Oil On Canvas color challenge

 Beading along with Marcie's color challenge over onLaBellaJoya blog, the theme was oil paintings. The first one I worked on had a palette of golden orange with hints of beige and muted plum.   

I started with a base of right-angle weave using the last of my copper-lined amethyst AB size 6 seed beads, embellished on the edge with loops of frosted silver-lined golden orange 11s, with a pair of light orange opaque Delicas flanking topaz AB Swarovski crystals. I also embellished the base itself with more topaz crystals, frosted orange and tiny bronze seed beads. Hidden at the base of each fringe loop are bronze and metallic dark raspberry seed beads.

 

I finished the necklace with loops of bronze and a gunmetal chain.

 The second challenge palette was for this, the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring. (No, I didn't see the movie.)

 I had a bottle with a slight neck that just begged for a beaded collar. I've been doing multiple versions of a modified 'Collier du Soleil' by Anna Elizabeth Draeger, made into a bracelet, which lent itself great to a collar.

 

I used frosted black 8s, bronze and opaque blue 11s, cream AB Delicas, light colorado topaz Swarovskis and my remaining tiny blue pearl drops from the 2009 Bead & Button show. 

 

I had only two pearls left, so I made my own pair of pearl earrings with a few bronze 11s and black 3mm firepolished beads.

I'm clearing out space in my studio, so for a limited time these pieces are up in my Listia account, a place to get free stuff. Please register through this link http://www.listia.com/signup/341959 as it gives me referral points. :D

Milestone!

A few months ago, I decided to enter an art gallery's exhibition showcasing young local talent. Most of the entries I knew would be traditional 2- and 3-D art: paintings, drawings, collage, and perhaps a bit of sculpture. My talent lies with beads, but instead of entering an elaborate piece of jewelry, I dove headlong into the biggest bead embroidery piece I'd ever done--and make it as a framed wall art piece.

I used glass beads, resin pendant, gemstone, seed beads, silk ribbon, shells, and my own shimmerstone cabochons. I'm particularly proud of thinking to use the ribbon.

I laid it down on the s tiffened felt base and sewed it on with tiny fuschia beads on top. It sort of reminds me of planty things, perhaps seaweed. You'll also notice that inside is filled in with a mix of yellow, light orange and pale pink beads, and over it is a beaded helix in pink, orange and yellow.

Here is a corner of the piece. My sister persuaded me to buy three large green glass faceted nuggets which you can see here. Inside is a pink chalcedony 'flower' made from several briolettes, and in the foreground you can see an orange shimmerstone and a pink shell diamond.

Here is the upper right corner, before framing. I used a crystal-studded resin go-go component, put green fringe in the hole, and accented it with some green glass teardrops and a magenta glitter shimmerstone.

Here is a detail shot of lines of yellow teardrops and a pale pink shimmerstone cabochon.

 

and here is a green shimmerstone next to the pink ribbon and yellow drops

 

Lastly, here is the final piece. It got accepted into the show, and was displayed on the gallery wall!

It's called 'And So You Shall', after a Monty Python sketch about fairies granting wishes to the police force.

Not-Art 50-59

 

Day 50. Acrylic paint.

 

Day 51. Crayon, eyeliner and lipliner. I had just gotten a sampler pack of ATC-sized art papers, and couldn't wait till I got home to try them, so I made some quick not-art on the go.

 

Day 52. Acrylic paint, colored foil I'd received for New Year's. I textured the orange and yellow foils, then painted over the texture and removed some of the paint. I also only used pieces of the foils to cover the ATC-sized board, and put blue and orange paints in the spaces between.

 

Day 53. Marker, ballpoint pen, pencil.

 

Day 54. Foil candy wrappers, marker.

 

Day 55. 'Illogical'. Marker on ATC-sized card. I'm using a lot more ATC-sized cards since I'm almost out of the business-card sized boards I've been using since the beginning, and because I was given a plentiful supply of ATC sized ones for New Years. My family knows how much I love my Not-Art project.

 

Day 56. Block printing ink, acrylic paint.

 

Day 57. Tackling yet again the Skyy vodka color scheme.

 

Day 58. 'Window'. Oil pastel.

 

Day 59. 'Sodden'. Acrylic paint on ATc-sized paper. I had glopped rather too much paint onto the board, and didn't like how it looked, so I laid the paper face down onto a piece of scrap paper, then peeled it off, effectively removing about half the paint and introducing a neat effect. I repeated this step several times, thus distributing the paint colors, then put a few swipes of bluish-lavender and white paint around the corners. It felt finished then.

Catching up on Not-Art

 

Day 25. Collage, paper, rollerball pen, marker. This is one of my favourites, and somewhat closer to my definition of art. The paper scraps are cut up bits of old lists and things I wrote.

 

Day 26. Marker. I'd been watching Labyrinth that day (no, nobody give me any funny looks, there's more to the movie than David Bowie as the goblin king) so you can sort of see the spirals and angles as 'walls' complete with openings.

