ArtyFartyAnnie

 Hello bloggy friends and fellow deskers,  I've been AWOL for several weeks, so I hadn't realised that our wonderful Shaz had passed away. I know she had been fighting this battle for a long time, but it was still a shock and I can't quite believe she's really gone. She was always so thoughtful and funny and such a beautiful soul, I know she'll be sorely missed by all of us. My husband doesn't really "get" the whole blogging thing, so I had to explain why I was sitting here crying for someone I've never met "IRL"- it made me really think about how our online friendships are still "real" and valuable and have an impact on our lives. My heart goes out to Shaz's hublet Doug and I'm so glad to see him posting on WOYWW. Anyway, nothing happening on my desk today, so here's one I took a couple of weeks ago and then didn't get around to posting at the time (one way and another, Wednesdays keep going pear-shaped for at t...

 For week seven of LFI 2021 (still working on the theme of story/novel/book), we had a class with Tracy Verdugo, who was inspired by the children's book illustrations of Mexican artist Rodolfo Morales.  Tracy showed us how she created a piece to tell a story from her own memories, starting with collage for the background and then using pens, acrylic paints and inks to add her focal image.  I decided this was a perfect opportunity to tell a story that's been in my mind for many years, so I started off along the same track, but went off the rails a bit as my picture progressed, coming back to it over the course of three or four days. Here's how it finished up ... This is my impression of the absolute devastation caused when the bomb dubbed "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima in August of 1945. Two days later "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki. I won't even try to put into words how I feel about this or to imagine how it must have felt for those who su...

Week Six of Wanderlust 2021 was a class with Tiare Smith, who showed us how to create a playful background and paint a female figure in the foreground. Tiare encouraged us to let go and have fun and I really enjoyed myself.  Here's my Wanton Whimsical Woman! I started by applying different shades of blue and green acrylics with a palette knife, then some white gesso here and there. Mixing the same acrylics with gesso gave me some lighter shades to paint the foliage with. Tiare showed us how to use a black Stabilo All pencil to sketch the figure and the moon, which naturally created a shadow around the edges when activated by the paint. I used a different kind of water-soluble black pencil which worked just as well.  After painting the figure and the moon, I used white acrylic to splatter some stars and finger paint the clouds, then went back in with a fine brush to add detail to the foliage and hair to finish it off. 

One of the oldest known methods of making baskets is coiling with bundled pine needles. The Seminoles, a Native American people, made beautiful baskets, using grasses to bind the pine needles together, and needles made from seashells.  I love the idea of crafting with found and foraged materials, so I thought I would give this a go. There are lots of tutorials on You Tube, and all you need are the pine needles; a sharp needle with a big eye; some stout thread; and a small length of tube (mine is about 7mm diam and 5cm long, I found it in my rummage drawer, it may have come out of a spray bottle). I am SO chuffed with the results, it was really easy, just felt instinctive, and I love that a thousand years ago someone was doing pretty much the same thing. Here's how mine turned out ... You can buy the needles online, but that would have defeated the object for me, so my DH went foraging in the park where he helps out as a volunteer and came back with a carrier bag stuffed with pine n...

 Week Five of Paint Your Heart and Soul 2021 was a class with Katrina Koltes, who showed us how to start a painting with translucent layers of colour, then find the faces and figures which appear as shapes in the random drips, squiggles and random shapes you've created. Next step was to start building on those found forms with acrylic paints, adding details to the figures and the background to tell a story. Katrina found two figures embracing, which became and mermaid rescuing a sailor, with a stormy sea and a shipwreck in the background. In my random squiggles, I found five mermaids and ended up with a much more peaceful scene. I think they're sisters, they're listening to the song of the sea, feeling tranquil and letting the current take them along with the fishes wherever it will go. For my first layers I used acrylic inks in and analogous colour scheme of blues and greens. Then I went for acrylic paints, coloured pencils and pastels for the figures. Back to the inks for...

Week Five of Let's Face It was a lesson with Roselyn Pratt, who was inspired by illustrations of one of her favourite fictional characters, Nancy Drew.  Working from a reference photo of Nancy Drew from the TV series, we started with a black background, sketched in the outline, then worked in heavy body acrylics, blocking in the main areas, before working on the finer details. I don't have many colours of heavy body acrylics, but it was an interesting challenge to mix the colours and tones I needed for skin, hair and the red top which Nancy is wearing. Roselyn showed us how to make a "wet palette", to keep the paint wet for longer. I made one out of a plastic tub, using it upside down, working on the lid then clipping the base back on as a cover to stop the paint from drying out between sessions. Two days later the leftover paint is still wet, so this worked brilliantly.  The paper I was working on was only A5, which I found a bit too small, so that it all got a bit f...