Home again

This will be the last blog post from my trip to the US. My normal life has started again, and I am even back at work.

Last weekend I attended a 2-day workshop with Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson called Paper painting. As I do have a soft spot for collage, this looked liked the perfect workshop for me. And it was! Elizabeth is not only a great collage artist, but also a great teacher and a lovely person. Make sure to check out her blog or take a class with her when you get the chance.

The first day we painted all kind of papers, rice papers, mulberry papers, book pages etc. Elizabeth demostrated all kind of techniques and then it was playtime! The second day we focussed on our collage with our own handpainted papers. We all had to do some homework before the workshop, we needed to bring a 12" x 12" painting of an apple, to be used as underpainting for the collage.

Here is my collaged apple, I am very happy with the end result and will sure use the new techniques in my future work.

And then to say goodbye to California, to summer and to say hello to the Fall/Autumn I will share a last image of the view from the back porch of the cottage in Penngrove.

This month's article on Unruly PaperArts

Today my article has been published on Unruly PaperArts. This month's focus is on layering and there are already marvelous articles posted! Check out the website for more tips, tricks and techniques.

And.... do not forget to submit your work for the Readers Art Request, we have great prices this month!

This month on Unruly PaperArts - Layer on layer!

The subject  this month on Unruly PaperArts is Layer on Layer !  This month the columnists will be exploring the fundamental process of creating layers be it with a mixture of mediums or layers of the same element i.e. paper.

Please do not forget to submit an entry to the Reader Art Quest! Our July Sponsor is the Robin's Nest who have a beautiful range of speciality scrapbooking papers and embellishments. Some of the columnists will be working with a range of their texture products throughout the month and they are also kindly offering an assortment of these products as a prize for our one lucky Reader Art Quest winner valued at approx $70. 

This month I will be showing you how to create some lovely layered journal pages!

What do you want to learn?

Hello everyone, as I told you in my last post, I am about to explore and investigate new possibilites. Very exciting!

I am looking to publish several inspiring online creative workshops and can do with your help. Please click on the following link and fill out the form! Your feedback is highly appreciated!

Kitty's art & crafts - only takes one minute!

Buddha in mixed media

Did I already tell you I am going to take part in the local art show? Last year I participated for the first time, showing oil paintings, mixed media paintings and polymer clay mosaics. I even sold a few pieces.

This year I have registered again and I am very happy to get another chance to show my art. I will be showing different kind of work. Alcohol ink paintings, monoprints and mixed media collaged paintings. The show is from December 18, 2013 to January 2, 2013 in De Bilt in the Netherlands.

This weekend after I finished my mixed media painting of San Francisco (I am still very happy with it :-)) I started another mixed media painting. This canvas has been on my easle for a very long time, and is part of 2 square canvasses I worked on at the same time. I was not happy with the canvasses and decided to re-use them.

This is the canvas after adding new papers, gesso and paint.

There is already an image of a buddha in the background. That is why I decided to paint a larger buddha on the canvas. I used glazing medium with acrylic paints, this way the layer becomes transparent and you still can see the background through the paint.

This is more detail of the painting.

I am already quite happy with the painting and will work on it a bit more to add some more details and shades. I hope I do not overwork the painting, I want to keep it transparent!

San Francisco in Mixed Media - finish

This morning I finished my Mixed Media painting of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco holds sweet memories for me and this is actually one of the first paintings I painted just for me.

I will show you the last stages of the painting. I corrected the pillars of the bridge and the background last time and added more collage to the piece. The first thing I did this morning was to paint the left side of the pillars with yellow and glazing medium. And I painted the rocks in the background.

Then I used more orange and red with the glazing medium. I worked on the bridgde and the pillars under the bridge.

I added some more shading under the rocks in the background and to the bridge. Then I declared this painting FINISHED! I love it ;-). When the painting is completely dry I will put a layer of gel medium on top to varnish the painting.

This is a detail of the background, with the rocks made from different kind of collage and textured papers, paint and glazing medium.

And a new background is already waiting for me.... ;-)

Thanks for watching and your lovely comments along the way!

Mixed Media Discoveries - Stencil Crazy backgrounds!

Always wanted to know how to create marvelous Mixed Media backgrounds for ATC's, inchies, chunky, journal pages and other Mixed Media projects? On the Unruly PaperArts blog I am showing you how in my first Unruly column!



More techniques on how to create lovely backgrounds can be found on my YouTube channel.

New YouTube video!

I just uploaded a new video on YouTube. How to create a mixed media canvas in 10 steps. Check it out!

Mixed media collage

I have just added a new original Mixed Media collage in my Etsy shop. The collage is created with different kinds of papers, ink, postage stamps and a lovely image of a blue bird. The collage is 12 x 12 cms in size (4 3/4" x 4 3/4") and fits perfectly in a lovely frame. I bought some Ribba frames at Ikea to show off how the collage looks when framed. What a difference a frame makes!

Here is the link to the item in my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/162966745/blue-bird-an-original-mixed-media.

 

Working on a new YouTube video

This week I have been working on a new YouTube video. The pictures are taken, the canvas is fnished and now I just have to put it together and publish it. It will be a video on how to create a Mixed Media Canvas in 10 steps. Here is the end result.

