Colorful mark-making: art journal play

I started this 30-day Art Marks 30 day challenge today from Rae Missigman. It's a chance to get some color on the page for a few minutes. Today I mostly used my favorite marks: circles and dots. I find myself repeatedly making these marks so I must be drawn to them. I also restricted myself to three colors: pink, blue and yellow. A bit of green resulted from the yellow and blue intersecting. I've realized I really don't like to have orange and green in the same painting. I don't like the way it looks... So I've made a conscious decision in recent art play to eliminate orange if I'm using green, and vice versa.

I used gouache, acrylic, pen, and Neocolor (I love the Neocolor II water soluble crayons). I'm using a ~6"x6" notebook from Muji - I thought it would be the perfect size for this challenge. Not too big, not too small.

This reminds me of my Catalog of Marks. I'll review that for upcoming mark-making with this 30-day challenge so I can expand beyond circles and dots...

Pixel color inspiration

I was looking for a photo and when I cropped it and zoomed in I saw these pixels in the top corner - the original picture was a photo with colorful trees in the background. I've thought about this idea off and on for several years- find pretty, interesting pixel groups in my photographs, then make quilts based on the color groupings or use the color palette as a starter for a painting.

The above square was taken from a small portion of this:

Which was taken from a small portion of this tree photo:

Think of all the possibilities! HAPPY NEW YEAR! May your 2017 be happy and full of color!

Paper grocery bag art

I wanted to make some Christmas stockings out of paper - I decided to use Trader Joe's grocery bags as a base. I cut open the bags and started layering on paint.

For the backs of the stockings I used a single color brayered on to the bag.

I was really pleased with how the paper bags took the paint. I may just always work on paper bags from now on.

Then stitching the pieces together with a sewing machine - so quick and easy! I used the bag handles, trimmed down, for the loop on the top side of the stockings. Then there was left over paper so I made some mini stockings to stuff with salted caramels and give away.

I really liked some snippets from the paintings, which make great wallpaper for the computer or phone.

Color Puzzle II: Baby quilt finished

I finished this a few months ago, I love the colors! It's for baby Farrah:

I made this painting recently, just to do some art making and get some color on the page:

I enjoy being able to work something over and over until the parts I don't like as much become parts I do like. I'm still working on it but I'm liking the colors and the value contrast.

And check out this awesome sky last night! The clouds were really cool-

Up next: Color Puzzle II

On to the next quilt - these are the fabrics I chose, and cut a 6" square from each fabric. This quilt will be exactly like Color Puzzle I, just a different color scheme:

The tedious bit is over: squaring up.

Now the blocks are on the wall waiting to be shifted around and around until I like the design. This is my favorite part:

Color Puzzle - finished!

Floral painting, photos and quilt progress

I've moved more pieces around on this baby quilt and I'm about ready to sew it together. I just noticed one of the pieces (lower right corner) that must have fallen off and been put back on rotated! Ha! This is for a baby that's due next week so I better get to finishing it!

This is a recent floral painting. I'm still working on it. It's interesting to observe all the layers that happen during the process. I love the colors. I need to do something with that yellow thing coming out of the vase - at this point it reminds me of a banana slug with a smiley face. I started this painting by throwing some color down then adding collage bits from previous Gelli print sessions - including the piece that's the large orange flower on the middle right side- if you look closely you can see the marks on the piece- that's from a Gelli print a few years ago. I like the texture and the 'delicateness' of it.

I'm always looking for tidbits of design inspiration for color schemes, architectural elements for my drawings and paintings, and interesting lines. Here are some photos from the last two months:

 I love those little cupolas that peek out above the rooftops.

Aren't the tiles on this stairwell fun? If I had a stairwell I would put some pretty tiles on the face of the steps.

 I loved this garden and the rock wall and the style of the building on the left.

Jacaranda trees dropping their flowers all over the street.

 Interesting street layout (and the reservoir is pretty) - reminds me of ideas for aerial view art quilts, like this one.

The Tijuana temple is gorgeous - inside and out. The grounds are so tranquil, clean and beautiful. If you're in the area, stop by and visit the grounds.

I thought this was a pretty garden and loved the old door and the juxtaposition of the brown stucco with the stone wall.

I saw this bike parked in front of the grocery store. I loved the contrast of the turquoise and the dark blue wall.