 

Day 27. Colored pencil and oil pastel.

 

Day 28. Oil pastel. Vaguely inspired by African mud cloth.

 

Day 29. Acrylic paint. I meant for this to be mostly blue but other colors insisted on getting involved.

 

Day 30. I started out angry, thus the base of varied reds. Got happier as I painted, thus the orange, pink and burgundy. Added bits of green for color theory.

 

Day 31. Marker and rollerball. Made this during Monty Python.

 

Day 32. Liquid shimmer, eyeshadow, eyeliner and lipstick.

 

Day 33. Silk, marker. I call it 'Jerusalem' because I made this during yet more Monty Python, and man do those guys have some kind of obsession with the song.

 

Day 34. Bronze rocket paint, acrylic paint.

Non-Art Daily 4-6

Monday's non-art, inspired by a DIY design book I read on break during my first 8-hour shift for my current job.I used rollerball pen, and black and silver sharpie markers.

I did this one late last night, tired from what felt like a long workday (even though it was a normal shift). I've doodled like this on garden rocks and book covers, but never a non-art before. Plus, it was too late in the night to be pulling out the paints. Done in indigo sharpie. I finished doing the silver embellishment this afternoon.

Non-Art Daily projects 1-3

I've made peace with the contrast in my skills at drawing and painting, and my desire to use art supplies. Who cares about my skill level, I'm going to have fun with paints and conte crayons and pastels and coloured pencils and graphite sticks and what-have-you! This will also be a good opportunity to learn more about how colour works.
I have a set of business-card-sized particle boards, and I have decided to produce one piece of not-art per day, and blog about it.
My first piece was inspired by a visit to a local art exhibition featuring bright colours, childlike shapes and a cheery feel. Here is a postcard of the exhibition:


Here is my first piece of non-art, done in acrylic paint, photographed on a piece of blank particle board. I wasn't sure what to do with paintbrushes (dip them in water to keep them clean?) so I just used my fingers and a makeshift palette instead. I used a lime green background, with dots of white like in the postcard, but went my own way the rest of the way. I put a red blotch in the lower left corner, an orange squiggle above it, and added some dark, low-value aubergine dots.

The second Non-Art piece was inspired by a magazine ad for FusionBeads company, using a lot of black, gray, white and oranges.

Here is what I made. Using what I think are conte crayons, I started with the same graceful lines and circles, but inevitably  branched out, using intense blues to complement the orange tones.

Yesterday's Non-Art Daily is representative, or tries to be. :D I had a few hours to spend in Old Town, so I walked about the streets, exploring little shops: some filled with Christmas things, some with art, crafts and accessories from exotic lands, and some with good solid food--just my kind of afternoon. One such shop had a side door opening onto a little alleyway with tables, and yellow lights strung overhead (the yellow didn't show up very well), and it's that alleyway I attempted to draw, again in conte crayon. I sat down at one of the tables (I could only fit one into the drawing) and made notes of the colours I saw, and an even more primitive sketch of the approximate layout.

Nobody try to make me feel better about my abilities; I already feel fine. :) It's very freeing to let go of the pressure to 'be good'. This Non-Art project isn't about being good or even halfway-decent. It's about having fun, and I'm doing just that!

This is the month I'm just going to USE MY BEADS

You know the feeling--you see beads, you HAVE to have them, but you're not sure what you'll use them for. It doesn't matter, it FEELS right to buy them and so you do. And the beads sit in your bead stash, waiting for 'that perfect project' to be used. Nothing but the best will do for those beads, no sir.

Or perhaps you buy the beads with a design in mind, but when you sit down to make the design, it doesn't come out the way you thought, so you unstring the half-finished necklace and put your beads away, waiting for the next strike of inspiration.

Months pass, perhaps even years, and all the while you're accumulating more and more beads, faster than you're using them. Before you know it, your bead stash is out of control and your creativity is suffering from second-guessing design decisions as you try to make every single necklace, bracelet, or pair of earrings a museum-worthy masterpiece of form, function and creative vision!

You can't live like that. Can't design like that. The 'great' traditional artists we all know didn't live like that (at least, not all of them); they made little 'throwaway' sketches or 'boring' drawings that didn't quite turn out. And it was ok.
Great artists know that just as they have great art inside them, they have a lot of boring/'bad' art.

What should we take away from this? That we MUST let the less-than-museum-worthy art out of ourselves right alongside the great designs that keep us up until 1:23 am. Trying to keep every non-great design suppressed will only lead to a creativity traffic jam.

It took me a long time to understand this and let my simpler designs take form, but this month, I'm going to do it! I will use up those beads in my drawer in nice-looking jewelry, but I will not pressure myself into making every single piece a show-stopper! At the end of the month I will have a creative collection of classy jewelry, more toned-down than my usual style, but still bearing my unique vision. Because if I make it and design it--it has part of me in it, and isn't self-expression what art is all about?

