE.  

I worked on this charcoal sketch last night upright on the easel.  I forgot how messy charcoal can be.  I tried not to think to much as I went along.  Tried to silence the inner critic who is ever present threatening to ruin my art!  She is messy, a bit dark, but has a message of love.  

Sharing today over at Sunday Sketches!  

Click HERE to join 

xo

The Girl With The Crazy Red Hair!!

Ok, so I know I said this about my last painting, but I LOVE this girl!!  She is based off of a sketch I did about a year ago and as with the angel I omitted the open eye and nose.  And I think it fits somehow.  The idea of using red for her hair was very scary for me.  I went with golden's pyrrole red.  I think that shade just goes so well with black and white. 

As always  I like to show a few pics of how she came to be . . . 

First I used black and white paint very thickly applied to the canvas.  This is another 16x20.  Surprisingly I am enjoying going large with these faces.  

I use a stablilo marks all pencil in black to sketch her out and also use a faber castell gelato which smudges really well dry for the eye details.  The hair I squeezed right out of the bottle of the fluid acrylic.  Scary indeed!  It reminded me of scribbling!  

Here is an upclose shot so you can see some of the detail.  I stamped in her hair "you are loved"  which I hope you can see in this pic.  I still love stamping.

This gal is available and headed to my etsy shop soon but you can email me if you fall in love with her too! ;)

Today I flipped through my sketchbook and picked out another girl.  I started a new black and white background.  I hope to get to sketching her out on it soon!

Sharing at Paint Party Friday.  

Hope you are all enjoying a great and safe  holiday weekend.  I will be back on Sunday with some new digital sketches to share!

xo

An Exciting Evening . . .

Monday night Lou and I attended the opening of the 60th Annual Patient Art Show sponsored by The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Patient Recreation Department.  As a former patient I had the wonderful opportunity to share some of my work.  All the proceeds go directly to the artist.  Although I always hope my work sells, even if it doesn't the experience far exceeds that aspect.  

I had a wonderful surprise from a dear friend who attended the show when he showed up with that lovely bouquet of flowers I am holding!  

I chose 4 of my recent modern abstracts to include in the show.  I was very excited to see them on display!  Everytime I walked by it was hard to believe they were mine.  

This painting is indeed my favorite.  It feels so much like "me"  I titled it "Street Reflections".  I hope to create more with this palette.  Love that graphite gray!  

What a way to start off spring!  I am currently working on my first commission and writing an upcoming article for publication in the fall.  More to come on those soon!!

I hope all is well in your world!  Will visit you all soon and see what you have been up to! 

xo

Hearts . . . New Painting

"Love Inspired"

mixed media on 11x14 canvas

I had a canvas with an unfinished painting.  I no longer felt connected to it so I decided to create something totally different.  And I am so glad I did.  It is pretty liberating to cover over an old idea with something new.  

My new favorite colors are magenta and blue as you can see.  I was surprised I had the patience to layer!  I am slowly learning that if I can add more layers the painting has lots more depth.  I really enjoyed creating this one.  

Here is the first layer.  I used phalto blue and phalto green.  I applied the paint with my hands and a sponge brush which I have never used but love the feathery effects you can get with it .

 I fell in love with the first layer but knew I had to keep going.  

I love to add letters so I sprayed through my alphabet stencil and also added some white circles.  

In the background of this image you can see a larger painting.  That is something I am working on for Flora Bowley's "Bloom True" online course which I am in the middle of.  (more on that to come!)

I knew I wanted to incorporate hearts so I added that next.  

I also used the magenta which is transparent to cover some of the blue.  That was pretty scary for me.  Silly but true.  I get so attached to my layers that I really struggle to let go and cover stuff up.  

Once I did I liked that I could see the white peeking through from underneath.  

Initially I was upset I covered over the letters on the right side so I brought them back.  I also added a stamp on the heart which reads "when I want to see love defined I look at you".  I felt like it was a nice finishing touch to this piece.

I will be adding it to my etsy shop soon! 

