WIP Painting - PEC Peinture

It had been so long since I'd done an actual painting that I was a bit intimidated by the blank canvas. So I started by collaging pieces of paper. I applied some Light Modeling Paste (gel medium) and let it dry for a few hours. Then, a coat of clear gesso, a coat of Glazing Medium with orange acrylic paint and, finally, I sprayed some pink shimmer mist that I let drip down the canvas. I don't know where this is going from here but I did have fun playing this way.

Il y avait un bout de temps que je n'avais peint alors j'étais un peu intimidée par le canvas nu. Alors j'ai commencé par collager des morceaux de papier. J'ai appliqué un peu de Mortier de Structure Souple (médium gel) que j'ai laissé sécher quelques heures. Puis, une couche de gesso transparent, une couche de  Médium pour Glacis avec de l'acrylique orange et, finalement, j'ai vaporiser du shimmer mist rose que j'ai laissé dégouliner le long du canvas. Je ne sais pas quelle direction je prendrais avec ceci mais j'ai eu du plaisir à jouer de cette façon.

 

Found poetry - Poésie trouvée

Inspired by Marianne's poetry blocks.

6 1/2" x 6 1/2"

Gesso, watercolour, found poetry from a book on Henry the 8th.

Inspiré par les bloques de poésie de Marianne.

16,5cm x 16,5cm

Gesso, aquarelle, poésie trouvée dans un livre sur Henri 8.

Two new ATCs - Deux nouvelles CAÉs

Last night, because I was tired after my belly dance class, I wanted something quick and simple to do for today's post. So I made these two ATCs.

 Hier soir, comme j'étais fatiguée après mon cours de baladi, je voulais quelque chose de rapide et simple à faire pour mon article d'aujourd'hui. Alors j'ai fait ces deux CAÉs.

 The frog was coloured with Prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless solvent and a paper stump.

 La grenouille a été coloriée avec des crayons Prismacolor et estompée avec du solvant inodore et un tortillon de papier.

 

The trees were coloured with watercolour paint.

Les arbres ont été coloriés avec de la peinture aquarelle.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already.

N'oubliez pas de vous inscrire à mon tirage si ce n'est pas déjà fait.

To hold - Tenir

Yesterday, I had no idea what I was going to create for today's post. I only knew I wanted to do mixed media. So I picked up a 5" x 7" canvas board and started playing around. Pages from a city map book, a dictionary (the word "tenir" is circled but partially hidden by the lace) and an old book were used. Also, clear gesso, acrylic paint, stencils, homemade glimmer mist, watercolour and twine. And now that I'm looking at it, it's a good thing those blue splashes at the top weren't done with white paint, considering the pigeons in the image...

Hier, je n'avais aucune idée de ce que j'allais créer pour mon article d'aujourd'hui. Je savais seulement que je voulais faire du multimédia. Alors j'ai choisi une planche canvas de 12,75cm x 17,75cm et j'ai commencé à m'amuser. Des pages d'un livre de cartes routières urbaines, d'un dictionnaire (le mot "tenir" est encerclé mais partiellement caché par la dentelle) et d'un vieux livre ont été utilisées. Aussi' du gesso transparent, de la peinture acrylique, des pochoirs, du glimmer mist fait maison, de l'aquarelle et de la ficelle. Et maintenant que je regarde vraiment, c'est une bonne chose que les éclaboussures bleues dans le haut n'ont pas été faites en blanc, considérant les pigeons dans l'image...

 

Be kind - Soyez gentil

Mixed media, 5" x 7", on cardboard.

Layers upon layers upon layers.

I tried doing image transfers. One of them sort of worked (upper left corner.) The others, not so much... so I covered them with more layers. The white heart is a bit pinker in reality.

I'm still fighting a cold. Drinking lots of water and ginger tea. Eating a bit more spicy food. Resting in between work and play. Last night, I had my first belly-dancing lesson of the season. New teacher, new tricks. And this time, I'm in the "advanced" group so I'll probably be part of the show in May. Yikes! As long as it's fun, I'll keep doing it. When the fun is gone, I'll move on to something else. If everything in life was like that, there would be a lot more happy faces around us. So, today, do something fun. And be kind... to yourself, to others and to our beautiful planet. We all deserve it.

