I've been presenting winter landscapes with my students. We looked at one by Vincent and had great discussions. Now I'm really enjoying the  first snow:

  Artist's Shed

 Neighbor's Barn

working out some kinks in new work...

 

I covered the edges with black board to cover the white canvas, but have some holes between the pieces at the corners. Need black canvas, but will still need the black board, I think. I have two questions... 1. do I need to something on the stones?  2. or some black lines in the inked area ?

November's open studio will be on Nov. 16, since our neighbor's mother is celebrating 100th birthday on the 9th.
Visited Andres Institute of Art in Brookline, NH

I've been working on my drawing skills using some backyard items, since we've had such perfect Indian Summer weather. Here are photos of  a metal chair and the artists shed...

Working on more new pieces during Open Studio.

love the leaf

maybe it needs a poem....

I'm working out specifics for art work to look something like this:

 

thinking of a title something like.... "stones, paper, ink"

 

Also, I got some pretty good pics of the bluebirds who stopped by a week ago

in garden #1

 



October 12th is the next OPEN STUDIO here at 7New Road. I'll be using stencils and masks with ink sprays and watercolor splatter.

This spread was done with the ink on the stencil, flipped and pressed onto the page.

Shared this and other pages at OPEN STUDIO this afternoon.
I worked on this page yesterday, since I was unable to go to work -had a doctor's appointment about the fracture in my knee !

 

I wrote a selection of ideas from Art Journal summer issue on post-its and scattered them throughout my date book. Yesterday's said to do a page half in text and half image.

 

 

September twelfth, 2013

One year and one day after the nightmare in NYC,DC, AND PA.

Rain's steady beat punctuated by now distant thunder.

A crow caws persistently; a single tree frog chirps timidly.

Wounds heal.

What have we learned?

My knee problems have forced me to be sedentary, and have been doing some fun art work.

I splattered watercolors, then created a doodle art ATC and attached it.

 sprayed with inks


I like the Journal page (the top image)  so much - doing it and looking at it - that I decided to dedicate a whole sketchbook to similar work. I've been spraying pages using stencils, and masks, and creating a stack of cards with tangled doodle art.

I made the spiral, hand and leaf stencils, the other is a plastic thing that was on a laptop/keyboard.
OPEN STUDIO , September 14th, 1- 4:00.

 

feeling punky and lame

I am happy with this 2 page spread.

On this page, I glued a page from the Playbill for Blue Man Group to cover much of the page. The middle has two scraps left from a page from a book, with some paint dribbles. Then I wrote how I was feeling tired and icky, just needing some art-time, in a wonky, rectangular spiral.

.

 This side has some strips of Washi tape covered by the word silk, from the postcard from New England Quilt Museum's exhibit. Then I wove some scraps from the printing I did for journal covers and end papers. One paper is a rice paper, and I found the ink pen left little dots at the beginning and end of each letter where I wrote "kind of crabby" (it's upside down).

 

starting journals Open Studio in July

My photos on cardstock for covers...

and on rice paper for end papers. I will stitch in 8 pages which gives me 32 surfaces. I use these as traveling journals and they fit in the back of my regular Art Journals.

AC running in studio, and I have company

left to right.....Buck Wheat is 5 and 1/2 , Deezel is 200 lbs and 4 and 1/2.

Here are some starting pages in ART JOURNAL 2013 Vol. II

The pocket on the left is a parchment envelope from an advertisement with sharpie. I doodled and splattered watercolors for the table of contents page. Lettering is with Micron Pigma

The squares on the left are from a New England Quilt Museum postcard. It struck me that they look like kites, and pay tribute to the many cultural groups of Lowell.

marks a day spent at Quilt Museum in Lowell



water color splotches and doodles around a repurposed library card

two more pictures of daylilies

I got the shot I wanted for watercolors...

 

and picked some for closer study...

 

should inspire a poem !

 

 

yellow throat, five curled

petals, summer blossoms' hue

previews autumn's glow

 

I can admire this from my studio window -  in the AC comfort...

I will focus on the daylilies in front of the ledge...

the photo has such a sharp contrast in color doesn't print out well, but am taking shot today, a more cloudy day.

New Journal

Sometimes, starting a new journal actually means improving the cover of an old one. I didn't like the cover of ART JOURNAL 2013 Vol. I, so I collaged over it with a postcard from the Institute of Art

 I added the bottles image, text and numbers cut from the postcard.

 

 

Volume II began with some watercolor splashes and washes

  This page began with some scribbles using Sharpies brushes and has two plastic lidded boxes to hold trinkets.

I blew watercolor drops through a straw over the washes.

