Signing Back In

It has been a very busy couple of weeks!  A weeklong stay in the mountains, four days at Merlefest, a house full of company, and then a sinus headache that has lasted for 13 days have kept me occupied.  

We finally got the propane gas heater installed in the basement of our mountain cabin.  Just in time for summer!  Doesn't matter, I am looking forward to being able to quilt in the colder months.  One of these days, we will also have a ceiling, sheet rock walls, and a floor!

Here is another journal page on the Amazing Race Facebook challenge...next stop Italy.  Of course I thought of the great wines of Italy, and decided to try to paint wine glasses/bottles.  For this I looked once again to the free Bob Burridge videos on You-Tube and on his website.  He gives such insight into how light is reflected and bounced around in glass and liquids.

Both of these paintings are in acrylic, and are blatant copies of Bob's paintings as I try to learn his methods.

Then...off to Germany.  I decided to try to paint like Wassily Kandinsky, who although a Russian, spent a great amount of time in Germany.  Here is my impression of his painting Houses in Munich (1908).

I love the bright colors of his palette and the freedom of his brushstrokes.  I painted this freehand with no drawing ahead of time.

I am also working on two paintings of flowers inspired by Bob's videos.  They involve painting bright splotches of color, and then forming the shapes of the flowers and vase by negative painting around the original colors.  Mine are both works in progress on top of some old unsuccessful journal pages.

You would never believe what these two pages once looked like.  I like being able to paint over some bad attempts.  These are both done in acrylic paint. It is much easier to do the negative painting with a more opaque paint than watercolor.

Next up are some more Bible art journaling pages.

In the first one, I used Bob Burridge's techniques again to apply the light pastel colors of the angel, and then use darks to negative paint the shape of the angel and wings.  This one is done in watercolor. I like that you can still see some of the original bright colors under the dark blues and purples of the background.

Judges 6:12

Here are some other recent pages.

Psalm 145

Hebrews 4:10-11

Romans 5:8

Jeremiah 31:3

On Wednesday, I babysat for my three-year-old granddaughter, Charlie.  I used to keep her two days a week until last summer, and I still enjoy having her stay with me when possible.  We did lots of painting together, and I used her paintings to make a Mothers' Day gift for her mommy.

We painted the butterfly and bubbles together, and she painted some vast expanses of paper with colorful glitter paint that were cut up and used in the flowers. 

And here is a beautiful bouquet of my own from my South Carolina family.  Inspiration for a future painting?

We are lucky enough to live close to our other son and his family.  This morning it was church and brunch.  Here is Charlie with the balloon from her Mack-Mack that did not get away or get popped all through breakfast.  I am looking forward to my luxurious pedicure with which they gifted me!

That's it for now.  I went to my quilt bee meeting last week and have a few photos from that meeting.  

Happy Mothers' Day to all of you beautiful mothers out there!

Finishing Up a Visual Journal

I have been trying to put the finishing touches on a 9" x 12" visual journal that I started last year.  It is a Strathmore Visual Journal for Mixed Media. 

I used some of the printed/painted papers from the Traci Bautista Strathmore Artist's Workshop to make the front and back covers and inside covers.

Front Cover

Inside Cover and Title Page

This spread had remained half done until today when I added a lot more collage elements to make a "Spring Fever" spread.  There are more of my printed/painted/stamped papers at top. Hopefully the photo will enlarge if you click on it.

This one features a print of one of my watercolor figure paintings on the lower left and a silly painting doodle on the right.

This one is a hot mess.  Had too much stuff going on in the background, so I added some white elements (dogs and clock) and large text on vellum.  Still not crazy about it, but it looks better in real life!

I've been adding finishing touches to a few other pages.  Forgot to take pictures of the back cover and inside pages.  Next time!

Color Wheel Flower Collage

Finished another project!  I call it Color Wheel Flower.

Color Wheel Flower by Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2014

It began as a watercolor study of the colors in my palette.

