Paintings :: She Will

I wanted to share with you my latest painting titled ... She Will.

This canvas looked very different at one point and I decided that I wanted to dramatically reinvent it and in the process ... incorporate letters ... not just letters that make up words and a message but for the words and letters to be design elements and become art forms in and of themselves. I love how letters help create compartmental pockets on the canvas ... opening opportunities to create small and unique universes.

I still see some things I need to do to it to finish it up and resolve but I like the reinvention very much.

I like the letters and the words as artforms.
I also like the message of these particular words.

Not "She Might."
Not "She Tries."

She Will.

So you better get out of her way. ;)

Carved Eraser Stamp Tutorial :: Love One Another

For this carved eraser, I drew a little design onto a pink eraser using an ordinary pencil.

And used my carving tool to carve out the outline and a bit on the inside of the leaves.

Then I inked it and stamped it onto cold press watercolor paper.

Took a black fine-tip marker to add details and part of my all-time favorite verses:

Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love, does not know God for God is love. Beloved, let us love one another.

Studio Explorations :: Evolution of Fish and Flowers

I wanted to share the painting I made yesterday in The Painting Studio.
I really like it.

Here's a detail of a portion of it.
I suprised myself with the purple I allowed in.

Before the fish came to life, this is how the canvas looked.
So different, right?
Love how things can evolve.


Here's another one I did in the studio. Flowers.

Here's a detail shot.

And here's how it looked BEFORE I made the flowers.

Free Motion Quilted Memory Game Tutorial

You remember playing the memory card game, right? Here's a set that I made using free motion quilting and watercolors.

First you free motion quilt a bunch of circles with a sandwich of muslin, batting, muslin, cut them out, and color them with watercolors. You want to make sure that you use one color to paint a pair of circles so that you have two blues, two reds, two yellows, etc.

Here's how the circles look before they are cut and colored.

Let them dry and then flip them so that the colors are facing the table and start playing the memory game. Hmmm ... I wonder where that other blue circle was ...

Put them in a little pouchy pouchy or embellished box to store or give away as a gift.

Happy creating. :)

Funny Free Motion Doodle Art Quilt Tutorial

Isn't she adorable?

I started by free motion doodle quilting onto a layer of muslin, batting, muslin. I used my pen-to-paper doodles as inspiration. Check out JENNI. So funny, right? Every time someone asks me, "Are you Jenny with a Y or Jenni with an I?" I have this vision of this girl with an EYE named Jenni.

The thing about free motion doodling is that it just comes with practice. I didn't sketch anything out before I started. I just started with the eyes, then the nose, then the mouth, then the rest of the face and hair and body ... much like a regular doodle. Just lower the feed dogs on your sewing machine, put your darning foot on and go for it. Remember that practice is the key.

Next, I took my watercolors and colored certain parts of the art quilt.

Then I cut the stitched and colored character, and backed it with another layer of fabric, batting, fabric, and free motion quilted a frame with black thread. Then I free motion quilted the circles with white thread.

Studio Explorations :: Doodling on Chipboard

What comes first? The doodling or the painting? I'm not quite sure right now. Feels like I am bouncing back and forth from both.

Lately I've been doodling on chipboard. Love it so much. Its kraft color is so beautiful and the perfect substrate to put on applications of white and black. That's it. And the effects are always so lovely to my eyes. The chipboard makes it easy to just let things just happen.

For these, I've used a broad Sharpie poster paint pen, and some black markers and white gel pen.

I like to look at these and use some of what comes out to replicate on my paintings and sometimes when I see what I like on my paintings, I like exaggerating them onto these chipboards.

Exploring Small

When I started knitting for my babies (now teens), I thought to myself that surely knitting a sweater for a baby would be easier than knitting one for an adult.

I soon learned that that was wrong. It's hard knitting a small garment. That memory is what has been dancing through my head as I've started to explore small with my paintings. Surprisingly, it's very hard.

I mean ... I actually like working small with other things like journaling, and collage, and stamping. But with painting, it's different. Same thing with knitting. For me, at least.

I've also been noodling around with negative and positive space and how just changing something from positive to negative dramatically changes the mood of the piece. So cool.

Though it's harder for now, I do think there's something adorable about these little mini pieces, which makes me want to do more. They're like little puppy paintings.

Good Night Irene

At 2 AM, I said good night to this painting and went to sleep. I woke up this morning to find that I love it and hate it. I hate the fact that it feels so literal. Like I'm trying so hard to make it into a turtle's face, you know? I love that I wasn't scared to try things out out, though. I wasn't a chicken.

I want my paintings to say something but not so literally. I've met works that may not be so literal but they say nothing to me. Zip. Ziltch. Nada. In their effort to be abstract, they ring hollow and shallow. But I don't want to try so hard that there is nowhere for the viewer to take it on their own, with their own imaginations

Because the fun of looking at art is that it allows us to experience the thrill of it igniting the best parts of our own imaginations.

Paint No Longer Scares Me

There's a lot I want to say but I'm not sure if I can calm the racing thoughts in my mind to get it all out. First off, I want to say paint no longer scares me. I used to think that if you don't know how to paint masterpieces right off that bat, right out of the womb ... in other words, if you needed to practice how to paint, that you really weren't meant to be one. That mindset is what contributed to my fear of paint.

I've been painting like crazy lately. Late into the night, and into early morning hours with just me and my music and canvas.

I realized that the more I paint, the better I become. Because the process of painting is actually practicing.

This made me think about other arts that I have had to practice. Though certain things like knitting and crocheting and lettering come easy to me now, I certainly did have to practice. I recently met with lettering artist Barbara Close who is an amazing calligrapher. The first calligraphy teacher I ever had, actually. She reminded me how to become good, you need to practice calligraphy.

And what is practice? Largely, it's about time.

Time.

I don't underestimate the fact that I am fortunate to have it. Not that I have huge amounts of it, mind you, but I was thinking of the olden days, when painters had to struggle to buy coal or chop wood to burn and keep their rooms warm so that they wouldn't freeze to death. And then the struggle to acquire paint, and paintbrushes, and substrates, and the space and of course the time. Time to paint.

For me, though it's still a challenge to juggle everything, I have it pretty good. I have access to paint whenever I want it. It's just 3.7 miles from where I live. I have a house with central heating and central air. It keeps me at just the right comfort level. I have iTunes, Pandora, and space where I can blast it. And I have a family who (although kind of look at me funny these days because they know I've become obsessed) they give me space. And best of all, they give me feedback about my paintings. True love.

Tortoises are what have been coming out of me as of late. You may remember this post I did about my thoughts regarding tortoises. They are beautiful creatures. They keep going. They aren't afraid to practice, I think ... and to collect a lifetime of steps that lead to a destination unimagined.

 

 

Studio Explorations :: Mr. T

I was in the zone last night. I call this one Mr. T.

I've always loved tortoises.

They keep going, even with hares are all around him.

One step at a time. One stroke at a time.

True to his own beat, true to his own intent.