Royals

My newest mixed media medallion was inspired by Spellbinders Rose Medallion pendant from their A Gilded Life Collection. Beautiful on its own, the only adjustment I made was snipping off the loop at the top of the crown.

The base for my artwork is a 4"x4" cradled wood panel they are layered with gesso, acrylic paint and acrylic glazes.

Once completed, I began to gather and create embellishments that I could stack below and within the pendant. First up was die cutting gold craft foil into a gear shape using the Spellbinders Sprightly Sprocket die set.

I then created two loop and one circle from hand painted paper that I cut using a series of dies from Spellbinders Standard Circles Large and Small.

Echoing the metal in the pendant, I chose three metal embellishments to stack, one purchased, one found, and one vintage (from a watch)

Been hooked on Spellbinders Shoot! die set and used one of the dies to cut gold craft foil. Snipping off the feather ends of the arrows makes the die cuts perfect for this piece.

My favorite part comes next: gluing all the components together and watching the completed artwork unfold.

Royals

Sold. Thank you!

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Supply List

Spellbinders Paper Art Supplies:

MMM-001 Spellbinders® Artisan X-plorer
GL2-005 Spellbinders® A Gilded Life Rose Medallion Pendant

S5-048 Spellbinders® Shapeabilities^TM Sprightly Sprockets
S4-114 Spellbinders® Nestabilities^TM Standard Circles Large

S4-116 Spellbinders® Nestabilities^TM Standard Circles Small

IN-015 Spellbinders® Shapeabilities^TM Shoot! 
F-012 Spellbinders® Precious Metals Premium Craft Foils Assortment 

Cross Promotional Partners: Golden Artists Colors, Inc. Fluid Acrylic Paint, Golden Artists Colors, Inc. Acrylic Glazing Liquid

Other: cradled wood panel, gesso, paint brush, hand painted paper, metal embellishments, adhesive, scissor, tin snips

The Week Links: 12

During my time away in Australia, The Week Links posts will continue...with a twist. Rather than links to posts I discovered in the prior week, each post will have a specific theme. This way, I am able to create and schedule them before I leave. 

Today's theme: artists I discovered through my Instagram feed.

Cesare Saccenti

Mae Chevrette

Albert Stern

Susan McCarrell

Steve Javiel

Brian Reaume

Ngaio Lenz

Domenick Naccarato

Destination: Sydney

When we first arrived in Australia, we spent some time in Sydney and the surrounding areas. A little R&R before the three weeks of retreats began. I immediately fell in love with the place and instantly knew that I wanted to come back at some point to explore more. And since you all cannot be here with us...I wanted to bring some of the experience to you.

The crew

Kecia, Andrea, Michael and me at the pub. Day 1 and I already tasted emu and kangaroo.

 Kecia, Sallianne and me at lunch. The coffee in Australia is the best I have ever had.

Kecia stocking up. Wow...the cost of supplies is high in Australia.

Kecia and Michael, testing out the paints.

Had a visit to Keith Lo Bue's studio and met Pinncchio.

The Views

 Spectacular view of Sydney Harbor, the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge from the plane.

 From the ferry ride on the Harbor.

 The roof of the iconic Opera House.

The Graffiti

Loving all the graffiti in the city.

This beauty was on the back of a truck.

The Wildlife

Amazing birds were everywhere. This is an ibis. Some people call them pests but I think they are cool.

 Cockatoo hanging around. Saw two black cockatoos too.

Unidentified wildlife.

Email Alert

One of the wonders of the Internet is that it has connected me to an art community that has become an important part of my creative life on so many levels. Over the years I have found myself reaching out to other artists online for many reasons -- some small (thanking somebody for leaving a comment on my blog), some big (inviting an artist to be a contributor in my books), and some in between (contacting the winner of a giveaway I have hosted). It still surprises me how challenging and frustrating this can sometimes be.

Click on five random blogs that you often visit and look to see how many of them provide easy access to an email address. On occasion it can quickly be found at the top of the blog or via a contact tab. Sometimes it is only listed within the profile. Once in a while it is deep within the sidebar. Every so often the artist asks that you leave a comment on a post to contact them. All too often, an email address is nowhere to be found.

It is obviously a personal and individual decision as to whether one posts their email address, allows for an alternate way of contact, or even wishes to potentially communicate with readers of their blog at all. It may not be your intention, but when no easy contact info is provided...the message is that you do not want to be contacted. Opportunities that might come your way may just in fact take a detour if you do not provide a relatively accessible way for people to contact you.

