Art Unraveled 2006...... Class taken with Elaine. We sure had some good laughs from that one!

This was posted September 2006 on a duplicate blog somehow! 

Yellowstone Park 2009

The most interesting part about this trip was the colors in the pools. The patterns weren't so bad either. I could have spent an hour here taking photos.

Salt Lake City trip

I am assuming this is a dried up Sunflower. It was quite interesting, standing there all alone on the side of the road. We climbed over a cement barrier to get some better shots of it.

These are from Sugarhouse Park. What a beautiful place to wander about.

We drove to Antelope Island across a section of the Great Salt Lake and as we were leaving, I spotted these! I remembered reading about this on some Trip Advisor site and had forgotten all about it. Not a place I would want to be walking around as they were EVERYWHERE, covering all the bushes and anything else in sight. It was surprising how bad the stink from the water was AND you had to pay $9.00 to drive across to the Island. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Guessing Game

Time for another guessing game. Any ideas what this picture is of or did I make it too easy?

Wedding Pictures of my SugarBoy Larry Jr.

Finally, some wedding photos by their photographer, Joseph Blech. This picture includes my Mom and my Sister Renae and Jolene's son Shjon.

The new inlaws.

My Son definitely has a GREAT sense of humor. Her expression is priceless!!!!

My SugarBoy and his Bride to be

My SugarBoy (Larry Jr.) is getting married this March 28th to Jolene Durlam and it's not too far away!! I am so excited for them and they make the cutest couple. She has a little boy named Shjon (Shawn) that's a real cutie too. These are a couple of the many great pics they had taken for their announcements. The second one (serious face) was my favorite and the one they used. If you click on it to see a larger image, you can see their gorgeous eyes. Can't wait to see the wedding pics!

Renaissance Color

Seeing these scarfs at the Renaissance Festival made me want to PAINT!! They were so bright, so vivid and very colorful. The combination of color caught my eye. We had the best time this year and loved the Hypnotist show. I don't remember his name but he had a couple afternoon shows and it was quite entertaining! We want to go back this year if there is time and it doesn't get too baking hot!

Obsessed with Tulips

Duane brought me a beautiful bouquet of assorted purple flowers last week. As the tulips started tipping over I cut them and put them in their own vase to last a few more days, propped up by some of the stiffer type greenery. I just had to photograph them. I think I ended up with close to 80, yes, I said 80 pictures, trying to get just the right light, the right composition, the lovely overlapping of petals, the options seemed endless. I narrowed it down to my favorite half dozen or so and I'm sharing just three of those.

Phase Three

I decided to try removing some paint with alcohol for this next step. I hadn't ever tried it so I was curious to see how it worked. Using a q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol, I removed some of the paint over certain areas to expose the previous layers. I wanted to show the raised areas of plaster without sanding them since they are pretty thin already. It worked very nicely and it's a technique I see myself using a lot. The changes thus far are VERY subtle. Some paint was removed all the way down to the painted board so it might be necessary to add more paint there later on. I still don't know where this is going at this point. I would eventually like to add some lettering if I could just figure out what I wanted to say! Maybe it will be unreadable text.

Detail of my favorite section so far. The circular patterns and lines are from the plaster. One of the 5's is now imbedded and much more interesting after removing the white paint from the plaster.

My Raina Gentry class piece Phase Two

Now that I've added another layer, the look has changed quite a lot. I am not sure what to do next but I still enjoy the process. Paint a little, study it. I look at it wondering when I'm going to get back in the art room again to work on it. Someday. I DO know I will work around the white and blue area that looks like a little Pac Man or critter as well as the 55 in the upper right corner. I didn't have time to refine it when I painted around it.

I have the MOST difficult time applying anything that is "crooked" or angled. As much as I hated doing so, I stamped the 5's that way AND upsidedown on top of it. I have to get something else going in other directions so they don't seem out of place to me. They might get partially painted over or buried somewhat. I wonder about posting something in progress, having people look at it and question things on it, but I have to remind you that it is NOT finished and just like comparing this to the last post of it, you could very possibly see a whole change by the time it IS done. I too can see many things to change or question but I thought sharing was better than waiting for it to be done. IF it ever gets done that is. I do like it better now, more contrast and depth. It also seems more unified.

