COLORS a poem

by Earle Liederman

Sweet spot with dried flowers pressed and forgotten. Now preserved and gilded.

Thank you Kathy for gifting me with the vintage plastic doilies. You see, I used them immediately. What fun!!

Having a great holiday.
Enough now,

Sharon

EDIT....................here is the book the poem came from

Wings

From Wings of Love

6 X 6 gallery canvas

A great weekend was had.

Not all was crazy art.

Balanced crazy art

with sweet art

with house

with yard.

FYI: post # 501

Enough,

Sharon

Crazy Mail Art

And so I did a little mail art this morning. No, really it was me. I know I know. Doesn't look like me. Soft pretty girls....................... Playin is good.

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Did you get your September/October copy of Cloth Paper Scissors? Now I have told you before that I fully intendend to be inspired when I read these magazines.

On page 22, there is an article by Alex Shur titled, "Journaling into Painting". It's about seeing things in the clouds. You know. Well anyway it is a wonderful article and she does manage to paint soft and pretty maybe because she uses watercolor.

I on the other hand recently read many blogger accounts who attended Jesse Reno workshops, as well as hearing first hand from Deryn. So, this is mine and Norah'S interpretation in the form of mail art. Maybe a combo of the two.

Now, I have to go get on my think tank and go round and round and round for hours and hours and then, I'll look back and my yard will be mowed.

I sure enough have more for later,

Sharon

Artful Mess

I have no ART to show today but thought I would give you a peek of my artful mess. Yes, it's all hanging out here.

This what it looks like when 49 projects get going all at once. I won't list off the projects, just have fun guessing what they are.

Then, if I actually finish something, you know I will be back for show and tell.

Your visits and comments mean the world to me. I am so grateful for my blogging lifestyle.

Thank you,

Sharon

Marathon Finish Line

Continuing from yesterday, I wanted to say what a wonderful painting Sally and Deryn did. They made me look like one heck of a teacher don't cha think? And I was so very happy to get to play ART with them. We had so much fun. I liked it when Deryn said, "I like doing hair this way". And I thought, Norah's going to give me a headache dancing up there.

Here is Deryn and more studio in the background. She is a jewelry designer and photographer. And my request was to make a charm. Now I didn't have any particular type of charm in mind. I just wanted to make a charm. When I saw the bee charm that Sally made at an early summer session of Camp T, I knew that was what I hoped to make.

Of course "the wingkeeper" would want to make something with wings. This is my bumble bee charm that Deryn taught me how to make. I don't have jewelry making supplies and I don't have time to paint and make jewelry too for now. That means I probably want make jewelry until the next Camp Turlington. But I really enjoyed making it and Deryn is an excellent teacher.

Side note: I did indeed look for the words 'friend' and 'sore' for my bee wings. Never did I notice that it said 'Friday friend'. I have just now realized that Sally and Deryn are my new Friday friends as I see myself jumping in the car on Friday afternoons and heading to the piney woods to meet up for a ART weekend.

About to go home here. See the baggy eyes. That is what happens when you lose sleep to play ART.

One more thing to mention. If you have heard the myth that Sally doesn't stop to eat and there is nothing to eat at Camp Turlington.....don't believe it. For one thing, within reach (the fourth spot at the table) was huge bowl of grapes both red and green, huge can of mixed nuts, huge bags of chocolates and more. I'm just not accustomed to having those snacks right there and I have no will power to resist. So I didn't. You can do that at Camp. Right?

But then, there is Mr. Camp Director. Who checks in between golf games as well as calling from the club house just to make sure Sally knows it is meal time. So, then we had huge wonderful meals. Maybe she didn't cook it but nevertheless it was there. So, thank you Jerry, I had such a wonderful time at your camp.

And thank you again Sally and Deryn for taking the leap and inviting a blogger stranger into your home. You made me feel so comfortable and at-home that I didn't even have to show you my chain saw art.

Enough,

Sharon

Marathon Part 2

Maybe you noticed in an earlier picture that it kinda looked like the Camp supplies towered all the way to the ceiling.

They do. And I hope it's OK that I share another side of the studio where from floor to ceiling, anything you might have in your dream studio can be found.

Sally sufferes from the same dilemma that I do. We must have every color available in what ever product that we are going to try. You want some Folk Art paints, she's got all 79 colors. You want Golden liquid, she's got every little bottle which totals one big drawer about 6 bottles across and 15 bottles deep. Sally, you have duplicates. Oh yes and if you want Golden Heavy body, she's got the store display. Really, I'm not kidding.





Here is a close up of that.
I knew you wanted to see it.
Sally will have to tell you about it.




My new friend Deryn, knew that she need not bring any supplies for the ART Marathon weekend. I did not. Well, Sally told me but I didn't believe her. Of course I travel with my own brushes and my own brush cleaning jar and my own gel medium (good thing because Sally didn't have this kind, haha) and my drink of choice. I knew she would not have that. Just like I knew she would not have my prunes.

That's all my stuff at left.



Sally, the Camp Director is the most generous soul I know. Anytime we needed something, anything, she directed us to it. However, she didn't have to direct us (yes Norah's presence was obvious) to the paper napkins. We spied these napkin drawers early on and dug around a little.

