A catch up

A week has gone by since I posted and the last thing I posted was the sketchbooks I put together and these two pages are ones I finished during the week.

The one on the left was a ghost print from some monoprinting which I have added to and made more interesting.  The one on the right was a sunflower print (background) and on top, I  used a silhouette stencil I cut from a fashion magazine.  Then I added a bit of shading and detail with black ink.  This was for Natalie Kalbach's lesson from creative Jumpstart which I am enjoying a lot.

This page used a gorgeous stencil.  An old Amy Butler one and a quote which I altered a little, adding "She"  instead of "He".  This one is the story of my life!

Under my magnifying daylight lamp here, is a piece of printed chiffon, which I did some free motion of, but didn't like.  The reason for the magnifying glass is that I am unpicking it!

This is my Feather collection.  It is very varied,although many are white cockatoo or black and white magpie feathers, but I also have some blue and black rosella feathers and in the centre is a speckled feather which I think may belong to an owl or night jar.  I pick these up when I am walking each evening, and it is always a great walk when I find one.

These are a couple of quick warm-up collages, a task that I have been neglecting this month!

This is my first page for DLP (Documented Life Project) which is  a site my friend Lisa put me on to.

And lastly this is a page from my doodling journal.  It has lots of prints and painted pages in it and all I do is doodle and use pens and markers in it.

Doesn't seem much for a week, does it?  Well, there are lots of other things, that are in process and a couple of things that are for swaps and such, which I can't show until the appropriate time.  So we will see those the next time or the time after that, or....

Happy Creating!

Orange and purple makes...

I missed a post yesterday. Ooops.  But I still got my stitched squares done for Art Every Day Month.

I was away from home most of the day getting tests done.  Nothing wrong, just routine, but it was a long day away from the studio!
I am working on a daily drawing, but it is one of those complicated ones and is only at the sketch stage.
Here are my warm ups.

And of course the reason for the post title!
A friend asked about the warm ups and I thought I would just copy my reply in here for your information.

• For the warm ups, I am using a black book and a white book.  They are old, and something I would never have used probably. They are both about A5 or half of a letter sheet.  When I started, I began by creating a collage in the black book with scraps and/or prompts from "Painted pages"  I now use prompts of my own collected from everywhere, things like use a circle or add some red etc.  Then I experimented with paint and prompts in the white book.
• I spent 5 minutes or less on each page, using 1-5 prompts (when needed) and use a timer so I don't go overboard.
• I sometimes don't feel particularly creative when I sit down to work, but I know that if I just start, the creativity will come.  The just starting can be a problem and that is what these warm ups are for.  They help me create a routine of just getting on with it.  Because they are so short and use scraps, I can't argue about wasting time or resources and in the long run they make me more productive, because as I am doing them, ideas tend to start.  Sometimes two colours will inspire me, or a shape will give me an idea, but usually, at the end of my 5 minutes, I am rearing to get on with something!
•  Painted Paes is a book. here is the google books link.  However there are lots of art and mixed media books with prompts in them.
• Here is the link to the post about my prompt cards (it is one of a number of old posts where I was using facebook to insert my pictures.  I have since found that eventually, facebook alters the URLs or archives them, so the pictures are lost)
• I now have two sets of prompts. one is specifically art and one is textiles, but there is a fair amount of overlap.

And here is my journal page for today.

This is actually the next spread in my actual written journal - before I have written into it.  In my art journal I am working on a spread for Art Journal journey which I hope to finish tomorrow.

I also got some work done on my Tangled textiles Challenge piece, which I have blogged about here.

Happy creating!

Waterlilies

Worked hard today and got everything done well before tea -and that includes uploading, which is a bit slow at the moment.
Starting with Art Journal journey, which today is inspired by Monet.

This was one of those pages that just flowed really well!
And my stitched square for Art Every Day Month

This one has a fair bit of stitching, some painted scrim (cheesecloth), velvet and painted tyvek.
My daily drawing sketch.

This is a sketch of my perennial sweet pea, which is just starting to bud up.
And my warm ups

I really enjoyed working today and now it is time to get cooking for tea!

Happy creating!

You guessed it - Vincent

Today is day two of AEDM and also of ART Journal Journey's Masters theme.  So I will start with my stitch challenge and my Art journal.

Here is my stitched square for today.

The background is a commercial fabric with a salt type pattern on it.  The top fabric is a scrap of chiffon which has had leaves cut out with a soldering tool.  I used cross stitches to anchor the chiffon and added some woven back stitches to the leaf shapes.

Here is my Art journal page

It is my version of Vincent Van Gogh's 'Wheat field with crows", one of his last paintings and one of my favourites, in acrylic, with one of his quotes at the bottom "Normality is a paved road, but no flowers grow on it"

My warm ups for today

And my daily drawing

Happy Creating!

Since I seem to get more email whilst Art Every Day Month is going, I may be a little late in replying, but I will most definitely do so!