Multimédia, 12,75cm x 17,75cm, sur carton.

Couches par-dessus couches par-dessus couches.

J'ai essayé des transferts d'image. Un d'entre eux a plus ou moins fonctonné (coin supérieur gauche.) Les autres, pas tellement... alors je les ai recouverts avec plus de couches. Le coeur blanc est plus rosé en réalité.

Je me bats toujours contre un rhume. Je bois beaucoup d'eau et de thé au gingembre. Je mange un peu plus épicé. Je me repose entre le travail et le jeu. Hier soir, j'ai eu mon premier cours de baladi de la saison. Nouvelle instructrice, nouveaux trucs. Et cette fois, je suis dans le cours "avancé" alors je serai probablement dans le spectacle en Mai. Ayoye! (en bon québécois...) Tant que c'est amusant, je continue. Quand il n'y aura plus de plaisir, je passerai à autre chose. Si seulement tout était comme ça dans la vie, il y aurait plus de visages heureux autour de nous. Alors, aujourd'hui, faites quelque chose d'amusant. Et soyez gentils... envers vous-même, envers les autres et envers notre belle planète. Nous le méritons tous.

dream BIG - rêver GROS

This isn't what I had planned for today but I can't post the other project yet.

Ce n'est pas ce que j'avais prévu pour aujourd'hui mais je ne peux pas montrer l'autre projet pour l'instant.

 

Last night, I grabbed a canvas I had previously painted pale blue. I glued a French dictionary page in the middle and then applied gesso over everything. It was still a bit wet when I sprayed my glimmer mists through lace and jute so I used a paper towel to dab some of the colour and gesso off. I was left with a lot of lovely texture. I wanted something bold on top of that shabby background so I wrote my message with my black PosterPaint marker. Then, to add a bit more colour, I sponged some yellow from an ink pad and, finally, sprayed blue ink that I let drip down the canvas. I quite like this and I have to admit to being inspired by Marianne and her latest creations.

Hier soir, j'ai pris une toile que j'avais auparavant peint en bleu pâle. J'ai collé une page de dictionnaire français au centre puis j'ai appliqué du gesso partout. C'était encore un peu mouillé lorsque j'ai vaporisé mes glimmer mists au travers de dentelles et jute alors j'ai pris un essui-tout pour retirer un peu de couleur et de gesso. Ça m'a donné plein de jolies textures. Je voulais quelque chose de frappant sur ce fond usé alors j'ai écrit mon message (rêver GROS) avec mon feutre PosterPaint noir. Ensuite, pour ajouter un peu de couleur, j'ai épongé du jaune d'un tampon d'encre et, finalement, j'ai vaporisé de l'encre bleu que j'ai laissé couler le long de la toile. J'aime beaucoup ça et je dois admettre avoir été inspirée par Marianne et ses créations récentes.

 

Today is my first day back to work. I seriously don't know how summer could have gone by so fast! But I'm glad to get back to a certain routine.

Aujourd'hui marque mon retour au travail. Je ne sais vraiment pas comment l'été a pu passer si vite! Mais je suis contente de retrouver une certaine routine.

Painted paper WIP - PEC papier peinturé

Inspired by both Tammy and Hanna, I decided to start painting my own background papers. This one is still a work in progress but I will show it again once it's done. I'm using pages from a children's "illustrated words" book as bases which are 12,5" x 20" when open. So far, I have spread gesso with a credit card and stamped in it, while it was still wet, with a texture plate. Then I spread pink acrylic with the card. While that was still a bit wet, I dripped red acrylic and folded the paper to get symmetrical blots and then I scrapped those with the card. When everything was dry, I dripped some ink from a reinker and "pushed" it around by blowing through a straw. I let it dry a bit and sprayed with homemade glimmer mist before letting dry completely. I'll keep playing with it and hopefully, next time the colours will come out better in the photo.

