Sumptuous Sumi and Journal Texting, Coming Up!

Posted on July 26, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops

Next week is Art Unraveled in Phoenix, Arizona, where I am teaching two classes. The first is Journal Texting, which is a class for those who would like to learn about letters, but do not have ten years (or more) of time to dedicate to the fine art of calligraphy. I would still recommend joining a calligraphy guild for beginning classes and meeting very cool people (mine is especially wonderful, snuggly close friends who make beautiful things and also support me in every way).

Back to AU, we will start from the classical Roman, skip through to Imre Reiner and whirl around lots of modern text designers to making our own letters on lots of papers, that will then get placed in a colorful book full of samples.

We will talk about composition of pages. Here are a couple of mine.

In the Sumptuous Sumi class we will work on surface design with this elegant black ink, and all the partners it shows off with, like acrylics, walnut ink and certain resists. We will work to music, like this,

Make abstract landscapes with sumi and water like this

Mostly we will make soft textured pages to use for books or collage like this.

The supply lists are very small, I am bringing most everything, including music and musical pieces to paint with (odd, what does that mean?)

Come on down. The venue is lovely, overlooking the mountains of Arizona. The folks are cheerful, there is free wine at 5, and I am doing a mini-journal meet on Wednesday in the lounge after class and before the night classes start.

Next week, Arizona. Be there.

If not, you might think about Valley Ridge in Wisconsin for my Labor Day Class and Picnic. More later.

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Haiku Saturday and More

Posted on July 24, 2010 - Filed Under Real Life, What I am up to

Beautiful woman
Scattered hope as pink petals
Soaring now, singing

Today I went to the services to honor this young woman, who was a bright, cheerful, talented young business woman. When she was diagnosed three years ago with ovarian cancer, I asked her what I could do.

Tell everyone, she said, tell everyone that ovarian cancer is the silent killer and research to detect it needs to be funded.

So, I am telling everyone who comes by here. Give $5, give anything. The only single thing to be learned from watching this happen is to do what she asked me to do.

I wish I could believe, as her family does, that God called her to be an angel. My belief, however, is that she was far more needed here. What happened to her can be avoided for our own girls if we make the effort to eradicate this disease as fast as possible. Please, make a small donation to any organization that funds ovarian cancer research. Do it for Deandra. Do it for me, do it for the girls we raise and love, and the ones we don’t even know. Thank you.

1 Comment

Haiku Friday

Posted on July 23, 2010 - Filed Under About me, Creative Exercises

Across the nightmare
You guided my boy and yours
Gently back to dreams

Last night my mom called, past midnight. That is never good. Sam is with her in California, he has been attending golf camp near her house, and has perfected the chip. He is treating everyone around him with gentile grace. Then last night, he woke up sobbing over a nightmare, and could not be settled. Mom called me, and between us, my voice, her hands, we got the little man back into dreamland.

I am tired this morning, and grateful for my mom. Grandma Jo. sweet Grandma, sweet Mom.

It is Haiku Friday, and Rebecca, I am thinking of you.

7 Comments

And the winner is….

Posted on July 19, 2010 - Filed Under Uncategorized

Lauri Packebush. I used the random number generator and it landed on you!

Congratulations! Thanks to all of you who came by, and look for more book giveaways on Carla’s blog. You will have more chances there.

xooxo to all of you.

Drawing Lab Book Giveaway!!!

Posted on July 13, 2010 - Filed Under Artist Friends, Publications I'm In

Carla Sonheim

an artist, teacher, and friend, has a new and already best-selling book out called

Drawing Lab For Mixed Media Artists:

52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun

This book is third in a series by Quarry Books (the first two by Tracy Bunkers and Bee Shay), and it is FABULOUS!!! Not because I have a few pieces in it, which makes me and my family very happy, but because it is unique in a world of books about drawing, and I believe it to be the perfect starter book for anyone who wants to draw. I have always held the opinion that drawing is a learned skill, and is accessible to anyone who wants to take the time to do it. This book is your chance to prove it.

