Random

Sunday afternoon...
Technical difficulties... boring

American Beautyberry
a native plant here
before the purple fruits develop, there are clusters of small flowers
I have never discovered the flower stage
just the beautiful berries

Esparanza
fast growing semi-evergreen
valued for masses of golden-yellow flowers
mine dies back in winter
both specimens from my gardens
poor gardens need help
another day
Pencil sketch from close up
while watching TV
watched several movies this week
needed rest...no energy
saw haircut while watching movie
inspired
wanted cut to look like I had gone to the bathroom and used dear husbands razor
i did
it does
i like it

didn't sketch on the book
wanted to just put the paint on there and then
make it work
think it does
have thoughts for left side
will show and tell
meanwhile.....
Party Favors
hope to mail early in week
if you came
did you send me address

need to finish this

more later

sharon

Good Night

Oh my goodness, what a party! I don't know about you but I had a great time. Everybody is gone now and you know what that means.

The party mess!
Inspiration
Something we all share.

There was a good turn out for the party. Some of you were a bit quite. And some were not. I enjoyed all who came. And appreciate that you said so. Don't you just love spontaneous ART parties?

Here is the guest list:

Judy Wise. She got here first and quickly left with inspiration relating to the cheesecloth in first group of pictures. Can't wait to see what she's up to. She is full of inspiration.

She who Flies. I just love her visits, she always so chatty and says the nicest things.

Marita. She was just relaxing and painting this weekend.

Ro Bruhn. All the way from Australia, thanks for coming.

Darla. She loves tissue too and we had coffee early together.

Zorana. She recognized the explosion of inspiration right off. Also noticed the coffee cup with a little mystery sompin-sompin. When I went to get my coffee that morning, I had the green satin leaves in my hand and thought maybe they would age a bit in the coffee. It didn't work as I thought it would but I was pleased all the same.

Fiona. She was so inspired that she has started a sketch book too. I'm sure she will show and tell soon.

Flo. What fun she is. She has a little step-by-step over her way too.

Christi Snow. We often have early coffee together. Glad you made it Christi. Did you get your new monitor?

Suze. She is a new blogger. I mean real new. You need to go check out her "funky" and "edgy" altered men. Talk about ART party!

Sandy. She was celebrating her anniversary but managed to come anyway. She in inspired to start her first altered book. Can't wait to see a bit of it.

Jeanne. She has been so busy lately but came and was fun.

Annie. From Texas but has relocated. She's fun. Has had the "gronkies" though.

Sharon. Glad she came. I think she may have been inspired to get out her paints. You might want to go see her sketches. They're fab.

Tricia Scott. I believe Tricia was the last one here but she caught up quick. Glad you made it. To answer you question. I use Yes to glue the fabric to the first block of pages in the front and the last block in the back. I do not glue the spine area. I think it is going to work nicely. I ordered it from Blick. It is shown in one of the early pictures. I think the "Good Afternoon" post.

Well everybody is gone already and I didn't mean to be so late. Our blankity-blank Internet was down for a while just when I was ready to do this.

Hey, I do have party favors. Well what's a party without favors? Soooooooo,

I can mail them and I do have a few addresses. If you will send me an e-mail with your other address, I will.

Good Night,

Sharon

Sorry I had to edit to fix some of the links.

Party On

We're still here. Did you just get here? That's OK. Catch up by going to Saturday morning. That's when this Holiday ART party started.

I'll make this quick. Here is my sketch from this morning's fresh specimen. It's been a long time since I've done that. It was a good exercise. However, I did the sketch from one chair and then moved to the painting spot and had different lighting and a little different view point. Lesson learned.

We are winding down here. Just about to take a break and go to Michaels to spend the 50% off coupon only good today. I've been waiting for this one. So I will truck up there. I'm also feeling a little guilty about partying all weekend......not really.

Please do come back one more time today. When I get back I have one last post before the party is over.
More later,
Sharon


PS..............I know all of you know this but click on each picture to get a larger view in a new window.

ART Party Continued

Today's Inspiration

I'm still here. How about you? The party is sill going for a little while so if your late and would like to catch up, just go to Saturday Morning post. Scroll down. (there is a lot of catching up to do)

I was up early this morning and inspired by the artist to artist feature with Virginia Rose Kane. It can be found in the September October issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.

The face in the fern that Virginia did is what spoke to me. I just downright copied it pretty much. However, I did use an image of my daughter. And I did improvise the technique, I think.

So here is the specimen that I plan to sketch today on the right side of the spread. They are fresh cut this morning. It is a Rose of Sharon and happens to be a favorite. I wonder why.


This was a fun thing to do and I'm sure I will do it again. So if you have been a party guest, don't forget to let me know. Otherwise, I won't know how many party favors to make.
More later,
Sharon

Welcome Back

Inspiration....

Where does it come from? Plain and simple: everywhere!

Welcome back to the Holiday Weekend ART Party. We are having a great time. It started Saturday morning and if your late, it's OK. You can catch up. Just scroll down.

I have a friend, Susan and I have a friend Suzie. Now my friend, Susan gives me things like heart shaped oak leaves, dead dragonflies, rusted washers and some other really inspirational things. My friend Suzie gives me things like broken strings of pearls, old ecru vintage lace and trims. That's the box in the top photo from which I drew inspiration. I think she also gave me the faded green satin.

I suppose first I should tell you about the painting and where the inspiration came from. The July-August issue of Cloth Paper Scissors had an article by Misty Mawn. It was the Workshop feature and the article was "using a Single Image to Explore Different Media". Following the article was the take 3! Triptych Challenge. You know I did that. The Challenge. So.

