Just Mary Designs

Bon voyage is a French phrase literally meaning "good journey", and usually translated as meaning "have a good trip".   As we wave goodbye to 2011 and welcome in in 2012 I can't help but wonder - Where will this journey take us next? In 2011 I had no idea there would be a massive flood that would cause me to evacuate my home and my office.  I wonder what will happen within my home in 2012? In 2011 I had no idea that painting would become such a passion and I would begin to create in new and wonderful ways.  I wonder what I will create in 2012? In 2011 I had no idea that I would start an art blog.  I wonder what e-artsyness will happen in 2012? In 2011 I had no idea that I would meet the love of my life.  I wonder where that relationship will go in 2012? In 2011 I had no idea that I would soon become a grandmother (yikes - am I that old?!?).  I wonder what it will be like to meet my grandson in 2012? I wish you all Bon Voyage as you set to enter the next phase of your own journey!!

I've always been attracted to the look of a classy woman.  You know what I am talking about.  The kind that even looks like a million bucks when walking through a crowded airport.  I notice them while I am walking through the terminal in my lulu lemon yoga pants.  I think that Jackie O had the most fabulous sense of style.  When I wear a dress reminiscent of her style, I immediately feel classier.  Timeless class -  what does that mean to you?

We all want to fly.  Sometimes it is a dream that we hope takes flight.  Sometimes it is physically getting onto an airplane to fly to an exotic vacation.  Sometimes I see a bird riding on the crest of the wind and I wish I had that freedom of flight. I saw this video and watched with open mouth.  What an amazing display of flight.  You have to take a look at it.  Then you may be inspired to find your own different way to fly. Inspired by the teaching of Christy Tomlinson.

It's the hap - happiest time...of the year!  I made a goal to create my first piece of Holiday artwork....and here you go! I started out thinking it would evolve into something with hanging ornaments.  Guess not!  That is the magic of art for me - sometimes things take a direction both unexpected and delightful! I used a shape cutter and made some different sized star masks to create the tree.  The paint is semi-translucent.  Before it dried I added a little glitter.  It looks so sparkly on my mantle! From my house to yours - I wish you happy holidays and a season full of touches of magic!

I am taking an e-course called SheArt by Christy Tomlinson.  In it we learn how to make these cute little girls. It is so fun to start with a completely blank canvas and just start to get MESSY! Making the clothes and doing the shading is a stretch for me....it takes a little more detail and a little more time than what I normally like to do.  But is it great experience! The snowstorm was a little burst of inspiration....mainly because I made the girl too short for the canvas!  So I had to think of something for her to stand on.  I decided to go with a pile of snow....then made some snowflakes coming down. The saying "She Felt Peace In The Midst Of The Storm" was one of the many prompts from the class.  I hadn't even read that one as I was making the painting.  It just jumped out at me when I saw it - and decided it was a perfect fit for my angel in a snowstorm! Funny how things tend to come together even when you don't plan it all the way out!

Sometimes music lifts us up.  Sometimes it haunts us.  Sometimes the elusive melody takes our hearts to a place where the answer is just out of reach...a swirling mystery.  What does this painting evoke for you?

Oh the beautiful fall colors...deep oranges, soft yellows, slight snippets of green, and various hues of brown.  How I love the contrasts and the tones of fall! I did an image transfer of a photo that caught my eye in a magazine and then altered it.  I'm not quite sure where the inspiration for the zipper came in....but it felt right!  Maybe it's symbolic of having to sip up my jacket as the cold temperatures descend upon us. Happy fall!

Sometimes the basic colors of black and white fascinate me.  The symmetry of piano keys can beautiful.  I wanted to meld the perfect alignment of ebony and ivory with chaos and color! This was my first experiment with using photoshop to merge a canvas.  For all of you artsy followers, this was a ton of fun!  The canvas itself was too big to fit on a scanner, so I had to scan it in 4 parts.  Photoshop Elements allows you to bring all four scans into one piece and "stitches" them together perfectly for you!  The technology is simply amazing! I used my new scanner, the Epson Perfection V600 Photo Color Scanner .  I was amazed at the color match - I didn't have to adjust color settings at all - and it was a perfect color match for the actual painting.  VERY impressed with that! I love how you can see the actual texture of the real painting also.  Fun for me.  Hopefully inspiring for you! Anyone interested in the PhotoMerge steps - read on! 1.  Set your scanner settings to at least 350 dpi so you have a good high resolution scan to save. 2.  Scan in as many parts as you need to and save each scan separately. 3. Open photoshop elements editor.  Select File, select new, select Photomerge panorama. 4.  Under the Layout options, choose auto. Then click the browse oval on the right to open the files that you just scanned. 5.  Select the scans you want to merge together.  Click Open. 6.  Check the boxes for Blend Images Together and Vignette Removal.  Click Ok.  Let it do its thing! 7.  Make sure you flatten your images (Found under the Layers Menu bar) and Crop it (Found under the Image Menu Bar). 8.  Save it at whatever size you want!  Voila - a large canvas is now a cohesive single high resolution print!

I'm so excited!  I took a class this summer about how to turn your art into something that can be sold.  And here is my first print!! Step 1 - bought a fabulous new art quality printer (Epson R1900) Step 2 - bought Epson Luster Paper Step 3 - bought and learned (sort-of) Photoshop Elements Step 4 - scanned a painting I had completed Step 5 - edited it and printed it!! Voila! So why does this excite me?  I guess because it is progress towards a dream that a year ago I didn't even know I had.  That's the funny thing about dreams, isn't it?  They can shift and change and carry you in directions that you can't even imagine.  Someday I would love it if a person loved my art enough to buy a piece of it - a print, a canvas, a calendar....  So the first step in making that happen is getting the art into a format that can become "for sale"! Next step - creating the web-store it can be bought in!  You can bet that I am on it!!

Don't be shy.  If you are going to sing - let us hear you!  If you are going to live - live a life on fire with passion and joy!  I think that if you are going to spend the time and energy doing something - then put your heart into it and do it all the way.  Life is fully of opportunities to do something half way.  Don't.  Live a big life.  Give it your all.  If you are going to sing, then sing at the top of your lungs!!!