Art Girlz in Autumn 2014!

Today's the day!  Hope to see you at our 3rd annual

 Art Girlz in Autumn Studio Show.

10-5 at Altered by the Sea Studio, 

348 La Lolla, Morro Bay.

@ the Show!

If you've been following the blog this summer

you've seen what I've been getting ready for the 

Art Gilrlz in Autumn Studio Show.

Here are a few tantalizing glimpses of what 

Destiny and Margot have been up to.

The exquisite little handbags are Margot's creations.

 And the colourful pen and ink pieces are Destiny's. 

 These and a lot more available this Sunday

here at Altered by the Sea Studio in Morro Bay 10-5. 

Drop by and take a look!

Three of the Nicest Things about being Retired

Lattes

Ginger Scones

Books, and the time to enjoy all of the above!

A Murder of Crows

Crow up a Tree  11x14"

Have finished the last pieces for this weekend's show.

Crow by the Numbers 11x14"

Using the same techniques, but done on 11x14" canvas panels.

Steampunk Crow 11x14" 

It was fun trying out different stencil patterns for each one.

Stencils are from Tim Holtz and Artist Cellar.

Cathedral Crow 11x14

Now that the creating is done, it's down to the nitty-gritty of printing labels, cleaning the house 

and displaying all the art.  Art Girlz in Autumn this Sunday, September 28 10-5 

at Altered by the Sea Studio in Morro Bay. Hope to see you here!

Crows on a Web

Crows on a Web  10x20"

Another crow piece, this one for the upcoming

Art Girlz in Autumn Studio Show.

Prepped canvas with gesso and old dress pattern tissue,

then painted with Golden Fluid Acrylics in

Red Oxide, Titanium Buff, Quinacridone/Nickel Azo Gold,

and Quinacridone Crimson.

Stenciled the background using the
  Mary Beth Shaw's Web design.

Then added the crows, which are stenciled with
Tim Holtz's Shattered layering stencil.

The crows' eyes are hitch fasteners from Holtz's Idealogy line.

The final touch - leaf shaped brads in
 a variety of autumnal colours.

Studio Table

When Seth asked us to post a shot of our studio tables, I thought "uh-oh it won't look messy enough!" I'm one of those odd creatures - a left brained artist.  I adore organization ( have my entire stash detailed on a computer "Master List" telling what cigar box, library cabinet drawer, locker basket, etc each type resides in).  Mixed media requires so many supplies and bits of ephemera that I'm really happy I have the ability to do this.  Anyway, I do tend to clean up my studio table after each project and sometimes, gasp!, even in the midst of a project.  So this maybe as messy as it ever gets - a piece I'm putting the finishing touches on and the supplies I used to get to that point.  Off to the right a small stack I'm amassing to take on my trip to Venice next month.

Our Venice Apartment!

This is where we'll be living for 10 days in Venice next month.  The cream coloured building to the left of the bridge, on the third floor - the one with the arched windows and a lovely view of the canal and the bridge.   Renewed passports have arrived, ditto electric converters and the shoe repair guy gave my classy walking boots (that I used in Venice 9 years ago) an overhaul and they look brand new.  Three weeks to go!

Underground London

 Underground London  20x18"

Here's the finished piece. The substrata, I picked it up at the local swap meet, is a shadowbox/faux type drawer kind of thing.  I painted the various openings in red oxide, titanium buff, and carbon black. Several of the openings have bits of The London Illustrated Times from 1860 (an eBay find several years ago) in them.

Then I used heavy gel medium to affix all 

the various pieces of 3D ephemera.  

How fun it was to go through cigar boxes, tea tins and 

vintage suitcases re-finding all these 

treasures that I've amassed over the years!

The final touch was to drip cream and red 

oxide encaustic wax over the piece.

It gives it a rather ghostly appearance, 

as on the number tag above, 

which seems to add to the illusion of history.

Underground London will be featured at the 

Art Girlz in Autumn Studio Show, 

on Sunday September 28 10-5,

here at Altered by the Sea Studio in Morro Bay.

A Small Taste

I'm working on a new piece that has
been marinating for a few months.

These are pix I snapped as a reference to know where 

to put things back after I worked on the substrata

I'll have the finished artwork on Monday's blog.

But wanted to give you a small preview first.

And More Bookmarks

More Christmas and Halloween bookmarks.

These on #8 manila tags, using  black rub-on's,

 Distress Stain and rubber stanps.

Finished off with colourful ribbon,

and ready to go at Art Girlz in Autumn, 

Sunday September 28 10-5 here in Morro Ba

at Altered by the Sea Studio.

Holiday Bookmarks

More bookmarks for the upcoming show - 

these done on black tags with white rub-ons.

Sort of a chalkboard effect - 

great contrast between the black and white.

For Halloween and Christmas and available at 

Art Girlz in Autumn at the end of the month.

Life on the Coast

Weekend sunset by Morro Rock/

Buongiorno Venezia!

The big news here is that next month Margot and I will be visiting Venice for 10 days!
My chemo will be over for awhile and the doctor has given us the OK to travel. As you can imagine, we are both very excited.  Plane tickets have been purchased, we have  reserved a delightful little apartment on a small canal, and I'm busy gathering supplies for my travel journal.

Pin One On!

I got the idea for these from one of
 the booths at Costume College.

They were a lot easier to make than I thought,

Fashioned after military decorations, I raided my 

stash of old jewelry and brass stampings.

I've made up a dozen of them using various
ribbon colours and embellishments.
Available at the upcoming Art Girlz in Autumn 

at the end of the month here in Morro Bay.

Souvenir de Paris

This was so much fun to put together.  

I went through my stash of French ephemera

and picked out some wonderful things.  

The box is from Michael's and it provided

the perfect substrata for this assemblage.

Another piece for Art Girlz in Autumn

at the end of September.