…..this week’s fun foto challenge needs the letters o and u in the word
Focus
Fish Eye Focus Indoors…..

….through the back window

….and outdoors

Can you guess what I got for Christmas?
…..this week’s fun foto challenge needs the letters o and u in the word
Focus
Fish Eye Focus Indoors…..

….through the back window

….and outdoors

Can you guess what I got for Christmas?
….day 8 of my year-long challenge
With this piece I tried to direct the thread to create a landscape. Tricky! I used acrylic inks again for the threading and watercolour to fill in the spaces. When you work on yupo paper you have little control over how the paint dries but then that’s one of the reasons why I like to work with it. This piece is also 9″ x 12″.

….I’m a day behind because my new computer was uploading 23 000 photos from the cloud
I’ve continued with the theme ‘threading lightly’ from Carla Sonheim’s year-long class. For this abstract piece I used yupo paper and inks for threading. I love the acrylic inks because they are so vibrant. I filled the spaces with watercolour. The piece is 9″x 12″.

….thanks to Becca Givens for hosting Sunday Trees
It’s been way too cold to go out and take photographs outdoors so this is the best I could do this week. Happy New Year everyone!
p.s. I still haven’t taken my tree down and I’m a day late….sorry I’ve had computer issues (good ones)

…..today’s prompt was Blind Fruited
Carla Sonheim always comes up with interesting assignments. Instead of drawing a piece of fruit without looking at the paper (blind contour drawing), Carla wanted the fruit to be blindfolded. Here’s my blind apple. Enjoy!

Oops, I dated this incorrectly. He should be Jan 6, 2018. I changed it on the original.
….this comes from the first prompt of the new year long course that I am taking with Carla Sonheim
Threading lightly is a technique where you run cotton thread through wet watercolour and randomly lay it onto paper and press it with a brayer. We could leave it as an abstract piece or look for a shape within. I decided to find a shape and discovered this quirky duck. Tomorrow or later in the week I’m going to try this technique with ink and perhaps try a landscape.

…..this weeks WordPress photo challenge is growth
….decided to switch it up a bit
Today I found some leaves pressed in one of my sketch books and I decided to use it as a collage element. I was also inspired by Herma from Studio Mastarre who draws very whimsical portraits. I haven’t tried to copy her style with today’s post but at some point I’d like to try my hand at it. I did use pencil to start with and I added some watercolour to finish.

…..meditative and fun to do
I’m loving my personal challenge so far. Three days in and I’ve managed to produce three pieces of abstract art. I won’t always do the same type of art and I will eventually move onto larger pieces. I may even take some of these smaller pieces and use them as inspiration for a larger piece using a different medium, perhaps acrylic or ink.
January 1st, 2018

January 2, 2018

January 3, 2018

…..I’m not a believer in New Year’s resolutions but I have set a challenge for myself for 2018
With all that went on last year in my personal life I felt that my art suffered. Once I stopped teaching I found little time to pursue my art. Ironic isn’t it that retirement was the reason for not making art but rather than go into all the details as to why that happened I want to focus on the now and how that will change.
Recently I complained to one of my followers that I couldn’t find time to make art because my studio space was still in a shambles from the renovation. This very wise woman suggested that I take my sketchpad and just start drawing anywhere in the house. So that’s exactly what I did and when everyone had gone to bed I would open my book and start making marks. Then I added some watercolour. I’m loving the process and have decided to make art every day, even if it’s just a doodle.
I started the challenge on New Year’s Eve. Here is my first piece of art made on the last day of 2017.

I will try to post a work of art every day or if I start on something larger I will post the progress on a daily basis.