Faux Wood Graining

The faux wood graining tool wants to be used on canvas as well as your walls! I have not yet mastered it, as it is a little tricky to get used to.  You pull it and rock it.  It is a nice added effect to a canvas painting adding interest and texture to make a great backdrop.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/83418183/faux-wood-colored-paneling-painted

VIGNETTE -ALTERED ART - Scrapbooking on the Wall

Scrapbooking has gone to a whole new wonderful level.  Who would have thought that the art of finally getting those pictures out of drawers and into fabulous albums would turn into another art form.  The companies that offer little doo dads are endless.  With the prices of vintage jewelry at the thrift stores now, you can still find a good bargain at the craft store, all be it brandy new, to use in your altered art - - found object pieces. It is a little vignette. http://www.etsy.com/listing/81329193/giddy-up-altered-art-assemblage-off-into I think of a theme in my mind and try to take it from there...but of course, routing through my many drawers of this that and the everything is a task itself to put items together that make sense and will have a flow to the piece.  Almost always something stamped adds texture and interest, whether it be words or leaves or whatever other stamp you would like to use out of the millions of them they offer.  I like to include something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.

VINCENT

I would not even try to come close to comparing myself to Vincent VanGogh, but in my dreams I hope to meet him some day.  Such a tortured soul was he and I know that many of the great artists are and many that are unknown will always lead complicated, depressed, indifferent, disillusioned lives-myself included.  It is the level of which, that makes the difference in the quality of living, I guess.  I once saw a Van Gogh original in person.  I think I could have stared for hours.  I was astounded at the texture. My young nephew and I reached out to touch it, like fools, and the alarm went off instantly.  What was I thinking??!! Yet, it was automatic--to want to put a hand upon Vincent's actual painting and suck in all that wondermant.   His successful commercialism is so ironic, we all know that.  I wonder who is getting that money now for all the book bags, stickers, t shirts and such. I know that Theo's widow finally attempted to get him the credit due, but what about now? Gee, what a story that tears my heart apart--his very much troubled life, yet all that beauty and talent.  Would he have painted the same if he was mentally sound?

http://www.etsy.com/listing/61819823/van-gogh-painting-current-impressionism

By Don Mclean

 Starry, starry night.

Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.

Starry, starry night.
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget.
Like the strangers that you've met,
The ragged men in the ragged clothes,
The silver thorn of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

Now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will...

artwork GREEN WILLOW by Susie Kunzelman

GLUE AND EPOXY 101 - BEST GLUE FOR ARTS AND CRAFTS

I  should be an expert by now on all types of glue, but as is my nature-I do not remember alot of the ones that I did not like.  Why wouldn't I like a glue?  Alot of times it was nothing more than the fact of once I went back to use it a second time, it was hardened up at the top near the tube opening so much that no matter what I did I couldn't get it to squeeze out.  Oh then what happens is my favorite part: I spring a leak somewhere down in the body of the tube. Well for a white glue that does more than an Elmers would, I really like Eco Glue.  For a silicone glue I do like GOOP.  But lastly, and most importantly, let me refer to my friend:  EPOXY.  no. 1 winner for use in art:  Devcon 5 minute expoxy.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/81715807/meditation-box-good-day-sunshine-altered

   These shots of my meditation boxes do not do the glitter and/or the epoxy justice at all.  We all remember the Envirotech from the 60s and 70s....well that was epoxy.  To use an epoxy is just like all the artists who are doing work with resin now, but the combination of expoxy and glitter to me are nothing short of a miracle.  What shine! What a finish!

For a glue to use outdoors, when I glue items on bowling balls for lawn balls, I use nothing but GE Silicone II for windows and doors.  Not only does it hold, it won't let the items SLIDE down the ball.  So this glue is great for anything else outside too, but it is the kind you have to hook up to the metal tube.  I liked the GE so much, I started buying their household glue and it is absolutely wonderful BUT it wants to do that hardening thing towards the top of the tube. 

I love the mornings.  I set the alarm so that I do not miss any of it.  As I took out the garbage 5 am this morning, I took a moment of stolen time to look around the neighborhood while everyone else was sleeping.  A rainy, but warm morning, it was beautiful. The darkness just began to lift and the lack of sunshine on all the lush greenery did it justice.  That color of dusk is the greatest.

I took this photo with infra red film.  EKTACHROME.  ahhhh the good old days.  I'm sure today I couldn't give away my Minotal 101SLR!! I took this photo, obviously --looking up.  I forget to do that sometimes and what a whole new world there is--city or country--of more photos to shoot. I enjoy making nature photos be weird colors that they will never be:  blue leaves, turquoise bark, etc.  I think that makes the photo quite artsy, yet I know that it is a definate style that is in the minority of those who would hang it in their abode. Abode, when was the last time you called your home that?  I just hung a vintage picture and at the bottom it was entitled "Abode of Contentment".  What else could you ask for?

The morning is mine

Stolen time

Coffee in my hand.

I cherish it

I relish it

I develop a plan.

For the rest of the day

I know, you don't have to say

I'll never follow thru!

But tomorrow dawn will

Be waiting for me, still

With a new list of things to do.

IT'S A COMIN'

FALL that is.  You smell it.  You hear it.  You feel it.  Don't ya' love it?!  Oh, the fall photographs to be taken.....the time of year when Mother Nature puts on a show for all of us.  In a good year, the leaves last long enough to enjoy them before a frost comes along and ruins everything here in the 'burgh.  The colors of the leaves look so different when there is no sunshine, almost better.  Don't you just love that color shade in late afternoon when the sun is barely showing and there is like a roseyness touching everything making it almost dreamlike.  Oh that Robin Williams movie "What Dreams May Come". Incredible and emotional.  Would it be so that all us artists wind up in a heaven that is surrounded by textured brush strokes.   Sidenote:  I once read a critic of Monet's said he painted "self indulgent blurs".

YES WE HAVE NO HYDRANGEAS

Could it be the fertilizer? Could it be the amount of light? My soil? Whatever the case, I have no hydrangea blooms, yet again this past summer, so I add them to my artwork!! I LOVE LOVE hydrangeas....I think anyone with a love of shabby or victorian do too.  All around my town, there they are in the most inconspicuous, neglected foundation settings blooming away!!! Oh well, maybe next year.




http://www.etsy.com/listing/79796681/little-girl-with-big-eyes-painting