Cay Denise

https://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/lens/2017/10/05/how-to-walk-out-of-the-louvre-with-a-masterpiece/#_=_ I'd love to try this!  With only 250 permits issued per year, it's not likely--but it is fun to imagine trying to recreate an old masterpiece.  Would you be intimidated to try?  I might be a bit if people were watching me paint.  But what a great way to learn about color, composition, light, etc.

The base of this piece is a collage of parts of articles. I created a verse from words that I was drawn to and was inspired to do a piece in green. Then I applied gesso to cover the entire page of collaged articles, wrote in green watercolor crayon, drew my witch, activated parts of the watercolor areas (and added black), and then did some detail work. Fun, since Halloween is right around the corner!

The recipe: Journal with watercolor crayon on watercolor paper (overlap the writing so it can't be read) With a permanent marker, draw a face (without lifting pen off paper) over the journaling Activate areas of the drawing with water Voila!

Thank you to the professional photographer who took a photograph of Ian McKellen that appeared in the July 27, 2015 issue of People magazine!  I used it as a source image for a painting done this weekend.  Even though there were some challenges, I'm quite pleased for my first painting of a man's face.  I also used white pen to create chin/facial whiskers (and the hair), left the primary areas of the face in complementary colors rather than tamping them down into more neutral ones, and used gesso and Neo Color watercolor crayons for the background. This post also linked to  http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com .

The week's lesson was on expressive arts collage.  I've done two today.  The first is the Live Fully piece followed by the Lucid Dream piece.  They were very easy to do though auditioning the placement of images is good to do before glueing them down. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org .

I've been waiting for my art swap partner to receive the original painting before posting a photo of it. She just received it earlier this week...so now for the reveal. This is the empathy monster I created for her...named Emma. My swap partner loves it and so do I...such fun! This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org .

Seems like anytime I think an art lesson is going to be easy...it's far from it.  This was another one of those kinds of lessons for me.  Part of the instruction was to draw a face on a separate piece of paper, cut it out and then apply it over wet, Gelato colors on watercolor paper with Matte Medium.  That just didn't work!  The Gelato colors bled through onto the paper face.  So, I traced the face on to Tracing Paper, cut it out, gesso'd over the old face and then glued the new one into place where the old one had been.  I really liked creating the flowers....and my white Molotow pen worked great for the line work (highly recommended)!.  I also liked using Washi tape to create the clothing stripes, and it works well.  Looks like something else may be needed, but I'm not sure what. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org ....

This video was done many years ago, though it visually shows the overall creative process from start to finish of five wall art quilts. Thank you to instructors Jane Sassaman, Dena Dale Crain, and Pamela Allen plus the creator of a Fast Friday Fabric Challenge and instructor of a beginning silk painting class that were the genesis for the five pieces shown in this video!

I used acrylic paint for the background, and lots of different kinds of markers for the rest of the doodling.

The LifeBook 20 lesson was doing a layered blind contour piece. This means to draw an object on the paper while looking at the object and not looking at the paper. Sort of comes out Picasso-ish...with differences in shapes, perspective, etc.  The layered element is another line drawing and painting of the object below the one you see that has also been painted over. The inspiration object was a decorative vintage teapot. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org .

I quickly sketched a bust at the J. Paul Getty Museum's Sketching Gallery recently.  The tools provided were charcoal and a couple of lighter colored pencils plus paper and artist's seat.  Charcoal is not my typical medium and I had some blending challenges with it as can be seen.  But the overall sketch is a kind of fun image...and has some character.

My first intuitive painting from a recent Painting Experience workshop led by Stewart Cubley.  It was a weekend of freedom painting in terms of imagery.  There were no assignments other than to be open to painting the painting that wanted to reveal itself through each participant. I absolutely loved the movie about Paulus Berenson, an amazing artist and philosopher, that was shown as part of the workshop.  I highly recommend it!

This is the Week 13 lesson through Life Book 2017 led by guest instructor, Annie Hamann of South Africa.  The lesson for me involved a lot of firsts.  It was my first time using 15" x 22" paper...so there was much more room to fill up collage-wise and important decisions about face placement-- since that came first before the body and hair. Also, it was my first time using black charcoal.  Unfortunately, the application of it (both pencils and sticks) over acrylics just wouldn't work.  I'm wondering now if I need to try 'vine' charcoal. I also applied layers of tissue paper to create more realistic hair color and some shadow areas in the hair. As part of the lesson, we were to incorporate some symbolism.  What I've included as symbols for  grounding are a rose-like window within a labyrinth. I'm really curious about what others see in this project.  When you look at it, where do your eyes go first?  Where does your eye travel, if it do...

