Pincushion Doll to #84, Ria Nirwana! Congratulations, Ria!

Arty doll to #111, Alice Stropel. Congratulations, Alice!

Ladies, please send me an email with your address so I can get these off to you!

Thanks to everyone for visiting. I hope you’ll visit again soon!

Once again, I am participating in the annual One World One Heart event. This is an international blog event that started back in 2007. It’s HUGE!

For some background on the event, I’m posting exactly what Lisa, the fabulous organizer of the event has to say:

WHAT IS ONE WORLD ONE HEART?

I created this event in 2007. The original idea behind this giveaway event was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way. 2007 had roughly 85-90 participants and many connections were made because of it……friendships that are still going strong.
We had a strong showing the first year for sure, and then in 2008 we had just about tripled that number. In 2009 there were 911 participants, to say I was amazed is an understatement. 28 countries were represented in the 2009 event as well.
This is more than wanting to win something…….that is only the means…….in the end it’s about finding kindred spirits. Someone who may be fairly new to blogging, not sure how to navigate, find others and have others find them….Some are long time bloggers and in some cases well known in the blogging community. Whatever the case it brings all of them together. This is an INTERNATIONAL event that has and had participants from the US, Canada, France, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Malaysia, Brazil, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland, England,Wales, Slovenia and more. It transcends geographical location, socio economics, political affiliation, religious beliefs……it’s a coming together like the giant community we are on this planet. If only it took a simple giveaway to create PEACE everywhere, in the mean time here we give from our hearts. We are not solving the worlds problems nor are we curing anything nor are we changing the world. We are merely generating a closer community between humans through blogging. What more could I ask for, my little idea has surpassed my wildest dreams of what it could become.

WHAT IS FRAN GIVING AWAY THIS YEAR?

Now on to the good stuff: What am I going to give away this year? This year, there will be two gifts available. Both are art dolls I made.

Doll pin-cushion

The first: For an artists’ holiday exchange in 2008, I made these funky doll-pin cushions. They were well-received by the recipients and we all use ours all the time. So, when I was talking with my friend Angie about what I should give away, I remembered that I had one of the doll-pin-cushions that I hadn’t gifted to anyone! Well, that made my decision easy!

I’m giving away this lovely doll pin cushion. She is hand-made by me. The face is a face I painted myself and then scanned and printed onto fabric. I added the hair, beads, embroidery, and buttons by hand. She was truly a labor of love. I’ve enjoyed having her here in the studio, but she’s ready for a new home. Perhaps it will be your home!

Funky Doll

The second is another doll I made. Like the other, she is hand-made by me. I made a few of these and intended to sell them, but they remain here in the studio. So, this one is up for you to win! Like the funky doll pincushion, she is hand-made by me. The face is another face I painted and printed onto fabric. I also drew the main image in the center and printed it on fabric. Some people have told me it looks like a rubber stamped image, but it’s not! I drew this when Dave and I went on our first trip overseas. It’s the ironwork from our first hotel in Paris, France. After printing the image on fabric, I added color to the fabric. The additional fabric on this doll’s front is from Vintage Kimono Fabric. She is sewn my machine with some quilting, but the beading is all added by hand.  She, too, is ready for a new home!

THE FINE PRINT:

To enter the drawing, please post a comment on THIS POST on my blog (Facebook comments will not be accepted for entry). Your email is required, but will NOT be published! It will only come to me – I need a way to reach you if you win! I will accept comments until noon Eastern time on February 15, 2010. At that point, I will add up the comments and use a Random Number Generator to choose the winner. The winner will be posted by 5 pm Mountain Time on February 15, 2010.

For the past two years that I’ve participated, I’ve made several new friends online. We correspond regularly. I look forward to “meeting” you and to becoming a part of your world! I’ll be stopping by all the websites of those who stop by mine so we can all get to know each other! Take some time to look at the main OWOH site to participate and to meet some other bloggers who are participating.

I’ve been a bad blogger. I can’t remember the last time I sat down and typed up a post. Well, I’ve been busy! No excuses here, just busy and not in a mood to share.

But, I have a lot of art to share, so over the next few posts, I will share it. Here we go!

Inspiration Photo

First up: A custom painting!

This summer I donated a custom painting to the Phoenix Chapter of the American Diabetes Association. I was worried, because I’m not usually good about feeling inspired by other people’s photos. Well, I was glad I challenged myself! The woman who purchased the custom 16″ x 20″ painting is an employee of the ADA. She bought it for her mother.

