The Painted Cottage

Floral Collage

This is a quickie Floral Collage that I whipped up last week to donate to the Women's Club of Middletown for their Annual Fashion Show Luncheon. The collage was sold at the silent auction table.

I love doing these quickies. You start with the vase and add greens and then some colored papers and start building just like you would be arranging flowers in a real vase.

The brightest papers should go on last with some highlighted areas here and there to show the light hitting the arrangement.

The orange dots are actually pieces of printed tissue paper from the dollar store. And the white dots are from...well lets just say there was a fight with a three hole punch one day...and guess who lost.

I also added some sprinkles of poppy seed over a patch of medium to look like dried baby's breath in the arrangement.

This is a fun project to do with all the scraps leftover from larger projects. No...I never throw any paper away...every little piece gets saved into a baggie for these types of projects.

I matted this floral with leftover matting from another project and framed it in a lovely gold frame that I picked up at the Thrift Shop for one dollar. Not bad for a  donation. 

Winter Collage Class

So we finished up the Winter Session of Collage at Art Association of Harrisburg. It was a great group...we had twelve people in this class. The weather only caused us to miss one night and we made that up by adding an extra class onto the end of the session. Very creative bunch and lots of wonderful collages. Here is a sampling of class photos and some of their collages:

Lynn, Lilia, and Jill

John

Meryl

Jill Freeman's grid design.

Lynn Kennedy Putt's strata design.

 

Tina Berrier's strata design.

 

 Martha Carlton's grid design.

Next Collage Class at AAH begins April 13. For More information: http://elainebradysmith.com/Information.html
 
 

 

Collageart.org

Holy Cow I am so excited!!!! I just got an email from Jonathan Talbot!!!!! Yes...that Jonathan Talbot!!!! He linked my website on Http://www.collageart.org

I have been trying for years to get a link on this site!!!! This is HUGE for me!!!!

My name is now on the same page as Kurt Schwitters and Cecil Touchon! Two of my all time favorite collage artists!!!

This girl is jumping up and down doing the happy dance!!!!

And if you haven't joined yet...check out http://www.theartsmap.com This is another site started by Jonathan Talbot for artists all over the globe. Very cool!!

Okay....off to float through the day!!! Smile!!!

Finding Inspiration

"You can't wait for inspiration.

You have to go after it with a club"

Jack London

This has always been a favorite quote of mine and I have jotted it down in more than one journal in my time. I have found that as an artist I have to constantly be on the prowl for ideas and inspiration. Sitting around day dreaming and waiting for that inspiration to come is just not realistic. Being "in the mood" is also a big myth and often an excuse for not doing anything. You have to have to be persistent in your ways of searching for new ideas.

Some of the ways I like to find inspiration:

• Read, Read, and Read some more...I am constantly reading about art, artists, techniques, marketing...just about anything I can get my hands on. I am constantly browsing Amazon.com for art books...and hitting that One-Click button to buy. One hint though...I always check out the resellers on Amazon first because they often have new and/or used books available at a cheaper price.
• Google Search for similar art...many ideas come from looking at other artist's work and I am by no means suggesting that you copy other people's art but simply check out their style, techniques, materials they use and the way they use them, look at their compositions, color choices, etc. One of my favorite sources to find other Collage artists is Collageart.org...a site dedicated to hundreds of links to collage artists all over the globe.
• Search Youtube.com for artist who have posted "how-to" videos. There are many. This is free. And you can learn a lot of new techniques from browsing the multitude of videos on this site. Teesha Moore has some great tutorials on how she approaches making a journal and filling it with her inspiring collage art. Click her for her Youtube page. 
• Keep a Journal of Ideas. Keep one journal or many journals strategically placed around the house. I keep one by the sofa so when my husband insists on controlling the remote...I whip out my journal and doodle or write down ideas that I have been thinking about. I always keep a small journal in my purse so when I am out and about I always have it with me when an idea hits me and I can jot it down immediately. Later when I have put that idea to use in my art and I no longer need that particular page in my journal, I collage over the page and make it into an art page. When the journal is completely filled with either still good ideas or all art pages, I start a new one.
• Take Classes or Find an Art Group to hang out with and discuss your favorite topics of art related subjects. Being with like minded people is one of the best sources of inspiration I can recommend. Networking with a group of people is fun and you will be surprised at how much you learn just by listening to what others have to say. I currently teach a collage class and I swear that I end up learning as much from my students as I give to them. It is a wonderful give and take of ideas.
• Subscribe to Network Blogs on Facebook or RSS Feeds to your favorite inspirational blog writers. I have several that I read daily. Zen Habits is one that I like and always find something to take away and think about. In fact this very post has been inspired by the blog page that I have linked you to on Zen Habits. The Illuminated Mind is another favorite of mine. Jonathan has wisdom beyond his years and he has a way of making me look at life and art in ways that I had not previously thought of.

