Earth Colors Challenge

 

Recently I was going through a box with some of my pieces and found a few that I had never shown here, for whatever reasons. But since we have Nicole's Sunday in the Art Room, I feel comfortable showing them here. If I remember correctly, this was inspired by Laly Mille's "Color Challenge" which is part of her "Mini Abstracts" Workshop. I had done a couple of those mini series (green, abstract, and imaginary landscapes) and for this series I had chosen earthy colors. I thought since I love earthy colors this would be relatively easy and quick, but as is so often the case, I was kidding myself. These four little pieces I created in September 2023.

The substrat is four 6x6 inches watercolor papers that I collaged with different papers that I then covered with a thin layer of watercolor. On each piece I used the same papers. But since I'm not really into abstract painting, I only created one abstract piece using a few buttons I had.

For the others I chose some pictures that I had cut from magazines and added them to the pieces.

The following one is my favorite.

The Kestrel in the picture reminded me of the sweet Kestrel we had seen in Kaysersberg in Alsace in 2022. Even the bricks are similar.

Isn't he (she?) super cute?

Drawing With My Non-Dominant Hand

 

This will only be a short post. Last week has been quite crazy due to a rather large order I got in my Etsy shop and many things didn't get done that I have to do this week before it heats up again, especially in the garden.

Back in April (yes, I know, I have a lot of catch-up to do) I took one of the short workshops by Laly Mille. Her style of art work speaks to me and I like her calm and very personal way of teaching. I think this class was called "Flower Flow", but maybe I remember this incorrectly - well, anyway I call it this way. The most surprising 'thing' I learned in this class was that I can actually draw with my non-dominant hand. We were encouraged to use a Stabilo All pencil - if I remember correctly I actually used an aquarellable graphite pencil by Faber-Castell, one of my favorite tools. First, I gessoed some book pages and music sheets, then with my non-dominant hand I drew flowers and leaves on those pages after they had dried. The flowers were then "smudged" with matte medium. It became quite addictive and I created way more than I needed (they will go into some future artwork or in my art journal).

With some bits of scrapbook paper I collaged four pieces of watercolor paper and then arranged my flowers and leaves with the images of Japanese Maple leaves I had found in a German magazine and glued everything down when I was happy with the design. I drew a few more flowers and leaves directly on the collage, used a bit of gesso to mute the colors of the Japanese Maple leaves, a piece of gauze and some subtle watercolor. Done. 

I am quite happy with the results. They aren't master pieces, but it was fun to make them.

Have you created anything recently? Or taken a class that you really liked?

Abstracts and Clafoutis

 

Yesterday we were without Internet almost the entire day, so I wasn't able to post anything. It was actually a nice change not to be at the computer, but instead I worked in the garden, started knitting a hat for my Etsy shop and finished reading my book.

In July I joined the online Artist Soul Retreat that Laly Mille hosted, one of my favorite artists. It was mainly about abstracts and since Laly likes to work in series, we did that as well. When I had done my first few layers I felt that this wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't know where this would go and this was the moment that I walked away from my four "abstracts".

I came back to them several days later and decided I would go a different direction, leave the idea of "abstract" behind and add some images. I felt much better with that and started to like my little creations. The last touch was, of course, birds.

Even though I didn't create "abstracts", this was an interesting experiment and a good learning process. I was a bit surprised as well since I had seen a video by Laly about abstract landscapes that I loved and created my own landscapes. This one, however, was very different.

On to some sweet stuff for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date! In last week's TADD I showed you the photo of a clafoutis that I had made when my neighbor gave me plums from her garden. Well, she gave me more after that and I was looking for a different recipe for a clafoutis. I found a gluten free one - it is with cherries, but you can use other fruit as well. I think this would also work with apricots, peaches, even strawberries. I altered the recipe a bit, I didn't use brandy and instead of almond flour and almond milk I used regular APF and dairy milk. I did add a teaspoon of almond extract to the batter to get the almond flavor. You can find the recipe here.

You will need:

After you have halved the plums and removed the pits, put them in the bottom of a greased cast iron pan or baking dish. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Make the batter and pour it over the plums. Please note that I am still using my faithful Krups hand mixer from Germany. I have been using it for 30 years. I think the 3Mix is one of the most well-known hand mixers in Germany. I'm so glad I brought it with me to the US (I have a step up and down transformer so I can use it here).

Bake the clafoutis for 60-70 minutes until it is no longer jiggly in the center. Let it cool a bit and then enjoy!

Wholehearted

 

In this worrisome time when we don't know whether our world will be set on fire by the will of one man, I find these three things helping me to find some calm and inner peace: nature, gardening and being creative. I had found one of Laly Mille's short workshops called "Wholehearted" and after watching it I decided to try my hand on it. The unfinished work was lying on my table for a few days until I was drawn to it this weekend - I felt so restless and agitated and thought some paint on my hands might be a good way to think about something else. And indeed it did!

