August Challenge, Leaves

Our challenge for August is simply "Leaves."

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Carmen Beecher

Golden Ginko Leaves

I've been experimenting with gold leaf and I love the shape of Ginko leaves, so it was a good time to make golden leaves for our challenge. This is metallic gold leaf on black canvas, 12x12 inches.

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Kathy Garvey

Leaves are one of my favorite subjects. For this month's challenge, I went through my sketchbook and decided to paint some Blood-root leaves found on one of my walks in the mountains of Kentucky.  Started playing with the idea and composition around ten in the morning and worked on it while my new kitchen was being installed. 

Sketch, composition, watercolor start.

Lots of banging and clunking going on in the kitchen. I couldn't do anything else, so I stuck with it until 5 pm. The finished 9x12 watercolor is below. (The banging and clunking is still going on!)

Blood-root Leaves
9x12 Watercolor on 140 lb Cold Press Arches Paper

And then, my kitchen still not done two weeks later, I looked for something to paint on this circular heavily textured watercolor paper traded with another artist in Kentucky. I found a leaf from my friend's yard that looked like it would work. (And while it looks like Marijuana, it's a Coral Tree leaf.) The paper is unusual to watercolor on. The water seems to sit on top as you work, but then sinks in and almost disappears into the paper.  Below is the progress.

And here is the final - after four to seven layers of paint in most areas. (Click on an image to enlarge.)

Coral Leaf
Watercolor on 12" Round Textured Paper

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Cindy Michaud

Eco-printing is a way to use leaves to make a direct print on fabric or paper. Naturally this phenomenon (just google it) grabbed my attention and I was all in! To make the magic happen one must first “mordant” the paper or fabric which means dipping or soaking it in a solution which prepares the material to receive (permanently) the color being transferred. I have experimented with both fabric and paper. In short, one layers the leaves in stacks, applies pressure to hold a stack tightly and steams the bundle for several hours.  Let cool and unwrap to reveal the print.

Here are some of my papers right out of the pot! It’s always fascinating to see what works and sadly, what doesn’t.  (Notice my leaf mug? Another way to use them best left to potters!) 

 Here are some “rejects” on fabric getting a new life as a wall hanging to be.

Here is a sample of a perfect print! I make these into a variety of cards with hand sewn paper inserts to write on.  Coupled with an envelope they are sold almost as fast as I can produce them.

I’m collecting leaves now of some of my tried and true varieties. As fall comes and the leaves disappear I will be happily steaming up prints and crafting new ways to use them.

Cindy Michaud 

 

art@cindymichaud.com,  www.cindymichaud.com
 

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This has been a crazy month.  I have been away for most of it and now I am lucky enough to have my grandson James with me.  I have not gotten my paints out yet or my easel set up but wanted to get started on this months challenge.  James helped me using watercolor pencils and watercolors.  He picked most of the colors and was a great help in the critique department.  So here is an attempt by a happily tired lady with some help from an energetic young man to rise to this months challenge. This is what leaves would look like in our world.  p.s. we did a lot before the lure of the video games became too much.

making progress

James has a good color sense

Leaves

Donna Vines


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That I am a pack rat  is a well established fact. Therefore, this tear-out from a 1997 copy of Country Living should be no surprise to anyone who knows me. Yes, I have been waiting that long to do something with the info in it. We are awaiting Hurricane Dorian, so it is a pleasure to escape into the memories of crisp and colorful falls.

 

Dogwood is my favorite tree. The dogwood is one of the first to change colors and is such a deep velvet red that I remember it still as vividly as one recalls those most special moments in life. Maples have the most brilliant of foliage, at least in Virginia. And they are also early to turn many different shades of gold and orange and cadmium red. The good ole oak is just plain dependable and strong.

                                          Below I have tried to do water colors of the maple and the oak. I promised myself I would do it at one of  our weekly gatherings and not go back to it. Well, the outcome is not what I envisioned. I probably should have started over and tried to get more variety and contrast. Next time.





Fay Picardi

December Challenge, Mixed Media

Our challenge this month is to step outside our comfort zone and use various media together, or a medium we don’t normally use, to mix it up and have fun! Following is how each member met the challenge.

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Cindy's Response to the Challenge

No problemo for me...I was housebound due to knee surgery AND a major snowstorm. So I looked around at what was at hand and began working, out of my comfort zone, with some new medium which included q-tips, homemade ink, colored pens and eco-printed rejects. For the full story on this particular effort go to my blog here.

These are misprints from my eco-printing process making note cards.  I wanted to see if I could salvage them or at least have a little fun.  Using my homemade inks and then doodling with some colored pens I got the results below.  Not earthshaking art but I had fun experimenting with line and color and moving the eye around.  No idea what to do with them now....but that was not the challenge!!

