A.D.D.? Nah, not me!

Oh, don't worry.  I'm still doing mixed media.  I'm also doing acrylics and watercolors and ...

ANYWAY, one day while I was trying to figure out exactly how to use all these acrylic paints I keep buying, I stumbled across an artist on YouTube.  She is an amazing artist and knows things about art, which is why I started watching her videos ... but she is also wacky and irreverent and has an absolute BLAST while she's creating, which is why I keep watching her.  Who is she?  Her name is Cinnamon Cooney and she calls herself The Art Sherpa.

I found a series that she is doing over on YouTube called the Big Art Quest (#bigartquest), where every week she provides another tutorial on something arty.  It's not a class, it's a "quest to become an artist."  As a very very beginner, I'm fascinated at all the things I'm learning about techniques, media, and tools.  I especially enjoy watching Cinnamon because she explains things in a way that I can understand - since I'm not familiar with a lot of the terminology.

The series started in January, so (as usual) I'm playing catch-up.  The first week's assignment was to paint a pair of pears from a photo posted at Paint My Photo by Ruth Archer called "A Nice Pair." (you won't be able to see it unless you create an account, and I don't want to violate her copyright or the TOS of the PMP site by pasting an image of it here).

In any case, we were to paint the image on a canvas board with absolutely no instruction.  After the Quest is complete at the end of the year, we will paint it again and see how far we've come (hopefully).

Here's my first attempt (I wasn't going for abstract, in case you were wondering):



I'm not altogether disappointed in them, considering it's my first attempt at painting anything that is supposed to actually resemble something real.  At least they kind of look like pears!

I'm going to go play catch-up and try to get the week 2 video done.  I'll post the results soon!  In the meantime, head on over to The Art Sherpa on YouTube and check her out.  I think you'll like her too!

New obsession: Mixed Media

So in the three years since I last posted, I've moved beyond scrapbooking and made my way through cardmaking (still doing that) and on to mixed media and art journaling.  I'm not gonna lie, Tim Holtz and his amazing Distress products have been the catalyst for my new obsession ... but I've found tremendous inspiration from Carolyn Dube.

I'm 47 years old, work in a law office, and research my family history in my spare time.  With such rigid activities taking up all my time, it's not surprising that I forgot how to "play."  Fortunately, Carolyn rescued me from my rut.

I'm still working on shushing that voice in my head telling me that I'm breaking rules or that something is "wrong."  Turns out, there are no rules!

Carolyn has a monthly "Let's Play" challenge over on her blog, and this month's challenge is to use some of your neglected art supplies.  Well, since I haven't really been doing "art" for that long, pretty much all of my supplies are neglected.  But I have this drawer labeled "texture" where I collect random things - bubble wrap, tissue paper, drywall tape, and other texture-y stuff that would probably otherwise be thrown away - and I thought it would be fun to use some of those things to create a page.

Here's the end result:

I used some old foam pieces with blue and pearl acrylic paint to create the background, stamped some orange tissue paper and adhered it with some multi medium, some of that drywall tape painted in green, and stenciled with some acrylic paint and some texture paste.  I just love all the color - but especially all the texture!