Creative Gifts

I really like to share with you the talents and creativity of others. This past week, I have been given the opportunity to share some works from some wonderful friends. These two items I am showing you two gifts I received.

This is a shawl my dearest and oldest friend knitted for me. Cindy is a professor of interior design at West Virginia University (and my interior design business partner), but she spent a lot of time knitting me this beautiful shawl. She knows me so very well since we have been friends for 32 years. I know a great deal about her design thinking about this particular piece which is based on a series of 3. There are 3 stripes of blue which are broken up with the turquoise which is 3 sets of 3 rows for a total of 9 rows each.

In one corner she introduced a small charm...a heart which is engraved with "made with love". I can't tell you how much time Cindy put into the planning, not to mention the knitting, of this shawl. Making the choice of yarn, alone, took weeks.
Cindy also brought me this beautiful book which she used to guide her in knitting this shawl. This is a project she will continue with for other people, too. She is keeping a journal of the shawls she is knitting and the people who will receive them. Am I a very lucky woman to have such a friend, or what?
This is also a beautiful handmade gift I have received from a very dear special friend of mine who lives in New Zealand. As you all already know, I am a great lover of glass art and my friend also knows this. Lesley McIver is a glass artist who owns Glitz Art Glass. I absolutely love this piece because to me it speaks of bridges...bridges of life. She has not only designed and made the glass portion of this necklace, but she has also designed and made the beautiful metal hanger which supports the glass. If you have any interest in glass jewelry, at all, please visit Lesley's web site to see the work she is doing. Her work is of very high quality materials, creativity and design. The back of this beautiful piece is as beautiful as the front.

Share with me some similar experiences you might have had with some art friends.

Have a Beautiful Weekend! I wish for you the greatest of spring or autumn weather.

Arte y Pico Award

Elis, at Into the Blystic has given me the Arte y Pico Blog Award! I am so very honored to have been chosen for this...it is my first blog award, too. Thank you so much, Elis. Please visit Elis, if you have not already done so. I would clearly have chosen her for this award, if she had not chosen me first.

The following 5 rules are attached to this award:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and that also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.

4. The Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte Y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. To show these rules.

I have chosen the following blogs to also receive this award:

San at A Life With A View, because she is always sharing not only her paintings and stories, but gives a part of herself with each post.

Fiona Long, because her creative insights are always so inspirational, her comments so supportive and her art so incredible.

Jess at MessyJessie, because she inspires me each day with wonderful sketches, incredible colors and kind words.

Babs at Off the Wall Art, because she gives the greatest comments, so much support and her art is awesome. And she reminds us all to Expect Miracles!

Andrea at La Journee de Miss Doodle, because she blogs in three languages on three blogs, her art is so broad and she encourages so many to move forward with whatever inspires them.

Thank you all for everything you do!

Painting on Raw Canvas

This is something I did on a whim a little while back. I had actually forgotten about it until my daughter asked if she might have it for her little cottage at school. I used acrylics to paint on raw, unstretched cotton canvas. The photo below shows it tacked to the wall of her cottage.

I did not even have a photograph of this piece, so she sent this to me. I can't remember the size of the canvas, but my memory is something like 36" x 72".

I rolled out this raw canvas onto the grass one summer day, then pulled out the acrylics and watered them down...some a bit like watercolors, some with little blobs of paint floating in watery paint and some a bit thicker than watercolors. I also pulled out a spray bottle and began to splash, spray, throw and sometimes brush paint on this raw canvas. The fibers took up the watery paint very much like watercolor paper. By using acrylics, I (supposedly) didn't have to worry about future damage to the canvas fibers as I would have if using oils. And of course, it dried quickly. I did this on a sunny day and just let it lay in the grass until it was totally dry. Then I rolled it up and forgot it until Elizabeth asked if she might have it.
This is a little closer detail shot of the canvas. At first Elizabeth thought it would make a good room divider (she lives in one room), but once she unrolled it in her space, she found it looked best just pinned to the wall.

Have you ever painted on raw canvas? Did you like the outcome? Would you like to give it a try, if you have not done it before? What surfaces do you like to paint upon?

Tomorrow, I have a lovely surprise to share.

Combining Gestural Marks

I have been thinking about gestural marks lately, as you know. My Music Series is based on those marks, but I have been making them with some regularity over the years. So I thought I would share another one with you again today. I also want to show you another view of a recent post which has several gestural marks combined.

This is an old painting which uses quite a few gestural marks. Basically what I did with this one is place the painted canvas on the ground (outdoors) and used paint right from the container to splash on it! I apologize for the clarity of this painting, but it is the best I could do with the silver paint. There is also a dark blue paint on here, as well. It is 20" x 30" deep, gallery wrapped canvas. I rather like the way it all works with the variety of marks and how the blank space helps lead your eye around the silver marking.

I also wanted to show you this other view of the weaving I shared with you yesterday. I think you can see the gestural marks here a bit easier. On each paper, there are several gestural marks and in this case being woven together. Of course, with yesterday's suggestions, I am not sure how much further these marks will go. The other thing to consider is look at how the paper strip also creates a psudo-gestural mark!

So how do you use gestural marks in your work? Do you combine them? Of course I know the answers, but it is always interesting to hear what you have to say!

I hope your day is filled with Beauty!

Catching An Art Moment!

First I want to say thank you for being patient with me yesterday. Sometimes I just can't access my photographs to post here!

I thought I would share a few things I have been working on lately. These are small, but some of what I do as "between work"!

This is a piece I did to see how the Ampersand board for watercolors (Aquabord) would work. I wet the surface of this product and then added the color. In this case, I used watered down acrylics. I love to let colors blend together as they wish, so this was the way I chose to begin with this one. The next thing I did was dry brush some pearl acrylic over the surface. As you probably know these reflective acrylics do not photograph well. Lastly, I used acrylic which was in my little squeezy bottles to add the small gestural mark. This is a 5" x 7" board.

The other little thing I have been working on is another weaving. This is, again, rice paper which I have slapped on some left over acrylic paint. This time, though, I have cut the strips with a mat knife rather than tearing them. I left one edge uncut on each piece to see if weaving it would be easier. As you can tell, I am still working on this one. I have no idea what I will do with it, but I can go in and weave a few inches when I have a moment, though. I will let you know more about how I proceed with this one!

Do you have things like this you do if you can catch a quick art moment? Tell me about it.

Have a Lovely Creative Day!

Not-Typical Monday!

My apologies for today in not posting. I am not at my own computer at present, but I will have it back later today or in the morning.

In the meantime, let me know what you have been working on this weekend!

Have a Beautiful Day!

A Glimpse...

So I thought I would give you a glimpse of what is on my easel right now. I have been working on this for a couple of weeks, now. It may be another week or two before I feel it is finished. It will go in my Music Series and the tentative subtitle is "Love Letters and Tears". This is not even the full canvas...just a close up shot!

So what is on your easel or desk now?

One other thing I wanted to point out to you is our friend Andrea said she has used the Inktense pencils and shows an example of the result on her blog. I am eager to try these and thought you might be interested in seeing an example of Andrea's use of them.

I will be working on some drawings this weekend. What are you going to be working on?

Have a Great Weekend and let me know what creative things you are doing.