Seeking ideas

I have been at odds with myself since our art friend/instructor retired.

She was always challenging us with new techniques.

She worked through them, step by step and carefully supervised us in each new technique.

She told us "you do it my way today and from then on, you can take off in any direction."

As a result, we were usually delighted with our results.

This past week I have explored different ideas found on the internet.

I was delighted to find Gerda Lipski on YouTube.  She does a lot of wonderful things and her 

instructions are easy to follow.

This was one of her ideas.  The only board I had was really too long.  This looks better
when done as a square.  It is cardboard triangles set in gesso and painted.

Another one of her ideas but I used one of my old backgrounds rather than doing a new one.

Again I used an old background here but I really like the look of it.

I have also scoured Amazon for books that might give me new directions to pursue.
I got Jo Toye's Book, Abstract Explorations in Acrylic Painting and it is a GEM.
It is packed with ideas and step by step instructions.

This was my first ever attempt with Tar Gel.  It is a bit of a mess to work with but you will see some lovely things she has created with it.

And blooming in the side yard is my orchid Schomburkgia tibicins

This orchid hangs in a basket and has 6 foot long stems reaching for the sun.  As a
result, the blooms are up by my neighbor's roof.  This year there are three stems of flowers.
It is a favorite of my husband and mine partly because of the dramatic presentation.
Wishing everyone a Happy PPF
And if you have suggestions for things that have boosted your creativity, I would love to hear!

Ladies (and gentlemen) start your glue gun!

Recently I took a class at our local art center.  The instructor brought in stencils of trees

which we placed on watercolor and sprayed with assorted colors.

I was admiring the tree and wondered if I could make something similar.

I dug around in the closet until I unearthed my glue gun, some twenty years old, and

a bag of glue gun "bullets".

I made my first tree and when I placed it on my paper, decided to leave it on the paper.

I used matt medium to adhere the tree to the paper.

Then I painted the tree and paper gold.  It was too bright so used a mix of paynes gray

and burnt sienna to wash over it all.  After the wash I wiped it down like I had used a stain.  I added bits of gold and silver paint to brighten it again.

So here is my first stencil/turned artwork.

Once I got going, I decided to do some flowers to see if I could do something with them

Here they are resting on wax paper.  When cool, I peel them off.

Here they are.  After I do the staining, I touch them up with gold and silver (it looks blue here)

paint.  The results are primitive so I decided that surely glue guns have improved from my

20 year old one so off I went to the local craft store.

Glue guns are identical to the old ones!

The 'bullets' I had had a price of $1.99 for 10 on the old package.  My new ones were $9.99 and I got 20.   Well, maybe this week I will make a real stencil and use it the way we did in class but I will be using my 20 year old glue gun.

Blooming has slowed on the lanai.  It has been in the mid 80's and no rain and little humidity.

I have repotted 15 orchids and have about 5 more to go.  It is muddy, messy work but the results more than make up for the work

And my little "Yellow Bird" is blooming this week.

Happy PPF!