Phase One

Phase Two

Art Unraveled 2008 with Katie Kendrick

Another Art Unraveled class, this time with Katie Kendrick. She lives on a peninsula across from the Sound in Washington! What a great place to live! I'm actually GOING there the first week of September with my Sister Renae from Utah.

We painted a first layer on our boards and continued painting until we saw something appear.

I was seeing NOTHING..... so I kept painting, adding layers and textures to what was there, adding some circles, painting over the least interesting areas, around shapes that were made, turning it every direction, looking at it.... forgetting to photograph it after some of the changes, but you get the idea. I couldn't find a direction that looked like anything. The shapes were so disconnected and I really didn't know where to go with it. So I just continued on. The bottom right part of the picture below almost looked like a bowl to me if I turned it upside down.

Once Katie pointed out the possibility of a face, I saw it too. I wasn't trying to make a person or face as I prefer abstract to realism, BUT, all of a sudden, there was this face, and a body below. The bowl became the back of the head, but I think the big blue circle eye is a bit strange! The whole thing is a bit strange. I am thinking about adding a smaller light circle inside it to make the "eye" look smaller. I added the map section in the large circle and tried painting over it. That was unsuccessful, so I just kept painting over it until it looked better to me.

A blue half-circle didn't look right to me so I extended it and unknowingly it became her arm. After looking at it for some time, I even see where there are three fingers. It looks like she is gripping a bar or something. It's just to the right of the white place and under the yellow area. I could always define those too.

This one isn't quite finished, but close. I think I might redo the blue "bird" at the bottom. It looks like a funny duck. In the second picture (above) you can actually see a section that LOOKED like a hen if you turn your head sideways. I painted over that shape, but not very well. One of the things to try redoing later. It was a great way to go about painting and Katie was a GREAT teacher!!!

Art Unraveled 2008 with Raina Gentry

I forgot to take my camera so I don't have any in progress photos. Darn! I love seeing how something starts and progresses in layers. I only have two pictures of this class with Raina Gentry and it isn't finished yet.... They are the same, one is upside-down for a different view. Only a few layers have been done so far. Raina lives in Prescott and teaches out of her studio too, so I hope to get up there for more classes with her. I was looking at the piece from a distance and I enjoy the shapes upside-down as well so who knows what it will really end up being.

The "V" from my previous post was used here as a gel transfer that was unsuccessful due to the gray background and no real contrast, BUT, it isn't done yet. I can either paint over it or any number of things! It definitely needs more layers and depth.

I highly recommend taking a class from Raina if anyone gets the chance at a future Art Unraveled event. She was a great teacher, the class was very organized, her process was a great approach to the "blank canvas" and she made it around the class to help and offer guidance to the students in addition to having two really nice helpers!

Art from Nature

Just a quick post today. I saw this palm peeling in Duane's yard a few weeks ago and instantly saw a beautiful artistic letter "V". It was so beautiful all by itself, so frilly and playful. It measures about 15" tall. I brought it home, photographed it, then spent a few minutes in Photoshop playing with some possibilities. It was definitely fun! Enjoy!

Shemer Workshop

I took a workshop with Elaine and Lynda recently at the Shemer Art Center from Nancy Christy-Moore. We started by tearing and arranging assorted rice papers onto a 1/4 sheet of watercolor paper, gluing them down with acrylic matte medium, and setting aside to dry. The next step was painting with watercolor, but I didn't get to it on this one.

A second one was started on any old previously painted piece. We added the rice papers, glued and dried, then painted with watercolor. The next step which I didn't get to was using some gesso to do some negative painting around some of these colored areas. I thought I'd study it a while first, and maybe someday I'll get around to it, as I am not very good at negative painting. As I look at it now and then, I am seeing some colorful angelfish and underwater plants that could be defined, but who knows? I also didn't try the part of using clear or colored crayons over the layers as they developed, but it was very interesting to see.

This was a third piece I started. I had to try one with a resist, by writing with a clear gel pen Lynda had brought for us to try, then painting over it with watercolors. This ended up being my favorite, and I plan to work on a few areas a bit more, and then it should be done. We also tried out some plain mat boards as frames and most of the pieces looked so much better.