This is one of my first pieces while practicing for the challenge. The image I used was of my Mother. By the way, I did not use my Mother's image for the Challenge entry. You remember my deal. If I get a magazine, I fully expect to be inspired and will follow through with the inspiration.


I have never made a fabric journal. But I have been so inspired and I think with this cover, I'm getting closer. I can also tell you I enjoyed making this so much that I know I will be doing more.
Last night I went back to Judy Wilkenfeld's Red Velvet Creations and studied the layers that she makes with her photos. I am so inspired by her ART. But mine did not end up looking like hers.

Kristen Steiner taught a fabric journal workshop at ArtNest this past June. Of course I did not get to go but Misty Mawn did. She was also teaching but took Kristin's class. Her "I am a women who..." fabric journal stuck in my head and also inspired my cover.

There you have it. A few of my inspiration places. I can't be objective, but I don't think my cover looks like anyone but me. A real mixture of inspiration for sure.

I hate to have to tell you this but we will need to take another break. A shower brought me in off of the think tank. Now I'm going to go back out and try to finish. It is suppose to rain for sure tomorrow. You know what that means. Holiday Weekend ART Party continued......

More later,

Sharon

More ART Party

Welcome back to my Sketch book project. I can't tell you how much fun I'm having. I'm here and you're there and we are having an ART party weekend. Now, if you have just arrived, you might enjoy going to the first post yesterday to get all caught up.

These are little close up details of my progress on the cover. Zorana noticed that "she" has been peeking at you since the beginning. Part of my party fun. Also the mystery in my coffee cup earlier today. I really do have a lot to tell you about her and all the rest but now I'm taking a lunch break. And the electricity has been off for over an hour.

For me, this ART party weekend is all about inspiration. I really do have more to share. Unfortunately, while you continue with your ART party projects, I am going to have to go out on that blankety-blank think tank and get that chore done. The good part, as I go round and round, I will be planning more party fun. I promise......

More later,

Sharon

Morning

Hey,

Are you still there? I'm up at the crack of dawn, as they say, having my coffee. I'm excited with inspiration. Today I will focus on the cover for my Sketchbook project that I started yesterday. Scroll down for the beginning.

I Just thought I'd show this stage. Then we can see together how it ends up.

I'll be back later with progress and all the places of inspiration.

More later,

Sharon

Good Evening

Good Evening,
If you are just visiting for today, you may wish to go the the first post for the day as this is the continuation of my weekend ART project.

Progress:
I finished a layer on each page of glazes. I tried very hard to get a dark, neutral look. My inspiration for the darkness is Judy Wilkenfld. She does the most gorgeous work and in dark tones that just grab me.

All I can say is somebody is going to have to hide the colors from Norah'S sight. No matter how hard I try, color just creeps in. For example, I was all done with this stage and picked up the green gold that I had so far resisted. I agreed with her, the muse, that if I was going to do flowers on each page, I needed to add a little green now.

These pages above and below are ready for the next step. But I think I am a bit pooped for today. It's time to go to sleep on the couch. Well, that's what I do when it is too early to go to bed.

dream your dreams

Here is my first sketch. You may notice it is in the back of the book. Not quite the last page but close. It just happen to be the page that spoke to me.

In the CPS article Jean Littlejohn says, "No page is ever complete; each can be revisited and worked into to provide a constantly evolving reference."

I like that. I like knowing that I have given myself permission to come back to this page and the others again and again.

Will you come back tomorrow? I will be getting up early to start working on the cover. I hope my inspiration for that works out. You know I will show ....and tell......

More later,

Sharon

Good Afternoon

Hi,
If you have just come for today, you might want to go to the first post below as this is a continuation.

Progress:
I have finished the tissue layer of the project. I'm really loving how this is beginning to look and feel.

When I started this project, my plan was to use random tissue on each page as the first layer.

I knew I needed to reinforce the center of the spread and my wallpaper collection would do well for that purpose.

When I discovered how beautiful this bit of tissue looked on the page, I abandoned the randomness and made the decision to use this on all the remaining pages.

The other thing that I discovered was sometimes I (Sharon) am a little dense. For some reason I (Sharon) was putting the tissue layer first and then the wallpaper layer. That was OK. However, with Norah'S (the Muse) help, I realized that the transparency of the tissue was very nice over the wallpaper. Well Duh! Sometimes she makes me feel so stupid!

Now I'm going to my next step. I'll take that inspiration from the Cloth Paper Scissors article by Jen Mason. It is the Workshop article "Glazing Things Over".

I am going to add some color glazing to each page. I'm not trying to get the finished background. I will continue to be inspired with each page when I begin to sketch.

Come back later for another progress report.

More later

Sharon

Good Morning

INSPIRATION......

Do you have your new issue of Cloth Paper Scissors?

It is full of great articles. You'll want to check it out.

Here is the deal I have with myself. When I purchase a magazine, I fully expect to be inspired.

And I go with the inspiration where ever it takes me.

This article by Jean Littlejohn did just that.

Here is the project for my holiday. It is top on my to do art list. I actually started this "at the desk".....shhhh
I hope to make a sketchbook as shown above in the CPS article. I may even try my hand at the beautiful roses. For sure my book already has a floral theme.
I'm using the guts or part of the guts of an old book. It was there waiting. So the first thing I did was glue 5 or 6 pages together. I did not remove any pages. I ended up with 14 spreads. I think that is a good size.

The book was not in real good shape. As you can see I have reinforced the spine.


I have a plan for the cover but I want go into much now as I plan on coming back with progress through out this weekend. Maybe even later today. I'm in a blogging mood.

What are you doing? I hope it is a long weekend for you too.
More later,
Sharon