Summer acrylic work

I've had a chance to take a couple of classes this summer.  The first is an on-line class entitled "Wild Wonder" Here's the link: http://annamieka.com/wildwonder/  Another round will start in October.  Annamieka teaches a collage and acrylic technique along with a bit of botany.  She uses the Ruzuku site to show videos, as well as a private Facebook group.  Here's my piece:

Flowering Pomegranate

I'm taking the summer session of Intermediate painting at the Drawing Studio on Division Street in Portland, Oregon. Drawing Studio The instructor is always trying to get us to stretch.  His philosophy is that it is better to go beyond your comfort zone, than always stopping at 75%.

Last night we had a live model. Here is one stage:

Stage 1

Stage 2

I think I prefer Stage 1, but pushing helped me see what can happen after working it.  I'm used to watercolor where you try to get it without overworking it.  Apparently, practicing in this way can help with whichever media you choose. It's nice to have some of the white paper showing. Our goal was not to make a pretty painting, but to see what the paint can do. You can tell I'm not great with hands. I'm so impatient.

The third class is another on-line class, the 21 Secrets from a while ago called "Color, color, color!" at Dirtyfootprints Studio. Looking forward to trying out some of the techniques. The summer heat is making the garage less than comfortable.  It should break soon.

Another post card from Fall 2016

Pretty card from Maryland.

And this makes 10!

I found them!

I found a couple of post cards from the swap last May.

Very clever - black out poetry card from Alaska.

Collage and paint from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

 And here's a card made from a painting by a 5th grader I know:

"Barrel of Duckweiser"

Post card from Sweden

From Sweden: "pictures are symbols from 1000+ year old rock carvings found in Sweden." I like the gold leaf.

Fun stamp!

Post card from Columbus, Ohio

I received this post card yesterday: made from a recycled flyer from Columbus Art Museum. It looks like a monoprint, plus paint, plus collage on top of a photo. Not sure what the photo is, but it definitely looks like a Dale Chihuly blown glass sculpture.

Received in the Fall Postcard swap 2016

Nevada City, California. A detail from the back.

This is from England, but it doesn't say exactly where. It looks like all of the collage pieces survived the trip.

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Peterson, Minnesota.  Hand drawn poem.

Stow, Ohio 

Little River, South Carolina

Arlington, Virginia

Fall Post Card Swap 2016 - my cards

For this swap I decided to try the Etegami as described by Diana Trout on her blog:http://dianatrout.com/  It's the entry from 10/15/2016.

I wrote fewer words and mostly used letter stamps for the words. I ordered a custom chop, but it didn't arrive in time.  Most of the cards are using the paper rated "full blur." You can see how the paint spreads in the Nasturtium card below. The stamps are from Spain in the 1980's.  I found a stack of letters written by friends I met there in college.  I need to read through the letters again, but I'll save that for a nostalgia day. In the meantime I grabbed some of the stamps for the art project.

I'm obviously inspired by my surroundings: my dog, my cat, a mini pumpkin my husband has on his desk, an owl from the Audubon Society of Portland, indoor flowers we had from the market, nasturtiums and asters from our yard.

Speaking of the Audubon society, I just could not decide on a design for the 6x6 project this year. I gave up, but we did go to the show this weekend. We picked up a couple of steel ravens for the yard and notecards.

I've received about 5 post cards so far. I'll post those next time.