Ageless art

SO June 8 was our ART RETREAT and oh my, what a great time we had! And yes, one of our participants was a vibrant 79 years old and jumped right into the art zone with us!

Journaling is all about the journaler and what she wants to include on her various pages. So using  basic art supplies available to everyone, and incorporating some stress relieving tips and techniques, each participant spent the afternoon learning to become "one with her art."

Yep-it ain't that easy initially because we ALL want to be told what to do and especially in art-expectations are always based on one's previous art experiences and teachers! So step by step the ladies all learned to loosen up, let go and then-walla! They created.....and marveled at how easy it was after all!

Check it out! below:

See the woman in blue standing to the left and sitting and raising her hands in the air to the right? Patricia was our 79 years young student who, along with the others, reveled in the freedom of "no holds barred" art.

Each person took home the enthusiasm and techniques necessary to continue their art journey-there are a lot of pages to cover!


Our next art retreat is scheduled for Saturday July 27! Visit me on facebook to stay up to date on what's happening! www.facebook.com/MTheresaBrown or www.facebook.com/artstudentacademy 

A few minutes in an Art Journey!

Want a brief glimpse of what you missed at our Ladies Art Retreat last weekend?  Don't miss the next one scheduled for Saturday April 13 from 1-4 pm! We sold out last week so  Reserve your spot today!
http://artstudentacademy.com/Ladies-Art-Retreat-2.html

Feb 9 LADIES ART RETREAT!

Ladies Art Retreat! Saturday Feb 9 from 1-4 pm!

Join Theresa and her special guest, artist Ophelia Staton, and learn some new and exciting tips in creating or adding to your Art Journals!   http://artstudentacademy.com/Ladies-Art-Retreat.html

 Opheila is a creative and hilarious artist whose easy teaching  style will  inspire and motivate you to step into the world of art journaling, expressionism and "no holds barred" art. Read more about Ophelia here: http://opheliasart.blogspot.com

Used with permission from Ophelia Staton

Bring your favorite art journal-new or in progress. In fact you can bring more than one...9 x 12 is a great size. We'll supply all the additional art supplies! Held in our beautiful and spacious art studio at 2109 Old Mill Farm Rd outside Franklinton, NC. (see map) 

Just $55.00 for a 3 hour class. Bring a friend for just $45.00 more.  You can also BYOB, snacks and enjoy a mini party while you create. Ophelia's techniques are NOT to be missed! This is a guaranteed  " Feel Good Art Experience!" 
http://artstudentacademy.com/Ladies-Art-Retreat.html

June 30 Ladies Art Retreat!

Hey it's tomorrow! Only two spots left for this fun opportunity to learn to start your own art journal! No men-just us ladies :-)

http://artstudentacademy.com/Ladies-Journaling-Retreat.html

Art Journal Glitz with paint and kitchen wrap!

art journal page of 9 x 12 book

 As an artist, I have a slew of various paints and assorted art mediums sitting around. Some have sat awhile, fallen out of favor or simply not used to their potential.

It did not take me long to realize that ANYTHING can be used in art journaling! Dust off old pens, paints, markers, pastels, rummage through kitchen drawers for odds and ends.....and by all means, pull out that favorite food saver, the box of clear plastic wrap!

I had a few tubes of Turner acryl "gouache" and simply blended a few of the "pearl" colors onto the previously gessoed pages of one of my journals. ( Gouache is an ancient medium usually seen as an opaque watercolor but more recently re-invented as an acrylic gouache with much the same properties as Golden, Liquitex, etc. Beautiful colors!)

Then I crumpled up the clear wrap, pushed it onto the wet paint, let it sit about 10 minutes, then pulled it off.

The results are a beautifully textured surface, shimmery with gouache paint to which I applied purple and black markers and a few cut out phrases.

Simple, effective and oh so easy!

close up of textured surface

The Garden Art Journal

Cultivating a garden of any size, whether it's a plot of land or a patio pot, is work at some level :-). But behind that work is the promise of a reward and so we pull on the gardening gloves, bring out the trowel or shovel and commence to plant promises.