My thoughts here are not meant as a rant but rather as a friendly reminder of the power of connections when they are made...and the loss of possibilities when they are not.

Thoughts????

It's a Secret

I am pleased to be the guest designer today for a second time for PaperArtsy. 

You can find a full tutorial on the PaperArtsy blog for this page that I created in my journal.

Destination: Australia

When I left NYC to travel to Sydney for the Art is You Australian Mixed Media Roadshow, I was not looking forward to the 23 hour travel time. People had said that I would want to jump out of the plane halfway to Australia. Little did I know that the trip would turn into a 3+ day adventure.

Kecia Deveney was my partner in art crime. We met at JFK and off we went on Qantas. Sort of. After we boarded our plane, there was a 3 hour delay while they searched for a part so the air conditioning would work. We passed the time by taking photos and sweating. 

We arrived in LA 9 hours later.

Because the AC had broken along the way and we were due to fly on the same plane, the onward flight to Sydney was cancelled. Qantas informed us no hotels were available in all of LA. Hmmm...must be because Los Angeles is such a small city. Our flight was rescheduled -- for 13 hours later. So we hunkered down for the night in the airport seats. How perfect that just as we fell asleep, the airport terminal lights came on.

While waiting for the flight the next day, we did what any self-respecting mixed media artists would do: journal. With a twist. We decided to work on the same journal pages and pass them back and forth.

page in progress

page in progress

calling it done

An hour before the flight, we were told that our rescheduled flight was cancelled and would be rescheduled again -- 9 hours later. Arggghh. This is what the scene at the airport looked like. It was not pretty.

We were all in it together though and by then we had made a number of good friends. 

For this delay, we passed the time talking and enjoying many refreshments!

After we finally boarded the plane for our 13 hour plane ride from LA to Sydney, nearly 3 hours passed before we took off. But took off we did. I was so exhausted by the earlier delays that I slept for 10 hours and the longest leg of the journey seemed the shortest.

As we got closer to Sydney, our anticipation of arriving grew. First there was a magnificent sunrise to watch.

Then there was this awesome Aussie terrain.

And then the incredible Sydney skyline....Harbor Bridge, Opera House and more.

And then......the fog!

But wait...why are we passing Sydney and not landing? Turns out there was too much fog to land.

 We flew to Brisbane and landed to refuel. Brisbane?? For real??? 

This was our view for the next 3 hours.

We took off again...back to Sydney. Although I figured we would probably end up in Japan...we actually, eventually, finally, happily landed in Sydney. Some 50-plus hours after we left!

Funny thing though...Kecia and I actually had a good time. I guess not showering for 50 hours leads to some real bonding. And, of course, how could we complain when our ultimate destination was a month-long adventure in Australia. More on that soon...

Printmaking Unleashed

The amazing and one-of-a-kind Traci Bautista has recently released a new book Printmaking Unleashed: More Than 50 Techniques for Expressive Mark Making. I was excited to receive a copy from Traci to review.

The first thing I noticed when I flipped through the book was the explosion of colors. There is eye candy to be found on every page and that alone makes this great for a shot of inspiration. But this book is not just about color. It is also filled with information and technique. And do not think you have to be a printmaker to find value in this book. Rather, these techniques can be used by every artist and crafter out there.

Traci's book is divided into three main parts. In part 1 she covers the basics of printmaking and printmaking tools. This is the largest section of the book. Through a series of easy-to-follow exercises, she introduces you to everything you will need to complete the projects and techniques in the remainder of the book. Although Traci covers familiar and more traditional tools (stamps, texture plates, etc.) helpful for the beginner, the majority of the section focuses on innovative and nontraditional tools and approaches, making this book perfect for the seasoned pro. Examples include hot glue stencils, lace embroidery hoops, sticks and yarn, Collage Pauge silkscreens, molding paste plates, and many more.

Part 2 discusses printmaking techniques in more depth, using multiple examples of acrylic skins, fusible prints, digital stencils, plexiglass printing, sgraffito, resist and subtractive printing, and more.

The last section presents a series of pieces that have been created by Traci that illustrate the techniques and approaches introduced earlier in the book. She included finished pieces as well as works in progress, making this section even more valuable.

Traci's instructions are easy to follow and well illustrated. If you typical color palette is not as bright and vivid as hers, you can utilize all these techniques with colors in your comfort zone. For example, I can easily see her techniques being applied to vintage, sepia work as well. You can take the information that Traci has generously shared and make it your own.