My sister thought the colors were so cheerful that she downloaded the photo from my blog and made it the background on her iPhone.  I thought it could use some improvement.  I cut the sections into petals and painted more papers to get a range of colors.  Then I glued them onto a gallery-wrapped canvas that I had previously covered with tissue paper and a color chart from a catalog.

The last steps were to glue on some bits of colored glass, and spray with clear acrylic finish.  Now the colors really sparkle!

Mixed Media Canvases Continued

Here are a few more mixed media works in progress.

This is the background that I created at the Anything Art Meeting on Monday.

This is gesso mixed with acrylic paint on a gallery-mounted canvas, about 12 x 12 inches.  I scratched into the wet gesso with a straw and my finger.

Here is what I added to a previously prepared background made from tissue and catalog pages on canvas.  It is not quite finished.  It is a color wheel flower.

Astute followers of this blog may recognize that I took a watercolor practice page and cut it up to make the flower.  I needed more shades, so I applied some more watercolor paint to paper and used it, too.

This is a watercolor study that I did, actually copying a painting I saw in an online Raleigh art gallery.  I first thought of painting the elements to use in a mixed-media collage.  Then I liked the painting and decided to keep it whole and finish it.  I have added some tissue paper collage to the watercolor painting.  Needs a little more work to be finished.

This is the collage I made using the same painting for inspiration.  It is gesso, acrylic paint, and tissue paper/napkin collage.  I stenciled the text.  This turned out to be very colorful and bright.  Lots of texture.

As you can see, I have a lot of work to finish!

What to do on a Gloomy Winter Weekend

From last weekend's beautiful snows and blue skies in the mountains, we have transitioned to a cold, rainy, gloomy weekend at home.  We have seen a few movies (War Horse in the theater, Great; the new Planet of the Apes on DVD, Not bad; and Charlie's pick of DVD, Cowboys vs. Aliens, so bad and loud that I retreated to my third floor craft room to work on journal pages.

Nothing like getting absorbed in a riot of color to improve the mood on a wintry day!

I usually subscribe to the "Pages in Stages" method of journaling.  You paint a background and add collage elements, then later go back and add text or artwork.

Here is a previously painted background on watercolor paper.

I added a beautiful little watercolor that I found in print, added some doodled lace and text, and am imaging a nice cheerful summer day on the porch!

Here's a funny little scene that I made from a Trader Joe's package.  When the newspaper did an article on apples, it worked out perfectly!

I liked the photo of this little girl in my husband's old college French textbook.  Also inside the book was a ticket stub from a 1970 basketball game, NCSU vs. UNC!  I had to stick that on there, too.  I tried to use paint colors that were similar to the colors in the photo. The blossoms behind the little girl are formed by throwing salt on wet watercolor paint.  The white doodles are done with a Bic White-out marker.

The next one was made with paint plus collaged napkins and tissue paper.  I added marks with India ink and Speedball pen.  I am growing fond of using the India ink, even though it can be a bit messy. 

The text does not refer to the Creek Indians, but rather to the community  along Peak Creek in Ashe County.  I like being part of the Creek People!

The next page is all doodles, inspired by Sandy Steen Bartholomew's book, Totally Tangled.

I created a few new backgrounds

and started a new lady who will later be adorned. She is done in colored pencil that I smudged with a little water on my finger.  She needs a little work.

Today is the last day to get in the running for the Georgia Bonesteel quilting book that I am giving away. There are only three comments so far, making your odds pretty good if you are interested in winning this classic book. 

Grow Old With Me Collage

Here is a journal page I finished yesterday.  It has many layers.



It is inspired from the book Journal Fodder Junkies by Eric M. Scott and David R. Modler.  The support is a piece of watercolor paper.  It features watercolor paint, collaged found papers, watercolor pencils, a packing tape transfer, Sharpie paint marker, and a little bit of gold paint pen.  I stamped some circles using a beer muff, a wine cork, and some utensils from the kitchen drawer.