Linking up today with Paint Party Friday.  If you haven't joined us yet be sure to check it out!  Lots of great art to be seen!

xo

Finding The Face . . .

I am discovering a style of painting that I think is becoming my own.  I really love being free with paint, picking a couple of colors, adding some white and using my hands to smear the paint around.  I also use a scraper sometimes.  Then I stand back and look to see who or what shows up.  I love it when I find a face.  

I am hoping you too can see the face I discovered in the top left side of this piece.  It almost looks like a mask and it is only half of a face.  I am sure there are other discoveries to be made!

So now I would like to ask you . . . 

What do you see??

Sharing today at Paint Party Friday :)

New Grungy Love . . .

 Graphite gray . . . I am loving this color just as much as I thought I would.  It is the perfect shade and it has a nice shimmer to it.  Great for grunge.  

For this piece I decided to go back to some photo art.  I scratched up my "love" photo and incorporated it into this piece.  There is molding paste, scribbling, and scrubbed paint.  This time I used white paint to adhere the photo and it worked well better than I thought.  Read about the story behind this image HERE.

Grungy love. . . its my favorite!

Sharing this at Paint Party Friday.  Please do come by and join us!

Hearts and Truth . . .

mixed media journal page, 12/2012

Spending 2 weeks on the couch sick pummeled me into a breakdown of sorts.  When you have had cancer a simple cold or headache is no longer simple.  It begs you to question the reasons behind any and all aches and pains no matter how simple they may seem.  You begin to wonder if your body is hiding something behind the scenes.  You don't realize that just like anyone else you can get the common cold or flu for that matter.  

So the first day I was sick my headache pain threw me into a crying fit which caused tons of emotional stuff to fly from my lips.  Lou had just walked in the door to find me on the couch crying in pain.  I am sure he did not expect my rant.  Through my tears I rambled on about how I try so hard to stay well, taking a billion daily supplements, drinking green juice, trying to avoid sugar, trying to meditate, all in an attempt to prevent canser from ever coming back.  (yes I know I spelled it wrong, I do that on purpose to take away some of the power in the word)  I realized I am physically and emotionally exhausted from trying so hard.  I can't do it anymore.  I am worn out which is probably how I got sick in the first place.  Too much mental stress.  All of this brings me back to the belief in something bigger. As yet another member of my family was diagnosed with canser the survivors guilt (always waiting in the wings) creeps back in with a vengence.  And along with it comes its close friend, fear.  There has to be a big book somewhere with all the answers, most we are not meant to know.  Like how long our time here will be.  

My word for 2012 was "fearless"and I have failed miserably living up to it this year.  So as we are on the verge of beginning a new year I am not going to choose a word this time.  Instead I think I will try my hardest to focus on living in the moment, not in the past, or even looking too far into the future.  I want to laugh more, love more, find more peace, and spend my days creating with color.  

Thanks for your friendship, your sharing, and your support.  I look forward to more of these lovely connections in the new year!!

I wish for all of us an amazing year full of precious moments!!

xoxo

Channeling The Horror . . .

9x12 mixed media on watercolor paper

I planned on painting Friday.  I had a failed image transfer on a piece of hot press watercolor paper from the day before waiting for me.   I would use a limited palette of payne's gray and titanium white.  And I wanted to use my scraper again since I enjoyed it so much creating the painting in my last post.  

I already heard the horrible news out of Newtown CT, a mere 20 miles away, before I began this piece.  I wanted to paint to try to shake off how disturbed and upset I was about what had happened.  What I did not expect when I stepped back were the figures that showed up along the bottom.  

I paint pieces like these intuitively.  I used my scraper very randomly smearing and scraping the paint around the paper.  I keep at it working very quickly (because if I stop and think my inner perfectionist comes out)  not paying much attention to what is happening.  The only specific work I did on purpose was the face of the woman. 

The tears were added to her face before I even noticed the figures below her.  Now I know why the tears were necessary.  

I continue to send prayers and peace to those lost and those left behind

xo

Tell Me . . . What Do You See??

