Pop-up Art Show in September

  

An exciting event is coming your way September 17th - an art show featuring 12 local artists!

Mark your calendar to see various artworks for sale, including my photography on notecards and framed prints.

This is a one day show at a gallery in Pleasant Hill and is open from 11am - 5pm.

The location for this event:
                 I Heart Art Studio
                 15 Vivian Drive, Pleasant Hill

For more details, contact me via my blog or go to this link:

                                         September Art Show

Come support your local artists, buy something unique, and sample the free refreshments!

A Whole New Light On Lampshades

Some time ago, I bought a dozen small paper lampshades at a local reuse/recycle shop. So many ideas floated through my head as to how to decorate them! 

I knew this would be a perfect project for my art class students to toy with so I set out various items to spark the imagination and we got busy. With buttons, paints, ribbons, faux flowers, and more, we got to work. Time flies when you're having fun and in a couple of hours we celebrated our creativity!

We stationed the lampshades on tall wine glasses (sans wine!) and placed tealights and inside the glasses for a soft glow. How pretty these would be as table decorations at a wedding or other party. Sweet and simple with just the right amount of pizzazz!

I have a few bare lampshades left over and am anxious to hear how they tell me they would like to be "dressed". A favorite poem in a fancy script? A feathered shade? Paper punched designs? A beaded fringe? The possibilities are endless!

Holiday Art - Never Too Late Or Too Early To Create These Projects!

While the holiday season has just ended, I thought it would be nice to showcase the fall and winter projects that my clever art students created. Not only are they the wonderful results of artistic minds but serve as inspiration for projects you might like to try. 

The fall projects included wreath making using the rich, warm colors of seasonal leaves, acorns, gourds, and found objects. A pretty welcome to guests coming to the front door or when used as a tabletop centerpiece.

Lin's wreath in-progress

 We had big fun making Halloween dioramas out of hollow foam pumpkins!

Alicia and Nicole's fright-tastic pumpkins

Carol's witchy creation

Sandy's pretty pumpkin

Kim's sugar skull diorama and kitty card

We painted wood slices for home decor or table top display.

Gold lettered quote

Stenciled molding paste design

Nicole's handpainted fantasy

Stacked trays made from stovetop burner covers and wine glasses or candlesticks make lovely towers for serving holiday sweets and treats.

Rosa's intricate trays

9-year-old Sophia's showstopper

Nicole's handpainted designwork 

The Christmas season gave us lots of opportunities to make ornaments, wreaths, and gift items.

Mini winter hat ornaments made from yarn knotted over toilet paper rolls

Who knew empty wine bottles could look so good! We used ropes of glittery pipe cleaners and hot glued them around the bottles for a festive design.

Nicole, Sophia, and Rosa show their talents

A quick and easy ornament idea is to fill clear acrylic bulbs with anything!

Bulbs filled with snowflakes and greenery

Red Dollar Store bulbs on a wire wreath

Silver and gold bulbs and garland from the Dollar Store 

We made reversible garlands to hang during the fall and winter holidays.

Burlap leaves and tiny bags decorated with glitter paint and felt leaves and acorns

Turn the fall garland over to show the Christmas decor - the tiny bags perfect for hiding small treats in

A clear plastic bulb filled with foam dots and and a child's sock fashioned as a hat

Oh what fun we had! It's never too early to begin a winter project and present someone special with a handmade gift. Christmas is only 49 weeks away!

Journaling Pages - Using Paint, Pictures, and Credit Cards As Tools

My in-home classes are taking off with a bang and a glue gun! We're having so much fun making new artwork while gabbing and giggling, with maybe a glass of wine to promote extra creative powers!

Our first journaling class projects included making background pages with paints and credit cards. We also got hooked on making stickers using packing tape and magazines. Sooo much fun making those!

To get started making some backgrounds for your journal, follow these steps:

MATERIALS

• Blank journal or other book
• Acrylic paints
• Old credit/gift card
• Baby wipes or paper towels

HOW TO MAKE THIS
Super simple but it looks really cool!

• Squirt a few drops of acrylic paint anywhere on the page

• Drag the credit card across the paint and the book pages - straight line, zig-zag, curvy - have fun with the process.

• Between colors, wipe any excess paint off of the card with a paper towel or baby wipe. Be sure to smoosh all the paint off the card on to your pages before wiping (never waste good paint, right?)

Donna adding colors to her pages

Alicia's making waves of blue

• Drop another color on to the page and repeat the swiping over the pages. Do this with as many colors as you like, even criss-crossing colors over each other. In the image below, I first wrote words on the pages using a white crayon, placed post-it notes at various places, then swiped the paint over the pages. It took a minute for the paint to dry before I removed the post-its and used a baby wipe to remove the paint from the crayon areas. A pretty place to doodle and add images, like the packing tape stickers!

Now, you're done! You've got a great start on building some great journal pages.
___________________________________________________________________

Try making this next project and see if you don't get hooked on the magic!