Cindy Michaud - art@cindymichaud.com

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Donna's Response to the Challenge

I  really debated about which way to go on this challenge and decided to tackle watercolors again.  I  started out in watercolors, they looked so serene, so simple, so forgiving, so easy to use and carry. I was so wrong. They were none of these things except easy to carry. I was immediately reminded why I switched to oils and collage.

With someone of my temperament -- impatient, changeable, yada yada--watercolor is anxiety producing not calming. There is no going back, going outside the area, changing colors in midstream as you will see from my paintings.

Here are two pieces I did of  the same scene.  I really liked the first one I did, gentle colors, whimsical, spontaneous but then I decided to add a few trees behind the houses and it was just awful and I couldn't fix it! The second painting is more stick to the plan but looks labored and just lacks something.  Despite all of this I am going to try some more watercolors.  I liked doing it once I got lost in it and maybe I can learn to relax and stick to the plan.

 Scene 1: Notice how I tried to add the trees.
I even tried to turn the trees into mountains
but that didn't work.

 Scene 2:  No trees. Already one lesson learned but the
sense of spontaneity is gone.

Both scenes together.


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Kathy's Response to the Challenge



Collage is definitely not my media, so I saw this challenge as the perfect opportunity for me to use up some of the many parts and circuits I like to extricate from my old laptops. I searched for a couple of real beauties, mapped them where I wanted on my watercolor paper and started ruling some lines with Elegant Writer pens that I could wet to get some interesting starting shapes and colors.

9x12 Watercolor sheet with space for the circuits marked off
and Elegant Writer Pen lines sprayed with water.

I still have a data flow template from my programming days so I drew some symbols on the background and filled them and the background in with watercolors. To add some more "mixed media" I thought I would embroider with some really shiny special thread on the paper. Disaster! Slow, hard to keep my lines straight, and way too easy to snag the thread on the little barbs of the circuits. That little square one is sharp!

Definitely need to rethink the embroidery idea!

I actually love it when I think I've ruined something because then it doesn't matter what I do to it. So, I went to town with adding gold foil, white, gold and green-gold acrylic applied with a pin, colored pencils and things through stencils. Then I emptied my sewing machine of thread and by staying away from the circuits, I was able to stitch some straight lines to get perfect holes. Hand sewed them in with my fancy threads.

I used a micron pen to add a little Hello World code in Basic, Cobol and Pascal (that tells you how old I am). Topped it off with more watercolors and colored pencils. Fun, fun, fun! I have to sign it, name it and put it out of sight so I don't keep adding more stuff to it! 

May the Circuit Be Unbroken

Mixed Media, 9x12

by Kathy Garvey

Just for fun I started another watercolor collage using a really old circuit. I was barely in to it when my oldest daughter decided she loved it. I added some things meaningful to her in some of the circles and kept it much simpler than the other.

Crossed Circuit

Mixed Media, 9x12

by Kathy Garvey

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Carmen's Response to the Challenge

 Woman in Gold
Mixed Media, 11x14
by Carmen Beecher

Having just been to Vienna, I had Klimt on the brain, so I used the challenge as my excuse to use gold gesso, gold acrylic paint, stamps, pen and ink, and oil paint in a Klimtish manner. I painted the face in oils, then just went a bit crazy with the rest of it. I had noticed that with Klimt, too much was not too much. None of that "less is more" nonsense, although I didn't completely cover the canvas with designs. I didn't want her face to get lost.

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Carol's Response to the Challenge.

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I packed up in November and left my North Carolina home, heading south to the beaches of Florida.  The plan is to stay in a beachside condo until the mountains become a little more hospitable......meaning warmer!

Even though, we packed two cars to the gills, I could not bring everything I wanted or thought I needed.  As a result, the only art supplies I brought were my oils.

Why am I telling you this?  I am feeling a little guilty, for not doing a new project for the challenge, but showing you one of my past adventures into other medias.

These are two tiles, painted with alcohol inks.  A few months ago, I became quite interested in working with alcohol inks and experimented with them on several supports.  These are two of my early efforts.  Nothing special, but I do like the colors, and this challenge has re-ignited my interest in this process.  I cannot wait to return home, to my studio, to dig out my inks and further my experiments with them.

Carol Schiff

www.CarolASchiff.com

www.CarolSchiffStudio.Etsy.com

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Fay's Belated Response

Ink drawings with water color wash were how I started my limited art career. I drew and colored very simple wild flowers. No depth, no detail, but lovely colors. I haven't attempted those in years, but thought I would take up the medium again for this challenge and try to apply it to a scene from our hotel window on a recent trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Below is the first attempt at a watercolor with ink drawing that tries to capture the San Juan Bautista Cathedral. After this feeble attempt, I decided I should take a photo and try again at home. The third work is a my attempt at an ink drawing with a wash. I have a long way to go to perfect my drawing skills, not to mention to conquer watercolors, but I had a lot of fun doing this challenge.

