Just Mary Designs

What does loving someone mean to you?  For many people it can mean the joy and bittersweet sorrow of being a parent.  For some, love has brought heartache and tears.  Love lifts us up and inspires countless songs and works of art.  Wars have been fought and lives have been lost in the name of love.  

The writing on this painting says "When you love someone with all your heart, you give it away."  So true.  We can loose ourselves in love.  How many women have lost themselves in a bad relationship - only to rediscover their own essence upon becoming single again.  How many mothers have wearily looked up when their toddler turns two and ask themselves in a sleep deprived haze - where did the last two years of my life go?  Where did I go?

When we love with the ferocity of a mother, a lover, a friend, or a family... we give our hearts away. 

(Mixed media acrylics using a masking tape technique!)

Do you ever just NEED to get outside?  In our temporary office there are no windows...just concrete walls.  And boxes.  Lots of file boxes.  It makes me want to break out - to run out into the sunshine and turn my face up to feel the heat of the summer day.  

In my normal neighborhood we have the most gigantic trees.  Part of the reason I moved there in the first place was to walk daily among the giant trees.  I loved the fact that they cut the neighborhood out of the trees - that they didn't raze the trees to build a neighborhood.  

For those of you who don't know this, I am temporarily displaced in both home and office due to flooding.  I want to go home.  I miss my trees.

There is something spiritual about being in nature.  The new blossoms in spring, the green leaves blowing  in the wind mid summer, and the glorious changing of the colors as fall rolls around.

So when I look out a window what do I want to see?  The beauty of nature smiling back at me.  I am longing to be outside!

Yes, it's true.  I am a self admitted Art Supply Junkie.  When I see art supplies my pulse quickens, my heart beat speeds up, and a smile lights up my face.  I can spend hours poring over the many different colors, paints, brushes, mediums, mark making items, stamps, papers and more...

Call me crazy, but I think it is the vibrancy of the color that just speaks to my soul.  Some people tend to fall into a pattern of using certain colors, but to me the spectrum of colors is like a playground.  And I find myself wanting to play more and more often.

And I have to touch them.  I want to feel the texture of the brushes in my hands.  I need to feel the creamy consistency of the paint on the tips of my fingers.  I want to roll the colored pencils from hand to hand and revel in the feel of a soft ribbon or textured paper.

Is it just me?  Or is there a little art supply junkie in all of us?

Help!  This painting needs a name!  What does it evoke for you?  Do you see a visions of traveling with a passport?  Postage markings as if on a vintage postcard?  Beyond a circle and some numbers, what do you see?  

Submit a comment with the Painting Name.  And thanks for your help!

For those who enjoy learning about how this was created, read on... This painting was deceptively simple to create.  I did most of the artwork in a mixed media class I took just experimenting with different looks.  I normally would have added a lot more depth and visual interest to it, but my instructor challenged me to stop and just stare at it for a while...maybe this one would have a simpler, less busy look to it.

First I mixed some yellow, white and gold acrylic paint and laid the base.  I painted a large circle frame with a turquose color and used the frame itself as a stamp.  

Rubber stamps and archival quality permanent ink came in handy to mark the orange and turquoise stamped patterns.  Then I used a smaller circle frame as a guideline to paint the holographic looking iridescent blue.  When you move around to view it, the iridescent quality makes it look different from each point of view - very cool!

Last I used rub on numerals to give it the numbered effect.  And then I stopped.  I think it is beautiful in its simplicity.  And what, oh what shall we name it??

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!