Today is Easter Sunday and it’s quiet in our Jewish home. While my husband is preparing to do a talk, I figured I have some time. SO much has happened since I last blogged. I’ll get into much of that at a later time. Let me share with you some art, since that’s what I most wish to share.

Untitled - Abstract Intuitive Painting - Acrylic and Colored Pencil on Canvas Board

A while ago, I sat down and painted some canvas boards. I didn’t have any expectations of where they were going to go, or what I was going to do with them. I went the intuitive route. With all the impressionistic work I’ve been doing based on my travels, this is a good thing for me sometimes – to just get out of my head and let the paint do its thing. I worked on two canvases simultaneously and each came out completely different – different color schemes, different shapes, different composition, different subjects. It is one of the things I love about intuitive work. I start with no expectations and I find little gems in the painted surface that lead me to my next step. I really don’t start with anything in mind.

The Couple - Abstract Intuitive Painting

The most interesting part of working this way is that I tend to see things that come out of me I didn’t know were there. It’s a good way find out what is really going on in my own head, so to speak. These paintings took several weeks. Each one was on its own schedule, really. And I’ve learned that sometimes, a painting needs to sit for a while – weeks or months (sometimes even years!) – before I feel it’s ready to share in any way.

Travel Pack Front before painting - BORING color and not a good color to go with my wardrobe!

In addition to these paintings, I also found some time to do some decoration of a leather travel pack. I bought this leather belt bag for $4 because it was missing the strap to convert it to a cross-shoulder bag. The color is a beige – not my color at all. I tend to wear a lot of pops of color with my wardrobe. It needed something and I knew what I wanted to do! I might add a strap, but I wanted to test the waters of decorating leather by using some fabric paint and then decorating with Sakura’s Permapaque Pens. I just played with shapes and color to add interest to this travel pack.

Travel Pack Front post-painting

I found that I really liked working with the Permapaque pens. I’ve used them in the past, but mostly in my visual journals. I’ve never used them on leather and so this was a risk. But it was one worth taking!

So, I’ve been keeping busy. My hands have been active, my mind has been creative. I’ve also created some journals and I’m working on two more realistic paintings. I always have my journal close-by. I will photograph some art and share some photos from visits with family and friends in the next few days and try to get those to you, too. None  of the art pieces are finished, but they’re either on the easels or sitting and waiting for me to figure out what’s next.

Travel Pack Front Inside - post-painting

Times like this remind me that art is really a journey. The destination for me is the exploration of what I can do and what is possible. It’s not always the finished painting. I’ve learned to accept that. I know it’s hard for friends and family who don’t do art to understand that. They often ask me when they’re getting a piece of art from me or hint that it’s their “turn”. Well, really, my art is, at its heart, for me. It’s something I do to feed my soul. If something comes out of it that is worth sharing with the world – whether on my own walls, on this blog, or in my Artfire Shop, that’s a bonus. But so much of my art goes un-shared. When it starts, I never know what I’ll end up doing. I just start, playing with paint, line, and color. I play and art follows. Whereas when I try to plan out a process for a particular piece, I get caught up in the perfectionist mindset. The art loses its magic. It loses its draw for me. It loses its soul. That is the exact opposite of why my art is what it is.

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!

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!

Open Your Own Artfire Studio

I’m excited to share that I have opened my own Artfire.com Studio. What is Artfire? Here is how the company describes itself on the site: “The premier online marketplace for handmade products designed by artisans around the globe. Our free community is designed for artisans to buy and sell their works, while celebrating unique handmade items and designs.”

Similar to Etsy, in that individual artisans have their own shops, the beauty of Artfire is that it is searchable through Google and there are no listing fees. It also links easily with other social media, like Facebook, Etsy, IndiePublic, and my blog, making marketing much easier. In addtion, there are also no expiration dates on the merchandise listings, which makes it much easier to manage than the 3-month Etsy limit.

Light blue and turquoise MP3/Cell Phone Case

I found the product uploads much faster and easier with Artfire.com than with Etsy. If you’re a crafter or artisan, I invite you to try ArtFire, as they’re running a special for $7/month for life, and that’s the only fee you will ever have!

In the shop are 14 products that have never been listed before, including arty business card holders, cell phone/MP3 players, ablums, and a painting.

This week, I hope to get additional pieces up in the studio. Today is my IV treatment, so I’m sitting here with the IV while I type this!

Contentment - 4' x 4' abstract acrylic on canvas

Wow. It’s been a busy week, filled with creative endeavors. There is so much to share!

This first painting I worked on for several hours yesterday. It has been a work in progress for well over a year. It started as a grid-based painting, in which I added some garnet gel and some gesso for texture.  I painted each of the grid spots individually and then it sat. It was dark and brown and not exciting to me – though friends and family loved it. It sat there, literally for months at a time. Then, a few months back, I added heavy gel medium in random swirls and painted it with more of a reddish base. It sat again for months.

Yesterday, I was inspired to tackle it. I added some yellows and oranges and it was starting to come together, but I wasn’t sure. Then, in an attempt to better reach the edge, I turned the painting 90 degrees. Well, that did it. I was able to see this figure coming out of the painting. And this is what it turned into. It’s sort of turned into a Miro-Picasso-esque painting. It makes me happy to look at it. I think we’ll hang it today somewhere in the house.

