Family Portrait

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Hello all and happy Spring...finally!  It's my turn again for a project and a tutorial for Mixed Up Magazine!  This month's theme is texture (love, love, love texture!) so when my son’s girlfriend gave me a torn shawl, my first thought was ‘this would make fabulous texture on a canvas'. I envisioned a forest primeval with the fringe becoming a tangled mass of vines. I could hear that deep stillness of the woods, broken only by the conversation of unseen birds and the rush of a nearby stream. I could smell the heady scent of rich earth and damp moss. Then reality intervened and I thought, ‘oh, oh...maybe she wants me to mend this! Do I tell her it is beyond repair or try to fix this web of threads?’

Hannah interrupted my unspoken mental meanderings, ‘Leslie, this is beyond repair, I thought you might be able to use it for an art piece.’ And just like that, I was back in the beautiful forest of my art muddled brain. 

If you would like to know about my project, then take a walk in my woods at Mixed Up Magazine.  There you will find additional images, a step by step tutorial (including how I turn a cast-off sheet of paper into a bird) and a full product list.

See you there!

Friendship Quilt

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Welcome back to my little junkyard everyone.

I would like to share with you my latest mixed media project, Friendship Quilt. I gifted this assemblage canvas to a dear friend who is an artist too; you could say she 'paints pictures' with fabric and thread. Her beautiful quilts are as wonderful as she is and I had been planning on making her a quilt/sewing themed canvas for some time. Imagine my delight when my husband came inside from taking out the trash and said, "Honey, I brought you back a little something from the garbage can."  Now, I'm sure most of the female population would never want to hear this announcement, but I was excited to see what treasure someone in the neighborhood had cast off. It was a sewing machine!  Then the following day, my daughter's mother-in-law sent me a text that she had an old circa 1960s Singer sewing machine for me too. It was a sign! Time to strap on the tool belt and delve into the innards of these two dinosaurs.

Step One:  Try to get to the inside of the machine

Step Two:  Try harder, break nail

Step Three:  Use a myriad of choice vocabulary on said machine

Step Four:  Wonder why the space program doesn't use this armored casing for their rockets...

Step Five:  Ask husband nicely to help

Step Six:  Whine about needing husband's help

Step Seven:  Husband wishes he'd left sewing machine in the garbage where it belonged

Step Eight:  Take a break while husband hammers on machine

Step Nine:  Gather up all the lovely treasures husband looted from the evil sewing beasts

I am a history buff and I love learning about how the world of arts and crafts has evolved. No one is entirely certain when the art of quilting began, but there is evidence that it possibly spans back 5000 years ago. Isn't it amazing that someone could have been quilting in or near the Temple of Osiris in Egypt! Many quilts from the past and today tell a story. I was very mindful of that when I chose my paper for the background. You will see handwriting, recipes, maps, and other glimpses of the past including a square on sewing. If you would like to see the rest of my Friendship Quilt story, visit Mixed Up Magazine where I have a tutorial, additional images and a product list.

See you next time,

Leslie

Eye on Nature

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I was reminiscing the other day about my childhood artistic adventures when I remembered an old favorite weaving project.  Everyone in art class received two popsicle sticks and various colors of yarn in which to make an Ojo de Dios, Spanish for Eye of God.  Our art teacher also doubled as our history teacher, so not only did we learn how to make a Ojo de Dios, we also were taught that it was an ancient symbol of South American Indians created to protect those who owned one.  I crossed my sticks and started wrapping the yarn, beginning in the center with the eye, and praise myself on creating this magical object that would guard me and my family.  That weekend I was out in the yard stripping branches off unsuspecting trees (I didn't have popsicle sticks) and looting my mom's knitting basket for yarn.  When I used up her colors, I begged for more yarn.  To this day, I feel giddy just thinking about the day my mom took me to a shop downtown that sold fibers of all kinds.  When my eyes happened upon a variegated skein called 'Fiesta' I just had to have it!  Every room in the house (and my Grandmothers' houses and the lady's house across the alley, and...you get the picture) had an Ojo de Dios.  

With this memory flitting about in my brain, I decided I needed to create a canvas with an Ojo de Dios for Mixed Up Magazine.  I read that the ends of the sticks represented the four elements: earth, wind, fire and water and therefore decide to use a color palette of brown, blue, yellow-gold, and green with a background collage of imagery and text about nature. I have a full tutorial, additional images and a product list in this month's issue of Mixed Up Magazine.  Click on the link and head on over to check out my canvas Eye On Nature!

Late For Dinner

Hello everyone!  Remember me?  I am very late for dinner at Art For Dinner! 

Where have I been?  In the UK!  Well not exactly in the UK; not physically, but creatively.  As I have mentioned before, I have been a contributor and blogger for a mixed media monthly magazine based in Britain.  So here comes my big announcement...I am now an official designer for MIXED UP MAG! 

I and my fellow Design Team members have so much to share with you in the upcoming months. If you have not subscribed already, what are you waiting for?  This website magazine is loaded with content including step-by-step tutorials (including PDF versions and videos), artsy tips and tricks, challenges, giveaways and so much swoon-worthy eye-candy!! 

