Klimt-ing Mother Earth

Yesterday’s workshop celebrated the archetypical woman as Earth Mother through influences and interpretation from Gustav Klimt. OK, *enough* art jargon – we had a blast. Two parts worked really well – drawing the faces in a lesson that showed how the face works on the entire head, and making our own pattern stamps using foam shapes.

The face-drawing lesson I’ll share in another post. The stamps are easy – take 1″ sections of a large dowel or 1×2″ board, trace around any outside edge onto a sheet of sticky-backed craft foam, cut out and adhere, then add a second layer of foam in any shapes you wish. Stamp away. We used tissue paper, mulberry paper, foil and construction paper and applied cut and torn pieces to painter board. Here are a couple of photos of the stamps and the patterns.

As always, even though we all started with the same premise, each artist’s style shone through in the finished works. I’m anxious to try the same kind of pattern building in another project – still thinking about possibilities. To all who came, thanks for sharing Sunday afternoon with me at the Studio! And I’m especially excited about the upcoming drawing workshop on May 25th. If you don’t think you can draw, you have another think coming – I dare ya to sign up – LOL. And now, for your viewing pleasure, here’s a video of yesterday’s diverse visions of Mother Earth.

All GAGA about the Rainbow Corpse

Why this installation is called “The Exquisite Rainbow Corpse” eludes me – but it opens this evening at the The Southwest School of Art. Created by members of GAGA (including me), the Corpse consists of 90 12″x12″ works that correspond to individual ROYGBIV color chips (the rainbow color sequence: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). Want a sneak preview of the installation?corpsetogether TA-DAH!
My two pieces are in the third row on the left-ish side (how appropriate – so are my politics) – you may remember the pieces from this post, but here’s one – gives you a sense of the scale of the overall installation. Please come by tonight (5-8 pm) and see the exhibit. There are so many styles represented that it should be most interesting. Ya get gagalighta big group of women artists together and you’re gonna have some crazy-good collaborating!

Now, if you want a weekend art challenge, go to the paint store, pick a color chip at random (or choose a color from this site), and create a small piece in which 75% of the content is that color – it’s a very thoughtful exercise . . .and not an easy one.

Happy weekend, everyone, and Happy Mother’s Day – we all had one, and we’re here because of her. Thanks, Mom – I sure do miss you!

 

Jane Dunnewold’s Design and Print Your Own Fabric

I’ve been a fan of Jane Dunnewold’s work forever. Her book, Art Cloth, is a must-have encyclopedia of surface treatment for fabric, and a design inspiration for every artist. Recently, she asked me to review her new video for Interweave called Design and Print Your Own Fabric. Wow! So, I’m not really a fiber artist but this video opened up a whole new area for me as a digital artist. She is great at de-mystifying the process of taking an idea for a design, getting it into your computer for enhancing and refining (she effectively explains those thorny pixels and resolution), and ending up with fabric-on-demand from Spoonflower.

janeVery very cool! And way too much fun. The download is just $14.95. I have a ton of art book and videos, but this one is truly useful for those of you who are somewhat befuddled by digital design and how it can work for you. I’m so glad Jane asked me to review this and I am happy to share my enthusiasm with you!

Happy Monday, all, and thanks to everyone who came to the Spring Fling show on Saturday!

 

Spring Fling: the Trailer (approved for audiences of all ages)

Alison, Lesta, Jan and I had the best time setting up for today’s art show. Here’s your special sneak preview – I took some photos with my phone as we were finishing up and made this little video. My three fellow artists are just amazing in their versatility and creative talent – please come see for yourself – 10-5 today at the Studio, and here’s a map for you so you won’t lose your way!

 

 

It’s showtime! Come fling with us . . .

Spring Fling springs open tomorrow morning at the Studio. My pals Lesta Frank, Alison Schockner, and Jan Longfellow will join me in our first show and sale of the year – hope you can drop by. There’s always lots to see, and lots of ideas and techniques to steal – er, I mean, emulate. I’ll have some new small textured earthenware adornment pieces, most around $8 or sotext1 text2 text3. Here’s are a few samples:

I’ll also have the new Milagrito hanging constructions and the first series of Shardian Angels (what a name).

milagrito1_edited-1

Anoba, Celtic forest goddess

Anoba, Celtic forest goddess

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out this elegant necklace that Jan Longfellow will have tomorrow – love the stone! And Lesta and Alison will have a huge assortment of gorgeous fibers and watercolors and treasure of all manner. See you tomorrow, 10-5, at the Studio for Spring Fling!
janposter

Wonderful workshop weekend – not just one, but TWO videos filled with great ideas

Well, happy Monday, everybody! Hope you had a great weekend – as for me, I had the most fabulous time at the Studio. On Saturday, ten amazing NEISD art teachers met to experiment with Citra-solv altered magazine pages as collage components. And on Sunday, a flock of beautiful Spring Goddess Spirit Dolls were born. Thanks to everyone who graced the place with their creativity – take a look at what they did! (Oh, and congrats to talented and generous Vicki Siptak, random drawing winner of the Milagrito Friday Freebie.)