Inspirée par Tammy et Hanna, j'ai décidé de commencer à peindre mes propres papiers de fond. Celui-ci est un projet en cours mais je vous le montrerai à nouveau quand il sera terminé. Je me sers de pages d'un livre de "mots illustrés" pour enfants pour les bases, qui mesurent 31,5cm x 50cm lorsque ouvertes. Jusqu'à présent, j'ai étendu du gesso avec une carte de crédit et étampé dedans, pendant qu'il était encore mouillé, avec une plaque texturée. Ensuite, j'ai étendu de l'acrylique rose avec la carte. Avant que ce soit complètement sec, j'ai fait dégoutter de l'acrylique rouge et j'ai plié le papier pour avoir des taches symétriques puis je les ai étendues avec la carte. Quand tout fut sec, j'ai fait tombé des gouttes d'encre d'un réencreur et j'ai "déplacé" l'encre en soufflant dans une paille. J'ai laissé sécher un peu puis j'ai vaporisé du glimmer mist maison avant de laisser sécher complètement. Je vais continuer à jouer avec et espérons que les couleurs sortiront mieux en photo la prochaine fois.

The tree - L'arbre

"The tree is the link between the earth and the sky. The tree is life."

I've been playing in my new journal for about 2 weeks now but it's mostly daily writings. Yesterday, I decided to make a something more visual than just writing. Because the paper in this journal absorbs water and paint to quickly, I decided to glue a book page down and paint over that. That worked nicely and I quite like the effect. I didn't want to see the text from the whole page so I layered some gesso around the tree. I wrote over that part with my Poster Paint marker. For the tree, I first drew the outline + a few lines with wax crayons. Then I painted with watercolours. The pages in this journal measure 5,25" x 8,25".

Ça fait environ deux semaines que je joue dans mon nouveau journal mais c'est surtout de l'écriture quotidienne. Hier, j'ai décidé de faire une page un peu plus visuelle que juste de l'écriture. Comme le papier absorbe l'eau et la peinture trop rapidement, j'ai décidé de coller une page de livre et de peindre sur cette surface. Ç'a bien fonctionné et j'aime bien l'effet. Je ne voulais pas voir le texte sur toute la page alors j'ai mis quelques couches de gesso autour de l'arbre. J'ai écrit par-dessus cette partie avec mon feutre Poster Paint. Pour l'arbre, j'ai d'abord dessiné le contour + quelques lignes au crayons de cire. Puis, j'ai peint à l'aquarelle. Les pages de ce journal mesure 13,25cm x 21cm.

Teacup watercolour - Tasse de thé à l'aquarelle

Many of my favourite bloggers have been playing with watercolours lately and I felt the call too. So this is my first attempt, in a long time, at playing with watercolour. I've never been a "realist" painter but I still like to try. I still need to work on my shadows but this one will stay as it is since I already tore around it and glued it in my current journal.

Plusieurs de mes bloggueuses préférées ont joué avec des aquarelles dernièrement et j'ai entendu l'appel moi aussi. Alors voici mon premier essai, depuis plusieurs années, de jeu à l'aquarelle. Je n'ai jamais été une peintre "réaliste" mais j'aime quand même essayer. J'ai encore besoin de travailler mes ombrages mais celle-ci restera telle-quelle puisque j'ai déjà déchiré autour et l'ai collé dans mon journal actuel.

How do you like your coffee?

I've signed up for an ATC swap which has a coffee theme. So I've been creating coffee themed things. And being inspired by this painting. So I decided to try something new. Painting with coffee. Yup, you read me right. Dipping my paintbrush into a cup of coffee. I love it! It makes for lovely shades of beige and brown. And it smells yummy too!

Have tried something new lately? Something different? Are you pushing your limits? Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

Of creatures (which are mostly of the bird variety) and other things

So I notice that some symbols keep coming back in my art. Of course, we're aware of the heart symbol which has already been discussed in a previous post but lately, I've also seen a variety of birds appear here in there in both my art AND my dreams. Anyone know what dreaming of birds mean? In the past weeks, I've had dreams of hawks (but friendly ones), owls and crows. In two dreams, the bird landed on my left arm. Strange. Anyway, I've decided to focus some pieces on those birds which explains the second art card you see here at the top and this painting below.

