Art Show at the Library

For the month of March there has been an art show at Brewster Ladies Library.
The show ends this Saturday.  These are my two pieces on display.

Four Seasons

16"x20"

I made the four panels on French ledger paper from the 1890's.

I wet the paper and added color ink to get backgrounds for each season.

I stenciled the tree trunks onto cream colored cardstock, cut them out and pasted them to the ledger paper.

  I used a coordinating stencil (both from Stencil Girl) to add leaves.

Then I added paint & paste embellishments.

Winter has texture paste thru a small dot stencil  for snow.

Photo a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea.

Winter was easy, Summer was easy, Spring took two tries to get the background and Autumn was a bear.  I actually made that panel three times before it looked right with the other ones!

I covered the edges of a canvas with more French ledger paper, painted the inside a tan color and glued my panels in to give it the look of a shadow box.

Birdsong

This collage was made on a book, whose pages were torn out.

Due to the way the Arts Council requires art to be hung  I couldn't add a hanger to the book.  So,  I glued the finished book to the front of a 20"x16" canvas, covered in more French ledger paper.

Here are a few close-ups of the piece:

My funny little steampunk birds

I was in the midst of Zero Procrastination, an online course taught by Karen Kingston, when these pieces were due.  And yes, I did wait til the last week and a half to start them.  What I didn't know is that the course would provide me the space to have a life-changing "ah-ha" moment, where I remembered when my procrastination began.  It's not something touted in the class info, I didn't expect it.  But having that realization allowed me to work on these pieces steadily and easily and get them delivered on time (in fact I was the first artist there!).

My usual refrain is, "I wish I had more time to ... (fill in the blank re project due yesterday)"  This time I was only sorry I didn't have more time because I was having so much fun creating!

My Supplies Catalog

This post was written specifically for the gals over at the GOC facebook group.  Thanks ladies for asking for more particulars! 

A couple years ago I saw a woman at Michael's with a book showing the art supplies she owned.  I thought the idea was brilliant and stored it away.

Then I discovered the Get Organized Challenge!  Steps 5 & 6 encourage us to make a catalog of our supplies.  There are lots of ways to do it within that course.  Remembering the portable catalog, I designed mine this way:

I purchased a traveler's notebook designed by Dyan Reaveley, including a cover, 4 blank books, 1 grid book and 1 dot-grid book. (click here for video of her showing how she uses it)

In my studio, this is the view from my worktable, usually without the catalog.  The pretty vignette makes a nice background though.

A couple of the
books lying flat,
inside and attached
to the cover.



     

The beginning of the notebook with all the books in it.

Each book is dedicated to a tool I use:  COLOR, STENCILS, DIES, STAMPS.  There's a skinny little book in the middle with my themes & sentiments list; info on scraprack pages -- their sizes, what I have -- and space to add an index.

Here's what the inside of the books look like:

Colors of Distress Ink stamp pads,

with a note whether I have a mini, reinker, oxide, archival.

Using Peek-A-Hue charts, I sampled my glitter glue and Liquid Pearls,

Gelly Roll pens & Sharpie paint markers.

I also have similar pages showing all my colored markers; acrylic paint; spray ink; watercolor paint, pencils & crayons; washi tape; rayon ribbon (this book is not large enough to hold samples of all my ribbon), 

and glitter:

My trick for adding glitter without a complete mess ~

Cut a piece of double sided tape (mine are 1/2"), sprinkle glitter on one sticky side, put extra glitter back in its bottle,  remove other sticky side and affix to Peek-A-Hue chart.

Making the color book has been my favorite!

 "Heart in Hand" by Joggles

Who knew I had so many stencils?  I needed 3 books dedicated to stencils.

Tim Holtz and 6x6 individual stencils fit on a single page.  

Larger stencils take up a full page spread.

This set of  Stencil Girl stencils works together.

I had a lot of fun playing to create the above scene.

Also useful, getting to see them altogether!

One book is enough for dies and punches.

(at least for now).

Adding stamps to a book lets me see what I have.  I have a real weakness for stamps, specially on certain themes (birds, beachy bits, travel).  Now I can see I don't need any more  stamps on those three topics, tho I'm not sure it's gonna stop me from purchasing more!

I have also discovered  which stamps I will NEVER use!

They are now in the give-away box!

When I have a specific place for things (stencils, un-mounted stamps), I have noted that place in the book.

As I organize the rest of my studio I will make a note in my book where tools & supplies are kept.

It's been fun to play with my supplies, find out what works, what doesn't, what I will use and what I won't.  And when I'm stuck for what next to do creatively, I can always add something to my catalog.