Fluid Art class

Fluid Art is hands down the best art or craft class, in person or online, free or expensive, I’ve ever taken! It’s filled with so many levels and layers and I’m excited not only to do the lessons but also bursting with new ideas.

The above photos show one of my little accordion books holding some of my first “mini-masterpieces.” It's very minimalists but I love it.

Amy Maricle of Mindful Art Studio is the teacher—warm, open, kind, and very present for her students. We have a private Facebook group as well. Although I’m taking the class two years after it was unveiled, Amy and fellow students are encouraging and helpful.

We are working with Golden High Flow acrylics, which is a new paint for me. Up until now, I’ve mainly used heavy body acrylics. High Flows have an ink-like consistency that, with Amy’s guidance, can do amazing things. I was attracted to the class by the wonderful video promo and was hoping it would return me to my first love--painting. It has far exceeded my expectations! Not only am I learning new things, I am feeling different. More enthusiasm. More excitement. More focus. More discoveries. More painting!

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.

New Journal

This is a new journal I made for a co-worker. It's 6" x 8" and the binding style is sewn-over-tapes. I used thick leather for the tapes.

I painted the covers in various blues with a smattering of teal. Several areas have really nice texture from the acrylic paint.

The signatures of various blue cardstock hold different kinds of artist papers.

Included is this pocket set I painted with acrylics on heavy 140 lb. watercolor paper.

This pocket was originally a calendar page by Jen Delyth.

This is a real library pocket; I grabbed a bunch when our library stopped using them and were throwing them out. There's a nice swirl from left-over acrylic paint on a brayer.