Word for the Year – 2014

Ive been wanting to keep a Journal for a long time now but haven’t managed to get started. So when I saw Rhomany’s ‘When Frogs Sing’, Journalling course I signed up for the year! I had to smile to myself while watching todays video – I have this little problem – I love making mixed media backgrounds, but I’m not so good at adding the journalling. But then I thought “why don’t I add it digitally” – so that’s what I’m doing!

This is the scan of the first page which I created in my altered book/journal using acrylic paint and a home made stamp.

And this is the page after adding digital text and images. Journey is my word for the year and Badger is my totem animal for 2014. My colour for the year is Phtholo Blue Green Shade.

Yeah – my first journal page complete!

Darkness Digitised!

As promised, here are the images from Sunday with some digital enhancing added.

Which do you you prefer? The original straight from the camera images, or these digitally enhanced images? I’d be really interested to know what you think.

Colour and Light

In contrast to yesterday’s post, and just to prove that I have been creating some of my more usual bright work, here are the latest two – digitally altered of course!!

This is my favourite – I love the softness of the colours and the textures which the tissue collage adds to the image. I created the collage using home made background papers, torn paint tissues, acrylic paint, stencils and some Krylon webbing spray. After photographing, I digitally altered the image using filters and blending.

This one is Bry’s favourite – he loves the bright colours, and yes, it is meant to make your eyes go funny!. I created this using acrylic paint, stencils and Krylon webbing spray, then digitally altered it using filters and blending.

I’ve been playing digital with yesterdays images, but you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to see what I’ve done to them!

Out of the Darkness!

I haven’t created my postcards yet, but I have been producing some extremely dark art as a result of the emotions released by my studies and the therapy I have started as a course requirement.

It started with this piece, created after my first therapy session last Thursday. Although I could have chosen an Art Therapist, I deliberately chose to go to a talking therapist as I felt it would be too easy to evade my deep buried issues using Art Therapy. I might have known that I couldn’t get away from the art that easily. After therapy I had this compulsion to paint, and this was the result – created on recycled cardboard from our move using acrylic paint.

On Friday we went to Nottingham to see ‘Art in the Asylum’ – an exhibition of ‘Outsider Art’ at the Djanogly Art Gallery in the Lakeside Arts Centre. The exhibition was incredible! (Unfortunately today is the last day) I have seen reproductions of much of the art that was exhibited, but to be able to see the original artwork was totally awesome. It was a very emotional journey for me and I created this piece in response to my feelings.

I thought I was done with emotional painting for this week, but then last night my daughter messaged me with a link to the ‘Bedlam’ series that was shown on Channel 4 (UK) last Thursday. The first episode was entitled ‘Anxiety’, and I never dreamt that I would have any problems watching it, but by the end of the screening I was an emotional wreck! This image is my interpretation of how I felt.

In case you’re worried, I do have very secure support systems in place to help me cope with the process …and I have been producing some lighter pieces as well – I’ll post them just as soon as I think they’re finished.

Postcard Swap

Life has been a little manic since my last post. But I couldn’t resist the call to the latest iHannah’s DIY Post Card Swap. If you love mail art and receiving beautiful works of art through the mail then you really should try it! Just click on the link above or the link button in my sidebar to join in the fun.

Since I started the Art Psychotherapy course just over a month ago, I haven’t managed to do very much art work at home – I’ve been too busy trying to get to grips with all the new information my brain has been receiving. But we do create art at uni as part of the course, and I photograph it. I still take photos on the occasional days out we have. And I still can’t resist the urge to do a spot of digital blending to see what happens.

This is the result of a digitally altered piece of artwork blended with a photo of an piece of underwater paving. But I have ten hand made postcards to create for the swap – so I’d better get busy creating! Keep watching!

New Start!

Today I have been getting ready for a new start. Tomorrow I start my Art Psychotherapy Masters Degree! I was hoping to do some painting today, but last minute form filling and organisation took over leaving me just enough time for a little digital blending but not much else!

A little digital blending and some photo manipulation created these wonderful psychedelic magic mushrooms!

