'harbinger of love' ~ watercolors, colored pencil and gouache in s. & b. 'beta',  6" x 8" 

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“There is no 'must' in art because art is free.”     

~ Wassily Kandinsky

'ladelle (tells it true)' ~ watercolors, oil pastels, gouache and colored pencil on bits of old pages glued to watercolor paper 

the idea for 'ladelle' came from norma of the fairyyellowbug queen ...  she's sponsoring a paperdoll challenge this week and she wrote to me with an idea;  i told her i'd present it to the muse and see what she thought...    she loved it, so 'ladelle'  quickly sprang to life!

here's the idea:  ladelle's skirt is telling a story.  it shows us the kind of face that ladelle is afraid to paint - she's more comfortable painting something prettier, less edgy.  her left hand is glued behind her back because she's afraid to use it; it paints more closely what comes from the creative right hemisphere of the brain, and that's just too uncomfortable...

i'm sure it comes as no surpise that this a subject that's near and dear to my heart.  over the years i've observed myself backing away from painting in a way that is free-er, and when i look to see what's behind that i see the fear of failure.  what, huh?!!!     yep.  

and then i laugh because who the heck do i think is gonna be sitting there judging whether what i've done is a 'failure' or not...   oh, yeah, me!!  ha!!    when i see that (again) i proceed...

 something that i think is interesting is that it took me roughly 2 minutes to paint the face on the skirt, and 30 minutes (at least) to paint ladelle's...    i know, i know, the face on the skirt *looks* like it took a couple of minutes, lol!  but it never ceases to amaze me how quickly something can spring to life if you let yourself go and just do it.

and truly,  i love ladelle's sweet face too!!   i love them all, hee!  

you can visit more participants in norma's challenge here.  thank you norma...  you are a rare and beautiful bird.

and speaking of rare and beautiful birds, amy  has a mondo bunch of mixed media (including book making!) tutorials here.

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 “Art and love are the same thing: It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.”

  

~ Chuck Klosterman via tumblr

albrecht durer watercoloro pencils in s. & b. 'gamma' 

i've been wandering and roaming;  this is the first sunny, warm may that we've had in three years...

frittilary 

i just wanna be out seeing what i can see...

xo

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“I do dream about art, and images come to me in dreams. I am definitely hoping to be in touch with my subconscious. I expect a call any minute.”

~ Julian Schnabel via tumblr

'lady eve' ~ albrecht durer watercolor pencils and gouache in 4" x 6" s. & b. 'gamma'

last week i got the book 'the drawings of the electric pencil' after sighing over it for months.  all of the sudden amazon lowered the price to $41.97, which was all i needed.  there is so much that i could say about this book but i'm not feeling very wordy, so i'll just say that it moves me to my very core.  'lady eve' was inspired by one of the faces in the book, and there are many...

you can see all of the images in the book at the electric pencil website.   they were drawn by a man named edward deeds who lived most of his life in 'state lunatic asylum  #3' in nevada, missouri.  there's a great video about edward on the website,  sharing what little is known about his life.

she was 'lady evangeline' before i realized that that was not going to fit on the page. ; ) 

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if i'm not here, i'm out walking... 

XO

watercolors, gouache and graphite in stillman and birn 'delta' ~ 7" x 7"

 when i decided to stop using acrylics (a year ago?) i wasn't sure if i'd be able to paint in a layered/textured way that satisfied me.  what i've found is that with gouache, casein paint, watercolors, colored pencils, and oil pastels i can get as thick and textured as i want.  i've also figured out that i don't have to buy gouache for opaque color.   if i paint straight out of the tube (which i do all while) i can buy tubes of watercolors, which are usually less expensive. 

lately i've been moving away from white casein paint and towards white gouache.  my favorite is m. graham titanium white, and a big tube that will last *a long time* is only $9.35 at dick blick.   i now have holbein, winsor and newton, and m. graham gouache in a bunch of colors and i like them all, but nothing compares to m. graham titanium white for a white - in my opinion of course!

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“Screwing things up is a virtue. Being right can stop all the momentum of a very interesting idea.”

~ Robert Rauschenberg  via tumblr