SASSY girls and a Good Idea
In November, two months ago, egads how time flies, I invited some enchanting ladies to join me in the mountains for four days to make art and plans for making more art. Carol Sloan, Kim Rae Nugent and Liz Kettle and I rented a cabin and filled it with art and fun. We call ourselves Smarty Artists’ (Sumptuous) Summit, or S.A.S.S. We had an elk head on the wall we named “Bernard.” We dressed him up and drew him. We had a view out our window of the Rocky Mountains, and the forest. The dining room table soon filled up with so many supplies and projects that we had to eat...
Read MoreArtspark Winter Tutorial Blog Hop
Here are all the projects my Artsparks partners have done for you, for free! Dec 4 Lyric Kinard, Snowflake Pinwheel Ornament Dec 5 Tracie Lyn Huskamp, For the Smell of It Dec 6 Judy Perez, Speculatius Cookies Dec 7 Jill Berry, Mini Book Ornament Dec 8 Traci Bunkers, Star Garland Dec 9 – Lisa Engelbrecht, Easy Gilded Letters for...
Read MoreBamboo and Haiku
Yesterday I went to the Denver Botanic Gardens with my friend Liz Kettle. There is an exhibit there in the gardens, of sculptural bamboo. It was hot, really hot, so we found a shady place to draw these sinuous, flowing and tremendously exciting pieces. This one is at the entrance. Liz has wonderful pictures of what we drew on her blog. Here is my sketchbook page. The bamboo moves through the gardens with amazing grace and beauty. Some of the sculptures were floating on the ponds. They looked architectural, nautical, lyrical. The rest of the gardens were bursting with color, which quite...
Read MoreMaira Kalman and her message to me.
I love, love, Love Maira Kalman, all her characters, all her colors and feelings spilling all over the page. Get to the bookstore or library and treat yourself to The Principles of Uncertainty or Max the Dog. I found this video link on Lisa Hoffman’s blog, and she is fab too, so here I am sharing these two wonderful women. This was perfect for me today, sitting around being crotchety over nothing. Maira snapped me out of it, quick. Haiku for Today I have enough, now Riches untold, dreams, blessings I have enough, now. For more Haiku, go to Haiku My Heart....
Read MoreHappy (Finally) Accidents
Last week I spent a day making books with my uber-talented bookmaking and calligraphy artist friend, David Ashley. He also makes jam, and bakes like a french chef. My kids also love him. In other words, he is guy you want to know. Making traditional books is for the fussy. Seriously, you have to love that kind of thing to tolerate on day of formal book making. This set of books started for me when I found a vintage series of books that had very cool covers. I took them off. Then I had to make new text blocks, the inside of the book. I used 140# Fabriano Artistico Hot Press (smooth)...
Read MoreZentangle a Map!
I have a friend across the world that I have never met. She just wrote a book, and I am very pleased to be a part of the blogroll to get the word out. Kass Hall lives in Australia and is a a Certified Zentangle® Teacher. This is something I knew not a thing about, until I got her book. Kass and I decided that a map was in order, since that combines techniques from both our books. I just took a very eventful trip from my home in Colorado to Ghost Ranch in northeastern New Mexico and decided that was the journey to map. First of all, I read the whole book since I was a Zentangle virgin. I...
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