9x12 mixed media on watercolor paper

Who knew it could be so much fun to paint with a squeegee!  Lou gave a an extra one he had from home depot (which btw is a great place to look for painting tools!)  and I wasn't sure if I would ever use it.  I quickly gave it a try on watercolor paper using a limited palette of payne's gray, quin nickel azo gold, and some titanium white.  These are colors I don't normally use together but I was inspired by a lesson in Misty Mawn's online class "Open Studio"  and thought I would give it a whirl.  

I only used my hands to lay down the initial layer of colors and then started scraping with the plastic scraper thingy.  I was nervous at first wondering how much of it I would mess up as I just randomly scraped away, blending and removing color all at the same time.  It also came in handy to scratch some lines which I often love to do.  

I was just about to add another layer over it because I did not like it at all when my husband came in and said he liked it.  He told me to leave it overnight and look at it with fresh eyes in the morning.  Pretty good advice.  He told me he saw a white house, and I realized I saw a bird in the center.  I also see a waterfall in the right lower corner.  When I posted this on facebook a friend told me he saw a nativity scene!

This is what I love most about painting abstract . . . each person who looks at it sees something different.  I love the discoveries!!  I love the images that just show up!

So now its  your turn.  What do you see??

Sharing at Paint Party Friday

xo

Landscape Painting . . . I've Missed You

I have always loved landscapes, in photography, and in paintings.  Despite the fact that I have had a difficult time being loose when I paint them I still love it.  When I discovered art just under 3 years ago I started out with landscapes.  But often I found that I tried too hard to be perfect.  All that did was kink my neck up much like portrait painting does.  

I had the idea for this piece a few days ago and decided to give it a try.  I have been getting looser and more abstract with my art as of late so I wondered how that would affect my landscape attempt.  Well, I happily discovered that it enhanced it.  I don't like to use paintbrushes anymore so I was able to paint this with just my hands.  Not easy but fun!  I picked some non typical colors but some of my favorites.  I used payne's gray, alizarin crimson, raw umber, and titanium white.  

Linking up with Paint Party Friday.  Click HERE to join us!

Looking forward to seeing what you all have been up to!

xo

In Balance . . . A New Face Shows Up

Hope all of my US friends had a nice Thanksgiving yesterday.  It was a quiet one here with just Lou, me, and the pug.  Although I miss having lots of family around the quiet does me good especially lately as I am just a sponge for the crazy energy out there in the world.  I think it is that energy playing a role in shifting my art.

This piece is quickly becoming one of my favorite's.   I was inspired to use colors I typically don't put together, yellow with payne's gray.  I started this once again by smearing the colors around the page with my hands.  Then I stepped back to look for what showed up.  I saw the face over on the right and what looked like it could be a birdie on the lower left.  The heart was the only thing I purposely created when I was pushing the paint around.  I scribbled into the paint and later realized that it looks as though the bird has a string or something in its mouth connected to the heart.  With the eyes off kilter on the face I feel like the bird is trying to balance that person.  

I long to create pieces like this, pieces that tell a story, and hopefully make others "feel".  

I am sharing this over at Paint Party Friday.  

Click HERE to join us!

Also, my work is being featured today over at Julie Prichard's blog for another installment of her Art Gallery Tour!  Be sure to check it out HERE!  

Eye Of The Storm . . .

"the eye of the storm"

"mixed media on 9x12 watercolor paper"

I am happy to be back online tonite and have power at home.  More than that I am grateful that everyone I love is safe.  Hurricane Sandy devastated NY as well as most of the east coast.  Part of the city I love is under water.  A close friend of mine is homeless as the house she was renting across from the Hudson River was destroyed by the storm.  

Its times like these when you realize just how lucky you are and just how much we take for granted.  You realize what is most important.  And then you can't help but wonder . . . why was I spared?  Luckily we only lost power for 3 days and thankfully we have a generator.  I was able to keep in touch with people via my iPhone on facebook and texting.  

What I was surprised at was how much painting I did over the past few days.  Maybe it was the anxiety over the storm.  I suppose I was inspired by a hurricane.  The piece above appears to be kind of evidence of that to me.  