There are several layers here. The start was writing down some thoughts on pieces of paper that I glued down as the basic layer. After covering it with gesso I outlined an slightly asymmetrical heart and filled that with torn pieces of scrapbook paper.

When I started this canvas I wasn't sure which color I would use, but after finishing the first part of the heart I knew that I had to fall back to one of my favorite colors - turquoise. It felt just right.

And then the real fun part started - stamping, stenciling, using alcohol inks, splatters, Posca pens... This is usually my favorite part and even if accidents happen (like a bottle of alcohol ink dropping on the painting), one can work on them. I like the freedom of it.

Here are a couple close-ups:

Since this is a T stands for Tuesday post, here is my drink - coffee, of course. I have had this mug forever, I simply love the happy colors of it. The cookie is a new Girl Scout cookie, called Adventureful. It's a mini brownie with caramel - delicious!

I just learned that the lovely sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine. This is in solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

T is for AbsTracT Landscape

 

After I had tried to create abstracts, I found a video about abstract landscapes on Laly Mille's blog. It was fascinating and I decided that I would try to create an abstract landscape myself. Laly Mille likes to work in series, but I thought for my first landscape working on just one would be more than enough.

I started small, with a 5 x 5 canvas. After having painted it in light blue and gray I covered the lower part with torn collage papers.

Then I put a layer of gesso on it, outlined my landscape with a black Stabilo and smudged the lines with regular gel matte.

I decided the sky needed some light pink, stencilled some white dots on random parts and splattered some watered down paynes grey all over the landscape. You will notice that in between I changed the horizon line a little bit and added more hills.

Finally, I painted a couple clouds in the sky and added some lace, ribbon and two buttons.

Here are a few close-ups:

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this landscape and I will definitely make some more, maybe even try a bigger size. 

Of course I didn't "dry work" here - I had my drink during all this painting and gluing and splattering and... It's coffee in one of my favorite mugs that my daughter once gave me as a gift. Isn't it fun?

This is my ticket to the T Tuesday party which Elizabeth so kindly hosts every Tuesday.

Happy T Day!

T is for Try an Abstract

 

Abstracts are something I have never felt drawn to and I certainly never imagined that I would try my hand on one much less four of them - but here I am today with four little abstracts. How did that happen?

While doing the Taster Lessons for Life Book 2022 I came upon Laly Mille whose pieces of art immediately spoke to me. Just shortly after the Taster Lessons she offered a free workshop "Abstract Color Challenge" which was open for just a week. We were asked to choose a color that we don't work with very often. It shouldn't be an intimidating color, but it should be challenging.

I chose green. Laly Mille likes to work in series and inspired us to do the same. So I cut my watercolor paper in four squares of 5 x 5 inches. Next I didn't find my masking tape and therefore had to use some washi tape to adhere my paper to a board - it did the job but was a bit distracting, especially since one of the washi tapes was green...

Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing. I was adhering collage papers to my substrate with no rhyme or reason, hoping that eventually something would evolve. Then I put paint to it, green paint of course. I did not take any progress photos except the following one:

It just looks too green to me! 

Good thing there is gesso - I used it a lot to tone things down a bit. Slowly I could see where I was going.

This first one is my least favorite one. I noticed the word "story telling" and circled it with a black pencil. Otherwise I didn't really know what to do with this square - I made patterns with colored pencils and oil pastels and stamped it. I declared it finished simply because I didn't know what else to do and I didn't like it.

The second one was easier. I had found the picture of the sculpted head in a magazine and knew that I would like to use it on one of the four squares. A stamp in the background before adhering the picture and I was done with this one.

The third one is the only one that has an additional color - purple, a color that I don't use that often either. The same stamp in the background and some oil pastels before I glued down the picture of the Lauren's Grape poppies from a seed package. The seed company Renee's Garden uses these beautiful painted flowers on their seed packages and I always keep them. Yes, I bought these seeds just because of the packaging, but also because I love poppies and they made a beautiful appearance in my garden several years ago.

And now my favorite one. I only added the same background stamp and then adhered the photo. It's from a Gudrun Sjõdén catalogue, my favorite clothing company - their catalogues are filled with stunning photography. As a final touch I painted around the picture with a copper oil pastel and called it done.

Since this is a T post we need a drink. Mine is just water in this bottle my daughter gave me. During three of her four years at UC Davis she worked with Student Housing, a job she loved. A nice little benefit was that the students were able to get these bottles - they hold cold drinks cold and hot drinks really hot for a long time. Thank you, Elizabeth, for hosting again this week!