These are just a few of the ways I enjoy finding my own inspiration. It never stops.  To be an artist...living, breathing and needing art is a daily necessity to me! And feeding that living, breathing need is necessary for growth as an artist and as a person.

4 Invitational Artists

Seems like I have been waiting forever for this show to arrive. I was actually juried into this show a year and a half ago...long time. But it is finally here and the artwork is finished and delivered. My friend and photographer extraordinarie, Christine Goldbeck http://www.christinegoldbeck.com/  photographed the entire show for me...since I am not the world's best photographer. She was exceptionally patient in photographing some pieces more than once after I would make changes and more changes...grin.

The opening reception for the show is this Friday, December 4, 5-8pm at the Art Association of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. More details about the show can be seen at the AAH website: http://www.artassocofhbg.com/

My mixed media collages will be shown with three other extraordinary artist: Bevery Spitzer of Camp Hill, PA; Amy Richardson of LeRoy, IL; and Ruth Terrill of LaHonda, CA. I have met Beverly at previous events and she is a very lovely person, as well as a very talented artist. I am anxious to see the work displayed by the other two artists as well.

Here is a sampling of some art that I will be showing:

 

 

These four pieces are each 12" x 12" on gallery wrap canvas. They will be hung as a set at the show but will be sold separately. Each piece has a reproduction of large vintage floral images that are in my collection. Someone long ago decided to cut them off covers of seed catalogs and save them in a scrap book. They are actual size in the artwork. The artwork also includes vintage scraps of lace and crochet, buttons, vintage newspaper from the late 1800's, hand tinted and printed papers, rubber stamp images, and acrylic paint. I found the the lovely calligraphic font on http://www.noupe.com/fonts/45-outstanding-free-vintage-fonts.html.

 

Exhibit at Whitaker Center

I am feeling like a proud Mama!!! Students from my Collage Class at the Art Association of Harrisburg are participating in an exhibit at the Whitaker Center in downtown Harrisburg. For some of these students, this is the very first time they have exhibited art work anywhere!!! They have all done so well in class and their pieces look so professional hanging on the walls of the Whitaker. They can be proud of themselves for this accomplishment...I know I am very proud of all of them!!!

 

Also participating in the exhibit are Linda Benton McCloskey's Mixed Media Class and they are showing some very nice work as well. The exhibit is called Mixed Media Melange and is a once a year opportunity for members of the Art Association to display art at the Whitaker.

Art

I just saw this on Facebook...and I thought it was so cute and inspiring...so I had to post it to my blog. This is my first blog post in a long long time. This video is perfect to get me back into the swing.

 

 

 

Kitty

Just for fun, here is a photo I took of Kitty today. He is just recently one year old. Kathleen brought him home from one of her friends. He likes to follow me around the house, but when it comes to sitting and cuddling, he will only sit on my husband's lap. His favorite toy is a stuffed Barbaro horse that he carries from room to room. He also likes to play with rubber bands. He is all boy and doesn't want you to fuss over him. I still talk baby talk to him and I think he secretly likes it, but he would probably never admit it in mixed company.

Embracing Encaustics by Linda Womack

If you have always wanted to try Encaustic Painting, or if you already have tried it and are wondering if you are doing it right....This is the perfect book for you!!!

Embracing Encaustics by Linda Womack

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0981677428/1n9867a-20

It is a wonderfully simplistic book that guides you through the beginning steps of working with encaustics. Linda describes so clearly with words and plenty of photos the RIGHT way to use beeswax in your artwork.

I met Linda back in June in Beverly MA at the 2nd National Encaustic Conference at Monserat Collage. http://www.montserratencausticconference.blogspot.com/ 

Linda taught one of the workshops that I took following the conference and she is just a delightful person.

You will love her book!!!

Couture and the Alphabet Angel

I just recently finished two new encaustic art pieces. The first one is a piece that I have been struggling with for some time. The "Alphabet Angel" was started last year in a workshop that I took through the Art Association of Harrisburg http://www.artassocofhbg.com

 

The second piece, "Couture" just slid right out and I enjoyed the process of creating this one. It amazes me how easy some art comes out and how difficult other pieces are to complete.