Leaf Prints Journal

Here's my newest journal. I was inspired by other artist's small books and thought I'd cull some already made pages from my stash of acrylic paintings.

This one is just so cute and feels good in your hand. I experimented using an old cotton t-shirt for the covers and it turned out great.

Most of the leaf prints were made in 2008, 2009, and 2010 with a brayer or gelatin on 140 lb. watercolor papers.

Some leaves are from trees that are no longer around and bring back a memory, such as the Ginkgo trees near the front of the library where I work. 

There are still many blank pages awaiting a swirl of new leaf prints.

Ready for Spring?!

Liberate Your Little Treasures

Aloha! For almost eight years this collection has been stashed away in a Hawaiian lunch bag. So now I have liberated the small bits of memoires from my 2005 trip with my sister to Oahu, Hawaii. Two thin, small glass vitals with cork stoppers hold small collections of sand from Waimanalo beach. Two larger, squat vials hold sand, shells, coral from Makapuu beach. Inside the glass jar (yes, a former terrarium ) are larger shells, lava, coral, and a seed pod. Wrapped around the top is an island-themed band to hold the ear pieces of glasses but it never really worked.

I lived in Hawaii as a kid when my Dad was stationed there. My favorite beach was Bellows Air Force Base, just up from Waimanalo. I've been back to Hawaii twice and although a lot of things have changed, this place has stayed the same. I love this island.

What memories or treasures do you have hidden that might need liberating?


 

 

Ancient Colors

While enjoying my reunion with acrylics, I started playing around with muted colors and really loved it. Several paintings emerged from my watercolor block, including this one:

Call of the Ancient

14” x 20”

Acrylic on paper

But it wasn’t enough. I wanted something small and intimate, where you could see the smallest marks and also touch texture on a page. Influenced by a book we received at the library about aerial photographs of ancient sites, I got excited about using this limited palette and making a book to explore more possibilities. It was further enhanced when I took photos on the walking trail and Nature seemed to imitate Art.

Mud Patterns

Digital photograph

I don’t know how long I’ll be enchanted with these colors and their limits. But while the Muse is calling me to explore this, I’m heeding and listening. It might lead to another art journal or a few canvas pieces.

Or I could switch colors.

Or exhaust my interest and ideas quickly.

New Terrarriums

Today, I made some terrariums. It is something I first wanted to do years decades ago. 

The largest one (above) will come to sit beside me at work.




Rains finally let up, to allow working outside.

 Since I could not find the precise mini-plants most suitable for terrariums, these may not last. But, I'll keep the lids off, see how they do, and replace as needed. 

It felt good to finally make something! This one (above) is "sedum makinoi ogon" but to me it looks like little clovers, appropriate for St. Patrick's Day just around the corner.

 Nearby, the bees were all a-buzz at the red bud tree.

Rain Lilly

9" x 12"

acrylic on paper

Misty Dream Time

Nothing quite beats the combination of a trip to a used bookstore and a little time off work. Although I love the convenience of buying books online, the tactical quality of taking tomes off the shelves and handling them, bending, reaching, and squatting at various subject areas, and the sheer joy of looking at books is something best done in person.

All weekend, I’ve been in a dreamy state of mind. I recall other times leaving bookstores—with or without purchases—feeling so awed by all the knowledge and wonder and possibility wrapped up between two covers. Tingling with that familiar brain-buzz happiness, I came out of the store on Thursday afternoon and saw trees green-yellow with new growth and an overcast blue-gray sky, giving a mythical wash to my thoughts. My choice of books only added fuel to that fire.

Driving home, the city awash with bursting colors of wildflowers, budding trees, and swooping birds, I felt such a connection with Nature and yet also cautious to distance myself from pollen and allergens. I felt so much a part of the Elements around me and also, paradoxically, a longing for ancient places across the sea.

This push and pull reminds me of things I wanted to express while trying to be a writer and not knowing art techniques. So, I may delve into that as well as continue my Fake Journal book (soon to be unveiled). A large painting is also beckoning.