Even the most novice of gardeners takes pleasure out of the seed actually turning into something! Starting with a plant, a seedling, is one thing. But taking those tiny dry "nothings" and seeing results start after a week or so truly borders on amazing :-)

I have also taken great pleasure in recording random vignettes in my art journal. There is no order or reason to it. With a bit of watercolor, ink and  crayon, I created a page of color. No serious painting or drawing or attempt at painting what I was looking at...just the randomness of expressing what it was that I saw and felt and making swirly lines that began to look like a flower. Not a journey of anything but the fact that I felt like making a permanent image of what I was feeling.

And that is the pleasure of art journaling. Add a beautiful morning on the art studio porch, a cup of coffee and a box of assorted art supplies and allow your thoughts to simply ....expand on that journal page in front of you!

front of studio

Embellishing the art cover journal

Front cover of 5 x 8 journal

So many choices!

So a piece from one of the heavy duty, textured fabric sample books has been re-purposed for the cover of this journal and the wire binder covered with silk scraps. 
Notice the old skeleton key, picked up at a flea market for just $2.00 that adds that certain "something" to the beginning of this art book.

Now what should this key unopen? :-)

What do I need to start an Art Journal?

My trip to the Scrap Exchange netted several books filled with wallpaper and fabric samples. Finds such as these can offer a huge assortment of colors, textures and opportunities to simple experiment. After all, nothing happens if you don't try it!
But  don't underestimate what is already in your home. Markers, crayons, colored pencils, poster paints are usually in the art corner or drawer of every home. Did you know that scribbling on a page with markers and then lightly brushing over it with a wet brush will cause the colors to spread and blend into a beautiful random design?

An inexpensive box of markers

 As school begins to start back (yes I know, it's hardly out) the big discount stores will offer HUGE savings on basic art supplies such as Markers, Crayons, Glue (when was the last time you paid .17 cents for a bottle of glue? Rulers, colored pencils, puff paints, craft paints....
and the all important ways to organize them all!

Check the fabric sections in the same stores for sales on ribbons and buttons, zigzag material...KEEP IT SIMPLE!
Running around and around collecting "stuff" can block your creative abilities. Just use what is there, in front of you. The rest will come in good time!

Blending colors. A super background effect!

 

Journaling and Queen Anne's Lace

My Art Journal page

How can you not be inspired by flowers? Your garden or a friend's? 

The Queen Anne's lace is blooming  everywhere now. The warm winter meant it all came about two weeks early. In NC they bloom wild alongside what we  call "Tiger Lilies" Somehow "ditch lilies" doesn't do it for me! I let a few grow randomly in my garden and love that decision!

Both types of flowers are a fond remembrance of mine of my sister and I riding our horses down the roads and seeing these same types of wildflowers growing alongside the  road in upstate New York!

So a combination of using leaves (yanked from my grass) as a stencil, lace, paint, spray ink, markers and my trusty gel medium, transposed my vision into a fun 9 x 11 Art Journal page of a few sentences and all things Queen Anne's Lace!

It's easy to paint the flower...just blopping dabs of white paint in the general shape of the head of the flower!

The journal next to the Queen Anne's Lace in my garden

A new Journey into Art and Writing

 

Journals. I have kept them for years....written, typed, sketched.....in all formats and all the variables that come with time, where I last put it down and what I remembered or thought about. That is what makes a journal so special and individual!

Often we tend to unintentionally separate  art from writing.But, what better way to write and paint in the world of journaling than to simply become lost in the creation process!

I have SO many art supplies and some, in my art practice, become less useful as my techniques change. Ah but that is the beauty of art journaling. Nothing goes to waste!  
Oh, and all that sewing stuff tucked away here and there? What better way to randomly combine ribbon, ink, glue and paints and create an image to a thought? Join me in this journey into a creative world where there are no rules, no art critics and anything in your imagination is art!