Private Art Retreat

Sure enough, I brought my at-the-desk inspiration journal home for the weekend. Friday, sitting in a day dreaming stooper, I picked up a pencil with my left hand and watched myself draw a face. Oh dear, "I've scribbled on the bottom of a business check stub. "

No matter, I just cut off the business part and glued the ART part in my journal. Inspiration!

So, Saturday morning I woke in a party mood. I always wiggle in bed for a little bit getting my ART plan for the day all worked out.

First thing I did was gesso the top page of a 9 X 12 block of watercolor paper. Then I sat down with a pencil in my left hand and mindfully tried to sketch a face.

This is fun!

But it would be so much more fun if somebody were playing with me.

I shot off a Come As You Are ART Retreat Party invitation via e-mail to my bbff, Zorana.

The invite was not only to sketch with our non-dominant hand but to paint with it as well.

And, at various stages during the process to send each other an e-mail with a progress shot.

Why?

For me it was to try to loosen up and not do so much blending and blending. I reasoned if I was concentrating on using my left hand that maybe I would see the piece in a different way and leave it alone.

In the second photo, I have traced over some of the pencil sketch with a permanent black pen because the pencil was so faint and I didn't want to lose the sketch. I am also auditioning a napkin for the background.

Napkins are added like any collage element. For me that is with Golden Matte Medium. I brush a layer on the canvas or in this case the watercolor paper and then lay the napkin in it. I use the brush to smooth the napkin and add a layer of matte medium on top. The napkin is so bio-degradeable that you do have to do this step quickly and then stop. It almost melts away. Just to confess, I always go too far and mess up a little spot before I quit. It's another one of those lessons that I keep learning over and over.

I never just leave the napkin untouched after adding it to my composition. With this one, I traced a little haphazzerly around the white blossoms and then began to paint out the napkin background. The idea was to push the napkin background further into the background of my painting and not totally get rid of it. The haphazzered part was because my left hand knows no other way.

This is my first "finished" shot. Notice I have signed it. That means I'm finished. But......

here is my second "finished" shot. I just had to blend and blend a little more in the face. The change is very subtle but I came very close to messing it up.

This was a fun challenge and I recommend it. It felt very weird to use my non-dominant hand. Oh, I forgot to tell you that I also used different brushes. I used larger burshes and did not let myself pickup that little tiny favorite brush.

Zorana took the challenge and she is going to show you hers as well. But I'm in Texas and she is in California so she may not have it up just yet. Her painting is a wonderful piece of art and I hope she tells you how she actually writes with her right hand but paints with her left hand. Have you ever heard of such? She's my bbff.

More later,

Sharon