Turquoise

It is a big day for this old girl today...I am 77!

Egads, how did this happen...so fast?

There is some saying about the days being long and the years fly by.

It is TRUE!

However it seems in the 70's the days fly by also.

That said,  being a December birthday, that means that turquoise is my birthstone.  Oh, there are also some glittery birthstones that go with December but in my head turquoise is mine.

And I love it!

I can remember each piece of turquoise I have received or purchased AND where it came from.

Of course, most have originated in New Mexico and that is where I acquired most of it.

So, I played "dress up" and put it all on at once!

And now on to my art for the past couple of weeks.  I dug out my old friend yupo  and here are some of the results.

One of the things I like about yupo is that you can cut it and weave into it pretty easily.

Another thing I like about yupo is that you can lift paint as I did here and in the first one (the dots have been lifted in it).

I have been enjoying another "Abstract" class at our art center.

We have been doing some work with dry brushes and I really enjoy the look you achieve.

And then one more...a collage.

Doing this was a lot like knitting, doing the same thing over and over again.

It is sort of soothing, if you ignore the sticky fingers.

But I collected an assortment of different pages and print.

So that's it!  I haven't been around but I have been playing and visiting your sites.

My computer issues have not been resolved.  But please know I am visiting and enjoying all that you do.  Happy PPF and  A Happy New Year to all.

Crazy Collage

It is that busy time of year and I think I will find anything to do rather than what I am supposed to be doing.  Does that happen to you?  I get very frustrated with myself.  Another weird thing,

Friday comes and Friday goes and I completely forget to visit my friends at Paint Party Friday.

Then on Saturday, I realize and make a late visit.  I think the frustration with not being able to comment on other blogs is getting to me.  They say I need to use Chrome and we have tried it and didn't like it.  But it is a Google product so I guess this is a way of forcing people to change.

This old girl is too old and too stubborn but it does diminish the experience.

So what have I been doing?

Collage...and more collage, and collage papers (the most fun).

This was lots of fun to do.  I peeled matt medium off my fingers for days.  I am thinking about using a tack iron.  Have any of you used one?  What are your thoughts?  I can't seem to get everything to stick nice and smoothly and think that that might make it easier.  (A Christmas present to myself when I haven't bought any for anyone else).

This is a small canvas glued on a larger canvas.

And on the lanai right now

These blooms were hanging at the bottom of a very large orchid and we couldn't see them so for the first time, I picked them and brought them in.

Wishing all a happy Paint Party Friday and a sane Holiday Season!

Thanksgiving in Florida

It is upon us...the Holiday Season.

Many of my orchids are blooming or in bud.  

I thought I would share just a few

King George Serendipity

Chocolate drop

A brassavola I tied to the tree about five years ago

Mac Holmes 'Newberry'

No art today!  Just wonderful natural blooms that are giving my Thanksgiving color.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Frustration with technology

My issues with Blogger continue.  Now they tell me that I have to use another browser.

They "think" Safari is the problem.  So, we have a problem.  I am not using another browser.

I will continue to visit all of your wonderful, inspiring sites but you won't be 

hearing any of my thoughts.

So this week I was in a frenzy.  I had had a couple of uninspired weeks so I went back to 

an old favorite paper, yupo, and an old technique and went to work

Our collage/mixed media class had assigned a junkyard.  I had a lot of fun with this one.  I am a messy sort anyway and this was right up my alley.

Wishing all a wonderful Thanksgiving.  And Happy PPF

Reworks

It is 87 degrees here in Florida and has been warm all week.

Yesterday I went swimming.

I have had a couple of open wounds for the past six weeks and couldn't swim so it was a great

treat to be back in the water again.  However, it is hard to imagine that it is November

and the Holidays are upon us.

Last week I shared a dancer that I had done for my new class at the Art Center.

Well, she didn't pass the test so I got to do what I love best...rework a canvas.

I had done a collage frame before so there is a lot of texture on the canvas.  I put scraps of sheet music in the center and then painted and collaged my flamenco dancer.  No class this week so I have to leave it alone till next week.  Abstractions are a struggle for me but I love them.  I guess Have a rigid brain (I am sure my three kids would agree with this).

Wishing everyone a Happy PPF.  I will try to visit each site but am still unable to comment on most sites.

Painted tissue paper

A good week!

I already know that the class I am taking at the Art Center is a winner.