The Week Links: 11

During my time away in Australia, The Week Links posts will continue...with a twist. Rather than links to posts I discovered in the prior week, each post will have a specific theme. This way, I am able to create and schedule them before I leave. 

Today's theme: Art Tutorials. In the hope of finding tutorials that you might not be familiar with, many of the following are from 2012 and before.

Uncomfortable with drawing faces? Pam Carriker has a step-by-step tutorial on her blog showing how her Face Map stencils can give you a "head" start -- pun intended.

France Papillon shares her "secret" recipe for rusting metal.

Golden Paints has a video that highlights tips for a successful image transfer.

Dina Wakley shares a tutorial on the Somerset Place blog on how to create a very cool and grungy accordion book.

Linda Tieu posts a tutorial on making a book using a chain or coptic stitch binding.

Billie from Billie's Craft Room shares a technique on creating a highly textured, embossed stone surface.

On the Create Mixed Media blog, Amy Jones shows us how to use a burnished metal technique to create a very cool journal cover.

Jill K. Berry shares her technique on how to create Geo Papers -- papers that are painted to simulate geographical imagery.

Creative Image Transfer

Artist Lesley Riley has a newly released book called Creative Image Transfer - Any Artist, Any Style, Any Surface: 16 New Mixed-Media Projects Using TAP Transfer Artist Paper. In this book, Lesley shares techniques and projects which use Transfer Artist Paper (TAP) -- a product that she created herself which allows you to transfer any image to nearly every surface simply with an iron. If you have never used this product, you must try it out. This book is a good resource on the many uses of TAP. In addition to the basic instructions, this book includes 16 creative projects with full tutorials. Contributing artists include Pam Carriker, Joanne Sharpe, Lynn Krawczyk, Paula Bogdan, and many more.

I was happy when Lesley asked me to be a contributor to the book and thrilled when I first saw that my artwork was actually chosen to be part of the cover art. I will be highlighting the piece that I contributed in an upcoming blog post.

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GIVEAWAY

To celebrate the new release, all week long Lesley is generously giving away copies of her book along with a packages of Transfer Artist Paper. Head over to her blog daily between now and August 10th for your chances to win.

Aussie Rules

The adventure begins. 

Today is the day I head to Australia as part of the Art is You Australian Mixed Media Roadshow. Kecia Deveney, Michael deMeng, Andrea Matus deMeng and I represent the North American crew. Once we get to actually complete the never-ending plane ride, we will be meeting up with our fearless leaders Sallianne McClelland (in person) and Ellen Legare (virtually).

The Road Show will take us to New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. There will be workshops, community meals, art trunks, and daily special events at all locations. Joining us will be an all-star group of Aussie instructors: Beck Beattie, Cecile Whatman, Elizabeth Armstrong, Holly Eva, Jane Davenport, Jen Crossley, Keith Lobue, Linda Lucas, and Ro Bruhn. In between the 15 workshops I will be teaching, there will be time to explore and discover.

There will no doubt be many stories and pictures to share both during and after the trip. I have already prescheduled many blog posts to go live when I am away. I will do my best to also blog direct from Australia during my trip. But I will definitely be posting daily on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well. Next update from down under soon mates!

The Week Links: 10

Join me every Sunday when I will share some of my favorite links I discovered in the previous week.
Weeks 1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9...

And here is Week 10

Lesley Riley shares her thoughts and tips on thinking outside of the box to create space to create.

Robyn Gordon shares the most wonderful "artistically-themed" posts on her blog Art Propelled. Her most recent post highlights art and artist working in shades of lichen.

If I got gifts wrapped like these, I would never ever open them. 

I posted this on my blog many years ago but it is worth a revisit: a video of the creation of a Carlito Dalceggio painting. The cool production is almost like performance art itself.

Absolutely love the Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator that with just one click offers Critical Response to the Art Product (or CRAP) critiques. Try it. You will laugh!

I am totally mesmerized by these journal pages by Roxanne Coble...better known as by bun.

A Woven Tale

Excited to share that my artwork is being featured on the cover of and inside the newest issue of The Woven Tale Press, an online literary and arts magazine that is "an eclectic culling of the creative web." They have daily posts on their website and produce a free eMagazine via Issuu as well. Their content includes images of artwork, works-in-progress, writing tips, book reviews, info on both traditional publishing and e-publishing, art and photography tips, and videos. And they are always looking for new submissions.