thank you

i wanted to say thank you for your support of all of the muslin art i've been doing lately, so i made a Barely There Book to give away as a small way of saying thank you! for your kind words and encouragement.


the average page size is about 4" x 6", with some pages a little bigger and some a little smaller...

most of the pages have tabs on them like these, so you have the whole surface to work on. if you enlarge this pic you can see bits of paper here and there on the page; some of the pages have this from the drying process - i like it because it adds another element, but if you don't like this kind of thing, you probably won't like the book... then again, if you don't like this kind of thing you probably abandoned my blog long ago, hee!! the beads... i made some beads to go with it... something about the muslin's made me want to fire up my torch up again...


and a teeny tiny BTB to go with the bigger one. it's 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", for your pocket or purse (the pine needles are just propping the bead up)... kelly has a teeny tiny moleskin that she draws in, and that's where the idea came from.

if you'd like to have your name put in the hat for these books, just put the letters 'btb' at the end of your comment. and thank you, again! oh, and for some Barely There inspiration, have a look at what roxanne's done in hers...


last week i rearranged my art room to make room for the twinkling H2Os -- seriously, a hundred plus colors take up a lot of room! even though it looks messy it really is organized - all of my favorite stuff is within arm's reach. i think that even if i had a bigger room i'd still have everything crammed into a space this size so i could reach it without getting up!

"who me?"

i used watercolors more on this weeks pages...


and i've stopped drawing anything on the back side of the page because it messes with the oil pastels too much. so i just stick a piece of ripped up art from the 'rough muslin' book on the back side. i'm thinking about working on individual pieces of muslin after this book is done and putting them together once i get a stack...


this little guy's head was already on the page, i just added the body...


i drew this after listening to van morrison's 'tupelo honey' (she's an angel of the first degree)... love that song, and i liked everything about her except her face, which went from bad to overworked worst throughout the course of the day. i finally decided to get the manicuring scissors and cut her face out! then i put a piece of muslin from the 'rough muslin' book (i swear it's really coming in handy for as much as i didn't like it ; ) behind the opening and stitched around it. i like this idea of cutting out openings...


mail art that'll soon be on its way...


i saw this *way* up in a tree when i was out walking, so i sat down under it...


these are the only two pics of drawings on sticks from last week... i've been drawing faces for trees. i sit down next to a tree and draw the face that comes to me, and believe me, it's fun! i highly recommend it! i use prismacolor colored pencils because that's what i have, but i'm guessing that any kind will work. thank you for your nice words about my stick art!


i made a stash of tree flags to take to mt. shasta tomorrow... i used (mostly) oil pastels and a china marker. simple and waterproof... and of course there'll be sticks there...

this week's quote is truly an art quote! i think it's something that we all know, but i like to be reminded of it...

Contrast is everything. Color doesn't read until you put another color next to it. For example, when you place what you think is true red on a neutral background, the red looks warmer when you put crimson next to it. When you put red-orange next to the red, the red appears cooler. But if you place green beside red, both colors seem more intense. Every time you add a color to a composition, you change all the relationships.

Nita Leland in 'Confident Color'

XO