Yesterday I played with another Notan design. This one has lots of faces in it. How many can you see?

More Notan!

I’m finding this Notan quite addictive… so here’s another one.

I cut this one a bit differently. Instead of folding the paper into four before cutting, I only folded it in half; and rearranged a couple of the pieces to break the symmetry. I wasn’t sure which way up it should go, but I think I prefer it with the straight edge to the left. What do you think?

I’m still busy scanning some of the smaller cardboard pieces I created a while ago, so here’s a couple more.

I created this piece on recycled cardboard using acrylic paint, acrylic ink, stencils and homemade stamps.

This is another piece on recycled cardboard created using acrylic paint and acrylic ink. But this one was calling to be blended…

…this is the result – quite dramatic, don’t you think?

What is Notan?

One of the problems I’ve had during the move is that I haven’t had time to keep up with my daily blog reading list. I know I could have just marked my backlist as read and started again, but I’m glad I didn’t or I might have missed this post from Karen Isaacson about Notan. What is Notan? It’s a Japanese concept exploring the contrast between dark and light in relation to design. Maybe you’ve heard of it, but I certainly hadn’t and Karen’s post intrigued me. I went on a Google search to see what else I could find out. I found this lesson plan from Lotte Petricone very informative and was particularly intrigued by the idea of using the shapes asymmetrically.This article by Sharon Himes interested me with the parallels it drew to all art and design concepts.

But enough about the theory! As you must have guessed by now – I had to try it out!

This was my first attempt. I cut shapes out of a square of white paper then stuck them symmetrically round the square in exact reverse of their original cut out position.

This was my second attempt. This time I arranged the cut out shapes to reverse their original cut out position. I think I’m going to have a go at an asymmetrical arrangement next. Keep watching this space!

Painting Big!

Up until the advent of the new easel, the biggest I had ever painted was a double page in my 12″x9″ Strathmore journal! To be honest, I had never had the courage to try anything bigger. But that’s all changed now! With all the recycled cardboard from moving, I have lots of larger canvases to play on, and because they’re made from recycled cardboard I don’t have the fear of spoiling them that I might have if I’d invested lots of money in expensive canvases! And I’m really loving the freedom of painting big! Every day so far I’ve been adding some more to my 25″x25″ recycled cardboard.

I’ve added more acrylic paint using letter stencils and home made stamps and am loving how it’s looking so far, but have a feeling it still wants some more layers!

Meanwhile, I’ve been playing with some rather smaller pieces as well!

I created this one on recycled cardboard using acrylic paint, stencils, homemade stamps and a paint covered mopping up tissue to add the highlights…

…and this one on salvaged plywood using acrylic paint, acrylic ink and homemade stamps. The only problem with the plywood was that it had quite a pronounced curve from being used to protect the corners of something (I can’t remember what!) and when I tried to flatten it for the scanner it cracked across the top and had to be mended 🙁 …

…and lastly – a little bit of sparkly digital blending – you need to look at the larger version to really see the sparkles.

Finally All Done!

I can’t believe how long its been since I last posted here! I’ve decided that unpacking is a lot more stressful than packing … but it’s finally all done – including the 5 boxes which my brother returned to me (after looking after them for the last 18 months) during his visit last week!

So… what have I been up to? I got my paint trolley from Ikea…

I broke up all the packing boxes and saved a big pile of assorted shapes to use as canvases, then started painting some of the smaller ones.

I painted this on recycled cardboard using acrylic paint, acrylic ink and various homemade stamps.

I painted this on a scrap of plywood salvaged from some packaging using acrylic paint, acrylic ink, clear stamps and a staz-on ink pad.

There are lots more to show you, but I haven’t finished scanning them all yet, so I’ll post pictures of them during the week.

I also got a brilliant easel for painting big …

… as you can see – I’ve already started playing with it. This is just the first few layers – I’ve added two more since I took this picture!! I’ll post another picture when it’s finally finished.

I’ve also been playing digital … but you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to see them or I’ll never get this posted.

I’ll leave you with this beautiful view taken on a trip to the Peak District, half an hour from our new home, yesterday.