Angie and Me

This week, I also went to the Desert Botanical Garden with Angie. We had a lovely time taking photos, enjoying the garden, and watching them set up the Chihuly exhibit. It is amazing how many pieces go into one piece of art. The one behind us in the photo to the right was not nearly finished when we got there, nor was it near done when we left! We will be going back in a few weeks to see the entire exhibit completed. We’re both so excited about that!

Our shadows in the morning sun

We walked around for over an hour and found a quiet spot to sit and paint. Angie was so focused on the cactus she was painting that she didn’t even notice that I was photographing her here. I love the concentration in her face when she draws!

Angie Drawing in the Gardens

I drew the knot in one of the trees above Angie. And, while I’m not exactly thrilled with the drawing, it did give me a starting off point for the painting below. It’s not quite finished yet, but I think it ill be a fun piece for Dave’s office. Most of what I’ve painted for him are dark paintings that have anatomical drawings as the base. This will be a good counterbalance to that one. Dave likes it because “it looks like a dinosaur” from the side. That’s what I love about abstract renderings!

Knot in Tree Trunk 16" x 20"

I also spent Wednesday evening with some very creative women at the West Valley Mixed Media group. We’re a new group, and this was the second meeting. Lots of people attended, and I think we’ve got some great new things to share with each other. It’s just good to meet others who are interested in mixed-media work.

Wednesday afternoon I met my friend Sharon for coffee. I donated a bunch of supplies that I no longer need to her pre-school. It felt great to be able to donate things to a great cause… not to mention the space it created in the studio. Of course, that meant some de-cluttering and some organizing, which was another creative pursuit this week.

This week Dave and I are attending a benefit for one of the free clinic programs his office sponsors. I have donated a tote to the silent auction. I’m hopeful that it will bring in some money for the cause. In the meantime, I’ll be doing more art here in the studio!

Lace Woman Portrait mixed-media acrylic on 4" x 4" canvas

I am so excited to have completed this painting. I thought I was done on Saturday, but I showed my dear friend, Tracey, the painting and she mentioned that the tree was fighting with the face for attention. So, I used some Payne’s Gray to push it back into the background. I’m much happier with the painting now. This is my first entry for Embrace the Face. I know I will participate regularly!

I also watched some watercolor videos this weekend while I did a bit (very little bit, that is) of straightening up in the studio. I’m enjoying the challenge to do something creative each day this month. It has been good for me.

Something else I’ve been challenging myself to do is to exercise daily. I’ve exercised every day except the day of my treatment for the past 2 1/2 weeks. I have a friend who was going through chemotherapy and she inspired me to exercise no matter how crappy I feel. She did and it helped her through her chemo. Since the stationary bike is in the house, it’s easy to just pedal for 20 minutes on days when I’m not really feeling well. It’s been a good thing for me. It has forced me to make time for it and it has also helped me to sleep better. I recommend it if you can!

More tomorrow!

Embrace the Face Challenge - Day 2 WIP

Here is today’s progress on the face I’m painting for Embrace the Face! I reworked the background, added some detail to the face, and I collaged on the lace for the challenge. I think the face is more youthful than it was last time. I’m happier with it today, but it’s time to let it sit for the night.

It’s not done, but I need to figure out what needs to go on the left. Any ideas?

Last week I had my treatment. It was a difficult one. I’m just starting to feel better, but I’m still quite fatigued and having some of the negative effects of it.

Catalyst 30 - The decision to go to Brandeis University has shaped my life.

CreativeTherapy Catalyst 30: What’s a decision you made that ended up determining the direction of your life? (Or at least had a strong effect on how your life turned out.)

This one was easy for me to choose. The decision I made that shaped the rest of my life happened 23 years ago. I decided to leave Florida and attend Brandeis University, in Waltham, MA. I had only seen pictures of Brandeis. I had never been on campus, and I had an alumni interview in Miami. The day I arrived at Brandeis was the first time I had actually seen it. It was magical. From the beginning, the first thing I saw was the Usen Castle. It is a remnant of Middlesex college, which the property originally came from. Another important symbol for me at Brandeis was the Chapel Pond. It is a reflection pond, surrounded by three chapels. They were constructed so that at no time does one chapel overshadow another. The chapels are a symbol of the unity of all religions and tolerance. For me, they were a place of peace. I would often sit on the wall around the reflection pool and write or think.

Attending Brandeis really did shape the rest of my life. I met some of my best friends there. I felt safe, I grew as a person, and I found my voice through writing. It was because of my decision to go to Brandeis and to be involved in campus activities that I landed my first job out of college, I had the skills to get a second job, and I met my husband. The greatest joys of my life are the result of this decision.

Technique Highlight: Pen and ink with watercolor washes on 90# watercolor paper.

Catalyst 31 - Book that impacted my life

Catalyst 31: What novel or book impacted your life and why?

I don’t remember how old I was when I first read Death Be Not Proud. The book is filled with wisdom about living your life with courage and with purpose, taking every advantage you can in the limited time we all have. It’s part of how I personally have lived my life with chronic illness.

Technique Highlight: Background: 140# CP Watercolor paper sprayed with Color Mists. Scrapbook paper cut up and doodled on; text written by hand of a quote from John Gunther’s book, Death Be Not Proud.

There’s more to share, but I’ll save it for tomorrow. Have a great week!