Speckled hen

My recent series of hens is so bright and colorful, I decided to paint a black and white speckled

hen.  Here she is.

Coast watercolor

From a photo taken by my friend Roberta Schmidt.

Once and for all

The reaching hand has metamorphed into a different kind of collage.  After two years of transformations and failures, and setting it aside...I think it is done. 

I left three of the butterflies a few orbs and the hand.   But it has a new life now with the addition of collage papers, more paint and a better color palette.     I need to sign it and let it go.  

A chorus of carrots

Ok. I admit this is an odd subject, but in my defense, and only artists will get it, I had some really pretty orange papers in my collage pile.  It was an aha moment.  When I tossed them on this painting the colors sang to me.   So i tore the papers into carrot shapes and lined them up.   In my stash of hand carved stamps which I created a few years ago, i had a set of faces. By stamping on orange scraps and gluing them down, it created the chorus.

I had such fun making this piece and enjoying the colors, i may just do a follow up some time.  But for now. It can stand on its own.

The photo of carrots is from a magazine. I had planned to use it in a collage someday but certainly did not have this in mind at the time.

By the way this is painted over the unicorn painting.  See ? Hes still there lower left side.

I've had some interesting feedback as this progressed. Two people think I should put arms on them and connect them like a chorus line.  One thinks they need two legs.    So they can be in dance poses.    Lol.  Maybe the next one.  Right now it feels finished.   I hope you enjoy it.  It's going to live in my laundry room.

Fishing in mixed media pool

This was our project for mixed media group last week.   It was so much fun, I did it again with a friend who had missed the meeting.  Now I have fish hanging all around in my studio, attached to curtain valence with safety pins.    Fish were purchased from Amazon. We used mostly dylusion spray inks, and stencils.    

Back yet again.

I have been using my other blog recently since I was not able to get into this one.    Please check it out.  I think thats where I will be posting for awhile.  Here is the link.  http://bookartsandalteredbooks.blogspot.com

Valentines

Instead of making paper valentines this year I got out my sewing machine and on rainy days I sat and sewed little hearts out of various Fabrics that I had.    When guests and visitors came they could select one out of this little basket. Oddly enough the blue ones were the first ones to be selected so I think maybe next year I should make more blue hearts. 

The deep red ones were made out of a boiled wool vest that my best friend Cat had given me to cut up for an art project. It had black embroidery on it, and by careful cutting I could use the embroidery on the fronts and also the black covered buttons that were attached I was able to leave as part of the design.    They were my personal favorites, but visitors liked the duponi silks and velvets best.