Favourite Toy Friday

Here's what my Civil War set looked like on

 Christmas Day when I set it up on the dining table. 

 The colour of the table actually made a pretty good backdrop,

 but my friend Destiny had a better idea!

Using the pix I took on Christmas and this page from  an old Sears Christmas 

catalog, she used acrylic craft paints, brushes and sponges to make a drop

 cloth using a canvas floor cloth from Dharma Trading Company.

And here's the result, showing the supplies she used.

I'm eagerly awaiting time this weekend

 to set the whole thing up.  Thank you Destiny!

Bathroom Decor!

My friend Destiny asked if I could make a couple of  stenciled spray paint panels to go in her bathroom.
She wanted rays (from Stencil Girl),  punchinella chevrons and blues and yellows.

Here's what I came up with and she was pleased!

Stencils & Spray Paint, Part 3

 And the wrap-up to my stenciling/spray paint festival!

 Web, gears and sun stencils from Stencil Girl

Sun rays over design from plastic placemat,

Sun rays with splatter,

Web and gears with splatter,

Leaves over web,

Skull with punchinella stripes,

Leaves over web and chandelier mask.
 I had lots of fun doing these.

All available at my show at the
Cambria Library during the month of June.

Stencils & Spray Paint - Part 2

 Stencils drying after a session of spray painting.  

Gears, sun rays, and filigree  from Stencil Girl

Skull with splatter,

Branch with splatter,

 Alphabet with splatter,

Filigree with splatter, 

Gears over alphabet.

Stencils & Spray Paint

Had fun over the weekend playing

 with stencils and spray paint.

 Used canvas panels as my substrata
and Liquitex Spray Paints.

Stencils from a variety of places, including some of 

my absolute favourites from Mary Beth Shaw's Stencil Girl.

I'll post more in the next few days. 

 These will be available at my show at the 

Cambria Library during the month of June.

More Background Fun!

 More fun creating backgrounds, this time

using Tim Holtz Distress paints and inks.

 I love the way this Distress paint reacts to water spray!

 I used a variety of rubber stamps from 

Tim's collections and also Michelle Ward.

And stencils from Tim's Layering Stencils and

 two of my all time favourite
 Mary Beth Shaw stencils- gears and web.

A lot of fun experimenting and seeing what the results were!

Spray + Stencil = Cool!

 Love these stencils from Stencil Girl!

And Liquitex Spray Paints!

Two sets of covers

for more BIG journals!

Spray Paint Collage

 Some more of these fun spray paint panels using techniques from Mary Ann Moss's Stencilry Workshop, stencils from Mary Beth Shaw's Stencil Girl and Liquitex Spray Paints.

Canvas panels 11x14", covered in a background colour and then overlaid with two or more stencil layers.

It's  a real kick to watch the patterns emerge and see the colours relate to one another.

These will be at Art Girlz in Autumn in September,
 if I can bare to part with them!

Poe's Graveyard in Somerset Studio

Received the latest issue of  Somerset Studio in the mail a couple days ago and when I turned to the Expressions section - there was my Poe's Graveyard!

A Midnight Dreary - Poe's Graveyard  8x10

It's always an act of faith sending off a piece of art and then waiting several months to see if it's accepted or not.  And always exciting to have that faith rewarded and see one's art in print.  Read here for a blog post of how this piece was created. This issue of Somerset will hit the news stands on Sept. 1!

Stenciled Panels

Having fun on a Sunday morning in the garage studio.

 Playing with spray paint - that lovely Liquitex spray paint

  in all those yummy and non-smelling colours!

Used 10x20" canvas panels and was quite pleased with the results. Will be doing more.

  These available at our up coming show in Sept. -

 Art Girlz in Autumn!

From Blah to Bling!

What happens when you see a leather couch you love at a garage sale for only $50.00, but the colour is drab and boring?  Well, when you're married to the creative mind of Sassy Feet, you think "Wait a minute!  We could paint it any colour we want!"  Ingredients - 1.) Leather couch,  2.)  One quart Lumiere copper,  3.) Small jars of Lumiere Metallic Rust, Crimson and Halo Gold, 4.) Medium sized rollers for the base coat of copper, 5.) Foreman Grill Sponges to add the three accent colors,  6.)  Three happy painters - Margot, Destiny and I,  and 7.)  Three hours from blah to bling! Checkout the full story on the Sassy Feet Blog.

Summer's Here

I remember when I was young and school was out.  Those last couple of weeks of June had a magic that seemed everlasting.  As Elizabeth Enright put it " the summer was a vast ocean stretching ahead and September was forever away."  All the time in the world to read, play baseball, ride our bikes.  No arithmetic, no science, no Catechism.  Just that utter, pure freedom, being 10 years old and standing on the brink of summer.

These watercolours from our trip to Mexico several years ago - 

where time had much the same feeling as those long ago summers of childhood.

A Palette of Palettes

Eugène Delacroix

This is fun - Retronaut.co gathered these marvelous
pictures of the palettes of famous painters.
Many are works of art in and of themselves;

Georges Seurat

See the row of spectators - in the park perhaps?

Paul Gauguin

And the colours of sea and sand.

Edgar Degas

The swirl of tutus,

Vincent van Gogh

splashes of golden flowers.

Eugène Delacroix

Rank and file marching for liberte!

,

Here's my interpretation of Monet's paintbox.