I am so excited to show you what I have been making!  Here are a few sneak peeks..

I hope you have enjoyed these glimpses of my upcoming projects for Mixed Up Magazine.  When these four projects are published during the months to come, I will share step-by-step tutorials, full project and close up images and a product list.  

I look forward to hearing from you and hope you will join our party at Mixed Up Magazine.  Click on the special coupon below to subscribe or to take a tour of a creative wonderland of mixed media!

First Light of Winter

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What were  you doing on October 18, 2017? I was celebrating the first day of 'Book Nerd Holiday'. Actually, that's my name for the annual 2-week long AAUW Book Sale that I have attended almost every year since I was a wee nerd...I mean, child.  My bosses even let me leave work early to go treasure hunting among the shelves and shelves and stacks and stacks of books!  I pay my early bird admission fee and shop the first night to acquire certain sought after titles and collectibles for my library.  Then I go back on Half Price Day for more literary gems.  And finally, I brave the frenzied hoards of fellow book nerds on Sack Sale Day, aka 'Book Rescue Day' - again my name for it.  But, rightly so as any left over books are tragically taken to the dump! I escaped being trampled again this year and arrived home with three huge bags of orphaned books including (just to name a few) a Thai dictionary, a ragged book of poetry missing its cover, an electricians' handbook, a shorthand manual and an algebra book.  Many of their tattered pages will be introduced to each other - not in my library, but in my art studio where they will begin a new life on canvas.

November 1: Winter came way before it was invited this year, arriving with a blustery wind, dropping temperatures, snow and ice.  I accepted it stoically.  I just lied with that statement. Could you tell?  Truthfully, it made me the definition of cranky.  A cozy chair by the fireplace, snuggly dogs, a fuzzy blanket, hot coffee and a new book to read was just what I needed to warm my frosty mood.  

And then the sun came out!  The snow laced Autumn leaves, still on their branches, were bathed in a golden light.  That visual became the inspiration for my latest canvas, First Light of Winter.

After gessoing my canvas, I began adding torn book pages with matte gel medium. The terrific mood board at Mixed Media World had inspiration elements that are among my favorites: old paper, writing and rust! 

I love the look of encaustic and look forward to taking a class called Layers of Light by Laly Mille.  In the meantime, I decided to make my background 'look' like it was encased in wax as I had with an earlier piece called She is of Nature. I set out some of my favorite DecoArt Media mediums and began to apply layers, alternating with more pages, pattern pieces, stamping, stenciling, pen writing and doodling.  I also added some clear ink and UTEE after seeing MixedMediaJenn demonstrate her technique on YouTube (check out her video here).  I took down the shine factor by applying DecoArt's Ultra Matte Varnish.  I applied muted tones of color using Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays.

I decided to build my assemblage on a piece of cardboard that I treated with more DecoArt products including Crackle Paste and Texture Sand Paste.  I love how it has a look of old, weather tree bark.

When my background layers were finished and dried, it was time for a play with my found object stash.  I have recently had the pure joy of meeting a most wonderful retired couple.  I feel like I've known them forever and would like to begin adoption paperwork immediately :)  Bill and Bonnie have been bringing me rusted and random old treasures from a cleanup at their rural property. For this piece I selected several of their offerings for my canvas' focal assemblage including a star, a bulb and a chain.  Using an X-acto knife, I remove the negatives from a 35mm film strip and painted it with matte brown acrylic. Color was next.  I knew I wanted to incorporate yellow-gold tones into my assemblage but couldn't decide on the rest of my color palette. When I came across Lindy's Stamp Gang's color board for November, I knew I had to use each and every color on it!  I sprayed, brush painted, dripped and splattered.  And I was so happy with the result; I never would have thought to use purple on this piece, but it worked perfectly.

I finished my canvas with some die cut pieces, cheesecloth, excelsior and art stones.  

Considering where my palette inspiration came from, I would like to enter this project into the November Challenge at Lindy's Stamp Gang. 

And more inspiration from this mood board challenge at Mixed Media Warriors.

Product List

DecoArt Media Mediums:  Gesso, Modeling Paste, Texture Sand Paste, White Crackle Paste, Ultra Matte Varnish and Matte Medium

DecoArt Fluid Acrylics:  'Yellow Oxide'

Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays:  Flat Fabio - 'Sandra Dee Sepia', 'Danny Zuko's Denim', 'Sidewalk Chalk', 'Greased Lightnin' Green'; Starburst - 'Rusty Lantern Lime', 'California Poppy Gold', 'Steampunk Sepia' and 'Urban Amethyst'

Prima:  Elementals Harlequin stencil, Art Stones, 'Guave Peony Brahms' and 'Coventry Rose Printery' flowers

Penny Black:  'Spread Cheer' stamp

Sizzix:  'Decorative Flourish' die cut

Liquitex:  Clear Gesso

Ranger:  UTEE and Clear Embossing ink

Signo:  White Uni-Ball Pen

11 x 14 canvas, cardboard, book pages, sheet music, pattern paper, silk leaves, natural wood pencils, excelsior, old film strip, wood plugs, cheesecloth and miscellaneous found objects.