Now. About this painting. I've really been inspired by Kal Barteski's recent paintings (I've told you about them already) and thought I'd have my own take on this idea. I had all those old books of children stories which were missing a lot of pages (library books that were going to be thrown out.) So I decided to paint on the pages individually. Some have really nice illustrations on them so I might try to use those for something else but the pages with only text will be used in this fashion. They measure about 9" x 12". I started with a layer of gesso which had been mixed with some pink paint for another project (which is below) and had some left over. The tree came out of nowhere and wanted to be painted purple. So I did (more like lavender if you ask me.) Then the little bird appeared and wanted a swirly sun so I gave it to him. And before I knew it, he had me writing this little bit right in the middle of the painting! (It says: he just knew that one day he would fly to the sun.) This little guy really had a mind of his own. And now he wants siblings and friends to play with so I guess I'll have to do more paintings. This was a big change for me: painting on something other than canvas and out of my journals. So, tell me what you think of it. Would you pay for something like this? Would others? It would be so wonderful to actually make money from my art, you know what I mean? Others are doing it. Why not me?

This is my latest art journal page. This journal is almost full. Three more pages and I'm done with it. Yikes! Whatever will I do next? Well, I guess I'll just have to use one of my many other journals patiently waiting on my bookshelf in my bedroom. Maybe go smaller? I don't know. I have another big spiral journal that I could use but do I want to work this size again? So many questions tonight!

Anyway, like most of my journal pages and art cards lately, this one has lots of layers. And I just noticed that I didn't use oil pastels on this one which is surprising. I guess I didn't want the "dirty" or "muddy" look it would bring to the page. This one almost looks clean to me. The drawings are supposed to represent my cat Diesel and myself. My auto-portrait is ok but Diesel is much darker in real life. She's a big furry purring ball of colours all mixed in together. I also did this page as a response to iHanna's prompt to use hearts in our journal. So here's to you Hanna!

This weekend I'll show you another small painting and something I received in the mail.

Of hearts and art

Back when I was a teenager, I hated Valentine's day because I always ended up spending it alone and all my friends had boyfriends to go to the movies with. Even in my twenties, I wasn't really fond of that "holiday." I started warming up to it when I started working with kids. That was when I realized it wasn't only about "true love" but about friendship and "all around" love. But this year, with the OWOH event, I've had my best Valentine's Day to date! (PS I learned yesterday that I won a 5th giveaway! Awesome!) And inspired by iHanna, I rediscovered the powerful symbol that is "heart." It has shown up in my art journals, on my Daily Art Cards, in ATCs. I've even sent out valentine cards (ATCs) to friends that I met online! A first for me! At work, I celebrated by wearing pink and red. Made this little red heart brooch out of glittered felt. The necklace I received a few years ago from a kid where I worked. I opted for my favourite pink t-shirt (made in Canada from organic cotton!) I love what is written on it (loosely translated: The Black Sheep - Life is colourful even when you're stubborn enough to think it's only black and white.) Cool, huh?

Anyway, I'm sure the heart symbol will keep popping up in my art. You've been warned! (And to think that a few years ago I wouldn't have been caught dead wearing pink or drawing hearts... Believe it or not, I used to be goth... quite a change, huh?)

If you look closely, you can see one of my paintings in the background of that first photo. It was done in 2004 and measures 20" x 24". It contains two of my favourite things: a crow and tim-burton-esque mountains! One day I'll have it framed and hanging properly. Right now, it is resting on a sort of display molding my father made for me back when I was still living at home.

Looking at that painting, I feel a greater need to have a decent studio space where I can create bigger pieces. Seriously, my living room seems to be shrinking! And it doesn't help that Diesel, though I love her dearly, gets into every open drawer, box, bag and onto every available surface (top of desk, top of table whether full or not, chair, table-top easel... you get my drift.) So until I get my studio, I'm focusing more on small artworks. Like my Daily Art Cards, paper spool collages (I'll have 4 new ones to show you once I get them photographed properly), ATCs, art journals, etc... After seeing Kal's latest creations, I've been inspired to do small paintings that I will one day be able to sell at a reasonable price. Some are started but nothing finished yet. So stay tuned!

