on my mind, out of my mind, oh no my mind!

Hi Everyone! Been struggling so much with my mojo. I seem to start a painting, just throwing paint, stencils, pastes, making marks and enjoying the process then my mind goes blank and my hands stop working.  For an example this one.

I love it so far but I know it's not finished. I don't know what to do with it. I'm putting it aside for now.  I just returned from vacation so I may need time to get myself back into my art room.

While I was away my god-daughter and I went to Charleston, SC.  OMG gorgeous, gorgeous. Our last day we went to the Aquarium. As we were standing by an exhibit, for quite a while, we finally stepped away and read this. We were standing right in front of it. We laughed!

Here is another canvas. It's a 12" round canvas. As I was playing it started looking like the earth and then everything stopped. OMG! This one isn't finished either.

If you read this far, thank you for joining me.  So I have this closet in my art room that I just throw things in. It's not very organized. It's like a junk drawer. When I open the door nothing falls on me but I can't put anything else in. I actually started looking at everything. So scary. Tons of UNFINISHED PAINTINGS!!!  I put many paintings and projects aside and don't finish them!

Here is another canvas that I'm not fond of but it may be finished. I've been using lots of blues, yellows, greens, white, black on my paintings lately. This one I'll set aside too and time will tell whether it's finished. UPDATE: its finished, signed and first coat of varnish.

I've learned something about myself looking into the abyss that is my art room closet:

• I'm stressed about all the extra stuff in my house. I started cleaning out closets this weekend.
• Its okay that I have tons of unfinished paintings in my closet. I now have new canvas to use once I add a coat of gesso.
• I'm having a mid-life art crisis right now. If that's a thing!! No mojo. I want to try so many things but there are many I have tried but never finished sitting in my art closet. I think it's time to figure out what ART I really love to do, stick with those, learn more about them, and move on. HAHAHAHAHA if possible.

Vacation was great and I had so much fun with my god-daughter. In the airport I spotted this painting.  I see so much of myself in this painting. Runaway from all the stuff to work on in my house BUT isn't that what vacations are for?  A breathe of fresh air to clear the mind!

So how many of you have one of those closets, any one else having an mid-life art crisis, no mojo? Remember STRESSED spelled backwards is DESSERTS. I'm off to have some ice cream!!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

One Stencil Only: TCW Dramatic Floral and a Paper Bag

Hi Everyone!  I've been collecting paper bags to paint on. You know the size your prescription at the pharmacy comes in? I have decided to use these bags as play time and use only one stencil one them.

For this paper bag I used TCW736 Dramatic Floral stencil designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer in the 6"x6" size.  It also comes in 12x12. See them both HERE.

I don't have any step out photos so I'll explain how I created it. First I painted the paper bag with Golden Fluid Acrylics Prussian Blue Hue. My new favorite color!  I let it dry then I added shades of blue, white, yellow and green either through the stencil or adding paint to the bag, put the stencil on top and used a baby wipe to take off the paint.  The little white rectangles, bottom right, are made by the tip of a paint marker.

When it all dried I stamped "Listen" by Yvonne Blair Designs on tissue paper and only used a portion of the stampe for my painting.

The one thing I learned from creating this is I love this color combination and adding paint to the bag and lifting it off through the stencil with a baby wipe is a technique I haven't used in a while. I really love the way it looks. I'll be using it again for sure.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!



One Stencil - Gorgeous Art Journal Background

The wonderful thing about The Crafters Workshop stencils are they make great backgrounds. I haven't made backgrounds in a long time and it was so much fun creating this one.

I decided to use Rangers Distress Oxide inks and one TCW stencils called Dramatic Floral (TCW736) designed by Balzer Designs.  I started adding the stencil with picked raspberry.

 

 

Next, twisted citron.

 

 

Then added peacock feathers and fossilized amber.

 

 

To add more of the stencil I used a Signo white pen and traced the design onto the page.

 

I love it. If you look closely I only used parts of the stencil design. I love that I can choose different sections of the stencil to make it fit on the page.

 

 



 

The best part was when I finished using each color I would spray the stencil with water and add it to the opposite page.  Pretty cool looking right?

I don't know how or when I'll use these pages. I love the way they turned out. I think they are to pretty to cover!

 



Thanks so much for stopping by!

A New Collage: Mellow Yellow

I love collage. I like going through all the bits and pieces of paper I've saved. There are times where I just dump out my scrap drawer and find pieces for collages. I put them in separate envelopes so I can use them in the future. Sometimes I just dump them right back in the drawer because I don't like the combination anymore.

This collage I decided to create a background using white and yellow acrylic paints and a stencil called Tuscan Floral by The Crafters Workshop. My collages usually have lots of negative space but this time I didn't want to leave the background all white.

 

Next I took my pieces and auditioned them to decide where I wanted them. The yellow flower is actually the bottom of a water bottle. I tried to use it to create some stamped flowers but it didn't work that way I had hoped.  The blue and yellow papers are scrapbook paper, dry wall tape (holes), and two other pieces of scrap paper.

 

There are so many pieces I keep that I do go through it and throw some of it away. I know I can hear some of her screaming NOOOOOOOOOO!  When this drawer is to full to close, I go through it all.

 

 

 

Here it is finished. The bee I think was part of a piece of scrapbook paper but I've had him forever so I'm not sure. Oh, the two little greenish circles on the left is bubble wrap. See I keep way too much!!!



Thank you so much for stopping by!

Loving Florals

I love flowers and I'm drawn to floral paintings, any type and any style. Slowly I'm trying to paint them but I'm starting small.  I'm also trying to use brighter colors. Most of my paintings are dark because I love using black. Maybe it's my mood at the time (hmm doesn't sound good LOL).

This canvas was actually another painting I hated. Gesso to the rescue!!! I decided not to think just do something that looked floral and this is what happened.

Here is a close up of the flowers or berries. I dipped the end of a paint brush to create them. You can see the leaves are just a swoosh of green paint. Nothing difficult.

The funny thing is that I've been trying not to think and just create but having a hard time of it. I wish I can remember where my mind set was when I created this piece so I can do it again.  Working on abstracts I can just go with it but florals my mind and hands do not cooperate.

 

Maybe working towards abstract florals might help. I find I get frustrated practicing in my art journal that I stop altogether. I never seem to keep the focus going. Is there something you are dying to learn to paint but it never seems to work out?  Does your frustration stop you? 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

You can see more of my art on Instagram.

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