Here is something I did, a combination of exercises from the book. Michelle was a flight attendant on the United flight I took last week to Canada. I drew her on the barf bag, since even though the plane was small and bucketing over the Rockies, I did not need to use for its intended purpose. Later I copied her 14 times and changed her only with the watercolors. It was fun to change her ethnicity and attitude, but surprisingly I liked the first drawing best.

There are a few of my pieces in the book too. One of them is a family venture, and I ended up looking like someone’s matronly grandmother. Thank you to Sydney for that. There are others, including the pieces here. You will have to hunt for them in the book when you buy it, or you can leave a comment here to be entered into a drawing to

Win a free book!

: Sea Monster Poster Project

: Miro and Me, a conversation

So, it is up to you. Leave a comment for a free chance on the book.

I will be drawing names July 19, so you have almost a week to admire this post and decide what pithy thing you would like to say. Here is the bonus round. Carla will sign the book and include some surprise goodies from her studio. Lucky, lucky YOU.

Love and hugs to you Carla, and congratulations on a job well done!

64 Comments

Positively a Puppy

Posted on June 29, 2010 - Filed Under Uncategorized

I have been sharing my house and time with a puppy. He is mostly good, very cute, and sometimes naughty.

He does something dastardly and then grins and glances—”who, me?” The kids are at camp. Next time I need this time I am sending the dog too.

Everything I am working on is a secret right now, which is odd for a blabber mouth like me. This page I did a while back, but since I am getting ready for painting papers and book making in Canada next week, I got this out. I took a crazy paper, an overdone paper, and painted the white background around the things I found in it, creating a positive out of something that was not working at all. This one has that naughty puppy right there at the bottom. Perfect.

The paper is Arches Text Wove. I painted it with acrylic and methylcellulose, and added soft pastel while it was wet. After it dried I painted in the white negative space to make the positive figures. Simple twist and it all turns around. I like that.

My dog ate my computer cord. My friend David brought me a new power cord today, the only thing left after his niece’s car accident. I plugged in Larissa’s power cord and my computer worked for the first time in two days. Another twist. I find it oddly comforting that this simple thing keeps a part of her going here in my studio. And when David got back to his studio after delivering the power cord, his computer, previously pronounced dead by Dell officials, jumped back to life. It worked. Whatever is going on here I do not need to examine or prove. I know that puppies, paintings, power cords, and PCs can make complete reversals and become positive right quick. It happened today.

6 Comments

Water Journaling and Haiku Friday

Posted on June 25, 2010 - Filed Under 2011 Workshops

I dream of the sea
Floating in the blue soft arms
Sunset glowing pink

The haiku above is for Rebecca, who is precious and interesting.

I think about the ocean a lot, especially on days like this when it is 100° outside, and there is only a pool within driving distance and I am allergic to chlorine. A sprinkler might work for me right now, maybe later when I get home from the diner where I am having breakfast. This week my little darlings are at camp, and I am restless, not getting much done and then bonking my own head in guilt. Thought I would take break from the head bonking to enjoy my favorite diner, where the waitresses all call me “Sweetie” whether I am or not. That works really well for me today.

I am working on proposals for classes, and that is where the water comes in. I was born in Southern California, and grew up on the sandy beaches of the blue Pacific. The sound and smell of the ocean still sends me straight to Nirvana, so we spend most of our vacations near the sea. Mexico mostly, but any sea will do. One of my journals is entirely water scenes, and I get lots of comments on it, so I flung it into the proposal pile and hope to teach it. It is a hybrid class, both in journaling and in the iconography of water scenes.

I put Sam in the hills overlooking Zihuatenejo Bay where we have gone a few times, a place he loves. Me too.