And on that note, I say to you goodnight. And think good thoughts! The Universe is listening! (I asked for more money and I keep working extra hours every week so that's good!)

Time flies and a sneak peek

Wow, time really flies by. In two weeks, it'll already be the holidays. So that means 10 days of work and then I'm off for 2 weeks! In the past years I started counting the days a month or so before Christmas. But this year, I'm having so much fun at my job and creating and I've been so busy with Nanowrimo that I haven't stopped to think about it. I can hardly believe the holidays are so close!

Talking about creating... This is a sneak peek of a painting I'm working on. I can't show much or say much about it right now. I haven't painted on a canvas since at least summer and I gotta say, it feels good! I think I'm going to do more paintings during the holidays as well as work in my art journals.

Back in October, my brother had given me, for my birthday, a gift card from my favourite art supply store. I hadn't had a chance to use it since so today I decided to treat myself to a few new goodies. I found some small alphabet rubber stamps that were exactly what I was looking for for my journals. I also bought some real crayons (you know, Crayola wax crayons... I love the smell!), some new pens and white acrylic ink (everyone's talking about it on Samantha Kira's mailing list so I thought I'd get in on the action!) Found some cute rubber stamps (a kit of flowers, leaves, stems and vases... ) As if I really needed all of it. But you know what? I've been doing SO good with food lately that I decided to reward myself and that was just what I needed.

On that note, I bid you good evening/good night and hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.

Works In Progress

This is a page in my spiral journal that I started last night. I had a dream the night before about a small girl who falls in love with a giant half-human/half-robot. I love the way my drawing came out. What I've done so far on the page is Gesso, make a masking tape border all around, add a piece of scrapbook paper, paint, gesso some more, gold ink (from an ink pad), smudge oil pastels, colour the drawing with gel pens, watercolour pencils and a leafing pen and finally white acrylic paint on top of the oil pastels so I can doodle and journal. I'm getting better at doing layers.








This is the third (and final) mixed media painting in my Citrus serie. I already did Lemon and Lime and this is going to be Orange. It still needs a lot of work.

Tonight I'm taking a Christmas Card class at Catherine's with mom. Can't wait!

Some lemony goodness

This is a painting I did last year. I had been waiting to do its sister Lime before taking pictures but then I figured I might as well show it now. After all, it's already been a year... I used all sorts of things on there. Even a cardboard circle (you know the ones that ribbon comes on) that I painted and stuck on there (it's the bigger circle.)

Another successful day yesterday. I almost didn't go for my evening walk but then I decided to go buy a popsicle at the corner grocery shop (five minutes to walk there.) I had one of those 3-color popsicles and it was yummy! My tongue was purple after that!

This morning, my walk was longer. 25 minutes. I felt good, it was beautiful outside, birds singing... Very enjoyable. Now it's time to cook up something for dinner... but what? I have no idea yet!

Have a pleasant evening!

Lost at sea

So this is the painting I did last saturday. I put on some soothing music and did a blue background with acrylics. The colour wasn't quite what I wanted so I did a purplish wash over the whole thing. While it dried, I looked at it to see if there was a specific shape I could work with and all I could see was this small boat front. So that's what I did... a boat caught in the storm. Usually, when I paint this way (intuitively), something about how I feel or what I'm dealing with in my life shows up in the painting. So I'm guessing that this is how I felt for the past couple of weeks and this painting was my way of finding the light and getting out of the storm. Only used acrylics and acrylic mediums on a 6x12 canvas board.

New medium

I tried my Oil Paint Sticks over the weekend... LOVE how easy they are to use and it's definitely a different look and feel compared to acrylics, which is what I usually use. I made a simple painting with only red, yellow, blue and a bit of white. Sort of looks like an explosion of light above the sea... Or a bonfire under the night sky if you turn it upside down. I was only playing with the colors, spreading them and mixing them. I suppose my Muse did the rest!