Holiday Snowmen

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

These little snowmen are actually an accordion card I made for a Holiday Handmade Card Exchange with my art group.  It measures 5"x18" but was too long to scan as the whole card.

They were drawn with a micron pen on Stonehenge print paper and then I added a little water color.  They were very fun and I think they are very cute and festive.

****See you next year!****

The End of Summer Journal group

I can't believe summer is over already…..but time goes so quickly when it is full of laughter, joy, and the company of great people.

Thank you Ladies for the many hours filled with all of this and more.  I really enjoy "color therapy" with you all and can't wait for next summer.

But wait I will see you at a different art gathering or in class or for a quick bite and some more joy!

A few last double page spreads before I go.

 

Summer Art Group

Twice a month in the summer I host an open Art Day Studio at my house for art friends.  It started last summer working in our art journals but this year people paint, draw, Zentangle and of course work in their Art Journals.  I am hoping to finish this journal in the last two meetings so I can start a second, I only have four pages left.


This first page is all about happiness and choosing to be Happy.

 This page was started last summer with …"ideas to steal and merci".  This year I added pieces of monoprints and rubber stamp numbers.  It still needs some words on the page as do others but I have the whole month of August…..oh…I'd better get going!


7" x 10" Sketchbook

Of course there are always Zentangles popping up here and there….this one looks like the kitten got into the knitting yarn again!

I saw a version of this on Pinterest and thought it looked like a fun way to spend a little time and it was.  It was also a great place to play with one of my favorites……weighted lines!

5" x 5" Handbook

Angles, Geometry and Feathers

This fun page was started with a rubber stamp image, the square with the "A" and clock.  I first darkened the stamp image with my micron 01 pen.  Then I decided to work with lines and angles to break up the background.  Filling in areas with little circles and wavy lines finished it up.

Having done the angle thing, I moved on to some circles and used lines to crisscross the page. Using the lines as my threads to divide up the circles, I then added Zentangle patterns and a few textures.

Next I was back to a favorite…Feathers!….and a leaf.  I just love the varied shapes of feathers and it is just plain fun to put pen to paper and draw feathers and leaves. This page may or may not be done.  I may go back and work on breaking up the background with……….something.


5" square Handbook
Micron 01 pen

Beginning Zentangle Class

I will be teaching a Beginning Zentangle Class at San Clemente Art Supply on June 11 from 10am-4pm. 

Seats still available.  Go to SCARTSUPPLY.COM for more information and to register.

Explore the Exciting World of Zentangle! with Deborah Goldman, CZT

'Explore the Exciting World of Zentangle!' with Deborah Goldman, CZT WSDG02Saturday, June 11, 2016 from 10am-4pm.  $85.00 Includes a starter kit and will…

SCARTSUPPLY.COM

Tree Challenge

Every month in my art critique group, we do a challenge to push our creativity.  This month we were given a copy of this tree to use as our inspiration for any medium in any size.

I decided to combine a lino cut with monoprint backgrounds to make a series of prints.

This is the lino cut plate with the background cut away.  It is an 8" x 10" piece of unmounted linoleum to it could go through the press.

These are the 8" x 10" prints in a variety of color combos.

I went for a series of different colors which look like sherbet to me!

I will have to play with more colors soon.

 I then decided to wrap the prints around 5" x 7" museum canvases using matt medium.

After that dried I added two coats of gloss medium, letting each layer dry.

You can actually see the texture of the embossing of the linocut in the finished pieces.

It was a great challenge.

Fitting in Zentangle Time

A little Zen here…a little Zen there….gets the job done.

Though playing with Zentangles is never a job!  Pushing some tangles in new directions is very relaxing and fun.

This one was started in my ZenFriends group.

This one was started in another group I belong to, Tangled Expressions.  Then I worked on it at the car dealership waiting for service on my car and then finished it up at home.

Both of these are in my 5" x 5" Handbook which is a great size to carry around in my purse with a few pens.

a little happy play….

This was a little monoprint I did one day while playing in class.  I decided to add a bit of fun to the print with Zentangles.

I should have taken a real "before" picture but didn't think about it.

After a little more playing I ended up here.  I decided to add a grid to the upper left to mimic the grid left from a piece of netting on the monoprint.

I could have filled the grid with the same design as on the right but decided to add a little n"Zeppel tangle pattern instead.  These are really fun to play with and see where they take me.


