A Satisfying Day

My definition of a perfect day, is to spend half of it in the studio, and half in my garden.

Today was perfection, and the sense of satisfaction is immense. The garden is weed free, almost all my transplants are done, and the worst of the pruning is over-the winter kill this year was heart breaking. 

I pulled several monoprints, and picked the best one to mat for the gallery (Art Emporium Port Stanley)

Plus I fixed a couple of paintings that had been bugging me. 

A very good day!

sold

Summer Daze, monoprint. 6x6 matted to 12x12, $40.00

More Monoprint Fun

Happy daylight savings time...we need the extra hour to come down from post Halloween sugar highs lol.
Every year I swear I'll beat my addiction, but then I have 'just one'....addict that I am, I'm soon  in a sugar haze and vowing never again...until next year :)
All that energy has gone into the studio

one Monoprint done:

 and a painting started.

The St Thomas Elgin Artist's Guild show is just around the corner, opening Friday Nov 8th 7-10pm at the CASO station in 750 Talbot St in St T. Then continuing Saturday 12-8 and Sunday 12-6 2013, be there!

Crazy Daisy Monoprints, fun and colourful

 Sold

Mono-printing is a lot of fun, I love the serendipitous nature of the prints, you never quite know what you're going to end up with. There was a time when that kind of letting go was very hard for me to handle, I thought I had to control every art making process. I hope it's artistic growth that has allowed me to give myself over to the 'flow'

I've tried printing with many different kinds of plate, Gelli pates are by and far the most expressive, and give the most exciting results, IMHO.

a perfect day

Lucky me I've had two days off, and what perfect days they've been.  Studio time in the morning, and garden time in the afternoon.
I've had a small gelli plate for a while, and I've treated myself to a large one this week, so I've had fun playing with monoprinting/collage.  As I've said before, this printer's daughter didn't fall far from the parental tree!
These are 5x7 'mailable art' aka art cards, headed for the Art Emporium.
I'm doing altered books with my kid students, so I used some of the discarded pages and created 'found poetry' monoprints which I integrated into the collages.  Lots of fun!!

'tis the season

for parties.
The older, amend that, the more mature I get, the more I realize the 'things' of Christmas don't matter at all. 
People, friends, family, especially the little ones, that's what everything, not just Christmas, is truly about, and that's why parties are important.
I've heard several people say lately they 'hate' parties, and as an introvert I have to push myself to go too. A funnily thing happens though, once I'm there and talking to friends and family, I'm always glad I came.
For those of you snorting with derision, yes I am an introvert, being an inny doesn't necessarily mean being shy. That my friends is one of the great misconceptions!
I have a  small poster hanging in my studio

How to care for your introvert:
respect her need for privacy,
let her observe in new situations.
give her time to think before answering,
give advance warning of change,
and time to finish what she is doing.
Don't embarrass or reprimand her in public,
don't push her to make lots of friends,
and she will be the best friend you ever had.

Mono print, Van Gogh Sky

Poppy needs a name.

Hmm what shall I call this Poppy Monoprint? its 12x16 and hot off the 'press' aka my freezer top/work table. As I've said before...this printers daughter didn't fall to far from the parental tree, I love printing, as do my students.

Mono print fun

I hope you've been out side enjoying this glorious spring weather, I've been in the garden a bit, not as much as I'd like, but it's early yet.

Art wise; I've spent the week tinkering with some experimental techniques. I added diatomatious earth to gesso to use in place of molding paste, a friend-Heather Kohl does this and I've always loved her work. I've got to say that she makes it look easy, and it's not!

I think I'll be cutting up my experiment, there are a couple of parts of it I like that I'll save, the rest I'll discard.

I've also been playing around with mono prints again. My students love printing, and I do too, this printers daughter didn't fall too far from the proverbial tree.

I use high density Styrofoam (un-used meat trays) purchased from our local grocer for these prints. They're fun and just challenging enough to keep it interesting.