I’m posting week two, and some extras. The server for my site was under repair for a few days. There may still be some hiccups. Fingers crossed.
I have transitioned from acrylics to watercolor. The acrylic pieces require so much time. And I had been posting really late each day. I still have ideas floating around, so I may be working with collage and acrylics again before the month ends. These are all 8 x 8 inches, except for the landscape. It is 4 x 4 inches.
It’s time once again for the Art on 45 Auction and exhibition. Hosted and organized by Christiane Drieling. I am thrilled to say, my piece was accepted. This will be the final Art on 45 event.
I was thinking of my Dad, when I came up with the idea for this. I remembered all the road trips we would take. Late nights driving through the desert. How brilliant the sky seemed, and how open the landscape was. The 45 is debossed, and I did not want to cover that up. If you zoom in, you can see the Chrysalis butterfly logo, Leo Sayer, and more. It is completely legible in person.
I have had so much fun, as a contributing artist for the last several years. Congratulations to Christiane, Markus, and everyone who has made this event possible!
Catching Up
I don’t need to tell you, I was silent here, on the blog. For 4 months. Yikes! I was busy painting. I just wasn’t busy blogging. Below is a brief recap.
In October was busy painting Christmas gifts, and this chicken. A birthday gift for a friend. She had found a picture that she liked, and asked me to paint one like it. I changed a few things. Made the weathered wood grey toned, to work with her interior. This is on a deep edged canvas, and the details continue around the edges.
I continued by finishing up some gifts I had started in 2021. These were for a friend’s grandbabies. I had started the bear, and completed the three florals (below), prior to having Covid.
I had to paint Coco melon ( the boy), and the lavender flowers. These are all on deep canvas.
Coco & the bear are 4 x 4, the florals are 6 x 6. The group of chickens is 6 x 6, watercolor. (A second birthday gift.)
The floral wreath is 4 x 4. A gift for my doctor’s new baby girl. For the wreath, I covered an ugly dollar store frame with plaster. I sanded it for a rustic look, sealed it, & it really turned out nice.
I designed a logo for a tech friend. IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment.
Building A Desert
I built a simple model train layout. A desert scene, of course. I intended to keep it fairly flat, so it could be stored away easily when needed. The tracks are not attached, merely resting on top.
I found a scenery sand, textured paint. But it was much too dark. Dark brown. I painted it, 8 or 9 times before I got the look I wanted. I added pebbles, rocks and boulders that had to be painted as well. The tiny pebbles along the outer edge forced me to use my magnifying glasses. But the task was surprisingly fast. I also found some miniature bushes. They are meant for an arctic scene, but they look just like sage brush to me.
Bachman N scale Thunder Valley electric freight train.
This has been an ongoing project. A late birthday gift to myself (last year). I had fun working on it. Part of the reason for my studio make over (June 24, 2023). It is an N scale. Below you can see just how tiny that is. There are actually 4 sizes smaller than N. Only one is shown here. The most popular for models is O scale. The larger ones, G, you see in parks or zoos. Outdoor displays.
The engine lights up, and it is fun to run at night. Meditative. You might remember, I’ve had a slight fascination with trains for a while now.
If you are curious, this shows how they are made, (5 minutes). This is more in depth a factory tour, (16 minutes, more explanation). And this is a look at the real trains, and how they clear the snow off of Donner pass. You can skip forward to the 19:30 mark, and view to 23:00. The trees are so pretty.
I know, I’m a geek. (This is one of my tiny things, Dotty.)
That is the end. Whew! Thanks so much for stopping by!
My usual M.O. is to make a plan, and have a few themes in mind at the beginning of the gathering. The journey usually presents a different path, and I follow where it leads.
Not the abstracts I had in mind. But still a good month. Filled with learning, some mild frustration (part of learning), and meditative moments.
I made use of scrap paper. A couple of extra wide bookmarks. Some smaller, simple florals. I worked in several sizes. 4 x 4, 8 x 8, a couple 10×10’s. I worked with watercolor, acrylics, mixed media & digital collage.
Below I share each piece, including larger views of a few of my favorites. You will see my 30 day collage, and my favorites collage.
Do you remember the overhead projectors in school? And how the teacher would sometimes layer the acetate sheets to show a change of angles or size. Well that is a simple way to think about digital collage. It’s all about layers.
For the landscape above, I started with a painting. Plain colors & shapes.
In the foreground I added a bit of digital painting for texture and an extra layer of color for the darker areas.
On the front range, I added a layer of an old letter. I tilted it, and changed the color.
On Mingus, I added a layer of pattern. A mixture of dots, lines and triangles.
The moon is piece of copyright free clip art. I softened the color, and added a glow effect. I exaggerated that so that it would reflect on the mountain.
To the sky I digitally painted some texture, but most of that is from the original painting. I added digital splatter, and deepened the color to more of a twilight feel.
Of course for each layer, there is experimentation. Different patterns, different colors. Different effects. Some pieces can have up to 30 layers of bits and bobs.
Thanks so much for taking a look. I always love hearing which ones you like best, and why. I am actually happy with all of them. There are only two I would make changes on. That is amazing to me, considering it took me two weeks to feel in the groove. I did make changes to a few pieces, following suggestions by friends in the group. Thanks so much for your help!
