Wednesday, June 29, 2011

a tina named lilly ~ graphite, oil pastels, watercolors, goauche & china ink - in milton book, 4" x 6"

* * *

prismacolor pencils on bone fragment

XO

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

pink tina ~ china ink, graphite, watercolors, gouache & oil pastel in milton book - 4" x 6"

two more tinas ~ china ink, graphite, watercolors

* * *



XO

Monday, June 27, 2011

tina #2, savvy tina ~ graphite, china ink, oil pastel & watercolors

i drew most of these with a lyra graphite crayon (9B). they are nice!!

* * *



Film footage of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954).

The beautiful song is “Esa Noche” by Café Tacuba.

via tumblr

XO

Sunday, June 26, 2011

tina #1, elegant tina ~ graphite, china ink & watercolors - 4" x 6"

back to 'the tinas'... : )

i painted most of them on the pages that i cut out of my book... it seemed a good way to use the pages that were piling up. once i got a little stack of them (and i really liked them!) i decided to try selling them for a very reasonable price. so, you can buy most of' the tinas' at a new blog that i've created, 'bird on a wire'.

some people have asked what china ink is, and there seems to be a difference of opinion about it on the internet. in my mind it's the same as sumi ink.
it is lovely, lovely stuff, and it goes a long ways.

XO

Friday, June 24, 2011

wax and tea bags

solstice butterfly ~ gouache, watercolors, wax & casein paint on tea bag, 4" x 6"

veering back to wax and tea bags briefly (not that i would ever bounce around from one thing to another) so that i can post a basic step-by-step of what i'm doing with them. several people have asked, so in case it's helpful to others, here it is...

i'm using purified beeswax from R&F encaustics - i melt in in my Ranger 'melting pot' (a very handy thing).

* * *

make tea and let soak until you like the amount of staining on the bag

dry the bag and take the tea out (but leave the back seam of the bag closed - just open up the ends). leave all of the little flaps folded when you're done.

iron it

draw and/or paint on the front of the bag with the usual stuff - watercolors, oil pastels, colored pencils, and/or gouache

when the paint is dry, open up the back seam of the tea bag so it's now almost 4" x 6"

brush matte gel medium lightly on the book page and press the tea bag onto it - let dry

heat up the wax and brush it on (all over the page)

take a quilting iron and move the wax around 'til you like the distribution

with an awl draw designs in the wax and rub gouache or casein paint (or oil pastels) into the dug out areas (wipe off the excess, but maybe not all!)

paint with gouache, casein paint, or oil pastels on the wax

* * *


one thing to remember about gouache, casein paint, and tubes of high quality watercolors, is that while they're water soluble, when you use them without adding water they stick beautifully to wax (or to oil pastels). it's only when you add water that they're not so compatible. so i use all of these mediums straight out of the tube a lot. amazingly they still go a long way when you use them like this.

XO

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

tina #1 ~ china ink, pencil, gouache and watercolors, 4" x 6"

going back to early june now, i got on a real jag painting 'the tinas'. i'd just gotten tina berning's book '100 girls on cheap paper', and i was swept away by the power and simplicity of her faces. she uses a lot of china ink, so i got mine out and painted a whole bunch of 'tinas'... i'd look at one of her faces and try to paint the eyes (or nose or mouth) the way that she painted it. i feel like i learned a lot, and i highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about painting/drawing faces.

XO

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

solstice love...

watercolors, gouache, oil pastel, colored pencil, tea bag & beeswax - 4" x 6"

i'm jumping forward to what i'm working on now in the book because it reflects the energy of these days for me...

watercolors, gouache, oil pastel, colored pencil, tea bag & beeswax - 4" x 6"

i painted on tea bags, glued them to the page, put beeswax on top of it all, and then dug into and painted on the wax...


the pages i did yesterday... thank you, kim, for inspiring me to work on tea bags!

i am sending you solstice love and wishes for an expansive day!!

