Tribal Line ~ Art Couture Gallery ~ Art Journal Pages

"Tribal Line"
Acrylic Figurative on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

After the Robert Burridge workshop I wanted to paint abstracts and have painted two that I will post later but I keep going back to figures. These figures were painted on a toned canvas. Bob had done a painting with a girl with bright red boots so this is my interpretation. It was accepted in the Art Couture Gallery in Dallas.


Art Journal Page 81
Unpacking from the Anne Bagby workshop and wanting to make a chop but just drew it instead. Shirley Trevena's new DVD, "Breaking the Rules of Watercolour", arrived from England and I just had to collage some of the mailing envelope. Check out Shirley's blog here.

Art Journal Page 82
One of my babies turned 51, oh, my. On that day he texted "51 years ago we had us a day."
Here is Theresa's baked oatmeal recipe and you can find more about it at the Artist Food Network. Drawing looks pretty bad at the top of the oatmeal box but I have an excuse because I was in a big, big hurry.

Art Journal Page 83
Not fun days as I was gathering info for income tax, and I've watched the Trevena DVD and she says forget perspective and gather up some of your favorite things and paint them. I chose my mother's biscuit cutter, my favorite coffee drinking cup, a gift from my daughter, a cut glass toothpick holder that my father used every day, and the bottom of the pointy bill holder because it was old and interesting and I didn't pay any attention to perspective. I started Burridge packing.

Art Journal Page 84
Still unpacking and packing and I've been wanting to draw better so I've gone back to some favorite drawing books:
1. Danny Gregory
2. Dan Price
3. Bert Dodson
4. Betty Edwards
I watched 2 granddaughters and if I hadn't drawn around their hands I'd never noticed that Mattie's little fingers had fingernails so short the ends of her fingers were visible (biting nails) and Grace had 2 fake nails on her 5 3/4 year old fingers.
(I hope this type face isn't an inch high. I'm working on a 13 inch laptop and it's hard for me to decide exactly the font size I need) I will post some Burridge adbstracts next.

Small Watercolor ~ Art Journal Pages

7 1/2" x 5 1/2" Watercolor
On pages 50 and 51, "Taking Risks with Watercolour", by Shirley Trevena, she gives a painting exercise to loosen up just before painting. It's a method I tried here by flowing in color, making marks, dots, squiggles, drag and tap the brush, encouraging blooms, using water soluble pencils on sandpaper, and Stabilo Tone with the black. I exploited and ran with the results by adding a woman figure. The Stabilo Tone set was purchased for some studies from the book. They are a combination of colored pencil, aquarelle color and wax crayon in one and I think their names have changed according to this site.




Art Journal Pages: P. 47
A trip to the Kimbell Art Museum, Halloween with me turning off the lights and hiding in the kitchen, Bills, Babysitting job with art work, always it's "Can we do art?", Canvas by Canvas took down the Petroleum Club exhibit and hung the exhibit at Artists Showplace, then dinner celebration at a Japanese restaurant, Sushi Axiom, for the sold paintings before the play.



Art Journal Page 48
The play we attended was "Menopause, the Musical" and funny, funny. I saved our invitation to the Petroleum Club.

Art Journal Page 49:
Refrigerator clean and Quiller pack, and had a great 5 day workshop with Stephen Quiller so I condensed 5 days into the Quiller colorwheel.

Art Journal Page 50:
So I'm halfway through the Montval All Media Sketchbook. A small Shirley Trevena study, our brave Grace having her tonsils out and Grannie cooking her chicken noodle soup and pumpkin pies (which she didn't eat or like) but she got a new Hannah Montana robe and pj's. She quipped before the surgery after donning the cap, "I look like the lunchroom ladies".
The next few days were spend cooking, cooking, cooking... sweet potato and pecan pies, and biscuits and cornbread for the dressing, and fruit salad with the occasional sorting of paper in boxes in the living room. I found my car title at the bottom of one large stack and refiled it in the Important Paper tub. (So wonderful because I wasn't even looking for it and my goal is to have nothing lost in my house.)
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and can find where you put the leftovers.

Farm Fresh ~ Lake House ~ Art Journal Pages

At CBC's Lake House retreat we made a short side trip to take photos at a wonderful farm and we had all cameras snapping. I plan to paint roosters and chickens soon, maybe a few goats. I'll leave the rabbits to other members. We saw horses, pigs, puppies, and one day old baby chickens. The mother hen was trying to teach them to scratch for food but they were not very good listeners, running around and glad to be alive. Each member contributed a sketch for the journal. I don't think my rooster below could actually walk as I placed his legs a little off center.

