One Success and One Massive Failure

Posted on November 4, 2020 by Mama Cormier

….happy with the first one and not so much with the second

Painting for me is a process. I’m more of an intuitive painter. I put down a mark on the paper and go from there. Sometimes it works out well and other times it doesn’t.

Yesterday I put a heavy black stroke of black ink on my paper and I knew as soon as I did that it would overpower my subject but I continued painting anyway. After finishing the piece I showed it to my husband and he honestly told me that the black was too much. I agreed and I tried to calm it down with white paint and other marks but it didn’t help.

I’ve decided to wait a bit before doing anything with it but I will probably cut it up and use the parts that I like and collage them into another painting.

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Playing With Paints Again

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Mama Cormier

…it’s been too long

I cleaned off my art table yesterday. That was half the battle. Now I have no more excuses not to paint. On Hallowe’en I actually painted four individual cards for my neighbours but I forgot to photograph them. Painting is very therapeutic for me and I need to do it more often.

I’ve watched dozens of painting videos in the last four months and even though I felt inspired I just couldn’t get motivated to set up the paints. I want to enter an art show later in the month but I have to put my entries on line by November 6th. I’d better get busy. Here is my first attempt at mixed media ….mostly watercolour and ink.

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I need a title for this painting. Any suggestions?

Sketchbook Revival – Day 8 – 100 Dots

Posted on April 13, 2020 by Mama Cormier

…thanks to Noah Scalin for this art activity

On day 8 Karen Abend featured Noah Scalin who showed us how to open up when you don’t know what to draw or paint. 100 dots is literally an activity where you randomly place 100 dots on a piece of paper and then you look for dots to connect to create a picture. I decided to look for a face. Here is my creation.

Starting With a Doodle

Posted on March 24, 2020 by Mama Cormier

….day 2 of Sketchbook Revival

Today in Karen Abend’s Sketchbook Revival class we were introduced to Mary Beth Shaw who is a journal artist. She took us from a doodle sketch done in pencil to an abstract spread using collage, ink and acrylic paint. It was a fun process and a great way to start a painting when you have no idea what you want to paint. Here is my day’s artistic endeavour.

From This to That

Posted on March 24, 2020 by Mama Cormier

…yesterday I showed you two blobs of colour that I would transform

Today I completed a cat that looks like it was crossed with a mouse and a leaf eating dragon. Here’s what I started with…..

….and this is what I ended up with

Starting With a Blob

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Mama Cormier

….when you don’t know what to paint start with a blob of colour

Today was the first day of Sketchbook Revival, another on-line free series of classes to get your creative juices to flow. The program is hosted by Karen Abend and today’s guest artist is one of my favourite teachers, Carla Sonheim.

Carla started by encouraging all artists to journal daily with what she calls box journalling. Basically she draws a box in her journal and divides it into sections and writes and draws in the different spaces. She writes random thoughts, to do and idea lists and draws doodles in one of the smaller squares. All of these help give her inspiration for the rest of her day. She also finds it very meditative.

Blob drawings are a great way to start making art when you’re in a rut and don’t know what you want to paint. You literally lay down a blob of paint onto paper and smear it or spread it in a random fashion with a credit card or palette knife. Here are two examples of blobs that I have laid down on the pages of my sketchbook.

Later this evening I will probably turn then around and see what animal or creature I see and start adding detail with a black marker or with ink. For the one that I just finished I used a water based ink so that I could go back in with a wet brush and add shading by just going over the black lines.

In my first blob I clearly saw a bird flying through the air. Here is my finished piece.

Tea Biscuits and Doodles

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Mama Cormier

….trying to keep busy and watch less TV

My husband finally got bored watching TV and felt well enough to play in the kitchen. For some reason he’s had a craving for tea biscuits so he started to research for a recipe where we had all the ingredients. I haven’t made biscuits in a long time but I do remember that they were pretty basic with simple ingredients. It’s amazing how many variations of tea biscuits there are out there. Some called for evaporated milk and lemon soda pop and of course there are all kinds of add ons like raisin and cranberries.

We finally decided on a classic recipe. My husband also made his own clotted cream and we had a wonderful afternoon tea break with hot biscuits and cream. The only thing missing were the fresh berries to go on top.

Later in the evening I went on the internet and found a new site hosted by Mo Willems, the children’s book author and illustrator. It is very much geared to children but I enjoyed his show ‘Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems”. Check it out if you like to doodle and/or if you have children who like his books. He demonstrates how to draw Pigeon, Piggy and Elephant.

Day 29 – Sharing Sketchbooks

Posted on February 9, 2020 by Mama Cormier

….day 29 of the 30 Day Creativity Challenge

Thanks Rainee for inspiring me to create for 30 days.

Last Friday I spent the day with our granddaughter again. I brought her a sketchbook just like mine and her own blending stick. This, however, did not keep her from drawing in my book. I saw a picture on the wall of a simple vase with leaves pouring out of the top. I started drawing it. When Winnie saw what I was doing she added more leaves to my picture and started to colour in the vase. 41A34BFA-6E60-40D5-9E8D-2FF3FF131A1C_1_201_a

When she was done with that she turned to a fresh page in my book and drew her own vase with leaves. B99C367B-FF34-46B3-9D82-E539AE2E4162_1_201_a

Here she used her blending stick on the pencil and white charcoal details she added. She asked me to make a speech balloon with the saying ‘I need you’.

Day 14 – Inspired by a Pair of Glasses

Posted on January 14, 2020 by Mama Cormier

…thanks to Rainee for getting me going on the30 Day Creativity Challenge

I’ve just completed my third art piece around the saying ‘This is impossible to read but it was fun to make.’ My inspiration came from watching Lesson two for the 2020: Pictures and Words year long class hosted by Carla Sonheim. The teacher for this class has us doing something very different but I was mesmerized by her glasses and decided to use her as my subject for this drawing. Thanks Martha.

Creativity Challenge – Days 7 and 8

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Rainee from All About Words for hosting the 30 Day Creativity Challenge

I painted a nautilus shell on day 7 but wasn’t terribly thrilled with it so I tried it again on day 8. C194D2F9-459E-4475-BE9C-355CF5DDDA8A 30F67ADC-61E2-4736-A7C1-AFE400C578B0

Amazing what a difference slowing down can make. I should have listened to Lisa Congdon more carefully the first time I tried this exercise but then for most of us we need to practice and do things over and over again to get better.