Happy Hour

Aren't they happy?

That's how I feel today having to come back to real life work.

This was my last prepped background for the Sketchbook Project.

No worry, I did three more this morning.

For some reason I was late for real life work.

Expect Monday,

Sharon

Misty Class

I'm playing ART with the ever so generous Misty Mawn in her online "Painting Layers" class. The first week was learning how much fun it is to paint a whole stack of backgrounds and have them all waiting for the next step. Week two was collage which I hope to do more of.

Well my four days are almost over and I can report a great balance of outside and inside fun.

Now, I think I will go and try a nap for fun.

Expect sleep,

Sharon

Sketchbook Project

I really do enjoy painting on top of a prepared background. I seldom did that in the past. But what I like is just letting the background show through the face. The only thing, it really doesn't take much "time" to paint the face. Well that's good because "no matter what I do time just keeps ticking around me."

Expect a great weekend,

Sharon

Timeline

Here is another page in my Sketchbook Project. Sorry I forgot to give the link last time to Art House Co-op. It is a great site and they have many projects that you might participate in. This one is closed I believe and my Sketchbook is due January 4th. I think I will have enough time to finish.
Expect more,
Sharon

Timekeeper

I'm finally getting started on the Sketchbook Project. It took four weeks for the Moleskin to arrive and then I had to put it off a bit more. Today I official became the Timekeeper. You see each participant is assigned a theme and mine is "Time". This should be easy as I'm always talking about needing time; more time; enough time; etc etc etc...........

Update on our life: my Mother-in-law passed away last week. She had reached the end of her time. We will grieve for her but she had a long life and we feel blessed with that.

I started a new Thanksgiving tradition at the Tomlinson house this year by celebrating Thanksgiving with dinner on the Saturday before. Ryan and Kristy didn't get to be with us because Ryan is not doing well right now. Kevin and Zack came as did Melissa, Timothy and Ashley who declared the dressing the best ever.

I'm sitting here right now feeling stuffed after finishing the leftovers and happy after playing ART all day.

Expect Time,

Sharon

Texture

I don't know why but I always get one eye out of whack. It seems to be the same eye too high and too big. But I never see it until I have nearly finished the painting. Usually, I leave it.

As I worked on this page this morning, and sketched her off the edge, it became a challenge for me to see if I could balance the page. I like the result and I didn't wish to write over it. It may be time for me to get out a canvas. But I have to tell you that I am enjoying exploring in my Gut Art Journal.

Expect ............

Sharon

Faces

Painted with homemade pallet knife (new favorite tool).
Scrapped eyes and shape into wet paint with homemade pallet knife.
Then outlined. No additional paint added.

Just had to show you the spreads and how they integrate.

The hamburgers were great.

Thanks Sonic for bargain burgers.

Expect faces,

Sharon

Beauty

I thought you might want to see who she is looking at. Their story continues.

Many of you have ask about the white pen I have been using in my Gut Art Journal. So here it is. It writes and flows better than any I have tried and I have tried all of them. After it dries, I usually seal it with Golden Matte Medium. Then it is permanent.

Expect hamburgers for supper,

Sharon

Dare Book

My friend Zorana sent me her "I Dare You" book. You know that's the one where we have matching books and we swap back and forth and play ART in each one.

Before sending it, she played ART on the above page and then dared me to play ART on the same page. Actually, what she dared me to do was exercise. Notice the words she deliberately left showing on the page.

Oh, it was a wonderful page to play on. Especially when I turned it sideways and saw that nose and eye. Maybe you'll want to go back and look closely and even click on the picture for a much better look. During my morning ART session, I did very little to bring out the story on this page and what a fun way to start the day. Makes me happy.

And by the way, the girls from the previous post have been identified. Turns out Laura knows them, Jessie and Jane Johnson and their story. She told me about them in her comment. And you were all right. It is a compelling page. It's just that I didn't enjoy painting it. But I do now enjoy staring at it and the mystery of it. I know I don't say it enough but I do Thank You all for sharing your comments with me. It means so much.

Expect ART time,

Sharon

Can Page

This is all I'm going to do with this. I did not enjoy the page.

Going outside now.

Expect

Curtains

Here is the curtain that I want to replace. I really really love it but it's time to update and other than the wallpaper, this is all that is left of my sweet daughter's room that turned into my new Sewing Studio. The curtain doesn't compliment the room any more.

But I will tell you that after shopping for curtain fabric, I realized that I have reached a milestone in my aging process. Yes I think I have.

Either that or I recognized my Mother in myself. Very simply put, I think when you reach a certain age which might be different for each individual, things matching no longer seems a priority.


When I finished my sewing room that bright blue little pillow just popped and that was my inspiration when I when looking for new curtain fabric.



