A Very Special Christmas Gift - to my sweet niece

You can see the very first humble beginnings of this idea at the bottom of a previous post of November 14
http://daloweartist.blogspot.com/2010/11/blog-post.html

A gift to my beautiful niece featuring her two amazing children - Trevin, 8 and Reagan, 3.

Here it is in stages, from my studio easel to the "grand opening":

It was a huge success and worth every minute of effort - she cried :-)

This Year's Good Intentions - Christmas Cards 2010

I had good intentions, I usually do

But Christmas came too fast and left me in a stew

So many cards to send, handmaking each one

Left me tired and frustrated; it just couldn't be done.

So I sent what I could and gave up on the rest

Merry Christmas to all and may you all be blest!

Here's a sample of what I did get done.

Front
Inside
Back

I bought the gel pens above at the grocery store of all places! A friend at work had them on her desk to use to sign Christmas cards.  They looked so yummy, I had to have some!  I just happened to be going to the grocery store that night and found them!  They are actually much better than the more expensive ones I've bought.  They don't skip and they are bright and smooth - as yummy as they look!  The brand is Academix - check your local grocer to see if they carry them.



Review of “The Pirate Queen” by Patricia Hickman

A journal spread in response to the book "The Pirate Queen" by Patricia Hickman
completed December 19-20, 2010 in my Hand-Book Journal
mixed media collage

Please click here and rank this book review. Many thanks to Water Brook Multnomah for providing me a free copy of this book to review!
This story is a tapestry woven of fine linen threads in brilliant colors, each thread coming together in intricate patterns to complete the picture. All the threads come together at the end like a quilt, a tapestry, or a piece of art – a thing of beauty. At the end the reader is left satisfied, satiated. So many unexpected things happen; I devoured the book and savored it at the same time.

Why is the protagonist, Saphora Warren, referred to as the “Pirate Queen”? Because, throughout the book the theme is that Saphora is finding buried treasures - loving the unlovable and unlovely, seeing good in places other people can’t find it, redeeming love like God’s love flows from Saphora. I find myself wanting to be more like Saphora, who without even trying, just naturally gives and loves without resentment, but freely. She learns to see people without judgment and condemnation. And her life is made richer because of it.

I could relate to the struggles in Saphora’s marriage; only she takes forgiveness to a level I only hope I can someday reach. Her character is real; I didn’t find myself resenting her for being “too perfect” and this novel didn’t feel like a “Christian” work of fiction. Nothing seemed contrived to me. It was a real story and I was absolutely engrossed in it. I want to read more of this author’s work!

Please rank this review below. Thank you!

Sometimes It's Fun and Sometimes It's Tough -- Life at Work

Do I have fun at work, or what!
This is a little area in my office with a huge window on the right of the table. I can create art for events that we have on campus or for the individuals who live here. I have shared the work area with one or two of the individuals here, teaching them to paint and play and express themselves.

Below are cards for a Lions Club event tomorrow. What fun!



This is a journal page I did at lunch today in my Handbook Journal.



I used the Pelikan gouache set below. I HIGHLY recommend this set. It's available from Dick Blick http://www.dickblick.com.

I love the brightness of the colors and their opacity!



The Director here at the state facility where I work is transferring to another center in the state. I am his Administrative Assistant and work closely with him. He and I have a fantastic working relationship, and I am rather devastated by this change. Working with him has been the best experience of my career so far. I handle change very well, so I'm sure I'll be fine, but right now it's very emotional and hard.

The phrase from Nehemiah 8:10 came to my mind yesterday and that is what is carrying me through these tough days. "...the joy of the LORD is your strength." Truly our joy comes from the LORD and He never changes! That is what today's journal page expresses.

Not much time for anything but quick sketches and journal entries lately... I am working on my Christmas cards. I should have something to show you soon.
I've also been buying lots of new art supplies/toys lately! So many sales with Christmas nearing! Will share some of that in upcoming posts.





I hope to reformat my blog in the next couple of months. I'm bored with the layout, look and content. I have two blogs now (see http://deborah-heartsongs.blogspot.com/), but it's overwhelming to keep up with two, for me. I have joined Blogging for Books http://www.bloggingforbooks.org and I want to incorporate the book reviews into this original
"Making a Splash..." blog. After all, "Making a Splash..." is about the things I'm passionate about, and reading is certainly high on the list. I want to include more than just art in this blog, but I don't want to lose readers. I would love your comments. What do you think? Any ideas on how I could organize my blog so that it is more readable and interesting to you?

