Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Three Muses Challenge - Artist Affirmation

I was asked to choose the theme and create an example of art for this week's challenge at The Three Muses. I chose "artist affirmations."


The background picture I used is a photo I took at Greenfield Village, a wonderful place in Dearborn, Michigan where the homes of famous people have been moved to and set up for people to tour. The machine above was in Thomas Edison's machine shop. I thought it would be wonderful to use in a steampunk piece.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Art Journal Caravan - Week 34 - Vision


I seem to be in the mood for dancing this week! :o)

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Just Dance!


Digital elements from kit named "Painterly Palette" by Rebecca McMeen.

Pistachio Macarons

If you've looked at my blog posts for a while, you've likely seen a post here or there where I include French macarons. I love macarons! Carol at the "Paris Breakfasts" blog is always posting pictures of them. Her blog is a must for anyone who loves anything and everything French. (She recently moved from New York to Paris.)

My wife found a French woman living in Ann Arbor, Michigan who teaches how to make French pastries in her home. She has a full, professional kitchen since she sells the pastries in Ann Arbor's Farmers' Market. My wife and I signed up to take her macaron class. It turned out our youngest daughter Kaitlyn wanted to take the class, too, but she and her husband are more broke than my wife and I. I decided to let Kaitlyn take my place. I really wanted to take the class, but I knew Kaitlyn would be good at making them. She loves making and decorating cakes.

Kaitlyn and her husband Dan came over last night, and Kaitlyn made pistachio macarons. I can't tell you how good they tasted! I took a few pictures with my iPhone so you could see her in action.


After baking the almond flour and meringue cookie, she pipes the filling unto one cookie. She used fresh pistachio nuts that were ground into a butter. She mixed that into an icing concoction.


Dan and I were hovering around taking pictures. That was our excuse anyway. We were actually waiting for the finished product so we could indulge.


Once the filling is on one cookie, you place a second cookie on top. Don't these look delicious? Macarons are actually quite sweet, and it's difficult not to over indulge. I'm glad Kaitlyn doesn't come over and make them too often!

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Art Journal Caravan 2013 - Week 34 Quotable


Elements from Studio Tangie's "Letter Size" and "Cartography Set 3" and OTBDS' "Mudpies and Fingerpaint."

Friday, August 23, 2013

Life Book 2013 - Week 33

The idea for this week was to paint crazy and fun. I love the chameleons that are being used in paint ads (I don't remember the brand right now), and decided to cut one out and paint a crazy piece using it as the main character.


Those are real Queen Anne's Lace flowers in the middle of the painting. They are growing in our backyard. I love them so much I decided to pick two and add them.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Art Journal Caravan 2013 - Week 33 Quotable


Elements from Tangie's "August AJC 13 Parcel Collection," man googled.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Three Muses Challenge - Steampunk


I am a closet steampunker! Elements from Maya's kit "Steampunk." Man googled.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Marguerite's Flowers and Rust

That's the name I gave to a mixed media painting I just finished today. I'm very excited about the way it turned out! Marguerite sent me a wonderful piece of rusted metal that fell off of her favorite trunk. She thought I could use it in some kind of art work. It just so happens I love rusty metal. She also happened to send me a picture of the trunk it came from.






The trunk certainly is a treasure!

I recently downloaded a class presented by Seth Apter through Cloth, Paper, Scissors. It's Lesson # 6 in a series, and the price was very reasonable. The lesson was called "Dimensional Stenciling." I decided to try this technique in a mixed media piece that I could also include Marguerite's gift of the rusty metal.

I first tried to paint a background using acrylics to try to simulate a piece of copper that had turned turquoise. I didn't quite get the look I wanted, but I was still happy with the results.