Liberty Town Arts

                        

Last night I went to the monthly art reception at a local art co-op, Liberty Town Arts where lots of artists rent studio space in the communal building. The first Friday of every month (this month delayed one week due to snow), many of the artists come in to their studios to demonstrate and mingle with attendees. There is also finger food and an understatedly festive atmosphere--not at all a 'snotty art scene'. Even better than finger food though, is all the wonderful ARTISTS working there! Take a look at each of the Liberty Town artists.

I hope to become one of them. There's a waiting list to have a studio there, the gallery owner handpicks artists from the waiting list (not in sequential order, but in terms of suitability) and the space isn't cheap, but I think I have a shot at being accepted, and have saved up enough money to cover a month or two until sales start covering the rent. We'll see.

Featured Artist: Wildemoon

The strong colours and clean lines of Wildemoon's digital art makes a strong statement, whether placed in a prominent place in your entryway, or tucked into a nook for an unexpected splash of colour. I've had my eye on the 'Let There Be Lips' print for a long time: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15703775

The artist says: "I have been interested in crafting and jewelry since I was a little girl. I am now a grown up graphic designer, but I find it no less enjoyable to sit down and make something with my own two hands. Being able to share the things I make, the pictures I draw, and the photos I take with others is one of the things I love most about the internet and especially about Etsy. I am always looking for new crafts to learn and new skills to hone. Right now I'm expanding the types of prints I offer and also upping my jewelry crafting skills."

Visit her shop at http://wildemoon.etsy.com
You can also find her at:
http://twitter.com/wildemoon
http://wildedesigns.blogspot.com

Featured Artist: Studiomme

The art of Etsy's Studiomme features subject matter from fairy tales both familiar and not. I'm partial to the 'Fear's Uncloaking' pieces http://bit.ly/KMVNC

Megan the artist says: "My pen and ink drawings hark back to the Golden Age of Illustration, when everything, even adult books, were illustrated with gorgeous drawings. I'm inspired by 16th century engravings and the work of Edward Gorey. I really love the different textures you can achieve from a single media just by varying your strokes. I've also done a few series with colored pencils, focusing on the intricacies of wallpaper, and I even have a few old photographs that were taken with a vintage, loaded camera I found in my grandma's closet."

Visit her shop at http://studiomme.etsy.com
You can also find her at:
http://studiomme.blogspot.com
http://www.studiomme.com

Featured Artist: DavidHinchenDesign

DavidHinchenDesign specializes in art portraits of city buildings. I LOVE city portraiture, so this is right up my alley. Pun genuinely not intended!

David says: "My drawings and paintings celebrate the visually absorbing shapes, colors, textures and eccentric details of the urban landscape. For many years, I worked solely in pen and ink. Slowly, I introduced color and have since developed a completely original technique which is characterized by precise ink images with acrylic tones painted over each other, resembling thin semi-opaque layers.
I'm a full-time artist who has completed over twenty years worth of drawings and paintings. The majority of my work portrays historic views of New York, New England and beyond."


My favourite is this painting print of Albany NY's State St. http://bit.ly/K3Sx4
What are you waiting for? Your place has been wanting a birthday present, so go buy it something!

Visit his shop at http://davidhinchendesign.etsy.com/
You can also find him at:

http://portraitsofhouseandhome.blogspot.com/

http://www.davidhinchenshouses.com/

http://david-hinchen.fineartamerica.com/

Featured Artist: Babayagada

Babayagada makes eerie yet quirky art. The strange creatures are too cute to be ominous! 

The artist says: "I can say that my work is an attempt to understand our world. I think I'm exploring more deep aspects of our reality ,when I'm designing or drawing something.
I'm happy when people from different places in the world share my feelings and find something interesting in my pictures!
My major influence is a melting pot of cultures and languages around me."

My pick is this inky Sketchbook Fairy! http://bit.ly/10vJgs
Visit her shop at http://babayagada.etsy.com
Or see more of her work at http://babayagada.com

Featured Artist: Bryan Collins

Enter the Technicolour dreamworld of BryanCollins' paintings!
His artist statement says: "Bryan Collins makes art out of a curiosity for human nature and our searches for something that will bring meaning to our lives. His faith in God is paramount in seeking visions for his work, as well as inspiration from God's creations and a reason to express his own spiritual battles. Rather than saturating his art with symbols of religion, he explores situations we can all identify with, such as acceptance, death, loss, love, guilt, fear, and dreams. His paintings and illustrations are also greatly influenced by music, books, and creative wording.
Acrylic paints and Prismacolor pencils are Bryan’s favorite tools, and he also uses watercolors, scratchboards, and ink to create his work. When not working on flat surfaces, Bryan is customizing toys and other DIY models. When not making art he is riding one of his bicycles, caring for his aquariums, hiking in the mountains, or just enjoying time with his wife and two children."
'Not An Angel But A Girl With Wings' might fit into my decor. http://bit.ly/f8gez
 Visit his shop at:http://bryancollins.etsy.com