3AM Art in the Dark

We have been plagued by alternating oppressive heat and fierce thunderstorms. The storms seem to hit in the middle of the night--thunderclaps awakening me just as the power flickers and gives way. Once I am awake, there is no point laying there as it will be a while before sleep finds me again. Many candles and my portable (chargeable) Ott light offer me the means to tidy the studio and then work on some art!!

Working on my orange piece for the last challenge for Summer of Color, i used acrylic paint and a printing surface i created from some scrap poster board and foam alphabet stickers to stamp the background with yellow letters and numbers. It's my first fabric design I've worked on in a while, and I am really enjoying it--do you see the little blue owl? he is going to be part of it as well!


Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! I'll be heading to a birthday barbecue...not a cloud in sight! 


Maria

Summer of Color--Purple and (surprise!) Red

So I am sorta behind on posting my Summer of Color Challenges. I do have one for yellow with metalic, but I think it is shy and will wait for me to have something brown to post with it :)
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But this week--holy carp--it is only TUESDAY and I have something purple and (shut my mouth!) with BLING for the bonus!!!!  It isn't terribly exciting as it is, but I believe it is meant to be part of something bigger...the Muses haven't told me just what that is yet...
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In order to get the purple and red done quickly, i had to go small--roughly ATC size. While tidying a bit in the studio, i found a tiny piece of paper on the floor with the number 10 on it-----

---probably came from my new purse, inspected by "10", you know? But, it also just so happens to be the month of my birthday!! With a bit of digging (less than 5 minutes...remember my Muse rule??), I found a "5" stencil (10/5 baby!!) and some scraps of mat board in just the right sizes for some quickie projects.

At this point, I wasn't sure what this week's color was going to be, so I confess, I had to look it up. Could it be?? Purple and BLING???? Two of my favorite things!! With my birthday just laying around, tell me the Muses didn't plan it that way! Some purple watercolor, ink, radiant pearls, glitter and more glitter I now have this...

As promised, I also have red, with the bonus challenge "wings." My obsession with hearts and love (or lack there of) continues to be represented. This found its way to something else that's been sitting on my art table for a while...but I'll share that when it's all finished....

Don't forget to check out all the other fantastic artists participating in Summer of Color by clicking the button in my right sidebar!!  Thanks for stopping by and happy art-ing!

Maria

Studio Wonderland

Greetings gentle viewers!!  It has been a truly hectic last 10 days or so with my mom in the hospital with pneumonia and then working lots of extra hours this week to catch up on the data that piled up while I was in the ER with her! I don't know that I will have any art to share with you this weekend, but I thought you might like a composite view of where I create--Studio Wonderland! I took pics from all angles and smooshed them together to get this:

It looks so much bigger than it really is! LOL! and it was so nice and tidy! The gremlins have since been in it and made a mess :p

If I'm not battling the forces of nature to keep water out of the basement this weekend, maybe I will have something else to post :D

If not, I will enjoy living vicariously through my PPF and Sunday Sketch friend's blogs!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Sunday Sketch-

Hi Everyone! And welcome to Sunday Sketches! Just a quick post to share a couple of sketches from the week--I've added some color and a flower to last week's sketch., but it is still in progress---

And some work with marker and colored pencil.  

Hope you have a fantastic art-filled week! And don't forget to click the buttons on the right to see all of the great art for the Sunday Sketches, Paint Party Friday, Summer of Color and the Crusades!!
Maria

Many Challenges, One Project

A big welcome and thank you to folks from many of the challenges that I participate in for stopping by to visit! Today's project started out for Summer of Color's pink challenge from three weeks ago, but ended up being considerably more labor intensive than I expected. As June transitioned to July, fate would have it that this same work also meets Michelle Ward's Crusade 53 challenge. Lastly, as it includes variety of painting techniques, I'm also sharing it for Paint Party Friday!


I'm inclined to think my muses guide me by leaving bits and pieces of things on or near my work table that they mean for me to use. I seem to have the best outcome by using whatever is laying around, so it is meant to be, right?  How many times have you had your mind set on a specific thing that you KNOW you have somewhere in your stash...spend hours or even days looking for it and IF you manage to find it, it ends up looking horrible?! Next time this happens to me, I will stop myself about 5 minutes into the search and see what is on the floor next to my table instead....


but i digress....


Summer of Color
To begin the pink challenge for summer of color, the Muses left me the backboard from an old desk calendar to use for my base substrate, a book of piano sheet music and two miniature heart-shaped art quilts (one that I made, and one I received in a swap). Re-using one's art is a topic that has come up frequently lately, so I photographed the two hearts, worked some photoshop magic on them and printed out several sheets in different sizes.
The bonus option for the pink challenge was to include wax in your work. Though it has been YEARS since I first (and last) used wax, I really enjoyed the technique and love the truly unique look and feel it gives to the finished piece. I used a blend of paraffin pellets, pure beeswax and a tiny piece of red beeswax left over from a candle to seal and adhere the hearts to the background.

Crusade 53

For this month's Crusade challenge, Michelle wanted us to experiment with the colors we mix up and give them names. When creating the silhouette, my muse whispered a reminder that i should always mix and layer my colors--so black by itself would never due. Since i was working with a pink pallet, red was the obvious choice to blend with the black watercolor.

and something kind of reddish-purple color emerged...

and i call it Bittersweet Berries.

And for all my Paint Party Friday friends, there's acrylic, watercolor and slightly colored wax...lol....

I really enjoyed working in the larger format (18x22). 

Thanks for stopping by!

Maria

Sunday Sketch--Empty

Been a few weeks since i posted a Sunday Sketch, but never fear, it isn't because I haven't been creating--its because I have been working on a LOT of projects! I was finally ready to take pictures of the studio and the latest arts and the camera battery died. Figures. So this will be a short post to share a sketch with you--the beginning of an art journal spread...

Happy Sunday!