Butterfly Waltz

"Butterfly Waltz" - 4x5 - Mixed Media Collage

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I'm sure you've caught on to the fact that I love using sheet music in my collages. Much of the music I use comes from Bach's Two-Part Inventions; the book that I learned from as a child. This little snippet in 3/8 time reminds me of a fast waltz. After all, butterflies don't move slowly.

All A Flutter

"All A Flutter" - 4x12 - Mixed Media Collage

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I took a new canvas and impulsively painted it red and then wondered what to do with it next. For some reason I decided to create these absolutely outlandish butterflies.

Canvas & Corks

Last night I had the fun of teaching this month's session of Canvas & Corks at the Rehoboth Art League. As you might guess, it's a workshop where everyone brings their own wine (or other adult beverage of their choice) and snack and we make a party out of making art. Because it was the summer solstice, we worked with that as our theme to make collages of sun and stars. There were 16 wildly wonderful women in the class and I had a great time!  And when it was all over, one of the gals even gave me a bottle of wine. Below are selected photos from the session.

Single Poppy

"Single Poppy" - 4x12 - Mixed Media CollageListed on Etsy

Girlfriend Art

My dear friend, Deb, from Charleston, SC (ok, really Mt Pleasant) came to visit with me for a week on her way north to visit family. We always have the best time whenever we get together. One of the activities I planned during her visit was to spend a day in my studio creating what I call "girlfriend art" which served as fun, creative time together and gave us each a souvenir of our time together. 

Step one was to make traditional paper dolls. We used  pages from an old  book which I had purchased when we were antiquing together in Savannah, GA earlier this year.

As you can see, we each created our own patterns. Mine is the one above, hers is the one below. I wish it had occurred to me at the time to trade one of our dolls with each other, but alas, that idea didn't come to me until just now!

Next we colored our supports. We used 8x10 canvas boards and covered them with various colored tissue paper in warm tones that we ripped and glued with soft gel matte medium. This one is mine.

This support is Deb's. You can see that although we are each creating the same thing, they are  already very different from one another's.

In order to tame down the background a little, we applied light colored pieces of lace paper scraps over top of the tissue paper. This one is mine.

And this one is Deb's.

Next we glued on our paper dolls. I had wanted mine to hold hands, but accidentally placed them too far to one side. When I tried to move them, one moved easily, but the other one was too stuck in place and I couldn't easily move it without leaving a ton of newsprint behind. Therefore, I decided to have them jointly carry a basket between them.

Of course, you can see that Deb placed hers perfectly so there were no issues. She's really a much more patient creator than I am.

Then came the fun part. Fashion design! I got lucky with the asymmetric dress on the left. The paper had already been cut in the shape of an angel fish which I had decided not to use and it ended up back in the scrap box. I love the edgy dress design that it created. The dress on the right I designed by placing a piece of tracing paper over the doll and drawing a pattern to fit it. Then I used the pattern to cut out a piece of paper to make the final dress. I chose to make faces on my dolls, too, because I had rediscovered some "googly" eyes left over from a previous project and I couldn't resist using them. 

Deb chose to make these adorable retro styled clothing for her dolls. She decided to make their  hair from paper which needed to be applied at this stage and she also chose to go without faces, which I think is cool. After the medium was dry we sealed the pieces with one coat each of first gloss acrylic varnish and then acrylic varnish in matte. Lascaux, of course. You know I swear by it!

Then finally the finishing touches. I used fabric paint for the dolls' hair as well as to outline their bodies and some of their clothing and the basket. I used glitter glue to outline the rest.

Deb used the same materials for her finishing details plus a bead for a barrette for the doll on the left and a tiny little rhinestone for the pendant on the doll on the right. After we were finished, we sat back and examined our creations. Not only were they a lot of fun to make, we discovered that they were somewhat autobiographical as well. Our choices in making them told us something about ourselves and we had fun talking about that.

The girlfriends in real life. Me on the left and Deb on the right!

Historic Lewes Farmers Market

I made a trip to the Historic Lewes Farmers Market in Lewes, Delaware this past Saturday morning with my good friend, Deb Nixon, who was visiting from Charleston, SC. I love going to the farmers market as it provides a great photo op.

Red Balloon

"Red Balloon" - 8x10 - Mixed Media Collage
Not For Sale

Another collage featuring a child at play on the beach. It has always been a favorite theme of mind in other people's art. About time I created some pieces of my own with this theme. Once again, I'm not yet ready to part with this piece so for the time being it's not for sale.

Butterfly Kisses

"Butterfly Kisses" - 8x8 - Mixed Media Collage
Not For Sale

Over the weekend I experimented with a different technique and I really like the way it turned out. I discovered that an even more textural look could be achieved by layering oil pastels over textured paper; in this case, ogura lace. (My fave!)

And I've become so smitten with this little girl that for the time being she'snot for sale. Pygmalion syndrome, I know, but what are you going to do?