I don't really ride bikes (used to) but this is a crazy card Karen gave me and on the other page we all had to take a photograph of the beautiful tulip gift bag. Karen and CC provided a delightful skit we dubbed "Beauty Shop Gossip" at the Lake House Theatre. They expounded on each member with a little truth and lots of exhaggeration - for one they said I was 72 going on 12 and my heavy backpacks have caused all the hangers to fall off in the bathroom stalls!

We started a wine bottle painting and I finished "C" and "H" and failed to take a photo, guess I was thinking about farm animals and gift bags but below you'll get an idea of what the painting might look like. It's not on our web site yet. Other entertainment included watching painting DVD's by Janet Rogers, Shirley Trevena, and Charles Reid. Great news by telephone....we've sold a painting...yahoo!! Wonderful news to add to a perfect painting retreat.

Art Journal Materials:
I mentioned in a previous post about giving a short art journaling class to the CBC members at our Lake House retreat last weekend. A Google search will turn up lots of information on keeping a journal but I subscribe to Illustrated Watercolor Journaling and they have an updated link page on materials and supplies. They have a good dvd on art journaling as well.

Boot Square ~ Friends ~ Journal Pages

10" Square for a Boot Painting for Canvas by Canvas. I used a photograph of a pair of my red boots. I have designed this project and keep checking the CBC web site for a sneak peek. There are 4 squares finished as of Monday. Six of us painted at the gallery and later headed to Dallas for food and a kickoff meeting for the 3rd Park Cities Presbyterian Art Festival. All the details will be on their web site in about 2 weeks and it is a well attended and organized art festival and sale. This year the theme will be Parables: Surprised by Truth. This will be the third year to enter and the first year we won first place with our theme and the second year our painting, Core of Sin, sold before the show officially opened.
Just more boring closet clean out and finding too many pairs of ill fitting jeans, saw Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with girlfriends, started to read Charles Reid's new book, Watercolor Solutions. More of that on another blog post.

Friends:
So many precious details of our children's lives are lost forever in our ill equipped memory banks but one clear incident remains. I learned about true friends from my daughter and her friend, Kelly, when they were in elementary school. I watched and listened after their return home from school one day and they were headed across the street to Kelly's when I overheard one of them say, "I'll carry your books and you can carry mine." What a friend. How heart wrenching to watch them on our last Sunday in Virginia saying their goodbyes. That morning they were baptized together and later as Delphia and I were drying off and dressing two wet little girls in the restroom they realized the finality of the event and they held each other and sobbed and cried and so did we.
You are very luckly and fortunate to ever had even one very good friend. I lost my shopping, going to the movie and walking friend several years ago and never thought I'd find another. Now I paint with 8 others in a group called Canvas by Canvas and we're more than business partners - we're truly good friends. It always amuses us when a man that we don't know very well is prone to ask "Bet you get in a lot of cat fights?" At times we let their imaginations soar but usually we say "No, this group of 9 women try to be a loving and thoughtful group of friends. We realize our good fortune. We are all independent and a little strong willed but that's a good point." No schisms and screams for this bunch. Other groups of women friends can understand this.
The following journal pages have made me consider friends again when we all received an email with the subject line "I have bad news" from one of our members about a health condition. How do you journal and then have some privacy. I've opted to print off that original email and then cut and paste in my journal each of the CBC member's response and covered the messages with a piece of white net with gold sparkles to mark that time. (Earlier that day I've purchased a bottle of new perfume and added the scent sample and such a nice fragrance now in my journal and purchased a rolling cart for watercolor paints).
I've been dealing with the situation with journaling and we had a special called meeting to be together, hang out and paint on Sunday. Check out our "expensive" Sam Moon necklace of a crown made from Sam Moon earrings and each one of us are wearing one. CC made us all a "thinking about" bracelet and my Mudd backpack and I just sent my first text message. I could have made 9 telephone calls in the time it took me to hit those keys trying to get to the letter I needed, sent it to my kids as they were the ones requesting I get this feature. I don't think they want to hear from me so much as being able to send messages to me.

I'm reading in my new Reid book (I have others) and love how he contour draws and I'd like to have the time to do all of the drawing exercises in all his books, the doctor visit and I used the word remember and I recalled a piece of jewelry my grandmother Johnson wore and she had very little jewelry but this one was special and had a fake pearl where the word pearl should have been, "I Remember Pearl Harbor". Memories are who we are...
cleaning off more bookcase shelves, not finishing any jobs just starting new projects, computer searches, wanting to give more study to the Shirley Trevena books.
Our friend, one of the youngest members, says "I hope I don't get kicked out of CBC because I can't be a "lifter" for awhile (an inside joke about who lifts and loads our heavy 33" x 33" paintings). I answered "We may have to take a vote because now it will take 2 of the older members who used to be "watchers and holders" and "one on each enders" to take your place."
Or maybe for awhile, dear child, we'll carry your books and you can carry ours.