The camp Director requested that I share a little of my technique for painting faces. So I got to play teacher. And I had to go first as I think that was part of my initiation into Camp T.

Actually I was eager to share this as I am going to teach a very similar project in September at the Paper Cowgirl Retreat. The difference being the size of the project due to the amount of time allotted.

Looking over Sally's shoulder to see her in progress.

That Sally, she is such a clown.

Looking over Deryn's shoulder.

This is one beautiful lady.

Oh, and look at her hands.

You know Norah's already dancing in my head about

those hands.... showing up my art.

Here is my class piece.

I found that beautiful napkin in Sally's stash.

And all those little crumbs that I collaged on the right corner....

Sally has a ....no she has three trash drawers for collage.

If you don't believe it is trash, just click on the picture and discover the slither of bandaid wrapper right at the bottom right.

Enough for now on this marathon post.

Sharon

Marathon Weekend

I have been on an ART marathon weekend. I can't say that I was in training for the marathon before going. And I can't say that it was a contest. But I can say that it was an endurance test for this old lady. In my younger days, I could stay up many nights in a row until 2 or 3 AM immersed in my ART or craft. We did that and I am here to tell about it.

Friday afternoon, just minutes after I told you I would be gone, I jumped in my car, loaded with my gallery of show and tell, supplies, and a little case of necessaries which did include my coffee creamer and prunes. I raced down the highway exactly 107 miles to a delightful destination in the Texas piney woods. For I had been invited to Camp Turlington. Camp T was not new to Deryn.

Truth be told, I pretty much invited myself or begged for an invitation. This was only my second face to face encounter with a blogger. I didn't know them and they didn't know me. We leaped together with faith. We all three landed on the finish line with joy in our heart.

I don't have to process the weekend in order to tell you about it. I processed it from moment to moment right there in the moment. I will however, need more time.

Very quickly, I will tell you that one of our projects was to make a journal that we can add pages to. Our covers were made with old book covers and I wanted my book to be big so I used the huge book that I found in April of 2007. at Antique Alley. It had been waiting all this time for Camp T. I took the pages out and shared some with Deryn and Sally. I prepped my pages shown above with a bit of wallpaper down the side to receive the eyelets.

For now, that's all I have time to share of my ART marathon weekend. We haven't even turned the first corner.

Thank you Sally and Deryn.

Sharon

Gone

Just checking in and out.

Gone for the weekend.

For

FUN

FUN

FUN

FUN

FUN

FUN

ENOUGH FUN,

Sharon

A Birthday Day

Today is my sweet little girls birthday. She probably wouldn't like that I am sharing this particular picture. I am always trying to capture that pouty mouth in my paintings.

Haven't yet. Nevertheless, this picture was my inspiration for this journal page.

I have made six journal pages now and I thought I would share with you some things I have discovered. Not about my inner self so much but about my painting challenge.


I challenged my self to paint faces without first doing a pencil sketch. I've challenged myself to use other than flesh skin tones. I challenged myself to paint the face right across the middle of the book. I challenged myself to not paint hair and then I did. Paint hair.



The first thing I discovered was there is not much difference doing the sketch with paint instead of pencil. As a matter of fact, I think I prefer it for now.

This is not a discovery but even though I know the eyes are right in the middle of the face/head, I have a hard time with that. I clearly always make the nose too long.

The face on the first four pages were painted out of my head. I was just trying to get a human face on paper. I was pleased. Then, on "upside down world" posted yesterday, I was actually looking at a face (that was not in color) when I painted her. I enjoyed just laying in the light and dark colors and enjoyed seeing the loose effect. Something I long to do but can not stop blending and blending.

That was so much fun that I thought to use this picture of my daughter to paint my next page. I cropped the picture to the same ratio as the book spread. Then printed it but about 1/4 the size of the book spread. Here is what I discovered. I could not help but try to paint a "likeness" since I knew who the picture was. And so I kept blending and blending and overworking it.

Of course, I did not get the likeness and stopped trying when I realized that I was trying too. Getting the likeness was not part of my challenge. Another day for that. I moved the chin up more than once and move the mouth up once but never moved the nose. Anyway I really like it and maybe it is just me but she seems to be more of a portrait than any of the others.

Also, I like the composition of the photograph with the perpendicular lines that the door frame gave and I mimicked that with the paper napkin. I may paint in a little more definition on the flowers or I may decide enough.

I'm planning to have a great Monday. Hope you are too.

Enough for now,

Sharon

Upside Down World

Hope you are having a great

and

perfectly perfect weekend.

I think I am.

I like her very much. I leave interpretation to you.

However, my dear one said she looks like something from National Geographic. I think he gets it.

Enough now,

Sharon

Red White & Blue

I keep finding my name in the sale ads.

I enjoyed the graphic look on the "out of the box" page.

I'm watching the Olympic opening tonight.

Go Red White & Blue.

I already had this page prepped with the Atlas map.

So.

In my mind, it was all perfectly clear that I should do this. So far.

Why don't you take the challenge and find your name in some text and start a journal page or piece of art. Put you name down first. It is like signing before you make the ART. Oh yes, let's all do RED WHITE & BLUE.

Enough,

Sharon