Inspiration Today, Studio Happenings and Work in Progress: 154

Working with cold wax and oil

Here's what I am finding inspiring today:

1. The beautiful abstract cold wax and oil work by Jeane Meyrs
2. The amazing Iris Grace and her cat Thula.  Watch her video here - you really need to watch this.
3. More postcards from the postcard swap

   

   The beautiful art of Eric Bruth
   My Mail Art World

   
   
   
   

   

   By Rebecca Hill
   Industrial Grace Restoration

   
   
4. My new favorite colors - Indian Yellow and Prussian Blue - individually as well as together which makes the most wonderful green.
5. De-cluttering - Dropping a 2 ft. high stack of magazines into the recycle bin and fessing up to myself that if they are over 3 months old, I am not going to read them.

What are you finding inspiring?

Inspriation Today, Studio Happenings and Work in Progress 153

Working on a flock of birds to make their way into the world
encaustic on birch panels

Here's what's going on in the studio and what I am finding inspiring today:

1. Painting birds is fun again.  I'm working on a flock of birds that I see on my walk through the nature preserve near the University of Washington in Seattle.  I saw many of my birdie subjects in person and listened to their lovely songs.  It was a glorious sunny day and honestly, it doesn't get much better.... unless I was walking on the beach :) . 
2. Liberate your Art postcard swap hosted by Kat Sloma over at Kat Eye Studio.  I send 5 cards and I get five cards from other artists from across the globe.  Here's my first few:  

   

   By Anthony Leggins

   
   
   
   

   

   By D.L. Correa

   

   

   by Dirty Dogs Studio

   
   
   
3. The dog portraits by Ian Healy over at Paint the Dog - love these and the way he captures the essence in each of his subjects.  I also love his colors and the composition of these incredible paintings.
4. A super sweet note from a friend - all it said was - I'm thinking of you and I will write more later.  xo
5. The street art of Levalet of Paris is over the top creative.  Here's a teaser and you can enjoy more here.  It really makes me want to go back to Paris to see these in person. *like I need an excuse to go back to Paris....

Street art by Charles Leval a.k.a. Levalet

What are you finding inspiring today?

Postcards, Swaps and Blog Hopping

Over the past few weeks, my mailbox has been receiving sweet surprises in the way of postcards.  Kat Sloma over at Kat Eye Studio, got the brilliant idea to liberate art by means of a postcard swap.  I send 5 cards highlighting my artwork and in return I receive 5 cards of other's artwork.  It is worldwide and all kinds of art.  Each card I received had a beautiful quote on the back in addition to the beautiful artwork on the front.  Starting today, we are all invited to join into a worldwide blog hop celebrating the liberation of art.  All the participants who have blogs will highlight the cards received and provide a blog hop link at the end of the post. 

#5

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong" - Joseph Chilton Pearce
postcard by Janet Smith

 #4


"May the beauty of the natural world fill your heart with joy and peace"
postcard by Deborah Tisch

 #3

"The best most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched- they must be felt with the heart" - Helen Keller
postcard by Katja Ward

 #2

"May you find joy today and may your eyes see the beauty around you.  Have a lovely day.  ♥Liz
postcard by Liz Velichko

 #1

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." - Thomas Merton
Postcard by Kim Giery

 What a lovely bunch don't you think?!  If there was a blog or website indicated I provided the link under the card so that others can visit and see more from one of these great artists. 

Thank you, thank you Kat Sloma for putting this together this year!!  It's a wrap for 2012 - Beautiful work, all!  Happy hopping everyone

Liberated Art, Charts and a Few More Leaves

WIP
encaustic and paper on plywood 12x36

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time - Thomas Merton

Seems like cutting out leaves is my deal lately.  Or maybe its just the pure concentration of cutting out something is what I like.  Have you noticed if you are trying to cut around a picture or a drawing that its pure "in the moment" concentration to keep to the lines.  Its kinda nice, really. 
We've been having some work done around the house.  Its the year of the outside projects.  We had a little deck repair work done that left me with some scrap plywood to play around with.  Plywood is a great sub strait for encaustic.  So what better subject for a long skinny board than branches and leaves?  And, also the fact I'm stuck on some kind of tree and leaf thing lately.  Do you ever get on a "thing"?  Just curious if its just me.

I used the charts  from my lucky find and cut them up to make the branches and leaves.  They are nice Big pieces of paper and thick.  I also keep whacking up that old book.  It really took an act of brave to cut up an old hardback book.  Its part of my fabric that "we" don't deface books.  I don't even make notes or highlights in them.  They are sacred or something... except for this one, I guess.  Does anyone else feel that way about books? 
I'm a little stuck on this painting.  It flowed really nicely to this point than hit the wall.  So, now its sitting waiting for the next flurry of inspiration to take it to the next level.  Or maybe I just got side tracked or something.  Imagine that!?