I used gesso to fill in a stencil to get a dimensional branch on the background. I then painted the top of a bronze colored tin candy box the size of an Altoid box with a turquoise color paint so it would also look antiqued. I glued the rusty metal from the trunk on top of that. Here is the finished result:


I have to say that after creating a piece of art like that, I finally feel like a real artist! Thanks Marguerite and Seth for the inspiration.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Steampunk Caboose

I had to jump in and create some craziness. I love steampunk! The picture and several others based on steampunk were contributed by Kym Decker at Digital Whisper. The poem was written by me. As I'm sure you already know, I sometimes like to write crazy poems. :-)


Saturday, August 17, 2013

Art Journal Caravan 2013 - Week 33 - Light


Light bulb by Altered Emporium. Border from Land of Nob. Man found on trendland.com.

Friday, August 16, 2013

For Pink Saturday August 17, 2013


Digital collage created with Photoshop CS 2.

To find the list of other bloggers who are participating in this week's Pink Saturday,
please click on the picture below.


Chaotic Beauty

This is what happens when I can't sleep and our Internet line is down. I create crazy art.


Thursday, August 15, 2013

For Lani Gerity

I created this after reading Lani's latest blog posts about training your elephant.

http://lanipuppetmaker.blogspot.com/


Elements from Holliewood's "Art Dollies" and Pink Lotty's "Cracked Paper."

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Three Muses Challenge - Script

The theme at Three Muses this week is script, text or type. I decided to use typewriter keys in mine. (Well, you've probably never seen green typewriter keys before, but it's an artist's prerogative to change colors.)


Elements from Clementine's kit "Iris and Violet," and Deviant Scrap's kit "Color Splash." Be sure to visit the Three Muses Blog to see who else is participating in this challenge.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Surprise Gift

I've talked about my special friend Marguerite Bryant many times on my blog before. Yesterday, I received a surprise package from her. It contained a fantastic "kawaii" painting. I don't imagine everyone appreciates kawaii art. It's probably for the more crazy artists among us. Marguerite and I fit that label pretty well. If you aren't familiar with the kawaii style of art, think Hello Kitty, cupcakes with happy faces and, well, you can always do a Google search for other examples.

One of our favorites is a little pile of poo. I know. That probably sounds pretty disgusting. But look how cute this is.






Marguerite took it to a whole new level. Here's a scan of the painting she sent.


Each little pile is a very famous artist, kawaii style, of course. It sure put a smile on my face!

If you would like to visit Marguerite's blog and see her other work, the link is: http://redballoontothemoon.weebly.com/blog.html

No Progress

Kym Decker at Digital Whisper uploaded quite a few photos she had taken and is allowing us to use in our digital art. I used one of her statue photos in this piece.


Additional elements from digital kit "Be Free" by Tangie Baxter.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Take A Word Challenge - Wild Animal


Elements from Holliewood's kit "Stark" and Tangie's kit "Touch of Madness."

Sunday, August 11, 2013

AJC 2013 Week 32 - Myth


Elements from Tangie Baxter's kit "Doctor."

Friday, August 9, 2013

Life Book 2013 Lesson 26

I've gotten way behind in keeping up with the mixed media Life Book lessons. I watched a video that Mystele Kirkeeng put up on You Tube, though, and it inspired me enough to finally pick up a paint brush again. The lesson included making and cutting out a silhouette and collaging on top of it. We were also suppose to use a stencil for a background element, but I don't have any stencils. I made a background element instead. I hope you like it!


Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Three Muses Challenge - Circles and Squares


This hummingbird visits our trumpet vine every day. He's very difficult to photograph, though. If he sees any bit of movement, he flies away. I took the three photos with my iPhone. They aren't great, but I was happy to capture any picture at all.

Monday, August 5, 2013

AJC 2013 August Port of Call - Greece


Elements from Tangie Baxter's kit "AJC '13 August Parcel Collection."

Saturday, August 3, 2013

The Cure

I saw this quote on someone's blog and I liked it so much I had to create something with it. :O)


Fish from itKuPiLLi's kit "Baroque Elements" and OTBDS kit "Creativity Keys." Man Googled.

Friday, August 2, 2013