Making Marks

Art-o-Mat

Let's say that you had access to an old cigarette vending machine. What would you use it for?

If you are like Art-o-Mat, you'd ask artists to make small art that would fit in the machine and vend little treasures. That struck me as a brilliant idea and I wanted to participate. Now I'm delighted to say that I've been accepted as an artist for the Art-o-Mat project.

Want to see if there's an Art-o-Mat near you? Check it out. You can also find out how to host a machine here.

Want a little animal house of your own? See the wooden version at my Etsy shop.

Card Show - heart card gelatin prints

 I'm happy to say that the card show is not restricted to Christmas/holiday themes, so I experimented with some other themes, too.

This love card incorporates a couple of new techniques with gelatin printing.

I started out with white Arches text wove paper. On that, I affixed a torn out heart and wrote "love" using a Masquepen. (This is a cool tool, but be sure you get a newer bottle of the product. My first bottle had dried up and I spent a good deal of time trying to troubleshoot since I was new to the product and didn't realize it was too dried out.)

I printed the first layer with a pink color and then I added another heart mask on top of the first. Then I took a second print in a darker red. That gave me the double heart image, which I think turned out pretty well.

Gelatin printing is super fun to do. I took a few pictures of my work table (in all its glorious mess) and of the gelatin plate (below). My table is butted up against book shelves which is handy because I can just reach for many things I use on a regular basis. (You can also see some rejected ink colors near the brayered area. The Speedball magenta color is almost neon!)

The gelatin print is what's left over after I printed the love image above. Do you see the Scooter hair embedded in the gelatin right under "love"? I really don't know how I manage to not ruin more things with dog hair!

 

Card Show - Bear Design

You may have noticed that I've been enjoying drawing and painting animals, and I decided to work on a polar bear design for the Silverton Arts Association card show.

My thanks go out to Ann Altman who has encouraged me to keep it up and suggested that I try some new ways to make marks. In this case, I used a brush dipped into  India ink. I wasn't sure I liked it at first, but now it's definitely my favorite.

I notice different things when I scan and post my work. I think this is an indication that when I'm in the studio, I look at my work too closely. I need to stand back and get some perspective. In any case, the bold lines of the top image  really help to define the image.

At first I thought my first attempt (below) was charming, but the lines of the bears get lost at any significant distance away from the image. What do you think?

Card Show - snowflake card

  One of my card designs that is in the Silverton Arts Association Card Show is the snowflake design.

The background print is a gelatin print that I wrote about in October. To prepare, I cut out many large snowflakes from old magazine pages. To print the design, I inked up the gelatin with aqua colored ink, placed large snowflakes on the ink, and printed the plate. That leaves the snowflakes white. If you look carefully, you can see some "ghost" snowflakes from previous printings on the gelatin. They show up as darker aqua images. This is just a characteristic of gelatin printing.

To make the little circle accent, I cut a rubber stamp, stamped it in a darker aqua color and punched it out with a circle punch. It's layered on a white circle (also punched out with a circle punch).

Are you looking forward to snow in December? I like it when it falls, but I'd rather not shovel the driveway!

December Card Show

I'm happy to be participating in the Silverton Arts Association Card Show again this year. The opening is on December 5th, 7-9 pm in Silverton at the Borland Gallery. Artists are encouraged to have framed work for sale in addition to cards, so I will be showing a variety of work. Hope to see some of you there!

Oil Pastel on Paper

Here's another oil pastel on paper that I painted for the show with Ann Altman.

In many of my works, the color combinations evolve as I lay down the underpainting. The color combo in this one, however, was carefully planned. I wanted the house to be the undoubted focal point, and I think I was successful by using color and the furrows in the field.

I will auction off one oil pastel on paper to benefit our local food bank. The tie between my work about farming (and therefore food) and the need for feeding others seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up!

Works on Paper

For the show Ann and I are having at Lunaria, I decided to paint a few 10 x 8" pastels that are matted and framed.

I didn't realize that working on paper would be so much different from working on canvas. The paper is much slicker even after I paint it with gesso. I can scrape back to the surface more easily, too.

This piece is called "Protected".

November Show Postcard

  

Here's the postcard for the November show I'm having with Ann Altmanat Lunaria Gallery in Silverton, Oregon. The opening reception is Nov. 7th from 7-9 pm. Please join us if you can!

Love and Romance Show, part 2

Here's the second clock I made for the February "Love and Romance" show at Lunaria.

This piece more clearly incorporates the Zentangle/doodle style that I've been working on. Like Love Garden, this piece started with a line drawing in India ink and then it's painted with acrylic washes. Both clocks have glass pieces to represent numbers on the face.

I really enjoyed making these pieces - they were a definite departure from the oil pastels and embossed pastel pieces I've been recently working on. I hope you like them, too!

Love and Romance Show, part 1

I haven't made any clocks for a while, but I decided to make two for the February group show at Lunaria. This is a bit of a new style for me, working larger and drawing my design.

I used India ink to make the black lines and then painted in liquid acrylic. The background has a lot of texture. I wanted the face to be darker so the clock hands would show up against the background.

This one is called Garden of Love.