Awesome Art Day!! Workshop with Ann Baldwin

Well, what a GREAT art day!!! On Saturday, 6 of us joined Ann Baldwin at her home studio for an all day workshop. It was a Layered Collage Workshop. "Layering, glazing, collaging, painting" :) I cannot recommend Ann enough as an instructor!! --- She is: Patient, Easy-Going, Lively, Gracious, Funny, Well Organized, Relaxed, Self-Confident, etc. etc! :) Did I mention that we LEARNED a lot, too??? :)

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We watched some demos, did some exercises (magazine collage and glazing) and then we were given the "freedom" to work through a final exercise of a painted collage. Ann was very helpful with guidance and feedback.

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I really had a wonderful time!!

Here are some pics of our class and my final class exercise:

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Left to right: Roberta, Sally, Jackie, Janene, Ann, Sherre, me!

Obviously entranced ..... (I had about 3 minutes to finish my final exercise when this shot was taken....do you see any panic???.....LOL!!!!!)

My final exercise. I'll give you a little self-critique if you make it to the end of this post! :)

Some close ups so you can see the different layers and textures. I REALLY LOVE the look of the glazing and layering!!!!!! Not to mention all of the textures (both visual and physical) that can be made a part of this type of work!! :)

Ok, now if you have made it this far..... I'll tell you what I think about my piece. The more I look at it , the more it disturbs me. I love the colors and I love the textures...... I really dislike the composition. Ann did make a comment that I "broke the composition rules".....but, she LIKED that about my piece! Part of me knows that I do like more "middle of the road" art and that this particular piece was really a huge step outside of my comfort zone. That is a REALLY GOOD THING!! But the piece makes me feel ....... like I have to move around it a lot. I cannot just stand in one place and look at it..... the 2 strong images opposite from each other give me too much to look at at the same time. Does that make sense....??? There is no "easy flow" from one side to another..... you have to look 2 places at once....that bugs me.

So, what to do?? I'm going to try to do 2 things..... 1. Leave this piece alone. 2. Try to "re-do" this piece with similar images and a different composition.

We'll see what happens....... stay tuned!! :)

Toodles for now!

2x2 inch Collage Challenge!!

I participated in a 2x2 inch canvas collage challenge. Let me tell you, 2x2 is SMALL!!!!!! LOL. I was rather intimidated by that tiny little white space! I stared for quite some time before getting started.......... then a few smears of watercolor and I was off!!!!!!!

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I really went layer crazy with little canvas. Started with magenta watercolor and smeared it over the canvas, added some blue and green metallic acrylic paints, (diluted with Matte Medium) Let dry. Dabbed and smooshed some Distress Crackle Paints over it. Let dry. Smeared on some Ranger Crackle Medium. Let dry. Added more crackle paints mixed with acrylic paints (greens, coppers, and blues). Let dry.

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Printed out woman image from Twisted Paper on my ink jet printer. Colorized with chalks. Tore out image. Sprayed with a generous layer of PYMII to protect the image and hold the chalk. Edged in copper acrylic paint. Let dry.

Glued image onto canvas with Matte Medium. After dry stamped Library Card image over the canvas (Ma Vinci Reliquary) with Sepia Archival Ink.

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I glued the image onto the canvas as well as the copper German Scrap with Matte Medium. After that dried, I smeared more Ranger Crackle medium over most of canvas. Concentrated most coverage over the woman image. Waited overnight for that to dry completely.

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Randomly stamped another Ma Vinci image (small text from the new "Fractured" plate) around the sides and up onto the front of the canvas with Ultramarine StazOn Ink. One more light coat of Matte Medium......and.........

VOILA!!!!!!

A couple of close-ups so you can see the texture and color........

Misc. Background Papers

Found a background paper in my stash that I forgot to share! :) Shame on me!!!

Also worked on some new Watercolor Texture backgrounds this week, and one "Kitchen Sink" background! :) :)

Below are some piccys of the papers. I took close ups (about 1/4 of the whole paper) so you can see the detail!

For "uber" detail, click on the photo!!!!

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Here is the background that I did a while ago. I mixed up some coffee grounds with diluted Matte Medium and smeared over a textured watercolor paper. After it dried, I rubbed off the excess "crumbs" and then sprayed the paper with Moon Shadow Mist (the walnut ink with a secondary shimmer color mixed in from Lindy's Stamping Gang)

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Here are 3 Textured Watercolor backgrounds that I did. I did a "wet on wet" watercolor wash over the paper. After I got the colors spread out how I liked, I then covered part of the paper with saran wrap, wax paper, and bubble wrap. When using this technique with watercolors, you must wait until the paint has completely dried before pulling off the papers and wraps!

Purple, Blues, and Magenta:

This one was based off of a picture of an arched window. Yellows, Oranges, Ochre, and Sienna Brown:

Yellow and Purple:

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Here is my Kitchen Sink Background! LOL!!!! On watercolor paper: Smear diluted acrylic paints. Let Dry. Paint through stencils (punchinella) with Distress Crackle Paint and acrylic paints. Let Dry. Noodle brush some Lumiere Copper paint. Let Dry. Sponge and "smoosh" more Lumiere paint in Indigo and Metallic Green.

Voila!! Paper a la Kitchen Sink!