Our first class we painted tissue paper...don't laugh.  We used sponge brushes on wet tissue that was stuck to a white trash bag.  We then were assigned to use the tissue as collage in something we created at home.  My topic was "dance"

Dance like no one's watching

I used the tissue as the frame on this one.

I now have enough painted tissue to last me the rest of my life.  My file bag of collage paper is so heavy I can hardly lift it.

Then yesterday I resurrected a painting I had done a couple of months ago and essentially

spilled all of my frustrations on it.  I am not sure that it improved, but the process put me in a 

great frame of mind.

And now for my technical difficulties.  For the past few weeks I havent been able to comment on most of the blogs I visited.  Only a few of them would show my comment.  The rest disappeared into the great beyond.  It was suggested that I clean out our "cookies" which I have done.  We will see this week if it helped.  If you have any ideas, please share them.

Wishing you all a Happy PPF

Help!!!

To my Paint Party Friday friends,

I am unable to post to your sites for some reason.

In a few cases, my post showed up but over and over I got nothing.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Can you help me out?

Hopefully there is a "wizard" out there somewhere, especially at this time of year, that can help me.

Fall!

Finally our temps have dropped under 90 degrees.

That must mean that fall is upon us.

We were lucky to be able to make a quick run up to the northeast for some respite.

The leaves were just beginning to turn but the temperatures were so cool and refreshing.

And with cooler temps, I should be able to spend more time painting on the lanai.

A new class is starting at the Art Center that I am looking forward to.  

It will be a mixed media class with some collage.  It sounds perfect.  I am looking forward to it.

You can see what was on my mind for the past few months in this one.

Then I took off in a new direction.  I aways enjoy geometric designs so these two are reworks of something else.  I was pleased with the one on the left.
Wishing all a happy PPF

P.S.  My blooms on the lanai this week

Cattleya Chocolate Drop

Fall???

The only time of year I miss Colorado is in the fall.

We used to enjoy the cooler weather and the beautiful color everywhere.

Even the sumac at the side of the highways turned a radient red.

In Florida the heat and the hurricanes continue.

I am so sad for all of the people in the panhandle of Florida.

Hurricane Michael was deadly.

We endured wind and soaking bands of rain for most of the past week but thankfully that was all.

Today is our last class in collage.  I am afraid that this one was a bit of a disappointment.

We just did our thing and didn't really acquire much new information.

To that end, if you are doing collage, could you share with me what you use to attach your paper?

I have been using Mod Podge and feel I get too many wrinkles in the paper.

I did this one at home on one of those boards.

This one only has tiny bits of collage.  I wanted to try a chili red base color here.

Wishing all a happy PPF

PS  My blooms on the lanai this week

Collage Class

My first class in collage started last week.

This is not a good class for me.  I am one of those messy sorts and within minutes of starting a project, I have bits of paper scattered all over the floor, my desk, and my lap.

After several attempts at using a brush for the ModPodge, I resorted to using my fingers.

Now, the bits that were on my desk were stuck to my fingers (not to mention the globs of Mod Podge

that accumulated on my fingers).

The long suffering husband began to whine about the mess in my corner.

I am not sure where this will end, but here is my first week's project.

I think he needs more short bits on his face, but those were the bits that turned into goo on
my fingers.
Another class today.  Perhaps we will learn how to do this "tidily".
We had a beautiful bloom pop up this week.  It is a dendrobium orchid that pushed it's bloom up
through a palmetto bush.
Wishing all a Happy PPF

Clean up

I had to do it!

My lanai/studio was a mess.

And the bad thing is that it is fully visible from the living room

My more than patient husband hadn't said a word BUT in anticipation of cooler weather,

I knew he would like to enjoy that space out side.

So everything got packed up and put away and it looks like a nice place to relax, if and when the cooler weather ever comes.

Before the massive clean up, I took an old painting and reworked it.

My daughter sent me a book this past week, Old in Art School by Nell Painter.
First of all, I loved the fact that her name was Painter and she was a painter.
My last name is Art and I enjoy art.
And then I read the book!
This is a great read and I can't wait to pass it along to my arty friends.
We all can identify with her many emotions as she makes her way through art classes.
Old in Art School by Nell Painter
You will enjoy it!

And the blooms on the lanai this week?

Wishing all a Happy PPF

Sweet Memories in Collage

In anticipation of a new class in collage at our art center, I have been cutting and pasting

this past couple of weeks.