XO

Sunday, June 19, 2011

a little shrine ~ gouache, watercolors, colored pencil, & oil pastels, 4" x 6"

XO

Friday, June 17, 2011

ruth ~ gouache, watercolors, casein paint & oil pastels, 4" x 6"

XO

Thursday, June 16, 2011

a young john ~ casein paint, oil pastels, watercolor & gouache, 4" x 6"

young john is on the first page in the book i'm working in now... well, it could be a young john milton. he certainly looks pious enough...


it's a book of milton's early poetry (he was writing when he was a teenager), and the paper in it is fabulous. i can paint with watercolors to my heart's delight and the pages don't buckle. lately i've been putting a thin layer of matte gel medium on some of the pages before i start, but not always. it just depends on what i feel like doing at the time.

i'm taking out every third page (as i go) because i don't want the book to get too thick... i don't think the binding could take that. there isn't a date of publication in it, but i'd say it's at least a hundred years old... there are a lot of old books out there for us to work in!!

sarah is working in 'the saffron sea' now. she's been making me smile for weeks!!

XO

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

thank you ~ watercolors, gouache, oil pastel and casein paint

well, dear readers, here we are at the end of the chartreuse book... there were more faces in it than those i showed here - about half the book had paintings in it,


and the other half looked like this - pogo prints, some words, and little doodles. i printed 100 pogo prints on my trip to virginia, and in general i print one or two every day...


the slightly flexible cover of the quo vadis habana was nice in that it accommodated the thickness created by adding paper to the pages that i painted on (not to mention the pogo prints). i probably took the centerfolds out of five signatures, so i didn't take much paper out considering how much i added. i loved the size - 4" x 6.4", but in my opinion the paper is too thin for anything other than pencil, ink, or colored pencil (and the new habanas are made with an even lighter paper).

my favorite things: the color (!), the size (bigger than most 'pocket' journals), and the elastic band - it stays snug against the back of the book while you're working in it. i think it'd be a great book for writing, and pencil or ink sketching. i could hardly make pencil smudge in it, so if you like nice clean pencil lines, this would be a good choice...

please feel free to ask any questions!

XO

Monday, June 13, 2011

donald raymond ~ gouache, watercolors, casein paint and oil pastel, 4" x 6", chartreuse book

XO


Sunday, June 12, 2011

rosie ~ gouache, oil pastels, watercolors & casein paint, chartreuse book, 4" x 6"

* * *

“Say to yourself, “I want to live a true life”.
Then watch yourself.
Discover the true response you make to life undistorted by others.
Self-knowledge is not social.
Artists, take every opportunity to be alone.”

~Agnes Martin via tumbler (thanks robyn : )

XO

Saturday, June 11, 2011

ima ~ gouache, watercolors & oil pastel, chartreuse book, 4" x 6"

XO

Friday, June 10, 2011

simon ~ oil pastel, gouache, watercolors & casein paint, chartreuse journal, 4" x 6"

XO

Thursday, June 9, 2011

lola ~ gouache, watercolors, oil pastels & casein paint, 4" x 6"

and today, while out wandering...


grinning at the happy sagebrush


and indian paintbrush...


a hummingbird flew in front of me! i was standing there with camera in hand, all i had to do was snap!

* * *


XO

Thursday, June 2, 2011

doris jean ~ gouache and watercolors on traditional gesso, te's book, 4" x 4"

my trusty computer seems to be on its last legs; i can hardly see the images on the screen as i type this (doris jean looks very strange), so i'm gonna stop posting until a new computer gets here. thank you again to everyone for your kind words about these faces!! i have few more to post and then i'm gonna get on with the book that i'm working in now.



here it is a few days ago at a coffee shop in mt. shasta... it's an old book of john milton's poetry. there's no publication date listed, but i'd say late 1800s or early 1900s. it's a gem...

okay! thank you again, and love!

* * *


Todd: Hi Aaron! Tell me why collaboration is better than competition.

Aaron: Being friends with people is just way better than not. In the grand scheme of things art just means nothing and people who take it seriously have really lost the plot. (It's) more fun to just make things.

~ Todd Selby and Aaron Rose in The Selby is in your Place. Aaron is an artist and director of the film Beautiful Losers, about outsider art and artists (streaming on netflix).

XO

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

evelyn grace ~ the same stuff... ; ), 4" x 6"

XO