Now it's November

So, it's the first of November, and here in Australia it is cup weekend.  For most Australian's it's all about a horse race, but for me it has always been about getting a day off, lol.
Now, of course,  there are no days off, since art is my work or my passion, perhaps.
And today was no different.  Our quilt group had it's monthly Saturday meeting, which was very relaxed.
I worked on this

Which I really enjoyed. It is the front panel for a stuffed heart,the pattern for which I found in DIY Holiday 2014.  You might be able to see the heart drawn in lightly with a heat erasable pen, but I think I am just going to make these in circles.
I also started my AEDM challenge with my little stitcheries

This is number 1 and I enjoyed doing it whilst some files were downloading!
I did my warm ups

and my journal page

I think this journal spread also covers daily drawing, as well! since I was playing with ink.

Art Journal Journey's  Theme for this month is "Studying under the masters"  Let's see how many of you know who my favourite artist is!  I  will get onto that tomorrow.

Happy Creating!

A mixed bag

Just a quick one tonight as it has taken ages just to upload a day's photos!
I was unsuccessfully trying to download most of the day, and backing up my computer, which also takes ages, so now it is quite late.

My daily drawing sketch is the nectarine branch finished from a few days ago.

My warm up pages.

My journal page, with one of my favourite quotes, by Emily dickinson.
I also spent a little time today sorting foundation squares of fabric, batting and felt as well as scraps and bits and pieces for my AEDM challenge, which starts tomorrow (For me).

Happy Creating!

The kingfisher

Yesterday was very busy, and thanks to a very slow internet it was way past my bed time when I finally got my pictures uploaded, so here are yesterday's pictures.

Today's sketch is a kingfisher.  This one is known as a sacred kingfisher.  Google it and you will see how gorgeous it is.  It is mostly turquoise and has some green and cream feathers.  Although I live close to a large creek and knew these birds were known in my area, I had never seen one.  I have now and it was a very sad experience as I found this one on the ground, saturated after a heavy storm.  Sacred is apt as they are so beautiful.

My warm ups - both collages

And my Journal page.  This one I am linking to Art Journal Journey, the theme for this month is 'in the forest'.  I have really found this theme useful on  those days that I didn't have an idea in my head!

Next month is a few days away, now and last year I joined in Art every day month at Creative every day. This year I have been thinking of a small project to do each day.
I have finally decided on small fabric and stitch embellishments/collages.  This was inspired from three different places.  The first is liz kettle who has been doing stitch meditations on an off through this year (Search for liz kettle on instagram) and Lynn Krawczyk's  petite stacked collages in her book ' intentional printing, and of course, the third is my own work and need to include stitching every day.

For my personal challenge, I will make one 4"  square stitched collage each day.  These will later be mounted in a 5x6 grid on  either a plain quilt, or felt.  Wish me luck - and join us on AEDM with my challenge or your own!

Happy creating!

One of those years

I think 2014 is going on record as one of those years!  As you probably already know, I was extremely ill in the winter, my sister died recently, rubin our dog recently died and this morning I received the news that another of our quilt group members has died.  This is the third this year!  I am beginning to feel as if this year is fated to be the worst in history.  It is so difficult to deal with all this death and destruction.
But of course as we get older, I suppose  these sorts of years are more likely. I am hoping to put together an exhibition of my work next year and to donate a large part of the proceeds to cancer research, as all of my friends and my sister  had cancer.
I was thinking of april, but it will have to be may, as I am going to the Australasian Quilt Convention in April.  Today was the first day for bookings - and guess what!  some of the classes are already booked out!  My husband couldn't believe it and had to come and look for himself.  Luckily, there was no trouble with the classes I booked.  I am certainly not a quilter in the traditional sense!

I forgot the girls over at T for tuesday last week, but this week I have done a digital drawing just for them!

And here are my bits and pieces for today.

A sketch of my nectarine tree, in process

My warm ups

My journal page, which I am also sharing over at AJ Journey
I am hard at work, trying to finally catch up on CQJP2014 which I have gotten very behind at.  Hope to shoow you all some work soon.

A busy Day

I  had art class yesterday and got absolutely nothing done in my studio.  And when I got home, I just said to my self. "Don't stress"  And I didn't.
today, however was a different story.  I got a ton done, perhaps because I had a little break and wasn't stressed!

Here is the sea dragon sketch finished.

and I did another, sketch, a quick watercolour sketch of the ivy outside my studio.

My five minute warm ups.

And my journal page.  These are both Gelli prints from a few days ago. which I layered over a background I wasn't really happy with. I had painted the spread with red and orange paint and scraped it with a catalyst tool.  The amazing thing was when I layered the prints, which were on deli/greaseproof paper, the texture showed through on the unprinted parts.  I am linking this to Art Journal Journey

And miracle of miracle, I did some gelli printing today.  Most of it I did on fabric.

Here is one using a piece of grass as a mask
And, another miracle - I have even started free motion stitching on it!

And here are a pair done with another type of grass

I made a lot more prints, but I will show them to you tomorrow.

Happy Creating!