Studio Day Monday

It was a busy day in the Queen of Arts Studio.

 

Pumpkin and I began the day with the Deepak and Oprah Manifesting Grace through Gratitude Meditation.

We are on day 8 and I am quite impressed with myself for not missing a single day !

Then I headed to the work table and continued work on this intuitive painting piece. Its a 20X20” canvas.

Its gone through quite a few transformations but I am liking the final orange version quite a lot !

The pics don’t quite get the vibrancy of the orange nor do they pick  up the gold metallic touches that I added here and there.

It was a little grey today so maybe I will try and get more pics tomorrow but I love the little details…

  I also did this page in my new journal.

It was a struggle !

I have been taking the Happy Painting class by Juliette Crane and it has made me play around with different materials and different ways of painting faces and I am kind of lost in the mish mash of styles right now.

I kept at it and pulled out the old dip pen and the inks and put my own messy style on page.

In the end I decided to just let it be what it is for now.

Its definitely not my favorite page and I was kind of disappointed that it was the first one in my new Moleskine journal.

But then again, I have to remember that journaling is not all about making pretty art.

Its about taking the time to do heart art.

 

So f*** off, Inner Critic.

The page stays as is ! I will not be taking your advice to rip it out of the book.  ;)

 

While letting the paint dry on both of the other pieces,

  I decided to spend part of the afternoon stitching.

Stitching and watching a movie.

I watched “Words and Pictures” with Juliette Binoche and Clive Owen.

I give the movie a 6.8 out of ten.

The movie played with the question of whether words or pictures are more important in and of course, there was a bumpy romance in the story as well. A pretty good chick flick.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

And my jeans are starting to look pretty badass, no ?

 

I feel so lucky to have had this day to play.

Tomorrow will be filled with errands and such, and then Wednesday, I will be packing.

Heading north to visit my Quebec peeps and get a bit of that Northern Summer beauty.

Really excited to hug some of my special people up there ! I miss them a lot !

Happy Monday, Beautiful Ones !

What’s on your shelf ?

August Break Prompt : Bookshelf

One of my favorite book shelves in my studio.

It had 4 of my completed art journals on it. Probably 5 of the things I would grab and bring with me in case of emergency, after the cats and dog are safe.

Along with my lap top.

And maybe a tube or two of Golden paint.

That stuff is pricey, you know !

Happy Sunday evening, Beautiful Ones !

Boy the weekend went fast…

 

Hosted by Susannah Conway

Reflecting on the day…

August Break Prompt – Reflections

Digital art piece by Linda Davies.

 

I had my first house guest in the new Apollo Beach house.

My dear friend Linda is here in FL staying with her mom about two hours south of us.

She made the drive up to have a day of girl friend time and art making.

We reconnected, chatted a lot, had a lovely lunch,

played in our art journals side my side,

and ended the day with a yummy BBQ dinner at a local restaurant with My sweet Hubby David.

It was so nice to have a playmate here !

I have got to get to work on building a tribe here. I love sharing my space with good friends!

Linda gifted me a lovely framed piece of her digital art (Vision – shown above).

It fits in beautifully with my new seaside(ish) home. I love it !

This is the page I worked on in my art journal while we hung out together:

It started out as a kind of mono print spread created with glimmer mist and spray inks and some stencils as well as some india ink dripped on the page with an eye dropper.

Now I have two cool backgrounds to work on.

This first page was done with Sepia India ink and a dip pen and some Distress Ink markers and a blending pen.

Some very cool doodle stories emerging here…

Love the worlds that get created when I let go and let the pen and imagination take me…

 

I hope this fine Wednesday is treating you well, Beautiful Ones !

Big love !

 

Hosted by Susannah Conway

Looking up to the Winter Night Skies...

Ah, winter...

It really is the harshest season, isn't it?

Especially in the North, though its harshness has spread more south than usual in the US this year as well.

I am feeling very blessed this year.

My usual depression brought on by lack of sunlight and my hibernation mode hasnt really appeared.

(Knock on wood !!!!)

I think some of it may have to do with this incrediblely cute little boy ladybug baby.

There is something so instantly soothing, calming and heart filling about holding a little guy in your arms. 

And this little cutie definitely has my hearts strings all tangled up !

I have been spending a lot of time with Jayden, helping his mom, Amanda, when she needs childcare.

I am so grateful that my niece and I have developed a trusting, caring relationship and that she genuinely appreciates the bond that I have made with her son.

It has brought so much joy to my life.

I haven't been spending much time creating artwork these days though.

I am missing that.

So yesterday in the midst of a busy day full of prepping for a trip to Montreal, 

I made the time.

I grabbed my old Rock Beings journal, sprayed some inks, sloshed some paint, and made some marks...

then I collaged a Rock Beings shape made from old dictionary pages, and some found poetry on to my page

and "Winter Night Skies"  came into being.

"Winter Night Skies" - Rock Being Art Journal, February 12, 2014

It felt good to get my hands a little dirty and to dwell in that creative place for a little while.

I need to keep making that time happen !

David and I have headed north to Quebec early for a Valentine's Day weekend with our other favorite kiddos, Kate and Thomas, and my sister Kristina and her hubby John.

We wanted to miss driving in this next major winter storm that will hit today in the North East.

Today, David is working from my friend Suzanne's place and I am just hanging out. Tomorrow, we will head two more hours north to be with our peeps in their winter wonderland of La Conception.