Custom Painting

I got to sit down with her mother and meet her when I picked up the photos. That helped me to get a sense of who the painting was for and why I was doing it. Gerri wanted a painting of her front door. It’s a beautiful front door and she has some lovely ceramic bells and cactus in the corner. The photo she took is to the left. I had to rework some of the elements because the picture was going to have too many focal points if I didn’t. After several weeks of work, I completed the painting on the right. Just the other day, I was able to deliver the painting to Danielle, Gerri’s daughter. She will give it to her on Christmas. I sure hope Gerri likes it!

]]> http://www.artsyfran.com/2009/12/18/at-long-last/feed/ 5 http://www.artsyfran.com/2009/09/21/so-much-for-posting-more/ http://www.artsyfran.com/2009/09/21/so-much-for-posting-more/#comments Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:43:15 +0000 Fran http://www.artsyfran.com/?p=982 Well, it didn’t take long for me to fail miserably at posting more frequently. But I’ve felt a need to just be quiet and to focus on my health, my home, and well, not share. I’m trying to get out of that funk, writing in my personal journal, but it’s a process, as many of you probably know. So I’m not going to fight it. I’m going to go with it. And, until I get out of this funk, there probably won’t be much here at the artsyfran.com blog. Then again that could change…

Personal Symbols WIP

But I’ve been quietly stitching here in the studio. It’s always a good way for me to contemplate other things while I keep my creativity going. It’s been a very good thing for me this past week. It’s not done yet. I need to add more beads, but I needed to take a break from it.

I have a busy week planned. I spent a good part of today running errands. Tomorrow I have several appointments and then Dave is playing poker with friends, so it will be a nice quiet evening here at Casa Saperstein. Then on Wednesday, I’m speaking about the Baha at the Fountain Hills Hearing Loss Association (HLA). I hope to get some time in for drawing in-between appointments. It’s been a while since I’ve spent time alone with my sketchbook, but that’s OK, too! I’m hopeful that Thursday and Friday will be quieter and that I can focus on art for the majority of both days. Next week is my treatment (already!), so I think that some art time prior to that is just what I need!

L’Shana Tova to all my friends who celebrate Jewish New Year.

Bead Embroidery Collage from Susan Sorrell's class

I interrupted my painting progress for a bit. I’ve been taking an online class with Susan Sorrell on Personal Symbols. I have always been intrigued by her work and I’ve also always found embroidery a very relaxing and healing thing to do. So, when I saw about her class, I decided to take it. Six weeks, online. I can go at my own pace. This week, we created paper collages on Timtex and then embroidered over them, adding in buttons and beads. Some people added lace and other trims, as well. I’ve posted my version here. Enjoy!

Baptistry - Step 4 - adding in some more layers of color

Here are more photos of the Baptistry.

The first was taken after I completed my early-afternoon work on it.

Baptistry - Step 5 - adding back in some of the detail

I waited for the paint to dry and an hour later, I came back in and did more work.

I don’t expect to be able to do any work on it today. We’re going to a Bat Mitzvah and I actually have to get going on my daily exercise and then getting ready to go to Temple.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Nature Inspired - by Tracie L. Huskamp

Nature Inspired: Mixed-Media Techniques for Gathering, Sketching, Painting, Journaling, and Assemblage arrived in my studio late last night from Tracie Lyn Huskamp of the Red Door Studio. I pre-ordered her book because, knowing Tracie, I knew the book would be fantastic. And, I was right! Tracie’s calming, soothing personality comes through in the book – through the photos and the text. I highly recommend this new book to anyone who is interested in mixed-media or painting nature.

Baptistry - Step 3 - adding in some more color

I also, as promised, am posting another picture of the Baptistry. I plan to work on it more today, but I haven’t gotten to it yet – exercising and laundry come first! More to come…

Lantern completed - Mixed-Media on 24" x 36" canvas

A few weeks ago I completed all the detailing on the lantern Ive been painting on the 24 x 36 canvas. And I made some changes to the background to give it a bit more depth. Im happy with it. I added some of the detailing with watercolor crayons and sealed the details and then the whole canvas with matte medium. After adding finishing coat, I brought it to the intended recipients- my in-laws. We immediately hung it in their dining room.

Florence Baptistry - photo reference for next painting

I’ve also started another painting. I have been looking at this photo for a while now, wondering whether I was ready to take the plunge and start painting it.