Donna's blue floral dress sticker

To make the packing tape stickers:

MATERIALS

• Magazines or books with pictures (images printed on thinner paper seemed to work best)
• Bowl of water
• Packing tape
• Old credit/gift card

LET'S DO THIS

• Find an image that you like in a magazine. Bold colors with lots of contrast look wonderful!
• Carefully lay a strip of packing tape over the image, just past the edges of the picture. If the image is too large for one strip of tape, overlap a second strip slightly over the edge of the first strip.
• Use the credit card to smooth out any air bubbles from the tape.
• Place the taped image into the bowl of water and let it sit for a minute.
• Gently rub the paper image from the back of the packing tape. The paper rolls off but the image remains on the tape. Magic!
• Use glue to adhere these images on to your journal pages and envelopes. How about window clings!

Get busy and get creative!

Pour Your Art Out - New Classes Are About To Begin!

Start the fall and winter seasons off right by taking art classes taught by your favorite teacher - me!

Beginning Thursday, October 20th and Saturday, October 22nd, learn exciting new weekly projects in "Art Journaling" and "Exploring Crafts". (Thursday projects are repeated on Saturdays). The cost is $20 for each 2 hour class and will include some supplies.

For the first week's projects, here's the plan:

ART JOURNALING
(Thursdays, 5:30pm - 7:30pm; Saturdays, 9:00am - 11:00am)

We will be creating background images and colors using paints, credit cards, string, crayons, various papers, saran wrap, and packing tape transfers.

• Bring your art journal (I use the 8 1/2" x 11" Ranger Dylusions Creative Journal, but bring whatever is your favorite)

EXPLORING CRAFTS
(Thursdays, 7:30pm - 9:30pm; Saturdays, 11:30am - 1:30pm)

With Halloween just around the corner, we will be making pumpkin vases and dioramas. Trust me - these are super cute!

• Bring 2-3 carvable/hollow pumpkins, any size. (I found 6" pumpkins at the Dollar Store and larger ones at Joann's)

Future Art Journaling classes will include zentangles, magazine collage fantasies, adding color over black and white photos, using puzzle pieces, 3D image making, print making, and more.

In Exploring Crafts we'll make seasonal burlap banners, fall wreaths, music sheet angel wings, fabric painting, popsicle stick bracelets, mason jar art, canvas painting...let me stop right there!

All classes will be held in Concord - message me for details.
I'm looking forward to seeing you and getting our art on!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

This weekend is the Contra Costa County Fair. I have never been to this fair before but when the call for artists came up to enter projects for display and judging, I jumped on the opportunity. I entered a number of my framed photographs, a watercolor mosaic, and a couple of my poems for the fun of it, and who knows, maybe I'd win something along the way.

Yesterday, my husband and I went to the opening day of this fair. We strolled along the grounds, watching kids ride ponies and roll around on water in giant gerbil-like plastic balls (I really wanted to do that but was afraid I'd sink the ball if I got inside). We toured one building and saw the floral and food judged entries, another building that displayed children's artwork and I loved that every piece won a prize. Kids' artwork is so very clever - no restraint, no fear, just beautiful outcome. As an adult artist, I would love to tune into that childlike passion and feel the freedom to create without inhibitions.  



Next, we moved on to the arts and crafts building. Beautiful displays of watercolor paintings and collage, sculptures, quilting, and poetry. We wandered from display to display in awe of the talent in the show. 

As we walked and gawked, we came upon 12 of my entries that were judged and on display. I felt such joy seeing my pieces on exhibit amongst all the other artists works. Of the 12 pieces, 4 of them won ribbons - 2 poems, one watercolor, and one photograph! Woohooo! It was so exciting and I felt very proud to have had this acknowlegement from the judges. 

  

The 2 poems, "Life - What A Party" and "Life's Badges" are posted here on my blog.

What next? These pieces and 16 others will be entered in the Marin County Fair which opens June 30th. I just can't stop! Wish me luck!

Sight/Unseen Gallery Show

May 21 - 26, 2016
I will be included with 13 other talented local artists of the Concord Community of Artists as we showcase our work during a week-long gallery exhibition.

Each of the artists were asked to interpret and express an aspect of their identity. Some are exploring this concept through their ancestry, others are creating work that speaks to their ethnicity, culture or nationality. Each piece will include a written narrative about their inspiration, artistic approach and what they discovered about themselves during the process.

The event will be held at The Artist's Den - 1913 Salvio Street, Concord. 
Click on the link above for full details.

Fabric Painting

Students each painted an element on this canvas

Painting on fabric is liberating and so much fun! Once you get over the initial "blank canvas fear" and move on to the "just jump in" phase, you find yourself in awe of what the creative flow produces. 

At a recent Cancer Support Community's art night event, artist and cancer survivor, Anna, provided students with paint and large cotton canvas pillow cases to try our hands at this cool project. With little or no prior painting skills, each student produced uniquely beautiful pieces. 

Oh what fun we had! Be inspired by this project - get a heavy weight cotton pillow case, apron, or tote bag, for example, some fabric or acrylic paints, brushes, and your imagination!