Looking forward to seeing Katie's new smile, minus her front teeth ! That famous kindergarten smile of cuteness !

So to those facing the storm, espcially those in the south who are far less used to its kind of wrath, please be safe.

And to all of you Beautiful Ones,

a Happy Valentine's Day !

Be kind and loving to one another !

Haiku My Heart–A New Song

 

I need to sing out

Said the Voice from deep Within.

Here is my new Song.

**************

While I have been creating a lot lately, I have not done anything in my art journal since the summer.

I have missed it!

It was a creative habit of mine several times a week for several years and it was definitely a form of therapy and self-discovery.

It was also a place for fearless play, where art was being created just for me, with no thought of an audience other than myself !

This morning, I took about an hour and played !

I used henna stencils I bought from Traci Bunkers along the way,

spray inks of all kinds,

stamps,

my own painted papers for collage,

and I made an easy two page spread that just flowed out of me.

I hope to listen to that art journal voice a little more often.

The resulting song feels so good to sing !

I have also begun adding some new Rock Beings to the Etsy shop.

These three are available now, in case you hear their voices singing to you !

Have a wonderful Friday, Beautiful Ones !

Big Love !

 

For more haiku love, head over to recuerda mi corazon

And in the end…

I completed the last page in my art journal yesterday.

It is an black, hard cover Canson 9 X12” Mixed Media sketchbook with a spiral binding that I bought at Barnes and Noble for 19.99. I think it has about 45 pages in it.

I love the paper and how it holds up to the acrylic paint, watercolors, glued on papers and ink that I use in it.

I do not love the spiral binding that separates the pages.

This is the second one of these journals that I have filled.

This one took almost two years to complete.

That is a lot of time.

A lot of changes, some subtle, some bigger, both in my life and in my artistic process.

To have this document of my life, created by me, and with all of its pages completed

is a pretty special feeling.

It was actually kind of hard to do the last page.

I felt like I should create a finale.

But the other pages were filled with inspiration from the day they were made.

So I kept to that and finished the journal with this…

The words from the Beatles song “The End” seemed fitting.

And the crow, that has visited quite a few times throughout the pages of all of my journals, flew in to give the message…

It is a pretty good one !

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

I have ordered a new journal.

A Moleskine Folio A4 Watercolor album that has no spiral binding, has lovely paper and a lot of space to spread out…

I hope it makes a good new home for me and my journaling juices !

It will arrive in a few days, which is just fine because I will be busy this week

enjoying a visit from my Mom !!!

She arrives tomorrow for a special Mommy and Me week of shopping, walking, hugging, talking and loving ! Yay !

(Mommy and me – 09/2009)

Happy Monday, Beautiful Ones !

May any endings you face today be the sweet beginnings of something new.

Big Love !

Finding Art In the Everyday

I haven't had many ideas for posts this week. Too many unfinished or un-photo-worthy projects going on...Today I was cleaning the studio - my work table is actually clean and white (I love MR. Clean Erasers - they get rid of paint stains wonderfully!) and ready to mess up when my friend Sonia comes over to play tonight ! Yay !

So I was surfing the blogs and checked out InspireMeThursday, since it is Thursday and I needed inspiration ... there I go stating the very obvious again ! Anyhoo, last week's topic was still posted and the theme was "Finding Art in the Everyday". So I grabbed the camera and wandered the house and the deck looking for art. Here's what I shot :

Are you my art ? - Guess what this is ? I was cleaning, remember ?

Are you my art ? - Azzy says " Hey, I'm eating here !!!"

Are you my art ? - Chica says "Do you have to ?"

Are you my art ? - Is a bug on the pool filter art ? Maybe....

Are you my art ? - Ahh, flowers - God's Art, don't ya think ? New Daisy

Old Daisy - love the curling petals...

Cosmo/Pansy Jungle pot - the flash made them look electric !

So that was my photo play today. Did I find art in the everyday ? I think so...

To end off, here are two shots of page one in my brand new art journal. I did a page based on the "Proust" interview with myself a few posts back. One question was about what object would you like to come back as. I said a piano. The photo is from Flicker, not me ! I forgot to get the artist's info.... bad me ! But I claim no part of it's photographic beauty !

Hope you have an inspired Thursday ! By the way, the first photo was what my "Swifter Duster" looked like after my dusting ! Now that is art ! Isn't it ?

Cheers,

Kim

Girls Artsy Getaway Weekend

My bags are packed...

So my friend Sonia and I are off for a weekend at her family "Camp" on Lake Winnipesaukee. We Canadians call this a cottage, but my sweet friend from Maine calls it a "camp". Sonia is a relatively new friend who I met through a class I taught at Talk Paper Scissors here in Manchester. We share a love of all arts/craft supplies as well as a love of nature, so this weekend should be just up our alley !

Sonia has been wanting to get more "artsy" in her creative pursuits and wants to give art journals a try. I was so happy to share all that I know and I am excited to see what she creates in this safe and inspiring setting ! And hey, I have a friend to play with in person! Yippee !

I have packed up half my studio and filled a box and a big bag with art journal supplies, inspirational books and mags and whatever else wanted to jump in. We should have all we need to play the weekend away ! The weather isn't supposed to be too great but that's okay 'cause being away, hanging out with a good friend in a cozy cabin by the Lake, with a pile of art stuff, yummy snacks, and a fire place sounds like heaven !!! Oh and maybe a daquiri or two....

I am bringing the camera and will hopefully have some fun shots when I get back ! Have a great weekend, y'all !