Jean's Response to trying a different media

What are these images (below), you may ask? 

Well, take some blank, white, quilted pot holders. Hmmm, what to do with them? Gifts? Yes!

Get some acrylic paint, white glue, permanent marker, and a little creativity. 

My goal in choosing a new medium is to use the glue as a resist, then paint the surface with acrylic. Once dry, remove the glue. (see the third image) That proved a challenge. So then I concentrated on drawing on the quilting with a permanent pen. 

Still have more holders and I'm determined to find a better resist. Any suggestions? 

Happy New Year! 

Mixing it up with Elegant Writer Pens!

by Kathy Garvey

Our Pieces of 8 challenge this month was to either create a mixed media work or use a media we seldom used. I decided to collage, something I rarely do, and mainly because I wanted to finally use some wonderful circuit boards that I've been saving for ages. (Some of them are from the 70s and one seems to be a magnetic tape controller circuit for a Univac III. I used to be a tape librarian at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Brings back lots of old memories!) Watch for our mixed media blog entry on the last day of the month.

In trying to mix the media as much as possible for the challenge, I also got out my Elegant Writer Pens. And then, after meeting the challenge, I continued to use up my 1970's circuits and the Elegant Writers. I like these Calligraphy pens for the random way they run and bleed colors when you spritz them with water. (Though why someone who does calligraphy would want a pen that bleeds when wet I haven't figured out!)

Anyway, here's the process using three different examples. (Click to enlarge further and be able to read the text.)

When I ran out of circuits, I went back to the birds! I should really quit and work on getting my house ready for Christmas. But painting is so much more fun!

Ralph carries the pens at Ralph's Art Supply and I'm hoping if this process looks fun to you, you'll get some and give them a try.

As I was getting my materials together for a workshop I had to move my plastic bin of hand painting materials and photos.  I had not done any hand colored photos for quite awhile and I of course had to open the container, anything to put off real work.  I found a photo I had started and decided to put out a few paints and see if it was still paintable.  Well I did and it was.
 For some reason the time flies by and you can really get into the zone when hand painting. Here is a blow up of an area of the photo I was working on.  It was a picture I had taken in Maine at a friend's house.  All of my photos are old snapshots I took when I was doing a lot of hand painting.
 I use special Marshall oils, cotton and Q-tips for applying.  This photo was a sepia tone.
I just love the colors and tone you can create with this process.  It was so relaxing I moved the container to the top so I could easily get out my kit again.

unfinished hand painted photo

Flapper, 8x10 Mixed Media by Carmen Beecher

This was an enjoyable project for a special event: the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum Gala to be held in Montgomery, Alabama on May 2nd. I began this piece by ordering Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This was a selfish act, since I had not read the book. I found a photo of a woman dressed like a flapper but I took 20 pounds off when I drew her, because in the 1920s everyone was thin. The Roaring Twenties were known for excess, but everyone was thin. No McDonald's, no Cheesecake Factory, no Olive Garden--you get the picture.

Anyhoo, I collaged pages (ones I had read, of course) onto a canvas panel, then I painted the figure in acrylic over it. I may do more of these; I love Roaring Twenties art and Fitzgerald's writing has me hooked, so I'm quite inspired. Another shiny object to chase. 

Carmen

Daily Painting | Abstract Painting | Small Oil Painting | Wishful Thinking by Carol Schiff | 14x11" SOLD

Well, it has happened again.........I had the urge to try my hand at abstract again.

SOLD

I was determined to do a mixed media  abstract, get out my many Golden mediums, and just have a fun day playing.  Kind of like kindergarten.  Why did I think that?

Don't I know that mixed media abstract is one of the most stressful things I can try?  Why don't I remember that my mind goes blank, that I'm not one of those people that can stand in front of a blank canvas and pick up a brush without a plan?

Why do I always think, this time it will be different?

Well it wasn't.  I worked at least 4, maybe 5 hours with my Golden mediums, getting the texture just right, carefully choosing the acrylic colors, blah, blah, blah.  It was a mess.

The next day, I sanded down as much as I could,  turned to my beloved oils, and ended up with this result.  Something I can live with.  Something that might give me a tad more confidence the next time I decide to do an abstract.  Something that I really kind of ........ like.  NEVER GIVE UP!!



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SHADES OF BLUE, 10X10" Acrylic Abstract Mixed Media by Carol Schiff

I am continuing on my path to abstraction and mixed media.  The highlight of this piece, in my opinion, is the intense and gorgeous color.  I am just not sure that the images will portray the depth seen in the actual piece.

Purchase here
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 This consists of a 10x10 stretched canvas with a 6x8 panel attached.  The finish is a high gloss resin type .

Are you able to see the depth of the colors?

They appear very rich, as if glowing from within...........

Such fun to try creating outside your comfort zone.

Ciao!



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