Collage

What a beautiful morning! The sun is out … the air is crisp, and from my studio window I watch people hurrying along the sidewalk,  listening to the sound of  fallen leaves crunching beneath their feet.

With coffee cup in hand I begin prepping canvases by laying down a coat of gesso.

While the canvases dry I make some preliminary sketches then choose the ones I want to use and transfer these to watercolor paper. I cut out the selected images and apply a light coat of gesso to the back of the watercolor paper and leave it to dry.

When the canvases have dried completely I apply either Golden ( soft or hard) molding paste with a large painting knife and put these aside to dry. This gives the canvas the look of aged plaster.

At this stage I may choose to apply the individual watercolor collage components using the molding paste or wait and use gel medium to glue them down after the molding paste has dried. The above picture shows the images applied with molding paste.

Now I am ready to apply acrylic paint to the background. First I lay in a light wash of color and let it dry before I begin adding additional layers of color, making sure  not to completely cover the first layer because I want each layer to show through.

While each background layer is drying I usually begin painting the collage elements using watercolor, acrylic, and inks.

Below is a photo of the under painting and it is at this point I can make any necessary adjustments to Kuan Yin’s face and begin adding stamping, text and more collage elements. In this painting/collage I have added the I Ching hexagram Tai which means harmony, great powers, and the flow of good things.

I Ching – Collage/Mixed Media – 8 X 10 inches on canvas

September

Goodbye August, Hello September. … I spent most of the day preparing four small canvases for a collage project, later I went outside to take a break and noticed all the fallen leaves on our lawn.

My husband was trimming some ivy which was overtaking our sycamore trees and he commented on all the dead leaves blowing down our street.

I love autumn! I love listening to the wind, watching the leaves turn into vibrant shades of rust and gold,  smelling the dry leaves and cuddling up with a good book on cool evenings.

What autumn feels like to me…

“The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.”
–   John Updike, September

Have a good night!

Busy Monday

It’s been one of those days where there’s so many ideas buzzing around in my head and just too many other distractions going on to really focus on them.

Hopefully I will have a chance to work on some of these tomorrow.

Sonoma – Combined Media – 8 X 10

“Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or the another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” – Kandinsky

New Blog Theme

Now that I have been blogging for 8 months I decided to look for a new theme for my site, and I found one that has three columns instead of two.

As I work on updating my blog I may be switching the header images from time to time as a way to showcase my art work, and I hope to finish the rest of the revisions over the next couple of weeks.

Have a great weekend! Any comments will be welcome.

Shiny Baubles

Today, I played around with some of my favorite gemstones and created a necklace. The necklace is made  with jade, citrine, blue lace agate combined with rich golden freshwater pearls, swarovski crystal beads, copper spacers and a copper closure.

Some lore of the gemstones used in the making of this necklace

Citrine is useful for balancing and aligning the chakras and increase prosperity.

Copper is said to be an excellent conductor of energy and healing.

Blue lace agate is a gentle, calming stone that promotes tranquility.

Jade is considered a stone of good fortune and divine blessing.

Pearls attune the wearer to the ebb and flow of life, and promote faith, charity, integrity and truth.

Tranquility – Necklace length: 16″