So many paths, so many interests, so many means of expression. I wish you a happy Easter, a lovely spring, a wealth of possibilities. What is pulling you these days?

Autumn Leaves

'Tis fall and seems only natural to collect leaves on the ground and roll them into acrylic paint. All are 9" x 12" on cold-press watercolor paper.

Evolution of a Painting

After concentrating on making books lately, I took a detour and began a new painting. Or, more accurately, recycled an old painting. It was one I started after my first acrylic painting class, based on an Irish landscape photograph in a book. I added a couple on horseback using clip art images and used student-grade paints. My title was “Riding the Hills.”

I never really liked the painting since the imagery was based on other people’s work. And, at that point, I really didn’t have a lot of experience painting or much skill doing realism. My favorite part was the real sand mixed with acrylic medium and spread over the canvas with a palette knife. It represented stone walls.

Falling asleep one night, I had a vision of painting over the whole canvas, only leaving the sand area. I could abstract the initial idea with a blur of green hills the riders might see on horseback as the landscape whooshed past.





So, I got out all my green paints as well as favorite yellows and blues to mix green from. I extended some of the sand walls with white paint but accidentally got some on the very brown sand. I liked the effect and decided to paint over all the sand sections with white. The texture was fantastic!

Turning the painting on different sides, those former stone walls could be a branch, a twig, a tree, or some other vague organic shape. Then, I began filling in the other areas with different green segments. After a while, that seemed too stiff so I began mixing the greens all over the whole canvas. The piece began to have some movement in it.

Some sand areas I greened over entirely. I liked how it looked. Working on my mixed-media nature sampler books heightened my connection to Nature; the evolving image appeared to be a very simplified and streamlined statement of nature and Her attraction. Not a romp through green hills, but a close-up of a very small segment of Her grandeur.

The next time I worked on it, the white seemed too jarring, so I covered it with various browns. It still seemed too green overall. So, I darkened the interior areas and being freer with my big bristle brush. Where I had been so careful before, keeping within the lines, now I was swishing it around until I found some color combinations I like.

Seedpod

acrylic on canvas

24" x 30"

close-up

Mixed-Media Nature Sampler Book Part Two

Here are more pages from one of my nature sampler book. These get more into the mixed-media theme; all photos are ones I've taken.

acrylics on watercolor paper (left) and painted Ginko leaf encased in vinyl over cotton mesh (right)

ink jet transfer on fabric with staples (left) and hand stitching on fabric (right)

hand stitching on fabric with leather pocket and tree coin

handmade copper leaves on a twig over heavy upholstery fabric (left) and cotton fabric (right)

flower-patterned fabric over glossy photo (left) and photo printed on embossed scrapbooking paper (right)

more of my photos printed on watercolor paper (left & right)

part of a poor, sweet butterfly I found on the ground lying in two parts sandwiched between two mica pieces attached with brads onto copper mesh (right)

watercolor paper with acrylic (left) and gelatin print on watercolor paper (right)

gelatin print on brown paper (left) and plastic fabric flower pattern (right)

metallic crayon rubbings on gel pen paper (left) and Inca dove in tree printed on watercolor paper (right)

dried and pressed Evening Primrose on paint sample chip (left) and Black Swallowtail caterpillar chomping on fennel printed on velum

Mexican Sycamore trees, long view (left) and close-up (right) on ribbed card-making paper

Esperanza (Yellow Bells) on velum paper (right)

small wildflower and baby Mexican Sycamore leaf under clear packing tape on paint sample (right)

Yesterday, I went with a friend to a local pottery studio. She was interested in taking a class so we went and talked to the very nice instructor/owner. They have both wheel throwing and handbuilding classes each month. Clay is calling to my friend and I think she’ll answer the call and begin a wheel throwing class in July.

While I’m intrigued, I don’t hear clay calling me. At least, not right now. I’m much too interested in book binding (I’m taking another class) and painting.