Even More Plaster and Paint

Well after many days you would think I would have lots to show.... but that is not the case, I only have one piece to post.
Again this piece was a challenge for me, but I learned a lot and am happy with how it turned out. I had trouble photographing this piece and trying to keep the colours true to the piece. The real piece is darker in the bottom corner.

It is made on a cradle board (that my husband made for me) that is covered in plaster. I love how these look hanging unframed on a wall.

I enjoyed making it, although I continue to find it very challenging - but that is part of growth. So onwards I go, with some more plaster to slap onto some boards tonight!

One More Plaster Piece

Well it has taken me more time than you can imagine, but here is another piece that I have created on plaster. I do not consider myself a painter, and always have to draw in detail before I add any paint.

So underneath this flower is a drawing .... hopefully the more I do it the less I will need to draw the details before I add the paint. It is so very challenging for me, which can be mentally tiring - especially after a full day of work at the day job. If I am struggling with it when I go to bed, I play it over and over again in my mind how to fix it... and then sleep aludes me. If it is going well when I go to bed, then I smile, and happily go to sleep.
For now I must sleep, and will hopefully have time tomorrow after the day job, to begin on another new plaster piece. We will see, it may be time to work on something different for a change.

Patience, Practice and Plaster

A few days ago I posted a picture of a plaster piece I was working on. I didn't like it, but was being gentle with myself, as I am new to working with plaster, and I haven't had much time to practice. But I continue to work on creating on plaster, and am pleased where this one ended up.
It is the same piece I showed before, but this morning I decided to rework it, and this is where it has ended up today. I think it is finished, but time will tell. I have 3 other pieces that I have been working on, but none of them are close to what I am happy with. I continue to practice patiently on these pieces.

This close up shows a bit of the lusciousness of the plaster.

P.S. - Thanks for all of your kind comments about my book in the previous post. They make my heart happy.

It Made Me Smile!

A while ago I created a painting with lots of numbers around a girls face.

I made it hoping to submit it to a local art show (called Got Your Number) in a small gallery. But I couldn't really afford to get it framed properly. I still wanted to submit something, so I changed it into a book, and submitted that.

I was thrilled this past week to walk into the gallery and see my book amongst other peoples pieces.

It made me smile... and I remembered to keep on being brave and believing!

(see more of this book here)

Be Gentle With Self

I am taking a wonderful on line course of working with plaster from Stephanie Lee and Judy Wise. Unfortunately I have had very little time to work with the medium. I have been working on one piece, and after some deliberation with myself, I have decided to show it here. I am not happy with how it is turning out, but hey... it is my first attempt, and so I reminded myself of one of my important "rules" that I try to follow on this creative journey (and in life in general) and that is to be gentle with self....

and with that in mind, and it written on her face here is my first attempt of painting on plaster.

It is a wonderful medium that I am sure I will love when I have used it a bit more, and get more comfortable with how it works.



Here is a close up that you can begin to see the depth of the medium.

And here you can see the whole piece with the unpainted edges. I should have painted the edges as I went along, but I didn't and rather than spend the time now, I have decided to move on and continue to practice and learn in this medium..... of course being gentle with myself along the way.

Do Art Daily

A few years ago, I made a promise to myself that I would try to spend a bit of time (almost) every day doing something creative. I put the 'almost' in there so I wouldn't be hard on myself on the days it didn't happen. In the past few days I have had very little time to create, and so I told myself to pick something small that I could do a bit on each day. And so I decided to make some more tea bag and plant cards.

I made some of these not too long ago, posted them here, and asked for advice on what people liked. I was happy to see a variety of answers, so will make a variety of styles. But, the most common response was that people liked the scribble look with words on them - so that is what I decided to do with my small bits of creative time these past few days.
This one says ' dream daily '

This is one of my bleached leaves (see here for details) and has the words 'time' and 'explore' written around it.

This pressed petal looked like a bit like a heart.... so I scribbled a heart and added the words 'love always'

'my day'

When these are standing with not to much direct light they look like the above pictures.

Standing on my windowsill turned a little they let the light shine right through the tea bag and plants.

A little creative time each day keeps me happy.

Another Day Another Book

I finished up my second treasure book today.

I made a cover for it by covering an old book cover and adding paint, pan pastals and a stamp or two.

Inside the pages are from an old book I took apart, and contain a variety of hand decorated pages.

Some are painted pages, some sewn, some stamped, some embroidered, and a few just plain.

This is inside the back cover.

Another book finished to add to my stash of handmade books!

Treasure Books

Last year I made these books (check here and throughout July 2010 for details), and I mostly liked them - but I was never really happy with how I finished them off, and had wished that I had made them so I could bind them.

These treasure books contained many many hand decorated pages such as this painted page.

I decided to take a book apart and bind it like I wanted to, but the pages had to be joined together before I could do that. So I joined them by sewing a strip of paper between the ends of 2 decorated pages.

I then added book binding material and bound the pages into the book.

I added a piece of silk through the eyelets that had originally held the pages together.

The book holds a variety of pages,

but it only holds half the number of pages that the original books held. The books are still oriented to open like a notepad rather than a book.... but I kind of like them that way.

This is the inside of the front cover....

and this is the inside of the back cover.

Overall I am much happier with how this book is finished now, and I have enough pages left to make another book something like this one..... but that will have to wait for another day.

An End Brings a Beginning

We have reached a cross road in our family journey, and change is in the air.

This is my daughter

this is also her as she looked yesterday at her graduation from high school. She is an amazing person that leads a busy and full life of her choosing. She makes me proud every day.

As a small congratulatory gift I made her this book with her picture on the front.

with the following quote clipped to the first page.

Fill your life with as many moments

of joy and passion as you humanly can.

M. Weider

When is it Finished?

When I am creating a picture it is sometimes hard to know when it is finished. Often artists say that they know they are finished when they love their creation. And so I decided to attempt that with this creation.

I kept working it, and came up with this..... but I didn't love it, and thought maybe sometimes you don't love what you create, and perhaps there is a time when you stop and just let it be and put your energies into a new creation. And so I stopped and took this picture, and thought it was as finished as it was going to be. I looked at it again the next day, and decided to spend a bit more time at it.

I continued on, made a number of changes, and although I still do not love it, I like it better than before, and will leave it here and put my creative energies into other projects.

Playing

I have always loved the work of Anahata Katkin, and decided to spend some time playing with a painting of mine influenced by her work. It really didn't matter how it turned out, as I was just playing. How lovely that feeling is when you have no expectations on yourself. Just doing something completely for the enjoyment you get.

As I worked on it, I was really liking how it was turning out, and the pressure increased..... I didn't want to do something to muck it up. But in art making as in so many other things we do, we must take chances to move things along. And so I continued along being brave and taking chances. Some of them worked, and some didn't, but in the end I was happy with the piece and the fun I had making it.

I mounted it on a piece of covered book board, and if I am brave (because I don't want to wreck it now) enough I will put holes in the top and a piece of ribbon to hang it up with. For now it sits beside the railing that comes up to my studio.

Dream Catcher

This is a dream catcher book. It is made using a painting I made not long ago that I collaged and painted over. Above is the front cover. Hidden amongst the paint on the edge of her face is written the following quote -

Wide awake I can make my most fantastic dreams come true.

Here is the back cover....
in between the covers is many many pages with random numbers and tabs ready for catching so many dreams.

Inside both the front and back covers are pockets

that contain decorated tags ready for those dreams that may want to be kept even a bit more private.