A trip to a Goodwill Store turned up a new background for me.  They had a basket full of old

Simplicity and Butterick patterns.  The tissue patterns were brown with age and I decided they 

would be perfect for a background.  What I didn't anticipate was the flood of memories that came back to me as I opened the pattern.

My mother made everything I wore until my junior year in high school.  She made dresses, coats, slacks, suits and prom dresses.  She even made my attendant's dresses for my wedding.

We would head off to the fabric store, pick a pattern and then choose the fabric.

It was our idea of fun.  I loved picking the fabric and she loved making the outfit.  As I got older,

I came up with variations on the pattern which she could always accommodate,  no problem.

When my daughter came along, she was ecstatic.  She was back sewing again.

What a gift she had!  And I just took it for granted.  Do I sew?  NO!  I never had the patience for it.

But I have some amazing, sweet memories of my dear personal seamstress.

"Swatches"

"Decisions, decisions"

Wishing all a Happy PPF

Happy Thoughts

There are times in our lives that we just have to focus on "happy thoughts".

I have noticed that some of my work has been getting darker and darker.  Usually I am an upbeat sort of person so I have been aware of the change.

So the past couple of weeks I decided to create "happy thoughts"

I was conscious of the colors I chose (and made changes if I felt to much darkness was creeping in).

This was the first finished project.

And this is the second one.  

I think I have accomplished my goal.  

I hope they brighten your day.

Happy PPF

But before I go, here are my blooms this week

Aren't I so lucky to have this beauty in my yard

Last year when I was dividing my orchids I had a scrap left.  I tied it to a palm tree and it surprised me this week with these blooms.

Kokopeli

I am a great lover of all things Native American.

I wear my turquoise.  For 35 years beautiful Navajo rugs decorated the walls of our home

As a child (some 65 years ago) we spent a lot of time in Santa Fe with a friend of my father.

He lived on the now famous Canyon Road in a home filled with Native American treasures.

We visited Santa Fe in early June and I was in my own private heaven.

That is the good news.  The bad news is that my husband doesn't enjoy the area AT ALL.

So it was a quick fix for me and we came home.

This was a floral that i was reworking without much thought.  Kokopeli just seemed at home on 

this primitive background and I like it better than the old floral.

An old cottonwood tree along Canyon Road in Santa Fe.  My husband gives you a perspective of the size of the tree.

Wishing all a Happy PPF

Working Big

This piece is big (for me).  It is 20" x 30".

I must say, the size put me off for a while and I really don't have a place to work on something

this big so it was a clumsy process.  Another thing that was new is that we used gold gesso

as our base coat.  Doesn't seem like much, but it really throws me off.  That said, it is good to stretch

your mind and try new things.   This is the second work I have done on the large canvas,
with gold gesso.

This was the first one.  I have two large canvases waiting but I think I need to get an easel
before I attempt anymore.
Wishing all a Happy PPF

Dog Days of Summer

Wow, this seems like it has been a warm summer.

My biggest problem in my studio (the lanai) is that I sweat so much it drops on to my artwork.

Yuk!  Anyway I haven't been doing much painting or much of anything else for that matter.

We have had so much rain, even the orchids aren't blooming.  I think that they are just trying not to rot in their pots from all of the moisture.  Wish I could send some of it to the western states

where nightly we see the communities burned up by raging wildfires.

 On a lighter note, the painting above was done by using a squirt of mat medium in a design on one piece of paper and then press it with the second.  You let that dry and paint away.  The dried medium 

gives in interesting texture to your paint.

Wishing all a happy PPF

Our four legged boss, Harley keeping a close eye on his "stick".

Changing

Change is a constant.

It goes on in our lives and it goes on in our art.

As I have mentioned before, I love to rework old pieces.

This week I decided to show the changes one of my pieces has undergone.

It all began in an art class doing experimental backgrounds on yupo paper.

We used transparent paint and rubber stamps.

Then we were to add a whimsical floral design with opaque acrylics.

I was OK with it for a while but then added more detail

I was "OK" with this...for a while

And then I changed it completely.  And this is how it will stay because it is framed and I can't get at it.

And here it is at the local art center summer show for the next five weeks.

We are working on large, (30" x 40") canvases in our class right now.

They aren't cheap, but I figure I can repaint them several times.

The problem is that they definitely don't store under the bed.

Wishing all a happy PPF