Well, just before Art Unraveled, I did. I drew in the main parts of the buildings with a watercolor pencil and then I added some water to create sone depth and shadows. This helps me to understand the space each area will take up. Then I started to add in some base color. I know the colors look like a cartoon version of this scene, but it will get there. Its all part of what has become my process. Right now, rather than Florence, Italy, the painting looks like it is of Key West, FL!

Baptistry - Step 1 - Sketching in the main shapes

I’ve done more today on the painting, but it still has a long way to go. All the white areas are now painted in and they have several layers of color. The blue background has been painted over so it doesn’t look like water or sky. I don’t have a photo because the light changed in the studio, but I’ll have more to show as I get further on in the painting.

Baptistry - Step 2 - adding in base color

I’m planning to try to blog more often, even if it’s just a single image and a short statement. The way I currently blog takes a long time and that’s why I go weeks without anything for you to see. I hope this will keep me more on track!

Classwork from Experimental Watercolor with Alex Shur

I took 3 classes this year. The first was Experimental Watercolor with Alex Shur. Alex has a very interesting approach to watercolor painting. Whereas most of the time when we’re doing watercolor we decide upon our shapes and our subject, Alex creates backgrounds on quarter-parent sheets of watercolor paper. After they dry, she looks for objects in the backgrounds. It’s a very intuitive way of working. I have to admit that it took a bit for me to be able to get into that mode of searching for shapes in clouds, but once I did, I found quite a few things in the backgrounds. I still have to finish some of them, adding in some details and some white gouache or china white watercolor, but I like where this is going. Some of the images are really small. Others are larger, like 1/8 of the parent sheet of paper. It was a good exercise to get me out of the comfort zone I’ve been in lately with determining my painting subject before starting. I think it will be an exercise I use going forward.

Classwork from The Land of Odds with Katie Kendrick

The second class I took was with Katie Kendrick. Katie is a giving and loving soul. I’ve taken classes with her in the past. I mostly took the class because it was a different subject (not a face-painting class) and I just needed a dose of Katie! We brought to class five or six paintings from an artist who inspires us and used those as jumping off points. For me, it was Chagall’s paintings. In particular, I was drawn to his paintings of couples who appear to be flying or floating. I also like that he has more than one subject in his paintings. He seems to have things that appear unrelated, but are related to each other in the painting. I often paint just one main subject and then go back and finish off the background. So, like Alex’s class, this one was a good stretch for me. It was forcing me to embrace a less-detailed method of painting.

Classwork from The Land of Odds with Katie Kendrick

My third and final class was with the fabulous Judy Wise. Judy has so much expertise to share and there is always something to be learned in her classes. Judy is dynamic and giving as an instructor and a person. Her art has always fascinated me and I have some of her prints up in my studio. She shared with us how to get a multi-layered encaustic (wax) painting while using collage and acrylic painting techniques under the beeswax layer.

Classwork from Captured in Wax with Judy Wise

One distinct thing about Judy’s encaustic work is the black halo that is around the artwork and she was willing to share that technique with us. It was a fun class. I haven’t done collage in a while, so again, this stretched me as I created the main figure for my painting. She is made up of collage elements and paint – a combination to make her all mine. I’m not sure yet if she’s done, but she’s certainly on her way!

After Art Unraveled, Joanne and I went to Sedona for four days. I’ll post about that next!

Florence, Italy - An alleyway down a streeet

I’ve been busy with life and painting! And so I want to focus on the painting today because it’s what I enjoy. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m still going through my Italy sketches and photos for inspiration for my paintings. I’ve been working on this one for a while. It’s based on this photo.

Painting Step 1 - 10" x 10" Florence, Italy - An alleyway down a street

Florence, Italy – An alleyway down a street;
I started by putting in the background and the base color. I wasn

Then I pulled out my Stabilo Aquarellable black pencil and I drew in the bricks. I added a bit of water to them to give the bricks some dimension and then I sprayed the canvas with a fixative. When that dried, I added in color on the bricks. You probably notice that there is a lot more yellow in the painting than in the image itself. It’s because this painting is now to be part of the group of the other paintings for my husband’s office and I wanted to give them the same general tone. It also provided me with the opportunity to use color rather than just black, white and shades of gray for the image.

Now I just need to varnish it and send it off to Dave’s office for hanging!

Verona Lantern - in progress 24" x 36" mixed-media on canvas

I’ve also started working on another canvas. It’s a rather large one. It’s 24″ x 36″. It’s a bit different for me. It’s a lot more like my watercolor sketches, but on a larger scale and with a collaged background in acrylic.