I used watercolor crayons, gesso, and my hands to create it.  Messy as it is oddly enough this piece is the type of art I long to create.   It just spilled out of me onto the paper and I loved every minute of creating it.   

My heart goes out to those suffering from this horrific storm.  I hope my dear blog friends that all of you are safe . . .

xo

Metallic Paints, A Heart, And A Woman . . .

I had been wanting to try some metallic paints.  I was browsing in the craft store and picked up a tube of copper paint.  It was Golden's iridecent fine copper.  It was love at first sight.  I really love the rose tones in that shade of copper.  That color was the inspiration for this painting.  

Originally I was going to make this a multilayered painting.  But then I kept looking at it after the first layer and it just felt like it didn't need much more.  I added some silver in both paint and sharpie form for some scribbles.  And splattered some of the silver as well.  I posted the image on facebook and it already has a home!  

It felt good to paint again after a long hiatus so to speak.  

In case  you missed my last post I wanted to share another piece I created this week.  I used a piece of birch wood and payne's gray.  I smeared the paint around on the wood with my hand and a paper towel.  Immediately this image appeared!  I thought it was a bit creepy at first but then I really loved it.  I used a black watercolor crayon to bring out the image and shade a bit.  It looks like a woman.  And I can't help but wonder who she is . . . 

I am sharing today over at Paint Party Friday.  If you haven't yet joined us please come by and check it out!

Click HERE

xo

Putting Myself Out There . . .

A few months ago I found out about a local art exhibit.  They were hosting their annual show exhibiting the art of local artists.  I was nervous at first to put my work out there at this type of event but decided it would be a good thing.  I decided on 4 pieces, one painting, and 3 digital collages. 

The opening reception was Saturday afternoon. When we walked in there was my work right above the welcome table.  It was very cool to see!  There was a really great turnout despite the humid rainy weather which is not typical for a fall day in NY.   

I also want to thank everyone who left a comment on my last post.  It helps to know that I am not the only one who feels the energetic changes happening out in the universe this year. 

xo

The Circle Of Life . . . And Where I've Been

 Well, I am finally back after neglecting this blog for a week now!  This is the first painting I have done in quite a few weeks.  I don't typically have that long of a dry spell.  Not sure what is going on with me.  I have not felt like myself lately.  I feel lost on many levels.  

Never in my life have I been so painfully aware of the passage of time.  I feel stuck, I feel down, and I feel all mixed up.  I have always been spiritual and intuitive.  I feel like the energy all around me is chaotic, I mean out in the universe.  Wonder if anyone else feels that way these days.  When I my mind feels messed up my art shows it.  As  you can see here is messy journal page I did yesterday.  

Despite the mess though the message is a good one I think . . . 

Sharing over at Paint Party Friday today.  Hopefully I will be back soon with new art but if not I have lots of silly pug pics to share!

xo

BIG NEWS!!! New Somerset Article!!

Hard to believe it has been a year since I was published in Somerset Studio.  Back in May I submitted new work and was so excited to be invited to write another article about the new pieces.  This is one of them above.  

Despite the fact that I have written a memoir writing these articles about my art work is so much more fun!  Most likely because there was no angst involved like in writing my book.  

The article will be published in the upcoming November issue!  It is nice to have some good news to share!  The past year has been and continues to be challenging but moments like this are meant to be savored and that is what I am trying to do!

xo

Transforming A Painting Into Photo Art . . .

I created this yesterday on my iPhone.  I discovered a new app called "art studio"  and you can do really cool stuff with photos.  And since I have many images of my paintings including some in progress shots I thought it would be fun to try and see what I could create. 

The first layer is my painting and then I used my fingers to write the words and make some cool smudges on the painting with some white.  It felt like painting in a way.  

The painting below is the image I altered to create the above piece.  

Pretty cool huh?  ;)

"love balloon"

available on etsy

In these moments when I don't find myself painting in a traditional way  it feels good to know there are other ways to "paint" that can be as simple as a photo on your iPhone.  

I am sharing today for Paint Party Friday.  Hope you will stop by and check out all the great art being shared!

Click HERE!