Just Mary Designs

Recently I watched a video tutorial about drawing Mermaid Girls.   I have never done much drawing, but have been intrigued with the idea of learning how to draw faces and bodies.  This was my first try! I feel as if I have been swimming in some new waters in several ways lately...drawing new things, launching a new blog site, and exploring my creative side in a Brave Girls Soul Restoration 2 class.  I am normally someone who thrives in a changing environment...and I am excited about these new things.  I really am. At the same time, I have some fear around them.  Because with new things and change always comes an awareness.  And once you are aware of something, you can not become UN-aware.  Awareness means you must heed the little whispers in the back of your mind urging you to seek out change and move in new directions.  And often new directions means you leave something or someone behind. I am not exactly sure what the new direction is that my art is taking me...but I am sure that I am swimming towards it daily and putting my faith in the belief that where-ever I end up - it will be exactly where I am supposed to be!

I have heard it said why not style yourself as if you were paintng a canvas?  Art is all around us... and our community has a fundrasier each year called Fashion as Art.  I was asked to help color some of the decorations for the event, soI passed a relaxing Sunday morning cooring, painting, and having some fun!

 

               First, I colored with my Aquarelle water              

                soluble crayons (left).  These crayons are so

               cool!   You just add a little water to what you

              have colored (right)  and voila!  It looks like you

              spent a long time painting!                                 

 

              I did a bunch of them, then finished off 

              some of the details with glittler stickles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are gonna get dressed, might as 

well dress with a little flair!!! 

You would paint too if it de-stressed you!  Ba ba ba ba bah!!!

 

 

This is a new one I am working on....its slowly starting to take shape.  I have no firm idea yet of where I am going with it... but I am enjoying the process and seeing where it takes me!

 

Normally I am very planned - very structured.  But in the art studio I can float and just go where the mood takes me.   No rules.  No right way.  Just enjoyment.  No wonder I find it therapeutic!

 

So thank you art studio!  You make every day feel like a birthday!!!!

Sometimes learning what is NOT your style is just as important as learning what IS your style.  Here is what I have learned to be true this week:

 

1.  Sketching out a rough draft ahead of time is NOT my style.  

 

2.  Small, painstaking detail work is NOT my style.

 

3.  Highly repetitive work is NOT my style.

 

4.  I like to work intuitively - that IS my style.

 

5.  I like it messy and unplanned - that IS my style.

 

6.  I need for art to happen quickly and come together in an explosion of color - that IS MOST DEFINITELY my style!!

 

What's your style?

 

Today I took a Watercolor Basics class at Canyon Ranch in Tuscon, AZ.  I have never used this medium before and was really curious to try it out!  I loved the pretty colors and how the water makes them flow into one another.

This was our tray of suppplies - and I gotta say I was drawn in from the minute that I saw them!  After learning about how to use wet and dry washes, glazes, and watercolor papers we got to jump right in.  The class was allowed to choose images from a big stash to use as a model.  Everyone else in the class started painting landscapes, sunsets and oceans.  I painted lips.  What can I say?  I must have been ready for a kiss!

We have all heard the phrase "Life is a journey".  But some days I wonder just where is it that this journey leads?  When I put one foot in front of the other, what exactly am I stepping toward?

I definitely don't have all of the answers.  But here are some things I have learned to be true on MY journey.  I want to step forward towards something more beautiful.  I want stepping forward to equal leaving behind painful things from the past.  I want to step forward within relationships, as a parent, and as a business woman.  I want moving forward to be something that does slightly scare me, but at the same time draws me forth with the possibilities that an unknown future holds.  And finally, I always want to be stepping forward in an atmosphere of growth, while being at peace with the place I am currently standing.

When I see this beach, I see it as powerful and peaceful in the same breath.  I want to walk down the beach towards the furthest point and explore what I can't see ahead yet.  I hope it evokes the same in you.  I hope it makes you want to Step Forward towards whatever is beckoning you...

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!!