Just Mary Designs

We have one man in my office - and 6 women.  I figured I had better make a Dude-like window.  Especially since said dude helped haul all of my art stuff into my temporary home during the flood.  

I started out by painting the entire canvas with black gesso and combining it with iridescent blue.  

I added some pictures of some cool antique cars.  The upper left hand corner was a photo from an art class I attended last fall.  I colorized the black and white photo and added the head and tail light streaks to give it the appearance of movement.

The lower two photos I found in an art magazine.  I made transparancies of them and glued them to the canvas.  I finished the window with a mixture of paint, paper, wallpaper, and perfect pearls dust.  Lastly I highlighted around the panes with white sparkly glitter glue to make the window pop just a little.  

My boyfriend liked this Window picture the best of the series.  I figured that it must be Dude-worthy to get that thumbs up!!  

Imagine looking out your window at a beautiful flower garden.  That's exactly what I did before painting this picture!

For those of you curious about how I created this, read on!  First, I started by using gesso and a stencil to make a background flower that will act as a resist to paint.

Second, I used large Woody Watercolor Crayons to scribble on a range of colors that I thought would look "Flower Garden-ey!"

Next I used a paintbrush and water to blend the crayon into a watercolor wash.  I loved the way the color sprung to life.  Blending it got a little dicey - I learned that you have to wash the color first with a clean brush and then blend around the edges of the colors after both colors are washed.

Then I got creative!  I used an old book to cut the "stems" and painted them shades of green.  I used a stamp with various colors of ink to make the leaves on the stems.  I used some flower embellishments as the buds.  

Lastly, I added some vellum for the window pane and surrounded it with bright ribbon for the slats.  The next fun part was making the drapes.  I took a sheet of scrap-booking paper and again watercolor washed it.  It was soaking wet and very pliable.  I used matte medium to adhere the wet paper to the canvas and kind of let it drape on its own.  It dried in a fantastic pattern that added depth and texture and looks like real drapery!  

This was a fun and light hearted window to make....I hope you can almost smell the flowers!

This painting evolved from a photo I had taken of my Baby Grand.  I was trying to capture the beauty and elegance of the keys.  Right now, this piano is in storage due to flooding - and I miss my chance to play and sing on this beautiful instrument!  

I love the look of collage!  There are many layers here - paper, old music, old book pages, gesso, paint, fabric, ephemera, stamping done with handmade stamps, and my piano photo.  Also, I used a textured thick gel medium to make the golden flower design stand out from the page.  Enjoy!!

Today I wanted to get my hand dirty on a project I am working on that has a number of steps to it.  I will post more as I complete it, but here are a few snippets!

First, I took a blank canvas and stenciled a flower pattern with gesso.  The gesso will act as a resist to color when it is applied.

Secondly, I added some color with my Stabilo water soluble Woody's.  I envisioned a fower garden and just randomly colored spots on the canvas.

You can see in this little subsection how the gesso flower pattern shines through.

The artists tools...

Then I took a wet paintbrush and began to blend the water soluble colors together to make a pretty flower palette.

I have an idea of what this will eventually turn into...it will be fun to see if what I start out to create ends up being anything like the finished product!!!

Last fall I traveled halfway across the United States searching for some inspiration and attended the Art & Soul Retreat in Portland.  I addition to the many mixed media classes, one of the workshops I took was called "Creating Your Dream Art Studio".  During the class I was introduced to your wonderful magazine, Studios.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven!  After looking through many back issues I found a color scheme that literally jumped off the page at me.  I came home, selected paint colors, and the rolled up my sleeves.  

My 12 year old son got into a bit of mischief, so for his punishment I decided some manual labor was in order.  I had him take every single item out of my "hobby room" and take it to a spare bedroom across the hall.  Once it was empty, I painted it, and began to systematically reorganize, store or throw away all of my supplies.  I ordered all of the back orders of Studios and Where Women Create that I could find, and combed through them looking for creative storage solutions, fun ways to display supplies and the best ways to set up a studio for a real "working" artist.  

One of my favorite parts of the studio is my "standing" table.  I realized that I never shut the door to my supply closet.  So I took the door off of the hinges, and laid it across to high drawer towers from the Container Store.  I keep my paints and brushes handy and do all of my mixed media painting standing up on my makeshift work bench.

I also found that I love having my creative and colorful supplies visible, but get overwhelmed by too much clutter.  Grouping my markers, colored pencils, sprays, and pastels in small colorful containers all neatly organized on a desk shelf keeps me in a great creative frame of mind.  I have all of these supplies at a table that I can comfortably sit at while working on the detail of pieces.  

My personal motto adorns the glass top table - Do Something Creative Every Day.

Space is a premium in this small room that used to be a nursery, so finding a way to display my many art books without giving up valuable floor space was a challenge.  Then I found a vertical shelf that keeps all of my inspiration at my fingertips, taking up no more space the the size of one large book!

Lastly, I LOVE my drying rack.  I find that I enjoy working on several projects at once - and would chafe at the delay that drying paint requires.  The drying rack lets me shelve something while I work on the next thing, keeping my creative juices swirling and the collage and paint pieces coming.

Please enjoy - thank you!