365 Days of Art – Chinese Brush Painting

Posted on February 8, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..days 38 and 39

I started these late last night and then finished in the wee hours of this morning. So I guess that still counts as a painting a day.

I’ve always liked the simplicity of Chinese Brush Painting but there’s nothing simple about it. I can see why Chinese artists take years to master their craft. I took this book out of the library as a reference. It’s beautifully illustrated but I’ve discovered that I’m not very good at following directions from a book. I’m in too much of a hurry to take the time to read all the directions. I’m much better with a video demonstration but I did enjoy this process so I think I will go back and read some of the chapters.

365 Days of Art – The Bad With the Good

Posted on February 7, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..days 36 and 37

Not everything that I make do I necessarily like. This is a journey of learning and practising skills in art. I started with watercolour still life and then landscapes when I started painting at 50. I’ve dabbled in so many different art genres that I haven’t mastered one. I’m going back to basics. Here are two studies of apples and bananas. I need to keep practising.

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365 Days of Art – Blue-Green Collage

Posted on February 4, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..another collage for the ‘colour plunge’ assignment

I’m really enjoy making these small collages. Randal Plowman has written The Collage Workbook and has set out 50 exercises to build up our collaging skills. Evelyn Flint and her sister are encouraging artists to join them on their year long art journey by making a different collage each week using Plowman’s prompts.

This is the third collage I’ve made for this one prompt ‘colour plunge’. The idea is to create a monochromatic collage using mostly one colour. Todays collage uses mostly blue greens. I used some of my text papers and finished it off with paint on bubble wrap that I printed on top.

365 Days of Art – Colour Plunge

Posted on February 3, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..day 34 and challenge #5 from The Collage Workbook

This week (I’ve finally caught up) Randel Plowman asks us to choose a colour and make a monochromatic collage using various shade of that colour. I’ve made two. The first one is mostly reds and the second one contains a variety of pinks. I’ve already starting using my art papers that I made yesterday. Check out Evelyn Flint’s colour plunge. They’re amazing.

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365 Days of Art – Text Pages

Posted on February 3, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..day 33

Today’s class with Carla Sonheim was to create art papers using text. I enjoyed this process. I used watercolour paper and a variety of pens and ink to create these papers. I found a couple of poems in my Roald Dahl Treasury and I copied them onto some of the sheets. The idea is to fill the paper with words and try not to leave too much white space. I plan to use some of these in my next collage assignment.

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365 Days of Art – Colour Charge

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….day 32

I’ve gone back to doing more collage. This is from the Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman. It is assignment #4 where you apply colour to a collage that is primarily black and white. In the first one I added some touches of red using red paper and a red photograph and in the second one I added blue using a highlighter and chalk pastels.

Thanks to Evelyn Flint for starting this weekly collage challenge and introducing me to Plowman’s book.

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365 Days of Art – Mug Shot

Posted on January 31, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..Day 31

Carla Sonheim posted a video about Chris Crites who paints mug shots on paper bags. I googled ‘mug shot images’ and found hundreds of photo of actual mug shots. Here is the one I chose to draw. Now I’m debating whether I should add some colour to it. What do you think?

365 Days of Art – Random Pig

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….day 30

Yesterday’s prompt from Carla Sonheim was ‘random pig’. I’ve wanted to paint a pig for awhile now so I searched the internet for pig images. I made two drawings a Micron pen. In the first one the eyes were too far apart and the face wasn’t long enough. I’m much happier with my second attempt. I’m that much closer to using paint for my next pig project.

Share Your World – January 29, 2018

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Cee for posting more interesting questions on Share Your World

If you had an unlimited shopping spree at only one store, which one would you choose? Why?

I would choose a store where I could buy a variety of items, like clothing, household items, accessories, toys, and make-up. Even though I’d have unlimited amounts of money (I’m assuming that’s what an unlimited shopping spree means) I still think of Marshall’s first. Maybe I should be adventurous and say Nordstrom’s.

What is the worst thing you ate recently?

I tend to avoid foods that I don’t like and there aren’t too many of those. I would have to choose something that was badly prepared or didn’t meet my expectations. The only thing I can think of is the oatmeal my father made and he wanted me to try it because he had some left over. Is it possible for something to be too salty and too sweet at the same time? Well it was and I politely declined to eat the rest. My Dad doesn’t read this blog so I’m not too worried that he’ll be offended.

Name five things you like watching…

Watching my granddaughter playing
A game of professional soccer, rugby or lacrosse
The Olympic Games, summer and winter
Live theatre
On TV – Coronation Street, The View, Young Sheldon, Survivor, The Crown and most British detective stories

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

This week I managed two visits to Hamilton to visit my daughter and granddaughter and my oldest daughter came over with her Frenchie, Olive on Sunday. Time with my family always makes me smile.

Photo credit goes to my daughter-in-law who took this photo back in November.

On Sunday Olive and Frances had a great time playing together and we were able to go for a nice long walk.

I’m also happy that I finally got my art studio in working order last week. I put together the last piece of furniture and started filling up the drawers. Even though I’ve been doing art almost every day since the beginning of the month, I can now do it in a neater and more organized space.

In conclusion I need to thank my husband for taking me on one of his business trips this week. It was only up to Collingwood but I had an opportunity to take some photographs of the town and together we enjoyed a wonderful meal before heading home. We had such a nice time that we’re thinking of doing this once a week or at least twice a month. Any suggestions where we should go next? No more than two hours from Toronto, please.

Cheers!

365 Days of Art – Day 29

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….making up for my non-painting days

Carla Sonheim’s post the other day had us use the scraping method to make a random blob shape onto watercolour paper and then look for shapes or designs to bring out with marker. This was a lot of fun.

For some reason I saw birds and cats. I hate drawing cats, only because I don’t think I’m very good at it, so I did the two birds first. In the first blob I saw an eagle with a fish in his mouth and the second one was a random mythical bird with an angry look. Then I tackled the cat drawings. One is of a cat sleeping and the other is a cat from the back side.