This water is in Puerto Vallarta, at a resort we went to. We are not resort people, actually flinching at the $15 hamburger served poolside, but we got a deal and took our own food. Have to admit that the lounge chairs right in the pool were mighty appealing, and the kids loved it. There was a time share presentation, after which we got to pet dolphins which I found depressing. I wanted to set Flipper free, sneak him out in my backpack. His big grin was forced, I could tell.

Water journaling for me involves a few tools, actually two pencils, a pen, four watercolor crayons and a Pentel waterbrush. Fits in a tiny bag, and offers you a no-excuses day of journaling. I will teach how to draw water scenes too and all their parts: simple oceans, palm trees, people, floating and flying things.

Water is life’s mater and matrix, mother and medium.

There is no life without water.

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (Hungarian Biochemist, 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1893-1986)

Headed back home, leaving you with this bit of profundity. Have a wonderful, sparkling day.

8 Comments

More Faces

Posted on June 24, 2010 - Filed Under Uncategorized

More faces from my archives.

Speaking of drawing, my friend Carla has a new book out, Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists. There will be much more about this here in the near future.

My kids are gone to camp, Steve is at work. I am milling around, getting nothing done. Actually, I think I am a bit lonely. This house is usually rockin’ with activity, and as much as I have longed for this day, this uninterrupted time to work, it is too quiet. My dog shows off for me, to get the kind of loving he gets when the kids are here.

Speaking of dogs and kids, three weeks ago, before we took the dog to hang with my friend Libby while we went to camp, Sam emerged from the bathroom, both he and the dog soaking wet. He had lathered both himself and the pooch with Old Spice shower gel. Well, it happens that my high school boyfriend wore Old Spice, and now my dog smelled just like him. Posted as much on Facebook, and the comments were hilarious. At any rate, it is three weeks later and there is still a smidge of that boyfriend wafting about the house. Think it is time for something scentifically new around here…..FYI, Libby appreciated Thiebaud’s scented coat.

1 Comment

Face the Facts

Posted on June 23, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops, Artist Friends, My Hubby's Band

I am putting together new classes and old classes and writing a book, walking the dog, cooking for the hubby and headed out tonight to see his band. In other words, I am busy.

Yesterday I waded through old portfolios and found drawings I had done, and actually took the time to ponder and enjoy them. One of my new proposals is a class called “Face the Facts”, which is about the “math” of making portraits. The average face is five eyes wide, did you know that? If you know the rules, it is far easier to draw faces than without these basics in your arsenal. Here are some of my faces.

The two in oils, bottom right and top left, are one hour portraits I did for a year with my very talented friend, Linda Churchill. We had our friends come over for happy hour, then sit for one hour while we painted their mugs. I present to you here Jan and Betty. The sleeping woman’s name I don’t remember, and the little cutie is my girl Sydney, when she was 11 months old, wearing her yellow flowered bathing suit with a stick-out skirt and matching floppy hat. She was a ripe peach of a girl, round and pink. I love this picture of her chubby cheeks.

There are about 20 rules I have learned about faces, and will share if I get to do this class anywhere. Hope so.

Off to see hubby’s band tonight with a room full of friends, then dive into the book tomorrow. My kids are at camp, it is weirdly quiet here and I am not used to that at all. Tomorrow I will work on my book and preparing for my class in Canada, which is going to be an aesthetically wonderful week. Join me!

Dream Houses and Good Days

Posted on June 15, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops

Finally got the photos done from one of my classes at Art & Soul VA. It was called Dream Houses, and we made mixed media houses of copper, paper, beads, charms, paper, photos and ribbons. The copper roofs were carved with words and imagery, and then we added patina. Each of the houses is very personal to the maker. Check it out! Betty, our senior designer (I believe she is 88 years young) did hers with a praying women, which by chance I brought to share, and by chance an image she collects. By golly.

My other class was just as lovely, Magical Midnight Stories, and was about surface design on black paper. We were so busy I did not get photos, but I do hope any of you that were there will email them to me and I will surely post them here.

It was a good time this year, and I have more photos of my rescued Saturday with Melly. We drew and strolled on the beach, all day.