Art Project Central

I've been busy, busy, busy!
Inspired this year to make all my Christmas cards, even though in prior years I haven't even gotten any out at all.  This year I'm feeling Christmas in my bones and wanting to savor every minute before it flies past us and turns into January. I feel as if time is flying and I can't catch it.  The urge to create this past week has been overwhelming. I wake up with plans to make art and mulling over the ideas and I go to bed with the same thoughts. It's been all-consuming. I knew I must answer the call I felt this week. So having Thursday off as a holiday anyway, I took Friday as well and I have spent four glorious days in the kitchen/studio making the most delightful creative mess you can imagine! Nothing is complete yet, but the juices are still flowing, so I hope to bring the project to fruition.

I started out by drawing a star and using it as a pattern to draw stars on this textured yellow fabric that a friend had picked up for me at Goodwill. I cut them out and painted them gold and silver (Liquitex acrylic, soft and heavy body paints). Some I stamped using needlepoint plastic that I picked up at Walmart dipped in white paint.  I don't really know what it's called, but it does make great texture, which is why I bought it.

Christmas Cards in Progress:

Step 1 - "My stars and garters!" - a phrase my mother used to say :-)



Glued background and stars on the cards with Mod Podge and hung them up to dry. I've used stamping with various objects for texture - bubble wrap, the needlepoint plastic sheet, macrame beads, you name it. I also used Modeling Paste (Liquitex flexible) for the first time.

A close up of a card awaiting text and blending with charcoal





Big sheet for cutting out backgrounds for remaining stars. I've used sheets from a music book, slinging paint, cheesecloth, modeling paste, bubble wrap, direct painting with acrylic - I've used anything to make layers of texture. It was too bright, so I painted over it with a very thin layer of white acrylic paint - very watered down.  This is a full sheet of Stonehenge paper as the support.

 

A glorious, creative MESS!

 

Almost finished cards (waiting for text) drying amid the creative mess!


Some more fun - paintings in progress:

Line drawing from my imagination

Color added but still not finished - obviously this is me surrounded by the books I love and of course a cup of coffee or tea (spiced chai I think)!



Sketching out an acrylic painting - see below for next step.

 


Step 2, the background color of what is to be a Christmas gift - acrylic on canvas

 



Painting 12 in 100

Autumn!
11" x 14"
Watercolor

New Painting - # 11 of 100 Paintings

5" x 7" Prismacolor Pencil, Watercolor, and white gouache

on Winsor/Newton 140 lb cold pressed W/C paper

Moleskine Pages - Backgrounds

Not liking the sketches I'd done (rather haphazardly) in a fairly new Moleskine Sketchbook, I glued several of them together and then collaged and painted over some.  I plan to add more later and now I'm happy and will actually use this Moleskine. In a Moleskine sketchbook - the paint of choice is GOUACHE.  That is what it was designed for: See article by Melanie Testa in this magazine! Cloth Paper Scissors May June 2009

5 x 7 on Stonehenge

markers, watercolor, white gouache

This is from a week or so ago. My heart didn't sing much today; I got a migraine at lunch and came home and went straight to bed.  New medicine seems to be working somewhat - I'm blogging tonight...so that's a good thing!

New Watercolor in my Handmade Journal

Here are the sketches, now for my journaling that goes with them, click here to go to my other blog: http://deborah-heartsongs.blogspot.com/2010/10/memories-of-autumn.html

Autumn Blessings, Deborah

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
~ Pablo Picasso

My Lunchtime Sketch and Cezanne!

  






Today's lunchtime sketch in the park
 - watercolor pencil and watercolor -




What strikes me and incredibly pleases me about this sketch is that it reminds me (just a little) of Cezanne's watercolors. See Cezanne's "Trees Leaning Over Rocks"

During my first watercolor class in college, I did a watercolor of some dogwood blooms from a photo. The teacher looked at it, and started smiling and shouting to me, "It's a Cezanne! It's a Cezanne!!"  Well at the time I had no idea what she was talking about.  I was 19 years old, fresh out of high school, and had never heard of Cezanne.  Since then I have studied him in depth and my interest in his work and life, particularly in his watercolors, has never waned.  

Hey, maybe that's an idea! - I think I will do some paintings after his style and several posts on this Master artist, without a doubt my favorite.

Autumn

Today's journal page in my Hand-book Journal.
Autumn - spiced chai, leaves, golds, and siennas, the last of the zinnias...