Yesterday I got my first postcard for Liberate Your Art - hosted by Kat Sloma over at Kat Eye Studio.   I'd like to introduce you to the art of Kim Giery.  Honestly, I have so much to learn from beautiful mixed media artists.  I mean, really... look at this card - the colors, the composition, texture - the dots (I love dots).  Super all of it. 
I asked Kim to share a little more about her fabulous art.  It turns out that Kim is exactly what Liberate Your Art is all about.  The postcard swap is the first time that she has shared her work to the outside world.  She loves collage, photography, art journaling and making handmade books.  She has made a studio space in the corner of her living room where she can work on her mixed media creations.  She even dabbles in encaustic (yay!).  This piece is what she calls a "faux" encaustic, using layers of acrylic paint, gloss medium, ephemera, etc. to mimic the look of wax.  Beautiful work and I am so honored to be the recipient of your first - get it out into the world, liberated art.  BRAVO Kim!  The lovely quote at the top of the post is from Kim.  She included that on the back of her card.

It's Party TIME!! 

Liberate Your Art!

READY TO SWAP!

This is the second year for Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap hosted by Kat Sloma at Kat Eye Studio. 
Kat got this great idea to combine launching art out into the world and receiving fun mail.  This year there are over 300 participants which is more than double from last year.  The idea is to pick 5 of your pieces of art, take a photo or a scan of it and have postcards made*.  These postcards are then sent to Kat who collects 5 cards from each participant and a few other things like postage and self addressed mailing labels.  She then redistributes them out into the world.  I send 5, I get 5 different cards back in the mail throughout the month of August.  You can see the wonderful collection that I received last year HERE.  Its fun to get "real" mail and meet some new artists out there in the world.
When I wrote this last night, I thought there was still time to join in the fun.  But, I am sorry to say that the swap entry has closed for this time.  I'm a little late with my promotional post - shame.  You can sign up for Kat's newsletter so that you can be informed of the next event as well as all the fun things that Kat has going on in her Studio.  Follow along here and there will be links to the artist's websites for the cards that I receive as well as a blog hop in the end to celebrate Liberating our Art.


*I made my postcards at Costco Photo Center online.  They took about 4 days to come in the mail to me.  There are other online options such as Moo.com

Postcard Swap!

Liberate Your Art

Postcard Swap

I sent 5 postcards of my artwork to Kat Sloma of Kateye View of the World and she liberated them.  My 5 cards in turn went to 5 other participants in the swap.  Throughout the month of August a beautiful postcard arrived in my mailbox and I would had the opportunity to experience some really beautiful art from others around the world.

This is my collection.

Aren't they amazing!?

Mail has really gotten boring over the years.  Its bills, or flyers or solicitations of some kind.  A few magazines do brighten the month - can't seem to not have

InStyle, SELF, and Cooking Light.

However, the written card, letter or postcard is really few and far between.  I have some friends that still do the written word.  But it seems like with email and text in our lives, that the keep-in-touch thing has really changed.

Starter Stones
Visit Sassy's website
HERE

I was really excited to visit all of these talented artist's websites and blogs.  Such a treat to see what others are doing out there in this big world. Sassy has some beautiful photography to share on her site.

"Here's a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished:
If you're alive, it isn't"
~Richard Bach~
Visit Rosa's website
Simple Mansion
HERE

Rosa lives in Hong Kong.  Its a place that I also have lived.  She has a beautiful website.  *Rosa - when you find this post, I hope that you tell me/us more about your beautiful postcard - about the original artwork from which is was made and your process.

"The Dust of Life"
Visit Ann Isik's website
HERE

Ann is located in the UK.  She has a beautiful website with lots of inspiration for artists.  *Ann, I also hope that you share how you created this beautiful postcard.

"In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than
the heart can imagine"
~R.W. Emerson~
Visit Cara's website
HERE

Cara's was my second postcard that I received.  You can check out that post HERE

Hello from Jamestown, NY!
Lynn Wigren
visit her blog
HERE

Lynn is a talented collage artist.  Lynn's was my first postcard and there is more about it on this post HERE 

Kat Sloma
Visit Kat's studio with this link
Kat Eye Studio

And, Lucky me... a beautiful card from Kat, too!

Wow - fun, easy and did I say fun?! 
Kat is going to have another postcard swap in early 2012.  If you are interested you can follow the link to Kat's studio where you can get on the email list for future notification.
Or, come on back here, and I'll let you know how to sign up once the news comes out.

Now the really fun part!!
Its a blog hop to all the participants websites or blogs
I hope you join in the fun and see where it takes you.

Postcard #1

ARRIVED!!

Yay!

This lovely postcard is from Lynn Wigren in Jamestown, NY.  This is the first of the five postcards I will get from fellow participants in Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap. 

Thanks Lynn!  I love your beautiful collage on the front of this card and your message on the back.  For Lynn, this collage is part of an ongoing 12 month,  project of creating art based on a chosen word for the year.  Lynn's word is Illuminate!  What a great choice for a personal word for 2011.  I'm so excited to meet a new friend and will be sending her an email to see if she has a blog I can link here.

Can't wait to see what comes next week!!

Liberate Your Art

Postcards are off to Kat today to participate in the Liberate Your Art postcard swap.  My 5 cards go into the pool and will be sent randomly to 5 people who are also participating.  Within a few weeks I will get 5 cards from 5 different people.  How fun will this be to actually get a card in the mail!?

Will keep you posted as they arrive.  I will highlight them here.