Budget-Friendly Alternatives to a Gelli Plate

I recently experimented with fun foam and a silicone baking sheet, as cost-effective alternatives to a more expensive gelli plate. The results are published on Nuime. Here's the link.Budget-Friendly Alternatives to a Gelli Plate

Fall At Last...Almost

We are just beginning to get tiny hints of fall, as in this exuberant little tree in Downs Park, Annapolis, Maryland.

 It is so welcome after the brutally hot summer we have just endured.

It doesn't get better than this!

One of my favorite artists is Jane Davies. She is offering an online class incorporating monoprints and collage. Both of those things are passions of mine. So, I get to experience 3 of my favorite things at once. I'm stoked! Please check out her website and, maybe sign up for your favorite class.
Jane Davies studios

Skywatching

My son Aaron and grandson McKinley visited for the weekend. Last night we went out with my daughter Rachel  and found Saturn on the telescope. Rachel had never seen it before and was duly mystified. There's something ineffable about seeing that object, rings and all, in real time. It's especially life-changing knowing it's almost a billion miles away. How amazing too, to watch it move rapidly across the field of view. It's difficult to describe. I still am blown away, even though I've seen it dozens of times. I am grateful that we could all see it together.

Tree With Roots

This is a mixed media collage that I recently finished. The drips seemed to fit an image of a tree that I've had for maybe years. This one took a long time to complete. I seem to finish all but the top left corner of a piece, and then that corner taunts me until I finally finish it. This isn't the first time that corner

has given me pause. I guess it's the way I look at things while I'm working.

Fall Is Coming

It felt like an early fall morning in the Back Forty today. There was a cool breeze and the crows were complaining to each other. That's what I love about August in Maryland: every once in a while, there is a day or two's break in the heat. It's a reminder that fall really is on the way.

Questions That Artists Don't Want to Hear

Here's an engaging article tht I know will pique your interest! A number of artists have added their own set of questions. https://niume.com/pages/post/?postID=67533

Spring Is Coming

I went out on the deck to have my coffee at 6:30 AM. Winter is on the way out. I noticed that the birds have begun to call, and "that other bird over there" has begun to answer. Ah yes, they are staking out their territories. I heard robins, ducks, fish crows, jays and other unidentified twittery things. In another month, the noise will be deafening. I do like to hear this.

Organic Flow-Through

This piece began with an exercise called "Eleven Dots" in Creating Abstract Art, by Dean Nimmer. You randomly place 11 dots on a blank page, connect them as you wish, and then intuitively go from there. I like the colors and contrast in this, and my husband says that it's "Picasso-esque." (Love is blind.) If it's turned on its side, it resembles a fancy fish. I could call it "Cosmic Fish" or "A Fish out of Water." It's bothersome to me though, because I feel it lacks complexity. It may be time to "bury my darlings" and cover parts of it with other layers. I'll share the results, but I think I'll look at it for a few days first.

So, I decided to scrape some white across parts of the piece. I put some plastic wrap over that and let it dry overnight. This is the result:

I filled in some of the shapes left by the plastic wrap and I do like this part of the piece.  It reminds me of mysterious ancient writing:

Next I mixed titanium white and ultramarine blue, and scraped them over other areas. Now It's becoming more interesting.

I also added magenta paint, and then I outlined prominent shapes with black India ink. This is the final painting, which is entitled "Spirit Bird Spoke" (Someone also saw a Spirit Fish.)