I had no theme or idea in mind when I started. I started the background in the mountains last weekend. I made a stencil from a piece of waxed paper for the word LIFE. The small red squares were stamped with a silicone potholder that had a grid of some dimensional squares .

It was looking very blue and purple, so I added the neutral colored sea turtle (upper left) and the older couple (bottom center) from a magazine.  That gave me the idea of a couple contemplating growing old together.  The clock was an obvious symbol, and the Adirondack chairs represent a phase of life when there is more time to sit back and enjoy!

I think this looks a little busy.  It will take some practice to improve my compositions when just adding elements to a collage.  Perhaps I will cut this up into smaller sections and matte and frame them.



Painting backgrounds is one of my favorite pastimes!  Here is one with green and yellow acrylic paint.  I stamped some bubble wrap to add texture.

This background has some dimensional texture.  I applied some gesso before painting with acrylic paint.

This one looks like a dreamy landscape.

We are still wondering if Hurricane Irene is going to have an impact on central North Carolina, where I live.  Of course we are worrying about our barrier islands, where it looks like the brunt of the storm will pass.  Between the hurricane and the Virginia earthquake that rattled my windows the other day, Mother Nature has provided an interesting week.

Tonight will be a Quilty Night.  One of my groups, the Cyberbee, is meeting in Cameron Village.  Several of us are meeting for dinner.  I am looking forward to it!

Birthday Collage- and a pretty good party!

In my last post I mentioned that my son Dave just had his thirtieth birthday.  Here is a mixed-media collage I made for him.

It is built upon a 12 x 12 stretched canvas that I covered with gesso.  I added some fun photos of Dave and Emily.  Their dog, Roo, needed to be in there, so I drew an outline of him on a newspaper word puzzle and cut it out.  The lettering is done with a speedball pen and India ink.

The rough texture is from corrugated cardboard.  I cut out the letters of his name from a broad velvet ribbon, and put them on top of a portion of a brown bag from our local ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) store.

I added a horoscope for Leo.  I don't know about the energy, but I think his friends appreciated the big party we threw in the mountains.

One of my favorite pictures is this one of Dave sitting in the captain's seat of a friend's boat.  He is reflected in the rear view mirror.  Below the photo, I added a map of Southern France with Nice circled.  I tore the map out of my husband's old French textbook from college.  Dave and Emily are going to Spain and France in September.

In another section I put a map with Barcelona, which is "Barcelone" in French.

Over all the photos and ephemera are layers of acrylic paints and inks, matte medium, and some bronze spray mist.  This is actually a project from the book Collage for the Soul: Expressing Hopes and Dreams Through Art by Holly Harrison.

We had a pig-picking on Saturday evening.  Lots of Dave's friends came up to our mountain place.  We had a little tent city in our yard.  I think two more tents were added after this photo was taken.

The weather was beautiful all Friday and most of Saturday, with a nice cooling breeze.  Two of the couples that usually float with us down the river on July 4th have new babies, and they were able to enjoy the outdoors on a quilt.

There was a wonderful bluegrass band called Buttermilk Creek.  They set up near the picnic shelter by the creek.

Charlie cooked the pig, which was smelling divine.

All the food was set up under the shelter.  Then the rains came.  The band moved under its own tent and played on.

Then the rains REALLY came, as well as thunder and lightning.  The band abandoned their microphones and amps and moved under the shelter.  And still played on!  They were awesome.

So, with everyone under the shelter, the crowd really got into it.  Everyone that did not have a sprained ankle was dancing!  It did my heart good to see my dad enjoying the party and even dancing a little.  He picked a pretty girl and had a great time!

And then there was dancing from tables and hanging from rafters!  Those ECU girls know how to party!

Everyone had fun.  No one's tent leaked.  We took Dave's dog  Roo home with us.  There were two sleepy dogs in the truck last night.

Charlie and I are pretty tired, too.  It was all worth it.  We had a great time.