Art Teachers’ Workshop

Spring Goddess Spirit Doll Workshop

Friday Freebie: a new series – milagritos, the “little miracles”

I was working in clay last night and suddenly “saw” an earthenware face with holes at the top for a wire hanger and holes at the bottom for tying sari-silk ribbon and milagro charms. I could see it hanging on my porch beside the front door to welcome guests with a wish for an everyday miracle to come their way. Here’s a prototype (put together this afternoon) from a face I’d made from an earlier firing.

There are a dozen more like this in the kiln right now that will be wired and be-ribboned for the Spring Fling art sale next Saturday. milagrito1_edited-1I call these mixed-media hangings “milagritos,” which means small miracles. And if you are a SHARDS subscriber before midnight on Sunday, you will win one if you name is randomly drawn.

If you do not happen to win this one, you can see more of them at the Spring Fling show and sale this coming Saturday, May 3rd, at the Studio. Prices for these charming hangings will range from $12 to $20 – such a deal. Even better, you’ll get to see work done by my pals Alison Schockner, Lesta Frank and Jan Longfellow when you drop by the Studio on Saturday.

So save the date, encourage your friends to come (and to subscribe to this blog – just click the link on the top right) and maybe a milagrito will come your way! Here is the invitation to Saturday’s fun event. Hope to see you there, and happy spring!

springfling14_edited-1

 

Citra-solv for artsy effects

I had so many comments on the painting I did that incorporated papers treated with Citra-solv that I thought I’d share the process with you if you didn’t already know about it (I didn’t until I saw Bonnie and Rosemary’s Show and Tell at the Studio). Here’s the painting – it’s a mixed media piece with altered paper, acrylic, and encaustic on a 16×20′ stretched canvas. Do you see the door in the middle? That’s a weird Citra-solv effect, very strange:

fieldofcitrasolv

I used torn strips of paper created by slathering Citra-solv cleaning solution all over the pages of an old National Geographic magazine. The results can be fascinating. I’m especially interested in how you can sort of control the dissolution of the images by the amount of the solution you put on the pages. Here you can see that portions of the original image show through the distortion.

Citra-solv effects and result

Citra-solv effects and result

Page with small amount of Citra-solv

Page with small amount of Citra-solv

Here’s a page done by artist Eva Macie that uses a lot of Citra-solv.

Christopher Staples has a great tutorial on his blog! Finally, here’s a link to a tutorial on the Cirta-Solv website – they are now selling their product at art stores like Jerry’s Artarama. It’s a fun process to play around with if you are into unpredictable results and eerie effects!

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All kinds of treasure for you . . . and ARTFUL GATHERING on the horizon

Lyns large bannerThis is such a cool new adventure for me! I’m a part of the Artful Gathering faculty this summer, and it’s just unbelievable because the other faculty members are artists and craftspeople whom I’ve heard about and admired for years – people like Keith Lo Bue and Riki Schumacher. Who knew I’d be teaching alongside them? Zowee.

So here’s the deal with this particular post – there is a treasure hunt going on with the Artful Gathering site – you can see a list of prizes here – and you can play along in the Artful Gathering Treasure Hunt. Find the Big Red Square somewhere on my blog to get your secret word! It is in a red block on my side bar.  Look for the crown! Then go to www.artfulgathering.com to read all about the rules and prizes. I hope you’ll sign up for at least one of the classes – and you might even win a class if you play the Treasure Hunt.

treasure

Steal like an artist . . . .

From time to time, I’m going to post other artists’ tutorials for my own reference (I know I can always find them if I put them on my own blog!) and also to share with you if you are interested. This one has a nice technique for using a Titan Buff glaze. It’s at the end of the video and gave me an idea for a painting series that I’m working on called Badger Dancers – here are a couple of my own first paintings in that series, and right below these is the demo video by Chris Cozen whose ideas I am happy to steal – with gratitude :).

Ironroot Dancer

Lyn Belisle, Ironroot Dancer 30×30″, Acrylic 2014

 

Lyn Belisle, Badger Dancer, 30x30", Acrylic 2014

Lyn Belisle, Badger Dancer, 30×30″, Acrylic 2014