Black and white chunkies

Yesterday (Sunday) I had a 'pyjama day'. I had no where to go, no people to see, nothing important planned, so I went from my pyjamas into my jogging pants. And I watch some telly (a few re-run of a Dutch detective) and did some crafting, took a nap.... you get the picture. I just love days like this!

I printed some black and white backgrounds and images for the Black and White chunky swap on ATCsforall and took out my glue stick. I made these 4 chunkies. I still need to do the backs and then I can send them off to the host down under.

New ATC's

I have been hosting the Dragonflies swap on ATCsforall.com. The due date is September 21 and I always sent out a reminder to the participants a month before the due date. But this time.... I didn't even finish my own ATC's.. Bad girl! I did one earlier and finally did the other two today.

Nieuwe workshop data!

For my Dutch readers ;-). New workshop data.

Zoals sommige van jullie weten, geef ik 2 workshops bij de Volksuniversiteit in Soest.

Op donderdagavond 7 en 14 november 2013 geef ik de workshop "Paneeltje van klei-tegeltjes".
Tijdens deze workshop maken we een klein paneeltje met diverse tegeltjes. We maken deze tegeltjes zelf van klei met verschillende technieken. We werken met polymeerklei, stempels, verf, mica poeder, bladzilver en -goud, diverse bedeltjes en we leren om tegeltjes te maken met afbeeldingen. Polymeerklei is een kunst-stof boetseerklei. Het materiaal is goed kneedbaar en blijft zacht zolang het niet gebakken is. Afbakken kan in een gewone keukenoven met lage temperaturen.

En op donderdagavond 6 maart 2014 geef ik een workshop Mixed Media Canvas.
Wat is mixed media? Mixed media betekent in het Nederlands gemengde technieken. Tijdens deze workshop maken we een schilderij door toepassing van verschillende technieken, zoals bijvoorbeeld schilderen, collage maken, stempelen, enzovoort. Ervaring met schilderen is niet nodig. We werken met papier, verf, afbeeldingen, stempels, stencils, inkt en verder van alles en nog wat. Eerst komt de achter-grond aan bod en daarna schilderen we de afbeelding.

 

Inschrijven voor beide workshops kan via bij de Volksuniversiteit Soest

Mixed media collage chunkies for the PAT (Pick a Theme) on ATCsforall

This morning I have been making chunkies (4" x 4") for the PAT (Pick a Theme) on www.atcsforall.com. This is how it works. A host in posting several groups with the medium the chunkies (or ATCs) should be made in and you can subscribe to one of these groups. You put down your name and the theme you want to receive your chunkies in. When the group is full, you start creating the chunkies for the other members of the theme, one chunky in their theme. So this time I made a Pink Rose, a Vintage Lady, Mushroom and Vintage Things with Wings.

 

Finally I was able to upload a picture of one of the alcohol ink paintings I did when I was in Monterey CA 2 weeks ago. The Lone Pine on the 17-mile drive was my inspiration. I have created 4 paintings, 3 of them are for sale in my Etsy shop.



Workshop Mixed Media schilderijtje in 1 avond - 27 juni

Voor de workshop Mixed Media schilderijtje in 1 avond op donderdag avond 27 juni zijn er nog 2 plaatsen beschikbaar! Iemand interesse? Kijk dan op mijn website www.kittysartencrafts.nl voor meer informatie.

I am now selling vintage book pages in my Etsy shop!

I have been searching around on flea markets and yard sales for lovely vintage books. And I have found some! A lovely old atlas, with beautiful yellowed maps. And an old music book with marvelous vintage looking (yellow/brown) pages. A book on how to make (crossword and other) puzzles (?). The pages have illustrations of puzzles and text combined, making it great collage pieces.

The link to my Etsy shop is on the right hand side on this page. Check it out and get some pages before they are gone!

Painting for the WetCanvas Drawing Event

Today I have been painting a reference in the WetCanvas Drawing Event (WDE). This reference picture really spoke to me, but I found it hard to get started. The original plan was to paint it with regular watercolors, maybe use some salt to get the old rusty look. I know when I find it too challenging I kind of block. So I switched over to deli paper. I drew the truck first with my Pitt pens and then added color with my aquamarkers.

The black and white pen drawing is after about 1 hour, the colored version after another hour.

Video on YouTube from Evelyn

One of my art friends, Evelyn Havertz from Germany has posted her first art-how-to video's on YouTube. You can find her under the name of Evelynsdreaming and here is one of the video's. She makes lovely backgrounds for art journaling and other projects. Check it out!

Journaling

First of all; this week I had more then 1000 views of my art video's on YouTube. WOW.... more then a 1000 views, that is a lot!! Thank you all who watched (and hopefully enjoyed) my video's. For the readers who have not yet watch the art video's, here is the link to the latest video:

http://youtu.be/INw8R-5h7rg

And this week I have been working in my art journal. I saw a quote on Pinterest; words that matter. Love the quote and I made a page using the quote, it took me almost a week. I started with gesso, some selfmade paper (paper sprayed with Dylusions ink and stencils) and another layer of gesso. Then I made the cirkels, with markers, but also with ink. And added some more color with my Neocolors II and added some more cirkels before putting the words into the cirkels.