The problem was the wallpaper border just above the wainscoting and the pink morning glories. I'm over pink. And when I found the fabric that fit just exactly what I had in mind, I swooped it up knowing full well that it was not going to match this room at all. I knew that the only thing in the room that it complimented was the little blue pillow. I did it anyway. I spent ninety bucks knowing it was not going to work in the room. I set up a huge challenge for myself. I think I'm sick. No, I think I'm old.



I don't expect to get the new curtains made this weekend but I am excited about the pink morning glories.

That is the new curtain fabric on the right, and the little blue pillow and look, no pink morning glories. I mixed Golden Phthalo Blue(Green Shade) and Quinacridone Magenta and glazing liquid and I only about 75 more to paint. I might get that done.

Expect purple/blue morning glories,
Sharon




Oh, the anthill in the top photo is me.

Pots and Pans

I know you didn't really want to see this. But here it is. The pot and pan chore has been checked off the list.

They were getting out of hand and I have this need for them to be all stacked and nestled together in an orderly fashion.....out of sight.

Never mind the dust that is in sight and covering every surface here. That doesn't bother me a bit.

So I drug them all out and put them back in and checked it off the list.


I might say I have also done that million little things that I didn't chalk down on my door list.


And I haven't picked up a paint brush yet either. I have that wedding to go to at four and then I'm going to watch a movie with my sweet Ashley.
Expect morning glories,
Sharon

My Plan

I haven't made much progress and I'm vaguely embarrassed to show this at this point. But maybe you will enjoy wondering just how on earth I will transform this forlorn, scary, pitiful, frightful, sad, mismatched pair into a loving story.


In the meantime, I have a weekend plan which does in fact include this journal page.

And here it is. It might be rather vague because you how I am. If I write it down, then I have to do it. I could have chalked up a million things-to-do but I'm feeling like I might enjoy just being.

The house will be quiet and I vow not to use my day time hours on that "pot and pan" item. I have a plan that I cooked up in the wee hours of this past night as I laid awake.....thinking.

Here it is. Tonight or tomorrow night if I find myself awake........thinking in the middle of the night, I plan to get up and do the pot and pan chore. That's what I'm going to do. I'll show you if I do. It's not ARTfull though.

Expect being,

Sharon

Morning Gut Art

Good Morning,
Keeping in mind that my Gut Art Journal is about "Looking for my Words", or as Mystele would say, "my authentic self", I consciously apply text and bits of paper with letters and words in the first layer of collage. However, I give no attention to where on the page any of it lands nor what any of it says.

I saw the word "afraid" when I first started painting this page but I just didn't get it. There it was just about to slip off the top. My sense of composition had no idea what to do with it. You might remember when I finished the page, I simply had no "Words" and wrote, "none". Then I discovered the red wings were birds and not only birds but birds with a "tender touch". This morning I revisited the page and there was that word and right above it even closer to the edge was "not". I get it. I'm not afraid.

I guess the point is art will continue to speak even when you think you have heard everything.

So, that didn't take very long. After quickly cutting an "afraid" stamp, I still had time for more art.

I decided that I need to concentrate on the element of drawing. So I chose a magazine face to draw and proceeded.

First, notice that word "can" right at the top of the picture. I let that sink in the whole time I was trying to draw this face. When I finished I realized that I would have liked her closer to the top of the page.

So, since this exercise is about drawing, I just moved over and added a second face. Now I have something to go home to this evening to paint.

About ears: Do this. Put your head back as far as you can and look up. Now, put each index finger at the bottom of each ear.....like you are pointing to the bottom of your ear. Draw an invisible line level and around to the front of your face. Where did the line end up? My invisible line met just below my mouth in the middle of my chin.

Do this. Look down so your chin is almost touching your chest. Now, put each index finger at the bottom of each ear....like you are pointing to the bottom of your ear. Draw an invisible line level and around to the front of your face. Where did the line end up? My invisible line met just below my nose.

Wasn't that fun. The point is, the placement of your ears as well as other features will give perspective to your face and help show that it is looking up or down.

Expect art,

Sharon

Tender Touch

Painting from your gut is not always serious. Turns out her red wings were the sweetest little red birds looking over her shoulder. She knew all along, I was a little slow to "get it". Makes perfect sense now. I've never seen a red butterfly; however, red birds hang out at my feeders all the time.

Expect a tender touch,
Sharon

Red Wings

Red Wings

Gut Art Journal

I didn't find her or pull her from the background. Ijust needed to paint her.

I can no longer be found on the couch in front of this TV. My sweetie crawled through the attic several times and put one foot through the living room ceiling one time to get me hooked up right here in front of my ART desk in my studio. I am so happy.

Expect happiness,

Sharon