This was my first week's lesson through Life Book 2017 that I was finally able to start and get to this point today.  I may do some tweaks to it in the upcoming days/weeks, as I sit with it a bit longer.  But I'm glad to have taken some time to do art work today, as I've been missing it! This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org .

This warm-up exercise involves writing stream of consciousness as a bottom layer, collaging followed by adding and activating watercolor crayon as a second layer, then covering that with gesso to keep building up the base leaving the top third of the page with more color/collage visibility.  Then we added our word for the year (mine is balance) plus a symbol with that word in it.  My symbol is a pair of wings with the word written as a border within them.  The number 2s at the bottom play a dual role: one is to refer to the pair (of wings) and one is to represent the word 'to'. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this  link:  www.willowing.org .

I've been working on spontaneous book page poetry today.  This is fun for me because I love words and the nuances of language.  Plus I like to wax philosophically sometimes.  Beyond that, it's really interesting to be able to work with others' writing and create something totally different than the writer's intent.

My accomplishments for 2016: Completed 20 Life Book 2016 projects Made 64 Blog Posts  Took San Jose Museum of Art course on textile design Participated in three Creative Club project efforts  Visited the Broad Museum in Los Angeles Visited the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco Had two pieces displayed as part of my employer's Activate! Art! project (display of employee art work) Participated in the 2016 Woman Unleashed Online Retreat and completed six projects for it

With 2016 about to become history, I'm feeling grateful for the work completed this year through the Life Book program! There has been so much development and growth in my ability, and I'll be continuing it with Life Book 2017 that starts tomorrow.

This activity was to take a single magazine and cut out pictures that you like and create a new collage covering an entire page of background paper.  This is what I put together. A second portion of the assignment to be completed a day later was to cull through the magazine for words that you cut out and create a poem from --- about the collage.  This is what I came up with. wild kitchen on an adventure to bring alive senses what to taste? air moving in the trees? red maple? gold of the oak? all fall bounty can produce magic stories you can feel excite the fantasy with lush meals of beauty, whimsy and movement. Result of lesson as part of 2016 Woman Unleashed Online Retreat founded, organized and facilitated by Amber Kuileimailani Bonnici.

Another drawing based on the technique from Jenafer's video lesson.  There might be a couple lines in this one rather than just one. Result of lesson as part of 2016 Woman Unleashed Online Retreat founded, organized and facilitated by Amber Kuileimailani Bonnici.

This image was done with Sharpie pen and a blue watercolor pencil on watercolor paper.  It is the result of doing Jenafer's lesson in the video post from yesterday. Result of lesson as part of 2016 Woman Unleashed Online Retreat founded, organized and facilitated by Amber Kuileimailani Bonnici.

I really like this quick and inventive sketching exercise by Jenafer!  This is an offering as part of Amber Kuileimailani Bonnici's "Woman Unleashed" online retreat. Part of 2016 Woman Unleashed Online Retreat founded, organized and facilitated by Amber Kuileimailani Bonnici.

I was trying to create a totally different textile print from that shown in the earlier post.  Well, it was a Picasso day with a mood to match, and I created this.  It doesn't particularly work as a textile print (very busy), but it was fun to create!

I went to a Textile Design workshop yesterday at the San Jose Museum of Art, offered as part of the museum's current exhibition called 'Beauty.  Tessellation and repetitive imagery was the theme of the workshop and is what is really the foundation of making a print design (textile or otherwise).  After the design is finalized, the imagery can be printed via screen-printing or as a Photoshop-edited image sent to a printer for tiling and reproduction. Our schedule for the three-hour workshop included: Task 1:   Look at graphic inspiration from the exhibit; Task 2:   Draw a base image leaving some white space around the outer edges.  My image was a living room with an antique sofa, Art Deco lamp, and modern painting and rug; Task 3:   Cut the base image into quarters and re-arrange them (horizontally and vertically) in which you could add more drawn elements into the rearranged to minimize white space and to create secondary designs; and Task 4:   ...

In conjunction with the exhibition 'Beauty' currently at San Jose's Museum of Art, there is an upcoming workshop on textile design that includes experimentation with composition, repetition and color to create one's own textile pattern.  Cool!  Find out more about the course at the link below (limited to 25 participants). http://sjmusart.org/event/art-101-textile-design