Time flies when you are having fun...

Work and art and blogging seem to be almost impossible for me lately.

They last time I posted it was early fall.  Now the Holiday Season is fast approaching!

I have no idea where the time went.

But I continue to play with acrylic paint on yupo paper whenever I have free time.

The painting above is a background of acrylic paint on yupo with a plastic bag 

smushed around to create  texture.  The "ball" is acrylic paint on yupo.

On this one I did an acrylic background on yupo.  When it was dry I covered it with a 

thick watercolor wash.  I sketched the scene on the dry watercolor in white and then lifted

the watercolor off with a stiff brush and water and a toilet paper square to soak up the watercolor.

For some this seems tedious but for me it is very relaxing.  The dark frame is a separate sheet of

paper that I have done the thick watercolor wash again only a shade darker.

This is a spider web background with circle stencils , etc.

And these are backgrounds with a variety of texture awaiting inspiration.

Happy PPF to everyone and please know that even if I am not posting,

I am "lurking" and enjoying everyone's art.

Is it fall???

Thank you Laura for a our seasonal challenge!

Living in Southwest Florida, fall means the temperature drops below 90 degrees.

We don't get to enjoy the autumnal colors.

As a matter of fact, today I am off to buy some bedding plants for the side yard.

But I did have some leaves I had pressed left from a trip to visit family

in Connecticut (last fall) so used them as my string.

Diva Challenge is Stripes!!!

This week Laura Harms challenged us to use stripes.

For the past three years I have faithfully tangled my 

Carole Ohl Tangle A Day calendar.

This week, with time constraints, this worked best for me.

Stripes show up a lot in my calendar.

And I love the option of trying new tangles in each day's box.

Thank you Laura for a fun challenge and the opportunity to share

Carole Ohl's brilliant calendar.

This weeks Diva Challenge...Water

Thank You Laura!

In the midst of a hot steamy Florida summer

our challenge is "water"

Perfect!

One nice advantage to our summers is the wonderful aromas 

floating in the air.

Early on it is the gardenias and magnolias.  Later we have

the ginger and in our case an assortment of cattleya orchids.

Enjoy!  I wish you could smell them.

Shine....

Many months ago I did this spider web on yupo.  Today I had an idea for using it as a background.
I made my star stencils, taped them down on the background to show off the most interesting colors and painted the whole thing with a transparent acrylic paint.  I let that dry and then put down a few smaller star stencils and sprayed it lightly with white acrylic.

Unfortunately, the original is upside down from how I used it  today.

I think I will stamp a few white stars around and call it done.

It was a fun afternoon project and I used one of the many backgrounds I am accumulating.

Happy PPF!

Diva Challenge

It feels so good to read a "Dive Challenge" 

and have time to do one.

Work has really put a crimp on my tangling and I miss it.

So this week we are to use patterns that start with our initial letters.

So here we are...Sand Swirl and Arrowhead.

That would be me!

Finishing up some projects

I have had some fun with this and now I think it is about ready to head off to my granddaughter.

And before I dispose of the stencil, I will have a little more fun with an "elephant hide" yupo I made months ago.  I never found the "perfect" elephant for the  hide so this was the result.

This is acrylic on yupo and before it dried I added some alcohol.  Nice affect if you want to create a foam or frothy look.

Hoping you all are having a great week.  Happy PPF

The pond

Slowly but surely, I am working my way through my acrylic dumps

on yupo.

This time, I didn't want to cover up the background so added my frogs

after the background had dried.

An update on the orchid that fell in the pool in February.
I pulled it out of it's pot, trimmed up the roots and repotted it.
I think it survived quite well, don't you

Happy PPF!

Work....and art

I never thought it would happen.

I always thought I would make time for art (and my blog)

but working has really knocked me for a loop.

The summer is a slow time for us so I have no excuse.

Last week I headed out to our Art Center and signed up for a class.

That will, for sure, make me get my act together.

I haven't been "gone".  I have become a "lurker".  I see your beautiful things every Friday

and kick myself for not participating.  I have done some "dumps" on yupo so  thought this

week, I would share them.

Joanne Fan

I am a Joanne Sharpe fan.

I have taken her on line classes since her first (I think) Letter Love.

I even got to take a couple of classes from her in person when she came to 

Whim So Doodle in St Petersburg, FL.

So when she started her on line classes in January, Draw your Awesome Year, I was all in.

Because I am working, I am not quite up with the group but I am plodding

along, doing my own thing and once again, enjoying it immensely.

My word of the year...yet again

Here's a sampling

To begin...

Joanne is such a great teacher and these classes are on your computer for forever.

Her themes are POSITIVE and just a great cure for a grey day.

Grey day???  We haven't had any of those lately, have we?

We can make our own sunny day.

Happy PPF!

A Simple Valentangle

This weeks Diva challenge was to do a "Valentangle".

Work has definitely cut into my tangling time.  I even have a hard time

keeping up in my Tangle a Day calendar, something I have been

religious about for 2 ½ years.

Scratched this out this AM, spritzed a little water color, and

called it "done".

Feeling tropical

It has been cool, drippy and grey in Florida lately.

We don't have much patience with grey weather.

We take our blue skies for granted.

So this week, I created a nice tropical background with water colors

on yupo paper.

Decided it needed a parrot so used acrylics on the background.

Happy PPF

Caged Butterflies

Jailed Johnnie is a toughie.  

One of my problems was no matter how I drew it, I saw butterflies.

So call mine "caged butterflies.

W.I.P.

Just can't seem to leave the yupo alone.

This one was initially painted with Createx gold and quinocredone gold.  I smushed

a dry cleaning bag around on it to get some good texture, left it for about five minutes and 

pulled the bag off.  When all was dry, I gave it a coat of matte medium.

Then I mixed up some alizarin crimson water color and a tad bit of cobalt blue

and used a large brush to cover the entire sheet.  I got some interesting bubbles this time.

I traced my giraffe onto the dry red surface and began the lift using a small scrub brush

and water.  I love, love, love watching the subject emerge.
As you can see, I have left the most tedious, detailed part for last...
not a good idea!

Remember him?  He was done on plain white yupo with the same water color wash.

This color wash was crimson and orange sort of mixed on the surface.

And this will be an elephant if I can ever settle on the elephant sketch I want to use.

I used grey acrylic craft paint, silver and fuchsia Createx and smushed it

with crumpled up wax paper to get the texture I wanted.

I am thinking I will use a dark, dark purple for the watercolor wash.

That's what is sitting on my desk.  What about you??

Happy PPF

and here comes February!

A peek in my Journal

I am making more of an effort this year to put something, anything in my art journal

on a regular basis.

The white clean pages always seem to stop me dead in my tracks so I have decided

to start each year with...the year.

Done!  

And then there was a lousy, boring day at work so out came the journal

I sketched it out and already felt better thinking that when I got home I would

have fun coloring it in.  The growly mood lifted.

When in a quandary about just what you want to put on the paper,

the word of the year is always fun to do and a gentle reminder of what that word was!

If all else fails, my little four legged boss is a ready, willing. able subject.

So-o-o-o-o, I have NO excuse!  More journal work this year.

Happy PPF

Water color lift on acrylic

This is another one of the "dumps" using Createx acrylic paint as the base
on yupo paper.

Then I covered it all with antwerp blue water color.

I traced my fish on the blue and then lifted the watercolor revealing

the colorful dump.

This is the original before the watercolor.

Great fun!  I love doing lifts.

Happy PPF!