5" x 7" Monoprint and Ink

Boys and a straw……

Two of my nephews, Joey and Johnny, came for a little visit last week and of course we headed straight to the studio.  I taped 10" x 10" pieces of print paper to acrylic plates and adding a few drops at a time of high flow black acrylic paint, they used straws to blow the dots of paint around the paper.

This one is Joey's who is 10 yrs.

After we felt there were enough of the black lines we used a hair dryer to make sure it was nice and dry.  Next came the brushes and the watercolor to fill in areas with bright colors.
We think they are very cool!

This one is Johnny's who is 8 yrs.

This was a scrap of print paper that I used as a demo piece to show the boys how to use the straw to blow the paint as well as a demo for the watercolor.


Have to say I like the abstract quality in this one.


6" x 12"

Then in my Print class on Friday I decided to try a monotype using a variation of the straw technique.  Because my inks are water based I rolled on some color creating a background first.  I then thinned out some of the black ink with water to get a more fluid black.  It was hard to get it to flow very far but still interesting.  Of course as I was rolling on the background I thought to myself what are you thinking, "You don't even have a straw!" so looking around I found a ballpoint pen I could take apart and use the barrel as a straw.

Guess I need to add straws to my art box.


5.5" x 14"

A Little Bit of Messy Fun……

Oh boy, did we have some crazy messy fun!  Two of my sisters, my nephew and I attended a workshop with Jane Davies in Portland at the Art and Soul Conference.  It was two days of creativity and was messy but filled with laughter and fun.

This was her Layering and Excavating workshop, where we played with adding more and taking away and then adding more.

This one started out with mark making and ended up here.

Jane is a great instructor and lots of fun!  She did a lot of demos and we learned many fun techniques.

When you get to a place where you liked it, Jane's suggestion….paint over it and continue!

This one started out with a cruciform of collage on white paper. More mark making and trying out different things here.  Layers, collage and more layers.

I can't even tell you how many layers were in done on which pieces. I was working on five pieces at a time.  I thought about taking photos as I went along but got so involved in the moment that I didn't get many.

Another cruciform of collage with layering, collage, paint transfer of lines and more paint.

All of these are on 10"x10" Stonehenge Printmaking Paper

The first thing Jane had us do was cover two of our  papers with red paint and let it dry.

The red blotches on this one were the original layer of red excavated through many layers of paint.

Using matt medium and paint heavy inscribed lines can be created.  More paint and some collage.

This was also a red page even though there is not much red showing.

 Not being a painter this was a great experience for me.  It stretched me in a new direction and allowed freedom to just play.  We were not trying to make completed pieces. It was interesting to mix up a little pile of paint and take breath and paint over a layer. My mantra was "I'm going in!"


I have to spend a day playing with these new techniques so I don't forget.

Shhh…it's a Surprise!

It's a surprise for mommy and daddy from Mason for Valentine's Day!  Mason spent the night last night and this morning we got out the watercolors and he went to town.  He loves mixing the colors on the brush and seeing what happens when it hits the paper. He actually says he likes "mud" and says mud is very pretty.

Then when it had dried I cut them into 3.5" squares and after he signed the backs we popped them into these plexi coasters.  He loved that part!  Time for wrapping before they come to pick him up.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Huntington Beach Art League

I was invited to be the guest speaker, demonstrator at the Huntington Beach Art League this past January.

So on a very stormy night my little printing press and I ventured out in thunder and lightening to get the job done.

I was given a very warm welcome and if I don't mind saying so myself it was a very fun and successful evening.

Lots of ohhs and ahhs as each new print was pulled and I sold all of my demo pieces.

Before the demo I also was given the privilege of judging the art pieces brought in by the league members.  There were several categories including Best of Show.  This was also a first for me but still fun at the same time.

Thank you Miss Jane for inviting me to come and share my love for monoprints with your group.  It was a wonderful experience.

It's a New Year…

…and I am already behind!  Well, at least I got in one post before the month was over.  Hopefully,  I can squeeze in another one before February first!


This is another Mason and Meema collaboration.  I had run out of Mason pages so I ask him to watercolor a few more pages in my sketchbook so I would have something to play with when I had the time.  I love adding the ink to his free form images and seeing what appears out of our work together.



5" x 7" Robert Bateman Sketchbook
Watercolor and Gel Pen