Sunday, May 23, 2010

My Wild Weekend!!!!

Whew! What a whirlwind weekend I've had. Friday, right after work, Dave and I drove to Orange to the Crescendoh Launch party. Jenny Doh hosted a really cool party complete with delicious food, drinks, fabulous make and take, inspiring speakers, and amazing artists everywhere you looked! My friends Suzi Blu, Julie Bergman, and Tracie Hanson were there and we had a great time. You can find out more about more about Crescendoh and Art Saves by clicking on these links.




Saturday, my cousin Tina, my wonderful freinds Sherrill,Donna,Rhonda, and Diana came over for pizza and drinks and then we headed out to the EAGLES concert. We've been to many reunion concerts and this one was by far one of the BEST. Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmidt were at the top of their game whether singing alone or in harmony or playing solos. The Eagles played for almost 3 and 1/2 hours to an adoring packed house. We sang all night long! Ahhhhh...... Art and Music galore in one weekend....Priceless!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Fine Arts Auction Banner by my Second Graders!

This is what I accomplished with the help of 21 second graders in 3 days this week. Every year
I have to make an auction piece for my class to present at our Fine Arts Night. Parents get paddles and bid on the children's art as a fundraiser for our elementary school. Sometimes it's a class book, or ink and chalked cards and envelopes, painted aprons, photo collages, etc.
I had NO idea what I was making last week and this was due Tuesday!!!! Luckily, I am very motivated by adrenalin!
At the retreat I went to in Key Largo last month, my friend Eileen shared the rosen paper technique she learned from Lynne Perella. I made a big background piece this weekend. It came out so cool, I decided to have my students make a large banner for our auction.
On Monday I brought in a 4 foot by 4 1/2 foot piece of red rosen paper. I had applied the gesso and some tissue paper, pattern paper, and paper flowers gessoed on for texture. I showed the class the white banner and told them I wanted to make it a colorful, vibrant celebration of Spring! I painted the background colors and had the students draw pictures. They drew the ladybugs, butterflies, dragonflies, hummingbird, flowers, leaves, and grass. I asked three kids to write the large words Grow, Create, Bloom. We traced the drawings with black sharpie markers and glued them onto the background. They colored the background with portfolio oil pastels. The pictures and flowers were colored with oil pastels, watercolor crayons, sharpies, and glitter watercolors.
I covered the whole piece with matte Mod Podge. I added the dotted lines and dots with Sharpie poster paint markers and glued gems to the flower centers. I attached the vintage white pom-pom trim, giant red rick-rack and orange rick-rack to the top and bottom of the banner.

The piece hangs with a dowel inserted through a sleeve on the back side. I got a lot of positive comments about it from teachers and parents. MY students LOVED it and several brought their parents to bid on it. I am thrilled to report that our collaborative piece brought in $100.00 at the fundraising auction! We worked hard to create it in just three days and it is such a happy, bright, lively banner. One of my students is going to hang it in her bedroom and enjoy it for a long time to come.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

New Journal Pages and more portrait practice!

I have been so busy at work I haven't made time to update my blog. I have been working away on my journals and round robin altered book groups. I thought I'd share a new little journal I made after watching Teesha Moore's online tutorial. These are all paper journals made from Fabriano artistico 140 lb. hot press paper. It is a dream to work on and I painted the backgrounds on these pages.


These are some practice portraits from my journal. I used pencil to sketch all the faces and different mediums to color them. The first one I colored with Portfolio Oil pastels that have been rubbed into the paper with paper towels.

This face was colored with prismacolor pencils, the background is Portfolio oil pastels.
This face was my first attempt at pan pastels. The colors blend nicely and I LOVE them. This face came out too yellow and looks too dark. But it made me run out and by a set of 10 colors and I know what my new collection will be!
This is a pencil sketch from a magazine photo. Can you guess who it is?