I took a quick walk around the yard and through the woods to get out of the house on this rainy day.

 This is the soapstone sink in Garden #1.

I had to straighten the "fairy house

I wrote about the walk...

 

               Rain walk June 26...

Umbrella and galoshes through the wet trees and over the soggy ground

Green new pine cones and small clusters of branches are stark green against the wet rusty passed season's debris

            Step carefully, each

    Foot finding secure positions

            Boot, snowshoe, snow, leaves

Imagine the same walk with snow, snowshoes and sweatshirt...

Smooth white surface, lightly pocked with snow clumps released from resting spots on branches

Uniformity of snowflakes to naked eye makes forest floor at peace

            Flakes silently fall

Gently land, one by one, rest

       A cardinal calls

     

Following the same route, around the rocks where the ground is hard packed dirt in places, squishy mud covered with wet, brown leaves

Sticks that have migrated to the path from wherever

             

Green leaves hold drops, wait

Too much water drips ground ways

    Each forms  new puddles

Crazy storm yesterday afternoon - and I'd taken the time to water beans, tomatoes, cukes and new rhodies. Moving hostas, still adding to garden #1.

Next OPEN STUDIO on July 20 - "Beginning a New Journal "  . I will share ways I've started new/sequential journals, have supplies for visitors to experiment with, and have other art items to view.  Come by, bring a friend... 1-4:00. I have air conditioning.

Since it was raining and I didn't walk or work in the garden, I got several pages worked on in ART JOURNAL 2013. Actually, it's a series of 4 pages, accordion style. I was running out of pages since I want to stay in the journal through June. I added  four pieces of paper- three are water color paper and one is a piece of cardboard from a package of stickers.

I also added a mini-accordion book on an earlier page. It's card stock with a picture I scanned on one side and doodles on the other.

this is the mini-accordion, folded

This is the scanned side.

This is the doodled side.

This morning, yes in the heat, I spread bark mulch in garden #1. Looking good after neglected for a
year ! the pool felt great after .
Saturday the 8th I'm going to the ceremony for EKES to be awarded Excellence in Education award. So my next OPEN STUDIO  June 15th. I'l be demonstrating ways I utilize technology in art journaling.

we had the fox visiting this morning..
looks like she was interested in the woodchuck

A week of rain is ending today, supposedly. I wrote two new Haiku yesterday to send to Dianne.

May 25

#1 Raindrop lined web  

No obvious maker seen
   Who wears such beauty?

#2

   Softly beating green

Wet leaves shine raindrops message
            Pearl lined spider web                            

 

I used a poem at school to inspire art work with second and third grades. It was titled Raindrops.

 

         

We talked about ways to add text at the OPEN STUDIO...

I wrote this with a fine line sharpie over the acrylic circles.

spring mixes colors

more subtle than autumn's show

tiny leaves sprout

 

Summer OPEN STUDIO dates - June 15 & July 20, 1-4:00. Try some ways to utilize technology in art journaling.

 

Here's my shade garden on May 14th

This is a photo from '06, but fits the day....

                Don knee high boots

    Taut umbrella deflects wet        

            Dog avoids raindrops

My wonderful, 201 pound dog, does not like to go out in the rain- ever... needs an escort to do whatever needs doing.

I printed photo with the Haiku in the center for an entry in Art Journal 2013

I found this "waste" at school last week. It makes a great template.

I used it for some doodle shapes and text in my doodle journal .

text and doodles

and for a stencil in my Art Journal

 

 

 

 

Friday, May 3, is the opening of the exhibit Art of Great Bay at Great Bay Discovery Center. The assemblage "Seacoast Sonata" will be there for the weekend.

 

My next Open Studio is May 11 and I'll be presenting ways of using doodles and including text in art journals.

 I had a piece accepted for Art of Great Bay exhibit May 3-5. Check out www.greatbay.org/artshow .
It's re-purposed art; I used an Apple shipping box ( would love more), wooden spools, shell fragments, postcards, and some weathered sticks collected on New Road walks.

 

Next STUDIO OPEN HOUSE is May 11. I'll be adding text and doodles to journal pages.

This Saturday, April 13, is the first of monthly OPEN STUDIO events, from 1- 4:00. It's a See & Share. Bring what you're working on, or wish you were, and I'll have several ART JOURNALS to look at, and Mason will behave.

 The petals looked lovely after the blossoms "went by" and will be lovely for a journal coverto show on Saturday.

Haiku for MARCH 23

winds maneuver clouds
through the sky,over the sun,
spring’s breath snaps wet rugs

We're having one of those lovely to look at, not so great feeling days with blue sky, lots of sunshine and wind, again.