This Journal Thing

it has sort of bitten me, and I sometimes do a misc. page or a face, I do the misc. page when the little scrap pile gets quite big next to me then I think use some of that up. Actually what happens is I cut more and it is bigger when I am done with the journal than it was before. It is just part of collage.

The other day I was looking at ancient art, mostly for the jewels, and pretty soon I was doing this face. and it does have some writing on it and some sort of really faded that you can't see.

Tonight I decided I didn't really like it that much, but in a journal you don't have to love every page. Tonight I layered some photos into the painting, degital work, a design from a book and a garden photo of orange lilies. this worked pretty well.
It feels like a rescue, and I will add this to the journal also.

Always Inspired

This time I am inspired by Zorana I really needed some colorful paited birds by me for
artwork, Sorana inspired me to do this. Also to make some small cards to slip into greetings this Cbristmas. And Make some bookmarks for my reading friends, and those I coffee with on Wednesdays. And also for the domino pendants I have started, all can be mixed and worked with on computer. Friends often frame the little things I send.

I hae posted the birds, some of the cards, and the sheet that has been altered a great deal. I am sort of thrilled with the birds as I can resize them and change their color for collage.

You will enjoy Zorana's blog open and useful, don't forget beautiful, and videos you can watch. With the 6 inch snow fall this weekend she gave me plenty to do.

Return of the Juncos

We have winter birds not many for jut winter but we do have these little gray and white Juncos and they do have a pink bill. They are so cute they hop backwards to move the snow or dead grass around under the feeders. I have not put out the feeders yet because I don't know if the bears have gone to bed they like bird seed also. I hope they have.

This painting is on cardboard and inspired by the birds and the pending winter or fall snowstorm. The houses you see were pulled out of a newspaper.

What is on Your Mind?

The Veterans are on my mind today as I go about the business of the day, listening to old war songs, songs of pain and loss, strength to overcome. Battle hymns and some silly songs like the Battle of New Orleans, Patriotic songs that swell in your breast as the music becomes dramatic.

Of course I have art on my mind also, I want some paintings around the house framed and on the wall for the holidays and winter. The best is not always what I do when I have a goal like this, it is uplifting to have a painting I did and the thought "I don't Know How I Did That" comes to mind when I look at it, that painting is usually on some little scrap of paper that doesn't have a plan.

These photos are not sharp, the painting is too big to scan and my photo taking is as inconsistant as the paintings can be. It is strange to me that the setting on the camera one would use for taking a photo of a pet turned out the best and of course no flash and a setting for close up. Can you believe I even know how to find all these settings? Even more important after the setting is set for Ok I can get out of the setting and back to a start over mode on the camera. Even more amazing I might remember it in a few days.

Also I have added some sketches, I have made a folder to keep them in and have stapled some together because they get lost in mail, or all the stuff one has in the art room for collage and mixed media work. You can see which one I used for this painting. So on with the day and more thoughts.

Working With an Old Geography Book

last summer I bought this old geography book for a dime, it was really in bad shape and a lot of pages tore, or partially torn out especially the maps. The thing I liked about it was the artwork in the book, ink drawings of commerce, industry,, farming, done in a collage sort of way and I knew I wanted to use them in collage also. I wanted a rather prim looking woman in this painting, one reason is the ink drawing is of people harvesting peaches by hand. People probably still do.

This painting is in my journal of faces, maybe you can see in the scan a corner that got turned up, a little glue will take care of that.

Days a beautiful and I am nearly done with outside garden cleanup, I did windows today, I don't do windows well, they never sparkle, but the dirt has been arranged in an artistic manner and it looks different then it did. I do blame the glass, as years ago I didn't have trouble cleaning windows. It is good to have a place to put blame, especially if it doesn't hurt anyone.

Things Gone

Our leaves are gone and certainly no butterflies, some of the background was a magazine find that said it needed to be in a collage.

The scan shows too white eye spots, the original does not. And just so you know, one of the things I like best about this is how the shoulder is sort of wrong looking. I find it hard to get that mix with faces, something just a little off but still a lot being quite right.

This is a journal page about things gone, not depressed just think about how things chage rapidly in the north.

Wrongs and Rights,

I can't tell you what I was thinking when I started this painting, the only thing I remember is I wanted a different pose and I wanted a woman in a veil. O also was not feeling very well, is operating a scissor and brush dangerous? I used a victorian bouquet to start the veil and it came out looking like hair. It also seems awkward to have the woman facing this direction, seemed like poor composition. The other thing was I didn't want a pretty face, so nothing rally came together right.

So I took it apart and fixed it a bit and prints will be fine. Computers work wonders.

Serious Inspiration

Since I started mixing mediums of paint, papers, pens, crayone, pencils, photos, the inspiration has stayed high, due to a lot of art sites to visit and various ways of applying the mix. One never tires of the variety. I have always painted angels since the beginning. I had not painted on cardboard with parts torn off to reveal the washboard look or the look of plaster that had fallen off a wall, Mystele inspired a try on that surface and I liked the look. becaue I like painting angels Diane inspired me that way with an angel posted in her blog.
You may know this Misty Mawn has been to Italy and taught a class and visits to her site gave me more inspiration, the feeling were beginning to build. More inspiration came when visiting All Nora's Art as she had gone to Italy also to take part in this class. So I tried to put all this inspiration together, with some decorative sheets I created on the computer with fabric and found things, all paper, pens, pencils paint, napkins, and the mix used in mixed media.

Also I wanted to work in tranparency, and I found using an emery board works well for that on painted surfaces, and of course napkins work well. The emery board or you could use sandpaper takes away some of the edges and shows the work underneath.

Ok enough talking and a little showing.

The Real Papers

What I posted yesterday was not right, they are headers that I prepare and use on my blog, These are the papers created from my floral paintings, lace curtain and fabric.
I don't use the whole piece I cut apart and use as I see fit. One of the ways to get a transparent effect in collage. Another way to get layers is scan your background into the computer then put lace or crochet on top of it and scan it again, this way the holes in the lace or crochet will be the same color as the backgrond when you use portions of the paper in your collage. You can do them seperate also and layer them in your photo program.

A Day Of Various

A nice word, various. yesterday I made some papers for collage work and often my art is a mix of painting and various bits of paper. Who would of dreamed it could be so much fun.

The face painting is old, I did it at the last blue moon or maybe the second to the last blue moon. I have only painted once in a blue moon however. There is also a landscape I did sometime ago at this time of year, it is also incorperated into the blog header as the face is.

A bit of profoundness..It is harder to give away a pumpkin today than it was yesterday. Nov. 1, so fast the tine evaporates.